Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

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Vips
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

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Nano idea, mega impact; Ramesh Raliya’s liquid urea invention.

In the arid village of Kharia Khangar, 90 km from Jodhpur, where Ramesh Raliya, 34, grew up, agriculture was possible merely four months of the year. The rainfed kharif crops of millets and legumes were hardly sufficient to sustain a joint family comprising eight siblings and Raliya’s father. His mother doubled up as a seamstress walking the mud-baked streets barefoot carrying a sewing machine on her head. A white cement factory township near the village provided her a decent clientele. Her sewing skills also came in handy for repurposing fertilizer sacks as school bags for her children. The family’s hardships could ease only if farming turned into a year-round enterprise, or if the yields went up miraculously. Those were the two key questions that occupied Raliya’s mind since childhood, and indeed continue to motivate his scientific research. Only, the scale of his concern has grown from immediate family to poor farmers of India.

A subsidy slasher
A globally renowned interdisciplinary biotechnology scientist, Raliya’s work on synthesising novel inorganic and organic nano particles has produced ten patents. His invention of nano urea in liquid form has the potential to not just help India save nearly $40 billion in imports and fertilizer subsidies, but also improve farm yields and prevent ecological damage caused by the indiscriminate use of agrochemicals.

Despite eye-watering offers from some of the top crop science mulltinationals to buy his patent for $10 million plus a guaranteed an annual salary of $300,000 Raliya chose to license his invention for free to IFFCO, the country’s largest fertilizer co-operative with revenues exceeding ₹30,000 crore, to ensure Indian farmers get access to the nutrient at low cost. “But my condition to anyone who was interested in licensing it was that nano urea should be made available to farmers at cost, or the lowest price possible,” says Raliya.

Raliya’s patented nano urea in liquid form can be sprayed directly onto the leaves during two key growth stages of a crop instead of chucking the conventional urea in granular form on the soil. A 500 ml bottle of nano urea can replace a 45 kg bag of urea. “Nano urea is like taking an intravenous injection rather than popping a pill. The ultra-small particles are better absorbed directly from the leaf than through the soil. More than 70 per cent of the conventional urea applied in the soil remains unabsorbed by plants and is wasted. It makes the soil acidic and the run-off ends up polluting water bodies,” explains Raliya, who recently quit as IFFCO’s general manager and head of R&D but continues to work as a consultant to the cooperative to help it scale up commercial production of nano urea.

Saving the soil
A form of fertilizer, urea is used as a source of nitrogen for plant growth and development. Nitrogen is the key constituent of amino acids, enzymes, DNA and RNA and chlorophyll in a plant. Typically, the nitrogen content in a healthy plant ranges from 1.5-4 per cent. Since nano nitrogen particles are dispersed in liquid form in nano urea, they start acting almost immediately when sprayed on the leaves to meet the crop’s nutritional requirement and also trigger pathways for uptake and assimilation of nitrogen. And it is incredibly cheap too. A bottle of nano urea sells for ₹240 without the need for any government subsidy to keep the price low. In comparison, a subsidised bag of urea sells at nearly ₹270 with the actual market price close to ₹2,600.

Image
Ramesh Raliya with farmers at a cotton farm in Kalol, Gujarat.

India uses about 60 million tonnes of fertilizers annually. The government spends nearly ₹1-lakh crore a year in fertilizer subsidy or roughly ₹7,000 per farmer. This often acts as a perverse incentive for farmers to use them indiscriminately leading to soil infertility, ecological damage and a toxic food chain. Punjab, for instance, uses 246 kg of fertilizer per hectare against the national average of 135 kg.

India also lacks the raw materials to manufacture fertilizers on a large scale. Oil and gas needed to make them are scarce. Russia and Ukraine are key suppliers of fertilizer feedstock to India. This year, the war in Ukraine has sent urea prices soaring to nearly ₹3,000 a bag.

Liquid nano urea can replace nearly 14 million tonnes of subsidised urea saving the country close to $40 billion in imports and also significantly reducing logistics and warehousing costs. All-India trials on nearly 40 crops at more than 11,000 locations show that nano urea increases crop productivity by up to 24 per cent in grains and 8 per cent in fruits and vegetables.

Popularising the adoption of nano urea to eventually phase out the conventional granular fertilizers has become one of the cornerstones of the Government’s agriculture policy.

IFFCO from its plant has already produced more than 3.6 crore bottles of nano urea and sold nearly 3 crore bottles to farmers. The Government will spend ₹3,000 crore to build 11 more plants across India in the next two years to produce 44 crore bottles of nano urea or roughly 20 million tonnes of conventional urea.

Getting the government’s gaze
Raliya began working on ways to synthesise nano particles in 2009 when pursuing his PhD at the Central Arid Zone Research Institute in Jodhpur, part of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), and completed its development for use on industrial scale at Washington University, St Louis, US, during his stint there as a research scientist with its Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering.

Softspoken Raliya’s deep sense of public service and intense patriotism are evident even in a short conversation. Not just licensing nano urea for free, Raliya, when appointed an adjunct faculty at IIT Delhi’s Centre for Rural Development and Technology for one year, refused any pay. “This is an honour for me to contribute to our country, so I will contribute at zero charge,” he wrote to the institute.

If research in the lab requires great perseverance for nature to yield her secrets, coaxing the government machinery to utilise an innovation in public good can prove equally hard. In a 2015 letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Raliya described his research work at Washington University and the benefits it could bring to Indian farmers. He said he would be happy to make it available for free in public interest. Undeterred by the lack of response he persevered, and at the third attempt, PMO officials invited him to make a presentation to a large group of leading scientists, top officials in the agriculture and fertilizer ministries and experts.

Convinced about Raliya’s product after visits to his lab and trial fields in St Louis, the government linked him up with the Fertilizer Association of India and several large private sector firms in the agri and biosciences sectors. Several large firms were keen to commercialise nano urea but refused to give him any say in the pricing of the product.

IFFCO, as a co-operative owned by farmers, assured him that it would sell it to farmers at the lowest possible margins. In 2019, Raliya shifted base to India, joined IFFCO and set up a nanotechnology R&D centre at Gandhinagar and helped set up the first nano urea plant at Kalol that was inaugurated by the PM in May 2022.

For a brighter future
But for a young man who could have made big money selling this commercially, why did Raliya choose to offer his research for free? “Coming from a farming family, I have seen the hardships of agriculture firsthand. I was brought up to believe what you do for your country and community matters more than personal ambition. Moreover, as a scientist, I’m not giving away anything. This is my investment in my environment, farmers and the country,” says Raliya.

Nano urea is the result of one of the many patents Raliya has to his name. According to Raliya, his two other patents relating to synthesising nano calcium carbonate, which could be for cancer what insulin is to diabetes, and biosynthesis of nano nitrogen particles from fungi, respectively, could have far bigger commercial and societal relevance than even nano urea.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by rsingh »

Thanks for sharing such stories. Have personal experience. He is real hero of India. A new Kalam. Deserves highest award.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

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rsingh wrote:Thanks for sharing such stories. Have personal experience. He is real hero of India. A new Kalam. Deserves highest award.
+1
Cyrano
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

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Great to hear this. Hope he succeeds and Indian farmers benefit!
Vips
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

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Sugarcane production in India shifting from South to North: NSO report.

Sugarcane production in the country is experiencing a distinct shift from the South to the North. The six sugarcane producing Northern Indian states saw a 42 per cent increase in their sugarcane output value during the period between 2011- 2020 while output value of five sugarcane producing Southern states declined 32.4 per cent during the same period, according to a latest National Statistical Office (NSO) report.

The report, consisting of data on output value from agriculture, forestry and fishing shows that the cumulative production value of sugarcane in Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand increased from Rs 302.16 billion to Rs 429.2 billion over the decade in real terms.

Meanwhile sugarcane output in the five sugarcane producing Southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra declined from Rs 268.23 billion to Rs 181.19 billion in the corresponding period.

This Northward shift in sugarcane production is on account of larger irrigated area in the North and higher State Advisory Price (SAP) over and above the centre's Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) being offered especially by Uttar Pradesh, says Mahendra Dev, Director, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR).

For example, the UP government pegged sugarcane SAP at Rs 340 per quintal last year whereas sugarcane farmers in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra are only able to realise prices in the range of Rs 280-310.

Although Maharashtra is the leading sugar producer in the country, Uttar Pradesh has the highest sugarcane output value in the country.

“Northern states like Uttar Pradesh have been consistently offering higher SAP for sugarcane over the past decade. Southern states including Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have moved away from SAP and adopted the revenue sharing model. But they are not able to realise a remunerative price as the mills have been reporting precarious financial situations. Moreover, they (Southern states) are diverting their water to other high value crops,” says Dev.

Uttar Pradesh alone accounts for around 83 per cent of the output value among the six northern states and it registered a growth of 43.9 per cent in its output value from Rs 248.6 billion to Rs 357.7 billion over the decade, as the sucrose levels in the sugarcane produced in the state continue to increase, explains Dev.

Bihar, Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand also saw their output value increase by nearly 35, 30, 23 and 10 per cent respectively.

In the Southern states, Tamil Nadu saw the highest decline of nearly 66 per cent in the output value to Rs 18.55 billion, followed by Andhra Pradesh which saw a decline of nearly 63 per cent to Rs 7.3 billion.

Barring Karnataka, which saw a marginal increase of 0.9 per cent in the output value, other sugarcane producing southern states like Telangana and Maharashtra also saw their output value decline by nearly 50 and 27 per cent respectively.

Data sourced from the Reserve Bank of India shows total sugarcane production in the five Southern states has come down from 181.35 million tonnes to 130.65 million tonnes during the 2011- 2020 period while the production in the six Northern states has increased from 161.7 million tonnes to 222.51 million tonnes.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

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India eyes bumper wheat harvest in 2023 as record price lead to more sowing.

India is expected to harvest a bumper wheat crop in 2023 as high domestic prices and replenished soil moisture help farmers surpass last year's planting, while an intense heat-wave cut output this year.

Higher wheat output could encourage India, the world's second biggest producer of the grain, to consider lifting a May ban on exports of the staple and help ease concerns over persistently high retail inflation.

Although the wheat area has almost reached a plateau in India's traditional grain belts in the northern states such as Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, growers are planting the crop on some fallow land in the country's west where farmers have traditionally grown pulse and oilseeds.

"Wheat prices are very attractive," Nitin Gupta, vice president at Olam Agro India, told Reuters. "We can see a big jump in states like Gujarat and Rajasthan, where farmers could bring barren land under wheat."

Domestic wheat prices have jumped 33% so far in 2022 to a record 29,000 rupees ($355.19) per tonne, far above the government-fixed buying price of 21,250 rupees.

The surge in wheat prices is despite the ban on exports of the grain, indicating a far bigger drop in this year's output.

India, also the world's second biggest consumer of wheat, banned exports of the staple after a sharp, sudden rise in temperatures clipped output even as exports picked up to meet the global shortfall triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

India grows only one wheat crop in a year, with planting in October and November, and harvests from March.

Farmers have planted wheat on 15.3 million hectares since Oct. 1, when the current sowing season began, up nearly 11% from a year earlier, according to provisional data released by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare.

In Punjab and Haryana, India's bread basket states, a lot of farmers decided to bring forward their planting, believing the early-sown varieties would be ready for harvests before temperatures tend to go up in late March and early April, said Ramandeep Singh Mann, a farmer.

Higher temperatures shrivel the wheat crop.

"In Punjab, farmers have already planted wheat on 2.9 to 3.0 million hectares of its normal area of around 3.5 million hectares," Mann said. To cash in on higher prices, farmers are also opting for superior wheat varieties such as Lokwan and Sharbati, the premium grades that fetch higher returns.

"Wheat area has gone up, but the crop will require lower temperatures in the weeks to come, and then the weather needs to remain favourable in March and April when the crop ripens," said Rajesh Paharia Jain, a New Delhi-based trader.
Cyrano
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Price manipulation by international traders buying grains for China and EU out of Singapore and Dubai have made lot of profits this year. India should now look at exporting food commodities in direct govt to govt deals, bypassing USD if deemed necessary. Helping various smaller nations to achieve food security can become a powerful foreign policy tool, and India will make money directly instead of middlemen.
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

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'World's largest grain storage' scheme for food security soon.

The Centre is merging several schemes to develop the "world's largest grain storage" scheme amid global food disruptions in the wake of the war in Ukraine and the Covid-19 pandemic. Schemes under ministries including the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare, consumer affairs, food and public distribution and food processing will soon be merged, a report by Mint stated.

The disruptions in food supply and high prices have increased food security concerns in several countries. Ukraine and Russia are among the world's largest suppliers of wheat, barley and fertilisers. India, despite having large arable land, suffers from low productivity.

"We have been lagging behind in terms of stored grains and storage capacity. So now, the government is trying to ramp up. The most important thing in the storage plan will be to see if it's going to be modern storage or if the old system will be followed, where each man carries a sack and builds a storage pyramid. A mechanised system is far more transparent and much more modern. We don't even have 2 million tonnes of storage in silos. The storage plan has been in the works for a long time, and it's only now the government is trying to implement it," Ashok Gulati, agricultural economist and former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, told Mint.

India's cereal stocks, held by the Food Corporation of India (FCI), fell to a five-year low in 2022. The storage capacity varied from 75 million tonnes (mt) to 85 mt in 2022. The Centre also extended its free foodgrain scheme, Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, till December 31. Its total expenditure stands at Rs 3.9 trillion.

"It is a good idea to merge the schemes under which a grant is provided by the government of India for the creation of storage capacity through traditional warehouses, silos and cold storages. However, it must be noted that the state governments also contribute to most of the centrally sponsored schemes to the extent of 40 per cent. The real benefit of such storage will come only if there is compulsory registration of warehouses with the Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority," Siraj Hussain, a former agriculture secretary, told Mint.
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India's wheat output may set new record of over 112 lakh tonnes in 2022-23

The country's wheat production is likely to set a new record of more than 112 million tonnes in the 2022-23 crop year (July-June), according to official sources. Wheat production had declined to 106.84 million tonnes due to heat wave in key growing states in 2021-22 crop year, as per the agriculture ministry data.

In 2020-21, the country had achieved record wheat output of 109.59 million tonnes.

"The crop prospect of wheat crop is better due to current weather conditions and slightly higher acreage. The total production is estimated to be more than 112 million tonnes this year," sources said.

Sowing of wheat, the main rabi (winter) crop, had begun from October onwards, while harvesting will start from March/ April.

According to the latest data, farmers have sown wheat in 332.16 lakh ha till January 6 of the current rabi season of the 2022-23 crop year (July-June), against 329.88 lakh ha during the same period last year.

Higher coverage was reported from Rajasthan (2.52 lakh ha), Uttar Pradesh (1.69 lakh ha), Maharashtra (1.20 lakh ha), Gujarat (0.70 lakh ha), Chhattisgarh (0.63 lakh ha), Bihar (0.44 lakh ha), West Bengal (0.10 lakh ha), Jammu & Kashmir (0.06 lakh ha) and Assam (0.03 lakh ha), according to the data.
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Food & fertiliser subsidies to cross a record Rs 5.21 trn in FY23.

The government’s food and fertiliser subsidy expenses in the current fiscal are estimated at Rs 5.21 trillion, an all-time high, as per the official sources. While food subsidy expenses would be around Rs 2.76 trillion in FY23, the subsidies incurred because of supplying highly subsidised soil nutrients to farmers in the current year are estimated at Rs 2.45 trillion.

Sources told FE that due to a softening of global fertilsers prices in the recent months and discontinuation of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyana Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) or free ration scheme, the subsidies outgo next fiscal could decline by around 20% on year to Rs 4.1 trillion.

The previous annual record of actual expenses on these two major explicit subsidies was Rs 4.48 trillion incurred in 2021-22; the food subsidy bill alone was budgeted at Rs 5.41 trillion in 2020-21, but that Rs 3.4 trillion of it was on a account of repayment of off-budget NSSF loans pertaining to previous years.

The government’s food subsidy expenses in the current fiscal is now estimated 34% higher than the outlay made at the beginning of the year (budget estimate). This includes the expenditure of Rs 1.03 trillion towards running PMGKAY during April-December, 2022.

Out of the total food subsidy, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) is expected to incur expenses of Rs 1.95 trillion in the current fiscal while the rest of the expenses would be by states those who follow decenctralised procurement system.The estimated fertiliser subsidies for the current year is estimated at a record Rs 2.45 trillion mainly because of a spike in global prices of soil nutrients in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

It would be the third year in a row that the annual Budget spending on fertiliser would be above Rs 1 trillion mark, against a lower range of Rs 70,000- 80,000 crore in the past few years.

The country imports about half of its requirement of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) and 25% of urea consumption. The domestic muriate of potash (MoP) demand is met solely through imports (from Belarus, Canada and Jordan, etc). The fertilisers are provided to farmers at highly subsidised rates.

Fertiliser ministry sources said that prices of soil nutrients have declined in the recent months. Recently Arun Singhal, secretary, department of fertilisers had stated that there is a likelihood of softening of global prices of fertilisers further. Stating that future volatility in global prices could not be predicted, he said that future course of Russia and Ukraine conflict would have an impact on the global price movements of soil nutrients.

“The availability of fertiliser in international markets have improved, and the prices have also started to correct, which is a good sign for the domestic fertiliser industry as India imports a sizeable portion of key raw materials as well as finished fertilisers (almost 25-28% of finished fertilisers are imported),” Sabyasachi Majumdar, Group Head & Senior Vice President, Corporate Ratings, ICRA Limited, said.

Last month, the cabinet decided to provide around 48 million tonnes of rice and wheat annually under National Food Security Act free-of-cost to the 813 million beneficiaries during 2023 while it decided against extending the PMGKAY or free ration scheme beyond December 31, 2022.

The estimated economic cost of food grains procurement by the FCI, which includes expenses such as Minimum Support Price payment to farmers, procurement, acquisition and distribution costs, etc for rice and wheat are Rs 3,670.04 and Rs 2,588.70 per quintal, respectively, in 2022-23.
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Oil, food and fertiliser prices will continue to be low mainly due to the weak growth (inflation hitting consumer demand) bordering on recession in Europe and Americas. India should make the most of it and pull ahead.

PMGKAY is extended until Dec 2023 - NaMo recent statement.
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At 66 MT, paddy procurement marginally higher than year-ago level; allays concerns over govt’s rice stocks.

Four months since the commencement of paddy procurement by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state government agencies for the 2022-23 current season (October-September), the total purchase till Sunday was up marginally on year at 66 million tonne (MT) which is equivalent of 51.4 MT of rice. In the corresponding period last year, the paddy purchases were to the tune of 65 MT.

Higher grain procurement has given a boost to FCI’s rice stocks which had depleted by implementation of the free ration scheme.

At the beginning of the month, FCI had 17 MT of rice along with 30 MT to be received from millers which was far more than the buffer requirement of 7.6 MT for the beginning of the year.

The corporation needs 40 MT of rice annually for distribution to beneficiaries under National Food Security Act.

Officials said that surplus rains last year, by the end of September and the first week of October, prior to paddy harvesting, have not impacted mandi arrivals as earlier feared. Punjab, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Odisha have contributed the most to the procurement drive.

In Punjab, the top contributor to the central pool, the agencies including FCI have purchased 18.2 MT of paddy this season, which is 2.7% less than during the same period in the previous year.

Agencies in Haryana have procured 5.8 MT of grains under MSP operations, which was marginally higher than a year ago. In Telangana, agencies have purchased 6.4 MT of paddy so far which is a marginal increase from the previous year.

In Chhattisgarh and Odisha, where paddy purchase by agencies is currently being undertaken, 9.2 MT and 4.8 MT of paddy respectively have been procured from the farmers under MSP operations so far.

In Uttar Pradesh, where the paddy crop was impacted by unseasonal rains in October, agencies have purchased 6.1 MT of grain which at the same level as the previous year. Other key states which have contributed significantly include Andhra Pradesh (3.1 MT), Tamil Nadu (0.5 MT) and Uttarakhand (0.8 MT).

The government is aiming to procure 90 MT of paddy in the entire marketing season (2022-23). Paddy-to-rice conversion ratio is 67%. After paddy is procured from the farmers by the FCI and state agencies, it is handed over to millers for conversion into rice.

FCI supplied rice for distribution to more than 800 million beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act and other welfare schemes. The rice procured from grain-surplus states is also used for keeping a buffer stock with the FCI.

According to an agriculture ministry estimate, rice production could decline by 6 MT in the 2022-23 crop year (July-June) from a record 130 MT in the 2021-22 crop year.

In the 2020-21 season, rice procurement was at a record 60.2 MT while in the previous year, the grain procurement was marginally lower at 59.2 MT . Rice production had hit a record 130.29 MT in the 2021-22 crop year.

The government had earlier increased the MSP of the common variety of paddy by more than 5% to `2,040 a quintal for the 2022-23 season, from Rs 1,940 per quintal a year ago.
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Foodgrain output to rise 2.5 pc to record 323.55 million tonnes in 2022-23; wheat production at 112 mn tonnes.

India’s foodgrain production is estimated to rise by 2.5 per cent at an all-time high of 323.55 million tonnes in the current crop year ending June, mainly on expectations of a record output of rice, wheat and pulses.

Oilseeds production, too, is expected to increase by 2 million tonnes to record 40 million tonnes in 2022-23 crop year (July-June), as per the second advance estimates of production of foodgrains released by the agriculture ministry on Tuesday.

Bumper production of foodgrains (comprising of wheat, rice, pulses and coarse cereals) and oilseeds will boost domestic supplies and help in containing food inflation. India imports a large quantity of edible oils (cooking oils) to meet its domestic demand.

The rate of price rise in the food basket was 5.94 per cent in January, up from 4.19 per cent in the preceding month and 5.43 per cent in the year-ago month, as per data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Monday.

“Agriculture sector is developing day by day due to hardwork of farmers, proficiency of scientists and farmer friendly policies of the government in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar said in a statement.

As per the data, wheat production is estimated at record 112.18 million tonnes in the 2022-23 crop year, as against 107.74 million tonnes in the previous year.

The previous high in production of wheat, a major rabi crop, was achieved in the 2020-21 crop year at 109.58 million tonnes. The output had fallen to 107.74 million tonnes in the previous year due to heat waves in some producing states.

According to the ministry’s data, the rice production is estimated to increase to 130.83 million tonnes in 2022-23 crop year, as against 129.47 million tonnes in the previous year.

Rice is grown in both kharif (summer sown) and rabi (winter sown) seasons. The rice production in kharif season is estimated to fall to 108.07 million tonnes from 111 million tonnes because of deficient rains in some states, but the rice output in rabi season is slated to increase to 22.76 million tonnes from 18.47 million tonnes.

The output of coarse cereals has been pegged at 52.72 million tonnes in the current crop year as against 51.10 million tonnes in the previous year.

Pulse production is estimated at record 27.81 million tonnes in 2022-23 as against 27.3 million tonnes in the previous year.

Total foodgrain production is estimated to be a record 323.55 million tonnes in the 2022-23 crop year, as against 315.61 million tonnes in the previous year.

Apart from foodgrains, the ministry said that the oilseeds production is estimated at record 40 million tonnes in 2022-23, as against 37.96 million tonnes in the previous year.

Among oilseeds, the output of rapeseed and mustard is expected to rise to 12.81 million tonnes from 11.96 million tonnes, while soyabean output may increase to 13.97 million tonnes from 12.98 million tonnes.

In case of wheat, the estimates of higher production augurs well as it will boost domestic availability and help in bringing down the retail prices of wheat and atta (wheat flour).

The government had to ban wheat exports in May last year to control prices. It has recently decided to offload 3 million tonnes of wheat in the open market to cool retail prices. Around 2.5 million tonnes out of 3 million tonnes have been earmarked for sale to bulk users like flour millers.

Total area planted with wheat crop has risen by only 1.39 lakh hectares to 343.23 lakh hectares (ha) in the rabi season of the 2022-23 crop year from the year-ago period, but the crop yields are expected to be better due to good weather conditions.

Wheat has already started arriving in Madhya Pradesh, one of the major wheat growing states in the country.

As per the data, the production of sugarcane during 2022-23 is estimated at record 468.78 million tonnes as against 439.42 million tonnes in the previous year.

Production of cotton is estimated at 33.72 million bales (of 170 kg each), up from 31.11 million bales in the previous year.

Jute & Mesta output is estimated at 10.04 million bales (of 180 kg each).

The assessment of production of different crops is based on the feedback received from states and validated with information available from other sources, the ministry said in a statement.
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Tragic neglect of Pandurang Khankhoje: India’s Green revolution is the finest example of brain drain.

What comes to mind when you hear about the Green Revolution? Wheat? Maize? Paddy? Overpopulated fields in mostly North Indian states like Punjab and Haryana? Norman Borlaugh? How about M. S. Swaminathan? Any one of them or all But I bet only a few can associate Pandurang Khankhoje with the revolution. That is what brain drain does to us.

Born with revolutionary genes
Revolutionary, inventor, innovator, agriculturalist, nationalist, empathic These are some of the few adjectives that can be used to define Pandorum. He was born on November 7, 1884, at Wardha. His father worked as a petition writer, which means that the child had no shortage of knowledge sources to learn from. To top it all, his grandfather had fought in the 1857 independence movement.

The genes started to manifest when young Pandurang relocated to Nagpur. Figures like Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Swami Dayanand Saraswati and their movements inspired him a lot. According to Live History India, after studying the history of revolutions, he became an admirer of the way in which French and American revolutionaries toppled the existing regimes. To put it simply, he liked historically weak ones mustering their courage to thrash the stronger.

Travelled across the world to raise awareness about nationalism
This may be the reason why Bal Gangadhar Tilak sent him to Japan. Japan had beaten a massive Tsar Army in the Russia-Japan war of 1905. There he got to meet people like Sun Yat-Sen. During his East Asia sojourn, Panduram got interested in farming. In 1906, Americans called for Chinese labourers to rebuild earthquake-hit San Francisco. Pandurang also went with them, but his body was not made for slavery-type physical strain. According to his daughter, Shivani Sahane, Pandurang worked as a waiter and hospital attendant to survive. He used the earnings to study agriculture at California and Berkeley Universities.

But his zeal for revolutions didn’t die. In his free time, Pandurang used to study how Latin American countries and Ireland were fighting against Spain and the British Raj, respectively. In 1910, he enrolled in the Mount Tamalpais Military Academy to train for armed rebellion against the Brits. Confident Pandurag then strived to form the Indian Independence League with Sohan Singh Bhakna and Pandit Kashmir. All 3 then roped in Professor Lala Hardayal of Stanford University and formed the Gadar Party.

The party then went on to infuse nationalistic sentiments among economic migrants and people located back home. Patriotic songs and articles were being read by Indian soldiers fighting for the British in World War I. The British sensed the smoke of mutiny and started to look for Pandurang. In fact, with the help of Germans, Pandurang was trying to enter India through Balochistan. But, within 1 year, the Gadar revolt failed.

Pandurang was now visiting places like Berlin, Paris, and even Russia to meet like-minded individuals. In Russia, he found a man who was a common enemy. It was Vladimir Lenin. Eventually, with the victory of the Brits in the First World War, Pandurang was forced to fly to Mexico. Here, he was faced with a hunger crisis.

Revolutionized farming in Latin America
As they say, tough times create tough men. Pandurang saw millions of Mexicans suffering alongside him due to low crop production. He started looking for old Mexican colleagues whom he had met in the USA. Ramon Pe. De Negri, a friend, had become Minister of Agriculture, and another, Luis Manzón, was a parliamentarian. He became a professor at the National Agricultural School in Chapingo due to his interest in agriculture.

He worked day and night with Mexican farmers. Pandurang was head of the Mexican Corn Breeding Program. Under his leadership, lots of new varieties of corn with higher breeding capacities were developed. The new variety was copied by other Latin American countries, as they were suffering from the same problem of food insecurity. Due to Pandurang’s efforts, the people of these countries went from sleeping hungry to having more than the required amount of food.

He also developed drought-resistant wheat. Later, Norman Borlaugh brought this variety of wheat to Punjab, fostering the Green Revolution. Students of plant genetics owe a huge debt to Pandurang. It is thanks to him that the subject got mainstreamed. The Mexican government later appointed him as director of the Department of Agriculture.

Father of the Green Revolution?
In Mexico, Pandurang is a revered figure. Diego Rivera has painted a mural depicting Pandurang at the head of the dinner table. Pandurang is cutting bread with a knife, with farmers and soldiers standing beside him. Other tables are occupied by different countries that benefit from them.

When India got political independence in 1947, Pandurang sought to return to his own country. Initially, the Nehru government ardently followed the British ban on him. It didn’t grant Visas for Pandurang, his Belgian wife Jen and daughters Savitri and Maya. After 8 years of ardent efforts, he was finally successful in returning to native country.

Pandurng rejected the government’s economic aid to him and asked to spend it on agriculture in India. He spent his later years cutting off from public life, while reading old Indian literature in Nagpur. In the midst of the Green revolution, his soul left the body on 22nd January 1967. By then, he had seen the fruits of his efforts in Mexico benefiting his own countrymen and women.
Vips
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Vips »

Foodgrain output seen at record 330.5 MT in 2022-23.

The total foodgrain production in the country in 2022-23 is estimated to go up to a record 330.5 million tonnes (MT) from 315.6 MT with a record production of wheat, rice, maize, oilseeds and sugarcane, according to the third advance estimate of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare on Thursday.

The total production of wheat during 2022-23 is estimated at 112.7 MT, higher by 5 MT as compared to the previous year. The production of rice in the country is estimated at 135.5 MT which is higher by 6 MT as compared to the previous year's production.

The production of maize during 2022-23 is estimated at 35.9 MT, which is higher by 2.1 MT than the previous year's production.

While the production of nutri and coarse cereals is estimated at 54.7 MT, 3.6 MT higher than the previous year's production, that of sugarcane is estimated at 494.2 MT, 54.8 MT higher than last year.

The total production of pulses is estimated at 27.5 MT in 2022-23.

The production of soybean, rapeseed-mustard is estimated at 14.9 MT and 12.4 MT respectively, which is higher by 1.9 MT and 0.5 MT respectively than the production of the previous year.

The total oilseeds production in the country during 2022-23 is estimated at 40.9 MT.

The production of cotton is estimated at 34.3 million bales (of 170 kg each).
Cyrano
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Cyrano »

I discovered after the start of the Ukrainian conflict last year that India imported significant quantities of sunflower oil from Ukr. We continue to import large quantities of palm oil. Hope oil seeds production goes up significantly in the coming seasons.

What is such a huge qty of Soybean oil used for? Cooking at home or food processing industry under the vague label "vegetable oil"?

What are the top 10 agri product imports by India? Is this info published somewhere?
rajkumar
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by rajkumar »

Cyrano wrote:I discovered after the start of the Ukrainian conflict last year that India imported significant quantities of sunflower oil from Ukr. We continue to import large quantities of palm oil. Hope oil seeds production goes up significantly in the coming seasons.

What is such a huge qty of Soybean oil used for? Cooking at home or food processing industry under the vague label "vegetable oil"?

What are the top 10 agri product imports by India? Is this info published somewhere?
https://factly.in/data-review-of-indias ... s-imports/
Cyrano
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Cyrano »

Thank you, that was an excellent link !
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by Mollick.R »

X-post for records from Economic Thread

India approves world's largest food storage scheme in co-operative sector at the cost of Rs 1 lakh crore

ET Online, Last Updated: May 31, 2023, 05:21 PM IST

The government will bring a policy for world's biggest food grain storage scheme under the cooperative societies sector, minister Anurag Thakur told media following a Cabinet briefing on Tuesday.

Thakur termed the proposed scheme as the "world's largest foodgrain storage programme" in the cooperative sector.

The government will make an allocation of approximately Rs 1 lakh crore towards it, it was announced.

Under this scheme, a godown of a capacity of 2000 tonnes will be constructed in every block. An inter-ministerial committee will be formed for this.

This is part of a plan to expland foodgrain storage facilities in the country, the minister said. This will boost the cooperative sector, he added.

The programme aims to raise India's foodgrain storage capacity by 700 lakh tonne in the cooperative sector. Currently, the grain storage capacity in the country is about 1,450 lakh tonne.

In the next five years, the storage will expand to 2,150 lakh tonne. The storage capacity will be increased in the cooperative sector, the minister announced.


Thakur said the move is aimed to reduce the damage of food grains due to a lack of storage, help in checking distress sales by farmers, reduce import dependence and create employment opportunities in rural India.

This will boost food security in India, apart from helping farmers realise better prices for their goods. Earlier, farmers at times had to sell their wares in a hurried manner owing to climate-related vagaries, the minister said.

India has 65,000 agricultural cooperative societies.

The new move will be a win-win for both agricultural societies and farmers as well as consumers, the minister said. The farmers, apart from storing their produce in the facilities, will also be able to get up to 70% loans from these societies.

This will lead to significant savings in transportation costs, he observed.

India produces about 3,100 lakh tonne of foodgrains a year. The country's current godown facilities can store only up to 47 per cent of the produce.

A decision was also taken to start City Investments to Innovate, Integrate and Sustain - CITIIS 2.0 program at the same briefing.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ne ... 647659.cms
VinodTK
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by VinodTK »

India’s journey from agricultural basket case to breadbasket
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Yet in some senses, rather than stagnating, Indian agriculture is flourishing. Working conditions may be grim, but record harvest follows record harvest—and famine is a thing of the past. Farming exports in the fiscal year ending in March were up by 9% on the previous 12 months, hitting $26bn and representing 7% of India’s outbound trade. During the global food scare that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, India became a pivotal exporter of rice and wheat (it is the world’s second biggest producer of both), as well as other grains. In one of many such examples, it recently agreed to send 20m tonnes of wheat to the Taliban in Afghanistan, adding to 40m tonnes last year.
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vijayk
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Re: Indian Agriculture and Agro-based Industry

Post by vijayk »

Monsoon rains swing from 10 per cent deficit to surplus in eight days
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