Cover Feature– AgRi iNfRASTRUCTURE

Volume - XV, No. 8
Chief Editor Dr. MJ Khan
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From the Editor’s Desk
Building India’s
Agri Infrastructure
Recently, the storage debacle of India has highlighted a much neglected aspect of
Indian agriculture - the failure of post harvest infrastructure and logistics. India suffers an estimated food grain and agriculture produce loss of Rs. 90,000 crore every
year due to the lack of adequate post harvest infrastructure and inefficient supply chain
management by the country’s farmers. In the absence of an effective cold chain infrastructure and a food processing industry, about 20 per cent of the farm produce goes
waste. Today, cold storage facility is used only for 10 per cent of the produce and over
3,500 of existing cold storage warehouses have only around 13 million tonne storage
capacity with old storage technology.
It would be unfair to suggest that India lacks the basic agri infrastructure. In fact,
we have made provisions to store our agricultural produce, though not commensurate
with our current production. India’s first horticultural train started operation in June
this year carrying onions from Nashik farmers to travel to Kolkata. Small farmers and
traders are the real beneficiaries of this venture as they don’t have to anymore bear
with carting agents. The government has even approved setting up of a National Centre
for Cold Chain Development in the wake of mounting post harvest losses. As many
as 39 cold chain projects were approved during 2011. Eight cold chain projects have
already started commercial operation. The country has set a target of 49 such cold
chain projects with a capacity of 2.30 lakh MT. According to official sources, the ministry has approved 10 mega food parks in Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Jharkhand, Assam,
West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Bihar and Tripura. The mega food
parks scheme (MFPS) is a flagship programme of the ministry aimed at accelerating
the growth of food processing industry in the country through facilitating establishment
of strong food processing infrastructure backed by an efficient supply chain.
A well developed and efficient system of transport is necessary for the smooth
movement of the produce from farm to market. So also is the communication among
different markets. With the advent of mobile and mobile enabled services, dissemination of market information has become easier and effective. Market information on
price, arrival and other related information can be provided at low cost ensuring wider
coverage. The Communication Technology has taken a big leap forward and received
the national recognition as the key driver for development and growth.
In India, most of the marketing of agricultural produce happens in market yards,
sub-yards and rural markets/ haats. Agricultural produce regulated markets have been
playing a fairly palpable role in the unhindered supply of both perishable and non perishable farm produce. The share of specialized markets like that for fruits and vegetables in total regulated markets is low. Only a few states have managed to maintain
separate Fruit and Vegetables wholesale regulated markets . Several states initiated
direct marketing by farmers to urban consumers with the intention to increasing their
share in consumer’s rupee. Direct marketing has many advantages such as shortening
marketing channels, eliminating middlemen and above all bringing producer-seller in
direct transaction with consumers. Rythu Bazar’ in Andhra Pradesh, ‘Apni Mandi’ in
Punjab, ‘Uzahaver Shandies’ in Tamil Nadu and ‘Shetkoori bazers’ in Maharashtra are
based on principles of direct marketing.
Cooperatives in India had increased the bargaining power of smaller farmers and
endowed them with the ability to scale up agricultural. Over 800 million people are
members of cooperatives around the world. In India, over 239 million people are members of a co-operative. Co-operatives provide over 100 million jobs around the world,
20% more than multinational enterprises. Indian cooperative system is the largest in
the world and has examples across the nation suggesting the
efficacy of such a system.
Dr. MJ Khan
www.agriculturetoday.in
Pages in the magazine: 60
August 2012
AGRICULTURE TODAY
1
Contents
August 2012
Volume - XV
No. 8
Cover Feature
16
Agri-infrastructure,
Marketing and Cooperation
The Formidable Trio
Editorial01
Editorial Comments03
News Corner04
Cover Feature
Agri-infrastructure,Marketing and Cooperation The Formidable Trio16
In Conversation
Mr. Ram Mudholkar, Business Director ASEAN & South Asia, DuPont 22
Interview
TulaiPanji Rice - West Bengal’s Basmati24
Agenda
Global Summit on 2nd Green Revolution26
Climate Change
The Effects of Global Climate Change on Agriculture 28
Interview
Fighting Rural Poverty 32
Tomato: A Panacea for
Good Health
44
Issue
FDI in retail in India Good, Bad or Ugly36
Livestock
Widening the ‘good’ generated by small-scale dairying in India39
Face to Face
Mr V. Vijay Shankar, Managing Director, NACL42
Health
Tomato: A Panacea for Good Health 44
Open Letter
Open letter to Amir Khan 47
59
Rendezvous
Invigorating the Irish Farms48
Innovation
Malta: Uttarakhand’s Golden Fruit52
Technology
Precision Agriculture Technology54
Know Your Chief Minister
Akhilesh Yadav
2
AGRICULTURE TODAY
Talking Corner
Mr. P V S Suryakumar, Chief General Manager, NABARD56
August 2012
Know Your Chief Minister
Akhilesh Yadav59
Different Strokes60
Editorial Comments
Editorial Comments
The Organic choice
Organic food, the term was coined In 1939, by Lord Northbourne in his book
Look to the Land (1940), out of his conception of “the farm as organism,” to describe
a holistic, ecologically balanced approach to farming—in contrast to what he called
chemical farming, which relied on “imported fertility” and “cannot be self-sufficient
nor an organic whole.”This is different from the scientific use of the term “organic,”
to refer to the class of molecules that contain carbon, especially those involved in the
chemistry of life.
The ‘developed nations’ enjoy a plethora of choices when it comes to food – organic, non-organic or GM food. People in those countries are willing to pay premium
prices for the organic food products. Market for organic food is growing by the day, the
supply is less. But when it comes to feeding apopulation of 1.22 billion, we need food
in ample amounts. So for the developing world, there aren’t many choices.
Over 850 million people are suffering
from chronic hunger due to extreme
poverty and 2 billion people lack food
intermittently due to varying degrees
of poverty as published by the Food
and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations. This makes the issue
of food security a reality for most governments on earth. Finding a solution
is thus a priority for any government
that wishes to stay in power or who cares about the welfare of their people.
In Indonesia the life of farmers is worsening day by day, as indicated by the farmers’ exchange value (NTP), which in January 2011 stood at only 97.99 per month. This
figure shows that high staple food prices are not accompanied by improvements in the
welfare of farmers and fishermen.
Organic foods are grown using a proper set of norms and is healthy. Similarly, GM
food is based on a technology evolved over the years and categorizing it as harmful
technology is wrong. In a way, organic food could also be seen as a great marketing
strategy by Industry players as Philip H. Howard, an assistant professor at Michigan
State University puts it that“In some ways, organic is a victim of its own success” .
Organic food accounts for just 4 percent of all foods sold, but the industry is growing
fast. “Big corporations see the trends and the opportunity to make money and profit
out of it”.
When we talk of the organic food products today there has been a considerable
increase in the number of nonorganic materials approved for organic foods on what is
called the National List. Today, more than 250 nonorganic substances are on the list,
up from 77 in 2002.
Over the last decade, health studies have evaluated the nutritional differences
between organic and non-organic food. An American Journal of Clinical Nutrition review found that these nutritional differences are minute. The man who led the review,
Public Health Nutritionist - Dr Alan Dangour, said, “Organic food is no worse than
conventional but there is certainly no reason for suggesting organic food has a superior
nutritional content.”
Bio technology has a bright future in agriculture. The debate will continue for years
but then whatever thatglitters is not gold. Our perception of things and the real picture
may be two different things. To make things clear, people must be educated. An educated public can make informed choices. They are the consumers and hence should be
left to make choices of their own .
Sumbul Khan
August 2012
AGRICULTURE TODAY
3
Corporate
Corner
Mana Gromor outlets to focus on agri inputs
Murugappa group’s Coromandel International (CIL) will lay stronger thrust on
agri inputs business in its Mana Gromor retail centres and move away from
selling lifestyle products in these stores. While the company is poised to
expand the Mana Gromor retail network this year, the revenues from retail business has been growing strongly
and it has reported a rise of 11 per cent in FY12.Coromandel’s Mana Gromor retail centres provide all agri inputs
along with advisory services including farm mechanisation in rural areas. The company has now restructured
the business portfolios in retail business to strategically focus more on Agri input businesses. Coromandel’s
rural retail business, reported to be one of the largest agri-input retail networks in the world, has consolidated
its position in Andhra Pradesh and will see further expansion in Karnataka and foray into Maharashtra. “These
retail centres have been well accepted and continue to provide quality agri-inputs and field extension services
including farm mechanisation,“ Kapil Mehan, MD of the company said in the report.
Halmari Estate teas fetch record prices
The produce of Halmari tea estate
located in Morang district of Assam
continues to attract record price at
auction. A line of Halmari Orthodox
(grade GTGFOP1, clonal, invoice
198, J Thomas list), totalling 110
kg in six packages, were sold at the
record price of Rs. 3,300 a kg. The
buyer was Raghunath Exports of
Kolkata and the entire quantity will
be exported to Germany, according
to tea industry sources. This was
the highest price ever commanded
by Assam orthodox so far in any
auction in the country, sources observed.
Mahyco may lose licence to sell Bt
seeds in Maharashtra
Agriculture seed major Mahyco, which
has been accused of black marketing
seeds and distributing them without
informing the State Government, could
well stand to lose its licence to sell seeds
in the State. Maharashtra’s Minister for
Agriculture, Mr. Radhakrishna Vikhe
Patil, told Business Line that the State
Government was left with no other option
but to cancel the company’s licence,
given the nature of the complaint.
He charged the company with black
marketing of Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis)
cotton seeds and added that an FIR was
IFFCO’S power arm postpones IPO
Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative
Ltd (IFFCO) said it has postponed the
launch of 600­crore initial public offering (IPO) of its Chhattisgarh power
project.“It will take another one year
to launch IPO,” IFFCO managing director U. S. Awasthi said on the sidelines of a conference on
cooperatives.
Industry seeks mandatory certification of organic products
Despite all necessary certification processes in place, almost half
of the organic products sold in India are neither certified nor authentically organic. Expecting a huge growth in demand for organic
products in the coming years, the industry wants the government
to make certification of organic products mandatory for the domestic market. At present all the organic products exported from
the country are mandatorily required to carry ‘India organic mark’
by any of the 22 certifying agencies working under agricultural
and processed food products export development authority. However, there is no such enforcement mechanism for the domestic
market.
4
AGRICULTURE TODAY
August 2012
filed against certain company officials.
The matter came to light in May, when
cotton farmers in Beed district were
forced to pay significantly higher prices
for Bt cotton seeds. For the kharif
season, over 47,700 packets (of 450
gm each) of Mahyco 7341 Kanak variety
(Bt cotton) was distributed amongst 11
distributors in the district. However,
these distributors did not supply the
seeds to the sub-distributors, as is the
norm. Instead, they raised bogus bills
on farmers’ name and sold the seeds
at a higher price to others, Mr Dhikale
added.
Corporate
Corner
Jain Irrigation acquire remaining
50% in NaanDanJain
Irrigation and agriculture firm Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd said it has signed an agreement with
Israel based Kibbutz Naan, to acquire the remaining 50% of the irrigation solutions company
NaanDanJain Irrigation Ltd, which up till now
was jointly owned by Jain and Kibbutz Naan.
In 2007, Jain Irrigation had taken a
50% stake in NaanDanJain, which provides irrigation solutions, which offers
the broadest range of irrigation systems, devices
and technologies. NaanDanJain has 9 subsidiaries around the world, and 6 production sites –
two of which are located in Israel (Kibbutz Naan
and Kibbutz Dan).The acquisition realizes the call
option that Jain Irrigation has held since acquiring the first 50% in 2007. Since signing the first
agreement in 2007, NaanDanJain has increased
its sales turnover more than 25%. In the past
5 years, more than Rs. 1250million have been
invested in the company in innovative drip irrigation and sprinklers equipment both in Israel and
in NaanDanJain subsidiaries worldwide.“This is
an immense opportunity to expand our activity
in the world in areas that provide solutions to
the growing global climate change, water, food
and energy crises,” said Anil B. Jain, chairman
of NaanDanJain.
PSUs may invite multiple global bids for
wheat export
State-run trading firms such as STC, MMTC and PEC are
likely to float multiple global tenders for export of 2 million
tonnes of wheat permitted by the government. Each export
tender will be invited for quantities up to 1.5 lakh tonnes
to ensure better realisation, sources said. Earlier this week,
the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had
permitted export of two million tonnes of wheat to clear
surplus stock for accommodating the new crop. The CCEA
had asked STC, MMTC and PEC to undertake wheat export
on behalf of the government and had fixed the floor price
of $228 a tonne. “Trading firms have been directed to float
10-15 tenders for export of small quantity of wheat keeping in view several issues like vessel constraints at ports,”
a source said. The recent tender invited by STC was for discovering export price of wheat. The actual shipments will
be allowed based on fresh bids. However, the floor price of
each tender would be decided by the committee-headed by
the commerce secretary, the source added.
Ruchi Soya signs MoU with Thermax for Biomass power project
India’s largest Edible Oil player, Ruchi Soya Industries Limited and leader in energy and environment solutions, Thermax Limited have signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to set
up MW fluidised bed biomass gasification plant, laying the foundation for large-scale commercialisation of biomass power in the country. Gireesh B. Pradhan, Secretary, Ministry of New and
Renewable Energy was present when VK Jain, Director (Commercial), Ruchi Soya Industries Limited and Dr. RR Sonde, Executive Vice President, Thermax Limited signed the MoU in New Delhi.
Dinesh Shahra, MD, Ruchi Soya commented, “This project will not only help us in utilization of
biomass at the Ruchi Soya crushing plant at Washim but also generate additional income for local
community. Biomass, which is not useful as animal feed can be used in this power generation project.
Agri Tech India Expo to commence at Bengaluru on August 25
Agri Tech India and four other concurrent shows, India Foodex, GrainTech India, Dairy Tech India and Poultry & Livestock Expo will bring under one roof virtually all activities relating to agri business. India’s largest
Agri Tech India Expo to commence at Bengaluru on August 25 for 3 days, its a Mega Expo , on 14,000
Sq.cm area, with 50% participation from overseas exhibitors. Forge Motors Limited from Pune going to
launch new range of tractors at this show and a big pavilion of Jain Irrigation Systems Limited displaying
whole range of modern agriculture, production practices, irrigation-fertigation solutions, green houses, solar operated water management etc. The Netherlands is the partner country of this show, while the focus
countries are Turkey and Italy, who are putting up big pavilions and 17 other countries.
August 2012
AGRICULTURE TODAY
5
Policy
NOTES
Govt Okay With Punjab Exporting Wheat
to Pakistan
The Union government, in principle, has agreed to export
wheat to Pakistan. The empowered group of ministers on food
has asked the Punjab government to work out a proposal for
exporting wheat to Pakistan through the Integrated Check Post
(ICP) on the Attari border.
The decision came after the Punjab government sought the
commerce ministry’s permission to export wheat from its
choked warehouses to Pakistan. “We are facing a wheat glut
here with no more space to store grains. We have asked the
Union government to allow us to export wheat directly. We
are waiting for the Union government’s decision,” said Punjab
food and civil supplies secretary DS Grewal. Wheat procurement in Punjab has touched an all-time high of 128 lakh tonnes
forcing the state government to press for exports from Punjabbased central warehouses. “We have a stock of around 165
lakh tonnes of wheat. We need to move the grain fast to create
storage space,” he said.
Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has been demanding that shipments be allowed to Pakistan and other CIS
countries through Attari. “If we can allow exports of sugar and
cotton, why the Union government can’t take a bold step of
allowing wheat exports through the land route,” he had said in
a public meeting. But Pakistan has more wheat than it needs
this year. It has produced 23.5 million tonnes wheat this year
as against the domestic demand of around 21 million tonnes.
It has exported 1.8 million tonnes to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and
the Gulf countries. Pakistan’s wheat imports were valued at
$10.725 million last year but this year there were no imports.
“There is no demand from Pakistan. We are surprised why the
state government is pressing for wheat exports across the border?” said Sanjay, a grain exporter based in Amritsar.
Food Min proposes 10 per
cent duty on sugar imports
The Food Ministry has proposed imposing
10 per cent import duty on sugar as the
country has surplus domestic production.
The zero import duty regime expired on
June 30. The government had scrapped
import duty on sugar in February 2009 to
boost domestic supply. Prior to that the
import duty was 60 per cent. Sources said
the Food Ministry has made recommendation to rationalise the duty structure on
sugar in line with other farm commodities.
It has suggested the import duty on sugar
to be capped at 10 per cent. The ministry
has not proposed higher duty so that to
keep the import option open to the traders
in times of shortages, they added. Before
sugar export was brought under the open
general licence (OGL) in May, the government had allowed export of 2 million
tonnes of sugar in view of higher production. Under the OGL, traders have got nod
to export 7 lakh tonnes so far. The government has allowed exports as domestic production is estimated at 26 million tonnes in
the 2011-12 marketing year (October-September), against the annual demand of 22
million tonnes. According to sugar industry
body ISMA, sugar production in the 201213 marketing year is expected to be higher
than the demand at 25 million tonnes.
Self-regulatory bodies to check quality of tea exports on cards
The Tea Board is planning to set up self-regulatory councils under its fold to check the quality of tea exports. According to the Board Chairman, Mr. M.G.V.K. Bhanu, two such self-regulatory councils will be set up by the end
of this year. While one council will monitor exports from northern regions of the country, the other will operate
in South India. “The council will self-regulate export consignments and if necessary suggest to the Tea Board the
need for cancellation of licences of errant exporters or warehouse owners,” Mr. Bhanu told reporters on the sidelines of the 117th AGM of the Calcutta Tea Traders Association. The proposed council will comprise stake-holders
including warehouse owners, tea exporters and producers.
6
AGRICULTURE TODAY
August 2012
Policy
NOTES
FCRA Bill likely to be sent to Cabinet soon
The Forward Contract Regulation Act (FCRA) Amendment Bill that aims to give more powers to commodity markets regulator FMC may be sent to the Cabinet for approval.“What I
propose is maybe in this week or next week we will be able to send the entire file with the
amendments given by Standing Committee to the Cabinet and get their approval,” Food
and Consumer Affairs Minister KV Thomas said, when asked whether the FCRA bill will
be introduced in Monsoon Session. He said the ministry is trying its best to see that FCRA
bill is brought in the monsoon session of the Parliament. The Consumer Affairs ministry is
analysing the Standing Committee’s recommendations on the FCRA Bill and after making
the required changes, it will be sent for Cabinet approval.
Freight policy for P&K fertiliser
distribution cleared by CCEA
The government has approved a proposal for
reimbursing the freight on distribution of de-controlled
phosphatic and potassic (P&K) fertilisers. Analysts,
however, said this would not have any significant
impact on fertiliser subsidy.“The Cabinet Committee
on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the proposal
of the Department of Fertilisers for reimbursement of
freight for distribution of P&K fertilisers under the NBS
policy for the period from January 1, 2011 to March
31, 2012, with effect from April 1, 2012,” stated an
official release. According to industry officials, freight
reimbursement for the distribution of P&K fertilisers
to fertiliser companies was pending for the January
2011-March 2012 period.“The freight policy shall be
applicable on all P&K crop nutrients, except single
super phosphate. This would ensure movement of
fertilisers to all parts of the country, including areas
having difficult topography,” the release added.
Govt fixes higher sugar sale quota
for July-Sept
Government has allocated more quantity of sugar at
49.64 lakh tonnes for sale through ration shops and
open market during the July-September quarter compared to that in the previous quarter. As much as
48.82 lakh tonnes of the sweetener was allocated
for sale for the April-June period. Sugar sales are regulated by the food ministry. In view of higher domestic output, the government recently started allocating sugar on quarterly basis instead of monthly basis
from April onward. Of the 49.64 lakh tonnes, sugar
mills are allowed to sell 45 lakh tonnes in the open
market and the rest 4.64 lakh tones through ration
shops, an official release said. The ministry said sugar allocation has been made with the condition that
“the sugar mills should sell not less than 25 per cent
of the quarterly quota in each month of the quarter.”
The remaining 25 per cent can be sold at any time
during the quarter as per their commercial prudence,
it said. The government has decided to allocate sugar
on quarterly basis due to surplus domestic production
in the 2011-12 marketing year and stable retail prices of the sweetener. In the 2011-12 marketing year
(October-September), sugar production is estimated
to be 26 million tonnes, against the annual demand
of 22 million tonnes, prompting the government to
allow three million tonnes of exports. Industry bodies
Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) and National
Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories (NFCSF)
have been demanding decontrol of the sector.
Govt Abolishes Minimum Export Price for Basmati
The government has removed the minimum export price (MEP) for Basmati
rice, giving in to demand from exporters who compete against Pakistan
that exports the premium variety without any value restrictions. “Basmati
rice can be exported without any MEP,” the directorate general of foreign
trade or DGFT under the commerce department said in a notification. MEP
lays down a threshold price above which exports are allowed. The MEP for
Basmati was lowered to $700 per tonne from $900 per tonne in February
this year in response to lower global prices and adequate availability of rice
in the domestic market.
August 2012
AGRICULTURE TODAY
7
State
ROUNDUP
Assam Flood Hits Tea Output
Indian tea is likely to miss the 1,000-million-kg target this
year. Floods in Assam, the largest tea producing state in
the country, accompanied by a pest attack has slowed
down the growth of tea leaves. Tea producers estimate
that the crop will be down by 37 million kg till April and
expect the final figure for the year to touch 970 million
kg, which is lower by 18 million kg compared to previous
year. The quality of tea has also suffered due to heavy
rains in Assam with prices of CTC teas crashing 5% last
week. However, good teas are fetching 13% higher prices at the auctions. “Tea output in Assam is likely to fall
by 5-10% in 2012 due to a dry spell in the first five months, followed by heavy rains from June,” said CS
Bedi, chairman of Indian Tea Association. The northeastern state had produced 508.7 million kg tea in 2011,
accounting for over half of the country’s total production. Assam had produced 50.2 million kg tea in the first
four months of 2012, down nearly 22% compared to same period last year.
Bengal gives monthly allowance to farmers,
landless labourers
Ms Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal
Government, started offering monthly
allowance to the unwilling farmers
and landless labourers of Singur. The
dole, announced last month, was
doubled soon after the Calcutta High
Court verdict in June that described
Singur Act as ‘unconstitutional and
void’. The scheme promises to cover
close to 3,700 farmers and landless
labourers in Khaserberi, Beraberi,
Gopalnagar, Singerberi and Bajemilia villages adjacent to the Tata Nano
factory site at Singur. The State Government, had on May 19, promised
to support the unwilling farmers through a temporary compensation of
Rs. 1,000 a month and by providing 8 kg of rice at Rs. 2 a kg. The State
further sweetened the offer by doubling the monthly allowance to Rs.
2,000 on June 27.
UP to give foodgrain via biometric cards
Uttar Pradesh will computerise the public distribution system and issue
biometric smart cards to its residents, an official said. Chief secretary
Javed Usmani said foodgrain would be provided to people only through
smart cards to flush out fake ration cards from the system. In the first
phase, 18 districts would be covered under pilot project. Thereafter,
the project will be implemented in the remaining 57 districts, Usmani
said. Officials said fingerprints of ration card holders would be archived in
the biometric machine to ensure that
in the future, the person remains the
user and no fake users take benefit of
the public distribution system. Dealers
will be given a point of sale (POS) machine which will identify the biometric
card holder through fingerprints and
then distribute food grains.
8
AGRICULTURE TODAY
August 2012
Maharashtra govt to
test Brazilian model in
Vidarbha
The Maharashtra government is implementing a pilot project in eight districts of Vidarbha region to increase
the per-acre yield of cotton while reducing its per-acre cultivation cost.
The project, being undertaken in
collaboration with the Central Institute of Cotton Research (CICR) over
160 acres of land belonging to 160
farmers in this region, is adopting
the Brazilian model of cotton cultivation where the per-acre density of
cotton is double what it usually is
in India. However, by promoting the
Brazilian model which uses straight
varieties of cotton and not the hybrid or Bt (genetically-modified)
ones, the government appears to
be doing a rethink over its policy of
promoting Bt cotton, say experts.
As cotton is the only cash crop in
Vidarbha and the region’s economy
depends upon it, living standards of
farmers will improve and the number of suicides will reduce if the experiment succeeds.
State
ROUNDUP
Gujarat, Andhra Farmers
Halve Groundnut Area
Weak rains and power outages are set to
hinder the production of summer-sown
groundnut crop this year in Gujarat and
Andhra Pradesh, the largest groundnut
growing states. Farmers have almost
halved groundnut acreage and switched to
pulses and millets for a better outcome. According to India Meteorological Department
data, there has been a 59% rain deficiency in Gujarat and a 70% deficiency in the
four groundnut-growing districts in Andhra
Pradesh. On an average, the western state
grows groundnut on 16 lakh hectares and
the southern state grows the crop on 16.4
lakh hectares every year. Groundnut has
been sown on 6.66 lakh hectare till July
16 compared to 11.15 lakh hectare in the
corresponding period of the previous year.
In Andhra’s Anantapur sowing has taken
place on 3.5 lakh ha of the total 8 lakh
ha this far. Last year, farmers had completed sowing by this time in the district.
V Nagi Reddy, chairman of the AP State
Agro Industries Development Corporation,
said, “The 30% dip in production this year
because of deficient rainfall could lead to a
fall in oil production as well. However, this
can come down if there is no early cessation of rainfall.”
Gujarat Kharif sowing down 21% on delayed rains
Delayed rains have hampered sowing of kharif crops, such as
groundnut, cotton and paddy in Gujarat, bringing it down by 21
per cent this season. According to the state agriculture department, till July 2, sowing was recorded at 949,000 hectares,
against 1.2 million hectares in the same period a year ago. Cotton has been sown on about 537,000 hectares, down from
600,000 hectares in the corresponding period last year. Paddy
sowing has not been taken up till now. Kharif crop is sown between May and August. The India Meteorological Department
data shows rainfall deficit between 60 per cent and 90 per cent
in most parts of the state. The southwest monsoon usually hits
Gujarat by June 15.“Monsoon is delayed and that has affected
sowing. But we are hopeful the rains will come within a week.
However, we are ready with a contingency plan if it is further
delay. But as of now, there is no need to panic,” said B R Shah,
director of agriculture, Gujarat state.
N. India orders boost fine variety turmeric
Spot turmeric prices ruled firm as traders received orders
for fine varieties from North India. “We are in need of
quality fine variety turmeric as some North Indian State
traders place orders for such varieties. So we are quoting
a higher price. Stockists are boldly buying the stock with
an intention to sell them at a higher price in future,” said
a turmeric exporter. Prices and quantity of arrivals, will
remain the same for another 15 days, after which growers are expected to bring a minimum of 15,000 bags a
day. Prices may drop sharply then, said a trader. He said
that arrivals of huge stocks at the Sangli, Nizamabad and
other markets have dragged prices below Rs. 4,000 a
quintal. This has prompted North Indian traders to place
orders. He said farmers are planting turmeric despite
stocks going for unfeasible prices on hopes of getting Rs.
15,000 a quintal in 2014.Exporters said that due to rains
in Maharashtra and Assam, they are not getting any fresh
orders for the hybrid variety ( Hybrid Salem).
August 2012
AGRICULTURE TODAY
9
Bank & Micro-finance
Corner
Canara Bank’s Kisan credit
card scheme
Canara Bank has launched its new technology-enabled revised Kisan Credit Card
Scheme and distributed RUPAY debit cards
to farmers. The credit card is given to farmers for meeting comprehensive needs of
their farm and household expenses, the
bank said. The revised Kisan Credit Scheme
has been an initiative of the Government of
India to provide holistic credit to farmers
coupled with the convenience of technology. The National Payment Corporation of
India (NPCI) has developed the debit cards
for Kisan credit card borrowers under its
brand name of ‘Rupay’ cards. The credit facility of Kisan Credit Card enabled through
debit cards will help farmers not only avail
the loan from the bank but also would provide the convenience of drawing cash from
ATMs of Canara Bank as well as others.
ADB to extend loans for N-E roads
and Bihar
The Asian Development Bank (ADB)
will extend loans to the North Eastern
region to develop road connectivity
and Bihar for boosting agri-business.
For the North-East, the ADB will lend
$74.8 million for better road connectivity, a Finance Ministry release
said. The loan constitutes the first
tranche of the North Eastern State
Roads Investment Programme, a $200 million multi-tranche finance facility, expected to be executed in two tranches. Under
the facility, 433.7 km roads would be improved/upgraded/constructed in six States -- Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram,
Sikkim and Tripura. “This will be ADB’s first transport sector
project in the North East region,” the release added. In a separate
agreement, ADB will lend $67.6 million to boost investment for
agribusiness infrastructure in Bihar.
Loans worth 500 crore for farmers
The Rajasthan Government’s
Cooperative Department has
set the target for disbursement of crop loans worth
Rs. 500 crore to farmers
in Jaipur district this year,
which would be Rs. 200
crore more than those sanctioned during the previous
year. The department expects the village cooperative societies to change their style of
functioning. State Cooperative Minister ParsadilalMeena said
at a special camp of the ongoing kharif campaign at Kanota in
Jaipur district that the State Government would pay Rs. 300
crore to cooperative banks.
No Direct Lending Role For Nabard Govt
The government has turned down a proposal to allow the country’s largest rural bank to lend directly to customers, dealing a setback to its diversification plans. National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), which is into re-financing, was looking to broaden its portfolio through direct lending to the infrastructure
sector, especially creation of warehouses. “There was this demand (for direct lending), but
after careful consideration we have decided that NABARD should stick to its developmental role
and continue to engage through re-financing,” a finance ministry official said, adding that since
both commercial and regional rural banks have a greater outreach, NABARD should support
them rather than getting into competition. A senior NABARD official termed the government’s
decision as regressive. “Today, we have schemes, such as NIDA, where we are lending directly
to state-owned institutions. It has been a success story, but such clampdowns will stop any
innovation within NABARD,” he told. Another bank official said there is no risk attached with
such loans, as the Food Corporation of India takes warehouses on lease for a 10-year period, which ensures a
fixed revenue stream. The government plans to increase the paid-up capital of NABARD to 5,000 crore by infusing about 2,000 crore this fiscal, which will give the bank more headroom for expansion. In the current fiscal,
the government has allocated 5,000 crore for creation of warehousing facilities.
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August 2012
Bank & Micro-finance
Corner
Farmer loans may have got diverted, says RBI
Reserve Bank governor D. Subbarao said that there are possibilities of subsidised agricultural
credit being diverted for non agricultural activities and suggested modification of the scheme.
Speaking at the 30th foundation day of the National Bank for Rural and Agricultural Development (Nabard) in Mumbai, Dr Subbarao said, “Anecdotal evidence suggests that some agricultural loans, contracted at a sub-market rate of interest because of the subvention, are being
diverted for non-agricultural purposes. This evidently defeats the objective of the subvention
scheme and needs to be corrected either by remodeling the subvention scheme or through
tighter monitoring of the end use of farm loans.” The RBI governor said he observed the trend
during his recent visits to some of the bank branches in different parts of the country.
RBI fiat on forward bookings upsets cashew
exporters
Nabard move helps sex
workers join mainstream
Agri loan target at Rs 25.4K cr this year
Thanks to financial support from the
National Bank for Agriculture and
Rural Development (Nabard), around
24 sex workers in Munger town can
see light at the end of the tunnel,
as they have started new income
generating activities suited to the
mainstream society. The activities
come under the Joint Liability Group
(JLG) that the bank is promoting.
Two JLGs comprising sex workers
have been formed in Munger town.
Each group has been provided with
bank linkage through Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank (BKGB). The two
JLGs have been named ‘Ekta JLG-1’
and ‘Ekta JLG-2’.”We, as a policy,
have been promoting the formation of JLG in the state. In Munger,
we have shown that it can be done
among sex workers, too. And, it can
be done in other towns as well,”
said Nabard manager here, Asha
Chandra. ‘BKGB is our joint liability promotional institution (JLPI) in
the state,” he added. As it is, the
two JLGs have been sanctioned Rs.
80,000 each, so that the members
could start their new income generating activities for their livelihood.
Members of Ekta JLG-1 are engaged
in tailoring activity and members of
Ekta JLG-2 have opened a shop for
selling bangles.”Now, each member
of the JLG is earning Rs. 2,5003,500 per month,” says the Nabard communique, adding: “Their incomes increase substantially during
marriage and festive seasons. These
JLG members are no longer in flesh
trade. Now they have the feeling of
dignity and self-respect.”
Cashew exporters want Director-General of Foreign Trade
(DGFT) to take up with the Finance Ministry the issue of a
Reserve Bank of India circular
on foreign currency forward
bookings. The RBI circular to
banks providing export credit
said that all forward currency
bookings by exporters and
importers should fully be on
deliverable basis. Any exchange gain from the forward booking, in
case of cancellation of an export order, should not be passed on to
the exporter. Cashew exporters submitted before the DGFT that single product exporters faced a big disadvantage as their only hedge
against currency fluctuation was forward booking. Multiple-product
exporters might not be affected by the RBI directive because credit
availed for a particular shipment could be set off against another
immediate shipment.
Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi told the reporters in Patna that agricultural loans worth Rs 25,400 crore is targeted to be
distributed in the state by various banks during the financial year
2012-13. This is about four per cent of the total loan sought to
be distributed in the country.
Giving away awards to farmers
under the ‘Kisan Club Yojana’
of Nabard, he said banks have
also been directed to distribute 15 lakh kisan credit cards
(KCCs) during the year. It has
also been decided to constitute
1,000 new kisan clubs under the
Nabard grant scheme, along with
50,000 joint liability groups (JLG) in 2012-13. Modi also said that
in the current year, the government also planned to constitute one
lakh new self-help groups (SHGs).There had been a 40% increase in
bank loans during 2011-12 compared to 2010-11 as different banks
distributed around Rs 15,000 crore in agriculture loan, which was a
good sign, Modi said.
August 2012
AGRICULTURE TODAY
11
Global
UPDATE
US agriculture companies pledge millions
to Africa
A group of U.S. seed, chemical and equipment companies
will invest at least $150 million over the next few years
into African agricultural projects and products, the companies said. The investments pledged by DuPont, Monsanto,
Cargill and others are part of an overall $3 billion effort by
companies around the world announced by President Barack
Obama. Along with companies from India, Israel, Switzerland, Norway and the United Kingdom, and 20 companies
from Africa, the corporations have committed some $3 billion for projects to help farmers in the developing world build
local markets and improve productivity. The United Nations
has said that by 2030, the world will need at least 50 percent more food, 45 percent more energy and 30 percent
more water. Absent these resources, it said, up to 3 billion
people would probably be condemned into poverty.
France poised to beat U.S. in wheat India to head group to sequence cocoexports after drought
nut genome
U.S. farmers, the biggest wheat shippers, are poised
to lose their advantage over French growers in export markets after the worst Midwest drought in
more than a decade wilted grain crops and drove
prices to a 10-month high. Wheat traded in Chicago
jumped 18 percent in the past two weeks as Paris
grain rose 12 percent. French supply for delivery
after the harvest traded at a premium of $2.44 a
metric ton to the U.S. in Paris today, from a record
$25.27 on May 2. That may flip to a $5 discount
in the next several weeks, said Alexandre Marie, a
Bourges, France-based analyst at Offre & Demande
Agricole, which advises 5,000 farmers on crop
sales. Just four months ago, European crops were
damaged by winter freezes and France, the world’s
second-biggest exporter, shipped about 32 percent
less grain outside the 27-nation European Union in
the first 11 months of the crop year that ended last
week. French output forecasts are now rising after
ample rain as the U.S. government cut its ratings for
domestic grain crops.
India is to head a global thematic group to sequence the
coconut genome under a project expected to take 8-10
years for completion. A recommendation to this effect
was made by the 16th International Coconut Genetic
Resources Network (COGENT) at the end of a three-day
meeting of the grouping.
Sri Lankan teas fetch highest average
price
Sri Lankan teas continue to fetch the highest average
price at auctions among teas from all countries, reveals
an analysis of the latest data available with the different auction centres around the globe. In the first four
months of current calendar, the Island’s teas fetched
an average price of $3.02 a kg at Colombo auctions —
14.20 per cent less compared to $3.52 got in the same
period of last year. Kenya’s teas fetched the second
highest price of $2.69 at Mombassa auctions — 3.58
per cent less compared to $2.79 got last year. Bangladesh’s teas came third at $1.89 at Chittagang auctions
— 17.11 per cent less compared to $2.28 last year.
12
AGRICULTURE TODAY
August 2012
Global
UPDATE
World agricultural commodity prices likely to remain high
Although global agricultural commodity prices have come off recent peaks, food price inflation remains a
concern in developing countries; and over the next ten years, agricultural prices are expected to remain on a
higher plateau even as energy price levels and volatility are seen to condition the outlook, according to the latest OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2012-2021. The expanding biofuels sector is set to absorb a larger share
of crop production. The global production of bio-ethanol and biodiesel is projected to almost double by 2021,
and will be heavily concentrated in Brazil, the US and the European Union. In other words, there will be greater
diversion of cane, corn and wheat as feedstock for bio-ethanol and oil crops (palm, soya, rape etc.) as feedstock for biodiesel. The biofuel sector is largely driven
by a system of mandate (compulsory use for consumers) and incentives (for producers). The report projects
consumption of a growing share of the global production of sugarcane (34 per cent), vegetable oils (16 per
cent) and grains (14 per cent) for biofuels by 2021.
Mandate-driven ethanol trade flows between the US
and Brazil are expected to increase. The US is anticipated to import sugarcane-based ethanol mainly from
Brazil (world’s largest cane producer) to help meet domestic demand created by its mandate for advanced
biofuels, while Brazil would import low priced corn
(maize) based ethanol principally from the US to satisfy the demand for its large fleet of flex-fuel vehicles.
Foreign envoys bowled over by mango magic
Bowled over by the taste of Dussehri mangoes, representatives of various foreign missions, who were on a picnic to the orchards of Malihabad, gave a nod for the export
of the king of fruits to their countries. Representatives of foreign countries relished
Dussehri mangoes at Malihabad in Uttar Pradesh. Ambassadors and consuls of 14
countries who went on the mango-tasting trip were offered a “desi” lunch—besan roti,
vegetables cooked over the wood fire, a splash of hot Pudina chatni (mint chatni with
extra slices of green chilli) and a glass of cold lassi—not to mention mangoes from the
orchards during their trip to Malihabad, 30 km from Lucknow.“The mangoes are delicious...the possibilities of their export are bright...I have come here to taste them and
promote them in my country,” said Rostylslav V Zatsepilin, consular in the embassy
of Ukraine.“The climate in our country is not conducive for growing mangoes,” he
told Deccan Herald as he strained to climb over the bullock cart for a ride around the
orchard. Algerian ambassador Mohammed Hacene echoed similar thoughts. “We grow
only three varieties of mangoes back in Algeria. We will be interested in growing such
delicious mangoes but we will have to see if it could be grown,” he said.
US Plays Spoilsport, to Nix India’s
Wheat Export Plan
The United States has put a spoke in India’s attempts
to export wheat even before the government can get its
act together on the proposal to ship two million metric
tonne of wheat. Washington has indicated that it will
oppose the grain exports by India if they are sold below
cost, as export subsidies are not permitted by the World
Trade Organisation. In a recent meeting of the agriculture committee of the WTO, the US asked India about
the exports.“The US asked us detailed questions on the
minimum support price paid to procure food grain and
the price at which it could be sold in the overseas market,” a government official told.
August 2012
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13
What’s
NEW
Banana’s genome
decoded
For the first time, scientists
have sequenced the complete
genome of t
he banana, a
feat they say could help save
the humble yellow fruit from
imminent danger. Bananas is a
vital source of food widely enjoyed around the world. It’s also
a staple food in some of the
poorest countries, but it faces
pests and diseases that threaten
to wipe it out across the globe.
To save the fruit from imminent demise and help breeders
grow a healthier and better-tasting banana, a team of French
researchers carried out the genome sequencing of a variety,
which is a simpler relative of the Cavendish.“The banana is
very important, especially for tropical and sub-tropical countries,” Dr Angelique D’Hont, a geneticist at CIRAD, an agricultural research centre in Montpelier, France, was quoted as
saying by the Discovery News.“Because the future of the banana is in danger, the sequence will help to produce resistant
bananas and avoid the utilisation of pesticides. It will be much
easier now to identify genes which are important,” Dr D’Hont
said. To decipher banana’s genetic strengths and weaknesses,
Dr D’Hont and a team of colleagues spent two years sequencing the Musa acuminate variety. Once they put together the
sequence, the team discovered several genes that may be involved in pest resistance.
‘Uranium in underground water
not due to fertiliser usage’
Use of fertilisers has
no
direct
link with the
presence of
uranium in
the underground water in Punjab,
a top nuclear
official said.
“The usage
of fertilisers has no direct link with the presence of uranium in the underground water of
Punjab as the Geological studies have revealed
that this part of Himalayan Region had granite
rocks in the sub-soil, which is the perceptible
cause of heavy concentration of Uranium,”
Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, and
Chairman Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)
R K Sinha said here. Sinha was here to hold
a meeting with Chief Minister Parkash Singh
Badal to discuss drinking water issues and
water purification technology in the state. He
said uranium is also present in neighbouring
states of Haryana especially in Hisar belt and
Himachal Pradesh to some extent.
Western Ghats get heritage tag finally
The Western Ghats has finally made its way to the coveted
list of World Heritage Sites of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), even as the
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) raised
objections to its nomination. The 1,600-km long Ghats, which
starts at the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra and runs
through the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil
Nadu and Kerala ending at Kanyakumari, was inscribed on
prestigious list by a 21-nation World Heritage Committee panel at its 36th session at St Petersburg in Russia on July 1.This
is the result of a campaign by the Centre from 2006. There
are 39 sites in the states of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu
and Maharashtra that form part of India’s “Serial Nomination
of the Western Ghats”.
Mushroom culprit for coal shortage
Mushrooms may be the culprit behind the shortage of coal on Earth, as scientists claim to have found
evidence that shows the arrival of fleshy fungi species may have stopped the formation of coal deposits
about 300 million years ago. Coal is actually the fossilised remains of plants that lived from around 360
to 300 million years ago. But at the end of that period, coal stooped forming. Now, scientists found evidence that show the evolution of fungi, which are capable of fully digesting plants, may have stopped
dead plants building up into peat and then forming into coal. The discovery might pave the way for new
biofuels, the researchers said.
14
AGRICULTURE TODAY
August 2012
eFarm — an online marketplace for farmers, buyers
M. Venkatasubramanian and Srivalli Krishnan, husband and wife, who started and now run eFarm, a Chennaibased online portal that brings together farmers and buyers. He is a B.Arch from IIT-Kharagpur and a postgraduate in computer science from the University of Albany, New York. She has a commerce degree and an
MBA. He worked in the IT sector for 15 years in India and the US and she was in a leading private sector
bank in India, helping it in implementing Six Sigma across the organisation. eFarm also had an on-the-ground
business that helped large clients, mainly leading restaurants, source their requirement of vegetables by working directly with nearly 1,500 farmers. A setback in business, that forced them to write off a huge amount,
forced them to tweak their business strategy and concentrate on the portal, eFarm Direct.“I haven’t even
done any gardening,” says Venkat, when you ask him if he had any experience in farming and why he chose
this area to start his business in. On his return from the US, he was clear he wanted to start a business on
his own and also that it should be in a niche area.
Organic tomatoes have much Organic basmati the new buzz
higher antioxidant levels
among Jammu farmers
When it comes to antioxidant levels, organic tomatoes have been shown to grind
conventionally grown tomatoes to a pulp.
Thats the conclusion of a Spanish study
published in the Journal of Agricultural
Food Chemistry which found that organic tomatoes work harder for consumers
as they contain higher levels of phenolic
compounds, plant-based compounds that
are known
to
carry
a host of
health benefits. After
analysing a
species of
tomatoes
called Barcelona identified
34
different phenolic compounds, levels of
which were higher in organically grown
tomatoes compared to conventionally
grown plants. Scientists explain that
when tomatoes are grown without the
use of fertilisers and pesticides, plants are
forced to respond by activating their own
defense mechanisms which increases levels of all antioxidants. “The more stress
plants suffer, the more polyphenols they
produce,” explains study co-author Rosa
M. Lamuela. Meanwhile, the jury is still
out when it comes to the health benefits
of organic produce versus conventionally
grown fruits and vegetables. For example,
a 2010 study published in the same journal found that organically grown onions,
carrots and potatoes contained about the
same levels of antioxidants compared to
traditionally raised crop using pesticides
and fertilisers.
With an eye on growing national
and international demand, Jammu’s agriculture department has
begun cultivating organic basmati rice in the region.”The organic paddy is produced using
organic manure and no chemical
fertiliser or pesticides are used in
their growing,” said Jammu Agriculture Director Ajay Khajuria.
Ranbir Singh Pura, also called R.S. Pura, is considered the rice
bowl of Jammu as it produces top quality basmati rice which has
a particular flavour and aroma.”There are 35,000 hectares of land
under basmati production in the region, of which the department
has begun cultivation of organic paddy in 200 hectares in villages
around Suchetgarh in the R.S. Pura sector, about 35 kilometres
west of Jammu,” said Khajuria. The growing trend worldwide of
shifting from chemical to organic farming, higher prices for organic agricultural products and higher remuneration for growers has
prompted the department to start organic rice farming.
Spice farmers have a helpline
The Union Commerce Ministry has come out with a real-time daily
helpline for spices farmers across the country, with the launch
of a “Pan-India Mobile Tele-network” in Tamil Nadu. Under the
auspices of the Spices Board of India, nearly 300 farmers from
Tamil Nadu, one of the major spices producing states, have registered themselves in a network them to get free “Voice
SMS” on their mobile instruments on a range of information in Tamil from prices
of spices, projects, various
aspects of cultivation, processing, marketing and exports besides weather report
on a daily basis. The new
community of spice farmers
has been named Tamil Nadu
Spices Community.
August 2012
AGRICULTURE TODAY
15
Cover Feature – Agri infrastructure
Agri-infrastructure,
Marketing and Cooperation
The Formidable Trio
Agriculture owes its productivity to land, labour and capital. These still are basic for the existence
of agriculture. But the charms of old age agriculture does not hold good for today’s consumer
centric marketing. Cold chains, temperature controlled storage facilities, refrigerated transport etc.
have added ‘value’ to the mundane farm produce. Infrastructure and marketing which were the
last to be discussed in ‘farm circles’ have now become essential and significant. The role played by
cooperatives in uplifting agriculture and making it profitable even for the small scale farms have
played a major role in this.
16
AGRICULTURE TODAY
August 2012
Cover Feature – Agri infrastructure
I
ndia is in the midst of a unique
situation. On one hand, the nation is basking in the glory of record food grain production. At the
other hand, India is at the receiving
end due to its inability to house the
excess produce. Even the finance
minister, Pranab Mukherjee has admitted the existence of a ‘mismatch’
between storage and procurement.
Earlier 30-40 per cent of the total
production of foodgrain used to be
purchased by the government and
the rest taken care of by the market.But in the last 2-3 years, due
to high minimum support price, procurement has become the primary
responsibility of central and state
governments and their agencies.Efforts have all been directed to raise
the production of food grains, but
scant attention was paid to review
the storage capacity of the warehouses. The recent situation has led
to a demand from different quarters
for an overhaul of the existing storage infrastructure. The time is ripe
to tease a discussion on the agri infrastructure facilities.
India’s Agri Infrastructure Meltdown
Agricultural productivity has always been linked to the factors of
production like Land, Labour and
Capital. The equation is pretty much
the same. But several other factors
have started to assume importance.
Although they don’t have a direct
bearing on crop productivity, their
significance in farm income has become quite pronounced.
Recently, the storage debacle
of India has highlighted a much
neglected aspect of Indian agriculture - the failure of post harvest
infrastructure and logistics. With
Food Corporation of India, 627 lakh
tonnes of food grains can be stored
of which 85% was used by the end
of March. In the following months,
the storage facilities across the nation will show its ineptitude to store
12 million tonnes of food grain that
is being procured with high minimum price and bonus offered by
states boosting procurement to record levels. This 627 lakh tonnes
include storage space in proper
godowns and outside on plinths.
Government standards require that
food kept outside on plinths must
be disposed off within a year to prevent them from deteriorating.
India suffers an estimated food
grain and agriculture produce loss
of Rs 50,000 crore every year due
to the lack of adequate post harvest
infrastructure and inefficient supply
chain management by the country’s
farmers. Stronger after-harvest infrastructure facilities can protect
the farmers against distress selling.
According to the country’s Ministry
of Food Processing Industries, Secretary P I Suvrathan, “Opportunities
given to farmers to run post-harvest
facilities all by themselves in a professional way will empower them,
as farmers can hold on to their harvest more than 24 hours and have
a say in fixing price for their produce.”
With the demand for processed
food sky rocketing, some other infrastructure elements have also
been suggested to be important.
Cold chain, a foreign term till recently has started to mark its presence in Indian agriculture. In the
absence of an effective cold chain
infrastructure and a food processing
industry, about 20 per cent of the
farm produce goes waste. Today,
cold storage facility is used only
for 10 per cent of the produce and
over 3,500 of existing cold storage
warehouses have only around 13
million tonne storage capacity with
old storage technology. Most modern integrated cold supply chain is
virtually non-existent in our country. Collection centers with pre
cooling facilities, refrigerated vans
and containers, terminal for holding cold storages with pre-cooling
facilities etc., will help improve the
quality and quantity of marketable
produce. India’s first horticultural
train started operation in June this
year carrying onions from Nashik
farmers to travel to Kolkata. The
horticulture express would deliver
consignments to Chitpur near Kolkata, covering 1,800km in 36 hours.
Currently, onions are transported
by trucks that need at least 120
hours for the journey.The special
train has been introduced jointly by
the National Horticulture Board and
the Container Corporation of Railways (ConCor). Small farmers and
traders are the real beneficiaries of
this venture as they don’t have to
anymore bear with carting agents
as the new train promises to deliver
goods, even in small quantities, to
the unit of one container without
August 2012
AGRICULTURE TODAY
17
Cover Feature – Agri infrastructure
agents or middlemen.The government has even approved setting up
of a National Centre for Cold Chain
Development in the wake of mounting post harvest losses.
Last year saw many major
changes in the strengthening of post
harvest structures. As many as 39
cold chain projects were approved
during 2011. Eight cold chain projects have already started commercial operation. The country has set
a target of 49 such cold chain projects with a capacity of 2.30 lakh
MT. According to official sources,
the ministry has approved 10 mega
food parks in Andhra Pradesh,
Punjab, Jharkhand, Assam, West
Bengal, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu,
Karnataka, Bihar and Tripura. The
mega food parks scheme (MFPS) is
a flagship programme of the ministry aimed at accelerating the growth
of food processing industry in the
country through facilitating establishment of strong food processing
infrastructure backed by an efficient
supply chain. The cold chain scheme
was approved in 2008 to provide
integrated and complete
cold chain, value addition
and preservation infrastructure facilities. The assistance
under the scheme includes
financial aid of 50 per cent
of the total cost of plant and
machinery and technical civil
works in general areas and
75 per cent for the NorthEast region and difficult areas subject to a maximum
18
AGRICULTURE TODAY
August 2012
of Rs 10 crore.The government has
also proposed to set up a National
Mission on Food Processing in cooperation with state governments
during 2012-13.
Apart from post harvest infrastructure, connectivity is a major
bottleneck in agriculture. A well
developed and efficient system
of transport is necessary for the
smooth movement of the produce
from farm to market. Village roads
in India stretches about 26.50 lakh
km and most of the perishables produced in the hinterlands are confined to village markets owing to
the lack of proper transport connectivity. The existing rail facilities in
the country are highly inadequate.
Rail lines even do not connect some
of the districts in the country. The
air cargo facilities are also available
in limited number of States. Existing
air cargo facilities are in poor condition and much below the international standards.
Communication among different
markets is also essentially important. Connectivity through commu-
nication channels can increase the
negotiating power of the farmers to
a great extent and in turn they can
make a profitable deal. With the advent of mobile and mobile enabled
services, dissemination of market
information has become easier and
effective. Market information on
price, arrival and other related information can be provided at low cost
ensuring wider coverage. In the field
of agricultural marketing presently
mobile services are provided by IFFCO, Airtel, Reuters, ITC and MS
Swaminathan Research Foundation.
The Communication Technology
has taken a big leap forward and
received the national recognition as
the key driver for development and
growth.
Marking the Markets
Agricultural markets are as important as the actual farming itself.
If there aren’t markets to absorb the
produce, the agricultural economy
of the entire nation will be in a disarray. That too if those markets are
unregulated, the farmers and consumers will be at the receiving end.
In India, most of the marketing
of agricultural produce happens in
market yards, sub-yards and rural
markets/ haats. Agricultural produce
regulated markets have been playing a fairly palpable role in the unhindered supply of both perishable
and non perishable farm produce.
There are 7157 agricultural produce
regulated markets in the country by
the end of March 2010. The spread
of these regulated markets are uneven in a single state itself. The
average area served by each
regulated market also varies.
It is 103 Sq. Km per market
in Punjab, 129 in West Bengal, 156 in Haryana, 305 in
Andhra Pradesh, 347 in Assam, 350 in Mahrashtra, 383
in Karnataka and 394 in Uttar Pradesh. The states like
Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal
Pradesh, Meghalaya, Sikkim, and Uttaranachal were
Cover Feature – Agri infrastructure
among those where average area
served by each market was more
than one thousand sq.km. These
are not consistent with the recommendation of National Commission
on Agriculture, which clearly specifies an area of 80 sq. km for each
market. Accordingly, there is a deficit of 34679 markets and need to
promote more markets in various
states.
The share of specialized markets
like that for fruits and vegetables in
total regulated markets is low. Only
a few states have managed to maintain separate Fruit and Vegetables
wholesale regulated markets. In
fact, their availability is not even one
per thousand-sq. km. Even the horticulturally significant states, which
account for nearly 20 per cent of
fruits and vegetables production
in the country, shy away from the
basic requirement of one regulated
market per 00’ sq. km area. Moreover these specialized markets are
bereft of sufficient facilities for handling the entire produce. In many of
the regulated markets, facilities for
handling produce are conspicuously
compromising the sheer purpose of
its existence.
Considering the irregularities
that existed in the regulated markets, several reforms were suggested and implemented at state level.
Several states initiated direct marketing by farmers to urban consumers with the intention to increasing
their share in consumer’s rupee.
Direct marketing has many advan-
tages such as shortening marketing
channels, eliminating middlemen and
above all bringing producer-seller in
direct transaction with consumers.
Some experiences of direct marketing in India have been very successful. The Punjab Govt. experimented
with a market called ‘ApniMandi’.
In ApniMandi, commodities are reported to be sold at rates 20-30%
less than the retail markets rates
and 30-50% more than prevailing wholesale rates. Similarly, the
model adopted by Maharashtra,
called ‘Hadapsar’ at Pune, transacts fruits and vegetables directly
between producers and consumers.
‘Rythu Bazar’ in Andhra Pradesh,
‘Uzahaver Shandies’ in Tamil Nadu
and ‘Shetkoori bazers’ in Maharashtra have similar principles.
License for Direct Marketing
dia Ltd. (NAPMC). Today such facilities are available in the states of
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat,
Rajasthan, Bihar, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh for trading commodities
e.g. cotton, castor seeds, maize,
deshichana, guar, betel nut, etc. License for Contract Farming has also
been extended in the state of Maharashtra to NDDB-ION Exchange, EECOFARMS, MAHYCO- MAHINDRA,
Jain Irrigation, Hindustan Lever Ltd.
etc& Punjab- Nijjer Agro Foods Ltd;
United Breweries Ltd; Satnam Overseas, Tata Chemicals Ltd, etc., in
Tamil Nadu to Apachi Cotton and in
Andhra Pradesh to Venkey’s Hatchery.
Market information is a crucial
input for proper marketing of agricultural produce. Real time information on markets can go long way in
has been granted in Maharashtra to
M/S Aditya Birla Retail Ltd, Ruchi
Soya Industries, M/s Tina Oils, etc&
in Gujarat to Borsad Agro Marketing Pvt. Ltd., Reliance Agri Products Distribution Pvt. Ltd., Reliance
Fresh, etc., in Madhya Pradesh and
Rajasthan to ITC e-choupal and in
Uttar Pradesh to Haryali Kisan Bazar. Similarly license for Electronic
Spot Exchange has also been granted to National Spot Exchange Ltd.
(NSEL), NCDEX Spot Exchange Ltd.
(NSPOT) and National Agriculture
Produce Marketing Company of In-
helping farmers realize the better
price for their products. The extension service, purported to communicate information assisting crop
cultivation to the farmers, mostly
have been rendered ineffective in
most situations. Alternatively, many
states in India have seen the efforts
and services of NGOs in spreading
awareness and helping the farmers.
Market information too has recently received considerable attention
from many independent agencies.
The National Bank for Agriculture
and Rural Development (NABARD)
August 2012
AGRICULTURE TODAY
19
Cover Feature – Agri infrastructure
has entered into a tie-up with the
international news agency Thompson Reuters’ Indian subsidiary to
provide market information to farmers. The one year programme is being introduced in Tamil Nadu as a
pilot project by NABARD with Reuters Market Light (RML), a unit of
Thomson Reuters India, contracted
to provide information to farmers
through SMS.The RML has been advised to provide information - such
as spot crop prices, commodity
news and other relevant rural information - regarding minimum of two
crops and three market places. The
high penetration of mobile phones,
in other way called the telecom
boom, has in a way helped projects
like this. Similarly an initiative by M
S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) and Multi Commodity
Exchange of India Ltd (MCX) has
been launched in Andhra Pradesh
to empower farmers with market information. The initiative is designed
to enable farmers to access national
spot and futures commodity prices
alongside the composite Commodity Futures Index - MCX-COMDEX,
on a real-time basis. The purpose of
the initiative is to develop a support
infrastructure from a single point
access that will benefit farmers.
This, supported by a national delivery system coupled with real-time
price information, can help farmers
sell their produce at the best rate.
Efforts at the central level have
also so far helped in market informa-
20
AGRICULTURE TODAY
August 2012
tion dissemination. The Directorate
of Marketing and Inspection (DMI),
part of the Ministry of Agriculture
and the Government of India, sanctioned the Agricultural Marketing
Information Network (AGMARKNET) project to be implemented by
National Informatics Centre (NIC).
Launched in March 2000, it aims
to link all important agricultural produce markets spread across the subcontinent with the State Agricultural
Marketing Boards and Directorates
for effective information exchange.
AGMARKNET facilitates generation
and transmission of prices, commodity arrival information from agricultural produce markets, and Webbased dissemination to producers,
consumers, traders, and policy
makers transparently and quickly.
AGMARKNET aims at improving the
decision-making capability of the
farmers and strengthening their bargaining power.Indian Farmers and
Over 800 million people
are members of cooperatives around the world.In
India, over 239 million
people are members of a
co-operative.
Co-operatives provide over
100 million jobs around
the world, 20% more than
multinational enterprises.
Fertilizers Co-operatives Limited
(IFFCO) have installed about 1000
multimedia-enabled kiosks in rural
areas which are integrated with AGMARKNET. They are providing market information as voice messages
in the language of the State using
AGMARKNET service. Messages
are provided free of charge to the
subscribers as value added services. During February, 2012, IFFCO
Kisan Sanchar Ltd. delivered SMS/
voice messages to 14,03,136 subscribers. “Digital Mandi for Indian
Kisan” a project launched by Indian
Institute of Technology, Kanpur for
disseminating AGMARKNET data
through SMS/voice messages on
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited mobile platform for the States of Punjab
and Haryana on pilot basis, presents
a unique web and cell phone based
multi modal agriculture commodity
pricing retrieval system on a GPRS
enabled cell phone for the farmer.
Opting for Cooperatives
India is a nation of farmers. Indian farmers are mostly small farmers with 83% of them tilling plots
less than five acres. Although they
reap higher yields, they have lower
incomes or profits compared to big
farmers, and they borrow more for
consumption than for investments,
according to National Sample Survey data. Around half of such farmers do not want to continue farming.Their scarce bargaining power
and inability to scale up agricultural
Cover Feature – Agri infrastructure
operations due to limited resources
had in earlier years paved the way
for cooperatives.
Cooperatives were introduced
in India in the early years of the
nineteenth century in the wake of
famines. The Co-operative Societies Act, the first all-India Act, was
passed in 1904 and it envisaged the
formation of village credit societies.
In 1912, the Act was amended to
enable formation of other types of
societies for activities relating to
sale, purchase, production, housing etc. This Act also provided for
the creation of federations of primary societies and for supervision,
audit, mutual control and overall
development of the co-operative
movement. In 1919, the subject of
co-operation was transferred to the
provinces and most of the provinces enacted their own laws to regulate the working of co-operative
societies. After Independence, the
national leaders once perceived the
Co-operative Sector to develop as
the third sector of Indian economy
along with the Public Sector and the
Private Sector. Within the Co-operative Sector, there are various types
of co-operative societies forming
different sub-sectors. These subsectors (often themselves termed
as Sectors) represent Short Term
Co-operative Credit Societies, Long
Term Co-operative Credit Societies,
Urban Co-operative Credit Societies, Marketing and Processing Cooperative Societies, Consumers’
Co-operative Societies and so on.
The National Co-operative Development Corporation (NCDC) was
established in 1963, as a statutory
Corporation under the Ministry of
Agriculture which plans and promotes programmes for production,
processing, marketing, storage,
export and import of agricultural
produce, foodstuffs, livestock, industrial goods, and other notified
commodities and services. The
Corporation’s financial assistance
is meant to help co-operatives for
creation of common infrastructural
facilities like godowns, processing
units and other income generating
assets; it equips co-operatives with
equity and margin money for raising
bank credit. NCDC assistance is not
individual beneficiary oriented but is
meant for institutional development
of Cooperatives. NCDC provides
financial assistance through State
Governments which recommend
the proposal of individual society/
project to the Corporation. Additionally, NCDC supplements the efforts
of State Government by providing
direct assistance to individual cooperative societies as well.
The Indian Farmers Fertiliser
Co-operative Limited (IFFCO) is another unique venture in which the
farmers of the country through their
own Co-operative Societies created
this new institution to safeguard
their interests in the production and
distribution of fertilisers. Registered
in 1967, IFFCO is a Multi-unit Cooperative Society & has made strategic investments in several joint
ventures across India & the world,
with the sole view of benefiting
farmers in India. The distribution
of IFFCO’s fertiliser is undertaken
through over 39824 Co-operative
Societies. The entire activities of
Distribution, Sales and Promotion
are co-ordinated by Marketing Central Office (MKCO) assisted by the
Marketing offices in the field. In
addition, essential agro-inputs for
crop production are made available
to the farmers through a chain of
158 Farmers Service Centre (FSC).
The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (Nafed) established in 1958,
was setup with the objective of
promoting co-operative marketing
of agricultural produce to benefit
the farmers. It undertakes the purchase, sale and supply of agricultural
products, marketing and processing
requisites, such as manure, seeds,
fertiliser, agricultural implements
and machinery, packing machinery,
construction requisites, processing
machinery for agricultural commodities, forest produce, dairy, wool and
other animal products. Nafed helps
farmers by procuring their produce
like food grains, pulses, oilseeds,
spices, cotton, tribal produce, jute
& jute products, eggs, fresh fruits
& vegetables through its co-operative network all over the country
with active involvement of marketing societies at Mandi level. It also
provides marketing assistance to
the farmers by arranging disposal
of their produce on consignment
basis at terminal markets to enable them fetch best possible price
for their produce. Nafed has also
been undertaking futures trading
activities through commodities exchanges, with the prime objective
of undertaking physical delivery,
to hedge the price risk and market
risk associated with physical stock
of various commodities stored in
warehouses and also to stabilize
the prices of agricultural commodities in markets across India, so that
farmers can get better and fair price
for their produce.
2012 has been recognised as
the International Year of Co-operatives by the United Nations. This is
an acknowledgement by the international community that co-operatives drive the economy, respond
to social change, are resilient to the
global economic crisis and are serious, successful businesses creating
jobs in all sectors. The Indian scenario is also not so different. Indian
cooperative system is the largest in
the world and is acknowledgement
to the fact that they are effective
and persistent in world’s one of the
most populous country.
August 2012
AGRICULTURE TODAY
21
in conversation
Focusing Agriculture
DuPont India markets a wide range of products in a variety of market
segments including agriculture, food and nutrition; health care; home and
construction; electronics; safety and protection; and transportation and
infrastructure. DuPont understands the relevance of agriculture in India
and worldwide and is committed to its philosophy of “The miracles of
science™” to create a better world for all. RK Mudholkar, Director – Agro,
DuPont India (P) Limited, in a recent interview with Agriculture Today
discusses the importance of crop protection industry in Indian agriculture.
What are the major challenges to Indian agriculture from the
Industry perspective?
Broadly the challenge is to keep pace with the increasing food demand. Indian agriculture is lagging behind to meet the food demand. Last two years have
been better in terms of food production, but before
that growth was nearly stagnant. Today India is a net
importer of pulses, legumes and oilseeds. We are self
sufficient in food grains but if there are one or two bad
years, we’ll be in deep trouble. Indian agriculture has
to grow much faster to keep pace with people’s incomes which are growing and so are their food requirements especially good quality food. We can achieve
this through improving production as land is limited.
We should therefore invest in quality seed production,
irrigation and quality crop protection. Apart from this,
investment should be done in the field of transportation, warehousing so that wastage is minimized. We
should strive to become net exporters of food grains,
overall we are but that also includes spices and condiments.
What initiatives should the Government take to address these
issues?
Government needs to be more proactive in terms
of getting the policy direction visibly clear and understandable to a larger public. We hear about policies
but we can’t see how they are being implemented.
Example being the case of introducing Green Revolution in the East. We can’t see what steps are being
taken. Pace of the reforms on the other hand should
be increased. Government should invite public and private participation. Especially in the field of seeds and
chemicals, there is a lot of scope for private players.
Government can help them in bringing new technology
and machines to the country. Instead of reinventing a
whole technology and introducing whatever new that
is happening in the world, we need to grab the exist-
22
AGRICULTURE TODAY
August 2012
ing technology. There should be clarity of policy guidelines, speed of execution etc. Biotechnology is also being used in a big way. What could be done is Corporate
and Unions should sit together to decide upon these
matters and equally share the profits or losses.
What is the role played by crop protection industry in Indian
Agriculture?
Crop protection Industry is putting in a lot of effort
to spread use of good chemicals. If you look at the
data, the penetration of varieties of seeds and fertilizers is much deeper than agro chemicals. Now that
India recognizes the product patents, new chemicals
are also coming in to the market. Du Pont itself has
launched two latest R&D products on par with the rest
of the world. Usage rates is as low as 60ml, technology is great and is best for sugarcane, brinjal and
vegetable farmers. It is safe to the environment and
honeybees, farmers are satisfied with this product. So
Government should help in introducing such chemicals
and such products. If the time of the registration is
reduced to less than two years, it would speed up the
process. We introduce our products at the same time
in India as with the rest of the world.
What is the gap that exists in technology introduction between
West and India?
There is no gap, everybody is willing to bring their
technology to India at the same time as elsewhere. But
that could be further improved if the data requirements
are stringent. In India, data protection is does not exist.
So there is a fear of getting copied. Indian markets are
also vulnerable to spurious counterfeit products that are
constantly flowing into the market. Research investments should be given concessions or exempted from
any tax. This will motivate research and development.
What are the advancements in application technology and
in conversation
product delivery systems that have happened recently?
Not much. Most of the innovations have happened
in the spraying technology alone. So we have got some
better sprayers, better nozzles. But it has not moved
beyond that. One reason for this would be our smaller
land holdings. So the innovative tractor mounted and
boom sprayers are not feasible here. On the formulation side, there are tablet formulations and water soluble bags, but they are very expensive. So we cannot
see much advancement in this field.
With the advancements in the field of agri biotechnology, pest
controlling properties have been transferred to seeds. How do
you view this trend?
Even with the entry of biotechnology, chemical
market has grown by 10 billion dollars since last five
years, part of it by way of increased process and the
rest by volume growth. Both technologies are important
for crop management. Nature plays in such a way that
when one disease ends other shows up or resistance
is developed; it is an ongoing process. Bt technology is
directed against insects, so it is a part of crop protection technology and on par with chemicals.Chemicals
are not going to go away.
What are the broad growth trends for crop protection
industry?
The demand for agro chemicals is very high and
hence the industry is growing.With the arrival of Bt
technology, a lot of companies are trying to make
products that go with the seed technology. So now
research is moving in that direction taking into consideration products that go with the Bt technology,
seed treatment, stacking etc. Research is again moving towards the seed even from the chemical side. Also
the industry is keen to develop low dosage chemicals
which are environmentally safe.
What is the size of the Indian agro chemical Industry today and
what are the major growth drivers?
In India,in the last 3 -4 years, double digit growth
has been witnessed. Insecticides have grown very fast
as the old chemistry got replaced by new one.
Following are the main growth drivers: 1. Good
rains 2. Good food prices and 3. Old chemistry being replaced by the new molecules so that the value
shoots up
What is the crop wise consumption of agro chemicals in
India?
Rice is the single largest crop today, and will continue to do so as it is spread over 45 million hectares.
It is closely followed by legumes, soybean, pulses and
cotton. Sugarcane has huge potential but farmers are
hesitant to use new technology, may be due to price
fluctuations. They don’t use herbicides. Sugarcane can
be the future crop if the farmers realize it’s potential.
Vegetable cultivation will see a massive shift as well, it
will be totally different in 20 years from now.
What is DuPont’s business presence in crop protection and
seeds sector?
DuPont’s business in seed and crop protection
sector is more than Rs.1400 crores and hence very
important. We also deal in polymers, chemicals, high
performance material, but agriculture business forms
1/4th of the company’s turnover. Globally food is going to be the most important sector. In India, nearly a
billion dollar business is performed. DuPont is focused
on agriculture because we believe that food is going to
be most important because of the growing population
all over the world. Company invests more than 50% of
the expenditure on R&D activities globally. In India, we
have more than 25% of the total business. India is an
agriculture country and both our businesses have a lot
to contribute to India.
What are your star products in India and those in the
pipeline?
Rynaxypyr (Coragen ) introduced in 2008 was a
huge success in Indian agriculture. 15 years back we
at DuPont had promised India that we’ll bring in the
latest technology. So all our products launched worldwide are introduced at the same time in India as well.
Other popular products from our side are Arilon, methomyl and fungicides like Curzate. Sulfonylurea herbicide which is used at 8 gm/ acre is quite bullish on the
Indian market.
With regards to the products in pipeline, we’ll be
coming out with a phenomenal Insecticide in 2013 for
high value crops at totally different usage rates. 2 fungicides and one nematicide in 3-4 years and another
Rice Brown Plant Hopper product will soon follow.
What are DuPont’s R&D investments in India?
DuPont has set up its own world class knowledge
centre in Hyderabad where we do a lot of local applications and developments for Indian market and global
market. We have 3 patents signed off from the knowledge centre in Hyderabad in the agro chemical division.
We are in India for a long stay and we are working in
India to develop local solutions.
Where do you foresee crop protection market in the next 5
years?
In next 5 years, we expect to grow 8-10 percent
per annum, despite the fact that Bt crops will be introduced which we support. Growth will come by way of
expansion of usage and replacement of old chemistry
and spurious low quality products.
August 2012
AGRICULTURE TODAY
23
case study
TulaiPanji Rice
West Bengal’s Basmati
U
ttar Dinajpur district located in northern part of West
Bengal is known for illiteracy, poverty, massive out migration and overall backwardness. But
the district is famous for growing a
particular variety of an indigenous
flavoured rice namely Tulai Panji,
whose scientific name is Oryza Sativa. More or less every individual
farmer cultivates TulaiPanji mainly
for self-consumption in the district.
The huge market potential that exists for TulaiPanji within and outside
the district is yet to be tapped. As
of now,inadequate supply and lack
of knowledge of proper market
mechanism vis-à-vis“Basmati”, has
severely constrained its potential.
The District Rural Development
Cell, Uttar Dinajpur has put emphasis on tapping this potentiality through its Self-Help Group net-
24
AGRICULTURE TODAY
August 2012
work. Initiatives have been taken to
form Activity Cluster on production
and marketing of TulaiPanji rice.
Moreover it was reported that steps
were initiated to grow TulaiPanji in
organic way. To get an idea about
the farmers cultivating, processing
and marketing of this rice a study
was conducted in January 2012
and for this purpose Kamalabari village of Kamalabari gram panchayat,
Raiganj block was visited and interactions were made with the farmers
directly. As per District Rural Development Cell, the women belonging
to Self-Help Group of Kamlabari-II
have taken up processing and marketing of TulaiPanji rice for several
years. The cell has also taken up initiatives of forming Activity Cluster
/ Producers’ Cooperative with the
members producing/processingTulaiPanji.
With the initiative ofDistrict Rural
Development Cell, Uttar Dinajpur,11
Self Help Groups have been formed.
Of the 11 Self Help Groups (SHGs),
in Kamalabari village, 5 Self Help
Groups were assisted in 2011 with
bank loan and subsidy to promote
TulaiPanji rice under Swarnajayanti
Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY),
a Central Government sponsored
programme. It was reported that 6
(SHGs) in due course would be assisted under SGSY as the process
of first grading and second grading
has to be followed.
Of the total members who were
involved with different activities of
TulaiPanji Rice (growing, processing, grading etc.), a substantial
number was from SC community
i.e., 73.6 percent. A small number
of ST (5.6%) family were also engaged with the rice business. Of the
case study
Chart: 1Important features of the SHGs in Kamalabari village
Sl.
No.
Name of SHG
Members
SC
ST
OC
Total
Loan / Subsidy got till the
day of study (Rs. in lakh)
Remarks with related
to loan and subsidy
1
Krishna Women
SHG
7
-
3
10
------
-----------
2
KamalabariBairaji
Women SHG
7
-
3
10
Sanctioned Rs 4.52 lakhs
(subsidy Rs0.70 lakhs
Bank loan Rs3.82 lakhs )
Got only Rs. 2.49
lakhs as released by
the bank
3
MaaLakhsmi Women 13
SHG
-
1
14
Sanction Rs3.52 lakhs
(subsidy Rs1.10 lakhs
Bank loan Rs2.42 lakhs)
Got only Rs. 1.10
lakh till the day of
study
4
Sarada Women SHG
14
-
-
14
Sanction Rs3.00 lakhs
(subsidy Rs1.10 lakhs
Bank loan Rs1.90 lakhs)
GotRs. 1.10 lakh
5
Kasba Mixed SHG
4
2
4
10
Not sanctioned
SHG mixed group
men(3) &women (7)
6
Ganeshpur Women
SHG
9
-
1
10
Not sanctioned
------------
7
Jamuna Women
SHG
11
-
1
12
sanction Rs 2.52 lakhs
(subsidy Rs1.00 lakhs
Bank loan Rs1.52 lakhs)
Got Rs. 1.52 lakhs
8
Chatparua Women
SHG
14
-
-
14
Not sanctioned
-
9
KasbaSathi Women
SHG
-
-
10
10
Not sanctioned
-
10
KamalabariKaveri
Women SHG
8
-
2
10
Not sanctioned
-
11
Kamalabari Vivekananda Women SHG
5
5
1
11
Sanction Rs3.25 lakhs (subsidy Rs0.80lakh Bank loan
Rs2.45 lakhs)
Got Rs. 1.75 lakhs
92
(73.6)
7
(5.6)
26
125
(208)
Total
(Figures in parenthesis show % to total)
11 Self Help Groups (SHG), 5 were
sanctioned bank loan and subsidy
(back-end). The demand for rice in
the area was good but they could
not earn substantial income due to
high poverty level and local peoplecould not afford to pay more. The
rice is grown by the farmers only
in one season that too only for 5
months. As it is purely seasonal (5
months in a year),the family earning (net return) is in the range of
Rs. 4,000 to Rs. 5,000 per month.
Other month’s farmers grow other
varieties of rice, vegetables, wheat
etc., average income per month was
around Rs. 3,000.This rice is very
sensitive to nature and climate so
it requires special care and knowledge. Since the local farmers have
been growing the rice for several
generations, they are well-versed
with the technology of cultivating
this. Growing requires special prowess so each and every farmer cannot grow this rice. In view of this,
State Government and Government
of India should encourage the farmers like RKVY type of programme so
that they do not diversify the activity.
The villagers of India are mostly
dependent on agriculture and they
produce a variety of crops viz.,
food, non-food, commercial, cash
crops etc. But rice and wheat are
the important food crops of India.
Many common varieties of rice are
grown everywhere but TulaiPanji
type of rice is rare in the country as
it is grown in a specific area that too
only for 5 months. With research
and
development,
tremendous
scope is there for market expansion
into national and international market. One laudable sign is that many
growers as well as traders of the
village are being encouraged to involve with the activity under SGSY.
Development of our villages is sine
qua non and for this farmers should
be encouraged. We should remember Mahatma Gandhi in this context
when he told, “India lives in her village”.
Dr. Shankar Chatterjee, Sr. Assistant Professor, National Institute of
Rural Development (NIRD), Rajendranagar, Hyderabad
August 2012
AGRICULTURE TODAY
25
AGENDA
Global Summit on
2 Green Revolution
nd
T
he Associated Chambers of
Commerce and Industry of
India (ASSOCHAM) hosted
‘4th Global Summit on 2nd Green
Revolution’. In depth analysis of the
agri sector was done and impressive presentations were given by
the dignitaries invited. “About five
years back our damages and losses
of food grains were to the tune of
2.5 per cent and now when we are
managing about 82 million tonnes
of food grains, our losses and damages have come down to the level
of 0.006 per cent which is less than
even one lakh tonnes,”
said Prof. K.V. Thomas,
Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and
Public
Administration,
while inaugurating the
‘4th Global Summit on 2nd
Green Revolution’. The
summit was organised by
The Associated Chambers
of Commerce and Industry
of India (ASSOCHAM).
Due to a slew of initiatives undertaken by the
government, the damages
and losses of food grains in India
have come down significantly during the course of past five years and
now account for less than even one
lakh tonnes of the total food grain
production, Prof. K.V. Thomas, further added. “This is one of the major
achievements of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) which looks after
one of the major areas of food storage and is one of the largest storing agency in the country,” said the
minister. While advocating the grave
need for minimising the wastage at
all stages of food processing chain,
Prof. Thomas said “Development of
a strong and vibrant food processing
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AGRICULTURE TODAY
August 2012
industry together with infrastructure
for storage, transportation and processing of agro-produce is essential
to minimise the wastages.”
Talking about the initiatives
taken by the Ministry of Food Processing to promote the industry
through developmental and policy
measures the minister said that the
government is providing assistance
to food processing industries under its various schemes, supporting
various R&D activities and working
towards human resource development to meet the growing demand
for skilled manpower and promoting
entrepreneurship. The minister also
said that the government is looking
towards other areas for addressing
the issues pertaining to achieving
the food security. “After attaining the self-sufficiency in the food
grains production we have now
shifted our focus on eastern region
of the country which has huge potential to harness ample of natural
resources to achieve food security
and agricultural sustainability,” said
Prof. Thomas while releasing an
ASSOCHAM-Yes Bank study titled
‘2nd Green Revolution: Agriculture
to Agribusiness’. Talking about the
price support operation of the government and its importance which
is aimed at ensuring remunerative
prices to the farmers for their produce and incentivising them to produce more, the minister said “MSPs
(Minimum support prices) are fixed
in a manner which covers the costs
of production and ensures a reasonable return to the farmers, besides
the MSP operation also acts a cushion to farmers against any sudden
drop in market prices in a situation
of excess supply.”
Dr. U. Venkateswarlu, IAS, joint
secretary, Ministry of Food
Processing Industries also
addressed the ASSOCHAM
summit and stressed upon
the need to introduce certain
national goals and adhere
to pro-active approach to
achieve these goals.“There
is a need to enhance productivity in dry-land farming
areas in the 2nd green revolution as area under dryland
agriculture in India is over
50 per cent of the total cultivable area in the country,”
said the joint secretary. Mr Sanjay
Sethi in his address highlighted that
we have taken food for granted for
long and we can’t go on like this.
Amid others who spoke during the
ASSOCHAM summit included: Dr.
H.S. Gupta, Director, IARI; Mr Anil
B. Jain, chairman, ASSOCHAM National Council on Agriculture and
Food Security and MD, Jain Irrigation; Mr Girish Aivalli, country head,
Food and Agribusiness Strategic
Advisory and Research (FASAR),
Yes Bank; Mr K.C. Mehra, chairman,
ASSOCHAM Knowledge Millennium
Committee and Mr D.S. Rawat, secretary general, ASSOCHAM.
August 2012
AGRICULTURE TODAY
27
climate change
The Effects of Global Climate
Change on Agriculture
C
limate is an important factor of agricultural productivity.It plays a key role in the
production of crops. But since the
last few years, a new term “Climate
Change” is becoming popular. It
is caused by the release of ‘green
house gases’ into the atmosphere.
These gases accumulate in the atmosphere, resulting in global warming. However, the reliability of the
predictions on climate change is uncertain. There are no possible facts
about what will definitely be the result of increases in the concentration of greenhouse gases within the
atmosphere and no firm timescales
are known. Agriculture is one sector, which is important to consider
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August 2012
in terms of climate change. The agriculture sector both contributes to
climate change, as well as will be
affected by the changing climate.
Agriculture and climate:
Agricultural facilities contribute
approximately 20 % of the annual
increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. This sector contributes to global warming
through carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O)
gases emissions.The greenhouse
gases allow the transmission of
light reaching the earth, they block
the transmission of heat (infra-red
radiation) trying to escape from the
atmosphere, thus trapping the heat
as in a ‘greenhouse.’ CH4 has the
highest global warming potential,
which is about 300 times the potential of CO2 and about 20 times that
of N2O. The main sources of gases
are nitrogen fertilizers, flooded rice
fields, soil management, land conversion, biomass burning and livestock production and associated
manure management. The livestock
industry accounts approximately
5% to 10% of the overall contribution to global warming.
Carbon dioxide (CO2):
Mainly deforestation, due to agricultural development and urbanization, was a major source of carbon
emissions. When natural vegetation
climate change
is converted into agricultural land, a
large proportion of the soil carbon
can also be lost as plants and dead
organic matter are removed. Therefore, CO2 is also released during the
burning of agricultural crop waste.
For example, during the burning of
cereal straw, sugar cane stubble
and rice straw. In many countries, it
is a common practice to burn large
quantities of crop residue. CO2 is
also released from the fossil fuels
used in agricultural production and
from livestock production. At the
moment, high-intensity animal production has become the biggest
consumer of fossil energy in modern
agriculture.
Methane (CH4):
Methane (CH4) is the most significant greenhouse gas released
within the agriculture sector. Most
of the methane released comes
from paddy fields (91%) and less
significantly from animal husbandry
(7%) and the burning of agricultural
wastes (2%). Livestock and associated manure management causes
16% of the total annual production
of CH4. These emissions are a direct result of the ability of buffalo
and cattle to utilize large amounts
of fibrous grasses that cannot be
used as human food. Buffalo and
cattle contribute about 80% of the
global CH4 emissions from domestic livestock annually.
Nitrous Oxide (N2O):
nitrogen is denitrified and diffused
into the atmosphere, which is contributing to global warming.
Impact of
agriculture:
climate
change
on
The climate change effects on
agriculture will differ across the
world. Determining how climate
change will affect agriculture is
complex; various effects are likely
to occur. Changes in temperature
as well as changes in rainfall patterns and the increase in CO2 levels predicted to come with climate
change, will have important effects
on global agriculture, especially in
the tropical regions. It is expected
that crop productivity will alter due
to these changes in climate and due
to weather events and changes in
patterns of pests and diseases. The
suitable land areas for cultivation
of staple crops could undergo geographic shifts in response to climate
change.
The Possible Negative Effects:
Climate change could influence
agricultural production adversely
due to resulting:
• Geographical shifts and yield
changes in agriculture.
• Reduction in the quantity of water available for irrigation.
• Loss of land through sea level
rise.
The yields of different crops and
geographic limits may be altered by
changes in soil moisture, tempera-
ture, precipitation, cloud cover, as
well as increases in CO2 concentrations. The lowest rainfall and high
temperature could reduce soil moisture in many areas, particularly in
some tropical and mid-continental
regions, reducing the available water for irrigation and impairing crop
growth in non-irrigated areas of
many regions.
The changes in soil properties
such as the loss of soil organic matter, leaching of soil nutrients, salinization and erosion are a likely outcome of climate change for some
soils in some climatic zones.The risk
of losses due to weeds, insects and
diseases is likely to increase. The
range of many insects will change
or expand and new combinations
of diseases and pests may emerge.
The effect of climate on pests may
add to the effect of other factors
such as the overuse of pesticides
and the loss of biodiversity, which
already contribute to plant pest and
disease outbreaks.
Agriculture in low-lying coastal
areas or adjacent to river deltas may
be affected by a rise in sea level.
Flooding will probably become a
significant problem in some already
flood-prone regions. Decreases in
productivity are most likely in these
regions, which are already floodinsecure. The summer monsoon is
predicted to become stronger and
move north-westward. However,
this increased rain could be beneficial to some areas.
Most of the agriculture-based
N2O emissions come from nitrogen
fertilizer usage, legume cropping and
animal waste. Some N2O emissions
are also released during biomass
burning. Many farmers use nitrogen
fertilizers on their fields to enhance
crop growth. The crop takes up
most of the nitrogen, but some of
them leach into the surrounding surface and ground waters and some
of it enters the atmosphere. The nitrogen flux depends on the microbial activity in the soil. For example,
wet rice absorbs only one-third of
the nitrogen in the fertilizers, while
upland crops about half. The rest of
August 2012
AGRICULTURE TODAY
29
climate change
In addition to changes in the frequency of extreme climatic events,
changes in rainfall and temperature
could be damaging and costly to agriculture.
The Possible Positive Effects:
The some changes in soil moisture, increases in temperature and
shifts in patterns of plant diseases
and pests could lead to decreases in
agriculture productivity. However,
CO2 fertilization could lead to some
increases in agricultural productivity as well. Atmospheric CO2 levels
are expected to have a positive effect on some plants, increasing their
growth rate and cutting transpiration rates. Crop plants may also be
able to use water more efficiently
under higher CO2 levels.
Plants are classified as C3, C4
or CAM, depending on the photosynthetic pathways they employ.
C3 plants such as potato, rice, soybean, wheat and vegetables, including most trees are likely to benefit
from extra CO2. C4 plants are mainly tropical origin and include grasses
and agriculturally important crops
such maize, millet, sorghum and
sugarcane. C4 plants are expected
to benefit less from increasing of
CO2. CAM plants are a variant of
C4 plants and these plants are not
likely to be affected.
Increasing of temperature may
also bring beneficial effects in some
areas of the world. An important effect of an increase in temperature
will be in those areas particularly
where agricultural production is currently limited due to low average
temperatures. However, soils and
other factors may not enable much
of this potential to be realized. Higher rainfall in some areas might also
enable higher production and provide more water for irrigation.
Effects on livestock:
Climate change could affect
livestock and dairy production. The
pattern of animal husbandry may be
affected by alterations in climate,
cropping patterns, as well as ranges
of disease vectors. The higher tem-
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August 2012
peratures would likely result in a
decline in dairy production, reduced
animal weight gain and reproduction and lower feed-conversion efficiency in warm regions. If the intensity and length of cold periods
in temperate areas are reduced by
warming, feed requirements may
be reduced, survival of young animals enhanced and energy costs for
heating of animal quarters reduced.
Climate change could also affect
livestock by disease. Incidence of
diseases of livestock and other animals are likely to be affected by climate change.
Reduction of Greenhouse Gas
Emissions:
Improved land use applications
contribute towards the reduction of
greenhouse gas emissions. For instance, significant decreases of CH4
emissions from agriculture could be
achieved through better management of rice paddies. Additionally,
irrigated rice fields have been found
to produce more CH4 than deepwater rice. The alternating soil drying and reduced land disturbances
such as zero tillage and mulching
will also help reduce emissions from
these agricultural lands. Changes of
cultivation practices, such as a shift
from transplanting to direct seeding
and appropriate water management
can also contribute to decreasing of
CH4 emissions. The reduction of organic material and mineral fertilizer
use will help to decrease emissions,
together with the appropriate fertilizers application. Some changes
in agriculture production could be
beneficial and can reduce the necessity for soil disturbances, e.g., a
shift from traditional to high yielding
varieties, or switching from rice to
some other field crops.
CH4 decreases are possible by
improving nutrition of traditionally
managed ruminant animals. Improving treatment and management
of animal wastes and by reducing
biomass burning could also reduce
CH4 emissions. These practices
could reduce CH4 emissions by 1556 % from agriculture. N2O emissions could also be decreased with
better application of nitrogen fertilizers and with better treatment and
management of animal wastes.
Energy use has decreased greatly by the agriculture sector. However, fossil fuel use in agriculture
and thus CO2 emissions could be
further reduced by, for example, irrigation scheduling, minimum tillage,
solar drying of crops and improved
fertilizer management. The role of
forests and vegetation is important
as sources and sinks of greenhouse
gases.
Preparing for Climate Change:
Adjustments will be necessary
in order to counterbalance any negative impacts of a changing climate.
Farmers must have the ability to adjust to changes by adapting farming practices. Adaptation, such as
changes in crops and crop varieties,
improved water management and
irrigation systems and changes in
planting schedules and tillage practices will be important in limiting
the negative effects and taking advantage of the beneficial effects of
changes in climate. More efficient
use of mineral fertilizers and other
adjustments in agricultural practices
could also act to counteract the effects of climate change.
Muhammad MohsinRaza, Department of Plant Pathology, Faculty of
Agriculture. University of Agriculture, Faisalabad.
August 2012
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31
Interview
Fighting Rural Poverty
Mr. Abdirahman D. Beileh is the acting Director of the African Development
Bank [AFDB], Department of Agriculture and Agro Industry. It is the one of the
largest Departments in the Bank in terms of both the size of investments and
number of projects it supervises. Mr Beileh supervises an active and on-going
portfolio of about 135 projects with investment of about $3.5 billion. He also
supervises other special funds attached to the Department including the Congo
Basin Forest Fund (CBFF), an initiative of a proposed $200 million funded by
UK and Norway to help protect the Congo Basin Fund and the ClimDev Africa
initiative which is expected to be operational momentarily. Mr. Abdirahman has
held numerous senior roles including Finance Officer, Senior/ Principal Financial Economist(Agriculture and Rural Development Department) ,Division Chief
/ Manager to head the Operations Policies & Procedures, Acting Director – Operations Policies & Procedures Department , Division Manager – Agriculture &
Rural Development – North, East, & South, African Development Bank, and Acting Director of the
same Department, Moved to head the African Water Facility, Promoted to the position of Regional
Director in charge of Bank operations in the SADC Countries. Mr. Abdirahman D. Beileh in an interview
to Sreeni K.R , Agriculture Today discussed about future policies to rehabilitate the agricultural and
rural sectors in Africa with an aim to achieve food security and fight rural poverty by improving rice
production and market gardening as well as livestock promotion.
The African Development Bank is a vital source of financial and
technical assistance to major countries in Africa. Which are the
projects you are supporting in agriculture front?
The overarching objective of the African Development
Bank Group is to spur sustainable economic development and social progress in its regional member countries (RMCs), thus contributing to poverty reduction
and economic growth. This objective is encapsulated
in the Bank’s Medium Term Strategy (MTS) for 20082012. In most of these RMCs, Agriculture is the engine of economic growth as it supports the livelihoods
of 80% of the population, provides employment for
about 60% of the economically active population, and
for about 70% of the poorest people. In line with its
vision, its poverty reduction policy, and its Agriculture Sector Strategy (2010-2014), the Bank gives
high priority to agriculture development. To date, the
Bank has allocated more than US$ 10.8 billion to agricultural projects in all four corners and regions of
the African continent. For the agriculture sector as a
whole in 2011, loans and grants for 11 operations
were approved by the Bank Group, amounting to UA
145.6 million and covering nine countries. The Bank
has mandate to support agricultural development in all
its member countries of Africa.
Since the early 1990s, Tunisia has implemented far-reaching
reforms in the agricultural sector consisting abolishing border
protection, cutting input subsidies and allowing market forces
to determine the price of goods. What are the impacts of the
reforms?
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Recent data show that the reforms implemented to
improve the competitiveness of agriculture have produced good results, especially in terms of coverage of
national needs through domestic production (48% for
cereals, 100% for milk, meat, fruits and vegetables
and 88% for oil). However, the expected productivity gains inherent in the modernization of agriculture
has failed to increase farm income per worker in an
environment where water resources can be mobilized
to increase (95% is currently mobilized). Despite the
strong protection afforded to agriculture, rural poverty
in 2005 was 3.5 times higher than in urban areas.
Moreover Tunisian agriculture continues to face significant challenges related to sustainable and efficient
land and water, conservation of plant and animal biodiversity and climate change in addition to climatic
hazards existing. That is why; deep reforms are needed for the agricultural sector can continue to meet the
requirements of food security, employment and economic growth while operating adaptations to changes
in its economic and natural environment.
How do you address the opportunities presented by the
changing landscape catapulting African economies as key
players in the global market?
The decrease in the rate of increasing food needs of
Africa through national production, and the progressive opening of agricultural markets offer real opportunities for Africa, which holds enormous potential in
terms of land, water, biological material and sunshine.
However, Africa is characterized by persistent con-
Interview
flict, the high population growth, lack of infrastructure
(including digital) and the low capacity of its human resources. Thus, lines of progression for the agricultural
sector can be recovered through(i) better integration
of regional agricultural policies and strategies, (ii) the
rapid establishment of basic infrastructure(transport,
energy, water, highways information, etc..), (iii) the
development of promising sectors for each of the ecogeographical zones(development of strategies by sector, technology generation, investments in agribusiness, financial products adapted to the needs agri-industrial, etc..), (iv) capacity building of actors, applied
research and innovation, and standardization/certification of products, (v) promoting incentives for partnerships with the private sector and national abroad.
The African Development Bank (AFDB) Group and the International
Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) signed a grant agreement
for USD 63million to fund a multinational project titled “Support
to Agricultural Research for Development of Strategic Crops in
Africa (SARD-SC), and the IITA. What was its aim?
SARD-SC is a research, science and technology development project targeted at cassava, maize, rice and
wheat. These are four of the six commodities that African Heads of States have, via the Comprehensive
African Agricultural Development Program (CAADP),
defined as strategic crops for Africa.The overall objective of the SARD-SC is to enhance food and nutrition
security and contribute to poverty reduction in Bank’s
low income Regional Member Countries (RMCs).Its
specific objective is to enhance the productivity and
income of four CAADP’s priority value chains (cassava, maize, rice, and wheat) on a sustainable basis.
Africa is one of the most vulnerable
regions in the world to climate
change. What are the steps taken
(by the Bank) to address the
current and projected effects of
climate change?
Climate
change
provides
an opportunity for Africa to
adopt a development pathway that is climate-resilient
and not carbon-intensive,
that builds adaptive capacity
and strengthens institutions’
(for
example,
developing
meteorological
forecasting)
capability to integrate information into national planning
that strengthens national climate data systems (which
are the primary objectives of
the ClimDev-Africa program).
This would promote clean,
efficient energy technologies
and the sustainable management of natural resources (land, water, forests). Such a development pathway would reduce exposure to the hazards of climate
change and mitigate its effects.
The African Development Bank’s response to climate
change is consonant with its 2008-2012 MediumTerm Strategy (MTS), which promotes environmentally sustainable and inclusive growth. The Clean Energy
Investment Framework (CEIF) and the Climate Risk
Management and Adaptation Strategy (CRMA) articulate the AfDB’s response to Africa’s climate change
challenges. The MTS calls for investments to address
the climate change agenda in Africa, primarily by tackling the pressing challenges of adaptation and climateproofing as well as mitigating the effect of climate
change. In considering adaptation as a cross-cutting
issue, the Bank has to climate-proof its interventions
in key development sectors such as clean energy,
transport, irrigation, forests, land and water-resources
management. On mitigation, the Bank is to focus its
interventions on the area of Renewable Energy (RE)
in order to tap into Africa’s huge RE potential especially in hydropower and wind, which remain underexploited, support energy efficiency initiatives, promote
sustainable and low-carbon transport, and accelerate
investments in sustainable land and forestry management.
The Bank has designed a Climate Change Action Plan
(CCAP) for 2011-2015 to support its Regional Member Countries (RMCs) adapt to climate change and
mitigate its effects while supporting the Bank’s focus on infrastructure development and regional operations. The CCAP is organized around three pillars -Low Carbon Development, Climate Resilient Develop-
August
July 2012
AGRICULTURE TODAY
33
Interview
ment and Funding Platform -- to help African countries
strengthen their capacity to respond to climate change
and to mobilize resources from existing and proposed
sources of climate finance, the private sector and market mechanisms.
The Bank plans to invest up to 6 billion UA between
2011 and 2015 to reach the CCAP targets. The resources are expected to be drawn from ADF-12 and
the sixth General Capital Increase, bilateral trust funds
and existing or new Climate Finance instruments, including the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), the Global
Environmental Facility (GEF), the Congo Basin Forest
Fund (CBFF) and the ClimDev-Africa Special Fund.
Taking into consideration that adaptation to climate
change is Africa’s highest priority, given the current
and future vulnerability of the continent, and taking
into account its existing development deficits, more
emphasis will be placed on the special needs of the
Least Developed Countries (LDCs), which are particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate
change. These efforts include, inter alia, supporting
the preparation and implementation of NAPAs.
What are the objectives of Millennium Development Goal [MDG],
particularly the eradication of hunger and poverty?
Agricultural growth has a powerful impact on poverty
particularly in Africa, where it supports the livelihoods
of 80% of the continent’s population. The goals of
Bank-funded operations are therefore purposely tailored to suit specific development goals. In 2003 for
example, the Bank funded the multinational NERICA
rice dissemination project to the tune of ADF loan of
USD 30 million and ADF grant of USD 3 million in
seven West African countries, including Nigeria, Mali,
Sierra Leone, Benin, Ghana, Guinea and The Gambia.
The project completed in December 2011. The NERICA farmers had witnessed better harvests with more
yields that have potentially put extra cash in their
pockets to fund schooling, medical care and better
diet. Increased production as a result of NERICA adoption by enthusiastic farmers has potentially increased
their incomes. Specific data collected in the project
countries are being processed to determine the exact
contribution of the increased productivity to the livelihood of farmers in project area. Nevertheless, anecdotal information, gathered in various countries, had
consistently spotlighted the contribution of the multinational project in addressing the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) priorities in West
Africa.
How do you support the poor countries to make their agricultural
and food security investments more strategic, better prioritized
for results, and at a technically improved level?
The Bank’s investments in its Regional Member Coun-
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AGRICULTURE TODAY
August 2012
tries (RMCs) are all done in line with the RMCs’ national priorities. And all national priorities do include
food security as a goal. The Bank’s Agriculture Sector
Strategy (2010-2014) aims primarily at contributing
to the broader development objectives of greater agricultural productivity, food security and poverty reduction. These broad development goals are furthered by
focused, selective and innovative interventions: in improving rural infrastructure, including water management and storage, trade-related capacities for access
to local and international markets, and by extending
the area being sustainably managed to improve resilience of the natural resource base. These focused, selective and innovative efforts enhance the relevance,
effectiveness and sustainability of Bank interventions
in the agriculture sector. Coupled with close cooperation and synergy with development partners and the
private sector, this effectively contributes to realizing
the vision for African agriculture. The Bank’s areas
of focus is based on it comparative strengths, and
when the Bank is developing projects, it works closely
with the RMC in question and ensures the requested
intervention is demand driven and properly aligned to
national priorities.
Are you supporting any agriculture educational projects to
keep rural population in agriculture area?
The Agriculture Department of the Bank currently does
not have any specific agriculture educational projects.
However, most of the projects supported/promoted
by the Bank do have Capacity Building components,
which aim at improving the skills of the beneficiaries
(farmers) to better managed the investments. This will
invariably help stem the rural-urban drift by equipping
the population with skills which can enable them improve their livelihoods while remaining in the rural areas.
What reforms have you made to assure food security by 2025?
Based on the foregoing and in line with its vision, its
poverty reduction policy, and its Agriculture Sector
Strategy for 2010-2014 (AgSS), the Bank gives high
priority to Agriculture development. To date, the Bank
has allocated about US$ 10.8 billion to agriculture and
rural sector development projects. Its pipeline within
the framework of the AgSS amounts to US$ 5.33
USD billion for the period 2010-2014.
Considering the strategic importance of Agriculture in
achieving its objectives, the Bank has (i) focused on
promoting investments in and policy support to Agriculture development; and (ii) developed strategic partnerships with development partners and the private
sector for leveraging enhanced access to greater financing for the Agriculture sector for enhancing food
security in Africa.
August 2012
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35
issue
FDI in retail in India
Good, Bad or Ugly
F
oreign Direct Investment (FDI)
is any form of investment that
earns interest in enterprises
which function outside of the domestic territory of the investor.
FDIs require a business relationship
between a parent company and its
foreign subsidiary. It is the sum of
equity capital, other long-term capital, and short-term capital which is
shown as the balance of payments.
It usually involves participation in
management, joint-venture, transfer of technology and expertise. FDI
stocks now constitute 28% of the
global GDP.
FDI in INDIA
On January 10, 2012 the Indian
government notified its earlier decision of permitting 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) in single-brand
product retail trading. But attached
to this permission are conditions
that are bound to present implementation challenges and include a
two step application process that is
unnecessarily time consuming. This
is a laudable policy measure and arguably the first step towards eventual opening of the sector to multibrand retailers.
At present, 100% FDI under
the automatic route is permitted
in wholesale cash-and-carry trading; 51% FDI, with government approval, is permitted in single-brand
product trading; while no FDI is permitted in multi-brand retail.
Under the new policy, 100% FDI
has been permitted in single-brand
retail, with government approval
that will allow brands that are sold
under a single brand even in countries other than India to enter the
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August 2012
lucrative Indian retail market. But it
comes with a condition: “mandatory sourcing of at least 30% of the
value of products sold would have
to be done from Indian small industries/village and cottage industries,
artisans and craftsman”.
The new policy also stipulates
that “compliance of this condition will be ensured through selfcertification by the company, to be
Major Benefits
• Economic development
of the host
• Transfer of technology
• Development of human
capital resources
• Creation of jobs
• Opening export window
subsequently checked by statutory
auditors, from the duly certified accounts, which the company will be
required to maintain”.
Our productivity in food & agriculture is one of the lowest in the
world and there is a significant opportunity for uplifting output with
investment in better farming practices. FDI in retail will mean that
the farming community will have a
new support group with a common
interest which is expected to give a
great push to productivity. It is true
that Indian farmers face challenges
in dealing with the middlemen who
procure their produce.
The Indian retail market, which
is the fifth largest retail destination
globally, has been ranked the second most attractive emerging market for investment after Vietnam in
the retail sector by AT Kearney’s
issue
seventh annual Global Retail Development Index (GRDI), in 2008. The
share of retail trade in the country’s
gross domestic product (GDP) is
currently around 12%. A McKinsey
report ‘The rise of Indian Consumer
Market’, estimates that the Indian
consumer market is likely to grow
four times by 2025.
The main problem with the current status of foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail in India is:
• It does not provide a level playing field to domestic players
• It appears to take a rather naive
and simplistic view on certain
aspects
• Rational impact has not been
taken into consideration
• Focus should be more on benefit
of general population and stakeholders involved
5)
6)
Making FDI more effective
1) The present Agriculture Produce
Market Committee (APMC) Act
requires urgent revamp to help
the rural and agricultural sectors with a better go to market
scenario with introduction of the
goods and services tax (GST)
and ease inter- and intra-state
movement of agri-products and
fresh produce in terms of controlling prices, reducing storage
and transit losses.
2) The policy on “brands” by big
FDI retailers, quality needs to
be same both within and across
borders. As of now we see that
the manufacturers and retailers- one lower quality for sale
in India and a better quality for
sale in developed countries—
case in point being soft drinks,
processed foods, confectionery,
electronics, motor vehicles and
others.
3) Specifically in the case of packaged and processed foods - in
terms of labelling of ingredients, the amount of product
detail available for consumers
in developed countries must be
matched for India, too.
4) More empirical data needs to be
7)
8)
provided on subjects like “improvement in supply chain”. In
India fresh hot cooked food by
dabbawallas and diamonds as
well as other precious stones
by angadias have set better
than global standards in supply
chains, so the same standards
need to be quantified and applied to those seeking 100% FDI
in retail.
The investments in retail by the
FDI should come only through
a short-list of recognised tax
adherence countries. Full disclosures of the strictest sort
need to be made on who the
investors are and these cannot
be suitcase corporate identities
hiding behind consultants and
banks in shady tax havens or
other countries.
The payment processing and
cash management as well as tax
adherence part of this industry,
both in terms of procurement
and sale, need to be through
the Indian banking system and
by fully transparent methods,
so that float as well as control
remains in India at all times, as
is the case in developed countries.
The FDI retailer needs to be on
a level playing field here with
other Indian domestic retailers—
insistence on co-opting Rupee
needs to be part of this policy.
As the benefits are being provided to FDI retailers by India, the
large retailers must subscribe
and adhere to the RTI Act of
India 2005 from day one, along
with their first application.
The policymakers subscribe to
the view that more wastage is
generated by the present retail
system in India and that FDI will
reduce wastage. Bearing in mind
the huge problem that developed countries have with handling wastage especially of the
packaging sort, it will be necessary to quantify this wastage
from the outset itself, instead
of propagating further the myth
that the Indian system generates more waste.
9) Supermarket design in India
should be defined in such a way
that fresh food and produce
needs to be in front, unlike in
other “big box” shops where it is
right at the back or hidden along
the sides, forcing people to walk
through row after row of packaged and processed foods.
10)The “big box” FDI model in retail cannot be the reason to do
away with the small shopkeeper
earning his livelihood on the peripheries of the traditional marketplaces. The big retailer will
have to, as policy, provide for
space as well as timing to set up
options like weekly ‘haats’ and
“farmer’s markets”, either in
parking lots or in specially designated stalls set aside for this.
How FDI in retail will help consumers, farmers and our economy
The recent Cabinet decision to
allow 51% foreign direct investment
in the multi-brand retail sector in India has deeply divided the nation’s
political, social and trading classes.
The rival political parties have
vehemently opposed FDI in retail.
However, our industry bodies i.e.
Confederation of Indian Industry and
the Federation of Indian Chambers
of Commerce and Industry have not
only supported the government’s
move but also have argued that the
induction of foreign investors in the
segment will benefit both the consumer and the small traders in the
long run.
FDI in multi-brand retail will give
a boost to the organised retail sector, which positively impacts several
stakeholders, including producers,
workers, employees, consumers,
the government, and, hence, the
overall economy. In a true potential
scenario, opening up of FDI can increase organized retail market size
to $260 billion by 2020.
Best case scenario
Opening up of FDI in retail can in-
August 2012
AGRICULTURE TODAY
37
issue
crease organised retail market size
to $260 billion by 2020. This would
result in an aggregate increase in income of $35-45 billion per year for
all producers combined; about 3-4
million new direct jobs and around
4-6 million new indirect jobs in the
logistics sector, contract labour in
the distribution and repackaging
centres, housekeeping and security
staff in the stores. The government
too stands to gain by this move by
transparent and accountable monitoring of goods and supply chain
management systems. The government can be expected to receive an
additional income of $25-30 billion
by way of a variety of taxes.
alization era (1993-1994 to 20032004), and accelerated to 19%
in the last 5 years (2003-2004 to
2008-2009).
Better service of small retailers:
An ICRIER study, ‘Impact of Organized Retailing on the Unorganized
Sector, 2008’, shows no evidence
of a decline in overall employment
in the unorganised sector as a result
of the entry of organised retailers.
Rather small retailers have evolved
-- like adding new product lines and
brands, better display, renovation
of the store, introduction of selfservice, enhanced home delivery,
more credit sales, acceptance of
credit cards, etc.
SMEs
FDI can help SMEs supply in:
large volumes, increase quality and
become a vendor to international
players and increase the quality of
products and become cost competitive in global arena.
Traditional trade will continue to
have its own place and should not
decline. Even in the last three years
when modern retail has grown
24%, unorganised retail has continued to grow, albeit at a slower rate
of 10-12%.
Example of Small-Scale Industries
(SSIs): In 1990s when de-reservation of small-scale industries (SSIs)
was introduced in India, there was
speculation around the eventual
decline of SSIs. Since then several
studies have shown that the sector
continues to demonstrate a healthy
growth in the number of units, output and employment.
As an example, the growth for
the early period of liberalization
(1993-1994 to 1998-1999) which
was 16%, fell slightly for the next 5
years (1998-1999 to 2004-2005)
to 12%, before accelerating to 19%
in the last 5 years (2004-2005 to
2008-2009).
Similarly, the employment generated by registered SSIs grew at
6% in the pre-liberalization era
1979-1980 and 1989-1990, at 4%
in the first decade of the post-liber-
Farmers
Farmers in India today receive
a small share of the end consumer
price. As an example, for tomatoes,
farmers in India earn only 30% of
consumer price, while in more developed markets this is in the 5070% range.
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AGRICULTURE TODAY
August 2012
Organised retail has the potential
to drive efficiencies in this chain
by:
• Increasing price realization for
farmers by 10-30% through
sourcing directly or closer to
the farm
• Reducing handling and wastage by 25-50% through consolidation as well as investments in technology, either directly or through aggregators.
• Upgrading the farmer’s capabilities by providing know-how
and capital.
• Improving farmers’ output and
yield through better extension
services and user friendly processes.
Food Security
In case investments are not made
in agricultural back-end and supply chain, it will become difficult
to meet India’s growing demands
for fruits and vegetables, dairy and
poultry products. In fact, any delay
in these investments will endanger
availability for our future generations.
Consumers
This would result in wider
choice for the consumer with better competition. It also would lead
to assurance of quality with greater
transparency and easier monitoring
of adulteration, counterfeit products and traceability. Furthermore,
it would lower prices that can
help curb inflation. With its ability
to drive efficiencies and leverage
scale, modern trade is able to increase affordability for consumers.
The major benefit of FDI is, it will
bring development of a robust supply chain, which will help in integrating farmers and medium size
enterprises and the most important
clause should be that whatever investments foreign retailers want
to make in India, a fixed percentage of it will have to be invested on
setting the back-end infrastructure
right. The more competition in the
sector will fetch better quality products for the consumer, the retailers
would be forced to put their infrastructure in place to get improved
quality. FDI will help in encouraging
smaller suppliers to take their products to a national platform, which
could not happen earlier because of
lack of an organised supply chain.
Challenges that lie ahead
In conclusion, it may be said that
FDI will be beneficial for farmers,
retailers and consumers and will
lead to the development of infrastructure and robust supply chain.
But a country like India should not
blindly follow the model of giving
tax holidays rather should focus on
improving investment fundamentals
rather than using the tax system as
the main incentive tool and a fixed
percentage (at least 60 %) of sourcing within the country itself.
Dr. Neeru Dubey, Assistant Professor,
and Ms. NagaLaxmi Raman, Project
Support Officer, Amity International
Centre for Post Harvest Technology
and Cold chain Management
Livestock
I
Widening the ‘good’ generated by
small-scale dairying in India
n India, the largest dairy-producing country in the world, milk
matters are big matters. But it
is the small-scale, not industrial
producers that generate more than
80% of the milk producedin the
country. The 80% share handled
by India’s informal sector is about
equal in volume to the entire dairy
industry of the USA. Some 100 million rural farmers are involved in
dairy production in India, with most
depending on the informal sector
to market their milk, in which an
estimated 2 million people are employed as vendors, traders and traditional processors.
Formal milk marketing offers
small producers a whole range of
benefits such as greater reliability,
price transparency or growth opportunities through value addition.
While notable successes have been
made in integrating some of India’s
small-scale producers in formal commercial value chains, mostof the
country’s dairy production remains
non-commercial or pre-commercial.Helpingmany more of India’s
small-scale dairy producersto get
integratedwiththe country’s commercial dairy value chains is a challenge taken up bythe Consultative
Group on International Agricultural
Research (CGIAR). The research is
carried out by 15 centres that are
members of a CGIAR Consortium
and work in close collaboration
with hundreds of partner organizations, including national and regional research institutes, civil society
organizations, academia and the
private sector.
CGIAR Livestock and Fish Research
Program
Classical approaches to dairy development in the South have tended
to be poverty- and gender- neutralandin some cases even anti-poor,
especially thosethat promote aspects of the Western dairy models,
such as cold chains, pasteurisation
and packaging. This was aconclusion drawn from reviews that informed the design of the CGIAR
Research Program on Livestock and
Fish,which works for ‘more meat,
milk and fish by and for the poor’.
This new program (it started at the
beginning of this year) will work in
India and Tanzania conductingpropoor and gender-focused dairy
research-for-developmentover the
next decade.The program is being
implemented by four CGIAR centres
and led by one of them, the International Livestock Research Institute
(ILRI), which has teams working in
offices in several states in India and
a main office in New Delhi.ILRIand
the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) are responsible for the dairy component of the
program, which aims to encourage commercial dairy development
across the South to becomemore
broad-based. Lessons learned from
the initial work in India and Tanza-
nia will be shared between the two
countries and subsequently scaled
out to other countries with similar
dairy production and marketing systems. Millions of milk producers,
traders and consumersare expected
to benefit from the enhanced smallholder dairy value chainsthat this
research program is focusing on.
The unique role of dairying in propoor development
Dairying can generate many
benefits inaddition to economic
development and poverty reduction. It offers opportunities for rural
livelihoods and nutritional security,
particularly in societies already having a tradition of keeping cattle and
consuming milk. Perhaps uniquely
amongst agricultural pathways out
of poverty, dairying offers many
pro-poor benefits from small-scale
production and marketing even for
households with no or only marginal land. These benefits include
opportunities for intensification
through increasing productivity
and thereby enhancing incomes,
August 2012
AGRICULTURE TODAY
39
Livestock
through employment in services
and marketing, and through improving nutrition and food security both
inrural smallholder households and
for the poor living in towns and cities served by informal markets. Unlike most crop and other livestock
enterprises, many of its benefits
throughout the value chain are generated on a daily basis rather than
seasonally. In many cases, especially in shorter value chains, women,
the landless, and other marginalised
groups are able to capture a larger
share of the benefits. However, as
mentioned above, this has in some
cases beenthreatened with increasing commercialization.
Many past and on-going dairy
development efforts in the South
driven mainly by the desire to supply urban centres with affordable
milk have targeted high-potential
areas with better-off smallholder
farms able to supply large, steady
quantities of surplus milk that can
justify establishing collection systems and a milk processing plant.
The successes of this approach in
India led by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) are well
documented. The CGIAR Research
Program on Livestock and Fish will
work tocomplement these successes by targeting areas where resource-poor men and women cattle
keepers do not yet have access to
formal milk markets, but are producing milk for their own consumption
and selling surplus to informal traders. The research activities aim to
provide proof-of-concept that,with
the right kinds of support, many in
such marginalised groups can begin
market-oriented production. These
‘pre-commercial’ households generally sell small volumes to a variety
of markets and on an irregular basis.
Few dairy development models have
successfully targeted such households for sustainable improvements
in yields and livelihoods and it has
to be admitted that the challenges
are formidable. Typically, road access to areas where poor farmers
live is poor, increasing the cost of
establishing reliable and cost ef-
40
AGRICULTURE TODAY
August 2012
fective milk collection systems. On
the other hand, modest levels of
production as well as comparatively lower population and livestock
densities also increase the cost of
milk collection per litre of milk and
subsequently the price offered to
farmers. Restricted access to input
markets and information also mean
that the farmers see few opportunities for increasing their production.
Despite these difficult conditions,
informal market systems have been
established in many areas, allowing
farmers to sell milk surplus to their
household requirements. However,
the risks with respect to milk prices, input supply and animal health
generally discourage farmers from
increasing their production.
A ‘whole value chain’ approach
The CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish is espousing a ‘whole value chain’
approach,recognizing that producers will not see any benefit in improving their productivity if the market cannot absorb their increased
production at attractive prices,if
new processing techniques are
constrained by inadequate milk volumes, or if producers do not find reliable sources of inputs required for
sustainable productivity increases.
Problems all along the value chain,
from input supply, through the pro-
ducer, the processor and to the consumer, need to be addressed; these
include offering options for improving production, linking farmers better to markets, maintaining quality
and adding value to dairy products
as they move to consumers, and ensuring that some of these products
get to the people who can benefit
most from the nourishing nutrients
they provide.
To address these challenges,
this program includesresearch not
only to developtechnologies forbetter animal health, feeds and genetics but also research to increase
on-farm productivity and efficiency
over the long term, to create strategies for propoor, gender equitable
dairy marketing systems, and, to
ensure appropriatetargeting of dairy
interventions, to focus on gender dimensionsand impact assessments.
This holistic approach—coupled
with a clear focus on an agreed
agenda and a common vision and
plan for how the research outputs
will translate into development
outcomes—should help CGIAR researchers and national partners in
India and elsewhere to work more
effectively together. What’s important is to provide an appropriate clustering of skills that can deliver new science and to establish
an organized methodological focus
and community of practice that
ensures synergies, integration and
joint learning, as well as relevance
forthe beneficiaries targeted by the
program. This program is designed
to ensure that research priorities
Livestock
match the needs of beneficiaries
and that interventions are evaluated
and grounded in real world settings
with partners.
Where we will work
The CGIAR Research Program
on Livestock and Fish has started
to work with a range of partners in
research and development in India,
including the private sector.Initial
target sites in India are being identified in Bihar, Orissa, Assam and
Andhra Pradesh. The selection of
sites, partners and approaches will
be based on previous and on-going research activities related to
the objectives of the Livestock
and Fish program: a project on innovation in dairy feeding and marketing is being implemented with
IFAD and local partners in the
Kumaon region of Uttarakhand;
the links between the quality of
milk marketing and dairy production intensity have been investigated in Punjab, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, the opportunities
for strengthening the dairy sector
through training and registration of
informal milk traders has been developed and implemented with the
state dairy development department
in Assam; the opportunities for increasing dairy productivity through
making better use of available feed
resources has been studied through
field trials run by farmer groups in
Haryana, the Nepal Terai, Bihar and
North-western Bangladesh. In all
these sites effective and reliable
relationships have been established
with local researchers as well various development stakeholders.
Opportunities for lesson sharing
A key principle underpinning the
CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fisheriesis the view that
shared experiences and demonstrations of innovations generated in
similar contexts have the greatest
potential for wider uptake. Actual
experiences and results are more
convincing than theoretical assumptions and fundamental lessons can
more easily be distinguished from
specific local issues. As an example, dairy policy makers from North
East India and East Africarecently
met to identify lessons from experiences with dairy development that
could be applicable to other countries.
The Indian participants offered
two main lessons: first, collective
action through cooperatives or other forms of dairy farmer groups is
critical for better access to inputs
and services and toimprove milk
marketing where unit volumes are
small, as is often the case in India
and Tanzania. While the cooperative movement in India has demonstrated enormous success in some
places, the role of such groups in
Tanzania isas yet very small,thus
discouraging smallholder producers from participating in milk markets and using inputs and services
that would enable them to increase
their production and incomes. Second, quality-based payments were
found to provide strong incentives
for improving the quality and safety
of milk. This has been successfully
implemented in many areas across
India, where it is now seen as a prerequisite for reliable and fair milk
collection and should be encouraged in Tanzania.
Tanzania and Kenya also offered lessons, the main one being
that training-based certification of
informal traders and other actors in
the dairy value chain can serve as a
powerful mechanism in small-scale
milk markets to promote value addition and other marketing innova-
tions. The strategy puts such traders on the road to transformation
and gradual integration in formal
value chains. This forms part of a
Business Development Service approach thathelps shift service provision from public-sector dairy boards
anddairy development agencies to
the private sector. A dairy project
by ILRI and partners in Kenya in
the mid-1990’s was instrumental
in bringing much needed “mind-set
and policy changes” and provided
a new model of incorporating these
small producers into the formal sector. High welfare benefits arose
from the policy change, with a
net present value of US$230 million, now captured by consumers, producers, and milk vendors.
This approach could be piloted in
the new sitesin Indiato ‘upgrade’
informal-sector practices rather
than ignoring and neglecting this
sector. Some trialing of this approach has recently taken place
in Assam, in northeast India, with
promising results.
Outlook
Because of the complex challenges, the variety of stakeholders
and the absence of single technology
solutions it is obvious that this program will require a long-term commitment. The recent reforms within the
CGIAR system during which the Program on Livestock and Fish was established specifically promote such a
long-term perspective. The program
horizon of 10 years will allow for a
thorough analysis of existing value
chains and production systems; existing data on informal trade and for
marginal areas are often poor. Based
on these results and in collaboration
with local partners research priorities and target sites can be effectively identified. The results of the
research activities will not only be
communicated to local collaborators
and stakeholders but to a wider audience to support dairy development
on a national scale as an effective
pathway for helping millions of rural
poor to improved livelihoods.
August 2012
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41
face to face
A Market Driven Approach
Nagarjuna Agrichem Limited (NACL) manufactures a comprehensive
range of pesticide technicals, formulations and custom manufactured fine
chemicals conforming to international quality standards and specifications. NACL is equipped with state-of-the-HYPERLINK “http://www.nagarjunaagrichem.com/profile.htm” art infrastructure, skilled experienced
manpower and technical absorption capabilities. Custom Synthesis and
manufacturing are one of NACL’s inherent capabilities. NACL has one of
the largest Dealer Network spread across India, with HYPERLINK “http://
www.nagarjunaagrichem.com/profile.htm” marketing and sales offices
in addition to an extensive Warehousing & Logistics Infrastructure to
handle operations in 20 Indian States. NACL has tie-ups with large Indian
Agrochemical Majors and MNC’s for the domestic and export markets.
Mr V. Vijay Shankar, Managing Director, NACL, in an interaction with Agriculture Today
shares his views regarding the Indian agriculture scene in particular and agro chemical sector in particular.
What are the opportunities that you foresee in the Indian
Agriculture?
I have been exposed to agriculture not only through my
association with NACL but also my presence in this field
since last 18 – 20 years mostly from the fertilizer sides
and micro level products and strategic planning issues.
Agriculture like health care, I believe very strongly is
going to be a high growth sector in the coming years.
It will not be a fast growth area but the growth will be
slow and steady. Agriculture is one sector where we
can’t expect very fast growth but very essentially, here
our entire focus is on the policies on the input side of
agriculture. The output side of the policies is to make
the farmers more remunerative and therefore government does not have much role to play here. Seeds are
very well structured if we see the Government side
of policies. Finance is properly planned. The suicides
that we hear today are not due to the inability of the
farmers to get money for buying the seeds but due to
their inability to repay. Fertilizers are well structured
too. Pesticides have a classical market. The only other
issue here is infrastructure, which is water and power.
Unfortunately, these are the two inputs which farmers
in the input sector are unable to do and are controlled
by the government.
When we talk about the output, we have storage issues
where government policies play an active role. Another
is timely payment to farmers especially in the context
of paddy and wheat. The last issue is that of logistics
management which we could clearly see in the ongoing
storage crisis, where in there is wheat rotting in north
but there is a demand in the south. I see tremendous
potential in this sector. Our population is growing.Although our land mass is low when compared to USA
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August 2012
and China, our arable land is one of the highest. We
have good water system. Holdings in China are much
smaller than ours but still their productivity is high.
Therefore agriculture is here to stay for a long time and
has to grow. Domestic market let alone is huge. In this
sector, there are two major growth areas, one is traditional agriculture products and second niche products.
Niche products are vegetables, fruits, grapes, floriculture which are all for export purposes and traditional
products are for the domestic market.
What are the policy initiatives that can speed up the growth
process?
Fundamentally,it will be with warehousing, managing
the output effectively and its movement within the domestic market. This should be properly managed and
hence the government can see it as a very powerful
opportunity for itself as well as a challenge. Personally
I feel that this area is achievable.
How are the economic conditions of the farmers in Andhra
Pradesh ?
Economically, last year has not been good for AP.
Delayed Kharif, bad Rabi season, Telangana agitation
have all affected the growth pattern. This situation is
bad when it comes to water reservoir levels. Severe
power cuts are there, for ploughing they need power.
So the present scenario is bad with no water and no
power. Suicides of late , I have not heard much.
What is the status of agro chemical market in AP?
Andhra has been flat last year due to bad Rabi. Andhra
constitute 20-22% of the Indian market. Tremendous
potential is there. Today even there is a huge demand
face to face
for traditional molecules in Andhra, but the scenario is
changing. Today, the farmers are ready to experiment
with newer products.
What are the growth trends that have been witnessed in the
last 4-5 years?
In the last 4-5 years, impressive growth has been witnessed. Especially the herbicide sector has seen much
growth, not the fungicides though. Insecticides have
been at their usual spot. Cotton has come down to
30-35% and paddy 40-45%, consumption in wheat is
growing.
What is the Agro chemical market presence of NACL?
NACL has pan India presence. We are among the first
organizations who have gone directly to their consumers. In this business, you can’t start your own retail
chain. We have 9000 dealers and we have a strong
presence in south. We are making efforts to grow in
the north especially in the central part, MP. We have
around 6000 dealers in south. Our domestic sales have
come down as compared to previous years.
In 10 years you have reached from 50 crores to 500 + crores in
business? Share with us the growth drivers?
First is continuity in our focus. We have a strong domestic market focus and we want to continue on that.
We are among those few companies who have got a
unique business model for the domestic presence, with
the good brands, good reach and contract manufacturing. We have 2 basic plants near Vishakhapatnam, one
is for technicals and other is for formulations. There is
a steady state of business. We have technical plants
for contract manufacturing, where we have International big wigs who ask us to make products for them
and some we make on our own and sell it to them.
So we have a strong contract manufacturing base. We
rarely market on our own. We make and sell.
What is the breakup between your domestic market and
exports?
We don’t do much of technical sales but contract
manufacturing. Last year we had turnover of around
Rs. 650 crores, 1/3rd of which came from exports and
2/3rd from domestic market. Our domestic strength is
in retail and exports basically rely on contract manufacturing.
What are your growth plans for the future?
At a turnover of Rs. 650 Crores, we feel we have people at all the level of the organization who are best
suited for their respective jobs to meet the 1000 crore
target in 2 years. We have the road map assigned and
strategies planned to achieve this target and we are
working in the same direction. Focus will be on existing
assets and at the same time looking for new ventures.
Currently, we have got a R&D centre but it did not get
the focus as it should have received. Many of the processes which we do for contract manufacturing have
been developed by us. Only for 2/3rd products, we follow the processes given to us by others.
What are your strategies to achieve Rs. 1000 crore target?
Domestic market holds tremendous opportunities
according to PhillipsMc Donald Report i.e., 8-10%
growth. We have signed up agreements with two Japanese Companies for two exclusive molecules. One of
these will be out in the current financial year. Basic
strategy is to keep on introducing new products. We
are strengthening our logistics management system so
that we may be able to deliver our services anywhere in
the country within 24 to 48 hours. We are in a market
driven business, so if we don’t fulfill market demand
in time, we will lose the market. R&D is another essential tool for growth. Immediate gains won’t be there
but the immediate concern is to relook our technical
process. We have to work on existing technology and
make it more cost effective. My medium term to long
term gains is in formulation. I have a very strong 30
member team for market development who go around
and spread information regarding our products, look in
to the needs of farmers and learn existing practices.
We will look at products available and those that will
come out of our patents. We will select some of these
and will see if they could get us a cost efficient process. Plus there are enquiries from the existing clients
to develop new products.
What are the reasons for the close association of farmers with
Nagarjuna?
For this, the KVK founder Mr. Raju was very clear. Nagarjuna is a case study driven management especially
in the case of seed marketing. We got the mandate to
go ahead with the project in 1986. In 1992, first plant
was commissioned. We started developing the market
at that time. KVK’s family is from Bhimoram side, so
there is a close affinity. And there was close proximity
with farmers. Kakinada has a unique position. There
were no plants nearby. Government of AP has selected
both DAP and Urea plant in Kakinada. In NFCL, most of
the original shareholders are farmers. We started seed
development before the production itself. So we had
strong marketing team. East Godavari is a very fertile
belt, we had a plant at the door step of fertile belt and
also a door step for raw material which are two crucial
components. For fertilizers, we got gas from ONGC.
We leveraged on that.
August 2012
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43
health
A Panacea for Good Health
T
omato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.), popularly
known as Love Apple, is one
of the most commonly grown vegetables in the kitchen and homestead
gardens. Bihar, Karnataka, Orissa,
Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Assam
and West Bengal are the major tomato growing states. Orissa is the
leading state in cultivation followed
by Andhra Pradesh. However, the
productivity is highest in Karnataka
and Maharashtra followed by Assam. Among vegetables, it ranks
first for being the most processed
crop. It is generally consumed as
salad and is mixed in vegetable
curries to add taste, colour and flavour. However, the unripe green
fruits are used for making pickles
and preserves. It is utilized in large
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August 2012
quantities for the preparation of
various processed products such
as juice, ketchup, paste, pickles,
powder, puree, salad, sauces, soup
and many other products.
Important Health Benefits of Tomato
Tomato is loaded with health
benefits, which include treating urinary tract infections, skin problems,
diabetes and low hypertension, and
they are also good for gut health
and eyesight. Tomato also has the
potential to fight against a number
of other diseases like anoxia (lack
of appetite), asthma, bronchitis,
capillary fragility, cataract, chronic
dyspepsia (indigestion), cardiovascular disease, constipation, curative stomatitis, dermatopathy,
flatulence, hepatopathy, macular
degeneration, multiple sclerosis,
nephropathy, night blindness, scur-
vy, torpid liver and general ability. Acts as Antioxidant
Among the caroteinoids, lycopene present in abundance in red
tomatoes is the most potent antioxidant, scavenging free radicals
10 times more than the vitamin E,
and which may contribute to a reduction in risk of several diseases.
No fruit or vegetable other than
tomato has such high concentration of lycopene. The fruit skin and
seeds possess greater antioxidant
activity than its pulp. It provides
protection against oxidative damage including to the cell membrane
and other structures. Consumption
of tomato-based food may reduce
the susceptibility of lymphocytes
DNA to oxidative damage. It has
preventive effect on atherosclerosis by protecting plasma lipids from
health
oxidation. According to American
Medical Association, daily consumption of tomato decreases the
oxidative stress, especially in individuals suffering from type 2 diabetes.
The presence of nicotinic acid and
potassium in tomato helps in lowering down the cholesterol levels in
blood and blood pressure, thereby
preventing heart disorders.
Fights against Cancers
Tomato protects from heart
strokes, cardiovascular disease and
other potentially life-threatening
heart problems. The regular use
of tomato has proved to reduce
the levels of LDL cholesterol and
triglycerides in the blood, which
are the key culprits of cardiovascular diseases. It has also been
reported that tomato juice has the
cardio-protective properties. This
cardio-protective ability of tomato
is found related to a modulation of
platelet function, and thus, studies confirm the synergetic effects
of other antioxidants in fighting
the chronic diseases. Research at
Oregon state university, USA has
engineered a purple fruited tomato
variety containing anthocynines,
which function as antioxidants and
are believed to fight against heart
disease. A clinical study showed
that Lithuanians who suffered a
high rate of mortality from coronary
heart disease have a low blood lycopene levels.
Tomato helps in dissolving
animal fat found in food items such
as butter, cheese, eggs, pork, beef
and many deep-fried foodstuffs,
thereby preventing hardening of
the arteries. Lutein in tomato reduces the thickening and hardening
of arteries, which are responsible
for the development of cardiovascular disease. Folic acid in tomato
reduces the birth effects and risk of
cardiovascular disease.
Tomato contains numerous antioxidants, which combat several
types of cancer, i.e., gall bladder,
colon, rectum, ovarian, cervix, pancreatic, mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, lungs, breast and
skin cancers. Its protective effects
against cancer of digestive tract and
prostrates have been reported from
different parts of the world. They
can also attack and intercept foreign material that can lead to cancer and other chronic diseases but
lycopene is the most vital antioxidant that helps in fighting against
cancerous cell formation as well
as other health complications and
diseases. According to the National
Cancer Institute, people who consume large amounts of tomato and
its products have a significantly low
risk of lung and stomach cancer,
and there are evidences that people
who consume lot of tomatoes may
also have a lower risk of pancreatic, colorectal, oesophageal, oral,
breast and cervical cancer. The top
most benefit of tomato has been in
curing breast and prostate cancer.
Folic acid in tomato improves body
immune system, especially in elderly and protects the women from
breast cancer.
Reduces Hypertension and High Blood
Pressure
Since tomatoes are rich in potassium, clinical studies have
shown that they have a positive
effect on kidneys in many cases,
and good renal functioning can reduce high blood pressure, which
is a major risk factor for coronary
heart diseases and stroke. Tomato
extract branded as Lycomato is
now also being promoted for the
treatment of high blood pressure.
Prevents from Heart Problems
removes dead skin and unplugs
pores, making the skin soft and
radiant. The mild natural acidity
of tomato restores the pH balance
of the skin. It has been observed
that too much content of lycopene,
phytoene and phytofluene also
function synergistically to provide
protection from ultraviolet induced
damage of skin (erthema). Topical
application of tomato juice on skin
is known to cure severe sunburns
and may play a vital role in maintaining skin health. A slice of tomato placed on sunburn portion for
15 minutes takes away the burning
feeling and prevents the skin from
peeling or blistering. Lyc-o-Mato,
which is a tomato extract enriched
with lycopene and clinically proven
to support skin health, is available
in the market. Tomato ranks high in
preparation of anti-aging products
like beauty pills. A study by the
dermatologist in Berlin discovered
an association between lycopene
based supplements and smooth
skin (less wrinkled skin). Lycopene
is incorporated in many of the more
expensive facial cleansers. Eating
tomatoes is great for keeping the
skin healthy.
Keeps the Liver Healthy
Russian doctors recommend
the inclusion of tomato in diet of
factory workers exposed to toxic
Provides Skin Health
Eating tomato is excellent for
cleansing and rejuvenating the skin
and is also excellent for a face pack
that loosens the top layer of dead
skin cells and rubs them off. Tomatoes contain vitamin C, which has
the healing power and an acid that
August 2012
AGRICULTURE TODAY
45
Health
chemicals since tomato is a useful
detoxifier because of the presence
of chlorine (51 mg/100 g) and sulfur (11 mg/100 g), which are important detoxifying trace elements.
Chlorine helps in stimulating the liver function and assists the liver in
processing and excreting metabolic
and toxic wastes from the body
system. Sulfur in tomato helps in
protecting the liver from cirrhosis
and other devastating conditions.
Consuming fresh tomato juice assists in restoring the damaged,
destroyed, or surgically operated
liver. Tomato also effectively prevents jaundice.
Provides Eye Health
To relieve bloodshot eyes, the
Chinese doctors suggest eating
1 or 2 fresh tomatoes as the first
thing in the morning on an empty
stomach. Scientists believe that
the vitamin C and flavonoids in tomato strengthen the blood vessels.
Vitamin A in tomato prevents eye
disorders like macular degeneration
and night blindness and provides resistance to several other ailments.
Prevents Diarrhea
Tomato keeps the digestive
system healthy by preventing both
constipation and diarrhea. Dr. Lester M. Morrison of the Philadelphia
General Hospital published an article entitled the successful use of
tomato pomace in more than 100
cases of diarrhea in 1946 in the
American Journal of Digestive Diseases, reporting that simple diarrhea due to food poisoning, mucous
and spastic colitis, nutritional deficiencies, food allergy (other than
that caused by tomatoes) and other
causes could be stopped within 4
hours by consuming tomato pomace. No toxic symptoms have been
observed from its use.
Heels Wounds and Sores
Tribal medicine often prescribed
poultice made from the leaves of
wild tomato to heal wounds and
sores. One can get the benefit of
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AGRICULTURE TODAY
August 2012
that tomato juice was extremely
effective in accelerating blood
sugar formation in normal rabbits.
Protects
ailments
the wound healing property of tomato from the fruit also. A slice of
fresh tomato is wrapped around
the finger with an adhesive tape
and changed 2-3 times a day. The
infection (bad wounds and pus)
normally clears within 2-3 days
causing rapid healing.
Protects from Urinary Tract Infections
Regular intake of tomato protects urinary tract from the incidence of infections and also from
the cancer of urinary bladder since
tomato acts as a natural antiseptic.
In some studies, it has been shown
that the regular consumption of tomatoes without seeds can lessen
the risk of gall and kidney stones
as it dissolves the stones and helps
in bringing it out.
Provides Vitality
Hypoglycemic people (those
who have low blood sugar) are inundated with constant fatigue and
lack of energy. Tomatoes are useful in rebuilding their strength. It affects this process in 3 ways:
• Tomatoes contain several naturally occurring sugars, which
account for nearly 50% of the
total dry matter. Ripe tomatoes
are especially high in glucose and
fructose.
• Tomato seeds are a great source
of protein. Scientists say that
tomato seed protein is similar to
that of sunflower and soybean.
• Tomatoes stimulate liver mechanism. Doctors at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan reported
from
Miscellaneous
The pulp and juice both are
easily digestible, mild-appetizer,
promoter of gastric secretion and
blood purifier and are considered as
an emollient, carminative, digestive
and intestinal antiseptic. Consuming tomato stimulates the liver to
promote the increase of bile juice
and also stimulates the kidney and
helps in washing away of poisons,
which may contaminate the body
system, causing diseases. It is one
of the best vegetables, which keep
the stomach and intestine in good
condition. However, the people suffering from hyperacidity and stones
in gall bladder should avoid the excessive use of tomato in daily diet.
Tomato is good for diabetic patients
and obese people, who want to reduce weight. Tomatoes are also effective in controlling sugar level in
the urine of diabetic patients.
Potassium and sodium in tomato
maintain body osmoregulation and
acid-base equilibrium, activate enzymatic system and help in the process of digestion. Tomato also has
plenty of trace element chromium,
which helps the individuals suffering from diabetes mellitus to keep
their blood sugar level under control. Consuming tomato is good for
keeping the hair strong and shiny.
Tomato contains a fair amount of
vitamin K and calcium, which help
in reducing the risk of osteoporosis and strengthening and possibly
repairing of bone tissues. It is said
that tomato helps the infertile men
in increasing their sperm counts.
Eating tomato cannot help in keeping aversion from cigarette smoking but can help in reducing damage caused by cigarette smoking.
M.K. Rana, Archana Brar and R.C.
Adhikari, Department of Vegetable
Science, CCS Haryana Agricultural
University
Open Letter
Open letter to Amir Khan
L
atest to bear the brunt of Amir
Khan’s “SatyamevJayate” is
the farming community in India who according to the show were
using excessive pesticides during
farming thus exposing consumers to
the hazards posed by the Pesticides.
Taking reservations regarding the allegations made against the farmers
who were “feeding the people and
not poisoning them”, Sri. P. Chengal
Reddy, Secretary General, Consortium of Indian Farmers Associations
(CIFA), vented out his emotions in an
open letter to Aamir Khan, the excerpts of which are added below:
“It’s rather amusing to watch
non agriculturalists and environmental activists giving elite sermons sitting before TV camera about farming
in India. At the outset, we would like
to assert that Indian farmers are in
the profession of feeding the people
and not poisoning them as alleged
by environmental activists in your
show.
Dr. Vandana Shiva said that it’s a
fallacy to claim that agricultural production would be less without green
revolution techniques. Ten years
ago- on 27’h Nov 2001 to be precise- we wrote an article captioned
“ Fictional agricultureof environmentalists” in The Hindu newspaper. I
quote certain lines verbatim from
that article:”Vandana Shiva states
thatorganic Cultivation producesmore cotton ....brings doublebenefit
to farmers by lowering the costs on
expensive seeds and chemicals andincreasing income by producing a
quality product. We welcome Vandana Shivaand other environmentalists to our villages to demonstrate
what they claim inour local conditions. We will give them 100 acres
in every district. Let them showus
practically how organic cultivation increases yields and our income levels.
Till then, please do not tell us what
we, the farmers must do or use” She
has not responded to us till now.
Sad, for over 10 years, she does not
have the courage to accept our challenge. But here, in your show, she
recklessly repeated what she said a
decade ago. We expect the environmental NGOs to walk their talk.
With due respects to your talents
in your profession, we must tell you
that your remarks and observations
on Indian agriculture were amateurish. You want Indian farmers to follow Sikkim agriculture!
l Average yield of rice in Sikkim
1515 Kgs/ha
l Average yield of rice in Andhra
3680 Kgs/ha
l Average yield of wheat in Sikkim
1000 Kgs/ha
l Average yield of wheat in Punjab
4450 Kgs/ha
(Data: KVK, Sikkim, Ministry of Agriculture and Department of A.P)
Let us put a common sense question to you. In order for us to feed
1.2 billion people, should we follow
Sikkim agriculture or that of Andhra
Pradesh or Punjab? Don’t you think it
will be suicidal to follow Sikkim agriculture?
Organic agriculture is not a recent invention by the likes of Vandana Shiva. India was following organic agriculture until 1950s. We
were then chronically short of food
and begging other countries for food.
Wheat shipments used to come all
the way from the USA. Thanks to
intensive agriculture, today India is
the second largest food producer in
the entire world. The size of our agricultural economy is now larger than
the agricultural economy of the USA.
Now, Indian farmers are the largest
producers of Milk, second largest
producers of food grains, fruits and
vegetables in the world. We have ensured not only food security but also
nutritional security. And, in the process, we haverestored our country’s
self dignity. We have food surplus.
Last year we exported$ 27.5 billion
worth of agricultural products.You
need not complement our farmers for
this significant progress and achievements. We don’t expect that from
you and your elite group of environmental activists. But, please desist
from throwing unfounded criticisms
at us.
Organic agriculture does not permit use of Bt Cotton. Today, India is
the second largest producer of cotton in the world, thanks to introduction of Bt Cotton since 2002.
As regards to pesticides use in
agriculture, we have this to say. The
pesticides used by our farmers outdoor in their farms are similar to the
ones used by urban people like you
to control mosquitoes, cockroaches,
houseflies, termites etc. A report in
BusinessStandard (27th Dec. 2010)
put the household pesticides market
in India at Rs 2400 crores. When pesticides can be used by urban people
in bed rooms to ensure a nicesleep
free from mosquito bites, why can’t
our farmers use them to control insects in the farms?
We farmers understand that
pesticides (like human drugs) are allowed for use only after all possible
health and toxicological tests. Do
you really think that our government
and scientists will permit pesticides if
they cause cancers and ill health as
alleged inyour show?
What is more? Farmers use pesticides for a few days during crop
season. Whereas, urban people use
pesticides daily! We are yet to see
environmental activists campaigningagainst use pesticides to control
mosquitoes, cockroaches, termites
etc. Use ofpesticides at home is considered to be healthy habit. But use
of pesticides in farms isconsidered
unhealthy. Double standard!
We don’t want to comment on
the Kerala episode involving a pesticide called
Endosulfan as the matter is sub
judice before the Supreme Court.
However, we have just one request.
One Dr. Mohan Kumar who appeared
on your show from Kasargod, Kerala
is said to be having 115.19 ppm of
Endosulfan residues in his blood. This
residue analysis was done by a Delhi based environmental NGO called
Centre for Science and Environment
(CSE) Can you check with a toxicologist andtell us if a human being can
be alive with 115.19 ppm of Endosulfan residues inhis/her blood?”
August 2012
AGRICULTURE TODAY
47
RENDEZVOUS
Invigorating the Irish Farms
Mr. Simon Coveney T.D took charge as Minister for Agriculture, Food & the Marine, Ireland
on March 9th 2011. He was first elected to
the Dáil (Irish Parliament) in 1998 as one of
Fine Gael’s youngest TD’s. Since then, he has
held Shadow Ministries in the following areas:
Drugs and Youth Affairs; Communications,
Marine and Natural Resources; Transport and
the Marine. Mr. Coveney was elected to the
European Parliament in 2004 and was a member of the EPP-ED group. He was a member of
the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Internal
Market and Consumer Protection Committee.
He was also a substitute member on the Fisheries Committee. Mr. Coveney was the author
of the European Parliament’s Annual Report on
Human Rights in the World for the year 2004
and again for 2006. He was a member of Cork
County Council and the Southern Health Board
from 1999 to 2003.
In an interview to Sreeni K.R, Agriculture Today, Mr. Simon Coveney T.D talks about agriculture progress made so far and about the
agri-food sector of Ireland.
On the backdrop of food security, what is the Irish Government’s
commitment to make agri-food sector strong?
Ireland holds good position in relation to food security.
Not only do we supply most of our own food needs
from our own rich natural resources but we also export this high-quality produce all over the world. Our
production methods for livestock have been shown
to be amongst the most environmentally-friendly in
the world. We have ample rain and a mild climate
that facilitates production and does not cause the
same destruction that weather events in other regions
have done. In terms of health controls, Ireland fully
implements all EU rules of course, sometimes requiring more stringent controls to minimise disease risks.
Irish food has an exceptionally exporting country.
Food Security is also at the heart of our foreign and
development assistance policy particularly since the
Irish Hunger Task Force report.
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August 2012
The Irish government has also supported food security
measures at international fora. These include the AMIS
system recently agreed by the G20 and implemented
in the FAO HQ in Rome. As a small open economy,
food security is very important to Ireland. We would
like more stable prices both for our exports and imports. We have also provided financial assistance to
the FAO to support projects in relation to technology
development in the area of agriculture and emergency
relief funding for disaster-hit areas such as Haiti, as
well as support for early warning systems that help to
prepare for large food shortages.
In addition, Ireland has been to the fore in promoting
nutrition as part of food security. The FAO definition
of food security includes nutrition security; Ireland has
been involved in the ‘Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN)’ initiative since its inception. This process aims to target
children during the critical early years, to minimise malnutrition, stunting and poor educational attainment.
RENDEZVOUS
What is the contribution of agri-food sector towards the
economy of Ireland?
• Reduced stamp duty on agricultural land transactions
It is estimated that the agri-food sector accounted for approximately 6.3% of Gross Value Added
(GVA). The primary agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors together accounted for approximately
2.4% of GVA. Employment in the agri-food sector
accounted for 133,400 jobs, or 7.2% of total employment in 2010.The Food and drink sector had a
very good year in terms of exports in 2010. Food
and drink exports in 2010 are expected to show an
increase of 11% to €7.88bn. Dairy exports rose
17% to €2.29bn and meat and livestock exports
rose by 8% to €2.66bn.
• Restructured Capital Gains Tax retirement relief “
What are the main functions of the Department of
Agriculture?
• National policy development and support for the
agri-food and marine sector
• Monitoring and implementation of regulations and
controls to ensure compliance with relevant national
and EU legislation and standards,
• Developing and implementing
schemes to support the sector,
National and EU
• Controlling and reducing animal and plant disease
levels and improving animal welfare standards,
• Maintaining effective financial management systems and controls ,
• Representation at international, EU and national
negotiation
What are the highlights of Budget 2012?
In relation to agriculture, I was very pleased that we
have begun to deal with the structural problems in
the farming sector. Only 5% of Ireland’s farmers are
under 35 years of age, and nearly 29% of them are
over 65. In addition, only about 0.2% of Irish land
is sold every year. We are trying to encourage the
purchase of land by young, trained, entrepreneurial
farmers and want more consolidation of farm lands.
A lot of Irish farmers have several plots of land,
and there may be several miles of distance between
these plots. In addition, I believe that partnerships
between farmers should be encouraged.
The significant measures which will benefit the agrifood industry, including:
• New stock relief incentive for farm partnerships
What are the measuresthat have been adopted to enhance
the contribution of the sector for economic recovery and
future growth”?
1. Farm partnerships incentive
A new stock relief incentive to encourage farm partnerships will be introduced. An enhanced 50% stock
relief will be available for all registered farm partnerships, and a 100% stock relief will be available for
certain young trained farmers forming such partnerships. Subject to EU State Aid approval, this new
incentive will be available until December 2015.
2. Reduced stamp duty on agricultural land
The stamp duty rate on agricultural land will be reduced from 6% to 2%. A half rate (1%) will be applicable to transfers to close relatives until the end
of 2014. This change will substantially reduce the
stamp duty payable on transfers of farm land by gift
or by sale. It should stimulate a stagnant land market - currently only 0.5% of total agricultural land is
offered for sale annually. It will also promote intergenerational transfer, with the cost of lifetime transfer to transferees who do not qualify for the young
trained farmer stamp duty relief reduced considerably.
3. Restructuring of Capital Gains Tax retirement relief
Restructuring of the retirement relief on Capital Gains
Tax is to incentivise the earlier transfer of farm assets to the next generation, and to encourage the
sale of land by those farmers with no successors.
An upper limit of €3m will be introduced on family
transfers where the individual transferring is aged
over 66, compared to an unlimited amount currently. On non-family transfers, the current upper limit
of €750,000 will be reduced to €500,000. These
changes will apply from 2014 onwards, thereby allowing time for older farmers to plan for transfer.
These changes will aid land mobility and improve
the age profile of Irish farmers.
4. Universal Social Charge
The exemption rate for the Universal Social Charge
has been raised from €4,004 to €10,036. This will
be of particular benefit to low-paid seasonal workers
in the farming sector.
August 2012
AGRICULTURE TODAY
49
RENDEZVOUS
“Our production methods for livestock have been shown to be
amongst the most environmentally-friendly in the world. In terms of
health controls, Ireland fully implements all EU rules of course, sometimes requiring more stringent controls to minimise disease risks.”
How do you support farm partnerships and encourage farmers
to consider the benefits of farm partnerships in their farming
business and in providing a better work-life balance?
I succeeded in getting an additional benefit for farmers
working in partnership in the recent Irish budget. An
enhanced 50% stock relief will be available for all registered farm partnerships, and a 100% stock relief will
be available for certain young trained farmers forming
such partnerships. My Department has also sponsored
reports on the benefits of farming. The current EU negotiations on the Common Agricultural Policy have also
proposed useful new ideas for cooperation among farmers.
By reducing the stamp duty rate on agricultural land from
6% to 2%, what are the changes you want to bring among new
generation?
I want to promote the inter-generational transfer of land.
At present, many farmers feel that there is no benefit
in transferring the land to a younger person. With this
new measure, the cost of lifetime transfer to transferees who do not qualify for the young trained farmer
stamp duty relief is reduced considerably. Incentives
such as this that encourages the transfer of land to the
next generations are to be welcomed, I believe.
What are the steps taken to bring back the youngsters to
agriculture?
There are signs that young people want to come back to
agriculture. Agriculture training courses have become
very popular again, and a new course was introduced in
the 2012 budget. Ireland also provides other tax reliefs
for young trained farmers, such as a 100% relief in relation to certain stock purchases. Other tax measures
facilitate the leasing of land that is owned by older people, which allows them to lease land to younger more
productive farmers. There is also a new provision proposed for the Common Agriculture Policy that would
provide additional payments for young farmers.
Under the Milk Quota Trading Scheme, producers are afforded
the opportunity to sell and buy quota. What is the maximum
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August 2012
percentage offered?
There is no limit on the volume of quota that can be
offered into the Milk Quota Trading Scheme. However,
30% of the quantity offered will be reserved for distribution through a Priority Pool at a maximum price,
which is set by the Ministry.
The remaining 70% will be offered for sale on the Market Exchange. However, if the demand for quota from
the Priority Pool is less than 30% of the quota offered
for sale, then the surplus will also be offered on the
exchange.
The 30% Priority Pool portion will not be returned in the
event that the market proportion fails to sell. However,
no more than 30% of the total quota offered for sale in
all trading schemes by any applicant will be taken for
the Priority Pool.
What are the Objectives of Food Harvest 2020 related
measures?
The Food Harvest 2020 Report provided a cohesive
roadmap (with 215 recommendations) to build capacity
and growth in the agri-food (including drinks) fisheries
and forestry sector for the period to 2020. It had three
main themes ‘smart’, ‘green’, ‘growth’ and in that context emphasised the need for competitiveness, sustainability, the development of the ‘Brand Ireland’ concept
and specific growth targets including the following
• Increase the value of primary output in the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sector by €1.5 billion. This
represents a 33% increase compared to the 20072009 average
• Raise the value-addition in agri-food, fisheries and
wood products sector by 40%
• Achieve an export target of €12 billion for the sector.
This represents a 42% increase compared to the 20072009 average
• Achieve50% increase in milk production, using 20072009 average as the baseline
• Improve the value of the seafood sector from € 700m
to €1 billion including a 78% increase in volume of
aquaculture production.
August 2012
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51
INNOVATION
U
ttarakhand, the abode of
God has a wide variety of
flora and fauna.The state
every year produces 723600 metric
tons of fruits and 997.29 thousand
metric tons of vegetables.
The fruit bed of Uttarakhand –
Ranikhet (also known as Gateway
to Chardham) region belt, is well
known for its production of Malta.
Malta (Citrus sinesis) is a citrus
fruit, very much similar to orange in
appearance with a little sour taste.
Every year it produces nearly 129.5
thousand tons of this fruit. But due
to the heavy production, the farmers don’t get the right price for
their produce and loads of fruits are
wasted every year.
A different Approach
Malta, being a fruit of hills, is
produced and available in abundance
and therefore can be used to make
many products. It is full of nutrients,
vitamin C and antioxidants. Squash
is one of the very famous items that
can be produced in small scale industry. Apart from this, there are
several other products that could be
produced from fruit peel, seed,and
low grade fruit.
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AGRICULTURE TODAY
August 2012
Malta
Uttarakhand’s Golden Fruit
Candied fruit peel: Candied fruit peel
preparation is one of the astounding acts of turning waste into sugar
coated heavenly fragrant candy.It
contains no artificial sugar or preservatives. The syrup produced during its production makes a wonderful flavouring addition to desserts,
cocktails, and tea.It can be stored
and used for a month.
Fermentation
Fruity variety of wine, vinaigrette
& flavoured rice vinegar can be prepared using malta that cannot be
sent to market for consumption of
public. This will not only uplift the
economy of poor, the wine industry
of Uttrakhand but will also check
the fruit wastage. The wine can be
prepared both from the pulp and the
peel of the malta.
Malta powder: Malta peels can be
turned out into powder, which is
used as cosmetic. Due to the presence of antioxidants and Vitamin
C, it helps to reduce pimple acne,
wrinkles and patchy skin, when applied as face mask or when dropped
in bathing water and used to scrub
over the skin.
A box type sun dryer can be used
to dry the peel. It is made of wiremesh trays in a wooden framework
surrounded by a clear plastic sheet.
The solar cabinet dryer type has a
• Being a kin of the orange,
malta can be used as its
substitute in squashes,
flavouring agents etc.
• A
system
should
be
developed in Uttarakhand
fruit belt, where fruits which
are not of good quality can
be delievered to producers
of wine and vinegar.
• Malta can be used to
produce many homemade
items like candy, oil extract,
powder etc.
• Malta seeds can also be
used to make organic
jewellery
INNOVATION
surface of 10 sq m and is capable
of drying 20 to 35 kg of fresh produce over a period of 3 to 4 days.
After drying, it can be turned into
powder.
Seed oil extract: Being of the same
taste as orange, malta can be used
as a flavouring agent in candies,
cookies etc. Essential oils extracted
from seeds provide flavourings for
water, cake frosting and other food
items. When added to bath and
body products, it provides a pleasing citrus aroma. It can be added to
cleaning products to provide a fresh
scent as well as cleaning and degreasing abilities.It is a great conditioning agent when used in hair care
products. And since seeds provide
a high-protein residue suitable for
human and animal consumption,
they’re often used in cattle feed and
fertilizer mixtures.
Insect repellent: The peel of the malta can be used to make homemade
mosquito repellent and can also be
sold at reasonable prices with the
help of state tourism offices.
used against ants. It is herbal and is
not injurious for the health.
Honey: In the fields of malta, a small
honey bee farm can be started. The
honey produced by the nectar is
highly nutritious, light coloured and
delicious. The major benefit of this
is, it can provide the farmers with
an extra income.
Wood: The wood of the malta tree
is closed grain and hard and can be
used to produce many artefacts in
small scale industry, which can be
Room Fresheners: Home made room
fresheners can be made by combining peels of malta with cloves, roses
etc. The sweet smell can also be
utilized to make spa products.
Malta has high nutritive as well as
medicinal value. Being rich in protopectin, bioflavonoid, glucoside, hesperidin etc., it banishes pneumonia,
helps maintain blood pressure, boost
immune system and also helps in
stomach and intestinal problems.
It is very pathetic that a fruit of
this much importance goes either
waste or does not provide farmer
with adequate income. Judicious of
use of malta can help the state in
extending its prosperity among the
farmers by increasing job opportunities and income source. A fruit of
hills can help the hills to improve its
economy.
Priyanka Karnatak, B.Tech Agricultural Engineering, G.B.P.U.A.&T.
August 2012
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TECHNOLOGY
Precision Agriculture Technology
P
recision agriculture can be
defined as a comprehensive
system designed to optimize
agricultural production through the
application of crop information, advanced technology, and management practices. Precision farming
or precision agriculture is a farming management concept based
on observing and responding to
intra-field variations. It relies on
new technologies like satellite imagery, information technology, and
geospatial tools. It is also aided by
farmers’ ability to locate their precise position in a field using satellite
positioning system like GPS applications. It is a way of thinking about
how to improve production and get
more from existing resources. An
example found mostly in wealthier
countries is a computer-guided tractor. The computer does most of the
driving. It uses signals from satellites in the Global Positioning System. GPS technology helps the tractor cut rows in straight lines and put
the right amount of fertilizer in the
right place.
Site-Specific Management.
Site-specific management differs from the traditional practice of
whole field management. In whole
field management, average conditions for a field or a farm are determined and management practices
applied accordingly. In site-specific
management, fields are divided into
management zones, often called
grids, where each zone is quantified
and managed separately. Spatial
information requirements include
soil chemical and physical properties, field topography, pest populations, crop diseases, and available
moisture. Key technologies include
GPS/GIS, control systems, and yield
mapping systems. However, in order for this technology to be used
successfully, it must be build upon
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August 2012
able yield results across the field
can help the farmer discover if
his management methods have
been successful, and determine
how to proceed in the next season.
Lab Testing
Today’s farmer depends on outside sources for some information,
such as soil data. Testing laboratories can run soil assays for nitrogen,
phosphorus, potassium, and other
nutrients. There are various methods of sample point selection available to the farmer, and a sampling
grid can be obtained from GIS. If
more samples are taken in a field,
the data will be more site-specific.
This provides an initial base of information for developing VRA plans.
production equipment: planters,
sprayers, spreaders, harvesters,
etc., compatible with the high level
of control and accuracy required in
precision agriculture
• Before Planting - perform soil
testing, then data analysis to
determine spatial variations in
soil conditions that call for a variety of treatments or planting
methods.
• In the Growing Season - begin
by planting with variable seeding rates across the field, and
use variable rate application
(VRA) of fertilizers as determined by soil test data. Crop
scouting is done to search for
problems such as weeds, pests,
or diseases. Findings determine
whether further VRA of chemical treatments or other actions
are warranted.
• During the Harvest - as the crop
is harvested, a yield monitor in
the combine logs geo-referenced
yield data to be analyzed and
mapped across the field. Vari-
Planting
In precision agriculture, crops are
planted at variable rates as determined from prior knowledge about
field conditions and soil test data.
Planting equipment can be programmed to deliver variable seeding
rates; rate changes are determined
and programmed by the farmer.
Crop Scouting
The modern crop scout’s field
tools are the GPS receiver and a
laptop computer.With the advent
of video mapping, any untrained
person can record field conditions.
Other methods of identifying problems in a field include aerial or satellite remote sensing. Presently, these
methods can be cost-prohibitive and
have a high turnaround time.
Variable Rate Chemical Application
VRT (variable rate technology)
and VRA (variable rate application)
refers to the development of automated variable rate sprayers, which
are an extremely important tool in
precision agriculture. Where the
TECHNOLOGY
practice of whole-field application
of chemicals has been replaced by
site-specific treatments, sprayers
capable of variable rate applications
are essential. These machines are
programmed to deliver precisely the
right amount of chemicals necessary
across a field, after input from crop
scouting and analyzing the variability of field conditions. This element
in the precision agricultural system
is greatly responsible for lowering
cost of input and decreasing environmental impact, through the
automated application of the least
amount of chemicals necessary.
Yield Monitors
Yield monitoring is probably
the most important cornerstone
of precision agriculture. The traditional method of monitoring yield
by weighing harvested batches of
crops is giving way to precision agriculture method of instantaneous
yield monitoring. The modern yield
monitor utilizes sensors in the combine to continuously log grain flow
rate during harvesting, and the combine’s speed. This data, combined
with the GPS location for each data
point, allows the creation of a yield
map within GIS. The yield map is a
visual tool for farmers and crop consultants can compare to maps of
soil test data, chemical application
maps, and other information, resulting in a recommendation for the
next year’s site-specific management plan. When layered in a GIS
with associated maps, a yield map
displays evidence of relationships
between crop yield and field condition variables.
Precision agriculture aims to optimize field-level management with
regard to:
• Crop science: by matching
farming practices more closely
to crop needs (e.g. fertilizer inputs);
• Environmental protection: by reducing environmental risks and
footprint of farming (e.g. limiting leaching of nitrogen);
• Economics: by boosting competitiveness through more efficient practices (e.g. improved
management of fertilizer usage
and other inputs).
Precision agriculture also provides
farmers with a wealth of information to:
• build up a record of their farm;
• improve decision-making;
• foster greater traceability
• enhance marketing of farm products
• improve lease arrangements and
relationship with landlords
• enhance the inherent quality of
farm products (e.g. protein level
in bread-flour wheat)
Precision agriculture management practices can significantly
reduce the amount of nutrient and
other crop inputs used while boosting yields. Farmers thus obtain a re-
turn on their investment by saving
on phytosanitary and fertilizer costs.
The second, larger-scale benefit of
targeting inputs—in spatial, temporal and quantitative terms—concerns environmental impacts. Applying the right amount of inputs in
the right place and at the right time
benefit crops, soils and groundwater and thus the entire crop cycle.
Consequently, precision agriculture
has become a cornerstone of sustainable agriculture, since it respects
crops, soils and farmers. Sustainable agriculture seeks to assure a
continued supply of food within the
ecological, economic and social limits required to sustain production in
the long term. Precision agriculture
therefore seeks to use high-tech
systems in pursuit of this goal. Over
the past few decades, as larger and
faster farm machines have delivered the capability to manage everexpanding farms, farmers have for
the most part continued to treat
large fields as uniform elements. It
revolves around the idea that treating a large region as a uniform area
is essentially wasteful and uses an
excess of costly resources in the
form of fertilizers, pesticides, and
herbicides. Any area as large as a
field can contain wide spatial variations in soil types, nutrient availability, and other important factors; not
taking these variations into account
can result in a loss of productivity.
While farm input costs continue to
rise, individual farmers cannot do
anything to raise the price of their
crops due to the nature of the commodities market. Precision agriculture is a method of farm management that allows the farmer to produce more efficiently, thereby realizing gains through economical use
of resources. An important effect of
precision farming is the high environmental benefit from using chemical treatments only where and when
they are necessary. This promotion
of environmental stewardship is a
key component of the new attitudes
in agriculture.
Kirti Jamwal
August 2012
AGRICULTURE TODAY
55
talking corner
NABARD Promotes
Best Practices
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development
(NABARD) was set up as
an apex Development Bank
with a mandate for facilitating credit flow for promotion and development of
agriculture, small-scale industries, cottage and village
industries, handicrafts and
other rural crafts. It also has
the mandate to support all
other allied economic activities in rural areas, promote
integrated and sustainable
rural development and secure prosperity of rural areas. Mr. P V S Suryakumar,
Chief General Manager with
NABARD is a postgraduate
in agricultural sciences from
the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi.
He is a Commonwealth
Scholar and has obtained a
Masters degree in Sustainable Development from the
Staffordshire University,
UK. His professional experience in the last 25 years
encompasses all facets of
rural development: Project
formulation, appraisal &
monitoring, capacity building, Policy formulation and
implementation of natural
resource management projects. In a conversation with
Sumbul Khan, Agriculture
Today, Mr. Suryakumar discusses the role of NABARD
in today’s world.
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AGRICULTURE TODAY
August 2012
What are the main functions of NABARD? What are your most recent
initiatives?
NABARD has four important
functions namely; Refinance, Supervision of Rural Financial Institutions on behalf of the Reserve Bank
of India, Promotion of best practices
in agriculture, rural banking & rural
development and Policy advocacy.
During the last financial year, we
have refinanced Rs.49,000 crores
for crop production to the banks.
Rs.15,422 crores was disbursed
for investment credit with an outstanding of Rs.44,798 crores . The
Rural Infrastructure Development
Fund assists State Governments to
develop rural infrastructure. Our disbursements were Rs.14,167 crores
and the outstanding investments
are Rs. 71,619 crores. We recently
worked closely with the Reserve
Bank of India and ensured that most
of the District Central Co-operative
Banks in the country are licensed.
The Committee on Financial Sector Assessment (2008) headed by
Dr Rakesh Mohan (the then Deputy
Governor RBI) recommended licensing of all unlicensed banks by
March, 2012. NABARD has orga-
nized Rural Innovation Awards Contest collaborating with the Times of
India group as media partner on the
occasion of our 30 years of service
to the Nation. We received about
1500 nominations for the Award.
We have followed a very rigorous
process and shortlisted 30 innovations and the grand jury headed by
Shri Jayaram Ramesh, Honourable
Minister Rural Development Government of India, have selected the
best innovations and shortly we will
felicitate the innovators.
Why has NABARD renewed the focus on promoting Self Help Groups?
How SHGs & MFIs differ?
NABARD has given the Self Help
Group Bank Linkage Program (SHGBLP) to the Nation in 1992. This is
the largest microfinance program
in the world. The SHG-BLP encompasses 97 million households in the
country and the outstanding bank
credit to SHGs is about Rs. 31,200
crores as on March 2011.This program leverages the strengths of
several players; banks, civil society organizations and creates social
capital. Recently we have renewed
our commitment and are focusing
talking corner
on the promotion of self help groups in left wing affected areas. Such linkage with the banks and promotion of
livelihood activities in difficult areas will bring people to
development, weaning them away from disruptive activities. Dairy activity is the most prominent livelihood
activity we are promoting in these areas as most people
know about milch animals.
The SHG bank linkage program and the operations
of the micro finance institutions (MFIs) operate on different platforms. While largely the MFI operations are
profits seeking in nature, the SHGs create social capital. MFIs give small ticket loans at about 24-27% per
annum. There are some issues with regard to such organizations but India is a large country and there is
space for multiple types of interventions & organizations. And the SHGs are a nice counter balance to the
operations of MFIs.
What are NABARD’s initiatives on building rural infrastructure?
NABARD has been administering the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) since 1995. This
Fund finances State Governments for creation of rural infrastructure like rural roads, bridges, minor and
medium irrigation projects, agricultural market yards,
animal vaccine plants, fishing jetties, rural schools, primary health centers, etc. Every year each State Governments is assigned a certain amount based on objective parameters and this allocation varies from state to
state.
In addition, we have begun a new line of funding to
profitable State Government Corporations to develop
rural infrastructure and the results are encouraging. We
have funded some power transmission corporations in
a few States. We have funded a big solar park in Gujarat. Such infrastructure creates economic opportunities for the banks as the local economy blooms when
investments come in.
Is NABARD promoting warehouses?
Yes, we began during the last fiscal. The budget
was Rs.2,000 crores during the last year. This year
the plan is to fund warehouses worth Rs.5,000 crores.
We want these warehouses to be compliant with Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority. Farmers can store their produce in these warehouses and
the warehouse receipts are negotiable like money bills.
This is a very promising sector and can touch the lives
of millions of farmers. We are on it.
Please brief us about the Kisan Credit Card Scheme?
NABARD designed and unveiled the Kisan Credit
Card Scheme in August 1998. KCC envisaged giving
a credit limit for 3 years and reducing the transaction
costs both to the banks and farmers. A credit limit is
given to the farmers which they can use within a specific time period. KCC version II was launched in April
2012 and these are smart debit cards. The credit limit
is now for 5 years and will enable the farmer meet his
investment loan and post harvest loan requirements.
Farmer can go to the ATM and draw money. Farmers
can also pay for his purchases using his KCC directly.
What are NABARD’s other initiatives?
There is a new approach to rice farming called as
System of Rice Intensification (SRI), which is a contradiction to the belief that rice needs standing water. SRI
technology uses less water, less chemicals, less fertilizers and less resources. So we educate the farmers
through civil society organizations. We want people to
do economical and environmentally safe farming. We
are promoting yet another approach where we promote
a lead crop selected by the farmers in a region and help
them adopt proper technology to get optimal yield as
promised by the breeders.
NABARD has supported watershed development in
about 2 million hectares of land around the country investing about Rs.1600 crores to demonstrate people
centered approaches of conserving soil and water in
those areas which receive meager rainfall.
NABARD has been a champion of promoting a
unique approach for tribal development through horticulture. We call this WADI (means orchard) program.
This program encompasses about 3 lakh acres and
touches the lives of 3 lakh tribal families. NABARD has
committed Rs. 1200 crores for this innovative program
so far. We select areas with tribal population, tribals
who have land, select suitable horticulture crops like
mango, amla, cashew etc. We select a competent NGO
who will escort them and foster their development. We
support them in cultivation, processing and marketing.
This process usually takes about 5 years and the NGO
stays with the community.
NABARD’s development interventions are always
demonstrative in nature, they stand tall, act as nuclei
for furthering growth.
Why NABARD is involved in promoting agriculture extension? What is the reason behind this when it is the
role of state governments?
The Planning Commission approach papers clearly
mention that around 40% of jobs in agricultural extension sector are not filled. There is no one who advises the farmers! And the farmers’ turns to the mahajan who gives fertilizers and chemicals on credit. Is
this good? Do you go to a physician when you have a
trouble with your teeth? NABARD is trying out a novel
method --- undertake extension activities by training
innovative farmers who can work as para agricultural
extension workers. We have tried this in many places.
These smart farmers are like beacons of knowledge and
they further spread their knowledge to more and more
farmers. They get social recognition and in addition in
some places they get paid for their advice—of course
nominally.
August 2012
AGRICULTURE TODAY
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interaction
What are the NABARD’s major challenges?
Statistics clearly present that only a small percentage of farmers access loans from banks. We are trying
to bridge this gap through promoting financial inclusion.
Other concern is the small holding size, cultivators with
no clear titles and supporting oral lessees. Promoting
investment in farm sector is another major challenge
[like investing in projects like mango orchards, poultry,
dairy, irrigation etc] such investments lead to capital
formation in agriculture which is the need of the hour.
These are some of our challenges. We are trying to
evolve appropriate and scalable models.
It was in the news that RBI will divest its entire stake in
NABARD; can you please share this development?
NABARD was incubated by the RBI and came out
of the Central Bank in July 1982. Earlier NABARD’s
equity was owned equally by the RBI and the GoI. RBI
has divested its equity in all the financial institutions
that it has promoted and it regulates. RBI believes that
as a regulator it should not own any organization which
it supervises. Hence RBI has either divested or is in the
process of divesting. RBI has divested 49% of its stake
in NABARD to the Government of India. Eventually they
will divest 1% also after NABARD’s Act is amended.
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August 2012
What are NABARD’s Delhi Regional Office operations?
My Regional Office links NABARD with various Ministries of the Government of India. We also support several interventions around Delhi. Farming around Delhi is
different as compared to elsewhere in the country. My
office anchors the Weaver’s package announced by the
Government of India. This package helps to revive the
Weavers and their Cooperative Societies across India.
Weaving is a Cultural Heritage and this revival package
will do a lot of good to this sector.
What are your future projects in pipeline?
NABARD has been advocating with all State Governments that they come up with a project along the
lines of Karnataka Government’s, ‘Bhoomi’ Project,
where all the land records are in electronic form. We
are popularizing Joint Liability Groups Formation on a
mission mode. This intervention will help farmers who
do not have clear land titles and all oral lessees as they
can receive loans from banks. Our Mission is to bring
rural prosperity through credit and credit related functions. We pick innovative ideas, nurture them and then
we escort these ideas to take off leading to betterment
in livelihoods. We believe that Best Practices will always lead to betterment in livelihoods.
Know Your
CHIEF MINISTER
UP’s Young
Turk
Akhilesh Yadav, in March 2012 was sworn in as the
Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. He has thus become
the youngest Chief Minister in the history of Uttar
Pradesh. His style and approach has already turned
around the political geography of the state which
sends the most number of MPs to Lok Sabha. Having
made his impact on the political history of Uttar
Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav has already made some
decisive decisions initiating reforms in the state.
S
hri. Akhilesh Yadav is the
youngest person to hold the
office of Chief Minister of the
state of Uttar Pradesh as of March
2012. He made his way to the Lok
Sabha in 2000 from Kannauj constituency in a by-election and maintained his seat in the ensuing 2004
and 2009 general elections.
Born to Samajwadi Party Chief,
Shri. Mulayam Singh Yadav and Late
Malti Devi on 1 July 1973 in the Saifai village of Etawah district, Akhilesh Yadav took his primary education from St. Mary’s School, Etawah.
His earlier schooling also took place
in Dholpur Military School, Dholpur,
Rajasthan as well. Professionally, he
had chosen engineering stream and
henceforth earned his Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering, Mysore. He earned a Masters in
Environmental Engineering from the
University of Sydney.
Akhilesh who initially was uninterested in politics was initiated into
politics by Janeshwar Mishra, popularly known as Chhote Lohia (Lohia
Jr.) for his commitment to socialist
ideology. Coincidentally, Akhilesh’s
debut was from Kannauj, which was
once represented by Socialist leader
Ram Manohar Lohia. The junior Yadav
had made his own impression in Samajwadi Party which was once known
by its muscle power and ‘lathi’ image.
Today, the party is recognized more
for its modern ideas.
After getting elected in 13th Lok
Sabha, he became member of Committee on Food, Civil Supplies and
Public Distribution. Later on in successive years, he was member in
Committee on Ethics, Committee on
Science & Technology, Environment
& Forests,Committee on Estimates,
Committee on Urban Development
and Committee on Provision of Computers for MPs.
In 2012 UP assembly elections,
his campaigning style was able to
provide the party with a new image.
His persona played a key role in helping the Samajwadi Party towards
a victory in the Uttar Pradesh’s Assembly Elections held in 2012, with
Samajwadi party winning 224 seats
out of total 403, becoming the single
largest party thus enabling SP to form
the government. He was given credit
for the party’s rise from a meager
97 seats in the 2007 Vidhan Sabha.
The spectacular victory made him the
Chief Minister of the state.
On assuming power, Akhilesh has
already made clear his intentions and
policies that he intend to pursue. Akhilesh Yadav have already expressed
his opposition in allowing FDI in retail
as he believes that any move of facilitating entry of multinationals in the
sector would harm farmers and small
traders. His commitment to agriculture has been quite evident from his
gestures after assuming office. Uttar
Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had requested National Bank for
Agriculture and Rural Development
to allocate at least Rs 2,250 crore to
achieve the target of agriculture loan
disbursement of Rs 4,265 in the current fiscal.Within three months of SP
coming to power in Uttar Pradesh,
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has assured that agricultural loans to farmers in the state would be waived.
As soon as his government assumed power, he made it clear that
agriculture was among his top most
agenda. The government announced
that it will formulate a new agriculture policy for increasing agricultural
production. The state will get maximum financial assistance from the
Centre under Government of India’s
Mega Food Park Scheme. Another priority is strengthening district cooperative banks and making available Kisan
Credit Cards to farmers. Apart from
developing varieties of sugarcane, the
government will use information technology to solve problems sugarcane
farmers face.
Akhilesh Yadav in his social life
has been actively and consistently
struggling for the all-round development of the rural poor, farmers, workers and downtrodden. His youthful
energy and approach can bring an all
round development to the most populous state of India.
August 2012
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different strokes
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