The potential of Indian Agriculture

[nandu]

'India can be agricultural superpower'

New Delhi: India can become an agricultural superpower and the proposed food security bill is coming at the right time as it has the potential to prevent a backlash from people, says the chief of one of India's largest farming cooperatives.

"Unless the government can provide food security to its people, there will be a terrific backlash," asserted CV Ananda Bose, managing director of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited.

"Food riots have even thrown away governments in some countries. But India fortunately doesn't have a food crisis," Bose told reporters in an interview.

According to him, India had thought about food security "at the right time" and the bill in this regard was a "proactive step" initiated by the government. A group of ministers is discussing the final points of the food security bill.

Bose, a 1977 batch official from the Indian Administrative Service, said India can also become an agriculture super power if it taps the farming potential to the optimum.

"We have all resources to increase agriculture production and productivity. We only have to tap the infinite potentials of our country particularly eastern India," he said and added that his organisation had many roles to play to ensure food security in the country.

"Food security means providing sufficient, safe and nutritious food to the poor and the marginalised people to meet their dietary needs. We have many roles to play to ensure food security in the country," the civil service official said.

NAFED was established in 1958 to promote cooperative marketing of agricultural produce to benefit the farmers. Agricultural farmers are the main members of NAFED.

In a bid to give a boost to the government's effort to bring food security, NAFED has already taken certain steps, he said.

"We have sought the help of nanoscience and nanotechnology experts like P. Somasundaran who can help India ensure food security by increasing crop yields and reducing consumption."

Somasundaran, who teaches at Columbia University in the US, visited India last month and expressed his willingness to chair a task force being set up by NAFED on use of science and nanotechnology to boost agricultural production and prevent damage to food grain.

Referring to NAFED's decision to distribute high-yielding seeds developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) to farmers, he said "high yielding will stop the decline in agricultural production and can ensure food security".

BARC, under its nuclear agriculture and biotechnology division, developed 38 new seeds by combining mutation and recombination breeding techniques.

These include 20 oil seeds (groundnut-14, mustard-3, soybean-2 and sunflower-1,) 15 pulses (green gram or moong-7, black gram-4, pigeon pea or tur-4) and one each cowpea (chowli), rice and jute seeds.

Bose also conceived and implemented an easy markets scheme, 'farm gate to homegate' in Delhi, Chennai and Kochi as a price control intervention, when the prices of the essential commodities sky rocketed a few months ago.

NAFED plans to extend this initiative to other states, gradually. "Under the 'farm gate to home gate' scheme, NAFED procures essential commodities from farmers directly and sell them to people, eliminating intermediaries who make the process expensive."


http://www.zeenews.com/news623761.html

 

[RAM]

Punjab farmers take to emu farming

Amritsar (Punjab), May 3 (ANI): Poultry farmers in Punjab's Amritsar city have taken to emu farming to exploit the multiple returns offered by these birds, in terms of their meat, oil, skin, feathers and even their colourful eggs are in huge demand for ornamental purposes.With the poultry industry being caught in the imbroglio of avian flu, emu farming is fast catching up with the farmers of the region.Gunraj Singh, whose love for the bird prompted him to set up the first emu farm in the state, feels that emu farming would turn out to be profitable venture, and will hugely contribute to the state's economy."The reason is that poultry has a lot of problems, you know, as we are talking of poultry today. We are bringing up poultry, everything is coming on antibiotics and all medicines; there are a lot of things but in this itself, there is less of headache," said Gunraj Singh."We don't have to just feed them as we do in poultry. We don't have to do much. They are very hardy birds," he added.Emu farming is not labour-intensive and it is compatible with rearing other livestock.The birds are also said to be highly disease-resistant.

In winter, female emus lay eggs after a gap of every three days. Using an incubator/hatchery, eggs hatch in 49 to 52 days. Areas with water availability in abundance are appropriate to practice this unique farming.Emus need space to roam freely and if cornered, they can get aggressive by kicking their feet at the target. An area of 3,000 square feet is considered optimum for raising five pairs of Emus.
From a 14 to18-month-old bird, 20 Kilogram of flesh and at least four litres of oil can be derived.According to the American Cardiac Association, emu meat is very healthy and contains very low amounts of fat and cholesterol.Moreover, emu oil estimated to be highly medicinal is gaining its popularity in the pharmaceutical industry and is priced around Rs 4,500 per litre.Emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae), a flightless bird, is also the largest bird in Australia and the second largest in the world after its distant cousin, the ostrich.It can reach up to 6 ft (2m) in height and 66-100 pounds (30-45 kilograms) in weight. (ANI)
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india-news/punjab-farmers-take-to-emu-farming_100357818.html

 

[ajtr]

Assam tea estate goes organic ​

Visitors making their way along the muddy track leading to the Gossainbarie tea estate in India's north-eastern Assam state will be greeted by huge mounds of cow dung, rotting water hyacinth, as well as and fish and meat waste.
But this is no cause for alarm - the tea-estate has gone organic and is following the principles of India's ancient plant medicine Vriksh Ayurveda.
"This is our fertiliser because we don't use any chemical ones in our gardens," says Gossainbarie's owner Binod Saharia.
He has enlisted the help of a hermit-like bearded figure - former management consultant Swami Valmiki Iyengara.
Mr Iyengara says he has studied Vriksh Ayurveda, a system of traditional medicine, and evolved a concept of organic farming that is both sustainable and profitable.
"All pollutants are useful wastes and we can convert most of them into organic manure," he says.
"The ancient Indian plant medicine details processes for creating organic fertiliser from virtually anything.
"Much as poisons like mercury are used in traditional Indian medicine, pollutants diluted with other materials produce the best fertiliser," he adds. Water hyacinth, cow dung and cow urine have long been used as manure.
But Mr Iyengara has also developed organic manure from fish waste, "charasuda" (butcher house waste), "indsafari" (small fish) and the "bhasmas" (made from herbs and metals).
"We have enough organic fertilisers for a few planting seasons," he says.
Mr Iyengara and Mr Saharia say they have almost perfected the practice of organic farming.
They believe this could clean up India's - and Assam's - rural environment, which has been polluted by high use of insecticides, pest repellent and highly toxic chemical fertilisers.
Environmentalists argue these are penetrating the food chain and threatening the health of millions.
'Ailing estate' rescued
Going organic can also boost the market price of Indian tea and open up new niche markets.
These are factors that can help the country's tea industry overcome the high production costs caused by rising wages and expensive chemical fertilisers.
When Mr Saharia took over the ailing Gossainbarie tea estate from Assamese planter Mohammed Arfanulla early last year, the 140-year-old tea estate was waiting for someone to turn it around. The estate's annual output had plummeted from its peak 900,000 kg of green leaves to 355,000 kg a year.
One year on and things are looking up - the estate is poised to produce 600,000 kg.
Mr Saharia says he now wants other Indian tea planters to adopt his technology.
"We have no trade secrets. We want the whole of Indian tea industry to go organic all the way.
"In many estates, lazy managers routinely use chemical fertilisers even after the soil has gone dead. We want them to be creative."
'Unique experience'
Inderjit Singh Oberoi, a retired soldier-turned-manager, has worked for estates much bigger than Gossainbarie, but he joined up six months ago to gain experience.
"The concept being tried out here is unique and I want to be part of it," he says. "This could save Indian tea and get it niche buyers."
India's tea industry is burdened with rising costs of production and falling prices. Rampant use of chemical fertilisers and adulteration have denied Indian tea access to health conscious European markets.
India produced 981m kg of tea in 2009 - almost a quarter of the world's total tea output. Nearly 200m kg were exported.
Half of India's tea output - nearly 450m kg - comes from Assam's 800-odd tea estates.
Mr Saharia and Mr Iyengara say they encourage labourers at the estate to keep cows and collect waste.
That way, they are never short of raw material for organic fertiliser and also "it is an income supplement for the poor labourers".
Some Indian tea planters, such as Swaraj Banerji of the famous Makaibari tea estate, in the Darjeeling Hills of West Bengal state, turned organic long ago.
The Makaibari estate pioneered the practice of motivating tea labourer families to keep cows and supply the dung and urine to the estate.
"But we have shown the way for all tea planters to go organic on a sustainable basis because we can develop organic fertilisers from virtually all kinds of locally available material," Mr Saharia says.
'Reservations'
Mr Iyengara has also used his knowledge of modern management to develop a system by which fewer labourers are needed to apply the organic manure, over a wider area and in less time.
"Labour costs are the biggest overhead in Indian tea production and they make our teas less competitive in global markets," he says.
"But we have found a way to cut down hugely on labour costs by saving up on manure application time."
Mr Oberoi says he had "reservations" about the organic tea cultivation until he joined Gossainbarie.
"Now I know that the ancient plant medicine and the modern management concepts can work magic," he says.

 

[ajtr]

India's farmers profit from organic boom ​

Bathinda, India (CNN) -- The northwest state of Punjab is popularly known as the breadbasket of India.
But many local farmers say that decades of using chemicals and pesticides, encouraged by the government, has caused health problems including cancer.
It's a point of view borne out by research.
A 2008 study by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that the incidence of cancer in the area was nearly double that of a similar sized town 200 kilometers away, citing "involvement in cultivation, pesticide use, alcohol consumption and smoking"
It's not clear what's causing the cancer, but the study also noted that the drinking water contained several heavy metals.
India is one of the largest producers of pesticides in the world, much of it for local consumption. But now there's a new awareness.
There's a big change sweeping across the fields of rural India. Tens of thousands of farmers are giving up on chemical farming and going back to a traditional ancient way of farming which is organic.
Environmentalists estimate that India has around 300,000 organic farms. Farmers are learning different skills and adjusting their mindset, says Upendra Dutt, who organizes training sessions in organic agriculture.
Farming isn't just about chasing profits anymore.
"Eating an organic apple is not only good for you, it's good for the environment.
--Anuj Katyal
Farmer Nirmal Singh has stopped using synthetic fertilizers and pesticides on his fields in favor of organic ones made from cow dung.
"My input costs are lower. I don't have to spend money on buying chemicals," Singh says, "plus, it's healthier."
At harvest time, his yield is lower, but the selling price is higher. Organic wheat goes for three times as much money as wheat grown using chemicals.
With the growing demand both is India and abroad for organic products, it makes business sense as well.
Test your knowledge of organic food
Anuj Katyal's company exports organic basmati rice to 15 countries where customers don't mind paying a premium for the organic label.
India's organic farming sector accounts for only a sliver of the global $50 billion market for organic products but the potential is huge.
"We tell people eating an organic apple is not only good for you, it's good for the environment and will help the farmer grow another organic one," Katyal said.

 

[ajtr]

Bicycle inspired plougher and weeder gains popularity

The main part of Mr. Bhise's implement is the front portion of a bicycle, namely handlebar, front axle and the wheel.

A steel fork is connected to the axle and the other end carries different kinds of attachments.

Separate attachments for weeding, tilling and harrowing are attached to the working end, using bolts and nuts.

"This helps in changing the attachments as required. Suitable slots in the device are provided for adjusting the distance between blades to suit specific requirements.

Safety provisions are incorporated so that the blade does not injure the user at the time of reversing the device during weeding operations," explains Mr. Bhise.
...
The tiller attachment enables the farmers to cultivate medium-hard soil up to a depth of about one foot.

Mr. Gopal uses the device to carry out most of the farming operations. He no more needs bullocks. So far more than 200 devices are currently being used by farmers in the region.

Priced at Rs 1,200, a person can weed 0.08 ha in one hour. It is easy to operate and suited for those who cannot afford bullocks.

 

[ajtr]

Food security depends on small and marginal dryland farmers

Vilathikulam, in Tuticorin district, being drought prone most of the year, forced many farmers till a few years ago to either sell their lands or leave them barren.

But today more than 600 farmers in the region are successfully growing different crops ranging from sunflower to chillies, using low cost input technologies called Panchagavya (PG) for raising their crops.

FEW YEARS BACK

"Till a few years back, due to drought, many of the lands in our village lay fallow and unploughed. We walked several kilometres every day in search of potable water. The situation turned even worse during summer. Though a few big farmers continued to carry on with some farming activity, severe shortage of fertilizers forced them also to give up," says Mr. T. Antony a farmer in the region.

"Today, inspite of acute water scarcity and power cut problems, we are growing different crops such as sunflower, plantains, paddy, chilli, and groundnut successfully. Some farmers in our area earned nearly a lakh of rupees from growing small onions as intercrops in chilli fields," adds Mrs. S. Jayalaxmi another farmer.

 

[ajtr]

"Set up more public sector seed companies"

Eminent agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan on Saturday suggested the setting up of more public sector seed companies as thousands of varieties of hybrid seeds were lying unused and underutilised in universities and research institutions.

In his keynote address at the release of commemorative postage stamp on Padmasri G.V. Chalam, a pioneer of high-yielding rice revolution, Mr. Swaminathan said the country needed a two-pronged approach towards food security — get the best of good monsoon predicted by IMD for this year or reduce the adverse effect of normal monsoon.

"There is a shortage of 4 million tonnes of pulses. There are high yielding hybrid varieties, which can double the yield provided the best possible seeds are distributed to the farmers,'' he said.

Lamenting that seed production had not also kept pace with developments in agriculture, Mr. Swaminathan said that the Seed Bill introduced in Parliament had a lot of problems.

 

[RAM]

India aims to export $1 bn organic products in next 5 yrs

NEW DELHI: India aims to export $1 billion worth of organic products in the next five years as there is greater demand for non-food products such as organic cotton.

"Five years from now, we should aim at achieving $1 billion in organic products export by harnessing the potential in other products like organic cotton and other," Commerce Secretary Rahul Kullar said after inaugurating a software here on the occasion of 10th anniversary of implementation of National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP).

India's organic products exports jumped to $125 million from $12 million in a span of eight years, he said.

Khullar also called concerned stakeholders to focus more on promoting organic products in the domestic market.

"We are not concerned about organic products not only for export purpose, but also because environment-friendly farm practises will help achieve sustainable agriculture in the country," he said.

So far, the focus on export has been on organic food items, such as, tea and spices. But there is a greater scope in non-organic food items as well, he added.

Speaking about the software, Khullar said the launch of 'Tracenet' at national level to track organic products from farm to gate will help check export of spurious products.

The user-friendly web-based traceability system (Tracenet) has been developed by APEDA, a statutory body under the Commerce Ministry, to streamline and fasten the process of organic exports.

According to the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), Tracenet is the world's first software on organic products that can trace details of each consignment up to the farm level.

The software can be easily accessed anywhere by all stakeholders in the supply chain of organic export from farmers to certificate bodies, it said, adding that it will help establish the credibility of organic certification and deliver commercial assurance.

At present, the European Union, Switzerland and the US recognise the accreditation and certification standards set up by NPOP for export of organic products.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...roducts-in-next-5-yrs/articleshow/5934473.cms

 

[ajtr]

Israeli scientists to train Krishnagiri farmers​

KRISHNAGIRI: Israeli scientists will give training to farmers of Krishnagiri on latest technologies available in agriculture sector, Collector V.K. Shanmugam said here recently.

Israeli diplomat Avribarzur, Counselor - MASHAV (Science & Agriculture) at its embassy office in New Delhi, visited the district two days last week. During his stay here, he went round the poly green-houses and studied cultivation of vegetables and flowers under horticulture in Krishnagiri, Hosur and Kelamangalam areas.

He inspected the poly green-houses set up with government subsidy in Chinna Vellatharapalli, Pennapalli and Achettipalli areas in Hosur.

He enquired about the cultivation of capsicum and rose on small land holdings by the farmers with the help of the Agriculture Department.

Methods

With regard to methods of cultivation and fertilization, Mr. Avribarzur advised the farmers to reduce the application of fertilizers and liquefied fertilizers.

He also visited the agriculture fields where cabbage and beans are being cultivated using the precision farming method.

Later, he visited the mango orchards at Veppalampatti, Mahadevagollahalli and Jagadevi near Krishnagiri.

Later, he interacted with Mr. Shanmugam and officials from Agriculture, Horticulture and Agriculture Engineering Departments at the Collectorate.

Mr. Shanmugam said that the salubrious climate in the district was suitable for mango cultivation.

Hence, he requested Mr. Avribarzur to give training to the farmers on latest technologies to reap maximum benefits and extend technical know-how available in Israel.

Mr. Avribarzur said that he would send a team of agriculture experts in July this year to give training to the farmers in Krishnagiri district.

During the inspection, R Subbaian, Additional Director of Horticulture, accompanied Mr. Avribarzur.

 

[ajtr]

California to Kangra: One man's revolution​

Ramesh Ganeriwal and his organic farm have transformed the way a tiny village in Himachal Pradesh looks at itself and the world, since the 64-year-old NRI returned to India five years ago and made the state his home.
Ganeriwal, an energy engineer who spent 36 years in California, grows a wide range of vegetables, produces kaluna (a dark-brown local rice variety), and has set up an ayurvedic garden at his organic farm in Kotla village.
"Every bit of my farm is connected to nature," he says. "I want others to follow it (organic farming) as a way of life." He has employed five villagers permanently on his farm, and hires more than 15 in the sowing and harvesting season every year.
"He works with us in the field," says Madan (42), a villager and an admirer. "Whether it's mixing cow dung for manure, milching livestock, or sowing, weeding and harvesting, he puts in an equal effort."
Ganeriwal, who updates himself about farming through discussions with villagers, interaction with international farm scientists and by surfing the Internet, guides villagers when they face problems in their farms.
An Argentine couple is currently staying on his farm to learn rainwater harvesting techniques.
"I don't have commercial interests," Ganeriwal says. "I am developing it as a self sustainable eco-demonstration farm for others to follow."

 

[ajtr]

Karnataka farmers reverse grain drain​

By Anitha Reddy

KARNATAKA, India - Eshwarappa Banakar has been a farmer most of his adult life, but these days he has also turned banker - a banker of seeds, that is, and especially of millet strains.

Yet while his is Karnataka's first seed bank to be set up by an individual farmer, it is only one of the signs of the millet's creeping comeback in the agricultural sector of this southern Indian state.

The trend is partly due to the efforts of Sahaja Samrudha (Bountiful Nature), an organization working toward reviving the cultivation of traditional millets in Karnataka's dryland tracts. Banakar acquired his seeds from the group, which maintains a network of farmers and encourages on-farm conservation of



traditional seed varieties.

Krishna Prasad, founder and director of Sahaja Samrudha, said: "The focus of the conservation is to prevent the extinction of these valuable crops, and this can be achieved only by reintroducing them into the farming systems where it has disappeared."

Millets are staples of the traditional Karnataka diet, and are served usually as roti or as millet rice. They are considered rich sources of minerals, amino acids, and fiber. Chamarajanagara district farmer Rajashekara Murthy said: "The nutritive value of the native ragi [finger millet] varieties is so high that one ragi ball suffices to sustain a worker for the entire day."

The cultivation of millets, however, has been on the decline for the past three decades.

One major reason for this has been the focus on the more profitable cash crops such as sugarcane, potato, sunflower, cotton, and other cereals like rice and wheat. Millets at one point were also branded as "cereal of the poor", a negative connotation that could have only contributed to its diminishing popularity in the rural areas and to the non-existent demand for it among urban people.

Murthy points a finger as well at the Public Distribution System (PDS), saying, "The introduction of rice - supplied at subsidized prices through the PDS - has replaced ragi as a main staple."

Banaker said: "I remember my childhood when we depended only on millets for our meals, but [we] later changed to growing commercial crops."

Conserving millets, though, is strategic in terms of their nutritional contribution and their role in local agro-ecosystems, says Sahaja Samrudha's Prasad. Experts say that millets, which are low-water consuming crops, make sense as crops for the small and marginal farmers in most of southern India's semi-arid zones.

"Indian agriculture is mainly dependent on rainfall, as 70% of our net cultivated area is under dryland agriculture," said agronomy professor N Deva Kumar of the University of Agricultural Sciences in Bangalore. "In order to feed [our] increasing population, there is continued pressure on drylands to produce more."

Millets, Kumar said, are best suited for "low rainfall situations" and "are free from pest and disease attack". Thus, they will "play a major role in combating the situation of climate change, which results in increased temperature, reduced rainfall and reduced crop productivity."

Banakar, who has so far collected for his seed bank 25 varieties of sorghum, 30 of finger millet, and 10 of foxtail millet, besides a few varieties of kodo millet, proso millet, and pearl millet, realizes that now. The resident of Haveri district in this Indian state said that when his family was growing commercial crops, it incurred losses every time there was a drought or a flood.

Madegowda, a farmer who has taken to conserving about 26 varieties of finger millet on his farm in Mysore district, said, "It was the prevailing drought-like situation for a few years that finally woke me up to the fact that we can't get anywhere with only high-input cash crops.

"Drought, apart from bringing down yields, also dried up my crop, which created scarcity of fodder. Then I realized the value of ragi, which gives me food as well as fodder for my cattle. Purchasing fodder is very expensive from the market."

Koppal district farmer Shekammavani Huchhappa said millets can withstand not only drought but also heavy rain. Encouraged by Sahaja Samrudha, she has been growing the seven kinds of millets while following different modes of crop diversification.

Puttaraju, another farmer in Chamarajnagar district, also in Karnataka, cultivates a combination of different millets, pulses, and oilseeds even as he grows finger millet as a main crop. He said this ensures him of a harvest come rain or shine. The method, he said, will also increase returns from the land in terms of nutrient availability, water holding capacity, and soil fertility, in addition to helping with pest and disease control.

Mixed cropping of millet with other grains or legumes is an important practice in traditional cropping system and is receiving renewed interest along with the return of millets as crops in local farms.

 

[RAM]

Bihar to set up 8463 farm schools
Agricultural scientists and experts will impart farming lessons to marginal farmers in these schools


Patna: In a novel way to impart farming lessons to the marginal farmers in the state, the Government of Bihar has decided to set up schools exclusively for them. The schools will be opened on farm land in each panchayat of the state.
"The idea is to impart training to farmers about seasonal crops. While the agricultural scientists will be the teachers, farmers will be enrolled as students in farm schools," Agriculture Department Director B Rajendra said.
According to sources in the Agriculture Department, altogether 8463 schools are to be set up throughout the state. Each school will have 2.5 acres of land. Twenty five farmers would be imparted training in each school, known as learning by doing.
The Director said that each school would cost Rs 50,000. The farmers would be given Rs 10,000 by the government for sapling on the land. The farmers would stay in schools for 10-15 weeks. During the period, they would learn how and when to plant crops.
The first batch of trained farmers would later be assigned to impart training to 20 farmers of their neighbourhood. The schools would start functioning from 'Rabi crop' season. The government had earlier announced to open 1078 farm schools in the state.

http://www.igovernment.in/site/bihar-set-8463-farm-schools-37799

 

[ajtr]

Good response to new rice variety​

The new rice variety 'TNAU-Rice-Try3' released by the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University- Anbil Dharmalingam Agriculture College and Research Institute (TNAU-ADACRI) at Navalur Kuttapattu near here, has been evoking an overwhelming response from the farmers in general and hotel-owners in particular.

While the farmers are happy about the high yield in the 'samba' variety, the hotel owners are jubilant over the high flour content.

The flour was used for 'idly', G. Kathiresan, Dean of the College, told The Hindu on Monday.

Mr. Kathiresan said that the variety, with a duration of 135 days, was ideally suited for sodic and saline soil.

The high percentage of starch and carbohydrate present in the variety was responsible for the high flour yield from the rice.

The average per acre yield of 2,335 kg assures an attractive return for the farming community.

The yield would be higher in non-saline soil and also through better crop protection management techniques, he said.

The variety was being released this year, at the end of a prolonged research on 110 trial fields for a period of 12 years.

"We ascertained various parameters, including the nature of the soil, irrigation techniques, milling capacity," he said.

The milling capacity was 71.3 per cent, indicating that about 71 per cent of the paddy would be converted into rice and the full rice percentage was 66 per cent.

The college would celebrate the "Farmers' Day" on July 1 and 2 when the seeds of the variety would be distributed to each block.

 

[ajtr]

A novel attempt using drip irrigation for paddy​

COST-SAVING SYSTEM.
R. Balaji

Chennai, July 9

An initial experiment in the use of drip irrigation in paddy cultivation by Jain Irrigation has demonstrated significant savings in water and power.

The experiment conducted by Jain Irrigation, the country's largest manufacturer of drip irrigation systems, at its farm in Udumalpet near Coimbatore, showed that paddy yield was comparable to that of conventionally flood irrigated field. But under drip irrigation, the volume of water used was just about a third of that used in flood-irrigated field, apart from the reduction in power cost. The initial results are encouraging and the next step for the company is to focus on raising productivity, say officials.

The company was showcasing its study to a group of journalists it had taken recently to its farm.

Dr P. Soman, Senior Vice-President – Projects, Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd, said the demonstration of the reduced water use to get comparable output of paddy was a significant outcome of the study. Paddy is a water intensive crop and over the next two decades, scientists project a nearly five time growth in annual paddy demand to about 533 million tonnes. This would have to be achieved in the face of stiff competition for water.

Jain Irrigation conducted the study on a 27-cent (about a fourth of an acre) plot in which it cultivated ADT-45 variety of paddy under conventional conditions and under drip irrigation. The study showed that against a potential yield of 4 tonnes an acre estimated for the particular variety, it harvested an equivalent of 3.8 tonnes an acre under drip irrigated conditions and 3.4 tonnes under conventional flood irrigated conditions.

But the volume of water used with drip irrigation was 32.4 lakh litres an acre against 104 lakh litres under conventional irrigation, he said. The electricity used for drip irrigation was about half that of the conventional pumping. Subsequent studies are under way to look at increasing yields under drip irrigation systems.

While the results are encouraging, it will be a few years before the company is able to bring this technology to farmers, he said. The cost of cultivation would be a major disincentive. For instance, farmers would have to spend about Rs 57,000 an acre to set up the drip irrigation system which would be effectively used to cultivate paddy for about 10 seasons. There are also other costs relating to the changes in cultivation practices, such as mulching, that need to be adopted to enable drip irrigation.

This has to be considered against the backdrop of farmers getting free power for agriculture in States such as Tamil Nadu, he said. Also, drip irrigation for paddy is not covered under subsidy.

 

[ajtr]

Grain production estimate for 2009-10 raised to 218.20 mt
BS Reporter / New Delhi July 20, 2010, 0:33 IST
The government today revised upward its estimate for foodgrain production at 218.20 million tonnes (mt) in the 2009-10 crop year. The upward revision came even as the estimates for output of rice, wheat and pulses were revised downward for the year.

Even as the foodgrain production in 2009-10 is expected to surpass its earlier estimate, it continues to be lower than the output of 234.47 mt achieved in 2008-09. The fourth advance estimates has lowered the output forecast for rice, wheat, pulses and oilseeds but had revised upwards the projection for coarse cereals.Foodgrains are grown in both the rabi (winter) and kharif (summer) seasons.
The rice production is likely to be around 89.13 mt in 2009-10, lower than the earlier projection of 89.31 mt and much lower than the record 99.18 mt achieved in 2008-09.

The sharp fall in rice output was mainly due to the severe drought in 2009 that hit more than half the country. Though the wheat output is seen marginally down from the earlier estimate at 80.71 mt, it is still higher than the record output of 80.68 mt in the previous year.

Production of pulses is also pegged at 14.59 mt, lower than the earlier forecast of 14.77 mt, but higher than the previous year's output of 14.57 mt.

Similarly, oilseed production for 2009-10 is likely to be 23.94 mt, lower than the earlier projection of 25.41 mt. This is also lower than the previous year's actual production of 27.72 mt.

In contrast, the output of coarse cereals is likely to have improved to 23.63 mt in 2009-10 from the earlier estimate of 23.2 mt. Nevertheless, the output is still lower than the production of 28.54 mt in 2008-09. Coarse cereals had fared well last year as they are less dependent on monsoon rains.

The sugarcane output is likely to marginally improve to 277.75 mt, much lower than the previous year's production of 285.03 mt.

Among non-food crops, cotton production is seen to have risen to 24.93 million bales in 2009-10 from 22.28 million bales in 2008-09. One bale of cotton contains 170 kg.

The jute output is likely to have increased to 10.70 million bales (one bale of jute is equal to 180 kg) in 2009-10 from 9.63 million bales in the previous year.

 

[ajtr]

India says farms key to matching China​

By Anjli Raval in New Delhi and James Lamont in Mumbai
Published: July 20 2010 19:03 | Last updated: July 20 2010 19:03
Improving India's rural economy is the key to matching China's economic growth rate of 10 per cent, Indian financial policymakers said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a meeting on growth strategy over the next four years, K.M. Chandrasekhar, the government's cabinet secretary, said reaching double-digit growth was "largely contingent" on the farm sector's achieving 4 per cent growth.



Particular attention, he said, was needed to secure higher productivity in India's eastern states, Bihar and Jharkhand. Last year, a severe drought led to a contraction in farm output.

Mr Chandrasekhar said the global economic downturn that had choked off India's manufacturing exports had highlighted the importance of agriculture.

"The economic crisis taught us a lesson and the way ahead is through inclusive growth. We cannot afford to exclude the rural population ... Ultimately it was the rural sector that helped India sustain growth through the economic meltdown."

India has been the world's second fastest growing large economy, achieving 8.6 per cent growth in the quarter to March. Policymakers say the goal of double-digit growth can be attained through improvement in agriculture rather than following China's export-led growth model.

Some analysts say that India's farm sector was bypassed by reforms that energised the country's financial markets in 1991 and helped break India out of decades of low growth. They also criticise Sonia Gandhi, the president of the ruling Congress party, for keeping coalition ally Sharad Pawar, head of the Nationalist Congress party, in the key agriculture portfolio.

This year, Manmohan Singh, India's prime minister, said the priorities for his second term would be to match China's economic growth rates and achieve peace with Pakistan. High investment and savings rates made economic growth of 10 per cent a year "an achievable target" in the medium term.

At Tuesday's meeting, Ashok Chawla, the finance secretary, said agricultural growth of 4 per cent, industrial growth of 12 per cent and services expansion at 10.5 per cent was the combination needed to reach the goal. The investment rate would have to rise to 40 per cent of GDP, and the savings rate rise from 35 per cent to 37-38 per cent.

India is forecast to grow at 8.5 per cent this year. However, some senior policymakers warn that external shocks and the performance of the global economy will determine whether India reaches double-digit economic growth.

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[ajtr]

How 'rural' is India's agricultural credit?​

Data show that what is termed agricultural credit may have very little to do with agriculture, the way we know it.

One of the most intriguing features of India's agrarian economy in recent years is the persistence of agrarian distress in many regions, even while agricultural credit flow has risen sharply. Rising flow of credit to agriculture is normally associated with buoyancy in the farm sector. A closer look at the data on agricultural credit reveals that what is termed agricultural credit may have very little to do with agriculture, the way we know it.

It is well known that the 1990s were a period of sharp fall in the growth of agricultural credit flow in India. Numerous studies and reports have argued that one of the major factors associated with the agrarian distress in the late-1990s and 2000s was an increase in rural indebtedness, especially to moneylenders. According to the All India Debt and Investment Survey (AIDIS), the share of total debt of cultivator-households taken from formal sources fell from 64 per cent in 1992 to 57 per cent in 2003. In the same period, the share of total debt taken from moneylenders almost doubled from 10.5 per cent to 19.6 per cent.

In the 2000s, however, there was a reversal of the slide in agricultural credit flow. From the early-2000s, growth of credit to agriculture began to pick up. Commercial banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) played a major role in the revival of agricultural credit.

The revival story

The growth of agricultural credit from commercial banks and RRBs, which was 1.8 per cent between 1990 and 2000, increased to 19.1 per cent between 2000 and 2007. The share of credit supplied by commercial banks and RRBs in total agricultural credit increased from 30.1 per cent in 2000 to 52 per cent in 2007.

In part, the revival of agricultural credit was inspired by the announcement by the central government in 2004 that the flow of agricultural credit would be doubled between 2004-05 and 2007-08. Three distinct features of the revival story are worth noting (see R. Ramakumar and Pallavi Chavan, "Revival in Agricultural Credit in the 2000s: An Explanation," Economic and Political Weekly, December 29, 2007).

First, a significant proportion of the increase in agricultural credit from commercial banks was accounted for by indirect finance to agriculture. Indirect finance refers to loans given to institutions that support agricultural production, such as input dealers, irrigation equipment suppliers and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) that on-lend to agriculture.

Second, a number of changes were made in the definition of agricultural credit under the priority sector. The definitional changes broadly involved (a) the addition of new forms of financing commercial, export-oriented and capital-intensive agriculture; and (b) raising the credit limit of many existing forms of agricultural financing. To cite an instance, loans given to corporates and partnership firms for agriculture and allied activities in excess of Rs 1 crore in aggregate per borrower was considered as priority sector lending under agriculture, from 2007 onwards.

These definitional changes were initiated from around the mid-1990s, during the period of financial sector reforms. According to Y.V. Reddy, former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), ""¦ coverage of definition of priority sector lending has been broadened significantly in the recent years, thus overestimating credit flows to actual agricultural operations in recent years" ("Indian Agriculture and Reform: Concerns, Issues and Agenda," RBI Bulletin, May 2001, p. 5).

Third, much of the increase in the total advances to agriculture in the 2000s was on account of a sharp increase in the number of loans with a credit limit of Rs.10 crore and above, and especially Rs.25 crore and above.

Even within direct agricultural finance, which goes directly to farmers, there was a sharp rise in the number of loans with a credit limit above Rs.1 crore. It seems likely that these large loans were advanced towards financing the new activities added to the definition of agricultural credit.

Recent data on banking has brought out a fourth disturbing feature of the revival in agricultural credit. There has been a sharp growth of agricultural finance that is urban in nature. Between 1995 and 2005, the share of agricultural credit supplied by urban and metropolitan bank branches in India increased from 16.3 per cent to 30.7 per cent (Table). The share of agricultural credit supplied by metropolitan branches alone increased from 7.3 per cent in 1995 to 19 per cent in 2005. While there was a moderate decrease in these shares between 2006 and 2008, urban and metropolitan branches continued to supply about one-third of the total agricultural credit in 2008. Concurrently, there was a sharp fall in the share of agricultural credit supplied by rural and semi-urban branches from 83.7 per cent in 1995 to 69.3 per cent in 2005. In 2008, the share of rural and semi-urban branches in total agricultural credit was 66 per cent.

Inside Maharashtra

Let us now take Maharashtra, which boasts of strong banking development and yet is the State with the largest number of suicides by farmers. In Maharashtra, almost half of the total agricultural credit from commercial banks in 2008 was provided by metropolitan branches. Mumbai alone had a share of 42.6 per cent in the total agricultural credit supplied in Maharashtra as a whole in 2008. As a result, there has been a widening of the gap between the rural and metropolitan areas of Maharashtra in the provision of agricultural credit. Rural branches provided only 25.7 per cent of the total agricultural credit in Maharashtra in 2008.

It may be argued that credit taken, whether in metropolitan or rural areas, would ultimately benefit the agricultural sector. What is missed in this argument is that an urban and metro-centric supply of agricultural credit would only benefit large corporations with their headquarters in cities and engaged in agricultural production.

The actual farmer in the villages, particularly the small and marginal ones, would benefit the least from the non-rural nature of growth of agricultural credit. Regionally speaking, farmers from Vidarbha in Maharashtra, the region from where a large number of farmers' suicides have been reported, are likely to be the section that has the least benefit.

The increasing concentration of agricultural credit in the urban and metropolitan areas offers a missing link in the discussion on the persistence of agrarian distress despite the revival in agricultural credit in the 2000s.

 

[RAM]

State gets seawater farming technology

The barren coastal stretch along Tamil Nadu may soon come alive with jobs and food thanks to sea farming technology developed by the scientists of M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai."We have developed a seawater farming model in Chidambaram. Seawater will be used for cultivating mangroves, shrimp and crab farming," Prof. Ajay Parida, executive director, MSSRF, told Deccan Chronicle.

Prof. Parida said seawater farming was an ideal insurance against the increase in sea level. "The rising sea is led into irrigation channels that will transform barren lands into fertile farms," he said, adding that the Chidambaram model would soon be extended to other coastal areas.


The seawater farming at Chidambaram is a first of its kind exercise in Tamil Nadu. "This will help farmers grow shrimp, crab and other marine varieties on a commercial scale. The cultivators and consumers will find themselves in a win-win situation," he said.


The MSSRF scientists have also received two international patents for salinity and drought tolerant varieties of rice developed under the leadership of Prof. Parida. "This kind of rice offers security from tsunamis, global warming and rise in sea level," he said.
Prof Parida said as a part of the 20th anniversary of MSSRF and the 85th birthday of Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, a three-day international conference on priorities in global agricultural research and development agenda was being organized in Chennai from Saturday.
Dr Ismail Seragildin, who predicted that the next world war would be fought for water, is being honoured with the M S Swaminathan Award for 2010.




http://www.deccanchronicle.com/chennai/state-gets-seawater-farming-technology-071

 

[ajtr]

Food Prices Cool in India as Monsoon Rains Boost Planting of Lentils, Rice​

By Tushar Dhara - Aug 19, 2010 12:05 PM GMT+0530
India's food inflation slowed as monsoon rains boosted sowing of lentils and rice.

An index measuring wholesale prices of agricultural products compiled by the commerce ministry rose 10.35 percent from a year earlier in the week ended Aug. 7, according to a statement released in New Delhi today. It gained 11.40 percent the previous week.

India, the world's second-biggest rice grower, may have a record harvest this year, Vijay Sethia, president of the All India Rice Exporters' Association, said this week. Farmers planted monsoon crops over 10 percent more land this season from a year ago, the nation's farm ministry said Aug. 13.

"There is little doubt that food inflation will decrease and the speed with which it heads down will be faster after the harvests come into the market," said Dharmakirti Joshi, chief economist at Mumbai-based Crisil Ltd., the Indian arm of Standard & Poor's.

The June-September monsoon rains, the main source of irrigation in India, are forecast to be normal this year, according to the weather office.

 

[ajtr]

NABARD pilot project in State to improve agriculture efficiency​

Focus on lowering input costs by organic farming, increasing farmers' revenue


The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has launched a three-year pilot project in six districts of Tamil Nadu to make agriculture more viable by reducing inputs and labour costs while increasing productivity.

Implemented in collaboration with the State Government, non-governmental organisations and the local community, the project would focus on major crops of the districts, according to R. Narayan, NABARD Chief General Manager, Tamil Nadu Region.

Enhancing productivity per acre

In an interview to The Hindu here on Tuesday, he said that the project has begun at Villupuram, Krishnagiri, Coimbatore, Ramanathapuram, Thanjavur and would commence soon at Sivaganga.

The best farmers in the locality would be identified and measures to enhance the productivity per acre of land would be introduced.

These levels would be the benchmark for other farmers in the region, he said.

Eliminating middlemen

The project aims to reduce inputs costs by replacing the chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the indiscriminate use of which reduces soil fertility, with organic farming.

Another initiative was to ensure farmers have better price realisation for their produce by eliminating the middlemen.

Structures that provide a direct interface for farmers with consumers for select crops would be established in these six districts, he said.

"If this succeeds, we can show to the Government that this project, run by the communities, can address food security issues faced by the country and do away with the myth that agriculture is unviable," said Mr. Narayan.

Reducing migration

This pilot project also aims at reducing farmers' migration to the cities.

He expressed hope that some incremental benefits would accrue from the project as early as the end of first year itself.