Mera Khet

McDonald's story and Climate change study

2009-04-03T09:42:00.000-07:00

1. The story of how Mcdonald's started sourcing potato locally. Until August 2007, all MacFries were imported. The problem was that a specific type of potato, called Shepody Potato, which is used to make MacFries is difficult to be grown the climatic conditions prevailing in India. McCain Foods, McD's Largest supplier of fries, came up with a solution.

The master crop of potatoes is grown in the Himalayas, where the weather is conducive, but these don't make it onto the plate.

Instead, they're harvested in September and rushed, before the Rohtang Pass shuts for the winter, 1,000 kilometres to farmers in Kheda district west of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, where the tubers are replanted. Come March, the now massive Shepody potatoes are harvested and sent to the McCain factory in Mehsana to become MacFries.

2. While the rise in temperature has affected mango flowering this season, Navsari Agriculture University (NAU) has embarked on a project where it will be studying the effects of climate change and pollutants on crops in the most polluted areas.

Bad news for Mang Lovers

2009-03-26T10:43:00.000-07:00

Bad wheather has hit Mango crops in Gujarat.

Subdued winter coupled with the surprise showers and cyclone last weekend have spelt disaster for the Kesar mango crop in Talala. Mangoes from Valsad and Navsari are also expected to be bitter and costlier. Experts say the yield may be down by around 80 per cent this year.

Saurashtra accounts for nearly 6 lakh tonnes of mangoes per year. This includes different varieties like Kesar, Alphonso, Langdo, Rajapuri among others.

Organic Farming: Myths and Facts

2009-03-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

Indiainfoline has got this straightforward article about facts on Organic Farming.

The bottomline: Organic farming is essentially a marking tool, and cannot replace conventional farming for food security, quality and quantity of crop outputs. With a growing population and precarious food situation, India cannot afford to take risk with organic farming alone.

With all hype surrounding the organic farming, this article is quite a revelation.

12% Growth in Agriculture

2009-03-21T09:09:00.000-07:00

In India! Actually 12.8%. Gujarat has clocked a growth rate of 12.8% in agriculture and hence become the fastest growing state agriculturally. I dont know how much of the credit for this growth goes to Narendra Modi. Let us hope that the same story can be repeated for the whole country.

Various factors responsible for this growth are water from the Narmada, investments in check dams, widespread cultivation of genetically-modified cotton, a dedicated power grid for the farming sector that assures regular supply during non-peak hours, and rejuvenation of the extension system by the Chief Minister.

New weed in the town, Cotton selling, Food Processing

2009-03-21T08:54:00.000-07:00

1. Wheat import in 2006-07 and public distribution resulted in introduction of five new weeds in 10 states. Now Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology is conducting a surveillance project to detect these weeds.

2. CCI and Nafed bought huge quantity of cotton at MSP. But now there is no one to buy it back. So government has instructed them to sell it at lower price while the MSP obligation will be compensated by the Government.

3. Agriculture Ministar Sharad Pawar bats for food processing industry. Sirji, paach saal mein kuch kiya kyoon nahi?

4.

The Rise of Agriculture

2009-03-21T08:35:00.000-07:00

The Economist has got an interesting story on the happenings in the world agriculture market recently. Prices of agricultural produce are rising despite the economic crisis. Part of it is because of shift in use of agricultural land for fuel instead of food. But more prominent reason is the demand form poorer countries. People are consuming more and better nourished, however they are far behind as compared to developed countries.

Lot of companies are milking profits and planning investments considering this boom in agriculture sector. BASF, one of the largest producers of agrochemicals, saw 9% growth last year in agricultural sales, including 16% growth in Asia. The competitors like Agrium, CF Industries, Bunge and Syngenta are also prospering. Monsanto is celebrating the glory of genetically modified seeds.

Investment is also growing. Terra Firma, a private-equity firm based in London, announced it would buy 90% of Consolidated Pastoral Company, the vast Australian cattle holdings of the Packer family, which encompass 5m hectares (12m acres) of land. Nufarm, an Australian agrochemical maker, won approval for its acquisition of AH Marks, one of Britain’s oldest chemical companies, which has a valuable portfolio of herbicides. Last year COFCO, China’s state-controlled food conglomerate, bought 5% of Smithfield, the world’s largest pork producer. Al Qudra, an Abu Dhabi-based investment company, said it had bought big tracts of farmland in Morocco and Algeria, and was closing in on purchases in Pakistan, Syria, Vietnam, Thailand, Sudan and India. China Agri-Industries, a subsidiary of COFCO, established a partnership with Wilmar, the world’s largest trader in palm oil. Landkom, listed on London’s AIM market, and Black Earth Farming, listed in Stockholm, have each made big investments in farming in Ukraine. And reports are circulating in China about local investors buying 50,000 hectares of farmland in Argentina, and considering other investments in Argentina and Brazil.

I am sure stock analysts (in India as well) will soon hailing agriculture as next sunrise sector.

mKrishi from TCS, Flood resistant Rice, Monocrotophos

2009-03-18T09:52:00.000-07:00

1. mKrishi, a mobile agro advisory system of the Tata Consultancy Services, is an innovation that allows farmers to send queries to agricultural experts in their local languages through a mobile and receive personalised advice or relevant information in the local language. It also helps literacy-challenged farmers by allowing them to send queries and receive advice and information as ‘voice SMS.’

The end-to-end mKrishi solution has been developed through the integration of technologies such as sensors, solar power, CDMA modem and CDMA network, GPS, handset with camera, binary runtime environment for wireless to develop multiple applications on the handset, client software (on mobile phone), expert console software, and an engine to assist in displaying mobile screens in Indian languages.

2. Plant biologist create a type of flood-resistant rice that is being introduced to India and Bangladesh. This was done using the technique called precision breeding in which they transferred the flood-resistant property from a low-yield, poor-flavor rice to a popular rice known as Swarna.

3. A toxic pesticide, popular among some Indian farmers for ending their lives, is banned in other countries but used widely in India. The effectiveness of Monocrotophos for pest eradication is also doubtful.

ITC's eChaupal, Sour Grapes

2009-02-28T09:14:00.000-08:00

1. A brief case study on ITC's eChaupal. Started in year 2000, it serves more that 50,000 villages through its 7000 kiosks. Each kiosk costs around 1.5 Lakhs and includes a VSAT connection, a PC and a printer. e-Choupal facilitates farmers with the latest weather reports and best farming practices. Additionally, e-Choupal offers various farm-critical services, such as soil and water-testing for the betterment of yields. The softwares have local language support and an easy user interface.

2. Economic cycle is showing its impact on the grape farmers of Maharashtra. The wine consumption has fallen down and with it the demand for grapes. Ironically, farmers shifted to growing wine fruit varietals based from table grapes on projected wine industry demand.

Cargo facility in Jharkhand, Mega Food Park Scheme and GI tag

2009-02-24T10:43:00.000-08:00

1. Jharkhand would soon get a cargo facility at Ranchi airport to despatch farm produce to the world market. Jharkhand produces several types of agriculture and horticulture products with the farmers in a state having 29.74 lakh hectare of farm land.

2. The food processing sector is expected to attract fresh investments of over Rs 5,000 crore in the next two-three years, according to an industry estimate. The Ministry of Food Processing Industries has received lot of (EoIs) after announcing the revised Mega Food Park Scheme (MFPS) in October 2008.

3. livemint.com covers a story about how farmers are not yet benefiting from geographical indication (GI) for Kerala’s Palakkadan matta and the medicinal njavara.

Farm Income Commision, Politician speaks and Zameen Organic

2009-02-19T10:52:00.000-08:00

1. M S Swaminathan, who needs no introduction on this blog, talks about his expectations from the regular budget. He suggests that all political parties commit to establishing a Farm Income Commission which can go into the totality of the income of farmers from crop and animal husbandry, fisheries, agro-forestry and agro-processing, so as to ensure a minimum take home income to farmers. He also emphasizes on the need for ensuring minimum support price not only for wheat and rice but for a wide range of millets, pulses, oil seeds and tuber crops. Further provision needs to be made for establishing a national grid of warehouses for grains and cold storage structures for perishable commodities. The prevailing mismatch between production and post-harvest technologies should be ended.

2. Sharad Pawar's column on commodityonline. Sounds like a pre-election campaign.

3. An interesting story on Zameen Organic, a farmer-owned private limited organization aimed at closer collaboration between farmers. Zameen Organic is a pioneering marketing company for Fair Trade, Organic and Pesticide Free cotton in India. They have partnered with Yes Bank to ensure credit flow for their initiatives. The link of their website: Zameen Organic.

Agri Stocks and Bio-Valley

2009-02-17T09:37:00.001-08:00

1. With world economy going for a toss and Indian economy performing not as expected, stock market analysts are looking at rural customers as the light in the tunnel. The disposable income of rural India has been on uphill in the past decade. With agricultural sops in the interim budget, stocks of companies in agriculture sector have already started showing the movements (Read: Agri stocks rise on FM focus on agriculture). This article in business-standard also draws that in times of the prevailing uncertainty, it is better to invest in companies catering to the rural market. Detailed analysis of companies like Airtel, SBI, Jain Irrigation, Rallis, Hero Honda, HUL and Punjab Tractors are covered.

However, there is a catch: The improvement in the living standard of rural India has been mainly because of increase in price of agricultural commodities. Monsoon has also been very merciful. Falling commodity prices will definitely have an impact of rural incomes which will be seen after some time with a time lag. And let us pray that monsoon carry on with its mercy for Indian farmers who very much depend on it.

2. Well-known agriculture scientist Dr M S Swaminathan called for the creation of a Bio-Valley on the lines of the Silicon Valley to help India speed up the Second Green Revolution in order to remove hunger and increase the contribution of agriculture to GDP to over 25% and create huge agricultural employment. The proposed Bio-Valley should create a perfect balance between organic farming and green agriculture in an absolutely integrated manner in which genetically modified (GM) crops should be discouraged in a proportionate manner.

Barley, Interest rates

2009-02-13T10:01:00.000-08:00

1. Barley, a key ingredient for brewing beer promises to be a big opportunity to the farmers in Rajasthan. Companies like Pepsico and SABmiller are partnering with farmers for the supply of barley.

PepsiCo had signed a three-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) with more than 1,200 farmers from Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh districts of Rajasthan to produce high yielding malt barley for the United Breweries group (UB).

SABMiller India sources its barley from Rajasthan and Haryana. While it has a contract farming agreement with HAFED, in Rajasthan, it has a barley project called 'Sanjhi Unnati', for which it has tied up with an NGO, Morarka Foundation.

(source: Times of India)

2. Farmers are not benefiting with the lowering of interest rates. Agriculture cooperative banks and regional rural banks are forced to continue with the high interest rates while offering investment credit for agriculture development and allied activities. These banks offer agriculture investment credit at an interest rate band of 11-to-13% a year. The ticket size of their investment loans are typically less than Rs 50,000. By contrast, agriculture investment loans below Rs 50,000 from public sector banks these days are available at 8.5-9.5% per annum rates.

Sugarcane SMP, Bill Gates letter, Value Chain Financing and Conservation Farming

2009-02-10T09:24:00.000-08:00

1. The sugar industry in the private and the cooperative sectors have united to pressure the government to announce high support prices for the commodity. Is it not surprising? In this cruel capitalist world, people are fighting to increase the price of commodity that they have to buy!

2. Bill Gates writes about his vision about agriculture in Africa in his annual letter. Very valid points brought forward.

3. This interesting article in ET talks about Value chain financing for agriculture sector. In value chain financing, a bank enters into an arrangement with some or all the players in a particular value chain to extend finance to them. A value chain basically constitute of three levels - farmers producing the primary commodity, an SME or an agent acting as intermediately or adding value to the produce and the large firms using this as raw materials.

4. From business standard: Over a thousand agricultural experts from around the world, who had gathered in Delhi last week for the fourth congress on conservation agriculture, deliberated an issue that is vital for sustaining high-growth agriculture without clashing with the environment.

Pictures

2009-02-02T09:09:00.000-08:00

Growing wheat is what you will see around in most of the parts of the countryside right now if you happen to take a drive outside the city. Here are some pictures clicked by Sumit, Golu and Ritesh while we visited the farm after a long time.

Tobacco Alternative, Investments in Agriculture and Padmashree

2009-02-02T08:53:00.000-08:00

1. Government is speeding to fight against anything related to tobacco. It has sanctioned Rs.2.17 crore to Rajahmundry-based Central Tobacco Research Institute (CTRI) to undertake a pilot project on “Alternative cropping system to beedi and chewing tobacco” in various States. The project is aimed at establishing viable and sustainable alternatives to beedi and chewing tobacco crops.

In India, 40 per cent of all cancers are due to tobacco use and as per the tobacco control report, every year 8-9 lakh Indians die because of tobacco-related disease.

And 5.5 million people get jobs in the beedi sector which includes cultivation, processing, manufacture, wholesale trade and retail.

2. Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation paints a rosy picture on the agriculture scene of the country in this article.

3. Padma Shri for innovative farmer. He entered the Limca Book of Records when a mango tree on his mango farm gave an unimaginable yield of 23, 456 mangoes. Yadav, a recipient of many an award, produces close to 92 bags of paddy for every acre while the normal average is around 35 to 40 bags.

PrimeAg, Farmers-turn-Managers, Food Outsourcing and Sugar Prices

2009-01-21T08:45:00.000-08:00

1. An article on Australian food company PrimeAg which borne out with a vision to meet the world's food security. An example of corporate farming we may soon see in india.

2. IIMA is launching a course on Food supply chain management to upgrade the knowledge of the farmers. "The course will cover all challenges and bottle-necks of the supply chain from the times the seed is sowed, till it reaches the consumer. Also, exports and reaching the food to poor will be discussed."

3. Mr Piruz Khambatta, Chairman & Managing Director, Rasna Pvt Ltd says that the food outsourcing business from India has an opportunity of $5 billion as of today. “Only six per cent of the total amount of food produced in the country is processed. This has led to an annual loss of Rs 33,000 crore in the agricultural sector through perishable commodities.”

“Agri business for rural India can do what Information Technology has done for urban India. India should be promoted as the food factory of the world in terms of both production and marketing,” he said.

3. This article in business-standard suggests that raising the retail price for sugar is the only and surest shot to resolve all the problems of the sugar industry.

Conservation Agriculture, Successful Mobile data service

2009-01-20T09:55:00.000-08:00

1. The four-day World Congress on Conservation Agriculture (CA), beginning at New Delhi from February 4, will draw up a road map and strategies to promote CA.

Excerpts from the report:

"Presently over two million hectares area in the Indo-Gangetic plain and about two lakh hectares in Andhra Pradesh is under resource conservation technologies, and this is likely to go up at least four-five times in the next five years."

"Farmers who adopted conservation technologies are saving water and energy costs, attaining higher yields and getting more returns. Large-scale trials and farmers experiences show that the available technologies can be adopted in wide range of rainfed and irrigated environments."

2. Thomson Reuters announced that its ground-breaking mobile information service for India's agricultural community Reuters Market Light (RML) has sold over 100,000 three- month subscriptions since its launch just over a year ago.

Reuters Market Light, a pioneer in this field, provides customised and localised market intelligence to farmers in their local language including crop prices from local markets, local weather forecasts, and relevant agricultural news and crop advisory information. RML has built an end-to-end value chain from sourcing through to rural distribution to meet the decision-critical needs of the farming sector over mobile phones. It currently covers over 50 commodities and over 250 markets in the two states.

Mobile handsets, Food Processing

2009-01-17T03:12:00.000-08:00

1. Cellphone makers are betting on Rural India to revive the mobile phone sales which has started dwindling in top tier cities. Likes of Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and Spice are working on different business plans for these markets. This includes a separate distribution model, tying up with microfinance companies to offer handsets at easy instalments and launch handsets customised for the rural consumer. More details here.

The idea that I like the most is from Spice Mobile about "shared handsets". Shared handsets will allow many people to use the same phone with separate connections and hence reduce their cost of ownership.

2. Joint Secretary Ministry of Food and Processing India (MFPI) Ajit Kumar saidlack of food processing facility is resulting in annual loss of over Rs 48,000 crore of perishable and non-perishable commodities in the country. "We process only six per cent of the produce against an average processing of around 50-60 per cent in developed economies," He said.

Advanta deal, Weeds and Advani's promises

2009-01-16T20:13:00.000-08:00

1. Agricultural seed technology firm Advanta India Ltdand U.S.-based Arcadia Biosciences have signed a deal to research and develop nitrogen-use efficient (NUE) sorghum, a feed crop, the firms said in a joint statement.

NUE sorghum can significantly cut the amount ot nitrogen farmers have to use, the companies said. Sorghum is also used as a bio-fuel.

2. Weeds are not that bad after all. This article in The Statesman tries to put across this point. “Weeds are important for maintaining crop yield as they protect crops from pest attacks and also maintain soil fertility. Measures like crop rotation to manage weeds and selective removal of weeds should be adopted rather than applying broad-spectrum herbicides"

3. BJP leader and prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani has promised major overhaul of the agriculture policy and schemes, in case he could lead the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to power at the centre in the coming General election. These included a massive hike in the public spending on the sector and initiative revolutionary new measures to promote agriculture-based based value-addition industries in rural areas. Advani said that in case the NDA was elected to power, the development of rural infrastructure – roads, power, irrigation, storage facilities, etc. – would receive massive fillip.

Farmer protest, American fears

2009-01-14T08:50:00.000-08:00

1. Fight between farmers and the industry: This time it is for the use of dam water. More details here.

2. US is concerned about the aggressive cotton procurement by CCI and the chinese counterpart. It says "In order to protect their farmers' income, China and India have dramatically increased government purchases to drive-up domestic farm prices. Although there have been no official statement... regarding how these stocks will be managed, their disposition will certainly affect the US exports and prices". Detailed report in The Hindu.

India-Canada MoU, Fresh baby corn..

2009-01-14T08:43:00.000-08:00

1. India and Canada have signed a memorandum of understanding here to extend co-operation in agriculture, including sharing of knowledge technology, marketing of farm products and animal development.

2. Indian baby corn has now carved itself a very definite niche in the regular cuisine of a growing retailers such as Sainsbury, ASDA, Morrison and Sommerfield.

Punjab green fields have become the country’s biggest producers of the commodity for export markets. Bharti Del Monte India Pvt. Ltd, a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and DMPL India Ltd. (a subsidiary of Del Monte Pacific Ltd.) has become the country’s largest exporter of fresh baby corn, preferred over the frozen variation, more in the world’s fine dining and haute cuisine. The company's total baby corn exports currently exceed 200 tons, all from Punjab.

NPM Vegetables, Polyhouse Farming, Consulting via Satellite, Carbon Trade

2009-01-08T09:52:00.000-08:00

1. The demand of NPM vegetables, i.e. non-pesticidal management, is high. These vegetables are farm fresh and free of pesticides. Consumers are also happy to pay premium for such vegetables.

2. The Himachal Pradesh government is promoting farming inside modern greenhouses called polyhouses to improve the earning potential of farmers in the state, especially during the harsh winters. Polyhouses are based on the greenhouse concept to let in heat and light, while preventing the heat from getting out. But instead of the glass on a greenhouse roof, polyhouses are made of cheaper polythene or plastic. By reducing evaporation, they also allow farmers to use sprinkler and drip irrigation systems, thus saving water.

3. Farmers of Northeast can now interact with top scientists of the country and seek solutions to their problems related to farming, market, health and weather dynamics from their nearest Village Resource Centres (VRC).

4. Carbon emissions are increasingly at the forefront of policy issues, and experts say agricultural practices could play a role in decreasing emissions while providing farmers with a new cash crop.

Warehousing act, Mechanisation and Alternative farming

2009-01-01T09:21:00.000-08:00

1. Business-Standard has put up an interview with Anil Choudhary, managing director of the National Bulk Handling Corporation (NBHC), the warehousing, assaying, grading and certifying arm of the country’ largest commodity exchange the Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX). He says that the Warehousing Act will ensure liquidity to farmers against their produce.

"it will address one of the major woes of an average Indian farmer, that is, getting liquidity against his produce. Various micro and macro level studies indicate that small farmers contribute over 50 per cent of marketable surplus and ironically, more than half of it comes through distress sale.

"One of the major contributing factors has been the lack of viable alternatives to bring in liquidity against commodities by selling it immediately after harvesting when the prices are virtually the lowest."

2. Punjab Government is all set to put more automation in agriculture. Balwinder Singh Sidhu, Director, Agriculture, says, “The state government is providing subsidy on about 22 different kinds of machines which deal primarily with precision farming, residue management and diversification. While for precision farming we have laser levellers, for diversification, automatic potato planter, maize thresher and potato digger are required. Precision farming also depends on rotary power weeder and tractor-operated hydraulic sprayer.”

3. An alternative to chemical and organic farming: natural farming with zero budget. The fundamental idea of Zero Budget Natural Farming, as the name implies, is to increase yield by slashing cost and inputs. Fertilisers - both chemical and organic are a strict no-no, you don’t depend on the market for seeds (you use local seeds instead), and this mode of farming needs only 10 percent of the conventional requirement of water and electricity,

IITian a Farmer, Private Equity in Agri

2008-12-29T08:57:00.000-08:00

1. Rediff has featured the story of R Madhavan, an alumnus of IITM, who has chosen to become farmer by means of a slideshow. He came to the notice at this year's Pan-IIT event. Couple of interesting points:

"They [Israel] treat each plant as an industry. A plant producing one kilo of capsicum is an industry that has 1 kilo output."

"Drip irrigation is not only for saving water but it enhances your plant productivity. We commonly practice flood irrigation where they just pump water. As per the 2005 statistics, instead of 1 litre, we use 750 litres of water."

And the most important of all:
"My target is a net income of Rs 100,000 per annum per acre. I have achieved up to Rs 50,000."

I think this is too ambitious goal and if it is possible, lot of farmers can get rich including my Father.

"f I have 200 acres of land, I can go for food processing, etc. My next project is to lease land from the small farmers for agriculture. The village will prosper with food processing industries coming there. My yield will also be more with more land."

2. Morgan Stanley Private Equity (MSPE) has invested Rs 182 crore for a “significant minority stake” in Biotor Industries, an integrated manufacturer of castor oil and castor derivatives in the world. This may be the first deal in the country in agriculture sector.

Flood tolerant rice and pomegranate

2008-12-27T23:27:00.000-08:00

1. Scientists have identified a gene, called Sub1a, that confers a tolerance to submergence and precisely transferred that genetic information into popular rice varieties in South and Southeast Asia. The new rice varieties passed field tests last month in Bangladesh and India. They will be made available within two years to smallholder farmers in flood-prone areas where seasonal rains have destroyed crops, according to University of California-Davis news releases.

2. Farmers in Punjab are moving to grow fruits like pomegranate instead of crops like wheat and cotton.

Debt relief

2008-12-27T23:19:00.000-08:00

The Maharashtra government is set to announce another farm loan waiver package to cover all those who were excluded by the central government's waiver package. The latest package is likely to cost between Rs 5,000 crore and Rs 7,000 crore, and "benefit" 2.7 million farmers.

I think this is more for taking out political mileage than really benefiting the farmer. Here is the proof that these things do not work out. The front page story in businessline points out that "Nearly 40 per cent of these banks’ eligible farmer-borrowers, who own over 5 acres of agricultural land, are believed to have not coughed up even the first instalment towards one time settlement in order to avail themselves of the 25 per cent rebate on their loan overdues."

Under the Debt relief scheme-2008, the government gives 25 per cent rebate on the overdue loan amount if farmers bring in the balance 75 per cent for one-time settlement.

Commodity Future, Prahalad and water infrastructure

2008-12-22T08:56:00.000-08:00

1. Do farmers really benefit from commodity future market. They may not do so directly but indirectly they get affected as brought forward by this article. The author also gives example of Mondragon Cooperatives of Spain to put emphasis on his point.

2. C.K. Prahalad discusses on opportunities in agriculture - "Till now the focus has been on pre-harvest elements like fertilisers and pesticides. But India has serious post-harvest issues of wastage, poor preservation of perishable products and inadequate access to markets. Companies like ITC, Amul, Reliance and Bharti are investing to address these issues. And it is benefiting farmers. Amul does not waste anything. You can do something similar in products as varied as shrimp, arecanut, coconut. But you can't simply replicate the Amul model, you will need to build separate structures."

3. Something that we need to do in India as well - implementation of integrated water, agriculture and energy programmes to enhance sustainable development.

Fight over Minimum Support Price

2008-12-22T08:36:00.000-08:00

Minimum support prices fixed by the government continue to be a matter of debate for some right reasons.

Sugarcane farmers are asking for increase in the SMP (statutory minimum price) for sugarcane. Their logic: MSP of wheat and other crops has been increased by about 37% which that of sugarcane remains the same. Very valid point as the cost of cultivating has not remain same and has grown in more or less the same proportion to that of wheat and other crops.

MSP of cotton has also been in lime lite ever since they were declared just before the economic slowdown began. Private players are no longer ready to pay the MSP, which is very high according to them. CCI (Cotton Corporation of India) had to come in fill the gap in the supply-demand equation to keep the MSP alive. This is the reason why CCI has been able to procure lots of cotton.

Several people have raised their voice about the ways in which MSP prices ought to be fixed. Here is the link to the article in Businessline by Sharad Joshi.

My take: Its best to leave the prices to be fixed by market forces.

Rubber, GM debate and Rice intensification

2008-12-16T09:39:00.000-08:00

1. Rubber plantations are taking strong roots in Maharashtra's coastal Konkan region, thanks to a salubrious climate, improved yield and the state's own initiative to popularise the cash crop. And the fact that several farmers from Kerala, the traditional home for rubber plantations, have invested in the business in the coastal districts is only helping the trend catch on further.

2. Update on GM debate: Environment ministry is for the GM crops like Bt Brinjal but as we noted down some days back, health minister is against any such moves.

3. Rice Intensification technology known as System of Rice Intensification (SRI) for having bigger yields with less seeds, water and fertilizers is gaining popularity in India. SRI is a novel approach to increase the rice production by constructively reducing the capital fertilizer, labour and water and promoting more abundance, diversity and activity of soil biota in and around the plant’’s rhizosphere.

Gold Rush, Vertical Farming and Bt corn

2008-12-16T09:17:00.000-08:00

1. Rich countries and companies are eying land in poorer countries as an investment in future for food security. Some poor countries are happy to trade it with other desirable options like dollar and oil. More details here.

2. This article discusses about rooftop farming and vertical farming. Rooftop farming is nothing but planting the crops on the rooftop. Though it sounds very simple, it is not so. Check out this company called SkyVegetables. Vertical farming was coined by Dickson Despommier, an environmental health sciences professor at Columbia University. His idea is to grow and harvest food in multistory structures specifically designed for this purpose. Though it is an interesting idea, but an expensive solution.

3. Monsanto sees India adopting bt corn in five years.

Organic Farming and GM debate (again)

2008-12-13T09:11:00.000-08:00

1. Some interesting things happening in organic space. "Lalbhai Group’s flagship Arvind and State Bank of India are set to cement a relationship later this month by signing a memorandum of understanding that will link over a thousand farmers in Vidarbha region’s Akola district to a demand-driven supply chain and an assured cash flow. The company buys back cotton at a 30% premium to conventional cotton varieties such as Bt and hybrid, and uses it to produce organic denim for export to Frankfurt." Details here.

As posted earlier on this blog, there has been lot of interests by corporates like Pepsi, RCF to get into contract farming. This is a kind of win-win situation for both the farmers and the corporates. The former get to sell their produce at higher prices without paying a "rip" to the middleman and the later get the supply of raw material without much hassles.

2. Union Minister for Health Anbumani Ramadoss has again touched the controversial topic of GM food. He said he will oppose introduction of such a variety without conducting proper tests.

Crop insurance, Debt waiver

2008-12-13T08:43:00.000-08:00

1. Have you ever heard about Agriculture insurance company (AIC). It was set up to dispense insurance protection over agriculture and allied activities. Despite having such an organization in our country, crop insurance is rarely heard. There is hardly any effort to spread the awareness about various crop insurance schemes despite having so many rural banks, agriculture institutions and rural-based economy. This article list down some recommendations to increase the awareness and strengthen the agri-insurance.

2. Our ex-finance minister had given a generous 72,000 crore farm loan waiver in the union budget. This brought lot of happiness among the farmers and will probably fetch him some extra votes in the next election. However, he forgot, or pretended to ignore a fundamental problem. After giving this waiver, what will be the incentive for the profit-motivated banks to give fresh loans to farmers. And this is what farmers are facing today - non-availability of fresh loans. This story discusses this problem in detail.

Farm profitability and Olives

2008-12-07T07:32:00.000-08:00

1. ET carries an article about profitability in farm sector.

2. Businessline carries an interesting story on Olives from Italy.

Slowdown, Targeting farmer

2008-12-02T08:13:00.000-08:00

Slowdown has becoming a buzzword for lunch discussions nowadays. Its difficult to find any newspaper front page without a mention or hint towards this global economic turmoil. However, for rural India, whose dependence is on agriculture, global downturn hardly matters. Although it may have some impact with a lag (eg. textile industry suffering, cotton prices falling and so on), but the relative difference is not much. And so companies are targeting rural India - as this article in livemint says. "due to its primary dependence on domestic consumption rather than exports, rural India would be even more insulated, given that almost 60% of its households are dependent on agriculture, where fortunes fluctuate more on the basis of vagaries of the monsoon than those of the Sensex or Lehman Brothers and AIG! Even the increasing spiral of inflation, with its direct impact on prices of vegetables, would indeed benefit the farmer, fetching him a better price for his produce."

Not quite true as I mentioned earlier. The prices are falling and the effect goes to source i.e. agricultural commodities. Government is already finding it difficult to maintain the MSPs. There is another interesting article about how government meddling is creating the slowdown in the agricultural sector. The first few lines have got some sense of humour, but sadly it is true partially - " How will Indian agribusiness fare over the next six months? The answer lies not in demand-supply, volatility in international markets, credit supply or weather. It all depends of sarkari mood".

Half Century

2008-11-30T06:20:00.000-08:00

Mera Khet completes a half century today with fifty posts and many more stories.

Cotton blues and Soil degradation

2008-11-30T06:08:00.000-08:00

1. As reported on this blog earlier, farmers are finding it difficult to sell cotton at MSP fixed by the government. Farmers who are in desperate need of money are selling for whatever they are getting as it is impossible for the CCI to go in every nook and corner of the country. Government, however, is doing its part of bailout announcements. This time it is mulling a bailout package for the cotton industry.

2. Some news from Karnataka agriculture: Sugarcane growers are cribbing on getting lesser prices than fixed by government. One of the ministers says that 40 percent of Karnataka's soil is degraded. The noted soil scientist J. C. Katyal, who is also the Vice-Chancellor of the Choudhary Charan Singh Agricultural University (Haryana), said the root of the problem has been traced to degradation of soil quality. If the soil lacks any nutrients, the agricultural produce grown on it will also suffer from nutrient deficiency and ditto with people who eat these produce, he said.

Blah Blah Blah

2008-11-29T03:11:00.000-08:00

Union agriculture and food minister Sharad Pawar is all for stimulating private investment in the horticulture sector to boost the economic condition of farmers in the midst of a global financial gloom. He says "Government can play a supporting role. But government and farmers’ cooperatives cannot provide modern technology. For that, you need private players"

How can you expect private investments when you keep meddling with everything related to agriculture. People do private investmnets to earn profit.

You fix the prices to reduce inflation but your MSP finds it difficult to hold. You can do great justice to you post if you dont do anything!! I hope cricket keep you busy.

Update

2008-11-26T08:20:00.000-08:00

1. CCI will suffer a loss of about Rs2,065 crore if it has to buy one-third of the entire crop of 33 million bales this year. The government steeply hiked the MSP for cotton by 46% in September prior to the onset of the harvest season; domestic prices now rule higher than the international cotton prices that have slipped due to slowing consumption.

2. India will host the fourth world congress on `conservation agriculture’ in New Delhi from Feb 4 to 7. The congress would showcase innovations in agriculture for improved efficiency, equity and environment. The congress would review the progress in conserving soil, water and other resources in agriculture It will also facilitate partnerships between countries, organisations, institutions and agencies.

GM debate again, UDP technology

2008-11-24T07:51:00.000-08:00

1. Controversies surrounding the GM crops have again come up, with Mahyco ready to commercialize GM brinjal seeds. Various NGOs and farmers are out on the ground to protest. Point to be noted from the article. "Nowhere in the world GM brinjals are permitted for agricultural cultivation or human consumption. We are no guinea pigs. So, we should not be treated like one”. Gujrat Agriculture minister has no clue.

2. The US-based International Centre for Soil Fertility and Agriculture Development (IFDC) is pitching to promote the technology developed by them dubbed as Urea deep placement (UDP) technology for increasing the fertilizer use efficiency. UDP increases yields by 25% while using 40% less urea.

Food Security, Lending to Food Processing

2008-11-19T10:10:00.001-08:00

1. This article in Taipei Times is puzzling - it points out that countries like Ukraine and Argentina have great potential for farming but are not reaping the benefits because of government meddling in exports and price-fixing. What beats me is that it blames that "Governments such as China, India and Vietnam fail to realize that restricting exports leads farmers to invest and produce less".

2. From BusineessLine: In a bid to bail out the food processing industry from the current financial crisis, the Government has allocated Rs 1,000 crore to the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard). It will utilise the fund to refinance banks that lend to the food processing sector.

3. According to United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, the current financial crisis will adversely affect agricultural sectors in many countries, including India and other developing countries. Lower international commodity prices have not yet translated into lower domestic food prices in most low-income countries, it added. The FAO report further noted that world agriculture was facing serious long-term issues and challenges that need to be urgently addressed. These include land and water constraints, low investments in rural infrastructure and agricultural research, expensive agricultural inputs relative to farm-gate prices and little adaptation to climate change.

Some cheerful stuff in gloomy environment

2008-11-17T10:15:00.000-08:00

One can hardly escape from bad news if he/she regularly browses on web or reads any of the business news paper. In the previous post, we discussed how farmers are largely unaware about the current financial crisis. But knowing the following things will surely cheer them up.

According to this article, which looks more like a well crafted advertisement for Monsanto, Bollgard technology has greatly helped farmers to increase the cotton yield. "Bollgard cotton provides in-built protection for cotton against destructive American Bollworm Heliothis Armigera (locally called American gundi) infestations, and contains an insecticidal protein from a naturally occurring soil micro organism, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)."

Heres another piece, which is again kind of an advertisement, although not as good as the previous one. A fair kicked off in Ranchi to to provide latest technical support to the farmers and also to apprise them about new technologies. It was emphasized that the agriculture department of the state has been providing the farmers with high yielding seeds instead of traditional seeds, which had enough potential for sustainable growth of agriculture.

Another agriculture fair was held in Bangalore where about 100000 farmers assembled for a glimpse of the new crop varieties, developed by the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS). The annual fair is held to showcase latest farm technologies developed by the varsity and create awareness in the farming community on modern methods of harvesting.

This article brings to our notice the boom in flower industry. “Commercial floriculture could be a viable and profitable option along with regular crops for farmers in our country. The area of cultivation required is less and the output in terms of number is more. Labour costs and water management costs are also less. A farmer can get a profit equivalent to what he gets on a one-acre farm of regular crops by growing flowers on a 1,000 square meter area. The initial investment required could be, around Rs 5 to 6 lakh but now the NHM provides half the amount as subsidy. The rest of the loan, taken from banks, can be easily covered within two years.”

Yeh financial crisis kya hai??

2008-11-15T19:21:00.000-08:00

ibnlive.in has got this interesting article about how farmers are unaware about the financial crisis that has stuck the world. I had a similar though recently when I visisted my home-village. "For almost 70 per cent of India, that lives in villages like Sonarpur, the Sensex going 20k up or 10k down isn't the debate. The debate is where the minimum support price is going, Rs 50 up to 900/quintal is what the villagers have heard. So the big worry is not the money they will get, but the current availability of fertilizers."

Credit squeeze for Agriculture

2008-11-09T05:34:00.000-08:00

The businessline story brings out an interesting point - Bank credit has been just Rs 95064 crore for the half year ending Sept,08. The target for the year is Rs 2,80,000 crore. So it is less than half the target till now. However our ever-optimistic stock-market-spokesperson cum finance minister is very optimistic - "We are well on the way to achieving the target (of Rs 280,000 crore). The banks have assured me that the target will be achieved”.

Respected Sir, there is a simple theory called incentive caused bias. If banks have to bear the brunt of your generous debt waiver, what would motivate them to lent money to farmers when it already so scare!!

Nokia Life Tools

2008-11-09T05:31:00.000-08:00

Nokia has launched a service, dubbed "Life Tools" to provide the latest agricultural information, such as weather updates and grain prices; educational tools, such as English-language training and general knowledge; and appealing entertainment--namely horoscopes and downloadable ringtones.

Monthly subscription prices have been pegged at between Rs 30 and Rs 60 (62 cents to $1.23) for the agriculture and education modules. Entertainment services are paid for as downloads. Nokia hopes the platform will fill a big gap in 3G-starved markets like India where consumers are unlikely to have the flat-fee data bundles or fast download speeds that developed-market phone users have become used to.

Cotton Prices

2008-11-09T04:32:00.000-08:00

Farmers are finding it hard to sell cotton at good prices. Although MSP prices are pretty decent this year, farmers are finding very few takers. Government is stepping up the procurement process to support the prices but unfortunately it if not working out. Some farmers are selling cheaper either to pay off the debt or because they dont have infrastructure to store. It is ironical that a higher yield of cotton is adding woes to the farmers instead of helping them.

One important thing to note is that when demand soars and prices are high, government alters it policies (like capping the price, increasing the imports etc) to keep check the prices. Most of the times it is successful in doing so but it fails miserable to keep up the prices in the times like this. So for a farmer, its always like loosing on any side of the coin.

After break of two weeks

2008-11-09T04:31:00.000-08:00

Update to this blog will start again after the break of two weeks.

Government policies, PDS and B2B meeting

2008-10-17T23:37:00.000-07:00

1. A call for change in Government policy in agriculture in Indian Express. There should be more emphasis on investments in marketing and processing infrastructure, on expanding and modernizing the trading centers and on increasing the rural connectivity.

2. According to this article, "to give entry to various giant grain corporations, the Indian government slowly and systematically weakened its Public Distribution System (PDS) by slowing down grain procurement, especially wheat". This is leading to food crisis, specially for the people below poverty line.

3. B2B meetings for Agriculture and Food processing in India - The Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC), in partnership with BCI - global leader of B2B meetings and professional events - will be setting up a first international trade show dedicated to agriculture machinery and food processing on March 4-6, 2009 and fully contribute to this process.

The show will combine a 3 day exhibition for Indian and international companies to showcase their products and capabilities and a matchmaking service to facilitate contacts. They will feature their technologies for agriculture and food processing.

Contract farming, Private investments and low MSPs

2008-10-15T09:11:00.000-07:00

1. RCF (Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers) is planning to get into contract farming and green house businesses by leveraging its customer network and land holding. The company plans to build a network of at least 1,000 farmers to grow flowers, fruits and vegetables. Recently similar announcement was made by Bayer CropScience.

2. Contract farming verses cooperative farming - what is the difference. My guess is that in former, some corporate guy takes over farm land from small farmers or bound them by the contract, while in the later one, farmers unite and make a society like Amul and sow and sell the produce together.

3. Farmers are unhappy with the low MSP fixed by government. The input costs have risen much faster that the final output. Some comparative numbers with 1966 are given. According to Mahendra Singh Tikait, farmers' leader, fair price for wheat should be rs 3000/quintal and for sugarcane it should be Rs 250 a quintal.

God's own crop, CCI to buy cotton and Agri-sector alliance

2008-10-14T07:35:00.000-07:00

1. Millets are getting the charm back again after finding the way in Indian supermarkets and increasingly becoming part of urban diet. Decant herald carries an interesting article on Millets like jowar, bajra, ragi etc, which are also called "God's own crop"

2. Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has assured Punjab government that it would purchase maximum quantity of cotton from the mandis in the state so that the farmers could get remunerative price of their produce.

3. Indian commerce minister Kamal Nath calls for alliance among developing nations in Agriculture sector to fight against the subsidies provided by rich nations.

Wireless sensors, Equitool for organics

2008-10-13T09:16:00.000-07:00

1. A scientist of Indian origin, along with his team, is developing wireless transceivers and sensors that would collect and send data about soil moisture within a field. The sensors could help researchers understand precisely how water moves through a field, develop better models to predict crop growth and yield and understand the carbon and nitrogen cycles within soils, as well as help farmers manage their nutrient and water resources, which could maximize yields and profits, and minimize environmental impacts.

2. Equitool is a tool to help decision-makers assess whether an organic production and processing standard applicable in one region of the world is equivalent, ie not identical but equally valid, to another organic standard. It will help streamline acceptance of products that are traded internationally according to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

$2 billion for secondary agriculture

2008-10-11T08:11:00.000-07:00

A panel formed by the government in 2006 has proposed the creation of a $2 billion fund to boost so-called secondary agriculture. It covers things like the extraction of oil from rice bran, milk from soya bean and industrial chemicals and biofuel from sugar cane, extracting vitamins from food grains, medicines from herbs, fibre boards from rice straw and so on. Details on the story here.

Agriculture growth, useless MSP and Australian wheat

2008-10-08T05:23:00.000-07:00

1. The Hindu Businessline writes about slow growth in agriculture. Agricultural policies are to be blamed.

2. Farmers are not benefiting in spite of high MSP prices as open market prices fall much lower. Manipulative actions by traders also hit the profitability.

3. Indian mills can have custom grown wheat from Australia and enter into contract farming and long term agreements. South India flour mills, in particular, prefer Australian wheat not only for its quality but also due to logistical advantage.

Conservation agriculture, FDI in agriculture and Agri-entrpreneurs

2008-10-07T10:08:00.000-07:00

1. Business standard covers this interesting story on new farming techniques to improve land productivity as well as to reverse the climate change. Suggestions include rice-wheat cropping sequence, zero tillage agriculture, raised bed planting, laser land-lavelling and drip irrigation.

2. It is surprising to hear the suggestion coming from a minister to get foreign investment in agriculture. The food processing minister says that it is the "next sunrise sector".

3. Interesting story covered by ET on Agri-entrepreneurs. It covers various ventures like Satnam Agri Products by Mandip Singh producing premium potato chips, Minchy brand on wines by Girish Minocha and Pawas Canning by Hemant Desai exporting mango pulp to Japan. It also covers Nisarg Nirman Agro Products growing and selling exotic fruits to five start hotels, Jalbindu Agri Tech by Rahul Gala growing and selling dates using high echnology and "Best Roses" by Kumar Patel.

GM debate, Stuck farm insurance claims

2008-10-04T03:48:00.000-07:00

1. Central chronicle says that greater measures are required to test GM crops for safety.

2. Farmers insurance claims are stuck because of non-availability of funds from state.

Jai Reform, Jai Kisan

2008-10-01T10:34:00.000-07:00

1. Indian Express has got this interesting column about the denial of renewal of license to Metro Cash and Carry. "Those who shout loudest that farmers need a good deal are frequently the same people who protest loudest about big retail chains"

2. Farmers have started moving towards cash-generating crops and vegetables. Vegetable production has increased by 141 per cent in the past five years leading to an increase in local consumption and exports.

3. Press Digest - from Reuters

Sygneta's tropical sugar, Contingency plan for Bihar, Pepsico

2008-09-27T23:28:00.000-07:00

1. Sygneta's Tropical Sugar Beet receives world business and development award. The award is for the development and successful introduction of a new sugar beet that can be grown under tropical climate conditions and brings significant advantages to farmers, the environment, the sugar and ethanol industries and the economy.

2. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has evolved a plan for farmers to deal with the flood risis.

3. Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi says her company will extend its partnership with Indian agriculture by covering 10,000 acres and 50,000 farmers by 2011.

Stuck in the moment

2008-09-27T23:20:00.001-07:00

A post dedicated to things which see no light at the end of tunnel.

1. Talks at WTO never seem to end. Agriculture negotiations resumed at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on Thursday, but comments from diplomats showed it would be difficult to bridge gaps.

2. Tussle between farmers and SEZs continue. If SEZs go tlhrough farmers loose their land and livelihood, if they dont industrialization suffers.

3. A government official says that 4% growth in agriculture is needed to sustain economic growth of 8%. What is government doing to make it possible?

Increasing food production, Wastewater to fertilizer, Retail boom

2008-09-27T22:45:00.000-07:00

1. Interesting article here on increasing food production.

2. Canada-based Ostara Nutrient Recovery Systems secured $10.5M for wastewater-to-fertilizer technology. The technology helps by removing nutrients, like phosophorus, from wastewater and recycling them into fertilizer.

3. An elaborate article on how retail boom is going to affect the farmers. It covers various aspects like corporate entry into agriculture, cooperative movement, government regulations, SAZ's , public-private partnership , storage , transportation etc.

4. Interesting analysis on rising agricultural input costs, the main contributers to the cost and the way governments are handling fertilizer policies to ensure food-sufficiency.

Dupont opens research centre in Hyd

2008-09-23T11:08:00.000-07:00

DuPont opens research centre in Hyderabad.

It is the first integrated agriculture and industrial biotechnology research centre for DuPont outside the U.S.

To collaborate with ICRISAT to develop seed products

Initial focus will be on hybrid rice and maize

The biotech research centre would focus on bringing new crop genetics to the market faster and on application of industrial biotechnology to produce bio-fuels and biomaterials for global markets.

Water scarcity, Onion storage and Integrated Farming

2008-09-21T03:48:00.000-07:00

1. The Economist carries an interesting story about shortage of water. We consumer more that 3000 litres of water per day. That is because today's agricultural practices wastes lot of water in irrigation.

2. The Maharashtra State Agriculture Marketing Board (MSAMB) has proposed an onion storage scheme. "This will prevent the usual trend between June and September, when the price per quintal goes up to Rs 1,000 from Rs 200-Rs 300", said project manager DM Sable of MSAMB.

3. Integrated farming is needed to achieve a sustainable high growth rate, said noted agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan at an agriculture leadership summit.

Integrated farming refers to agricultural systems that integrate livestock and crop production.
It also denotes sustainable development by balancing food production, profitability, safety, animal welfare, social responsibility and environmental care.

VAS for farmers, Agriculture rivival and farmer training

2008-09-18T09:29:00.000-07:00

1. Something what I have been thinking about quite some time has become true - Bharti Airtel, in association with IFFCO (Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative) has announced the launch of VAS (value added services) for farmers. IFFCO Kisan Sanchar (IKSL), the joint venture company of Bharti Airtel and IFFCO, will offer agriculture related information like best farming practices, soil testing, soil improvement, optimum crop cycles, required fertilizers and pesticides as well as livelihood information like mandi crop prices and utility (power/ irrigation).

2. Prime Minister says revival of Indian agriculture is must for self-sufficiency in food grains and inclusive growth.

3. Training camp help for farmers under the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA),Govt. of India.

Indian International Agri Expo 2008

2008-09-16T10:48:00.000-07:00

India International Agri Expo to be held in Cochin from Oct 31st to Nov 2nd. Technical seminars will be held with topics like organic farming, value-added products, agri-tourism etc.

Quiet revolution, Cashing on floods, Corn export ban and Rice output

2008-09-13T10:23:00.000-07:00

1. P.K. Joshi, director of the New Delhi-based National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, in an interview with NEWSWEEK's Jason Overdorf about the challenges India faces.

2. MS Swaminathan, one of India's best-known agricultural scientists and a Rajya Sabha member suggests that "Bihar now needs to change its short-term farm strategy and switch to short-haul cash crops that do rather well after floods. The idea is to grow crops that mature quickly — in about two months — and have a good market."

3. ET reports that Government can lift ban on corn exports.

4. The Union Food and Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar,says that the country’s rice production during the current kharif season “will exceed 84 million tonnes (mt)”.

Farm Insurance, hike in MSPs

2008-09-12T06:39:00.000-07:00

1. Business-line writes about the status of farm-insurance in our country in its editorial. According to a survey by Max New York Life and National Council for Applied Economic Research, only 19% of rural household have life insurance while only 10-15% of all farmers have crop insurance.

2. Some happy news for farmers. Government has announced higher MSP (Minimum support price) for various Kharif crops for year 2008. However as "harvest of crops is only weeks away; and there is no way farmers will draw any benefit from the announcement at this point of time in the crop growth cycle." MSP of cotton has also been increased by 38.9-47.8

Cotton export, bumper potato harvest

2008-09-11T09:45:00.000-07:00

1. According to the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), the world cotton production is likely to fall. China has reduced its acreage for cotton cultivation and US and Pakistan are also set to report lower output. India, set to produce higher output will benefit from exports. Higher MSP (Rs 3000/quintal - 2,500/quintal) will also benefit farmers.

2. Bumper potato crop has become a curse for farmers instead of helping them. The prices have dropped down to Rs 350-400/quintal

SMP for cane, Global Industry Analysis Report

2008-09-10T09:51:00.001-07:00

1. Farmers are urging the government to raise the Statutory Minimum Price (SMP) of sugarcane. The current price is Rs811.80 /ton.

2. Global Industry Analysis (GIA) has come out with a research report on Agriculture (priced $1950). "The report titled "Agriculture: A Global Outlook", published by Global Industry Analysts, provides a collection of statistical anecdotes, market briefs, and concise summaries of research findings. Discussions in the report take note of burning issues consuming the world agriculture industry, such as, food security for nations, food integrity, environmental degradation, and the growing notoriety of GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms). Also covered are evolving trends i.e. the green revolution brought about by organic farming, e-commerce penetration in agrochemical trading, and the impact of biotechnology on agriculture, among others. Punctuated with 64 data rich, information laden tables and easy to understand charts and graphs, the discussion on the global market offers exclusive coverage on Agricultural Biotechnology, Agriculture and Environmental Diagnostics, and Agrochemicals, among others. Annotated with tables that enumerate key research findings, the regional markets briefly abstracted, and summarized include the US, Canada, and Japan, among others. The report provides an indexed, easy-to-refer, fact-finder directory listing the addresses, and contact details of 415 companies worldwide."

Investment in food

2008-09-09T10:10:00.000-07:00

The profile of food investment is changing in middle east because of constraints in agricultural capacity and rising food prises. This analysis discusses the changes.

Updates: Netafim, Bihar floods, Trade pacts and Pusa1121

2008-09-06T06:57:00.000-07:00

1. Netafim, the world’s largest provider of smart water solutions for agriculture, inaugurates its second plant in Chennai, India. "Netafim™, an Israel based Agri-Business pioneer and the world’s largest provider of smart water solutions for agriculture, has been delivering innovative solutions that increase crop yields and preserve water resources. Netafim™ is active in over 110 countries across 5 continents, employing over 2600 employees, has more than 35 subsidiaries and 13 manufacturing facilities in 11 countries."

2. Bihar floods have led to losses worth more that 150 crores. Business-standard carried this story. Worst affected are the crops like paddy and maize and also pulses, vegetables and banana.

3. India is pushing on talks involving free trade of goods, services and investments with Japan and South Korea. Parallel talks are also going on with Thailand in similar lines.

4. Conflicts surrounding Pusa rise continues. Limited exports of Pusa rice has been allowed. Although it has not been provided the new definition of basmati rice in spite of meeting the necessary requirements.

MFIs selling farm loans to banks

2008-09-03T09:14:00.000-07:00

Business-standard reports that private banks are buying loan portfolios from MFIs. Its a win-win kind of situation where MFI's benefit by reducing their asset size and hence increasing CAR, while banks try to meet the priority sector lending targets.

So banks are using these kind of tricks to extend 13.5 per cent of their advances as direct agricultural loans. This does not increase the credit availability for farmers so though this scheme may be good for MFIs and banks but may not be so for farmers.

Organic farming, Basmati rice

2008-09-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

1. Organic farming is gaining some interest across farmers and consumers. We can see special sections in grocery retail chains dedicated for organic farming products. One of the companies working in this domain is Sresta, founded by an IIM alumnus. ET covers a story here.

2. Businessline carried the story about late inclusion of Pusa 1121 into new definition of basmati rice. The story also explains the economy of paddy cultivation on a per acre basis.
“As it is, Pusa 1121 prices have been going down in the global market and the delay in notifying the evolved variety would be a final nail in the coffin of the growers of this variety of rice.”

Capital expenditure in agriculture

2008-08-30T10:03:00.000-07:00

Consider this from the highlights of Union budget 08-09:

- Debt waiver of Rs 60,000 cr (later increased to a larger amount)

- Credit target of Rs 280,000 cr

- Investments of Rs 20,000 cr for irrigation

- Crop insurance scheme to be introduced

- Rural infrastructure spending of Rs 14,000 cr

- Planned spending of Rs 240,000 Cr. Unplanned spending of Rs 5o7, 000 Cr

Farm subsidies and debt waiver serve no purpose in long term and hence does not count.

We can assume that improvement in rural infrastructure will help farmers in some way and so it is actually agricultural capex. The proportion of capex in agriculture to total spending comes to around ((20,000 + 14,000)/(240000+507000)) = ~4.55%

So that is 4.55 percent for more that 50% of people sustaining on agriculture. And god knows knows how much of it will actually go down till implementation.

This amount may be smaller than capex of some of our large companies.

India's GDP, Rice output, Sugar export subsidy

2008-08-29T08:44:00.000-07:00

1. India's Q1 GDP growth is 7.9%, lowest since 2004. There have been different estimates of the GDP growth for year 08-09. Some have been very optimistic forecasting more that 9%. With inflation taking time and ease and tighter credit policy, only time will tell how much we grow this year. Till then, lets leave the job of forecasting the growth to economists and stock market analysts. By simple law of probability half of them will be correct :p

2. Quite contrary to a news today, this one says that India may produce record rice this year. "India's rice production in this agriculture year may breach the record output of 96.43 million tons in the last year on the back of increased acreage even as floods in some producing areas have hit the kharif crop, a top government official said today."

3. Chidambaram says India must stop sugar export subsidy.

Rice output, new hybrid mustard and ASEAN FTA

2008-08-28T08:48:00.000-07:00

1. Rice output to be low because of floods, but premium category output go up -
Floods to cap India summer rice output at '07 level
Reuters India - Mumbai,India
... some floods in Punjab and Haryana states," Agriculture Commissioner NB Singh told Reuters. The two states produce nearly half of India's rice and wheat. ...
India's premium rice production up, farmers eye exports
Reuters India - Mumbai,India
This year it is more than 10 per cent," Gurdial Singh, joint director of agriculture, told Reuters. Officials say India is set to buy record quantities of ...

2. Folks at NRC develop new hybrid seed for mustard -
India develops hybrid mustard seed, better yield expected
Thaindian.com - Bangkok,Bangkok,Thailand
NRC is an affiliate of India’s premier farm research body, the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR). The Delhi-headquartered ICAR under the ...

3. ASEAN concludes free trade deal with India: ministers
AFP -
SINGAPORE (AFP) — Southeast Asian nations have concluded a deal for free trade in goods with India, ministers said Thursday, in a development hailed as a ...

Cotton output, Corn futures and organic farming

2008-08-28T08:10:00.001-07:00

1. Cotton output seen good this year because if good rains and better seeds. But will the farmers benefit?
India Cotton Output May Top Estimate as Rains Improve (Update3)
Bloomberg - USA
India starts cotton planting in June and the harvest begins in October. China is forecast by the US Department of Agriculture to produce 35.5 million bales ...

2. Corn futures rise
India corn futures rise on lower acreage, exports
Reuters India - Mumbai,India
"We think despite lower acreage, yield will be higher this year," said a senior official with state department of agriculture of Andhra Pradesh, ...

3. South Asian Farmers Discuss Organic Farming
Indian Catholic - New Delhi,India
South Asian farmers visited a Garo tribal woman to learn how she practices organic farming and conserves 64 varieties of indigenous rice.

Today's Links

2008-08-26T09:05:00.000-07:00

1. The revival in agricultural growth
Hindu Business Line - Chennai,India
At a time when there are signs of a slowdown in industry, much is being made of an agricultural revival that is helping to stabilise India’s high growth rate. But C. P. Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh argue that, despite somewhat high growth rates of agriculture in recent years, a longer term perspective suggests that all is still not well in a sector that has been damaged in India’s post-reform growth trajectory.

2. Biofuel: Algae takes lead over jatropha
Chandigarh Tribune - India
As algae do not need agriculture land, it can be grown using non-potable or sea water. “Algae farming for oil can be great opportunity for India, ...

3. Surinder Sud: Reaping what you sow
Business Standard - Mumbai,Maharashtra,India
India's productivity in agriculture is directly related to the low sums it invests in R&D. For agricultural growth to be knowledge-based and ...

4. INDIA’S RURAL SALVATION COULD BE SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
By erleargonza
Millions of farmers in remote rural areas of India struggle to feed themselves and their families, while the resources on which they depend are deteriorating daily. This book shows how sustainable agriculture can help India’s farmers ...

Today's Links

2008-08-25T09:17:00.000-07:00

1. Global pulses prices climb on Indian imports
Reuters India - Mumbai,India
By Rajendra Jadhav MUMBAI, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Large tenders for pulses imports floated by India to augment supply in the festival season have pushed up ...

2. India firm over sectoral tariffs
Business Standard - Mumbai,Maharashtra,India
The strategy of developing countries, including India, is to first get their concerns on protection of their agriculture sectors addressed, after which they ...

3. Left behind: Debt relief brings little respite for India’s farmer
Financial Times - London,England,UK
The mathematics behind the crisis in India’s agricultural sector are simple. Agriculture’s contribution to GDP fell from 42 per cent in 1970 to half that by ...

4. Organic Farming
By rajkumar
Arresting the decline of soil organic matter is the most potent weapon in fighting against unabated soil degradation and imperilled sustainability of agriculture in tropical regions of India, particularly those under the influence of ...

Today's Links

2008-08-24T08:18:00.000-07:00

Nothing much over the weekend. Here's one link:

India's edible oil import estimate to go up by 8 pc
Hindu - Chennai,India
The report by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has revised upwards its estimates of edible oil imports by India to 5.4 million tons in ...

Today's Links

2008-08-22T10:51:00.000-07:00

1. SANASA Development Bank conducts Micro Finance Study Tour and ...
Daily Mirror - Colombo,Western,Sri Lanka
By Gayani Perera The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in India is mandated to provide need based quality training for capacity ...

2. How agriculture is blooming in Singapore
Commodity Online - Kochi,Kerala,India
And companies in Asia based in Singapore are looking to countries like China and India and launching agri-funds to tap the Asian potential,” says the ...

Today's Links

2008-08-21T08:27:00.000-07:00

1. Vertical Farms for Food & Restoration
SustainableBusiness.com - Huntington Station,NY,USA
Over the past three years, he's focused on the effects of agriculture on the environment. He gave the class a project: pretend you're a community of 50000 ...

2. Sure, everyone has to eat, but 'dot-corns' may be peaking
Globe and Mail - Canada
The "dot-corn" bubble may be about to burst as farmland prices spike and agriculture stocks rise even faster than Internet shares did in the late 1990s, ...

3. India - Promises to keep
By sri(sri)
"the strategy for revitalising agriculture has yet to show visible outcomes. The record food production this year needs to be balanced with a modest projected 2 per cent growth in agriculture by the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council. Agricultural productivity needs to substantially rise since the average yield of rice in India between 2003 and 2005 according to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) was 3,034 kg a hectare compared to 6,233 kg a hectare in China, while for wheat the figures were 2,688 kg a hectare for India compared to 4,155 kg a hectare for China, while for rapeseed and mustard India averaged 909 kg/hectare compared to China’s 1,778 kg/hectare. Similarly the divergence between India and China in horticulture has also increased sharply in recent years with China producing 450 million tonnes of fruits and vegetables compared to our 135 million tonnes. The EAC report also believes “that old tired excuses of substandard agricultural performance are not valid because Indian agriculture is placed favourably when compared to China in terms of quantity of arable land (161 million hectares vs. 130 million hectares), irrigated land (55.8 million hectares vs. 54.5 million hectares), average farm size (1.4 hectares vs. 0.4 hectares).”
Improving productivity involves a quantum change in application of improved technology with water economical cropping pattern, innovating drought-resistant seed strains, improving marketing outlets, reducing wastage arising from absence of cold chains, deeper penetration of formal credit to farmers and improved coordination between the Centre and the States particularly in harnessing the comparative strengths of various regional and climatic zones. No action has been taken on the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee on revamping of agricultural research. The rural roads programme is running behind target. Cold Storage and Cold Chains remain inadmissible for priority sector lending. Our approach remains excessively anchored to multiple subsidies instead of altering the context enabling infrastructure. "

Today's Links

2008-08-20T08:38:00.000-07:00

1. India was ready to soften on industry for agri deal in WTO
Business Standard - Mumbai,Maharashtra,India
... IST India was willing to accept the proposals on tariff reduction for industrial goods as a trade-off for protection of its interests in agriculture at ...

2. Global Food Crisis May Be Ending as Plantings Gain, India Says
Bloomberg - USA
Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan, the 83-year-old agriculture scientist who spearheaded India's first ``green revolution'' in the 1960s that made the country ...

3. Farmers protest scarcity of fertilisers
The Statesman - Kolkata,India
But government of India has so far supplied only 6. 91 lakh MT and that too not in time, agriculture office sources said. At the same time corrupt dealers ...

Today's Links

2008-08-19T10:12:00.000-07:00

1. Organic food not healthier, study finds
CNN International - USA
... Agriculture Organization estimates that organic farming now accounts for around 4.1 million hectares in Asian countries like India, China and Russia. ...

2. India - More bad news for cotton
YarnsandFibers (subscription) - Mumbai,India
The US Department of Agriculture, in a recent report, said planted acreage has declined from 10.8 million acres in 2007 to 9.2 million this year. ...

3. How research in agriculture has helped India to develop
IPPmedia - Dar es Salaam,United Republic of Tanzania
The growth of agriculture on scientific lines in real terms, started in India only after independence. The first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru ...

4. India's Kharif crop acreage falls except rice, soya
Commodity Online - Kochi,Kerala,India
According to Ministry of Agriculture total area covered under coarse cereals so far this year at 171.1 lakh hectares (lh), which is below last year’s ...

5. World Bank suggests limits on disputed WTO farm safeguard
AFP -
"President Lula of Brazil has called on the parties not to let the WTO negotiations fail because of differences over a special safeguard for agriculture. ...

Today's Links

2008-08-18T20:14:00.000-07:00

India may outpace Brazil in sugar production
Commodity Online - Kochi,Kerala,India
The Union Agriculture Ministry sources said, the sugar production has been fairly good. Even in 2007, the country produced 275 lakh tonnes of sugar while ...

Wastewater often used in urban agriculture: study
AFP -
The practice was being used on 20 million hectares (almost 50 million acres) of land, especially in Asian countries like China, India and Vietnam, ...

Leaving WTO would leave India without support: Pawar
MorungExpress - Dimapur,Assam,India
New Delhi, August 15 (Agencies): Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has rejected a suggestion that India should step out of the World Trade Organisation ...

Indian Agriculture business or service????
By mkalyan6484
India is 2nd largest agriculture producer but still we don't have sufficient amount to feed our people. Why??? Because everything is exported, without giving a thought for people of our country. Is profit is only important goal for all ...

India oilseeds rise tracking weak rupee, CBOT
Reuters India - Mumbai,India
India is import-dependent for edible oils and imports palm oil and soyoil derived from soybean. A weak rupee makes imports expensive. ...

`Farmers worse off than lowest-paid babus`
Reuters India - Mumbai,India

Old article on rediff

2008-08-17T09:59:00.000-07:00

5 steps to boost Indian agriculture

The industry body has also scripted a five-point agri-reforms agenda to boost Indian agriculture and attract private investment in to the sector. ...

Links

2008-08-17T09:48:00.000-07:00

1. India may lose up to 17% of its farming income due to climate change
Economic Times - Gurgaon,Haryana,India
... added that the difference between the countries is most likely due to India's agriculture being less sensitive to climate-dependent changes in rainfall. ...

2. Food, fuel subsidies will continue: PM
Business Standard - Mumbai,Maharashtra,India
This had led, after almost a decade of stagnation in agriculture, to a revival, causing record production of foodgrains, cotton and sugar in 2007-08. ...

Links

2008-08-17T09:40:00.000-07:00

1. A New Brand of Agriculture? Farmer-Owned Brands Reward Innovation ...
A New Brand of Agriculture? Farmer-Owned Brands Reward Innovation*. Dermot Hayes By Dermot J. Hayes, Professor of Economics

2. India's sugar export soars
Hindu - Chennai,India
New Delhi (PTI): India's sugar exports have reached about 43 lakh tons till first week of August in the current 2007-08 season, which is more than double ...

3. Bt cotton pushes India’s farm biotech revenue up by 30%
Export revenue from agriculture biotechnology has grown by 12% to $13 mn during 2007-08 fiscal from $11.6 mn in a year-ago period, the USDA said.