ఉద్యోగస్థులారా ఆలోచించండి ఆచరించండి

 Invention to convention -An essential shift in Indian Agriculture

As a country, we moved from food starving to food surplus nation in about 75years. Our food grain production increased from 50 Million MT in 1951 to 308 Million MT in 2020-21, which is a considerable achievement. With food grains such as paddy and wheat, shifting from sellers’ market to buyers’ market with bumper production in subsequent years, farmers are facing problems in selling the produce, despite Minimum support price (MSP) mechanisms. In fact it is impossible for any government directly purchasing from farmers at Minimum support price (MSP) and sustain the operations.  The intention of MSP is to act as bench mark price.  While working on MSP, other than cost of production, the other factors such crop planning, value addition possibilities, export potential, cost of buffer stock management etc., shall be considered. Just declaring MSP is not sufficient from Government, it has work on whole lot of issues like crop planning, supply chain management, imports-exports, value chain, so that the market is vibrant to ensure better realizations to farmers.    

India is able to effectively feed its 130 crore plus population despite huge income parities, thorough its public distribution system (PDS), (supplying food grains worth over 15000 crores to about 16000 cr families)   and MNREGS (Wage employment guarantee to 30 cr poor people with over 1 lakh crore budget allocation) programs, which are the largest poverty alleviation programs across the globe. It is certainly a remarkable achievement. At the same time it is not a tall claim, as India is still figuring in bottom of most malnourished countries (102 out of 117 qualified countries). Food security does not mean addressing the calories need of the people, it means a lot. World should address hidden hunger by addressing the micronutrients and protein needs other than the calories. India figures in top of the list in hidden hunger countries, as our food is highly deficient in iron, zinc, vitamins essential for overall health and development. As stated in “The state of food security & nutrition in the world, 2020, about 19 cr people are undernourished, 34.7% children under 5 are stunted growth,  58.6 % children are anemic  in India, reflecting the need for addressing holistic food needs. In a way we are over producing calories (paddy & wheat) and feeding rodents while ignoring the nutrition status of the nation.  

If we analyze our major crops like paddy, wheat, sugarcane, maize, soybean, pulses, first three crops give only calories in fact sugar is nothing but calories, maize is rich in vitamin A, Soybean is more balanced with  quantities of iron, Vitamin A, Zinc, copper, vitamin C and pulses are rich in protein. Among pulses green gram and yellow peas are the best as they contain easily digestible protein, which is very much essential for our malnourishing children. India is gifted with resources and climate, where we can grow complete nutrition food sufficient to our population and even export to other countries.

The grains surplus in the nation is pushing us to think about alternative crops, value addition in agriculture, export opportunities, customized agriculture. We need to see an opportunity in present situation and diversify our agriculture, considering the balanced diet requirements of the country, buffer stock as food security to face eventualities, customized food targeting global rich, value additions such as protein concentrates, fortified rice etc. Ours being tropical country with abundant water resources, diversified soils, small land holdings, having natural advantage over western countries.

It’s time for us to have paradigm shift and reorient ourselves to meet present challenges in agriculture sector.

• As food supply side intervention, the ration shall include pulses, soymeal to address nutrition needs of the family. Midday meal and social welfare hostels shall be mandated with supplies and usage of fortified or reconstituted rice induced with folic acid, vitamins, and micronutrients to address malnourishment among children.  A study can be taken up to assess the present calories and requirements of an individual and redesign the PDS food basket suiting the present needs with focus on addressing hidden hunger. 

• To achieve our E20 plan of biofuels mixing with fossil fuels to 20% by 2025 from present level of 7.93 %, we need to mainly scale up our sugarcane and maize production and at the same time increase ethanol production from 700 to 1500 crore liters. The recent ethanol policy of GOI allowing spoiled grains use in ethanol production, ethanol production directly from cane juice bypassing the sugar production, industry friendly interventions are certainly in right direction .   

• Both maize and sugarcane cultivation shall be scaled up by 100% to meet the above targets promoting them as energy crops. The present maize production is around 25 Million MT with acreage of 9.2 million Hacs. In the world 73% ethanol is produced from maize whereas in India its only 15%, leaving huge scope for expansion. For every 1000 kg maize about 400 liters ethanol can be produced. The present sugarcane production is 370 million MT with acreage of 54.55 lakh Hacs. 1 MT of cane yields around 115 Kgs Sugar & 45 Kg molasses (10.8 Liters ethanol).  As for new biofuels policy if we go for direct ethanol from juice, 1 MT of cane yields 84 liters ethno & zero sugar. At currents prices of ethanol for blending @ Rs. 59.08/liter, it is certainly viable to cultivate these energy crops and sustain the value chain which include remunerative price to farmers. Maize can be promoted as processed food for nutrition supplement and to meet starch requirements other than present consumption as feed. Sugarcane is water intensive crop like paddy, whereas maize consumes only 15% water requirement of paddy, hence it will balance overall water economy of new cultivation plan.  

• At present India production of paddy is 120 million MT from 44 million Hacs under cultivation and wheat production is 105 million MT from32.5 million Hacs under cultivation.  The acreage and production of both these cereals is to be reviewed   keeping the present consumption patterns, preferred varieties, export potential etc. and plan accordingly. There are constraints like cultivation in aycut area, where in waterlogging conditions particularly in khariff season paddy can be replaced with sugarcane only.

• Present oil seeds production in India is 36.1 million MT cultivating in 26.67 million Hacs.  We are grossly insufficient in oilseeds production and importing about 132 lakh MTs of edible oils worth 1, 17,000 crores. Identifying forest lands (In Africa it’s widely grown in forests), other suitable lands and encouraging oil palm cultivation will certainly reduce our import bill other than fitting into crop plan.

• India produces about 25 million MT of pulses cultivating in about 29 million Hacs cultivable land. It amounts to 25% global production, yet we are leading importer of pulses particularly red gram and black gram.  As for crop planning exercise, we can increase acreage under pulses particularly in Rabi reducing area under paddy. Yellow peas, green gram which are rich in digestible protein are unique to India and we can tap export potential by encouraging these pulses value chain.

•  India is leading producer of mango and banana. At present India export of fruits & vegetables is only 1% of global exports. As for our new Agri strategy we need to invest on improved cultivation practices, post-harvest technology and export infrastructure. Being tropical country our fruits offer special aroma and taste, out beating Mexican fruits.

• Being a country with small holdings, ethnic seeds presence, unique farmer centric cultivation practices, India has natural advantage in promoting natural/organic farming.  We need to group the crops suitable for particular type of cultivation and promote them.  Here also there is huge export potential and even domestic market is growing around 10% every year.          

• One will be surprised to know that Indian origin Ongole breed is the most sought after cattle across the globe and it is the most important contributor to Brazil annual GDP. If we explore the opportunities, India can become quality exporter of cattle products in no time due to its natural advantage. When it comes to milk, with presence of indigenous cows and buffaloes we can be the leading producer and exporter of A2 milk products which command premium of 400-500%. We need to look at these opportunities.  

• Agriculture universities, research institutions,  ministries have to reorient themselves keeping the present needs in view and focus on markets, market intelligence, use of IOT in value chain and supply chain, technology interface etc.  

Each of the issues of concern mentioned above shall be elaborated as action points and nation shall prioritize the same. They shall be addressed in phased manner with focused approach.

 

Bonthu Broadcasting Company (BBC)

Guruva Reddy Bonthu- 9866889246

grbonthu@gmail.com