Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said his government was spending Rs.6.5 lakh crore per year for the agriculture sector and farmers’ welfare, and there could be no guarantee bigger than this. He also sought cooperative sector support in creating world’s biggest grain storage system and making the country self-reliant in edible oils.

 

Inaugurating the 17th Indian Cooperative Congress, Modi highlighted the work done by the government since 2014 and said that the agriculture budget of the UPA government’s last five years (2009-14) was less tha Rs.90,000 crore as against Rs.2.5 lakh crore already disbursed to farmers during four years (of NDA government between 2019 and 2023)) under only one scheme -- PM Kisan.

 

In the last nine years, Modi said more than Rs.15 lakh crore had been given to farmers by procuring their produce on minimum support price (MSP), while another Rs.10 lakh crore has been spent on fertilizer subsidy.

 

'The government is making sure that every farmer in the country receives around Rs.50,000 every year in some way or the other,' Modi said.

 

He also said: 'In the BJP government, farmers are guaranteed to get Rs.50,000 every year in different ways. This is Modi’s guarantee,' he said and added that he was only stating what his government has done and not just talking about ‘promises’.

 

In the recently held Karnataka assembly election, it has been reported widely that the Congress party won on the 'five guarantees' it promised people. The success model is replicated in Madhya Pradesh with a similar promise for voters.

 

Storage scheme

Addressing the gathering of cooperators in New Delhi, Modi also said that considering the lack of storage facilities has led to a major challenge to food security for a long time, the Central government has already announced the world’s biggest storage scheme. There is a plan to create 700 lakh tonnes (lt) storage capacity in the next five years, whereas 1,400 lt have been created in many decades.

 

He appealed the cooperative sector to make the scheme successful, as the country can store less than 50 per cent of the cereals produced. He informed that more than Rs.40,000 crore had already been invested since the rollout of the Rs.1-lakh-crore Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) three years back. 'A big portion of this investment is from PACs and there is a need for more efforts from the cooperatives in the creation of farm-gate infrastructure,' Modi said.

 

According to the AIF dashboard, 31,268 projects have been sanctioned whose project costs are valued at Rs.41,476 crore, for which Rs.24,459 crore has been sanctioned under AIF and Rs.14,939 crore have been disbursed, so far. Out of the total amount sanctioned, the approval for the cooperative sector is Rs.3,142 crore (13 per cent), and only Rs.602 crore have been sanctioned.

 

The Prime Minister expressed confidence that cooperatives will become a powerful medium of the country’s economic source in the new India. He also said that cooperatives should become the carrier of social policy and national policy instead of politics.

 

Food imports

On the issue of import of the food items by India, he appealed to the cooperative sector to make the country Atmanirbhar (self-sufficient) in oilseeds so that there is no import of cooking oil is required. He pointed out that as high as Rs.2.5 lakh crore worth of food items are imported annually, which can be realised by domestic farmers.

 

During the two-day event, organised by the National Cooperative Union of India, the stakeholders will discuss various trends in the cooperative movement, showcase best practices being adopted, deliberate challenges being faced and chalk out future policy action for the growth of India’s cooperative movement.

The Ministry of Food Processing Industries held the 2nd Inter-Ministerial Committee Meeting on World Food India-2023 at Vigyan Bhawan Annexe, New Delhi, today.  Additional Secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Shri Minhaj Alam, chaired the meeting with senior representatives from Ministries/Departments/Commodity Boards. The meeting witnessed participation from the senior officials of key central government ministries and departments. All the participants were apprised of developments in preparations for World Food India-2023, being organized between 3-5 November, 2023 in New Delhi. The meeting was held in continuation to the interaction held with the Committee members in May 2023.

 

Additional Secretary, FPI emphasized on the important role of respective ministries and departments in development of conducive ecosystem to channelise infrastructure development, trade, and investment promotion in the food processing realm. All the central ministries and departments confirmed their participation in the event through exhibition space/stalls, participation in technical sessions as well as engagements in the Reverse Buyer Seller Meet of the event.   The participating officers assured further support required for the event in Buyer Seller Meets/RBSM, engagements with startups, promotion of special Ayush products, ODOP and GI products. The officers also apprised of confirmed participation from exporters and buyers in the event and further outreach undertaken by the organizations. 

 

The Ministries and Departments were requested to share specifics of plan of action of their participation/partnership in the World Food India. Additionally, the Investment Facilitation Cell (Invest India) and the event partner (FICCI) were asked to coordinate with the respective Ministries and Departments for facilitating the discussed action plan and seek necessary support from government bodies. The next meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Committee is expected to be held in July 2023 regarding partnership/participation of different stakeholders.

 

India and Israel are planning a slew of initiatives to bolster their cooperation in agriculture, said Ohad Nakash Kaynar, Deputy Chief of Mission at Israel’s Embassy in New Delhi. The two countries are planning to push high-level agricultural technology cooperation between Israeli institutions and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). In recent years, both sides have worked closely on water reuse, fertigation, soil management, drip irrigation, desalination, advanced filtration, advanced water leakage detection, soilless agriculture, rainwater collection and treatment systems and water security technologies.

 

Israel also plans to dramatically step up its presence in the country.

 

Representatives of Israel in India keep visiting universities and all 14 ICAR centres across the country and provide technology-based courses for students and farmers. 'Last year, we trained about 170,000 students and farmers about our technological solutions on greenhouse, drip irrigation, canopy irrigation and mulch,' said Israel Agriculture Attache Yair Eshel.

 

Mulch is one of the effective technologies that is benefitting Indian farmers in saving water and protecting crops from weeds, so that they can save on chemicals and reduce weeds, while ensuring more moisture and increasing productivity and quality.

 

Mulch is very cheap and recyclable. This can be used for 2-3 years if you maintain it properly. 'We introduce the idea of the technology to farmers, and they can adopt it by purchasing it from anywhere they want or find it cheap,' said Kaynar.

 

'The yield of crops may increase up to 30-35% by using all tools, including drip irrigation, canopy irrigation and mulch,' Kaynar added.

 

With the Israeli technological intervention in the greenhouse segment, sustainability can be achieved as those are recyclable. 'We have the simplest greenhouse technology of several different greenhouses across the globe. It is not because it is cheap but it benefits farmers,' Eshel said. 'We have a total of 72 plans to improve yields of flowers, vegetables and fruits.'

 

Additionally, Israel plans to expand its Villages of Excellence Programme. The programme, which was announced in 2022, aims to convert 150 villages into model villages through Israeli technical support on key agri-technologies.

 

According to Eshel, Israel hopes to expand the number of villages to 270 by next year. Eventually, the number of villages is expected to grow to around 1,500 by 2026.

 

Israel may also expand the number of its Centres of Excellence for agriculture, which stand at around 30 at present. The Israeli Centre of Excellence, an Indo-Israel Agriculture Project, seeks to bring best practices and useful agricultural technologies to Indian farmers.

 

These centres are spread across the country, with a strong presence in Haryana and Maharashtra.

 

Over 50% of the aid budget of Mashav, Israel’s development cooperation agency, comes to India, and they are willing to set up as many Centres of Excellence as India requires. India and Israel are also in the 'very late stages' of work on a new framework agreement on agricultural cooperation between the two countries. The agreement is pending before the Israeli Cabinet and should be signed after approval is given, said Ohad Kaynar, the Israeli DCM. India and Israel currently cooperate under the aegis of the Indo-Israel Agricultural Project, which is based on a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2006.

Around 500 farmers on Thursday took part in a workshop aimed to produce pesticide residue free basmati to enhance the export of the aromatic rice.

 

The event was organized by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) under the ministry of commerce in coordination with All India Rice Exporter Association (AIREA) at Kotkapura in Faridkot district.

 

Dr Ritesh Sharma, principal scientist, APEDA, said that India earns maximum foreign revenue by export of rice and 'the quality of the basmati produced in Kotkapura is excellent.'

 

'We earned ?38,542 crore by the export of Basmati during 2022-23 in 150 countries. We have very good demand from the globe, but due to excessive use of pesticides, the residue defected in basmati consignment affect the export. We are providing training to the farmers to produce pesticide residue free basmati with the support of the state governments,' Sharma said.

 

Dr Brajendra, principal scientist from Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad, spoke about the soil health. He has demonstrated a rapid soil testing kit developed by him and trained the farmers for soil testing in Kotkapura.

 

Vinod Kaul, executive director, AIREA, explained about the export scenario and challenges in basmati export. He asked the farmers to use pesticides only after consultation with scientists. 'Right dose, right time and right pesticide need to be sprayed only when it recommended,' Kaul said.

Facing a sharp rise in tur prices amid lower production, India will import 12 lakh tonne of the pulse in the current fiscal, up by 35 per cent from the last year, to boost domestic availability and contain price rise. 'Tur is giving us trouble. All-India average retail price of tur is up by 25 per cent to Rs 128.66 per kg, when compared to last year's level. But it will start cooling down after import begins,' Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said in a media briefing.

 

The issue in tur (pigeon peas) is lower domestic production. The country's tur production remained lower at 30 lakh tonne in the 2022-23 crop year (July-June) against 39 lakh tonne last year.

 

'We consume around 44-45 lakh tonne in India. Every year, we have to import. This year, obviously, we have to import more. We will import 12 lakh tonne in the current fiscal,' Kumar said.

 

So far, the country has imported 6 lakh tonne of tur. Imports are undertaken from Myanmar and East African countries. The crop in East African countries will start arriving in August, so the domestic prices will cool down, he added.

 

The country imported 8.9 lakh tonne during the 2022-23 fiscal.

 

To check the prices of tur, the secretary said the government has taken several measures. The stock limit imposed on traders, millers and importers on June 2 has helped bring down the prices of tur.

 

'From the day the stock limit was imposed, there is a downward trend in prices,' he noted.

 

The government has also decided to offload 50,000 tonne from the buffer stock in the market, and this will also ease pressure on the rates, Singh added.

 

Besides tur, the secretary said there is about a 7.22 per cent increase in the all-India average retail price of urad at Rs 111.77 per kg on June 28, when compared to the last year. The correction will start happening with supplies improving from Myanmar.

 

'Myanmar was hoarding urad, and now it cannot hold for long because of the rains out there. They have to sell it to India as no other country consumes this pulse. Our crop will also arrive, and prices will come down,' he said.

 

Moong prices have also risen by 7.07 per cent year-on-year to Rs 109.23 per kg on June 28. However, the prices will come down further because of bumper production expected in Madhya Pradesh, he added.

 

In masoor dal, the secretary said prices have remained lower by 5 per cent year-on-year at Rs 91.78 per kg on June 28.

 

'This is because, unlike tur, our domestic production increased to 16 lakh tonne but lower than domestic consumption of about 22 lakh tonne. We still need to import about 6 lakh tonne,' Singh said.

 

India imports masoor dal from Canada and Australia, where the crop is expected to be higher than the previous year. So, masoor supply is available, and the domestic prices will come down further, he said.

 

The country imported 11 lakh tonne of masoor dal in 2022-23.

 

In the case of chana, the secretary said out of the total pulses, about 46 per cent is chana consumption in India, while 10 per cent is tur, urad, masoor dal and other pulses. Chana prices have remained stable throughout the year.

 

He also mentioned that pulses should be seen in a holistic manner. Pulses are price sensitive, and their preferences differ in different parts of the country.

The FSSAI has issued a notice with respect to withdrawal of an earlier notice, which invited applications from accreditation bodies to accredit food laboratories.  

 

According to the FSSAI, the notice was withdrawn due to administrative reasons.  

 

In December 2022, the food authority issued a notice for recognition/approval of accreditation bodies by FSSAI to accredit food labs and issued a document prescribing the requirements for such bodies by the food authority.  

 

As reported earlier, it was laid down in the document that keeping in view of the request received from other accreditation bodies for recognition by FSSAI, it was decided to engage other accreditation agencies for food testing laboratories which would enable the laboratories to choose the best service provider and bring global expertise into laboratory accreditation programmes in India.  

 

One of the objectives for this, was to fast-track the accreditation process of laboratories in India to meet the rising demand of food safety requirements wherein the accreditation bodies were to provide accreditation services related to testing, calibration, proficiency testing providers and reference material producers (RMP).  

 

Meanwhile, after an internal discussion, the food authority has now decided to withdraw the notice.

The agriculture sector has undergone many transformations. Barring the most common one, which is chemically fuelled, there are other variations like organic, natural and regenerative. While these non-chemical derivatives have roots in different epistemological foundations, they are all primarily meant to produce safe food and environmental restoration. Their emergence, adoption, and popularisation can largely be attributed to the individual endeavours of farmers and agricultural experts. The significance of these diverse approaches for peasants, as well as the obstacles in adoption by a larger number of farmers, deserve attention. This article attempts to explore these aspects from both the farmers’ and consumers’ end.

 

Since the revelation of the green revolution myth and the subsequent manifestation of its ill effects on the environment and public health, agricultural practices have come under scrutiny. However, the producers and the consumers, the two sides of the same coin, witnessed and experienced it completely differently. It is thus important to examine the entire supply chain from farm to plate.

 

Saga of grains, their producers

Food is produced in a factory. If we take the example of rice, the price is inflated by almost 110 per cent from the farm gate price to the end consumer’s procurement price. It is ironic that while the grain spends the longest time in the hands of farmers before consumption and the shortest duration in factories, the farmers receive the smallest share of the pie. The entire produce is purchased from the farmers by the warehouse owners for milling and further value-addition.

 

At the consumer’s corner

The perceived value of food is often tied to its brand recognition and marketing strategy, which can elevate it to a premium product in the marketplace. Consumers are willing to pay a premium, if a brand can create a compelling and enchanting perception of the quality of their product. Noted German political scientist, economist, and philosopher Karl Marx explained this phenomenon as 'commodity fetishism'. The exact worth of a commodity is decided based on its exchange value rather than its true use value.

 

 

PRADAN, a national NGO and a facilitator of 'Aamon', the Nayagram-based women Farmer Producer Organisation, organised 10-plus fares and exhibitions on rural produce in Kolkata between 2019 and 2022. In these events, while interacting with the urban consumers, it was observed that almost 85 per cent of the visitors were not aware of the diversity and nutritive values of various kinds of paddy. There is an absolute lack of knowledge on aspects like - different varieties of paddy, the presence of bran in the paddy kernel, and the fact that naturally coloured paddy exists with diverse and unique nutritional values.

 

Farmers’ point of view

Farming is the major source of livelihood for rural Indians. It has always played a significant role in shaping their cultures, traditions, and identities. Paradoxically, farmers become the most invisible part when the grains are packed and sold to the end consumer. The combination of blockchain and tracing back technology has enabled the tracking of a food product’s journey from the farm to the plate by maintaining detailed data, but unfortunately, this visibility of the farmers’ activities is not intended to acknowledge their efforts but rather for surveillance purposes. This entire process alienates farmers from the final commodity so strongly that farmers also disassociate themselves from their produce once it is sold.

 

This farm-to-plate process resists building up any social relationship between producer and consumer. No one cares for the other, both of them are looking up to the brand for assurance. Consumers are ready to pay a premium for the brand value and not to the farmers. And farmers are all concerned about the price they get. In such a disconnected situation, providing farmers with enough reasons and motivation to grow safe food or go organic is difficult.

 

Challenges in scaling up organic production:

Organic, regenerative, and natural farming – all these methodologies have proved their potential in sustainably producing safe food. Shifting from chemical to heirloom and organic agriculture doesn’t result in loss of production. Moreover, the cost of production is reduced by 80-90 per cent in these methods compared to chemical-based farming. In all economic senses, shifting to organic practices is beneficial. Still, mere cost-benefit analysis and the effectiveness of the technology are not sufficient to shift the habit of farmers from chemical to organic.

 

We have realised that consumers and farmers fail to exist within each other’s mental map, and this gap in the societal relationship needs to be plugged in. Thus, correcting the broken relationship between farmers and consumers should be the prime focus.

 

PRADAN developed a campaign – 'We shall eat better and feed better.’’ It went a long way and helped immensely in mobilising almost 6,000 women by 2021, converting their entire land to organic from a mere 500 in 2018. Simultaneously, several initiatives were taken to elevate farmers within the value chain. The major activities involved empowering farmers to add value to their products, facilitating the formation of producer companies, and establishing direct market linkages. Eventually, the women farmer’s own identity as a producer emerged as the brand 'Aamon'. Aamon having a women shareholder base of 2,677 women, is catering to more than 6,000 women in the Nayagram block of Jhargram district.

 

More such initiatives need to be taken up, where the farmers produce safe food to feed their children safe food. There need to be more attempts to evoke a sense of greater interconnectedness which resonates deeply with the farmers, touching a chord that reverberates widely. That is where the agricultural shift towards organic farming will happen.

The Government has revised the Crop Residue Management guidelines enabling efficient ex-situ management of paddy straw generated in the States of Punjab, Haryana, UP and Delhi.

 

As per the revised guidelines, techno-commercial pilot projects for Paddy Straw Supply Chain will be established under the bilateral agreement between the Beneficiary/Aggregator (Farmers, rural entrepreneurs, Cooperative Societies of Farmers, Farmers Producer Organizations (FPOs) and Panchayats) and Industries utilizing the paddy straw.

 

Govt shall provide financial assistance on the capital cost of machinery and equipment. The required working capital may be financed either by the Industry and Beneficiary jointly         or utilizing the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), NABARD Financial or Financing from the Financial Institutions by the beneficiary. The land for storage of the collected paddy straw will be arranged and prepared by the beneficiary as may be guided by the end use industry.

 

Project proposal based financial assistance will be extended for machines and equipments such as Higher HP Tractor, Cutters, Tedder, Medium to Large Balers, Rakers, Loaders, Grabbers and Telehandlers which are essentially required for establishment of paddy straw supply chain.

 

State Governments shall approve these projects through project sanctioning committee.

 

Government (jointly by Central and State Governments) will provide financial support of @ 65% of the project cost, Industry as primary promoter of the project will contribute 25% and will act as the Primary consumer of the feedstock collected and Farmer or group of Farmers or Rural Entrepreneurs or Cooperative Societies of Farmers or Farmers Producer Organizations (FPOs), or Panchayats will be the direct Beneficiary of the project and will contribute the balance 10%.

 

The Outcomes of the above interventions are :

 

The initiative will supplement the efforts of paddy straw management through in-situ options

During the three-year tenure of the interventions, 1.5 million metric tonnes of surplus paddy straw are expected to be collected which would otherwise have been burnt in fields.

About 333 biomass collection depots of capacity 4500 MT will be built in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Air pollution caused by stubble burning will be considerably reduced.

It would generate employment opportunities of about 9,00,000 man days.

The interventions will encourage a robust supply chain management of paddy straw which shall further help in making paddy straw available for various end uses i.e., power generation, heat generation, bio- CNG, etc. by Power/bio-CNG/bio-ethanol producers

Establishment of supply chain would result in new investments in Biomass to biofuel and energy sectors.

			Area: In Lakh Hactare
Sl. No.	Crops	Area Sown
		Current Year 2023		Last Year 2022
1	Rice	26.55		36.05
2	Pulses	18.15		18.51
a	Arhar	1.11		5.40
b	Urd bean	1.72		1.61
c	Moongbean	11.23		8.73
d	Kulthi	0.09		0.09
e	Other Pulses	4.00		2.67
3	Shri Anna -cum -Coarse Cereals	36.23		22.41
a	Jowar	0.98		0.94
b	Bajra	25.67		9.25
c	Ragi	0.88  Source:  pib.gov.in
03 Jul, 2023 Government announces Tomato Grand Challenge Hackathon to generate innovative ideas to enhance Tomato value chain and ensure its availability at affordable prices. The Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Shri Rohit Kumar Singh announced a Tomato Grand Challenge (TGC) hackathon to invite innovative ideas at various levels of the tomato value chain to ensure availability of tomato to the consumers at affordable prices and help tomato farmers get value for the produce. TGC has been formulated by the Department of Consumer Affairs in collaboration with M/o Education (Innovation Cell).   The Grand Challenge invites ideas on comprehensive and focused area interventions in tomato value chain - from cropping and market insights for the farmers, appropriate cultivars (OP varieties or hybrids) with higher shelf-life of the fruits for fresh marker, cultivars specifically suitable for processing, value-addition through interventions that can increase shelf-life, improve transportation of fresh and processing products, innovative packaging and storage.   The entry of participants for the TGC are invited under two tracks, namely, (i) Students, Research Scholars and Faculty Members and (ii) Industry individuals, Indian start-ups, Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Limited Liability Partnership (LLPs), Professionals. The winning ideas will be evaluated by Experts followed by prototype development and field implementation for ensuring its usability/scalability on a large scale and price of the product. Interested participants can apply on the portal: https://doca.gov.in/gtc/index.php   Tomato is produced almost in all the states in India, though in varying quantities. Maximum production is in southern and western regions of India, contributing 56%-58% of all India production. Southern and Western regions being surplus states, feed to other markets depending on production seasons.   The production seasons are also different across regions. The peak harvesting season occurred in December to February. The periods during July-August and October-November are the lean production months of tomato. July coinciding with monsoon season, adds to further challenges related to distribution and increased transit losses adding to price rise.   The cycle of planting and harvesting seasons and variation across regions are primarily responsible for price seasonality in Tomato. Apart from the normal price seasonality, temporary supply chain disruptions and crop damage due to adverse weather conditions etc. often led to sudden spikes in prices. Conversely, glut in the production of at local levels have also led to dip in prices causing huge loss to the farmers.  Source:  pib.gov.in
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