Koraput's traditional farming practices - the answer to food security?

Article and image - extracts from article in Life - supplement - The Hindu Business Line, Feb 24 by Sarada Lahangir

Chandra Parajini is a farmer in Koraput district.  Instead of chemical fertilisers he uses cowdung and vermin compost.  Insecticides are from neem leaves and other medicinal plants found in their forests.  And over the past few years the yield and profits have increased three fold.  Other villagers have similar stories of success ever since they switched to traditional farming methods. 

Thanks to the efforts of these traditional farmers, Koraput district has been awarded the status of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System by the FAO.  

Dr M S Swaminathan, says these farmers are the pride of our nation.  By using traditional practices of over 3000 years, they have been able to conserve genes, seeds, grains and water and fight against hunger and food insecurity. 

A HERITAGE BIO-RESERVE

The hard work and traditional agricultural techniques of tribal farmers such as Pradhani and Jani have helped put Koraput on the world agriculture map. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations recently accorded the district the status of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS).

Koraput — a highland plateau in the Eastern Ghats — ironically tops the list of poverty-prone and food-insecure districts in Odisha despite its extremely rich biodiversity. According to studies by the Botanical Survey of India and the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Koraput is a veritable arbour — with 2,500 species of flowering plants, angiosperms, gymnosperms and ferns. Its agro-biodiversity includes 340 landraces (ancient or primitive cultivated varieties of a crop) of paddy, eight species of minor millets, nine species of pulses, five species of oilseeds, three species of fibrous plants and seven species of vegetables.

For Dr M.S. Swaminathan, considered the father of India's green revolution, this ancient reservoir of biodiversity is testament to the wisdom of local farmers. “These farmers are the pride of our nation. Their farming practices are more than 3,000 years old and they have been able to conserve genes, seeds, grains and water, and fight against hunger and food insecurity by using traditional practices,” he says.

Tribal farming families have, over several generations, successfully domesticated and conserved rice genetic resources. This tract is famous for the genetic diversity of Asian cultivated rice and is also considered the centre of origin for the aus ecotype of rice (Oryza sativa). What's more, the landraces of traditional varieties are believed to harbour genes that protect against ecological stress such as lack of water or too much of it — which could help scientists develop improved varieties of rice that are resistant to natural disasters.

RACE TO SECURE LANDRACES

The M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) has helped local farmers re-discover their ancient farming techniques. Struck by Koraput's paradox — a bio-rich resource base with food-hungry people — the MSSRF decided to act on the situation through its coordinating centre in the district's Jeypore block in 1998. Recalls Swaminathan, “The erosion of the genetic base of rice was what worried us. During the Jeypore Botanical Survey, conducted in 1950, the Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, enumerated 1,750 landraces of rice. Forty years later, in 1990, we could trace only 324 landraces of rice. A decade later, in 2000, we got only 102 landraces!”

The major problem was the low yield of the rice landraces that farmers preferred for consumption. This was compounded by the non-availability of quality seeds and absence of institutional and financial support. With poor-yielding rice resulting in insufficient income, farmers ended up in debt and at the mercy of moneylenders. The scientists realised it was important to focus on retrieving landraces with better yields.

A few villages around Jeypore were selected for demonstrating the improved methods of rice cultivation. Participatory Plant Breeding (PPB) and, to start with, Participatory Varietal Purification were the methods chosen to optimise productivity. Local farmers were involved in implementing all activities under the project. Dr K.U.K. Nampoothiri, agricultural scientist and Regional Director, MSSRF, Jeypore, says, “We designed a system to provide opportunities for developing efficient people-centric, pro-nature, pro-poor and women-oriented programmes in the region to usher in rural prosperity.”

BACK TO THE OLD WAYS

Participating with scientists as equal partners was a new experience for local farmers, with all decisions taken after mutual consultation. Special efforts were made to clear doubts and address concerns. This was followed by training and demonstration exercises at the village level. Farmers, together with the scientists, laid out two sets of demonstration plots. In one they used contemporary scientific methods of cultivation; in the other they raised crops using traditional, but improved practices.

The latter saw improved grain and straw yields up to 200 per cent. In all, about 26 landraces were put to the test across seven villages and the two best landraces for upland cultivation, two for medium-level land and two for lowland were identified. True, farmers needed a couple of seasons to master the technique of planting in well-spaced rows, but they were more than happy with the results. The experimentation is on. Dr Soujanendra Swain, Senior MSSRF Scientist at Jeypore, says, “We have now taken 17 more villages in three blocks — Jeypore, Kundra and Boipariguda — and we are currently reaching 60 villages, covering more than 4,700 tribal farming families. About 102 varieties of rice have been preserved. This has encouraged us to set up community seed banks and our farmers have raised 17 of them so far.” According to him, when MSSRF first started work here, each farmer family earned about Rs 1,200 a month, and they are currently earning 60 per cent more.

FEEDING A BILLION-PLUS

It is important to fight the stereotyping of tribals, says Swaminathan. “We in the cities conclude that because tribals haven't gone to university, they have no knowledge. But they have a deep knowledge gained from the university of life, especially when it comes to agricultural practices. For example, they use traditional methods to check the viability of seeds before sowing, maintain soil fertility and conserve landraces of rice and other crops. This knowledge has been transmitted from generation to generation,” he says.

The need of the hour, according to him, is to marry traditional wisdom with frontline technology, while ensuring proper distribution of food. “Finally, India's food problem rises not out of the lack of availability of food, but the lack of access to it,” says Swaminathan.

India's foremost authority on agriculture has spoken. Ancient farming practices can indeed help the country feed its millions. The Koraput model needs to be replicated in other tribal regions where food insecure communities live in areas rich in biodiversity.

The Hindu : Business / Economy : Farmer friendly MGNREGS from April 1

The Hindu : Business / Economy : Farmer friendly MGNREGS from April 1

Even while turning down demands for a moratorium on MGNREGS jobs during the agricultural season, the Centre on Wednesday approved new works that aim at boosting the farm sector. Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh released here a report, authored by Planning Commission member Mihir Shah, suggesting revision of the guidelines to strengthen the job entitlement programme that has run into rough weather of late. The new avatar of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, coming into existence on April 1, will allow farmers who qualify for support under MGNREGS to hire hands for eight man-days per acre for transplantation and for another four man-days at two intervals for weeding. Through this provision the Centre seeks to solve the problem of small and marginal farmers who not only find it difficult to get hands but also pay higher wages demanded by workers. They are unable to match the wages paid under MGNREGS. Now the government will pay for those working on agricultural land owned by eligible farmers. Both Mr. Ramesh and the Planning Commission member said the Shah-led committee had received several petitions to freeze the scheme during the agricultural season but these were turned down and instead it was decided to accept the proposal to converge MGNREGS activities with farm work. Out of the 30 new works approved, almost 90 per cent were agriculture related. Mr. Ramesh stressed that 75 per cent of employment was provided under MGNREGS outside the agricultural season and hence the anxiety in some quarters was unfounded. However, among others, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh complaining that jobs under MGNREGS hit agricultural activities. In another development, to safeguard the interests of manual labour, receipt of application has been made mandatory and inability to provide job would automatically generate an unemployment allowance under the electronic system to be managed by the States. Refusal by authorities to accept application for jobs has been made punishable. The States will have to approve the annual plan, for works to be taken up, at the gram sabhas to be held on August 15, in a bid to prevent distress migration. The States have been permitted to make an interim 75 per cent wage payment if delay is unavoidable. To eliminate misuse of funds, any panchayat or MGNREGS functionary found in possession of job cards will be hauled up.

More is still less

Report by C Shivkumar and K R Suddhaman as it appears in  The Financial Chronicle - Feb 17 2012

India will harvest 250 million tonnes of foodgrain this year. This will be a record, which nevertheless raises a paradoxical question: will this be enough to feed the 1.2 billion mouths in the country? Or will some of us still go hungry?

 One answer is ‘yes’. First, a good part of the produce will rot because of inadequate, improper or even absence of storage. Two, by the end of year the number of mouths that need to be fed will expand by 2 per cent. Three, farm produce will also have to support a rising number of farm animals. Four, the task of providing the amount of food needed to reach the ideal level of nutrition for all Indians is a tall order.

 But there is another, worse doomsday scenario — with severe implications for food prices — arising precisely from the food security scheme that the UPA government wants to implement. There has been talk of raising the calorie intake of every Indian to the western standard of 2,400 kilocalories per head per day. If this were to be attained, India would have to import 70 to 100 million tonnes of food, after exhausting the entire home produce. What this will do to global food prices is anybody’s guess.

 Planning commission member Abhijit Sen, who is in-charge of agriculture, said as far as balance sheet of food production is concerned, India had achieved 2,500 kilocalorie requirement of food intake per person in 1980s itself.Sen did not see any problem in meeting the calorie requirement in future as well because food grain production is growing, on an average, at 2-2.5 per cent annually against the population growth of 1.3 per cent in the country.

The food security scheme promises to provide every person in a priority household (read poor) person 7 kg of grain every month; a person in a general category household will get 3 kg — both at heavily subsidised rates. The two categories cover 75 per cent of all rural population and 50 per cent of all urban people. In sum, 67 per cent (or 804 million) of all Indians will be ‘food-secured’. The rest, presumably, will have to fend for themselves and, clearly, pay a high price for the privilege.China with a population of 1.3 billion — some 100 million more than the Indian number — produces 570 tonnes of food a year, more than twice India’s produce. Yet, China is among the world’s biggest food importers, buying 13 million tonnes of cereals from the global market.That could mean only one thing: the Chinese and their homestead animals are better fed and better nourished than Indians, even before our food security plan.

Food security will make India’s challenge more acute. To feed everyone, including those under to be food security, India needs to produce over 300 million tonnes of grain. Plus import some.National Advisory Council member NC Saxena said it was inappropriate to compare food grain production of India and China. In China, even potatoes, being carbohydrate food, are considered as foodgrain apart from animal feed.

Uma Shankari, a Delhi School of Economics PhD and a farmer in Andhra Pradesh’s Chitoor district, says that the current level of production is not enough.Siddharth Shanker, agricultural economist and director of commodity brokerage KASSA, holds that to meet the minimum nutritional needs, we must produce at least 320 million tonnes.Which, of course, Indian cannot. So large imports may become necessary. This has Shankari worried: where will we find that food without raising prices? In her opinion, food security has an in-built stoker of inflation.

MS Swaminathan, father of India’s green revolution, looks at the issue from a different perspective but comes to the same conclusion as follows:In most of the world one tonne of grain can sustain three persons for a year. If meat consumption in the area is high, only two persons can be sustained with a tonne of grain. With a purely vegetarian diet and with a large population of youth, India can support about four persons per tonne of grain. Even by this modest standard, India should have at least 300 million tonnes to feed the 1.2 billion Indians.On the farms, animals and table birds are mostly fed maize and soyabean. What this implies is that if we were to increase the human intake of nutrition through meat, we have to increase the harvests of millets in the overall food production.Swaminathan calls these coarse grains the real ‘nutri-cereals’ as they are very rich in protein and fibre content. India can, if it wants, greatly raise the output of ragi, bajra, maize and other millets, mostly grown in rain-fed areas.The draft food security plan includes millets and holds the promise of giving a fillip to their cultivation. Nothing works better in ensuring higher output than assured offtake at a remunerative price.All this suggests that even a harvest of 250 million tonnes of grain may not be enough.

Not unexpectedly, food minister KV Thomas does not agree. He, in fact, says India now produces more than it needs. His rationale goes: “If we are not producing enough grain, why is it that food inflation is slowing? We are forced to export because the godowns are overflowing.”Allaying fears over food security stoking inflation, he argues that the volumes the scheme will consume have been decided only after taking into consideration the nutritional requirement.Nutrition is a subject that politicians rarely touch upon.

 But prime minister Manmohan Singh has made it bold to call the malnourishment among Indians a national shame.Swaminathan has a simple answer to the nutrition question: improve the productivity, profitability and sustainability of family farms, particularly small landholders. This, he is confident, will help improve the nutritional intake of the malnourished.

Ashok Gulati, chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs And Prices, does not quite accept the malnourishment point. He calls the requirement of 2,400-2,500 kilocalories per person per day an “old theory” and, therefore, no longer valid. The requirement, he suggests, varies from person to person, depending on the physical work he does.But he does admit that “the bottom 30 per cent of the population no doubt requires more food.” What’s essential is the higher intake of protein to get the required calories. Of China’s annual 570 million tonnes of grain output, as much as 150 million tonnes is maize, most of which is used as animal feed. To produce 1 kg of beef requires 7 kg of grain; and 1 kg of pork requires 5 kg of food grain. Poultry has the much better conversion rate of 2 kg of grain.In a way, says Gulati, India’s predominantly vegetarian eating habits have provided a “safety valve” as far as our grain requirement is concerned. And this is what had led to a surplus. As a result prices are falling, says Gulati, asserting that it isn’t grain that caused food price inflation. The problem, he suggests, came from elsewhere. Enough fruit and vegetables (together, 200 million tonnes) are produced in India but up to 40 per cent of it go waste for poor logistics and infrastructure. Gulati, more or less, blames this for food inflation.To go back to the subject of grain production, there have been suggestions of shifting much of the base from Punjab and Haryana to eastern India. To produce grain both the states use huge volumes of water, fertiliser, power and diesel. The green revolution was possible because of energy intensive farming in the two states. Yet, the average cereal yield in Punjab and Haryana is 4,200 kg and 3,300 kg per hectare, respectively. The average for India as a whole is just 2,500 kg, half of China’s. Productivity in most other agricultural tracts remains low at about 1,500 kg a hectare.

We still haven’t found a way to raise this.Chandrakant, head of agricultural economics of the University of Agricultural Sciences, says dependence on water-intensive methods of cropping is not sustainable. India’s agriculture depends on the bounty of the monsoon, which has a history of playing truant. It can do so again, he says.Efforts are on to improve productivity, according to both Thomas and Gulati. Steps have been taken to bring three million hectares more under paddy in Andhra Pradesh. This should raise productivity. Gulati says the paddy success of Haryana and Punjab can be easily replicated in the eastern states where water is plentiful. Shifting paddy cultivation from just one million hectares in these two states to Bihar, West Bengal and other easternstates can solve two problems at once — one, the rapidly dropping water table in the two northern states and, two, the productivity problem in the east.

One area that needs a closer look is farm economics. Despite a plethora of subsidies (on fertilisers, power and a minimum support price, or MSP) to farmers, an overwhelming majority of them are no better off.The Union agriculture ministry reckons 150 kg of fertiliser is needed per hectare of wheat and paddy. Fertiliser prices (and therefore, the subsidy on them) ultimately depend on prices of feedstock, which can be gas, or a variety of chemicals. And these have been ruling very high globally. Many other nutrients are either directly imported. In all cases, a hardening rupee only adds to prices and to the government’s subsidy bill.Similar is the case of electricity and diesel. Both of which come dirt cheap to farmers. Both the policy-makers and those who supply these key inputs want prices raised. The government wants it to cut the subsidy bill and balance its own budget, but does not have the popular backing to do so.

Power in particular is a Damocles’ sword. States are being forced to raise power tariffs across the board and may ultimately do so jus to protect vote banks. At best, they may absorb some of the increase in the tariff payable by farmers.Still, the dark prospect is that they will some day have to pay more for all the inputs they use. In any case, the power situation is so bad in most states that supply comes only erratically; so irrigation pumps only working fits and starts. There are states where power is supplied when irrigation is not required and switched off in seasons when needed the most. Farmers end up using diesel get sets to run their pumps. In rural areas a lot of the diesel is sold in black market; the farmer has no option but to pay through his nose.In many areas farmers are not even sure of getting MSP as procurement agencies do not reach them.Since the normal law of pricing does not work for them, farmers live in a world artificially rigged from all sides.

 Shankari is clear that as farmers “we are not interested in subsidies; we are aware of the fiscal costs of the subsidies.”Swaminathan, who chaired a committee on national policy for farmers in 2007, had set a clear objective to be followed: “Improving the economic viability of farming by ensuring that farmers earn a minimum net income and ensure that agriculture progress is measured by advances made in that income.” The problem was that MSP was lower than the cost of production.Four years down the line, MSP still doesn’t compensate the farmer fully. “It does not reflect the actual cost production, according to Chandrakant.Under the MSP system, farmers are expected to surrender 70 per cent of their produce to the government. MSP for rice is now Rs 1,100 a quintal, or Rs 11 a kg. The price in the ration shops is slightly lower.MSP is decided on the basis of the recommendations made by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices Chandrakant says that in reality there is no subsidy as ration shops sells foodgrain that has been procured much earlier. What is procured now may stay in the godowns or in the supply pipeline for quite a while before it reaches the customer at the ration shop.A Karnataka government official who declined to be identified said, “If there is a food subsidy it is only on inventory carrying costs by the public sector Food Corporation of India.”Often the farmer has to wait for settlement of payment, which is made through “aratiyas” who are basically commission agents. In view of the farmer’s immediate cash needs, any payment for procured grain is made through these agents, who discount the payments by as much as 20 per cent.Banks, including those in the public sector, also do their Shylock act, similarly discounting credit payments to farmers. They give credit only up to 80 per cent. With this money the farmer is expected to meet all costs till payments for his produce come through, all the while bearing a 7 per cent interest on the bank loan. To him, going to the bank is not better than going to the commission agent.

Shanker says that the farmer cannot be encouraged unless “bank financing to his is a 100 per cent basis and on better terms.”With incomes under pressure farmers who produce the food are, ironically, the worst off. Last year food price inflation was in double digits at one point nearly 20 per cent.In such a situation, a farmer’s income should have improved and translated into higher savings. That did not happen because farmers are also consumers. It most hurt those who produced grain or vegetables.This is evident in an NSSO study. For every rupee earned, rural Indians spend as much as 52 paise on food. If other essential expenses, like electricity used at home, education for children and health, are factored in, the impact is even higher.No wonder that farmers want to sell less under the procurement scheme of the government, since they get better prices in the open market. For instance, in the open market rice fetches more than twice the PDS price. Though they have to go through private agencies that now scour the markets, at the end of the day the farmers still get more.They now want the levy component reduced from 70 per cent. This can potentially improve their returns.

But Chandrakant warns against the tendency which he calls “piecemeal and short-term.”The whole economics of farming has to be turned around from the heavily subsidised slant. Shankari calls for a mechanism for a full cost pass-through as in other sectors. “Else, farming is not going be attractive anymore.” The question though is of political courage of the government of the day.As the pressure to raise food production mounts, a section wants a bias towards more protein products, especially meat. The China example shows even that needs ever-larger grain harvests a bigger share of which will go into animal feed for meat.

Vicious cycle, if ever there was one.

India could show the way in organic farming in 30 years

Report by M R Subramani in The Hindu Business Line - Feb 16, 2012

                              ( image source - www.indiacurrentaffairs.org)

The focus at the BioFach 2012 at Germany is on India and its products. A total of 51 companies are participating in the BioFach which includes Tea Board, Spices Board, APEDA.

According to Mr Asit Tripathy Joint Secy millions of our small and medium farmers practice organic farming by default, because they cannot afford modern equipment and costly fertilisers and pesticides.  And the Indian government is now waking up to the possibility and potential of organic farming.

Indian organic product exports are valued at 400 million dollars and can grow to $1 billion by 2015.

The Government has set up the National Project for Organic Farming to launch organic certification programme for the domestic market.

The Chairman of the Federation of Organic Enterprise in Germany, Dr Felic Prinz zu Lowenstein,  said organic farming can provide food security and feed the world and that India could show the way in organic farming in 30 years especially in sustainable agriculture and food safety.

The President of the UN's IFOAM said the focus was on food security and poverty reduction and if this was to be achieved the focus should be on small growers who make up 70% of farming in the world. 

Equip Farmers to Tackle Climate Change Challenges

Excerpts from the Editorial in The New Indian Express Feb 8, 2012 Rain fed agriculture is practised on 80% of cultivable land around the world. The rain patterns are not as dependable as before and it is necessary that the farmers do not depend too much on rains. Even other sources of irrigation have limitations - ground water too is depleting. It is time thought is given to climate-resilient agriculture. For instance cultivation of rice requires plenty of water, yet farmers in Punjab and Haryana prefer to grow rice. It would make sense for them to shift to other crops that are less water dependent. Cash crops can be a good option. Bio-fuel plants can also be tried out. There is a need for afforestation drives, since loss of green cover is a factor contributing to global warming. Indian farmers, majority of them may be uneducated, but are not averse to adapting modern technologies that can make cultivation profitable. Even in the 60s and 70s they shifted to high yielding varieties when awareness was created by scientists and the government. A new green revolution is required to increase crop yield and reduce the dependence of farmers on water. They need to be weaned away from traditional styles of cultivation. And this can be possible only with farmers' education, strong political will, bureaucratic support and technological back up.

Fixed deposits of grain help villagers keep off debt

From the article in - The Hindu Business Line - Life supplement - Sarada Lahangir - Jan 26, 2012

In Koraput district, Orissa, half the population are tribals and working as agriculture labour.  Any mishap, a death, crop failure was leading to debt and bondage.  It was the initiative of a social activist Bidyut Mohanty who established a grain bank to help out the villagers.

Mohanty heads the NGO Society for Promoting Rural Education and Development (SPREAD) - and after consulting with the villagers,  set up the grain bank.  Each household contributed 3-5 kg of paddy and ragi. And the organisation contributed an equal or greater amount. 

Self Help groups managed the grain banks.  Excess stock was sold in the open market and the proceeds invested to earn interest. 

The villagers in two blocks, at present have contributed 33 quintals of paddy and 42.22 quintals of ragi, and SPREAD contributed 198 and 264 quintals respectively.  520 families received loans in the first year.Repayment is always after harvest when the farmers have a disposable income.  The villagers have been able to keep off debt. 

The grain bank has given the villagers a symbol of self-respect and community ownership and brought financial stability to many.  The World Food Bank has recognised the positive impact the grain bank has on ensuring food security and has set up more grain banks in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. 

Farmer in the News - Mr. R. Subbaian, of Kanakkan Thottam in Coimbatore district.

Excerpts from -The Hindu - January 19,2012 - M J Prabhu

Mr Subbian's field became polluted due to chemical waste seepage from dyeing factories into the river that flowed across his village.  Many farmers started selling their land and moving to cities, since the Government did not adopt any measure to stop the menace.

Mr Subbian stayed back.  He did some research on the crops that could be grown in the soil and heard of Alfalfa and decided to cultivate it.  He also took up multiple cropping to increase his income.  He did this to avoid risk of loss in case on failure of one crop.


The crops are grown organically since he did not have too much success with chemical farming.  He complains that the country is willing to import from the West and they dump us with their produce and are destroying livelihoods of the farmers here. 


He says green revolution is not just about fields turning green.  It should result in prosperity of the farmer.  Only then can it be accepted as a revolution.  The farmer remains poor throughout his life.but a rice mill owner flourishes as well as the cotton buyer.  


India he says no longer lives in the villages, it lives in cities and cramped towns. 

Mr. R. Subbaian at 4/5-A, Kanakkan thottam, A.G. Pudur (P.O), Irugur (via), Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu: 641-103, mobile: 0936-3228039, phone:0422-2627072

‘Food security legislation will add to farmers' woes'

The Hindu Business Line - January 23, 2012

The proposed National Food Security Act will add to the woes of the already suffering farmers of the country, unless the Union Government takes the necessary safeguards before formulating and implementing it, according to Dr Y. Sivaji, the honorary president of the AP Virginia Tobacco Growers' Association.

Dr Sivaji is one of the experts invited by the Union Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, for pre-budget consultations earlier this month. He said he had submitted to the minister that the prime concern of the Union Government would be to rein in the fiscal deficit and therefore, it would tend to keep the foodgrain prices depressed, in view of the huge anticipated financial burden. This would work against the interests of farmers.

Further, he suggested that the loopholes in the present public distribution system should be plugged before implementing the proposed Act. “Never in the history of India have we produced so much foodgrain as we do now, if we consider just one aspect related to the sector. We are expected to record 240 million tonnes of foodgrain this crop year even as our warehouses are overflowing with previous years' stocks. Yet, farmers continue to end their lives in their hundreds, year after year and some of them choose to declare a crop holiday in some areas. The winds of liberalisation have not touched them. The tragedy is that the farm sector is booming even as farmers are sinking,” he observed in a written note to the Finance Minister.

He said the root problem lay in the farmers not getting remunerative prices for their produce. “The costs of production have been spiralling year after year because of the steep increase in prices of inputs and also wages in the wake of implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. But the MSP for many crops is not remunerative and farmers are not getting even the un-remunerative MSP. There is no institutional mechanism to ensure it,” he noted.

He noted that “the rhetoric of inclusive growth is a cruel joke, as the rural sector is badly neglected. We are sitting on a social volcano which may explode any time. I submit that the Government should not neglect agriculture since it provides livelihood to 63 per cent of our population besides providing food for the entire nation. It supplies raw materials to industry and provides a market for the industry and service sectors.”

REMEDIAL STEPS

He suggested some remedial steps including constituting of Commissions on Agricultural Costs and Prices at the State level, decentralisation of procurement, and linking the MSP to spiralling input costs as is done in Dearness Allowance calculation. The difference between the MSP and recommended cost of the State agencies should be met as bonus by the State Governments. The abolition of all curbs on the marketing of agriculture produce within or outside the country was of utmost importance, he added.

Conversion of crop loans into key (pledge) loans soon after harvesting, strengthening the Agricultural Insurance Corporation, and promoting the seed village concept were some of the other steps that he recommended.

He wanted NREGP implementation to be restricted to the non-agricultural season. Further, he sought FDI in agricultural processing industry, especially in the tobacco sector.He also wanted the development of a farmer's welfare index on the lines of the UNDP human development index.

Maa Thota - for tribal ryots

A scheme promoted by AP Micro Irrigation Corporation and sponsored by NABARD is gaining popularity.  It is aimed at tapping hill springs by micro irrigation techniques. And plantations can be irrigated without using power supply by use of gravitational force of the continuous flow of hill springs.  This ensures regular water supply despite absence of power.  At present, two NGOs Srujana and Vikasa are handling the pilot project and the schemes might be see the light of day by February end.  They will work to educate the tribal farmers and demonstrate the feasibility of the scheme.

A sump will be constructed with a storage capacity of 25000 - 30000 litres at the highest altitude of the hill and water drawn through pipelines.  Drip irrigation systems will be installed.   Water through each sump should irrigate at least 30 acres, benefiting about 10-15 small farmers.  Areas where tribals live are full of perennial hill springs and these provide hope to the farmers who have no access to power.

Why seek retail FDI for cold storage?

The Hindu Business Line - Jan 17 - Shekar Swamy

Instead of handing over our markets and cold chain infrastructure to foreign companies, we can create our own inclusive solution that will be the envy of the world.



The word “reform” is a euphemism for big foreign capital to gain access to Indian domestic markets in a policy framework that is conducive to their success. The announcement on foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail, currently in ‘pause' mode, is one such example.

One of the major reasons cited for such foreign investment is that this alone is the answer to building our nation's cold storage chain, to reduce wastage of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Let us look at two simple low-cost solutions, both of which can be indigenously developed, tested and deployed on a mass scale.


Lesson from Nigeria

This inspiring example comes from the region around Kano, in northern Nigeria, an area characterised by hot days, low relative humidity and low rainfall that is concentrated within three months.

The region is home to a third of Nigeria's population of over 150 million people. The people are mostly small farmers and cattle-rearers. The area suffers from poor roads and power shortage, making cold storage difficult (a description that applies to vast tracts of India).

Consequently, farmers had to sell their produce at low prices, since they could not hold the produce.After studying the problem in depth, Mohammed Bah Abba, an enterprising lecturer at the Jigawa State Polytechnic, Dutse, came up with a unique solution. Hailing from a family of potters, he invented the pot-in-pot system of cooling (calledzeerin local language).

The pot-in-pot technology consists of two earthenware pots of different diameters, one placed inside the other. The space between the two pots is filled with wet sand that is kept constantly moist, thereby keeping both pots damp. Fruit and vegetables are put in the inner pot, which is covered with a damp cloth. The phenomenon that occurs is based on a simple principle of physics: the water contained in the sand between the two pots evaporates towards the outer surface of the larger pot where the drier air is circulating.

The evaporation automatically produces cooling, causing a drop in temperature of several degrees in the inner container, extending the life of the perishable foods inside. In tests conducted, the temperature in the inner pot was reduced by 6-8 degrees C in 12 hours, and could be maintained by keeping the sand moist.

The shelf life of the produce improved significantly, as shown in the table.

The impact of the pot-in-pot was a reduction in the wastage of fresh fruits and vegetables. Farmers could hold the produce longer and sell on demand at higher prices. The cost of a pot-in-pot unit is around $5 (less than Rs 300).

Will this work in India? Tests can be run in different States to answer this question. The concept is not new as it is similar tomatka-cooled water served in many parts of our country. More than 30,000 units are being sold annually in northern Nigeria. This can't happen unless it is successful.

The cooling required for many perishables is much more than what can be achieved in the pot-in-pot. However, this inexpensive non-electrical system can be the first level of storage in the farmers' homes, for produce which are amenable to this system. Lakhs of these of varying sizes can be deployed at a very low cost.

We all know how a bank locker works. We rent space as required, have access to it when we want, and pay a modest usage fee.

Now, imagine a cold storage room at the village level of size 20' width x 25' length x 10' height – 5,000 cu ft of space. Experts refer to this as a walk-in cooler.

Bank locker example

A cold storage space of this size can be set up for a capital cost of under Rs 7 lakh (land excluded), for a cooling level of 5 degrees C, which will cover most fresh fruit and vegetables. (Temperature and moisture requirements do vary. Meat, for example, needs to be frozen. Even that can be set up.) Each cooler can be run by an owner-operator, throwing up lakhs of rural employment opportunities.

The electricity cost for such a storage locker (5 KW per hour, running 18 hours a day) is estimated at Rs 4,000 per week. Farmers can rent space in the cold locker on usage basis.

The rental cost per 100 cu ft will be just around Rs 400 per week (assuming 50 per cent capacity utilisation, and a target revenue of Rs 10,000 per week to cover electricity cost, manpower and return on investment).

The government can guarantee a return on this infrastructure investment, like it has done for fertiliser plants.

(The real challenge will be access to continuous supply of electricity, a problem that is common to all.)

India can set up 100,000 (500 million cubic feet) of these cold storage lockers in the villages andmandisfor a cost of just Rs 7,000 crore.

To put this amount in perspective, the government is spending Rs 40,000 crore on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), which shows we have the resources.

India can build the largest disaggregated ground-level cold storage chain in the world.

I spoke to two experts in cold storage to collate and verify this information. They were excited that this could be done. One of them even offered to build a prototype to prove the point.

Transportation cold chain

The cost of adding refrigeration to a 7-9 tonne truck is around Rs 6 lakh. An expert in trucking whom I spoke to confirmed that truck operators will add this to their trucks, once they understand the higher rentals they can charge.

For a modest investment which can be indigenously funded, we can create a fleet of tens of thousands of refrigerated trucks plying all over the country. The pot-in-pot system, the cold storage locker chain, the refrigerated trucks, and presumably other simple ideas – all of these can be created easily.

FDI in multi-brand retail, with the massive damage it will cause to farmers and traders and the entire ecosystem, is not required to address the cold storage issue.

Instead of handing over our markets and cold chain infrastructure to foreign companies, we can create our own inclusive solution that will be the envy of the world.

Step up investments for better storage facilities

The Hindu Business Line - Jan 16 - article by Rana Kapoor - CEO Yes Bank


The World Bank estimates the prevalence of underweight children in India to be among the highest in the world. It currently stands at nearly double that of sub-Saharan Africa. This translates into a key factor contributing to our inability to ensure availability and access to nutritious food for millions in India. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) estimates that rice and cereal production need to grow 30 per cent, pulses 140 per cent and oilseeds by 243 per cent for the country to be able to feed its population by 2020. While programmes are undertaken on a mission-mode basis to increase food production, there needs to be a substantial capital investment flow in increasing infrastructure for food storage. Even as a substantial number have poor access to adequate food, there is a significant quantum of food that is wasted every year only because of insufficient storage facilities.

Global warming is threatening sustainability of current agricultural production levels. Research shows that if there is a temperature change of even 2 degrees Celsius and rainfall change of just 7 per cent, rice yields will fall by 15-42 per cent and wheat yields almost by 34 per cent due to compounded reasons such as drought, salinity and submergence. In the developing economies, creation of new industrialised infrastructure is causing climate change, even as the food economic system bears the increasing pressure of supply shortages and a diverse increase in demand leads to higher inflation. Monetary and fiscal policies can address this problem in the short or medium term, but efficient management of the country's food system becomes even more significant in the long term. Undoubtedly, efficient and effective storage is one of the most vital components of the food system management process. An efficient and strategic storage system not only reduces wastage but also helps in building a robust, just-in-time supply chain. This helps in reducing price volatility, ensuring higher nutrition retention, preserving value of commodities, reducing food inflation as much as in plugging the demand-supply gap. Creation of this additional infrastructure could have a multiplier effect in establishing associated agri- and food business ecosystems. Dry storages and cold chains consisting of production centres, centres of aggregation and even ports could then help in reaping a comparative advantage in export trade and also in efficient imports.