IITian a Farmer, Private Equity in Agri

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.

Crop insurance, Debt waiver

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.

GM debate, Stuck farm insurance claims

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.