Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

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venkat_kv
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by venkat_kv »

^^
Just to add to cyrano and Shaun saars observations,
In parts of telangana, AP, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra the process of natural farming ("zero budget natural farming" ) are taking off for rice/paddy and fruits and veggies. these products are called "natural" and not "organic" due to the fact that organic needs certification and has its own set of rules. you can call a product organic even if you put in "certified fertilizers" and "certified pesticides".

the natural products don't use any pesticides, only use desi breeds of cows urine and cow dung ( people don't use Jersey/Holstein as they don't have enough micro organisms to help with the humus level increase in the farm land). you use garlic, ginger, green chillies with neem leaves, neem seeds with different combinations to help with protecting plants.

you will find farmers with their cell numbers willing to supply produce if you google zero budget natural farming in you tube with farmers who show their farm lands and produce.

pros:
1. I had written about it before and will say this again, this natural farming will lead to growing paddy without standing water, that will lead to lesser water usage.
2. the country doesn't need to import large quantities of urea and pesticides, a small and marginal farmer with a desi breed of cows or buffaloes would be able to do upto 30 acres of farming.
3. Since farmers are not spraying fertilizers and pesticides, there will not be any pollution of ground water or over the surface water sources. Also helps with the health of farmers who won't get sick with prolonged exposure in the fields.
4. People will eat healthy food which will help with residual cancer causing agents not entering their body and they should have better long term health and kids shouldn't have any allergies that are on the rise in India like in the west.
5. farmers don't have to spend from their pocket and state and central govts don't have to give money for subsidies for the fertilizer and pesticides.
6. due to using cowdung in the farm lands it eventually leads to earthworms coming in and breaking it down and increasing the natural fertilizer content of soil. the soil will need lesser and lesser content of artificial fertilizer as time goes by.
7. the farmer will have the milk products for his family at the very least if he has the desi breed of cows.
8. there are farmers who are selling desi cowdung to other farmers that don't have the desi breeds using online retailers for the same. Some are selling the flat cow dung cakes for puja and homam activities on line as well.

cons:
1.the first 2 years will see a drop in yields as you shift from artificial/chemical pesticides and fertilizers to the cow based natural ones. for eg in terms of paddy if you are getting 30-32 bags per acre, the first year will only see upto 20-22 bags and the second year will see only 25-28 bags. the third year should see you have the same growth as before and from the 4 year should surpass the chemical growth. there is a farmer "Vijay Ram" in you tube who claims about 55 bags of rice in Telangana using the same method. doesn't spend anything on fertilizer or pesticides.
2. this method should be utilized in phases as there will be a slight drop in production the first two years. But the farmers have to be convinced that since they don't spend any on fertilizer and pesticides, their money making would be the same with an added benefit of health and not polluting the water sources.
3. the negatives would be that there would be weeds as there is no standing water for paddy so have to keep ploughing/till the land.
4. the farmer needs to have a desi breed of cow or buffalo, so it involves getting grazing land/ grass lands for the same.

Most of the recent entry into farming is also from younger crowd that are supervising it over the weekend or have given up software jobs and are full time into it. they are supplying housing societies at the same price or slightly lower price than retailers and are making their money. just whatsapp the details in group and veggies and fruits are dropped on a prior agreed dates at the housing society and people are encouraged to try and see if they feel better using non chemical foods/fruits/veggies.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by venkat_kv »

I also want to ask any one involved in farming, has there been an increase in the price of fertilizers. My father has indicated the same that prices have gone up by quite a bit, but i wanted people from other states opinion as well to see if this was a gift only for telugu speaking states that their state govts have bestowed upon them.
thanks in advance.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by venkat_kv »

Also to add to cyrano saars point on refined oils, atleast in the hyderabad city of telangana you now have oil millers in small shops. so you can take 2 or 3 kgs of sesame or dried coconut and they will crush it and give you oil right then and there. you need anywhere from 2.5 to 3 kgs of groundnuts / sesame/coconut to get rougly about 1 kg of oil give or take.

for a lot of people its a sea change from refined oils that don't have any smell of the the requisite grains or nuts and these seem to be quite rich in smell and flavor and taste.
people in other states and cities should also get to do it if they are able to afford to buy oil seeds directly and get it done.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by sanjaykumar »

Great information venkat sahib. Thanks.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Vayutuvan »

venkat_kv wrote:Also to add to cyrano saars point on refined oils, atleast in the hyderabad city of telangana you now have oil millers in small shops. so you can take 2 or 3 kgs of sesame or dried coconut and they will crush it and give you oil right then and there. you need anywhere from 2.5 to 3 kgs of groundnuts / sesame/coconut to get rougly about 1 kg of oil give or take.
venkat_kv garu

That is great. Do they have telaka pindi for sale as well?
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by venkat_kv »

Vayutuvan wrote:
venkat_kv wrote:Also to add to cyrano saars point on refined oils, atleast in the hyderabad city of telangana you now have oil millers in small shops. so you can take 2 or 3 kgs of sesame or dried coconut and they will crush it and give you oil right then and there. you need anywhere from 2.5 to 3 kgs of groundnuts / sesame/coconut to get rougly about 1 kg of oil give or take.
venkat_kv garu

That is great. Do they have telaka pindi for sale as well?
Vayutuvan Saar,
Some of them should have but i haven't seen near my parents house though. For the uninitiated "telaka pindi" is "dried sesame cake" that is formed after oil is extracted from the sesame seeds. Some of the millers just give you back everything after taking money for crushing the oils while some seem to keep the waste as people living in city or apartments don't seem to have much use for it.

This "waste" is extremely rich food for animals like cows/buffaloes/oxen when combined with their dried and fresh grass. you can use this oil cakes as fertilizer in very small quantity for home gardens if you are up for it.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Vayutuvan »

venkat_kv wrote:This "waste" is extremely rich food for animals like cows/buffaloes/oxen when combined with their dried and fresh grass. you can use this oil cakes as fertilizer in very small quantity for home gardens if you are up for it.
In fact, when you go to a miller, you can ask them not to extract all the oil they can. That leaves some oil in the cake itself. That cake is extremely tasty. Usually, it is added to vegetables to make what is called telaka pinid vesina koora, i.e.Curry with sesame oil cake. It gives excellent flavor to the vegetables. They are given as treats and snacks to children. This works only with sesame, not with peanuts.

The meal is a rich source of nutrition. Here are some details from Wikipedia page on Sesame
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sesame#Nu ... nformation
*Nutritional information[edit]*

Whole sesame seeds, dried
Nutritional value per 100 grams
Energy 573 kcal (2,400 kJ)
Carbohydrates 23.4
Sugars 0.3
Dietary fiber 11.8

Fat 49.7
-Saturated 7.0
-Monounsatur-ated 18.8
-Polyunsaturated 21.8

Protein17.7
Vitamins Quantity%DV†
Vitamin A 9 IU
Thiamine (B1) 69%0.79 mg
Riboflavin (B2) 21%0.25 mg
Niacin (B3) 30%4.52 mg
Vitamin B6 61%0.79 mg
Folate (B9) 24%97 μg
Vitamin C 0%0 mg
Vitamin E 2%0.25 mg
Minerals Quantity%DV†
Calcium 98%975 mg
Iron 112%14.6 mg
Magnesium 99%351 mg
Phosphorus 90%629 mg
Potassium 10%468 mg
Sodium 1%11 mg
Zinc 82%7.8 mg
Other constituents Quantity
Water 4.7 g


In a 100 g (3.5 oz) amount, dried whole sesame seeds provide 573 calories and are composed of 5% water, 23% carbohydrates (including 12% dietary fiber), 50% fat, and 18% protein. Whole sesame seeds are rich (20% or more of the Daily Value) in several B vitamins and dietary minerals, especially iron, magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, and zinc.

The byproduct that remains after oil extraction from sesame seeds, also called sesame oil meal, is rich in protein (35-50%) and is used as feed for poultry and livestock.[7][8][32]

As many seeds do, whole sesame seeds contain a significant amount of phytic acid, which is considered an antinutrient in that it binds to certain nutritional elements consumed at the same time, especially minerals, and prevents their absorption by carrying them along as they pass through the small intestine. Heating and cooking reduce the amount of the acid in the seeds.[38]

Health effects[edit]
A meta-analysis showed that sesame consumption produced small reductions in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure.[39] Sesame oil studies reported a reduction of oxidative stress markers and lipid peroxidation.[40]
Adding the meal to curries lessens the phytic acid, adds protein and fiber, in addition to texture and flavor.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by venkat_kv »

Vayutuvan wrote:
venkat_kv wrote:This "waste" is extremely rich food for animals like cows/buffaloes/oxen when combined with their dried and fresh grass. you can use this oil cakes as fertilizer in very small quantity for home gardens if you are up for it.
In fact, when you go to a miller, you can ask them not to extract all the oil they can. That leaves some oil in the cake itself. That cake is extremely tasty. Usually, it is added to vegetables to make what is called telaka pinid vesina koora, i.e.Curry with sesame oil cake. It gives excellent flavor to the vegetables. They are given as treats and snacks to children. This works only with sesame, not with peanuts.

....
Adding the meal to curries lessens the phytic acid, adds protein and fiber, in addition to texture and flavor.[/quote]

thanks for the info Vayutuvan Saar, maybe its the next step in the process as these oil millers have sprouted recently with all the oils that people are using after using the "VRK diet to get rid of type2 diabetes". Most of these were mainly used for crushing dried coconut for the coconut oil.

As people realize there is more thay can do or somebody comes along and informs that this sesame cake is also good to be used in foods.

right now my best guess is people want the best squeeze for their bucks so to speak and are trying to get as much oil as they can from all their oil seeds they tend to give.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Vayutuvan »

venkat_kv wrote:As people realize there is more thay can do or somebody comes along and informs that this sesame cake is also good to be used in foods.
Have you seen a gaanuga? It used to be the standard practice in Godavari districts of AP. You take a a measure of sesame seeds - white or black - to the miller. They will crush in front of you and give you back the oil from your own sesame seed and the meal as well. You can speficy how much oil needs to be left in the meal. Excellent for all kinds of uses. That oil and nooziveedu rasaalu are the preferred ingredients for making aavakaya. Hopefully people start realizing the benefits of the traditional methods of oil extraction and the traditional varieties of fruits and vegetables but high yield hybrids.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Cyrano »

Haven't had telaga pindi koora since years... yum !

I remember seeing ads for home oil extraction mill somewhere on the net. Its the size of a small counter top home wet grinder. Could be a solution for (large) families.

Here is some good advice on cooking oils, though it doesnt cover all the typical Indian oils like sesame, ground nut, mustard etc. still really worth a watch.

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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by hanumadu »

Vayutuvan wrote:Hopefully people start realizing the benefits of the traditional methods of oil extraction and the traditional varieties of fruits and vegetables but high yield hybrids.
I am of the opinion high yield hybrids do not have the taste that naturally occurring fruits and vegetables have. That is the reason fruits and vegetables in the USA are big and colourful but tasteless.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Cyrano »

High yield hybrids are carefully cross pollinated (on tree or much more efficiently in labs) to repeatedly select for specific characteristics like size of fruit, colour, shape ==> attractiveness on shop shelf; but ALSO for time taken from seedling to plant, and flowers to full grown fruit ==> TTM/cash flow; and also pest and transport resistance through thicker skins and slowed ripening & maturation to the point of getting soft and mushy ie unsaleable.

Smell, flavour, taste are a bit secondary since if you manage to flood the market with only these hybrid varieties the consumer will anyway end up buying. Unsold stuff since they hold well can be re-routed to commercial cooking & food processing industry where all kinds of natural & artificial additives can be used to get any taste, colour and aspect you want.

With huge increase in take out/home delivery business, retail fruit & veggie sale will no longer be important for growers and marketers. Commercial kitchens & food processing industry don't care so much for quality veggies. Non veg eating has exploded in the past 2-3 decades - which again means lesser veggie consumption at home.

Unless people change habits drastically and return to home cooked meals as THE rule (and non-veg reserved for 1 day of the week) and eating out/processed food as rare exceptions, this terrible trend will continue in the name of modernising agri/food processing & restauration/retail/delivery sectors.

Remember: All these businesses are counting on one thing - That the common Indian household will lose all culinary traditions, interest and skills in cooking, by force or by choice so that they can make money.

Nothing good will come out of it as the Americans have shown us already.
Last edited by Cyrano on 27 Jan 2022 23:17, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Cyrano »

BTW, Hydroponics though nothing new, seems to have caught on in India as an investment/business trend. Has anyone tasted these veggies? Are they better?
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Vayutuvan »

hanumadu wrote:
Vayutuvan wrote:Hopefully people start realizing the benefits of the traditional methods of oil extraction and the traditional varieties of fruits and vegetables but high yield hybrids.
I am of the opinion high yield hybrids do not have the taste that naturally occurring fruits and vegetables have. That is the reason fruits and vegetables in the USA are big and colourful but tasteless.
They have too much water.

That said, consider this: No high yield, not enough food for the exponentially growing population. Malthusians might have the last laugh after all.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Vayutuvan »

Cyrano wrote:BTW, Hydroponics though nothing new, seems to have caught on in India as an investment/business trend. Has anyone tasted these veggies? Are they better?
I don't know about the taste but they are very nutrient intensive to grow. Chemicals are added to the water. As a technology, it is useful in places that have brutal and long winters - Russia, Alaska, Canada, Northern China, Tibet, Nordics. Their diets are meat/fish-based due to the unavailability of veggies.

India is on a fast track to eating out - both the parents working and children in (mostly) comfy schools even in second-tier cities. The rural population is now 40%. That said, who would want to go back to hours of cooking our grandmoms/grandaunts/moms/aunts suffered through?! Cooking using firewood or coal-fired stove, getting water from a well/tank/brook nearby, no kitchen appliances to make the job easier, and such.

In some sense, Europeans have found the sweet spot. Portions in restaurants are smaller but healthier. They seem to be a lot happier than Americans.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

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But why would India need hydroponic farming? It is not as though India lacks the soil suitable for cultivation. Of course increasing soil productivity and better crop protection against pest attacks is something else. Here again the current technology is self perpetuating. Productivity requires application of synthetic fertilizers and because these are sweet in taste pests are attracted to it and you need pesticides to kill them. With diminishing returns to scale you need to apply more and more fertilisers and more and more pesticides and the cycle goes on. That brings me to the issue agritech must focus on improving plant's capacity for photosynthesis. The Mexican dwarf variety of wheat was an attempt at getting more wheat from current levels of photosynthesis. I am not aware if there is more work being done on this.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Najunamar »

I heard in Prof Kamakoti's (Diro of IITM now!) interview a couple of years ago that he (experimented in his ancestral land! and) found good yields for rice with single strand clod instead of the bunch that they usually replant - any other studies? Would it be feasible with good mechanized planters? I am guessing the downside is mainly the labor involved.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by nandakumar »

Najunamar wrote:I heard in Prof Kamakoti's (Diro of IITM now!) interview a couple of years ago that he (experimented in his ancestral land! and) found good yields for rice with single strand clod instead of the bunch that they usually replant - any other studies? Would it be feasible with good mechanized planters? I am guessing the downside is mainly the labor involved.
I think you are referring to what is known as Systemic Rice Intensification method of rice cultivation. It is now widely practiced in Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by hanumadu »

Vayutuvan wrote:
hanumadu wrote:
I am of the opinion high yield hybrids do not have the taste that naturally occurring fruits and vegetables have. That is the reason fruits and vegetables in the USA are big and colourful but tasteless.
They have too much water.

That said, consider this: No high yield, not enough food for the exponentially growing population. Malthusians might have the last laugh after all.
Europe doesn't seem to grow the same stuff as in USA. I saw a youtube video once about a European saying that vegetables in Europe are way tastier than USA.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by hanumadu »

hanumadu wrote:
Vayutuvan wrote:
They have too much water.

That said, consider this: No high yield, not enough food for the exponentially growing population. Malthusians might have the last laugh after all.
Europe doesn't seem to grow the same stuff as in USA. I saw a youtube video once about a European saying that vegetables in Europe are way tastier than USA.
An article dealing with the same.
https://trulocal.ca/blog/21/why-does-fo ... -in-europe

I just hope India doesn't go the way of USA.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

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nandakumar wrote:But why would India need hydroponic farming? It is not as though India lacks the soil suitable for cultivation. Of course increasing soil productivity and better crop protection against pest attacks is something else. Here again the current technology is self perpetuating. Productivity requires application of synthetic fertilizers and because these are sweet in taste pests are attracted to it and you need pesticides to kill them. With diminishing returns to scale you need to apply more and more fertilisers and more and more pesticides and the cycle goes on. That brings me to the issue agritech must focus on improving plant's capacity for photosynthesis. The Mexican dwarf variety of wheat was an attempt at getting more wheat from current levels of photosynthesis. I am not aware if there is more work being done on this.
From what I hear, thats precisely the argument FOR hydroponics. Since plants are grown in a controlled environment - essentially greenhouses, and nutrients are supplied through water in a calibrated way, there is no wastage or excess of fertiliser used, far less pests can enter the greenhouses hence near zero pesticide use. Water usage is also optimised since no evaporation losses. Pollination is achieved in a controlled manner by introducing non-harmful insects like bees and butterflies or by human intervention. Also ripe fruit cannot be eaten by worms, birds and bats etc. So all this adds up to higher yields for any variety, not just hybrid varieties.

Creating that controlled environment is a big upfront investment but since plants are stacked, the yield is X times higher per sq m and therefore the upfront cost may not be more that the cost of land one would incur for producing the same in traditional farming.

All that aside, a lot of taste in fruits and veggies comes from the nature/composition of the soil. Along with essential nutrients, lot of other minerals are absorbed by the plants as well, which make the flavour rich and distinct. The same variety grown in different soils will taste somewhat different. In that respect, I was wondering how Hydroponic produce measures up.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Cyrano »

BTW, increased CO2 concentration in the atmosphere leads to increased plant growth - they can fix more CO2 during photosynthesis. The whole planet and India as well are seeing better yields and increased green cover due to this. This is independent of any benefits of higher temperatures.

I'm a skeptic about this whole anthropogenic global warming / climate change thing, so discounting that higher CO2 is good for plants, human activities produce CO2 as part of a number of other toxic pollutants and exploitation of natural resources and efluents/waste generation which is a far bigger problem than some hypothetical 1°C global temperature increase in future...

(Methinks climate change is an easy way to get oneself the woke warm fuzzy feeling of being important and doing something without actually doing anything, hence its popularity among people, and the greenwashing of corporates. Real problems like pollution, exploitation, waste, biodiversity etc are much more difficult to address and need years of work, and this climate change debate conveniently side steps that inconvenient truth)
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

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Vayutuvan wrote:who would want to go back to hours of cooking our grandmoms/grandaunts/moms/aunts suffered through?! Cooking using firewood or coal-fired stove, getting water from a well/tank/brook nearby, no kitchen appliances to make the job easier, and such.
Replied in Health, Nutrition & Fitness thread.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by stephen »

Cyrano wrote:
nandakumar wrote:But why would India need hydroponic farming? It is not as though India lacks the soil suitable for cultivation.

All that aside, a lot of taste in fruits and veggies comes from the nature/composition of the soil. Along with essential nutrients, lot of other minerals are absorbed by the plants as well, which make the flavour rich and distinct. The same variety grown in different soils will taste somewhat different. In that respect, I was wondering how Hydroponic produce measures up.
Well i wont claim I have eaten a lot of Hydroponically grown veggies, but i do buy hydroponically grown Romaine lettuce from Big Basket. They have a range of green leafy hydroponically grown veggie section (mostly lettuce varieties, baby spinach, Arugula, basil, kale etc). The price is a bit higher than in the market (New Delhi). I cannot discern much difference in taste, but I'll admit all exotic veggies are usually devoid of much taste as they have been grown with the addition of much chemical fertilizers. They are grown to look good. At present apart from the veggies I have mentioned above there is not much variety available in the market, guess the quantity of produce is not very high as there are no large scale hydroponic farms around.

There should be a considerable difference in taste vis a vis a soil grown produce, the terroir (as the French describes it) does have a lot of influence in the taste of the produce and it will be neigh impossible to replicate it artificially, the minerals and other nutrients can be easily controlled. Hydroponics makes growing of various vegetable species possible even in areas where it may not have been possible to and definitely increases the yield per acre due to it being done vertically too. But taste and the species that can be cultivated will definitely limited.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by venkat_kv »

Vayutuvan wrote:
venkat_kv wrote:As people realize there is more thay can do or somebody comes along and informs that this sesame cake is also good to be used in foods.
Have you seen a gaanuga? It used to be the standard practice in Godavari districts of AP. You take a a measure of sesame seeds - white or black - to the miller. They will crush in front of you and give you back the oil from your own sesame seed and the meal as well. You can speficy how much oil needs to be left in the meal. Excellent for all kinds of uses. That oil and nooziveedu rasaalu are the preferred ingredients for making aavakaya. Hopefully people start realizing the benefits of the traditional methods of oil extraction and the traditional varieties of fruits and vegetables but high yield hybrids.
Vayutuvan Saar,
I haven't seen the wooden one used traditionally in my ancestral places in Krishna dist. any more as more and more people shifted to refined oils and shopping directly from the market. My mom used to recollect that in her childhood the oil would be prepared and genrally supplied once or twice a year from the wooden "gaanuga" that was used by ox/bulls to turn and crush the sesame seeds.

you have the same setup in the hyd. city now with wooden or metal "gaanuga" that is run using electricity. its much smaller in size than the traditionally used ones from what i can make out.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by venkat_kv »

stephen wrote:
Cyrano wrote:
Well i wont claim I have eaten a lot of Hydroponically grown veggies, but i do buy hydroponically grown Romaine lettuce from Big Basket. They have a range of green leafy hydroponically grown veggie section (mostly lettuce varieties, baby spinach, Arugula, basil, kale etc). The price is a bit higher than in the market (New Delhi). I cannot discern much difference in taste, but I'll admit all exotic veggies are usually devoid of much taste as they have been grown with the addition of much chemical fertilizers. They are grown to look good. At present apart from the veggies I have mentioned above there is not much variety available in the market, guess the quantity of produce is not very high as there are no large scale hydroponic farms around.

There should be a considerable difference in taste vis a vis a soil grown produce, the terroir (as the French describes it) does have a lot of influence in the taste of the produce and it will be neigh impossible to replicate it artificially, the minerals and other nutrients can be easily controlled. Hydroponics makes growing of various vegetable species possible even in areas where it may not have been possible to and definitely increases the yield per acre due to it being done vertically too. But taste and the species that can be cultivated will definitely limited.
Just to echo what Stephen Saar and Vayutuvan Saar also mentioned,
Hydroponics is currently used as a method to grow primarily green leafy veggies and fibrous ones (like potatoes and carrots, they may move to many more set of veggies in the coming days but it is to be seen).
This method also came along primarily due to the green house effect and vertical stacking for cold countries to increase their yield or use it in their homes to grow some leafy greens.
This method can be used in some regions in India like the colder or mountainous regions to grow food to supplement with the addition of soil instead of putting chemical in water if we are to have long term effects on our health.

I would say the Israeli method of growing veggies vertically is much cheaper and better for large parts of India, Take for example tomatoes or bottle gourds/ridge gourds/snake gourds. most of the traditional way had them lying on the ground and picking veggies as they were growing, now you tie a metal string or rope and then have the plant grow on it and then pick the veggies as they grow on that string, so instead of the plant expanding on the ground horizontally they will grow vertically where you can have more plants per acre giving more yield and also most of the veggies are not exposed to the elements/predators on the ground.

My personal preference is to use zero budget farming to increase the soil natural nutrient content and then use these kind of methods to get better yield and then of course have private or govt sectors pick up the produce as and when ready and farmers rotating their crops from the same land to have year round produce of different crops/veggies and if this can continue for a few years where the weather Gods are also blessing us then the farm sector will be in safe hands at the very minimum and we don't need local parties to run after farm loan waivers burning holes in the local state budget as well.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

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Agri Ministry estimates foodgrains output at record 316.06 million tonnes this year.

India is set to harvest record foodgrains in the 2021-22 crop year (July-June), thanks to a new high in the output of rice, wheat, maize and pulses, the government said on Wednesday. The record production of foodgrains, which has been rising continuously every year since 2016-17, has helped India to be among the top 10 agricultural produce exporters in the world. At the same time, the food subsidy, too, has been rising every year with the surplus getting distributed among the poor people to ensure food security.

Total production of foodgrains is estimated to be 316.06 million tonnes (mt) this year, comprising 153.54 mt from the kharif season and 162.53 mt from the rabi season, the Agriculture Ministry said.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Prasad »

We keep hearing about how FCI has massive stocks and its a dead-end storage and doesn't really do anything. With wheat prices going up due to the Russian nonsense, could FCI sell some of their stocks in the open market? Esp given the above news that we'll have record production of grains this year?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... f=vuYGislZ
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Atmavik »

Ukraine exports 70% of its wheat to China.
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Grains godowns of states to be made part of FCI’s digitised system soon.

To complete digitisation of foodgrain storage facilities across states, the government will soon roll out a system for real-time tracking of rice and wheat stored in state government godowns, in terms of their volume and quality.

As part of the depot online system (DOS), around 2,200 storage facilities or godowns owned and hired by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) have already been integrated into the digital network. However, more than 14,000 godowns of the state governments haven’t been made part of the integrated system. Once these godown are linked to a central portal, rice and wheat stocks with government agencies could be ascertained on a real-time basis.

Many states including Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat follow a decentralised procurement model to manage procurement, storage and distribute grain under the public distribution system (PDS). Srplus grains are handed over by them to the FCI for distribution to grain-deficient regions.

The idea is to improve operational efficiency of the FCI, which distributes around 55- 60 million tonne (mt) of grains under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) annually. The focus is to ensure end-to-end digitalisation of foodgrains from procurement to distribution to PDS beneficiaries.

“We are working with the states to integrate them into the common digital platform,” Atish Chandra, chairman & MD, FCI, told FE.

Food ministry officials said that at present, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttarakhand and West Bengal are at various stages of integrating their grains storage facilities with the central portal.

By next month, once all the states come on board for digitally integrating their godowns, the Centre can track food grains stocks held in the godowns of the FCI, Central Warehousing Corporation and state warehousing corporations, classified on the basis of procurement year, quality parameters and truck-wise data on the grains on transit at a single source.

Meanwhile, for tracking procurement of rice and wheat and payment of minimum support price (MSP) to farmers in key growing states, FCI has completed integration of the 21 state procurement portals with the Central Foodgrains Procurement Portal.

The economic cost of food grains procurement by the FCI, which includes expenses such as MSP payment to farmers, procurement, acquisition and distribution costs, etc for rice and wheat are Rs 3,597.17 and Rs 2,499.69 per quintal, respectively, in 2021-22, while the government distributes rice and wheat to beneficiaries under NFSA at Rs 3 and Rs 2 per kg, respectively.

The Union Budget (2022-23) has made a provision Rs 2.06 trillion under food subsidy in 2022-23. However, the government has to provide additional funds under the food subsidy head following the Union Cabinet on Saturday deciding to extend the free ration scheme — the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) announced in 2020 to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, by six months to September-end 2022, at an additional cost of Rs 80,000 crore. Savings to the tune of Rs 60,000 crore on food subsidy is expected in FY23, as rice and wheat procurement at MSP could be much lower than targets, due to robust demand for the cereals from local and export markets.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Atmavik »

#CutTheClutter
10 key points on Supreme Court committee report on the ill-fated farm reform laws

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW8wUMG7wiY

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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by vimal »

Prasad wrote:We keep hearing about how FCI has massive stocks and its a dead-end storage and doesn't really do anything. With wheat prices going up due to the Russian nonsense, could FCI sell some of their stocks in the open market? Esp given the above news that we'll have record production of grains this year?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... f=vuYGislZ
I really hope India is able to export a lot of Wheat and Rice and make some good money. That grain is just rotting in FCI godowns.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Aldonkar »

vimal wrote:
Prasad wrote:We keep hearing about how FCI has massive stocks and its a dead-end storage and doesn't really do anything. With wheat prices going up due to the Russian nonsense, could FCI sell some of their stocks in the open market? Esp given the above news that we'll have record production of grains this year?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... f=vuYGislZ
I really hope India is able to export a lot of Wheat and Rice and make some good money. That grain is just rotting in FCI godowns.
I follow the news in Kenya as I spent my youth there. They are saying that they cannot get wheat from the Ukraine (their usual supplier) The African market is not large, since on;y the rich or middle class eat bread, but it is on India's doorstep. Here is the opportunity to enter the market.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by vimal »

I'm curious is Ukranian grain really cheaper or better quality than Indian grain?
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Vamsee »

^^^^
Not just Ukranian grain, the global wheat is cheaper than Indian wheat because global wheat doesn't have MSP :-)
Since Indian govt pays more price to farmers to buy wheat (MSP), farmers didn't had any incentive to export in the past. But now with the rise in global wheat prices, it is more lucrative for farmers to export & it is good for GoI as well( less MSP burden).

--Vamsee
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by sanjaykumar »

Watch for China to unload some of the 150 million tons they have stockpiled. Prices will not rise too much.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Ambar »

Vamsee wrote:^^^^
Not just Ukranian grain, the global wheat is cheaper than Indian wheat because global wheat doesn't have MSP :-)
Since Indian govt pays more price to farmers to buy wheat (MSP), farmers didn't had any incentive to export in the past. But now with the rise in global wheat prices, it is more lucrative for farmers to export & it is good for GoI as well( less MSP burden).

--Vamsee
Not just wheat, the same applies for dal as well. It is cheaper to buy wholesale lentils from Canada or Australia than India thanks to MSP. In my opinion MSP should be reduced (political suicide, i know) or eliminated for staples that always have demand.

Anyone who's been to the grocery store recently would have noticed atleast a 30% to 40% increase on most staples including wheat, rice , lentils, coffee and cooking oil . I feel GoI is not looking closely at the rising food prices, instead of exporting the rotting grains in govt granaries, the govt should flood the domestic market to alleviate the inflation.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

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What is the ‘J form’, and how will its digitisation help farmers in Punjab?

The Punjab Mandi Board has decided to send a ‘digital form J’ on the WhatsApp number of farmers from this Rabi procurement season, which began Friday. The move, aimed at bringing transparency as well as empowering farmers, will make Punjab the first state in the country to provide digitised form J in real time. The move is expected to benefit around 9 lakh registered farmers who will be looking to sell their crop (wheat) at MSP during this procurement season. The Indian Express explains the move.

What is the ‘J form’ and how will its digitisation help the farmers?
‘J form’ is the sale receipt of a farmer’s agricultural produce in mandis (grain market). These forms were earlier issued manually by arthiyas (commission agents) because in Punjab, a majority of farmers sell their crops through such agents only. Also, this form is an income proof for a farmer who sells his crop. Before digitisation of the J form, several arhtiyas had the habit of keeping these forms with themselves, instead of providing it to the farmers, which was their right. Hence, many farmers ended up having no record of their income after selling their crops. But by getting digitised J form, farmers will now have a clear record of the crop sold and income received in lieu of that and it will save their time as well, ensuring that they do not need to run to arhtiyas to get copies of their sale. These forms will be delivered directly on a farmer’s WhatsApp number immediately after a sale is confirmed on the system by the arthiyas and buyers, who are mainly government procurement agencies.

If any farmer changes his/her WhatsApp number, then they can see the J forms in their digilocker, which are legally at par with original physical documents under Rule 9A of the Information Technology (Preservation and Retention of Information by Intermediaries providing Digital Locker facilities) Rules, 2016 notified on February 8, 2017. All they will need to do is feed their Aadhaar card number in the system and the digitised J form for procured paddy and wheat will be available to them.

How does the move help farmers?
The ‘J form’ can be used for raising finance from financial institutions, IT waivers, subsidy claims, farmer’s insurance. Apart from this, it can also help farmers get admission for their wards in educational institutes abroad.
“For example, many children of farmers from Punjab are moving abroad to study nowadays. At the time of taking a loan for their education expenses or showing their income, they need to provide income proof and then the ‘J form’, which is considered as an authenticate document of income in the Canadian embassy,” said a mandi board official. He added that the devastating Covid waves were blessings in disguise for them as it helped authorities to focus on the online system.

Secretary of Punjab State Agricultural Marketing Board, Ravi Bhagat, who is the brain behind this digitisation, said that the move will ensure authenticity. The digital J forms will come with a QR code, watermark and a unique number.

“This is not only a farmer-friendly service, but it will also help their families, the state and the government itself. The move will stop the theft of grains by some arhtiyas. When digitised form J is sent to a farmer’s number, then their family too can know his actual income. Some farmers sometimes hide their incomes from their families so that they can purchase liquor with the money. This will stop. The government too will benefit as some landowners — who actually are not involved in farming — show their income under farming to evade Income Tax payments,” said Abjinder Sangha , a farmer, in Gowara village in Malerkotla.

What steps were taken by the Punjab Mandi Board to make the form digital?
After getting several complaints from farmers, the mandi board was looking at methods to provide farmers real-time access to system generated authentic digital J forms. The mandi board had first experimented with the idea of digitised J form during the last paddy procurement season. the form was then available for download from the state’s website https://emandikaran-pb.in, and required the arhtiya’s login ID and password.

This year onwards, however, the digitised J form has been integrated with the WhatsApp number of the farmers.

Bhagat told The Indian Express that it took them two years to roll out the digitised forms on WhatsApp. “In the first step, accounts of farmers along with their Aadhaar card number were linked with the Anaj Kharif portal meant for transfer of direct payment in the account of farmers. After this, the land records of both owner and cultivators were recorded. In the last Paddy procurement season, farmers were provided J forms through the Digilocker system. From this current wheat procurement season, the J forms were integrated with the WhatsApp numbers of the farmers,” Bhagat said.

In Punjab, 85% to 90% of the farmers grow both wheat and paddy and all their details — including land on which they grow these crops, their account numbers, Aadhaar cards — are registered on an online portal. When they sell any of these crops in mandis at MSP, the J form automatically is generated on their WhatsApp number. In case of any change in the area on which the crops are grown, the farmers will need to approach arhtiyas to get their land records upgraded.

The government will have a proper record of the land under cultivation for both the wheat and paddy crops in the state as well as an idea of their average per acre yield. The state can hence aim for accuracy and eventually other crops can also be brought under the J form even if the government does not procure the other crops. People who are doing sale/purchase in the mandis for the other crops can be asked to log their purchases through the J form to have accuracy of total land and production.

Can this stop the sale of other state crops in Punjab mandis?
The system can to a large extent check the sale of crops from other states in the mandis of Punjab. The J forms will ensure that the government has an idea of the total land under cultivation, and total yield. This will give them an idea as to how much quantity of a crop was grown in the state. In case of unusual procurements, the government will be able to identify accounts from which the fraudulent transaction was made. The state has also initiated a vehicle tracking system to check influx of grains in Punjab mandis from other states.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

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Govt sets foodgrain output target at record 328 million tonnes for 2022-23 crop year.

The government has set the foodgrain production target at a record level of 328 million tonnes for the 2022-23 crop year on the back of good monsoon rains. The target is 3.8 per cent higher compared to previous year’s output.

As per the second advance estimate of the agriculture ministry, foodgrains production is estimated to be a record of 316.06 million tonne in ongoing 2021-22 crop year ending June.

The target for the 2022-23 crop year (July-June) was set at the National Conference for Kharif Campaign 2022 which was held on Tuesday to review the progress of the rabi (winter) season and plan for the Kharif (summer) crops.

Addressing the conference, Agriculture Commissioner A K Singh said the forecast of normal monsoon this year augurs well for the sowing of kharif crops like rice. “We have kept the target of a record 328 million tonnes of foodgrains for the 2022-23 crop year,” he said.

Of the total foodgrains production, a production target of 163.15 million tonnes has been set for the kharif season and 164.85 million tonnes for the rabi season.

For the kharif season, rice production target has been kept at 112 million tonnes, maize at 23.10 million tonnes, pulses at 10.55 million tonnes, and oilseeds at 26.89 million tonnes.

Barring soyabean, Singh said there was surplus seed availability to meet the requirement of the upcoming kharif season. Even fertiliser availability is sufficient to meet the requirement of the season, he added. However, he noted that state governments need to address high yield gaps in oilseeds, falling acreage in sunflower and shortage of soyabean seeds for sowing.
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