Despite reduced supplies, exports are expected to rise to a record 205,000MT on strong demand from the European Union and Russia.
According to Indian Grape Forum, the Indian table grape industry could see record exports this season, despite expected lower production from recent weather challenges.The forecast follows a sharp rise in Indian grape exports over the last few years.
The inaugural ceremony of Indian Grape Forum, took place recently in Nashik. The event, which brought together over 200 industry stakeholders, addressed topics including seasonal expectations, emerging trends, and India’s role in global markets.
During the discussions, speakers said India’s total grape production is estimated to come down by at least 100,000 metric tons (MT) as late rains delayed pruning. But despite reduced supplies, exports are expected to rise to a record 205,000MT on strong demand from the European Union and Russia. The forecast follows a sharp rise in Indian grape exports over the last few years.
“Indian grapes are reaching more than sixty counties. Market demand and consumer preferences are deciding supply of particular grape types in the market,” said Jagannath Khapre, president of the All India Grape Exporters Association.
“So market intelligence has become a very important tool for sustaining grape supply in foreign markets.” Considering the recent weather conditions he said: “The export of grapes to Bangladesh and the Middle East, which begins in November, will be delayed by about a month. Exports to Europe may also remain lower than the previous year.”
The speakers also expected that exports would rise to Asian countries like Thailand and Singapore thanks to free trade agreements.
New table grape varieties in India
Meanwhile during the event, Vilas Shinde, CEO of Sahyadri Farmers’ Producers Company, said that the organization had introduced ARRA-32 grape variety to farmers. Having conducted successful trials, the company plans to increase the area under cultivation by up to 3,000 hectares. “ARRA grapes in California are famous for surviving adverse weather conditions and have a sweet taste. Seedlings were brought by us. After the successful production of ARRA-15, ARRA-32 is next in line,” Shinde said.
“Grape growers in the State have been constantly exposed to natural disasters for the past several years. In this situation, the regional production of grapes is in danger”. India’s grape growing farmers are getting benefits from the ARRA varieties to further consolidate their position in the global market.”
Considering the huge potential in India, Shukrut Borade, from Maharashtra Rajya Draksha Bagaitdar Sangh (MRDBS), elaborated on what the future holds for grapes in India, expansion plans into other regions and new varieties in the pipeline.
“Taste is an important factor in the breeding program, but another key aspect is how grower-friendly the new varieties are,” he said. He asserted that growers need highly productive and grower-friendly cultivars to help them cut costs and remain profitable. Customers don’t talk about different varieties, but rather different grape colours and growers therefore need new and better varieties to replace old ones that are in declining popularity globally, he explained.
Grapes Export in 2018-19
India exported 2, 46,133 tons of fresh grapes worth Rs. 2,335.24 crore ($334.79 million) in 2018-19. This growth is synchronized by the efforts of grape grower organizations and FPOs working in different parts of India. It is also supported by state horticulture departments and nodal body APEDA under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry which are supporting Indian Grape production & export growth and facilitating the farmers for their sustainable development.
Grape growing states
More than 20 varieties are under cultivation, however, only a dozen are commercially grown. Major grape growing states are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and the North-West Region covering Punjab, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, besides Madhya Pradesh. Maharashtra ranks first in terms of production, value addition, innovative packaging and exports accounting for more than 81% of the total output. The productivity is also the highest in Maharashtra, but due to recent weather conditions, farmers are facing several challenges in maintaining the quality and its trade commitments in different overseas markets.
The ability to supply grape varieties year-round is also important to be sustainable, he added. India is one of the top producers of grapes and a leading exporter. Production covers an area of 23,000 hectares. India’s major grape export destinations are the Netherlands, Russia, the U.K., Germany, Bangladesh and the Middle-East.
Increasing demand for organic food, rising awareness of natural, and new food safety standards for health are the key driving factors for the market growth.
According to the latest report by www.wiseguyreport.com, global organic farming is accounted for $53.16 million in 2017 and is expected to reach $129.97 million by 2026 growing at a CAGR of 10.4% during the forecast period.
Driving key factors of organic market growth
Increasing demand for organic food, rising awareness of natural, and new food safety standards for health and well-being coupled with consumers to pay for organic farm food are the key driving factors for the market growth. However, high production cost of organic farming is some of the factors hindering the market growth.
What is Organic Farming?
Organic farming is a method that involves growing and nurturing crops with the use of biological materials preventing the use of synthetic based fertilizers and pesticides. Also, the use of genetically modified organisms is not permitted. Organic farming systems have a great potential to provide the world with healthy, high-quality food.
Weed Management
Based on the method, Weed management has considerable demand during the forecast period. Organic weed management promotes weed suppression, rather than weed elimination, by enhancing crop competition and phytotoxic effects on weeds. Organic farmers integrate cultural, biological, mechanical, physical and chemical tactics to manage weeds without synthetic herbicides. By geography, Asia Pacific is expected to have a good demand during the forecast period, owing to increasing government initiative in promoting organic farming by providing subsidies on organic fertilizers.
Major players in Organic Farming:
Some of the key players profiled in the organic farming include AkzoNobel N.V., Amalgamated Plantations Pvt Ltd, BASF SE, Bayer AG, Camson Biotechnology Limited, Dow Chemical Company, Indian Organic Farmers Producer Company (IOFPC), Nalco Holding Company, Organic Farmers Co, Picks Organic Farm, Solvay SA and ZUWA Organic Farms Pvt Ltd.
This is a cross border partnership between India and Brazil and five start-ups from each side are participating in the programme.
Pusa Krishi Incubator has successfully launched Maitri-Indo Brazil Agri-Tech Cross Border Incubation Programme, which focused on promoting agri start-up incubation, start-up exchange and access to Global Market thereby enabling the social, industrial and economic growth of both countries. A large number of delegates, guests and community members came together on 9th December at NASC Complex, New Delhi to unveil the project.
The interactive programme brought together supporting partners Department of Science & Technology (DST) (Funding Agency, ICAR, IARI, Brazil Embassy (India), Anprotec (National Association of Innovative Enterprises Promoting Entities, Brazil), ICAR-IIMR (Indian Institute of Maize Research to constructively execute “Indo Brazil Cross Incubation and Entrepreneurship program”.
Dr A K Singh, Director by welcomed the delegates and briefed about the programme. Dr Neeru Bhooshan, CEO, Pusa Krishi Incubator, Dr Neeraj Sharma, Secretary, Technology Development Board and Head Technology Development and Transfer and NEB Division, Chief Gust, H. E . Mr Andre Aranha Correa do Lago, Ambassdor Brazil in India given the good account of the Maitri Project.
The expectations out of this programme including a six month mentoring program in India & Brazil, 15 days workshops in New Delhi and Hyderabad, 15 days all expenses paid trip to Brazil, Investor connect & Demo Day in India & Brazil and partnership & Network opportunity in India & Brazil. Applications were invited from start-ups as per the start-up Indian/DIPP definition which are at commercialization stage.
Application received were for screening by an internal team comprising of sector specific experts and business experts. Selected applicants were invited to make a presentation in front of the selection committee comprising of technical experts, business experts, venture capitalist, representative from Brazil Embassy-Agriculture Science Attaché, representative from DST and CEO of the Pusa Krishi Incubator. The selection committee screened the start-ups based on their problem statement, innovation, its solution, its market and its relevance to Brazil market.
This is a cross border partnership between India and Brazil and five start-ups from each side are participating in the programme. Brazil Embassy will support all the expenses for the visit of Brazil start-ups in India and Department of Science and Technology will support the Indian start-up visit to Brazil.
Government officers from DST, ICAR, IARI, Ministry of External Affairs, Brazilian and Indian start-ups selected under the programme and member from the start-ups ecosystem, took keen interest in the showcase of the First ever Maitri Indo Brazilian Incubation Programme.
BY Gajendra Singh,
Former Deputy Director General (Engineering), ICAR, New Delhi, Founder Vice Chancellor, Doon University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand
The first tractor to India was brought in 1914.There were only about 8,000 tractors in 1950 and these increased to 39,000 units in 1960. Engines (petrol, kerosene, and diesel) were being used for post-harvest processing like floor making, rice milling, grinding, etc.
India passed through severe food crisis during sixties and the situation was called “ship to mouth”. During later-half of this decade, important policy decisions were taken by the Government of India for bringing in transformation. The government assured procurement of main crops from farmers at minimum support price (MSP). There were only about 75,000 units of tractors (1 tractor/1800 ha) in India in 1967.
In 1970s in North India, with extensive irrigation canal network, actual command area of canals decreased significantly due to increased water requirement of high yield variety (HYV) crops. To grow HYV crops farmers not owning tube-well pumps purchased water from neighbour farmers and normally payment was made after the sale of harvested crop. This was the beginning of custom hiring of farm equipment. Thus, the first and most important mechanization in India was ground water pumping using engine and electric motor driven irrigation pumps.
As the volume of crop harvested increased manifold on irrigated farms using HYV seeds these farmers also invested in purchasing threshers, mainly for wheat crop, powered by the same engine or motor used for water pumping. Interestingly, initially many of the threshers were fabricated by local black-smiths in small towns using locally available materials, especially from discarded Persian wheels. Farmers not owning threshers hired these from neighbouring farmers mostly on share of produce basis.
In fact, the mechanization of agriculture in India was driven by assured price to farmers for their produce (wheat and rice initially). The intensification of agriculture was assisted by higher inputs of farm power, but also because the greater profitability of farming-generated surpluses that could be spent on capital equipment. With adoption of HYV seeds the number of tractors doubled by 1971 and 96 per cent of the tractors were privately owned on farms of over 10 ha in size. By 1980, the number of tractors was more than 500,000 (1 tractor/260 ha) which in 2010 reached about 4.0 million units (1 tractor/35 ha). At present, India is the largest producer of tractors in the world at annual production of about 700,000 units with export of over 10 per cent units.
Through all these years, the economics of ownership of most tractors had been justified by custom hiring for on-farm works as well as for off-farm transport and construction activities. The use of tractors in transport activities accounted for more than 50 per cent of average annual use of about 600 hours. Many small farmers also started owning tractors due to opportunity of custom hiring.
Also, over the years, due to rural electrification majority of the irrigation pumps are powered by electric motors and their size has increased due to lowering of water table in many areas. As the electricity to rural areas for agricultural purposes in India is subsidized most farmers either individually or jointly have installed tube-wells wherever ground water is available. The number of electric motor operated pumps increased from four million in 1981 to 20 million in 2010 and was estimated to be about 25 million in the year 2015. The number of diesel operated irrigation pumps has also increased from 3.3 million in 1981 to 6.7 million in 2010 and was estimated to be about 7 million in 2015. There was a phenomenal growth of farm equipment due to favourable government policies for promoting machinery manufacturing in private sector.
Power availability per hectare is a common indicator of mechanization. A strong linear relationship between power available and agricultural productivity was observed in case of India. The agricultural mechanization in India had large variations in terms of power availability varying from 0.60 kW/ha in Orissa to 3.7 kW/ha in Punjab during 2012. If the agricultural areas in other parts of India having reasonable water resources can have same level of mechanization as in Punjab the agricultural production in India can be increased to 450 million tons.
Figure1 Relationship between farm power and productivity in different
States of India (2012)
Due to concerted efforts, the total food grain production in India increased from 51 million tons during 1950, to 285 million tons in 2017-18. The use of chemical fertilizers increased from about 0.5 kg/ha in 1950 to about 160 kg/ha in 2017-18. The increased cropping intensity and higher quantities of inputs and outputs could no longer be effectively managed by animate power alone. Therefore, farmers adopted mechanical power extensively and the growth of farm power and agricultural machinery over last 50 years in India has been phenomenal. During 2017-18, the food grain productivity was about 2.2 tons/ha; cropping intensity: 142%; and power availability was about 2.22 kW/ha.
Sequence of Mechanization
The growth of the mechanization in India has followed the same general pattern found worldwide as given in the table below. Farm operations requiring high power inputs and low control are mechanized first (tillage, transport, water pumping, milling, threshing, etc.). Farm operations requiring medium levels of power and control are mechanized next (seeding, spraying, intercultural operations, etc.). Farm operations requiring high degree of control and low power inputs are mechanized last (transplanting, planting of vegetables, harvesting of fruits and vegetables, etc.). It happens so because any work, which is power intensive, can be done faster mechanically and at a lower cost. Whereas converting human knowledge into machine knowledge is difficult and costly.
Based on my experience in India, I would say that exploitation of ground water and water from ponds and small reservoirs in rural areas for irrigation should be the highest priority to increase agricultural productivity. This can be done by farmers mainly; provided supporting infrastructure is made available by the government and necessary equipment, spare parts and maintenance are provided by the private sector. For infrastructure markets connected by rural roads and offering reasonable price for farmers’ produce are necessary. Government should also provide electricity in rural areas for domestic, agricultural (for irrigation pumps) and agro-industries use. With assured irrigation farmers will be able to plant HYV seeds and can apply higher doses of fertilizers to get higher yield. With MSP for their produce farmers should make reasonable profit and invest in mechanization to purchase tractors, power tillers, trailers, threshers and other farm equipment.
Based on year-long survey (Singh and Chancellor, 1975), it was found that agricultural output of farms was related to energy inputs, irrespective of ownership of farm power sources (owned or rented) and the size of land holding had no effect on yield. Farmers with better management (i.e. timely operations, like sowing, irrigation, weeding, fertilizer and pesticide application; and proper amounts and right techniques of application) had higher yields than those with poor management.
It was also reported (Singh, 2001) that the economics of ownership of most tractors in India had been justified by custom hiring for on-farm works as well as for off-farm transport and construction activities. The use of tractors in transport activities accounted for about 50% of average annual use of 600 hours. Many small farmers also started purchasing tractors due to opportunity of custom hiring. Similarly, the ownership of many other farm machinery and equipment like, pumps for tube-wells, seed-drills and planters is economic due to renting out to other farmers. However, ownership of large threshers, laser land levellers and combine harvesters is mainly due to custom work.
The following facts and lessons demonstrate the pace of adoption and impact of agricultural mechanization in India:
The states with high rates of available power per hectare are the ones which have the highest yields. Four-wheel tractors dominated the farm power sector in India with very little use of two-wheel power tillers compared to other Asian countries.
Mechanization technologies were first adopted by the large farmers followed by medium scale farmers. The large numbers of such farmers in states like Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh played a critical role in facilitating the creation of a viable agricultural machinery and implements distribution and services sector. Such farmers were also the ones who were able to provide mechanization and other services to the more numerous semi medium and small holder farmers.
The assured support prices for the farmers produce as well as availability of off and on farm custom hire possibilities where agricultural machinery could be used further enhanced the profitability of acquiring agricultural mechanization inputs by farmers.
The high level of effective demand for agricultural machinery and equipment led to the creation of a competitive and viable manufacturing industry such that India became globally a leading player in this sector including becoming a net exporter.
The Government of India provided support services for research and development; testing and standards; as well as for human resources development in support of agricultural mechanization. The agricultural engineering programs established in the numerous state agricultural universities were instrumental for the success of agricultural mechanization in India.
Future Prospects for Mechanization in India
The future investment in agriculture will be guided by a number of factors. Sales data gathered over the past years indicates a growing preference for tractors in the 41 to 50 hp or higher hp range. High capacity machines will also be preferred in future, including rotary tiller, harrows, laser levelers, high clearance sprayers, planters, high capacity threshers and self-propelled and tractors drawn combines.
The custom hiring of mechanical power for tillage, irrigation, harvesting and threshing will be preferred by those farmers who cannot afford to own machines. The present trend in agricultural mechanization is for the high capacity machines to be used for custom hiring and for contractual field operations. Hand operated tools and implements will only grow very slowly as the number of agricultural workers increases. Animal operated implements will decrease due to the continued decrease in the number of draft animals. In contrast, the use of power operated farm equipment will increase rapidly.
The tractor population is expected to stabilize at around 7 million units by 2050 and available farm power will then stabilize at around 4.5 kW/ha. The draft animal population will decrease drastically whereas power tillers, diesel engines and electric motors are expected to register significant increases during the period 2010 to 2050.
Policy
Business and enterprise friendly policies, laws, and regulations as well as physical and institutional infrastructures which encourage commercial activities and entrepreneurship in farming, input supply, and produce handling, processing and marketing as well as in manufacturing will be key factors to success of agricultural mechanization in the different states of India. For this:
Reduce or eliminate all subsidies and invest in infrastructure, mainly, roads, electricity supply, irrigation systems and markets with storage and processing facilities in catchment areas.
Reduce interest rates on loans and taxes for purchase of equipment and machinery for agricultural operations and food processing.
Provide assured support prices for the farmers produce.
Strengthen support services for research and development; testing and standards; as well as for human resources development in support of agricultural mechanization.
The second edition of Cotton Trailblazers, an International convening held in Nagpur to celebrate organic cotton in India. It has highlighted Maharashtra as a potential hotspot for organic cotton cultivation and a hub for the entire apparel industry
Over 150 delegates from India and other parts of the world, representing government, the apparel industry, academia, research institutions, civil society and farmer groups, were in Nagpur at the 2nd edition of Cotton Trailblazers. Their main goal is to build a roadmap for the organic cotton sector in India, establishing Maharashtra as a key hub for organic cotton. The convening, co-hosted by C&A Foundation in collaboration with Solidaridad Asia and Organic Cotton Accelerator (OCA), celebrated India’s leadership in global organic cotton production and turned the spotlight on organic cotton farmers.
Cotton Trailblazers brings together key players to deliberate on the challenges facing the organic cotton sector and to look for solutions through collaborative efforts that create value for all – from farmers to consumers.
Speaking on the occasion, Anita Chester, Head of Sustainable Raw Materials, C&A Foundation, said “India continues to dominate the organic cotton production across the globe, and it has been estimated that India’s total organic fibre production will continue to grow over the next few years. This highlights the enormous potential India has in demonstrating organic transformation and effectively work together towards creating a sustainable fashion industry.”
The stakeholders unanimously agreed that organic cotton is positioned to ‘take off’ in Maharashtra. The state was a pioneer in the organic transformation; yet today, only 11 percent of India’s total organic cotton supply comes from Maharashtra. A revival in the state can benefit the farmers by reducing cultivation costs in the input phase and lead to a decrease the overall debt, as well as stimulate the soil’s natural balance.
C&A Foundation and Solidaridad Asia have already incubated various local solutions that have been catalyst for the adoption of organic practises in the state, with an aim to reach 15,000 farmers. The organic cotton programme was also complemented with additional efforts by Solidaridad Asia on addressing the water stress challenge in the region by promoting micro-irrigation and rainwater management solutions covering 30,000 farmers. Dr Shatadru Chattopadhyay, Managing Director, Solidaridad Asia said, “We, along with our partners are creating a prosperous cotton sector by using sustainable production methods that have contributed to improved water use efficiency, worker health and safety and much-reduced water pollution levels.”
After setting the context for the day’s discussions on making a business case for organic cotton, the speakers deliberated on how local handloom enterprises can engage directly with farmers of their own state and pay them a premium price for cotton in-transition towards organic. The dialogue focused on farmers and big brands, and the business models that have the potential to scale up, along with the challenges and benefits of such business alliances. Participants shed light on policy enablers that would help strengthen the organic cotton sector. A need for traceability in the organic supply chain and importance of sustainability in the fashion industry was emphasised.
“The transformation has already begun, civil society organisations are ready to act, and farmers have taken the first steps on the route back to organic farming. Massive untapped sustainable potential is still awaiting realisation, so let’s all get started and embrace the revival of organic cotton in Maharashtra,” added Ms Chester.
About C&A Foundation
C&A Foundation is a corporate foundation working to transform the fashion industry to make fashion a force for good and is closely linked to the global retailer C&A. In 2016, the foundation invested heavily in India where programmes focus on improving farmer livelihood through organic cotton farming, building a resilient supply chain of organic cotton, and eradicating forced and child labour in the fashion supply chain. C&A Foundation supports over 33,000 smallholder cotton farmers in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat to convert to organic cotton farming. www.candafoundation.org.
About Solidaridad Asia
Solidaridad Asia is part of the Solidaridad Network, a global civil society organization that has been providing efficient,scalable and economically effective and innovative sustainability solutions in agriculture and mining sectors in collaboration with governments, businesses and community. Solidaridad Asia, headquartered in Hong Kong and operating from India, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Israel, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka has more than 320 sustainability experts operating within Asia and has the ability to organize and collaborate closely with businesses, investors, governments, producers, producer organizations, service providers, labour unions and other CSOs.
About Organic Cotton Accelerator (OCA)
Since its establishment by founding partners C&A Foundation, H&M, Kering, EILEEN FISHER, Textile Exchange and C&A, OCA has played a critical role in the organic cotton sector as the only multi-stakeholder organisation focused on creating a prosperous organic cotton sector from farmer to consumer. As an accelerator, OCA promotes best practices and transparency through the entire supply chain, to enhance the viability of organic cotton now and in the future. OCA unites and represents a large share of the industry voice and interest in the organic cotton sector via its affiliates, whilst OCA’s programme of interventions in India focuses on improving the business case for organic cotton farmers and the integrity of organic cotton from source to product. www.organiccottonaccelerator.org
BY Dr R S Deshpande
Former Director and National Fellow
Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru
The Indian economy and agriculture sector picked up from the low of 1965-66 We have now spent almost seven decades in pursuing a fire fighting approach. The desire to achieve a noble destination of self-sufficiency and higher welfare for farmers, is most welcome, but one needs to look at the scaffolding to be made ready for such purposes. Growth in Indian agriculture has been analysed by many and there has been a good amount of discussion about the ambition & feasibility of 4 per cent (+) growth rate over last three plans. Recently the NITI Aayog came out with a new proposal of doubling the farmers’ income, requiring about 9 per cent rate of growth in agriculture and allied sectors. Our experience of long-term growth will surely bother us in this new experiment as historically we have often failed to get to the set goals. Here, it is not really the growth alone that would suffice to double the farmers’ income but on priority imperfections in the markets have to be removed. This was the target of the plan, which was aborted after closure of the Planning Commission recommended by Chibber Commission. Efforts towards achieving such tall objective needs to be seen on the background of the history of our earlier accomplishment. The ground situation however, betrays such an ambition by far margins. The growth rates presented in Fig.1, are usually used in most of the literature are based on the traditional methodology across the phases.
Note: Average Annual Compound Growth Rates (%) during the Phase I: Pre-green revolution period (PGR) – 1960-61 to 1968-69; (ii) Phase II: Early green revolution period (EGR) – 1968-69 to 1975-76; (iii) Phase III: Period of wider technology dissemination (WTD) – 1975-76 to 1988-89; (iv) Phase IV: Period of diversification
(DIV) – 1988-89 to 1995-96; (v) Phase V: Post-reform period (PR) – 1995-96 to 2004-05; (VI) Phase VI: Period of recovery (REC) – 2004-05 to 2016-17.
Source: Based on Deshpande, J Prachitha and Shaha (2018).
The growth rates presented in Fig.1 are based on the GDP figures from National Accounts Statistics at constant prices. The entire five decades after independence, agriculture sector of India could not cross the 3 per cent barrier of growth or what was then called as Hindu rate of growth. It is only after the 2004-05 that the barrier was successfully crossed and thanks to the prices and inflation during those period the growth rate reached slightly about 3 per cent and stayed at 3.19 per cent per annum for a while. The euphoria of this high growth rate and consequent ambition of achieving a double-digit growth in aggregate GDP led the then Government of India, two relatively neglect agriculture sector and subsequently there was a trough in the sectoral growth rate. It is well recognised that the GDP growth is sensitive to agricultural growth despite the fact that the contribution of agricultural sector to total GDP is as low as just 12 to 13 per cent, but often the fact that agricultural sector has a depressing spill over effect on the other sector when the sector confronts trough, is forgotten.
Promise of Second Green Revolution:
The growth trends in the production of food grains and agriculture sector as a whole were quite worrisome during 90s and on the threshold of the millennium the farmer felt threatened due to shrinking income trends and huge indebtedness. The situation assessment survey undertaken by the National Sample Survey Organisation during their 59th round indicated devastating situation. About 40 per cent of the farmers felt that they must leave agriculture for better profession. The growth rates were not very encouraging and so also the trends in production. As a result the number of suicides in certain states started increasing and creating a very distrustful situation. A special meeting of the National development Council was called and steps were taken in order to give full attention to the agriculture sector. At the same time of Farmers Commission was established under the Chairmanship of Dr Swami Nathan and the Commission under its recommendation strongly argued for Second Green Revolution. This promise of Second Green Revolution is easier said than done as there are large across region differences in the country. As we can see from table 1, Indian agricultural experienced a long term growth rate in its production trends in the range of 3 to 3.5 per cent, and that may not be enough for the agriculture sector to promise good returns to the farmers. The stagnation in the net income generated out of agriculture has been noted and this was leading to impoverishment in the agriculture sector. Therefore, the target taken to double the farmer’s income in the coming decade’s most welcome target and that would sort out many of the issues in the farming sector. Even during last two years, the farming sector is undergoing very distrustful situation both due to natural calamities and absence of long-term policies. It is not that India does not have good policy documents, however, many of them have stayed far distance from the implementation desk. For example the Agro Climatic Regional Planning, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, National Commission on Farmers, and Agricultural Policy Document of 1999 – 2000 and many such documents. Our major challenge therefore, is to understand the weak and strong spots in the Indian agriculture and accordingly prepared policy which is regionally differentiated across the country, by providing incentives for growth to the promising regions and plug-in the weak points of the lagging regions. Unfortunately, this has not been done and therefore, we see a continuous long-term trend in the lagging regions and concentration of poverty as against a respectable growth in the promising regions. This second Green Revolution therefore has to concentrate on these two groups of regions and especially tapping the potential which has been very neatly explained recently in Making of State Agricultural Policy.
Farmer’s Income Trends:
The focus of the present policy has been on Doubling of Farmer’s Income and that requires first our understanding of the long-term trends in the farmer’s income. What has been observed in the analysis of CACP data by Narayanamurthy in 2013, is not very encouraging. In fact all years the net income of the farmer has been stagnating, even though there are positive and increasing trend is seen in the Gross Value of Production at an aggregate level. In figure 2 below, it is seen that the net income of the agricultural household is more or less stagnating over years and at the same time the farmers confront an increasing trend in The Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers. The result of this divergence between the two trends leads to impoverishment of the farm households and compels them to go out of agriculture. Therefore, it is not surprising that 40 per cent of the farmers indicated in the NSSO round that they would like to quit farming. This catch 22 situation is leading to severe distress and during 1991 and 2011 more than 5 million cultivators have left agriculture. In order to meet this challenge of doubling of the farmers income therefore, we need to focus on the cost of cultivation and reduction in the cost of cultivation or subsidising on the components of the cost of cultivation may help the farmers to increase their net take-home income.
Figure 2: Agricultural Value Added per Worker and CPIAL: 1986-2012 (1986=100)
Source: Author’s Own calculations Based on CACP data.
Increasing Cost: The Villain:
It was noted that increasing cost is the villain in the entire situation. After the Green Revolution of mid-60s, the cash component in the cost of cultivation of the farmers has been increasing significantly. The dependence on fertilisers, pesticides and purchased inputs has increased significantly and the dependence on these inputs puts the farmer at the receiving end. At the same time the prices of the purchased inputs are also increasing at a rate faster than the rate of growth in the productivity. The natural outcome of these divergences in the growth of fact the prices and product prices results in the shrinking of the net income of the farmer. More than that the farmer is today more worried about the bargaining power that they confront in the markets. Farmer has to confront the factor market and the product market. In the factor market which includes fertilisers, pesticides, new varieties of seeds, irrigation charges and labour charges. Prices of all these are dictated by the suppliers and hence farmer remains as the price taker in the factor market. Similarly, in the product market too, the farmer enters with flimsy bargaining power as the prices are decided by the operating cartels in the market. As a result, the policies have to be directed towards reducing the cost of cultivation or providing the farmers sufficient support in order to wipe off the effect of increasing prices in the input markets and cost of cultivation.
Prices and Market Sector:
It is no secret and rocket science to understand that when the onions are being sold in the open market at Rs 100 per kilogram, the farmer hardly gets Rs 15-20 per kilogram and the rest of the money system market intermediaries. Therefore, the dart thrown at the goal of ‘Doubling the Farmer’s Income’ is totally misdirected towards increment in productivity and production. It is the basic principle of economics that when the supply in the market increases prices collapse and therefore, if the policy focuses on increasing productivity and production, naturally the prices in the market would collapse and the farmer instead of getting incentivised, confront severe distress. From the economics point of view therefore one has to concentrate on the institutions governing market and prices and bring significant reforms in these two sectors.
Whither New Good Policies:
. There have been many policy documents issued by the Planning Commission and programmes undertaken like National Rainfed Area Authority, Watershed Development Programmes of different vintages, Marketing Reforms Programmes, Farmers Self-Help Groups, and many more. None of these however, produced the results as expected and some of them have been buried in the history with huge investment going down the drain. Agro Climatic Regional Planning and National Watershed Development Programmes for the Rainfed Areas are two prominent examples. No one ever asked accountability of drafting these programs and pouring in huge resources. Criticising the past mistakes may not help to reach the new policy goals and therefore, it is essential to work on a succinct policy document in order to reach the desired goal.
There are few important aspects on which the new policy should work in a focused manner. First among these is to provide institutional instruments to increase bargaining power of the farmers in the factor as well as product markets. Second, it is necessary to work on the prices sector and the marketing infrastructure. Alternatively, direct payment system or an income support scheme can be considered. This is largely prevalent in the European Union. The direct payment system involves compensating the income loss to the farmers due to price or yield collapse at the pre-decided price or market price during that year. The implementation process and modalities of this scheme are quite complex in Indian context. The second alternative is the income/price linked insurance scheme. These types of support schemes are under operation in many countries especially Canada, US and France. Under the Income Support Linked Insurance Scheme, it is envisaged that the farmers participating in the scheme (especially the Paddy and Wheat growers) will be guaranteed an income calculated by multiplying the product of average yield of the preceding three years and the market prices. Third option relates to operations of forward/future markets through establishing commodity boards for various commodities. This can be one of the important alternatives. The forward markets can undertake large purchases and sale the commodities that will allow smooth flow of the commodities in the market thereby reducing the loss due to fluctuations. This will also keep in control the prices and totally avoid violent price fluctuations. Future markets have been operating in the country and we have a Forward Market Board. The commodity boards on the lines of Wheat Board of Canada and Tea and Coffee Boards of India that work independently and autonomously, could be quite useful in keeping the prices under control and managing domestic trade.
Functioning of the agricultural markets and their interface with the market intervening institutions is another problematic area. A model APMC act was circulated among states and discussion was there to revise the act. A decade has passed over that, the Act is adopted by many states but not implemented in the full decade. The probable areas that need reform are I) Infrastructure creation as well as proper use of infrastructure, II) Process of grading and removing the inefficiencies in that, III). Process of auction and the probable nexus between the traders, IV) Reducing the dependence of the farmers on the traders and breaking the interlocking of the credit and product market. In addition to these the monitoring of the prices and a proper information system is required in all the APMCs. Thus reforms at APMC level should take priority over other factors.
A Case Study of a Successful Farmer
Mr. Kailash Murthy started working in agriculture in his farm near Kollegal, in the year 1984, after a successful span of working in Banking sector and a good career as a National level player. Initially, he followed all the recommendations given in the package of Practices given by Agriculture University with in a span of 4 years realized that, there are many changes taking place that included: i). depilation of soil fertility demanding more fertilizers; ii) Ground water depletion; iii) New pest attacks and pests started developing resistance to pesticides; iv) His cost of cultivation was increasing every season in geometric proportion. In the year 1988 he read “One Straw Revolution” by Masanobo Fukoka and since 1988, and since then he started experimenting in agriculture by cutting down on Cash Outflow on Cost of cultivation. His experiments included cultivation of different crops like Banana, Mango, Papaya, Coconut Arecanut, Sapota and among food grains Paddy. His farm has now realized: Increased Production of all crops; Soil and water conservation; Retained and incremental soil fertility; Biological control of pests and diseases, along with good Bio-diversity. In the year 2009, he requested agriculture scientist from different research centres to study merits and demerits of his method of cultivation practices. He feels that for Banana to develop pest resistant variety that will have natural biological control of control pests and yield better. Natural farming can double the production and conserve ecology at the same time address climate adaptability. His farm today has a production of 16-30 tons of Banana per Acre and 30-40 tons of Papaya. Besides fruit crops he has developed a new method of Paddy Cultivation with broadcasting and using sunlight and light irrigation. Paddy production on his farm is comparable to any of the demonstration farms.
The advantages of natural farming are quite a few and we overlook many times these long-term advantages to the environment and the farmer’s life. These include initially water saving and groundwater recharge. It requires less labour power and no fertilisers or pesticides. Therefore, the cost of cultivation goes down and consequently the farmers’ net income increases. Natural farming also helps in preserving soil fertility and in fact enhancing the fertility over years due to large organic content lower back in the soil. It helps to retain biodiversity in the field and reduction in release of Methane and Nitrous Oxide in the environment thereby helping to control Greenhouse Effect. Farmers can grow three crops in the year and conserve water in addition to saving on village sites, pesticides, and fertilisers. Ford will be non-contaminated and free of chemicals. This intervention therefore, will go a long way in retaining good health of the farm sector and income flow to the farm sector.
BY Prof. K C Bansal
Sr. Fellow, TERI-Deakin Nano-Biotechnology Centre,
The Energy Resource Institute (TERI)
Ever since the domestication of plants 10,000 years ago, the use of plant genetic resources by breeders in crop breeding programmes has led to the development of crop varieties that have contributed globally towards increased food production. These genetic resources for food and agriculture, however, need to be continually utilised for not only enhancing the food production but also for developing nutritionally rich and climate resilient food crops to meet the demand of the projected 10 billion people by 2050. The importance of plant genetic resources has increased significantly in the recent years in the wake of sustainability of agricultural production in a changing climate regime and with the advent of genomics and genome editing tools.
India is a biodiversity rich country and is endowed with vast biological resources in 3 out of 34 global biodiversity hotspots located here. Also, the 2nd largest gene bank of the world with 0.45 million accessions of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture is located in India. However, concerted efforts are needed to unlock this huge genetic potential by phenotyping and evaluating the entire collections of different crops in a systematic fashion as earlier demonstrated in case of wheat and chickpea.
With the availability of increasing number of crop genome sequences and the tools of computational biology, it has become feasible to identify genes and alleles, which remained otherwise hidden in the diverse crop accessions in a gene bank. The crop genomics is facilitating continuously to help us gain insights into the deeper understanding of the functional diversity present in millions of crop germplasm collections.
More recently, the CRISPR-cas based genome editing system has given rise to a novel platform for adding new genetic traits or combinations needed to further improve the existing high yielding crops with features like climate resilience, disease resistance, nutritional enrichment and efficient utilization of natural resources.
Hence, it is now the time to combine conventional plant breeding with precision phenotyping, genomics and genome-based editing tools for heralding a new sustainable food production system keeping in view the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs-2030).
BY Dr Ram Kaundinya, Director General,
Dr Ratna Kumria, Director of Biotechnology,
Federation of Seed Industry of India
The challenges of meeting the food security and nutritional security of the country in a profitable way for the farmer and in an environmentally sustainable way are enormous. We have to get ready to feed 150 crore population in the next ten years, with the bottom of the pyramid requiring food at affordable prices.
Science helped our country to achieve a breakthrough in crop yields and ensure food security except in oil seeds. Starting with High Yielding Varieties (HYV) of Rice and Wheat fifty years back we passed through hybridization and Genetic Modification in some crops to achieve this success. Our food grains production quadrupled in last fifty years. GM Cotton helped the country and the farmer to prosper. Hybrids in Maize, Millets, Sorghum, Vegetables and other crops helped us to meet increasing demand. Input intensive and high yielding agriculture helped us to keep food prices affordable. However, the debate continues about what technologies we should use for the future. Lack of profits for farmers and the adverse impact of some of the inputs on soil health coupled with the depletion of natural resources like water pose this question before us: what is the way forward for our agriculture?
ZBNF and Organic Farming
Some recommend organic as the way forward. Organic farming produces food according to certain production methods like cultivating without chemical pesticides and fertilizers and processing the output without ionizing radiation or food additives. Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) does not use any purchased inputs and instead uses cow as the central resource for managing several aspects of farming. Another method quite similar to ZBNF and organic farming is Biodynamic agriculture that considers animals, crops, and soil as a single, self-sustaining living system. It insists on the use of manure and compost along with herbal and mineral additives. The system uses astrological calendar for sowing to engage spiritual and cosmic forces.
Agriculture involves de-forestation, loss of biodiversity, eutrophy and acidification of the land and aquatic ecosystems. Globally agriculture emits 25 to 33 per cent of the total GHG emissions, uses 40 per cent of the land and 70 per cent of the available freshwater. These resources are not completely renewable, making the agricultural essentials continually scarce for the growing population. Similar studies show that 25 to 110 per cent higher land acreage is used in organic farming for obtaining similar production as conventional farming. Although organic farming utilized 15 per cent less fuel energy, it had 37 per cent higher eutrophication potential. There was no significant difference for Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (4 per cent lower in organic) and acidification potential (13 per cent for organic) between the two practices.
Despite lower fossil fuel consumption in organic farming due to non-use of fertilizers and pesticides, the GHG emissions are not lower as more land needs to be tilled and planted to obtain output comparable to input intensive farming. The acreage increase further leads to loss of biodiversity thereby negating the positive impact of low fossil fuel usage.
Organic farming as well as biodynamic agriculture yields are lower than high input agriculture yields by about 10 to 45 per cent. Since organic farms use manure that releases nitrogen as per the environmental temperature and moisture, the release and thus the availability of nitrogen for crops is not uniform, impacting the yield and increasing the land required for equivalent produce. The reactive nitrogen released by the manure forms nitrous oxide, which is GHG, hence there is no difference in GHG emissions either, even though the GHG types may vary for the two systems.
Organic and ZBNF farms are more labour intensive than regular farms due to manual weeding and pest control though it does generate more rural jobs. Human and animal labour costs ranges between 40 and 60 per cent of the operational costs and these are higher in organic/ZBNF system. In the tropical and sub-tropical nations, the soil health is poor due to heavy rains and no external inputs, the soil nutrients are not replenished by nutrient cycling or mobilisation from the subsoil. This is very different from the winter rest for the soil that helps in mineralization in the temperate nations. Large-scale organic farming does utilize approved pesticides and hence the produce is not completely free of pesticide residue. A US Department of Agriculture (USDA) report has shown that pesticide residues are found on both organic and conventional crops.
Usage of manure in organic farming on the other hand has led to many human health crises, including most importantly, E. coli outbreaks due to faecal contamination from manure. A comparative study in vegetables found E. coli traces on 10 per cent of organic but only 2 per cent of conventionally farmed vegetables. Similarly, fungal infections during production or storage of produce may lead to poor quality toxin contaminated food.
The organic produce may have higher micronutrient content but is very similar to produce of high input cultivation in nutritional value and taste. It is estimated that the lower productivity from organic farms and higher pricing of organic produce will increase stress on global food security. According to a paper in the Nature (Nature volume 564, 249–253, 2018), if one nation takes more land and grows the same amount of organic food, it would result in more deforestation in the tropics which would contribute to more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Research shows that organic peas, farmed in Sweden, have close to 50 per cent higher climate impact than conventionally farmed peas. Scientists have also shown that organic meat and dairy products are climatically worse than their conventional counterparts. Since organic farming requires higher farmland use, its impact maybe observed more in the developing nations than the developed ones.
The promotion of ZBNF promises reduced input costs, higher yields and better pricing for the produce. Unfortunately, the input costs are lower only when family labour does all the hard work and hired labour is not utilized for cultivation. It is much more labour intensive than conventional farming. A dramatic drop in yield is observed in the initial years of adopting ZBNF, which tapers off in 3-4 years, though higher yields have not been observed later. Similarly, there is no clear price advantage for ZBNF produce. Continued adaptation of ZBNF would require advantageous output markets along with farmers holding power, considering the low initial output.
The future
Our population will reach 170cr by 2050. The food basket is undergoing a huge change with increasing demand for nutritional, chemical free food. Demand for organic food is growing as income levels increase. Farmers’ profitability is not improving. Environmental impact of agriculture has to be reduced. We have to reduce the consumption of water in agriculture. Soil heath is to be improved with more organic matter. In the midst of all this is the threat of climate change which can reduce yields drastically. We need reorientation of the package of technologies we use in our agriculture.
There is no doubt that we have to reduce use of chemicals. Science & Technology supported high input farming helps to feed our growing population and work towards ensuring food security. Planting crop varieties that uptake and utilize lower amount of minerals and water to efficiently produce higher yields, have resistance to plant pests and tolerance to adverse climatic conditions, so that crop losses are minimized, is the sustainable way forward. Such biotechnology and mechanization supported produce that will be available in sufficient amounts and devoid of microbial infections and toxins will address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of no poverty, zero hunger and good health and well-being much better than highly priced low yielding organic food. Such produce will not only be profitable for the farmer but also safer for the consumer and the environment. Such an amalgamation of conventional and organic farming will improve the soil-plant environment and strengthen the coordination between promotors of organic and conventional agriculture towards food security and accessibility for consumers worldwide.
Every technology comes with its advantaged and disadvantages. We need to make available a basket of technologies including chemicals, HYVs, Hybrids, GM, Organic, ZBNF, etc to the small holder farmer. It is for him to decide what he wants to use in his field. Each technology must be used where it gives best results compared to others. No single technology can be a silver bullet for meeting our agricultural challenges.
BY Dr Bhagirath Chaudhary, Founder Director, South Asia Biotechnology Centre
Farmers are paying about Rs 15,000 crore GST annually on farm inputs to produce farm commodities
Farmers are the only businessmen today who cannot claim tax credit & cannot set it off on the sales they make
Input tax credit is a GST mechanism that allows the manufacturers/producers to adjust tax on inputs against tax liability on output i.e. sales
Farm inputs such as seeds, biological & botanicals, fertilizers, pesticides and farm implements are important components of the farming system. These inputs form the basis of farmers’ business for raising successful crops. Farmers spend tremendous amount of resources to buy these inputs and use them as an intermediaries in his/her business. He/she pays the goods and service tax (GST) on farm inputs, which is costing about Rs 15,000 crore annually to smallholder farmers engaged in the production of cereals, pulses, edible oilseeds, fruits & vegetables etc. On contrary, farmers sell his produce through APMC mandi’s where he/she cannot set off the input credit tax because of nature of his/her business.
Notably, farmers are spending about Rs 15,000 crore on GST annually on farm inputs such as botanical, biological, pheromone trap & lure, micronutrients, fertilizers, pesticides, tractor, drip/sprinkler irrigation systems or other agri equipment to produce farm commodities to feed Rs 135 crore and also contribute significantly in export of agriculture and processed food products. Unfortunately, farmers are the only businessmen today who cannot claim tax credit and cannot set it off on the sale of his/her produce. Input tax credit is a GST mechanism that allows the manufacturers/producers to adjust GST tax on inputs against tax liability on output i.e. sales.
The inability of farmers to claim input credit tax paid on-farm inputs, violates the spirit and foundational principles of the GST system in India. The smallholder farmers should, therefore, be provided a fair treatment in virtue of GST principles as they purchase farm inputs for raising crops, and do not consume them as final goods, and therefore there must be a mechanism for availing input tax credit. This is in line with the GST principle that goods and/or products consumed as intermediaries are eligible for the input tax credit. Hence, GST exemption on farm inputs shall be exempted in line with an exemption granted on seeds, animal & poultry feed – other two critical farm inputs.
Apparently, the issue of GST came to light while implementing the project on fall armyworm, a voracious pest that has become a serious threat to maize production in India. The project safeguarding agriculture and farmers against fall armyworm (Project SAFFAL) is executed by South Asia Biotechnology Centre and supported by FMC Corporation and implemented in collaboration with key stakeholders in maize value chain. Fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda is an invasive pest that has been a cause of concern for maize farmers in all maize growing areas since it was first reported in July 2018 in Karnataka, India. The project SAFFAL conducted large numbers of mega farmers’ awareness programs & mobilized grassroots extension & state agriculture department officials, researchers, RAVE students, Diploma in Agricultural Extension Services for Input Dealers (DAESI) retailers and NGO to help maize farmers deal with the devastating fall armyworm.
While purchasing the pheromone trap & lures, which are meant for monitoring of FAW adult male – a critical step in determining the ETL for farmers to implement control measures, we were shocked to pay 18 per cent GST, which was a trigger to look into GST on other farm inputs. To our conservative estimates, as tabulated below, farmers in India pay a hefty GST on farm inputs costing them about Rs 15,000 crore annually.
It is a profound tragedy that the hardworking farmers are unable to reap benefits from the claim of input credit tax on paid GST due to nature of their business, exclusion of farm commodities from GST, and non-enrolment of farmers on GST. Further, another issue contiguous with the proposed reform is the possibility of the manufacturers/suppliers of farm inputs reworking the costs to recover input tax credit paid by the company for various raw material, technical and packing material in the form of the increased cost of farm inputs from farmers. Therefore, we request the Government to develop a mechanism for absorption or refunding of the input tax credit for the production of farm inputs or provide GST exemption as for the seed businesses. It will help reduce the cost of farm inputs by at least 18 per cent-point basis and bring great relief to farmers facing the massive problem of the high cost of production due to climate change and infestation of invasive pest and diseases in India.
Unfortunately, the complexity of GST has deterred farmers’ organisations including farm bodies of different political parties, to comprehend the nuances about GST on farm inputs and has not been able to help farming community who is losing Rs 15,000 crore every year due to farmers’ inability to claim input tax credit. Therefore, the South Asia Biotechnology Centre – a not for profit organization has recently reached out the Union Minister of Finance to provide respite to farming community from the misbalanced GST regulations on farm inputs, which costs them Rs 14,500 crore per year and look into the possibilities of blanket exemption of GST on farm inputs – a necessary step to check increasing cost of production, which is an insurmountable barrier to doubling of farmers’ income – a clarion call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi .
(The South Asia Biotechnology Centre (SABC) is a not-for-profit scientific organization that aims at serving as a knowledge hub, helps in bridging the knowledge gap between science and society and facilitates the transfer of innovative farm technologies from the lab to the land. More about SABC at: www.sabc.asia and the Project Safeguarding Agriculture & Farmers against Fall Armyworm (Project SAFFAL): www.fallarmyworm.org.in)
The adoption rates of farm equipment have increased as indicated by the sale of tractors and the rise in farm power availability (FPA) in the recent past.
According to The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) -PwC report “Farm mechanization: Ensuring a sustainable rise in farm productivity and income’’ which released at EIMA AGRIMACH in New Delhi, India’s farm equipment market likely to grow to US$ 18 billion by 2025 from USD 13 billion.
As per Farm mechanisation in India is in the initial stages, with the mechanisation level ranging from 40–45 percent, which is very low compared to that in developed economies, where mechanisation has reached beyond 90 percent.
Highlights of the report:
India’s farm equipment market likely to grow to USD 18 billion by 2025 from USD 13 billion.
Farm mechanization in India is in the initial stages, with the mechanization level ranging from 40–45%, which is very low compared to that in developed economies, where mechanization has reached beyond 90%.
India’s farm equipment market is 7% of the global market, with more than 80% of the value contribution coming from tractors.
The adoption rates of farm equipment have increased as indicated by the sale of tractors and the rise in farm power availability (FPA) in the recent past.
Domestic sales of tractors have increased from 3 lakh units in FY09 to 7.8 lakh units in FY19, registering a phenomenal CAGR of 10%.
India is also one of the largest manufacturers of equipment such as tractors, harvesters and tillers.
With rise in pollution and huge nutritional losses through crop residue burning, mechanized solutions like the super straw management system (SMS) 5 and promoting Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) around stubble management are other important drivers fuelling sectoral growth.
Technology integration by farm mechanization start-ups, especially based on the farming as a service (FAAS) model, is gaining significant momentum these days.
The MoU will help formalize the working relationship between the two organizations in areas such as honey testing and promotion of ’Honey Mission’
The Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) to leverage the expertise available in CSIR with the effort of KVIC for promotion of honey production and also to enable wider outreach of the CSIR technologies and products.
The MoU will help formalize the working relationship between the two organizations in areas such as honey testing, promotion of Honey Mission alongside the CSIR Aroma Mission and the proposed CSIR Floriculture Mission. It will also explore enlisting of CSIR licensees in the KVIC network, display of CSIR technology products at important KVIC outlets such that CSIR products can reach to a wider audience.
The MoU was signed by Dr Shekhar C. Mande, Secretary, Department for Scientific & Industrial Research and Director General, CSIR and Vinai Kumar Saxena, Chairman, KVIC in recent.
CSIR has over the years, been pursuing research and development in various sectors and has developed a portfolio of processes, technologies, and products in these sectors. In the agriculture and nutrition sector, the focus has been in the development of technologies and products pertaining to medicinal and aromatic plants, floriculture and food processing.
Amongst its various activities aimed at the development of Khadi and other village industries in rural areas, the KVIC is implementing Honey Mission for introducing and popularizing modern beekeeping in the rural areas.
Arize rice has helped rice farmers increase their resilience through higher farm incomes and adoption of sustainable rice farming
In 2019, Arize completed 25 successful years of partnering with India’s rice farmers. To mark the occasion, Bayer released an impact assessment report in Lucknow, in presence of farmers, government officials and partners from the rice value chain.
About Arize hybrid rice
Bayer introduced hybrid rice in India in 1995, under the brand name ‘Arize’, to help smallholder rice farmers enhance their productivity and income. Today, Arize is Bayer’s leading hybrid rice seed brand in India with more than 25 million acres under cultivation. In line with the Arize ‘Better Rice, Better Life’ brand mission, Bayer also supports farmers to provide better education to their children through its ‘A for Arize’ initiative.
The report demonstrates how Arize has helped rice farmers increase their resilience through higher farm incomes and adoption of sustainable rice farming. Stakeholders attending the event applauded Bayer’s efforts in spreading hybridization and creating value for Indian farmers.
Key Arize farmers were felicitated at the event for their contribution to the brand’s journey in India and their openness to embrace hybrid technology. In addition, 25 ‘A for Arize’ annual scholarships were handed out to farmer’s children to enable them to pursue higher education. The scholarship amount includes Rs.20, 000 for secondary education, Rs.50, 000 for senior secondary education and Rs.1, 20,000 for professional courses.
Addressing farmers and stakeholders at the event, D.Narain, Managing Director, Bayer CropScience Limited, said, “Bayer has been working with smallholder farmers for many years with successful programs such as Food Chain Partnerships, Better Life Farming projects, capacity building programs and numerous Public Private Partnerships. In the Indian hybrid rice category, we are adding value to smallholders through Arize. Our aim is to enhance their resilience through higher productivity and income and help them shift from subsistence farming to sustainable commercial farming.”
“With ‘A for Arize’, we want to provide better education to children from India’s resource-poor rural farming communities. This will help promote inclusive and quality education and create a better life for our future generations,” added D.Narain.
Key findings from the Arize impact assessment report
An impact assessment report released by Bayer demonstrates several instances from the past 25 years, where Arize has improved the lives of millions of farmers and their families. Of the 2.6 million Arize farmers across 17 Indian states, many have turned their farms into successful commercial ventures.
The key impact points captured in the report include:
Improved Incomes: An average Arize farmer reaps a yield advantage of 20 to 35% of rice. Short crop duration of some Arize varieties allow farmers to multicrop with vegetables and other crops, which add to their income and helps them improve soil quality.
Improved Resilience: Arize hybrids are more resilient to climatic stresses due to a robust root system that can draw more nutrients and water from the soil. They are also better adapted to direct seeding techniques that use less water and labour leading to lower methane emissions, thus promoting sustainable agriculture.
Realising Aspirations: Higher yields and incomes allow farmers to not only attain self-sufficiency, but also enhance their quality of life. Income stability has also reduced migration of farm labour and made agriculture a more sustainable livelihood option.
Capacity building to promote hybrid rice
In Kharif 2019, Bayer conducted capacity building activities in the hybrid rice producing states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. The objective was to introduce advanced agricultural technologies to rice smallholder farmers. Bayer collaborated with 16 local NGO’s to carry out the distribution of 305 metric tonnes of hybrid rice seeds among more than 1,00,000 smallholder farmers, covering 1765 villages across the three states. Bayer is also using its ‘Better Life Farming’ platform to engage in round-the-year capacity building and create forward linkage programs to extend the benefits of hybrid rice to smallholder farmers.
Arize footprint in India
Currently, 14 Arize hybrids are cultivated in India, of which 7 have received public notifications for consistent performance. Arize 6444 Gold is India’s highest-selling rice hybrid that provides tolerance to Bacterial Leaf Blight (BLB). Another Bayer hybrid, Arize 8433 DT offers tolerance against both BLB and Brown Plant Hopper (BPH). The recently launched hybrid, AZ 7006 can grow in partially submerged conditions, which makes it a preferred choice for farmers in areas affected by flash floods. The short crop cycles of Arize hybrids have enabled multi-cropping, mostly with vegetables that can improve soil quality in the long-term.
Bayer conducts its rice breeding activities at Chandippa near Hyderabad, where a dedicated team of 35 scientists work to constantly find solutions to specific challenges faced by Indian rice growers, supported by agronomists across the country.
Central government will promote farm machinery to achieve diverse utilisation of mechanisation
FICCI, jointly with Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare has organized a three day exhibition ‘EIMA AGRIMACH 2019’ in New Delhi.
Speaking at ‘EIMA AGRIMACH 2019’, Parshottam Rupala, Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare said, “The government is committed to promoting the use of additional farm machinery in the coming years to achieve improvement in awareness about diverse utilization of mechanization and credit support so that access to latest technologies is not a constraint. Tractors dominate the Indian farm mechanization market and only 10-15% is contributed by rest of the farming equipment.”
This is due to lack of information about the advantages in using other equipment and practices in terms of productivity and yield, and operative challenges. Capacity building of local manufacturers in terms of quality and production would not only produce better equipment but also let them gain access to a larger market. Sustainable mechanization technologies need to be developed and promoted to address the challenges associated with crop residue burning”, he added.
Ashwani Kumar, Joint Secretary, (Seeds/Mechanization & Technology), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare said, “In order to support small manufacturers at the district level, the government is providing training to these manufacturers so that they can also access and benefit from the latest technology.”
Alessandro Liberatori, Trade Commissioner, Italian Trade Agency said, “India and Italy have strong bilateral trade relations and more and more Italian companies are investing in India, especially in the agriculture sector. He added that Italy will focus on developing newer customized technologies and support the Indian agriculture sector.”
G S Grewal, Member, FICCI National Agriculture Committee, and Senior VP, Kubota Agricultural Machinery said, Mechanization in India is growing rapidly but we still have a long way to go. “It is time that we move from ‘tractorization’ to ‘mechanization’.”
Alessandro Malavolti, President, FEDERUNACOMA, Italy said, “Mechanization is not only important to increase productivity but it is also important to combat the problems of climate change.”
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are conducting pivotal research that will help keep soil healthy now and into the future.
As the global population swells, boosting the demand for both food and energy, land management has never been more important. Now, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are conducting pivotal research that will help keep soil healthy now and into the future.
There are more than 2 million farms in the United States alone with more than 90 million acres planted for corn. The national statistics reflect a global phenomenon: Corn comprises 13 percent of the world’s arable land.
Scientists have long known that corn residue or Stover — meaning the aboveground portions of the corn plant remaining after harvest — plays a critical role in soil health.
“With so much of the earth’s land devoted to farming, it’s critical that we develop best practices to make sure we don’t exhaust this finite resource.” — Hui Xu, environmental analyst at the Systems Assessment Centre in Argonne’s Energy Systems division
Corn Stover is mostly left on the field either in its entirety or in a lesser amount, depending on the farmer’s practice and soil type. It serves many critical functions: It protects the surface of the soil by improving soil structural stability and reducing soil erosion, maintains agronomic productivity by replenishing soil organic matter, and conserves soil moisture to facilitate crop growth.
Corn Stover is a promising biofuel feedstock. The key question is whether corn Stover removal may affect soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil health. Researchers, aware of the problem, have been studying it for years, but their findings have varied. While excessive Stover removal is not a preferred practice, leaving too much corn Stover can also cause problems like harbour diseases, tie up nitrogen in the soil, and impede soil warm-up which is important for planting in the spring. This is why it is beneficial to leave some corn Stover on the fields but also to collect the excess.
Scientists at Argonne, who also had been examining the issue, led a pioneering collaboration to screen 3,380 papers published between 1990 and 2018 to quantify the overall response of soil carbon to Stover removal and to identify key drivers that can help with maintaining soil health.
They collected and analysed 409 data points from 74 Stover harvest experiments sites around the world. Teamed up with researchers from United States Department of Agriculture and universities, they came to important conclusions that could help farmers manage their fields in a sustainable way.
“We wanted to complete a systematic assessment to address these concerns so we could provide suggestions for relevant stakeholders and industrial leaders,” said Hui Xu, environmental analyst at the Systems Assessment Centre in Argonne’s Energy Systems division. “With so much of the earth’s land devoted to farming, it’s critical that we develop best practices to make sure we don’t exhaust this finite resource.”
This type of analysis has already improved scientists’ understanding of SOC implications for bioenergy production. While many believed that Stover removal may reduce SOC, this study showed that careful Stover removal could maintain or even marginally increase SOC stock.
Findings from this study can serve as inputs to a suite of models designed to evaluate a critical issue regarding cellulosic feedstocks production including crop residue, dedicated energy crops, and forest residues.
The Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Transportation Model or GREET, provides a transparent platform from which energy and vehicle producers, researchers, and regulators can evaluate vehicle technologies and energy systems.
Several Argonne scientists helped develop GREET, which is used by industry, researchers, and regulators to evaluate the energy and environmental footprint of biofuels. This new study only adds to GREET’s effectiveness.
“Every piece of new information we glean from our research bolsters GREET and reduces uncertainty about the environmental effects of biofuels,” said Michael Wang, original developer of the GREET model and the Manager of the Systems Assessment Centre at Argonne. “These are living documents. We update the GREET model annually based on creditable new data.”
The research was supported by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Bioenergy Technologies Office. The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy supports early-stage research and development of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies to strengthen U.S. economic growth, energy security, and environmental quality.
Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America’s scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by Chicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.
