Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

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Vips
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Vips »

Ukraine war: Can India feed the world?

Last week, Indian PM Narendra Modi told US President Joe Biden that India was ready to ship food to the rest of the world following supply shocks and rising prices due to the war in Ukraine.

Mr Modi said India had "enough food" for its 1.4 billion people, and it was "ready to supply food stocks to the world from tomorrow" if the World Trade Organization (WTO) allowed.

Commodity prices were already at a 10-year high before the war in Ukraine because of global harvest issues. They have leapt after the war and are already at their highest since 1990, according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (UNFAO) food-price index.

Russia and Ukraine are two of the world's major wheat exporters and account for about a third of global annual wheat sales. The two countries also account for 55% of the global annual sunflower oil exports, and 17% of exports of maize and barley. Together, they were expected to export 14 million tonnes of wheat and over 16 million tonnes of maize this year, according to UNFAO.

"The supply disruptions and threat of embargo facing Russia means that these exports have to be taken out of the equation. India could step in to export more, especially when it has enough stocks of wheat," says Upali Galketi Aratchilage, a Rome-based economist at UNFAO.

India is the second biggest producer of rice and wheat in the world. As of early April, it had 74 million tonnes of the two staples in stock. Of this, 21 million tonnes have been kept for its strategic reserve and the Public Distribution System (PDS), which gives more than 700 million poor people access to cheap food.

India is also one of the cheapest global suppliers of wheat and rice: it is already exporting rice to nearly 150 countries and wheat to 68. It exported some 7 million tonnes of wheat in 2020-2021. Traders, reacting to rising demand in the international market, have already entered contracts for exports of more than 3 million tonnes of wheat during April to July, according to officials. Farm exports exceeded a record $50bn in 2021-22.

India has the capacity to export 22 million tonnes of rice and 16 million tonnes of wheat in this fiscal year, according to Ashok Gulati, a professor of agriculture at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations. "If the WTO allows government stocks to be exported, it can be even higher. This will help cool the global prices and reduce the burden of importing countries around the world," he says.

There are some reservations though. "We have enough stocks at the moment. But there are some concerns, and we should not become gung-ho about feeding the world," says Harish Damodaran, a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, a Delhi-based think tank.

First, there are fears of a less-than-expected harvest. India's new wheat season is under way and officials project a record 111 million tonnes be harvested - the sixth bumper crop season in a row.

But experts like Mr Damodaran are not convinced. He believes the yield will be much lower because of fertiliser shortages and the vagaries of the weather - excessive rains and severe early summer heat. "We are overestimating the production," he says. "We will know in another 10 days."

Another question mark, say experts, is over fertilisers, a basic component of farming. India's stocks have fallen low after the war - India imports di-ammonium phosphate and fertilisers containing nitrogen, phosphate, sulphur and potash. Russia and Belarus account for 40% of the world's potash exports. Globally, fertiliser prices are already high due to soaring gas prices.

A shortage of fertilisers could easily hit production in the next harvest season. One way to get around this, says Mr Damodaran, is for India to explore "wheat-for-fertiliser deals" with countries like Egypt and in Africa.

Also, if the war gets prolonged, India might face logistical challenges in stepping up exports. "Exporting huge volumes of cereals involves huge infrastructure like transportation, storage, ships. Also the capacity to start shipping in high volumes," says Mr Aratchilage. There is also the question of higher freight costs.

Lastly, there is the overriding concern over galloping food prices at home - food inflation hit a 16-month-high of 7.68% in March. This has been mainly driven by price rises of edible oils, vegetables, cereals, milk, meat and fish. India's central bank has warned about "elevated global price pressures in key food items" leading to to "high uncertainty" over inflation.

The Russian invasion is likely to have "serious consequences" for global food security, according to IFPRI, a think tank. The UNFAO estimates that a prolonged disruption to exports of wheat, fertiliser and other commodities from Russia and Ukraine could push up the number of undernourished people in the world from eight to 13 million.

By the government's own admission, more than three million children remain undernourished in India despite bountiful crops and ample food stocks. (Prime Minister Modi's native state, Gujarat, has the third highest number of such children.) "You cannot be cavalier about food security. You cannot play around with the food earmarked for the subsidised food system," says Mr Damodaran.

If there is one thing India's politicians know it is that food - or the lack of it - determines their fate: state and federal governments have tumbled in the past because of soaring onion prices.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Cyrano »

Grain stocks are ultimately perishables. Better export surplus stocks instead of letting it rot and feeding rodents in FCI godowns, and earn some forex to compensate for agri subsidies; after India's needs are well secured. Fertiliser for food deals make sense.
Malnutrition is a different problem, starts with good nutrition for pregnant mothers and then of infants. That needs a whole balanced diet approach, not just rice and wheat.

What is the WTO regulation on govt stocks?
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by nandakumar »

Cyrano wrote:Grain stocks are ultimately perishables. Better export surplus stocks instead of letting it rot and feeding rodents in FCI godowns, and earn some forex to compensate for agri subsidies; after India's needs are well secured. Fertiliser for food deals make sense.
Malnutrition is a different problem, starts with good nutrition for pregnant mothers and then of infants. That needs a whole balanced diet approach, not just rice and wheat.

What is the WTO regulation on govt stocks?
I think the WTO position on global trade in foodgrains is that public stockholding and support prices are trade distorting. So technically Canada can refer India to the dispute resolution mechanism of WTO if it starts to export wheat to Egypt. Though there has been some recognition that there is a public purpose being served by FCI like operations especially in the developing countries, member countries of WTO have not yet fully codified the proposition.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by rsingh »

baah We can always do barter trade. :) we buy oil exploring rights in exchange for Wheat. :rotfl: Or even better we buy Nile water . It is so good you know :mrgreen:
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Atmavik »

Soon Tikat and gang supported by the pillars of democracy will be on the streets demanding higher prices
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Atmavik »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIonH3LHjf8

Details of the newly built Sanadar Dairy Plant

@3:35 impressive level of automation.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by SBajwa »

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punja ... ion-395425
Bathinda, May 16

Buoyant by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s announcement of MSP on moong, farmers have taken a big leap
to bring a whooping 96,000 acres under the legume cultivation this season, which is more than double the area (around 42,000 acres) from the previous season.

Mansa tops the state in moong cultivation by bringing 25,000 acres under the crop. Expert claims farmers can reap the benefits from the 60-day moong cultivation and earn a handsome income. The Centre has fixed the MSP on moong at Rs 7,275 a quintal.

MSP promise working

For the first time,I have opted for moong cultivation. After the state government promised to buy moong at MSP, many farmers in the area were motivated to bring more area under its cultivation. —Karamjit Singh, Bathinda farmer

Nirmal Singh, a farmer from Talwandi Sabo in Bathinda, who has been cultivating moong traditionally, says moon cultivation improves the health of soil in his fields by increasing the content of nitrogen, which lowers the need for fertilisers for paddy and basmati crops that are cultivated later. Consequently, this lowers the input cost on fertilisers and pesticides and increased profitability.

He adds moong crop can be sown between wheat and paddy period. It gets ready in 60 days and gives an average yield of 4-5 quintals per acre.


Mansa District Mandi Officer Rajnish Goel says: “Around 25,000 acres is under moong cultivation in the district. Farmers are being encouraged to opt for moong cultivation, which is a diversification crop and also leads to nitrogen fixation in soil. Mansa tops the state with a high number of farmers inclined towards moong cultivation”.

Karamjit Singh, a farmer in Bathinda, says: “For the first time, I have opted for moong cultivation. After the state government promised to buy moong at MSP, many farmers in the area were motivated to bring more area under its cultivation”. Jasveer Singh, BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) leader says: “Instead of announcing MSP on moong, the government should give guarantee to buy not only moong, but also 23 other crops on the MSP list.”
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Cyrano »

And they're already protesting now?
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by chetak »

Cyrano wrote:Grain stocks are ultimately perishables. Better export surplus stocks instead of letting it rot and feeding rodents in FCI godowns, and earn some forex to compensate for agri subsidies; after India's needs are well secured. Fertiliser for food deals make sense.
Malnutrition is a different problem, starts with good nutrition for pregnant mothers and then of infants. That needs a whole balanced diet approach, not just rice and wheat.

What is the WTO regulation on govt stocks?
WTO rules make it difficult for a country to export grains from official stocks if they have been procured from farmers at fixed prices, which in India's case, is the minimum support price mandated by the Centre.

Modi has asked for exemption from this restriction to help food stocks globally by exporting this PDS stock held in the FCI godowns many countries are opposing this including our dear friend the US

Let them goras all go and screw themselves onlee

BTW, how do these greedy farmers who opposed the farm laws tooth and nail, so vocally insisting on mandi sales with declared MSP suddenly want to deal only with private players now for rates higher than the MSP
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Vayutuvan »

@hgupta

https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/ba ... s-promise/
Why we shouldn’t abandon natural gas: Renewable natural gas shows promise
12.29.2021
...
I am aware of the studies conducted in The Netherlands and Germany (IIRC). EU is in a different situation than what we are trying to do in India. Most of the EU countries are densely populated and don't have enough land.

FWIW.

By the way, we can talk about beef/meat here in this thread as it pertains to Agri/agro-based industry. Animal husbandry is an agro-based industry.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Cyrano »

Now articles will be planted in the Indian press saying "India's food export restrictions are anti-farmer" !
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Cyrano »

Man! These buggers don't waste time do they?!
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Vips »

From plate to plough: Make India’s agri-exports more sustainable.

In FY22, India’s agri-exports reached an all-time high of $50.3 billion, registering a growth of 20% over the preceding year. This was largely made possible by rising global commodity prices, but also by favourable and aggressive export policy and various export promotion agencies like Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority , Marine Products Export Development Authority, and commodity boards, etc. However, a strategic question that arises is: How sustainable is this growth in agri-exports, given India’s resource endowments and its own needs? Already, there has been a sudden ban on wheat exports. To answer this rationally, let us first look at the composition of agri-exports.

Among the several agri-commodities exported in FY22, rice is the top-ranked, with exports of $9.6 billion (21.2 million metric tons, or mmt, in quantity). It is followed by marine products ($7.7 billion/1.4 mmt), sugar ($4.6 billion/10.4 mmt), spices ($3.9 billion/1.4 mmt), bovine (buffalo) meat ($3.3 billion/1.18 mmt) and so on (see graphic). Of these, two commodities—rice and sugar—are water guzzling, and need some serious thinking with respect to their global competitiveness and environmental sustainability.

India’s rice exports of 21 mmt constituted 41% of the global rice market of 51.3 mmt. Interestingly, when most of the other commodity prices were surging in the global market, the price of rice (Thailand, with a 25% share) collapsed by about 13%, from $484/tonne in April 2021 to $429/tonne in April 2022, largely due to India’s massive exports. That means India had to export more rice to net the same dollar-amount. Is this in India’s economic interest? In trade theory, it is a classic fit for an optimal export tax of 5-10%. India should not go beyond 12-15 mmt of rice exports; else, the marginal revenue from exports will fall.

Another concern in the case of rice is that a substantial part of its global competitiveness comes from highly-subsidised water, power and fertilisers that go into its production. It is well known that one kg of rice requires about 3,000-5,000 litres of water for irrigation, depending upon the topography. Taking an average of nearly 4,000 litres of water per kg of rice, and assuming that half of this percolates into groundwater, exporting 21 mmt of rice would mean a virtual export of 42 billion cubic meters (bcm) of water!

Sugar is another water guzzler, whose exports touched 10.4 mmt in FY22. It was backed partly by subsidies (including export subsidy) that crossed the de minimis limit of 10%, landing India in a dispute with other sugar-exporting countries at the WTO, and India losing its case. But the rising global prices of sugar also helped. However, from a sustainability point of view, exporting one kg of sugar amounts to roughly exporting 2,000 litres of virtual water. That means, in FY22, India exported at least 20 bcm of water through sugar exports.

So, via its rice and sugar exports in FY22, India exported at least 62 bcm of water! And much of this is being extracted from groundwater, as done in the Punjab and Haryana belt, where the water table is receding by 9.2 m and 7 m (respectively, in the two states) over the last two decades (2000-19), and in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh for sugar. Also, rice production systems are one of the most important sources of anthropogenic methane emission, contributing to 17.5% of GHG emission generated from agriculture (2021). This is all because of the distortionary policies of free power and highly-subsidised fertilisers, especially urea. In the case of common rice, our earlier research shows that power and fertiliser subsidies account for roughly 12-15% of the value in states like Punjab and Haryana. The best way to tackle this embedded environmental disaster would be to support farmers in a smart way, by giving them aggregate input subsidy support on a per hectare basis and totally freeing up the input prices of fertilisers and power and their costs of production.

Innovative farming practices such as alternate wetting drying and direct-seeded rice that can save up to 25-30% of the conventional water requirement, and micro-irrigation, which can save up to 50% irrigation water, can also be game-changing for reducing carbon footprint. However, the real solution is incentivising the farmers to switch some of the area under rice and sugar to other, less water guzzling crops. Haryana has come up with two schemes, ‘Mera Pani, Meri Virasat’ and ‘Kheti Khaali, Fir Bhi Khushali’. Under the first, Rs 7,000 per acre is given to farmers for switching from paddy to an alternative crop, while, under the second, farmers get Rs 7,000 per acre even if they do not grow any crop during the kharif season.

Image

A closer evaluation of non-basmati rice exports brings out another interesting fact. The unit value of these exports was just $354/tonne, below the MSP ($390 per tonne). How did that happen? One possibility is that a substantial part of supplies through PDS and PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana are leaking out and swelling rice exports. From a policy angle, it may be high time to introduce direct cash transfers in lieu of grains. This will help plug leakages as well as save costs, which can be used to better diversify our food systems, rationalise the use of scarce water, lower GHG emissions, and cut burgeoning food and fertiliser subsidies. Can the Modi government make agri-exports more sustainable? Only time will tell!
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by jaysimha »


Attacked with Ink, Rakesh Tikait blames Bengaluru police for 'lack of security'
4,964 views May 30, 2022. In a key development on Monday, black ink was thrown on Bhartiya Kisan Union spokesperson Rakesh Tikait after he faced massive protests in Bengaluru. This incident took place when Tikait was addressing a press briefing to dismiss the allegations levelled by prominet farmer leader Kodihalli Chandrashekar. In a recently conducted sting operation, Chandrashekar allegedly revealed that he extorted money in the name of the farmers' agitation and also implicated Yudhvir Singh.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Atmavik »

Coupta's video on Edible Oil imports.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moL7S3p3VRg

at the end he quotes a research paper that if punjab farmers shulft from rice/wheat we can cut imports by 10 %
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by rsingh »

What it wheat production this year?
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by SBajwa »

Record decline in wheat procurement by FCI.

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/agr ... ate--82691

But this could also mean that farmers are selling to private industries
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by chetak »

SBajwa wrote:Record decline in wheat procurement by FCI.

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/agr ... ate--82691

But this could also mean that farmers are selling to private industries
very little wheat has come to the mandi this year.

Most of it has been purchased direct from the farmer by private players paying higher than MSP and huge stocks have already been spirited out of India and are sitting with private traders in dubai, UAE, and singapore

why did these clowns block traffic and create chaos in dilli if there were going to sell to private players.

The three farm bills were made precisely for this very reason.

so all that paki aided, khalistani fuelled/funded, congi led drama fronted by dakait and that scumbag yadav was only to bring about a regime change.

scumbag yadav is now advising pappu on how to create internal strife using the the union of states meme.

amarinder was very much complicit in the whole thing as the main organiser and coordinator for ensuring the presence of a continuously supply of "farmers' in dilli

no mention of hizzonners at all.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by venkat_kv »

chetak wrote:
SBajwa wrote:Record decline in wheat procurement by FCI.

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/agr ... ate--82691

But this could also mean that farmers are selling to private industries
very little wheat has come to the mandi this year.

Most of it has been purchased direct from the farmer by private players paying higher than MSP and huge stocks have already been spirited out of India and are sitting with private traders in dubai, UAE, and singapore

why did these clowns block traffic and create chaos in dilli if there were going to sell to private players.

The three farm bills were made precisely for this very reason.

so all that paki aided, khalistani fuelled/funded, congi led drama fronted by dakait and that scumbag yadav was only to bring about a regime change.

scumbag yadav is now advising pappu on how to create internal strife using the the union of states meme.

amarinder was very much complicit in the whole thing as the main organiser and coordinator for ensuring the presence of a continuously supply of "farmers' in dilli

no mention of hizzonners at all.
but Chetak Saar/ Sbajwa Saar,
Since the farm laws are rolled back will this not be against the law that the private guys who bought huge quantities are liable for arrest as they didn't come to mandis and do their transactions and will they be prosecuted by the state govt for the same.

Not that i am not happy, but I hope that majority of farmers can see what they can make for atleast a couple of years regarding the wheat prices in the market if they are able to sell to private vendors and extend that to other produces and come around to the farm laws.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by SBajwa »

Venkat ji,

It is farmers prerogative to sell to anyone they want. Laws only ensure minimum support price. Before 2014 there was a law that restricted farmers to move their grains across states without paying taxes. Now even farmers can transport their produce anywhere in country.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by venkat_kv »

SBajwa wrote:Venkat ji,

It is farmers prerogative to sell to anyone they want. Laws only ensure minimum support price. Before 2014 there was a law that restricted farmers to move their grains across states without paying taxes. Now even farmers can transport their produce anywhere in country.
No ji for me Bajwa Saar,
Maybe i am mistaken then, i was under the impression that every state law governs the produce in that state. But weren't the "farm protest" about the ability to sell "only in mandis" under the auspices of the Arthiyas in Punjab. Since the farm laws were repealed shouldn't the mandis only sell the produce atleast in Punjab where wheat has been sold and procured. I was alluding to that.

Shouldn't this news receive wide spread coverage that farmers made some decent money selling to private businesses. but looking at the media i am less hopeful that any positive momentum will be generated for the re-implementation of farm laws.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Vips »

India’s horticultural crops output increase marginally to 341 million tonne in 2021-22.

India’s production of horticultural crops consisting of fruits, vegetables, spices, medicinal plants and plantation crops in the crop year 2021-22 (July-June crop year) grew by around 2% to 341 million tonne (mt) against 334 mt reported in 2020-21.

The horticultural crops production continues to be higher than the foodgrain production. As per the third advance estimates for the foodgrains production released in May, India’s output of rice, wheat and pulses in 2021-22 crop year was estimated at a record 314.51 mt.

“Increase in production of fruits, vegetables and honey while decrease in production of spices, flowers, aromatics and medicinal plants and plantation crops over previous year, is envisaged,” according to an official statement after the release of second advance estimates of horticultural crops production.

According to data by the department of consumer affairs, although average retail prices of tomato are still higher than the year ago period, prices have fallen by more than 17% to Rs 43 a kg on Saturday compared to a month ago.

The vegetables production grew marginally to 204.61 mt in 2021-22 compared to 200.4 mt as per the final estimate for 2020-21.

The production of onion is estimated to rise by close to 19% to 31.7 mt in 2021-22 against 26.6 mt reported in the previous year.

At the same time, the production of potato is estimated to decline by 4% in the current crop to 53.6 mt from 56.2 mt reported in 2020-21. The output of tomato is estimated to decline by 4% in the current crop year to 20.3 mt compared to 21.18 mt as per final estimate for 2020-21.

In case of fruits production, the second advance estimate pegs the output at 107.1 mt in 2021-22 compared to 102.5 mt reported in the 2020-21 crop year.

Amongst the key fruits, banana production is estimated to witness a growth of 6% to 35.13 mt in 2021-22 compared to 2021-22 while the mango output is estimated at 20.3 mt in 2021-22 which is marginal decline from the previous year.

As per the agriculture ministry data, India’s horticulture crop production was a record 334.6 mt in 2020-21, which was 4.4% more than the final estimate of 320.4 mt in 2019-20.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Vips »

If you see something like this you only wonder why was this not thought of earlier?
A very practical and humane solution.

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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Vips »

India's agrarian production estimated to be record high in 2021-22.

Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare on Wednesday has released fourth advance estimates of production of major agricultural crops for the year 2021-22. The estimates predict the production to be record high at 315.72 million tonnes.

The 2021-22 estimate is 4.98 million tonnes more than the past years harvest and 25 million tonnes higher than the previous five years' (2016-17 to 2020-21) average production.

Record harvests are expected for many crops including- rice, maize, gram, pulses, rapeseed and mustard, oil-seeds and sugarcane.

Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has credited this record high production to the farmer-friendly policies of the central government coupled with hard work of the farmers and the diligence of the scientists.

Data released by the ministry depicts production estimates for various crops:
-Rice totalling 130.29 million tonnes, higher by 13.85 million tonnes than the last five years' average production of 116.44 million tonnes.
-Wheat 106.84 million tonnes, higher by 2.96 million tonnes than the last five years' average wheat production of 103.88 million tonnes.
-Nutri / coarse cereals 50.90 million tonnes
-Maize 33.62 million tonnes
-Pulses 27.69 million tonnes, higher by 3.87 million tonnes than the last five years' average -production of 23.82 million tonnes.
-Oilseeds 37.70 million tonnes
-Groundnut 10.11 million tonnes
-Soyabean 12.99 million tonnes
-Rapeseed and mustard 11.75 million tonnes
-Sugarcane 431.81 million tonnes
-Cotton 31.20 million bales (each of 170 kg)
-Jute and mesta 10.32 million bales (each of 180 kg).
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Kanoji »

Vips wrote:If you see something like this you only wonder why was this not thought of earlier?
A very practical and humane solution.

Very True. A simple but awesome innovation that will help the farmer's bottom line.

Thanks for posting this Vips ji.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Cyrano »

The humble millet trying to make a come back...

https://india.mongabay.com/2020/07/indi ... direction/

2023 is the International Year of Millets:
https://agricoop.nic.in/sites/default/files/Crops.pdf

Good alternative to ease ecological pressure from repeated cultivation of rice and wheat. More healthy as well, perhaps less prone to cause gluten allergies which seem to spread quite a lot these days.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by venkat_kv »

Cyrano wrote:The humble millet trying to make a come back...

https://india.mongabay.com/2020/07/indi ... direction/

2023 is the International Year of Millets:
https://agricoop.nic.in/sites/default/files/Crops.pdf

Good alternative to ease ecological pressure from repeated cultivation of rice and wheat. More healthy as well, perhaps less prone to cause gluten allergies which seem to spread quite a lot these days.
Its good that millets are making a comeback Cyrano Saar. In telugu states the increased issues of type2 diabetes has certainly increased their consumption. Videos of a certain individual Khader Valli from Karnataka were all the rage 3-4 years back. But there is still general resistance to it as people used to eating rice find it difficult to eat something like millets for an extended period of time.

But diversification of millets also helps in terms of food security and water table issues also.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Cyrano »

Absolutely!
Maha kavi Srinadha who hailed from rice dominated
Rajahmundry on the Godavari, wrote somewhat disdainfully of arid Rayalaseema:
chinna chinna guLLu chillara dEvuLLu
naagulaeTi neeLLu naapa raalLu
sajja jonna kULLu sarpambulunu tELLu
pallenATi seema palleTooLLu
And
jonna kali jonna yambali
jonnannamu jonna pisaru jonnale dappan
sannannamu sunna sumI
pannuga palanATi seema prajalellarakun
Millets were for those who couldn't afford fine rice... but was consumed in many different ways!

(http://legaladvises.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... t.html?m=1)
S_Madhukar
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by S_Madhukar »

Konkan in Maharashtra used to be millet country. Nachani or Ragi bhaakri was a staple. With fish curry or vegetables. Even now it is quite popular. Jowar as well and in other parts of Maharashtra as well . Maratha army was fed on that! We better first make more and put a tag on it else Oiropeans will start importing it big time and our farmers will just cash out. Hopefully more of us can switch to millets but it may not be as smoothly palatable to many.
I do see some ragi cheela/dosa ready made snacks or packets online not sure if they are popular yet.
Vayutuvan
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Vayutuvan »

Cyrano wrote:Millets were for those who couldn't afford fine rice... but was consumed in many different ways!

(http://legaladvises.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... t.html?m=1)
Jonnalu, sojjaklu, ragulu are all different. Do all of them belong to the millet family?

Jonnalu = Sorgham.
Atmavik
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Atmavik »

S_Madhukar wrote:Konkan in Maharashtra used to be millet country. Nachani or Ragi bhaakri was a staple. With fish curry or vegetables. Even now it is quite popular. Jowar as well and in other parts of Maharashtra as well . Maratha army was fed on that! We better first make more and put a tag on it else Oiropeans will start importing it big time and our farmers will just cash out. Hopefully more of us can switch to millets but it may not be as smoothly palatable to many.
I do see some ragi cheela/dosa ready made snacks or packets online not sure if they are popular yet.
S jaishankar in Thailand mentioned that we are starting a world wide drive to promote Millets. Much more healthy and environment friendly is the pitch
Cyrano
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Cyrano »

Vayutuvan wrote:
Cyrano wrote:Millets were for those who couldn't afford fine rice... but was consumed in many different ways!

(http://legaladvises.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... t.html?m=1)
Jonnalu, sojjaklu, ragulu are all different. Do all of them belong to the millet family?

Jonnalu = Sorgham.
V garu,
Check out the pdf I posted above. Here it is again

2023 is the International Year of Millets:
https://agricoop.nic.in/sites/default/files/Crops.pdf
isubodh
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by isubodh »

Cyrano wrote:
Vayutuvan wrote:
Jonnalu, sojjaklu, ragulu are all different. Do all of them belong to the millet family?

Jonnalu = Sorgham.
V garu,
Check out the pdf I posted above. Here it is again

2023 is the International Year of Millets:
https://agricoop.nic.in/sites/default/files/Crops.pdf
Wheat flour is Rs34/kg any millet flour is not less than 45/kg. So making it mainstream will be difficult.
Vayutuvan
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Vayutuvan »

isubodh wrote:Wheat flour is Rs34/kg any millet flour is not less than 45/kg. So making it mainstream will be difficult.
There is bunch of woke crowd in PRCa who do not eat Quinoa. Their reason is that their eating Quinoa pushes up the prices for those who can afford only Quinoa.

From Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa
The plant thrives at high altitudes and produce seeds that are rich in protein.[9] Almost all production in the Andean region is done by small farms and associations. Its cultivation has spread to more than 70 countries, including Kenya, India, the United States, and in European countries.[10] As a result of increased popularity and consumption in North America, Europe, and Australasia, quinoa crop prices tripled between 2006 and 2014.[11][12]
Unless there is a shift by the farmers from wheat to millets, the prices of millets will be higher. Jowar used to be much cheaper than rice in TS. jonna rottelu were the staple for the frame hands who work for a rice growing contractor. The wages were paid in jowar. If they wanted rice, they would barter jonnalu for rice. These are used for jonna pelalu (popped Sorghum) by the well-to-do rice surplus farmers.
Last edited by Vayutuvan on 31 Aug 2022 02:43, edited 1 time in total.
nandakumar
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by nandakumar »

isubodh wrote:
Cyrano wrote: V garu,
Check out the pdf I posted above. Here it is again

2023 is the International Year of Millets:
https://agricoop.nic.in/sites/default/files/Crops.pdf
Wheat flour is Rs34/kg any millet flour is not less than 45/kg. So making it mainstream will be difficult.
Currently the Government is giving 25 kgs of wheat/rice under the subsidized price of Rs 2 per kg. In addition, under the GKAY scheme post Mrch 20, another 25 kgs. Since people cannot consume twice the quantity even if available for free, a lot of it ends up in the open market as wheat/rice flour. In the last 28 months my back of the envelope shows about 100 million tonnes were either exported/diverted to the local market. That is the reason wheat flour is going at a discount to the coarse cereal.
rsingh
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by rsingh »

India can feed the world uf it is left alone. We have to keep the Indivudual small family holdings.Let them to decide yo grow organic food or normal . Avoid all these Chea seed type pressure group. Our first aim is remove poverty and maintain our food security. Stop caring about word. We have no obligation. Be very careful of Europeans.
Cyrano
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Cyrano »

+108 !
Most of EU grains and corn are used as animal feed to produce meat (mainly beef, pork, poultry) which has very high environmental impact. For ex anyone who has driven from Brussels to Amsterdam will gag on the stinky air from endless pig farms. They then import cereals for human consumption from international markets driving up global prices. A lot of corn and wheat being exported from Ukraine now after lot of drama about starving African & ME countries is actually going to EU to be used as animal feed. Before lecturing others, EU needs to reduce its meat consumption and wastage big time.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Vips »

Meet the blockbuster ‘rice man’ who fed the world.

Image

He’s to rice what the ‘Father of the Green Revolution’, Norman Borlaug, was to wheat. But Gurdev Singh Khush – no food crop in history has been planted on as much area worldwide as his blockbuster IR36 and IR64 varieties – is the unlikeliest of rice breeders.

For starters, Khush isn’t much of a rice eater: “I prefer wheat and chapati any day”. That makes him quite like the ‘Milkman of India’, Verghese Kurien, who simply disliked milk and could never drink it. More pertinent, though, is that Khush hadn’t really seen paddy fields till he arrived as a 32-year-old at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños, The Philippines. That was in end-July 1967.

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87-year-old G.S. Khush (centre) with 94-year-old agriculture economist Sardara Singh Johl (right) and 85-year-old farmer Mohinder Singh Dosanjh at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, in August 2022.

As the eldest son of a farmer Kartar Singh – they were Jat Sikhs from Rurkee village in Phillaur tehsil of Punjab’s Jalandhar district – Khush, born on August 22, 1935, recalls only maize, wheat, moong (green gram) and mash (black gram) being grown on their 15-acre land. “Rice was a minor crop in Punjab then, cultivated in low-lying bet areas around rivers and only for self-consumption,” says the 87-year-old, who was recently at his alma mater Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) to attend a two-day symposium on ‘Transforming the Green Revolution Hub of India’. Its focus was on innovations in plant breeding and policies to promote crop diversification and sustainable farming in Punjab.

The record of “not seeing rice”, right through his primary education in the village to the Khalsa High School in Bundala that was about 7 km by walk, continued even at the Government Agricultural College, Ludhiana. Khush graduated from this institution (which, in 1962, became PAU) in June 1955. His good marks secured him admission to the University of California, Davis (UCD) with a half-time assistantship to pursue a Master in Science leading to a PhD.

Rye and tomato

Khush’s PhD research was on rye, a cereal closely related to wheat and barley. His thesis project involved “investigating the genetic affinities between cultivated rye and the wild species”. Not long after its completion in July 1960, he was offered a post-doctoral position by Charles M Rick, the world-renowned authority on tomato biology, as assistant geneticist at UCD’s department of vegetable crops. Khush’s work, for the next seven years, was on mapping and exploring the tomato genome – “all its 12 chromosomes”.

Image
G.S. Khush (right) with World Bank president Robert McNamara (second from left) and IRRI director Robert Chandler (left) in 1971.
So, how did he end up in rice?

It was rather accidental. In August 1966, the director of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Robert F. Chandler invited Khush to join the six-year-old institute. Chandler had earlier visited UCD and was looking for a bright young plant breeder to work at IRRI. Within a year’s time, Khush had joined IRRI, where he would spend much of his next 34.5 years: “I became a rice breeder because everybody at IRRI worked on rice!”

Working in rice paddies was different from tomatoes, where he could sit near the plants and make crosses in the field. With rice, he had to learn to “carefully remove the plants from muddy fields, put in pots and bring them to greenhouses or covered sheds to make crosses”.

Miracle varieties

In November 1966, even before Khush’s joining, IRRI had released IR8. This “miracle rice”, a cross between a Chinese dwarf paddy Dee-geo-woo-gen and a tall vigorous Indonesian variety Peta, was developed by two IRRI breeders Henry M. Beachell and Peter Jennings. Traditional tall varieties had plants that were 150-cm-plus-high with weak stems. When fertilisers were applied, they largely grew vertically and bent over (“lodged”). Further, they produced roughly 30% grain and 70% straw, and matured in 160-180 days. Farmers could harvest only 1-3 tonnes of paddy (rice with husk) per hectare.

Image
G.S. Khush with IR8 rice breeder Henry Beachell (left) at IRRI’s grain quality lab in 1968. (Express/sourced)

IR8, by contrast, had plants that were hardly 95 cm tall and had sturdy stems that didn’t lodge when heavily fertilised. Their grain-straw ratio was 50:50, with only 130 days to maturity. Paddy yields were 4.5-5 tonnes/hectare with minimal fertilisers and could go up to 9-10 tonnes with higher application. Not for nothing that K N Ganesan, a farmer from Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu, named his son Irettu (IR-ettu; ‘ettu’ is 8 in Tamil).

IR8, however, was susceptible to diseases (bacterial blight, blast fungus, tungro and grassy stunt virus) and insect pests (brown plant hoppers, gall midge and stem borer). Its grains had chalkiness (opaque areas leading to undesirable appearance and increased breakage during milling) and high amylose content (causing drying and hardening on cooking). That was where the varieties bred by Khush, particularly IR36 and IR64, made all the difference.

Image.
IR8 was a simple cross between a Chinese and Indonesian variety. IR36 descended from at least six crosses, one of which involved IR8. In all, it had genes from 14 indigenous landrace varieties of six countries (India: 4, China: 4, Philippines: 3, Indonesia: 1, Bangladesh: 1 and Japan: 1) and one wild rice species (Oryza nivara). The four Indian landraces were two each from Pattambi in Kerala (Thekkan and Eravapandy) and from Tamil Nadu (Kichili Samba and Vellaikar).

The objective behind such complex breeding was to develop rice varieties that weren’t merely high-yielding, but incorporated genes from diverse landraces and wild progenitors, conferring resistance to a broad spectrum of pests and diseases. IR36 also scored over IR8 for its even-shorter duration of 111 days, tying in with another breeding objective – to enable farmers to grow two rice crops per year. IR36 was released in May 1976 and went on to be planted in 11 million hectares (mh) annually during the 1980s. No variety – of any food crop, not just rice – had ever previously occupied so much area.

IR36 was followed by another blockbuster variety, released in May 1985. IR64 had genes from 20 landraces of eight countries, out-yielded both IR8 and IR36, and possessed multiple disease and insect resistance. But its USP was the quality of grains: They had intermediate amylose content and gelatinisation temperature, resulting in soft texture of the cooked rice and better palatability. Rice recovery from the milled paddy, too, was higher. IR64 was, by the late-1990s, grown on more than 10 mh annually: 6 mh in Indonesia and 3 mh in India alone.

Hunger fighter
Khush joined IRRI as a breeder and also retired as one in February 2002, showing little interest in administrative positions. Under his leadership – he was formally head of IRRI’s division of plant breeding, genetics and biochemistry – a total of 328 rice breeding lines were released as 643 varieties in 75 countries. Many of these, including IR42 and IR72, were widely planted. Between 1966 and 2000, global rice production rose by 133.5% (from 257 million to 600 million tonnes) with only a 20.6% increase in area (126 to 152 mh). An estimated 60% of the world’s rice area in 2002 was planted to IRRI-bred varieties or their progenies.

It isn’t surprising, then, that the legendary agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan described Khush as a “leading world hunger fighter and an icon in rice research”. Rice, incidentally, is the staple food for over half the world’s population, supplying a fifth of the global per capita calorie intake. Beachell and Khush were jointly awarded the World Food Prize in 1996 for their rice breeding work, “which contributed to ensuring that growing populations in Asia and around the world would be supported by sufficient food supplies”.

Home connection
None of Khush’s famous rice varieties were grown in Punjab, though he did supply seeds of IRRI’s breeding lines with long slender grains that consumers there preferred. One of these lines was selected and released in 1976 by PAU as PR-106, a popular variety that covered three-fourths of the state’s rice area for over three decades. IR36 and IR64 got planted mostly in eastern, central and southern India.

“IRRI varieties were developed in tropical environments and not adapted to the temperate climate of Punjab,” notes Khush. He, moreover, believes that the area under rice in Punjab should be “progressively reduced”. While water-saving DSR (direct-seeded rice) technologies and growing of shorter-duration varieties can help, that isn’t sufficient. Part of the rice area should be replaced with oilseeds and other crops. The government should “give some subsidy to encourage farmers to switch to [alternative] crops”.

Khush, who is now adjunct professor emeritus at UCD, hasn’t forgotten his roots. Before the pandemic, Khush used to come almost every year and even visit Rurkee. His younger brother Kirpal Singh Kooner still lives there. Khush’s other two brothers also use ‘Kooner’, a gotra (clan) of Jats, as their last name: “I wrote poetry in Punjabi while in school and chose to give myself a takhallus (nom de guerre). That assumed name (Khush or happy) became my last name”.

Khush was destined to be different – and happy.
gakakkad
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by gakakkad »

I am very curious about the fertilizer supply and security of India . Apparently PRC supplied a bulk of phosphate fertilizers ,which now they cannot because of lack of food security there . Other major producers are roos (obviously no major security there ) , Saudis and unkil. My concern is that what if Russia is unable to supply fertilizer to India . The global prices could bump up catastrophically and will definitely have a major impact in India . All eyes on the winter harvest this season.
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