The euphoria over the Green Revolution and over-flowing godowns might soon become a thing of the past. For the first time, there was a serious fall in the procurement of wheat. It’s barely touching the buffer stock. The procurement has been 14.79 million tonnes this year as compared to 16.80 million tonnes last year.
Acres of land, once under traditional farming are now covered with medicinal plants and trees such as Safed Musli, Ashwagandha, Amla (Indian gooseberry), Sridar Patidar, Gur- Mar, Jamun Sativa and Patchtoli.
However, farmers complain that the government is not providing export facilities, which is forcing them to settle for a fraction of the actual market rates of the plant.
“There is a an international market for Safed Musli. It is sold for 3000 to 4000 rupees per kilogram in the international market. However, in our country the government is not providing any such facilities, for exporting our produce. The agents come and collect the herbs for about 500 rupees to 700 rupees per kilogram and then sell in the market at the international rates,” Ashok Patidar, another farmer, said.
EW DELHI: Winter oilseed output is expected to fall because of poor rains, but a higher crop area will boost grain production, the farm ministry said on Friday. Winter grain output is estimated to rise to 105.3m tonnes from 103.3m last year, Union agriculture secretary Radha Singh told reporters after a two-day meeting of farm officials.
The event will provide a common platform for buyers and sellers
# India has 200 million potential customers for organic produce
# Market for organic produce in India is worth Rs. 200 crores
# The world market is worth $35 billion
BANGALORE: As part of a long-term strategy to improve the market for organic produce, the Government, along with other agencies, will conduct an international organic trade fair, "India Organic-2005", from November 4 to 7 at Lalbagh here.
Union Minister for Agriculture Sharad Pawar will inaugurate the event. Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh, Agriculture Minister K Srinivas Gowda, and representatives of international organisations will participate in the fair, which is to be held for the first time in the country.
The main aim of the event is to create a common platform for buyers and sellers of organic produce. It will provide an opportunity to participants to strike deals, officials of the Directorate of Agriculture say.
Seminars will be held for three days as part of the event. They will highlight organic agriculture scenario in the country and deliberate on ways of improving the positioning of the sector. President of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement (IFOAM) Gerald A. Hermann will speak on "Challenges before India to make space for itself in the world of organic agriculture and trade."
A workshop on organic cotton will be organised for farmers from Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
The International Competence Centre for Organic Agriculture (ICCOA), a Bangalore-based non-governmental organisation; the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority of the Union Ministry of Agriculture; the Government of Switzerland; the Indian Organic Market Development Project ; and the International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements are sponsoring the fair.
The event is likely to be attended by over 500 traders, 30 of them from other countries. A large number of producers, processors, input manufacturers, exporters, and importers, Union and State government organisations, certifying agencies and consumer organisations will participate. It will serve as a platform for the developed world, which is looking to India as a major source for organic products, officials say. India has 200 million potential customers for organic products and a market of Rs. 200 crores. The world market for organic food ingredients is $35 billion, and it is growing at more than eight per cent a year. Manoj Kumar Menon, event coordinator and manager (market development) of ICCOA, says cultural programmes will be organised on the sidelines of the event.
Details are available from the Deputy Director, Organic Farming Cell, Directorate of Agriculture, Seshadri Road, Bangalore (phone: 080-22105350) and ICCOA, 951 C, 15th Cross, 8th Main, Ideal Homes Township, Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Bangalore (phone: 080-28601183).
SaiK wrote:we should stop these onion imports or any vegetable imports from china. chinese directly fertilize them using human feces without any type of treatments. [chinese themselves say this/ wann prove and certificate, i can arrange for that.]
besides the bird flu infection.!!
The Cabinet on Thursday approved an agriculture ministry proposal to introduce a bill in Parliament for the repeal of the Agricultural Produce Cess Act, 1940 and the Produce Cess Act, 1966. This has been a long-standing demand of exporters and farmers and is expected to be a big morale booster to both. It is expected to make farm produce exports more competitive even while rationalising the government’s incentive structure for farm produce exports. Both the Acts impose a tax on exports, now seen as bad economics since farm exports are meant to boost farm incomes and also since exports are being incentivised through schemes such as the Krishi Upaj Yojana, involving revenue loss.
THE fear of the Asia-originated avian flu instances have forced the European Union clamping imports of birds. But, the domestic poultry has taken advantage of the situation to expand its export terrain.
The Tamil Nadu-based layer bird growers are set to upstage another milestone in the export of table eggs this year, thanks to the opportunity evolving to tap newer export markets. The domestic poultry sector expects that the disease-free poultry farming in India, as opposed to the reports of avian influenza in the South-East Asian nations such as Thailand and Vietnam, would kick up demand for poultry products comprising both table egg and chicken meat in the coming days.
"The layer sector in Namakkal zone which already accounts for 70 per cent of table egg exports has recently floated a separate forum, the All India Poultry Products Exporters Association with its headquarters in Namakkal, and the new association would provide export facilitation to the poultry farmers in the region," said Dr P. Selvaraj, Chairman of the Namakkal Zonal committee of the National Egg Coordination Committee.
Dr Selvaraj, a noted player in both layer and broiler farming besides owning a leading hatchery, said the broiler sector from the South has recently blazed a new trail in exports by registering with the Japanese Government for export of chicken meat. This, according to him, would pave way for the region's broiler industry to export for the first time to a sophisticated market like Japan.
"The new association is now working with the APEDA to get the Japanese Government clearance for export of table eggs, too, from India," Dr Selvaraj told Business Line. He added that with scope for further widening the export market for the table eggs, the shell egg export from the region is poised to go up by 50 per cent over last year's levels.
Namakkal layer zone comprising Namakkal, Rasipuram, Sankari and Erode, accounting for daily shell egg production of around 1.3 crore units, has during the 2004 calendar recorded a monthly average egg export of 52.5 million units (based on the first nine month shipments, that is January-September 2005), and, this year, the average monthly shell egg shipment has gone up to 66.7 million units (up to September 2005), registering a 25 per cent growth.
As for the avian flu problem, Dr Selvaraj said the poultry farms in India, especially those in the South are quite insulated from the virus attack as the bird farms are reared in high temperature zones. Further, unlike Thailand or Vietnam where piggeries are situated alongside the poultry, poultry farms here are not clubbed with any other animal zones, he added. Poultry vaccines are easily available to contain the disease any time, though bulk of these vaccines are imported. Being aware of the implications, the poultry farmers have long ago initiated all bio security practices within their respective farm areas. "I consider the scope for any avian flu attack is far remote in this context," he added.
and, if you think what I am saying is nonsense, maybe I really wasn't clear enough. Santosh,Santosh wrote: Yes except that your manufacturer will shut shop but your farmer will die. Manufacturing can't be equated to farming because
1. Farming is traditional and not tech savy. So low yields.
2. Manufacturing invests millions in ERP and market research so is better equipped to handle economics. There are only 10 TV manufacturers in India and they know each others production capacity quality and market. There are 100million farming families and you can't tell who will sow what and how much.
3. Manufacturing depends on a. Capital/Equipment b. Raw Material c. Labor. Farming depends on d. Monsoon e. Pests f. Humidity g. Transportation (coz perishable) apart from a, b & c. So highly unpredictable.
Again, its not about economics. Its about ground realities. Let the GoI create the right environment before MSP is dismantled.
Economics is about ground realities. It provides you knowledge about what wil be the consequence of an action. You may still want to go ahead with an action despite the consequences, and that is yiur decision.Again, its not about economics. Its about ground realities. Let the GoI create the right environment before MSP is dismantled.
So its not a problem that farmers are not able to re-seed GM crop? I was speaking to another jingo and he thinks its a problem as farmers dont have the money to buy new GM seeds everytime they re-plant.Santosh wrote:GJ, the performance of GM cotton has been mixed. It is good in some states like Gujarat while in others like AP it has been devastating. The unemployment scare is in some of the Eastern states as you would expect.
It is. But in places where GM crop has been successful farmers have cross-pollinated popular local varieties with GM varieties to get around re-seeding issue. Don't know how widespread the practice is.George J wrote:So its not a problem that farmers are not able to re-seed GM crop?
From what I understand, cotton is rarely re-seeded. GM or Non-GM, farmers have always sourced Cotton Seeds from commercial agro companies like Mahyco, ITC Zeneca (I guess it is called as Advanta now), etc.So its not a problem that farmers are not able to re-seed GM crop? I was speaking to another jingo and he thinks its a problem as farmers dont have the money to buy new GM seeds everytime they re-plant.
Big demand for Indian processed chicken
Special Correspondent
Bird flu in South East Asia makes overseas buyers turn to India
Bangalore: The bird flu epidemic in South East Asian nations could be a blessing in disguise for the Indian poultry industry with demands surging from overseas buyers for processed chicken from India.
To meet the rising demand, the country's leading integrated poultry company Suguna Poultry Farm Ltd. is upgrading the capacity of its export plant for processed chicken to double the production from the existing 8 lakh birds per month to 16 lakh birds per month, Coimbatore-based Suguna's Managing Director B. Soundararajan said here on Wednesday.
"India is not affected by the bird flu. It is a blessing for the country," Mr. Soundararajan told presspersons.
With processed chicken prices rising in the global market from about $1,200 per tonne to $1,450 per tonne in the wake of the bird flu, Suguna's export revenues are expected to go up significantly this year from the current level of Rs. 50 crores to Rs. 55 crores, he noted.
Suguna currently produces two crore birds per month for its processed chicken business out of which eight lakh birds are exported mainly to the West Asia and the Gulf under two brand names.
It has a 14.5 per cent share in the domestic poultry meat products market estimated worth 1.7 million tonnes.
Mr. Soundararajan said that Suguna had been growing at a rate of 30 per cent annually, which is way ahead of the industry growth rate of 13 per cent per annum.
It clocked revenues of Rs. 813 crores in 2004-05 and during the first half of the current fiscal, the company's sales touched Rs. 508 crores, registering a growth of 41 per cent from a year ago.
Suguna has hired IBM and Oracle to implement an enterprise resource planning (ERP) package for the company which the IT industry claims to be first of its kind implementation by an integrated poultry company in India, and perhaps anywhere in the world.
Now it's fruit juice for breakfast
By Anita Jain in New Delhi
Published: November 23 2005 02:00 | Last updated: November 23 2005 02:00
After a morning cup of chai, the typical Indian sits down to a heavy breakfast of fried paratha bread, spicy pickle and oil-drenched vegetables, washed down by a glass of buttermilk.
But as Indians adopt a more rushed western lifestyle, breakfast habits too are changing.
Packaged fruit juice, virtually non-existent a few years ago, is now making its appearance at the breakfast table, creating a market that is growing by 50 per cent annually.
"The fruit juice market has gone through a revolution," said Jagdeep Kapoor, chairman and managing director of Samsika, a brand marketing consultancy.
This was also due to growing awareness of health issues and a more sophisticated cocktail culture requiring fruit juice as a mixer.
In the late 1990s, the Indian foods group Dabur India introduced the country's first boxed fruit juice, a hygienic alternative to canned juices and the fresh juice sold by street vendors.
Dabur's fruit juice sales rose 25 per cent in the initial years but have recently seen annual growth of some 50 per cent. "There's been a boom in the last two years," said Amit Burman, executive director of Dabur's food division.
The company, which Mr Burman claims has 60 per cent market share, reported fruit juice turnover of $26.4m (€22.5m, $15.4m) last year.
Dabur's Real brand of nine juices includes orange, mango, guava and lychee, while its Activ brand includes fruit and vegetable combinations.
PepsiCo has been selling a similar range of packaged fruit juices at similar prices under the Tropicana Premium brand since 2001, accounting for 12 per cent of its total business in India.
Abhiram Seth, PepsiCo's executive director of exports, said its citrus farming project in India could reduce its retail price for orange juice, undercutting Dabur.
Mr Burman said, however, that most of Dabur's popular juices were already made from locally sourced fruits such as lychee and guava.
He said sales of these juices were growing by 60 to 65 per cent a year against 20 per cent for orange juice.
