Steps to Support Small & Marginal Farmers

As per Agriculture Census 2010-11, land holdings of less than two hectare, cultivated by small and marginal farmers (many of whom are below poverty line), constitute about 85% of total land holdings in India. Considering the importance of this segment in agriculture sector, due attention has been given to it in formulation and implementation of various schemes/programmes of the Government. Government is taking all possible steps for the welfare of the farming community and to make agriculture sector an attraction vocation. Plan outlay of Centre for Agriculture for XII Plan period has been substantially increased to Rs.1,34,746 crore as against Rs.61,527.90 crore during XI Plan period. The Department of Agriculture & Cooperation has budget provision of Rs.21,609 crore for the year 2013-14. During the year 2011-12 and 2012-13, the budget provisions were Rs.17,122 crore and Rs.20208 crore, respectively. 

Important schemes/programmes being implemented for the welfare of farmers, and particularly the small and marginal ones, are Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, National Food Security Mission, Integrated Scheme for Farmers’ Income Security (including covering risks through insurance cover), Price Support Scheme (PSS), Market Intervention Scheme (MIS), National Horticulture Mission, Funding of Farmer Producer’s Organisations, Self Help Groups of Small & Marginal Farmers for achieving benefits of economies of scale, Augmentation of Extension Services, Crop diversification etc. Small and marginal farmers are especially encouraged to form aggregates to avail the benefits of economies of scale in sourcing the inputs and for marketing their produce. Farmers are being provided inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, farm machinery and implements etc. at subsidized rates. Farmers are also provided Institutional Credit at concessional interest rate of 4% on farm loans provided they repay their loan in time. 

Government has approved, in principle, the restructuring of the schemes/programmes into five Missions, five Centrally Sponsored Schemes and one State plan Scheme for implementation from the year 2014-15 in order to have focused approach and to avoid overlap. 

Source: Ministry of Agriculture

Indian Pesticide Market to Reach INR 229,800 million by FY 2018

According to the report 'India Pesticides Industry Analysis to 2018,' Indian Pesticide market is projected to reach INR 229,800 million with a CAGR of 14.7% from FY 2014-FY 2018.

The Indian crop protection market is expected to witness a growth in its consumption owing to factors such as growing farmer awareness, farmers prosperity, inclining demand for organic food, increased focus on R&D, expansion of the contract farming and GDP growth.

According to the report, several factors including rising population, inflating agricultural commodity prices, favourable rain pattern, increased adoption of new technologies and growing farmer preference towards high-value and high-quality products and others are some of the factors expected to drive the industry's growth in the future.

Pesticides industry in India has been broadly segmented into six categories including insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, bio-pesticides, plant growth regulators and rodenticides. Of the aforementioned, insecticides commanded the highest share of around 45% in the overall pesticides market revenue. In spite of leading the market, the segment's market share has observed a steady decline over the last few years. Followed by the insecticides, the market share of herbicides was recorded to be the second highest. Herbicide is a swiftly growing sector in the overall pesticides market. Bio-pesticide was observed another important segment has an immense potential for growth in the years ahead primarily owing to government support and increasing awareness about use of non-toxic, environment friendly pesticides in the country.

The pesticides consumption in India has been unevenly spread across various regions. While the country's northern region forms majority of the pesticides consumption, the eastern and north eastern region constitute the lowest share. Some of the major pesticides consuming states in India include Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal, Gujarat, Kerela and Tamil Nadu. 

Indian crop protection industry is capital intensive and highly regulated industry. The industry has been mainly composed of technical grade manufacturers and formulators. The technical grade producers usually sell premium quality chemicals in the bulk to the formulators, who then prepare formulations by mixing the carriers, solvents, surface active agents and other relevant compounds. 

Source: Agropages (http://news.agropages.com/News/NewsDetail---11037.htm)  

UN Joins Forces with Expo 2015 to End Hunger

22 UN agencies will bring the vision of a sustainable hunger-free world to Expo Milan

The United Nations and Expo 2015 signed an agreement recently confirming the UN’s major support for Expo 2015, during which global attention will zero in on the challenge to eradicate hunger and poverty and on producing enough nutritious food for a world population expected to top 9 billion people by 2050.

Expo 2015’s theme, “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life” is at the heart of the UN’s founding principles to combat hunger and poverty. Expo will run in Milan for six months from May until the end of October 2015.

The Expo theme touches upon food security and nutrition, sustainability, poverty reduction, development and cooperation, said  José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Claudia von Roehl, Director of the Government Partnership Division at the World Food Programme (WFP).

The UN system is closing ranks behind the call to bring the vision of a sustainable, hunger-free world to Expo Milano 2015, FAO, IFAD and WFP stressed.

Italy’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emma Bonino, said, “With Italy being the location of most of the agencies of the UN dedicated to food and nutrition, it goes without saying that for us, [this] active participation and engagement in Expo is considered by my government as one of the most important engagements we wanted to achieve.”

Bonino said, “Expo is not only the promotion of a theme. We would like to have an Expo which will not be remembered because of skyscrapers or architecture, but because of ideas, and because of projects, commitments and ideas that will follow up from this Expo.” 

Italy’s Commissioner for Expo 2015, Giuseppe Sala, said, “Of all the participants in Expo Milano 2015, the UN was the first international organization to show its support and is the first to sign a contract,” said Giuseppe Sala, Italy’s Commissioner for Expo 2015. “I am very proud of this outcome and to see here representatives of all three agencies – FAO, IFAD and WFP – that are responsible for food and nutrition at the global level, and which will guide UN participation in Expo Milano 2015,” he added.

“This synergy shows once again the global interest in the theme of the World Exposition. “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life” takes on a challenge that needs us united: assuring healthy, safe and sufficient food for everyone, with a view toward sustainable development.”

The work of the UN will be on display across Expo 2015, and its themes mirrored throughout the more than 110 hectares of pavilion space, rather than being one among hundreds of exhibitors.

Expo 2015 will allow the UN to spotlight its decades of knowledge and expertise with the aim of ramping up efforts to one day achieve the goal of healthy, sufficient food for every person on the globe.

Expo Milano is expected to draw some 20 million visitors to Italy in 2015. So far, 22 UN agencies have submitted proposals for exhibits, that will all centre on a common UN message. During the signing ceremony, an international competition was also launched for best practices in sustainable development, which will be on display at Expo.

Despite progress made toward achieving Millennium Development Goal #1 on halving the proportion of hunger and poverty, still some 842 million people worldwide are chronically undernourished.

The end of 2015 will mark the deadline for achieving the eight UN Millennium Development Goals . Yet hundreds of millions of people remain mired in hunger and poverty. Faced with the need to produce 60 percent more food for at least 2 billion more people in 2050, while coping with weather shocks and emergencies linked to climate change, the international community is expected to endorse a set of new goals to address sustainable development in the post-2015 era. 

Source: FAO (http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/206481/icode/) 

Shri Anwar Calls For Judicious Use of Technologies and Resources To Achieve Food Security

The Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries, Shri Tariq Anwar recently said that use of better technologies can help us to achieve our primary goal of food security even if availability of land and water is kept constant. “We just need to use these resources more judiciously,” he emphasised. 

Shri Anwar was speaking at the inauguration of World Agriculture Congress at Hyderabad. The topic for this occasion is “Congress on Reshaping Agriculture for a Sustainable Future.” Inauguration of the Congress was attended by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Shri N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, Minister for Agriculture, Andhra Pradesh, Shri K. Lakshmi Narayana, and Chairman of the WAF Advisory Board, Shri James Bolger. Scientists and businessmen also participated in the Congress. 

Stating that Bio-technology is expected to play a major role in improving productivity, the Minister said, “What is needed is Robust Regulatory System, which has scientifically established mechanism for evaluation of GM Crops so that all the issues raised on this matter can be put to rest. On this issue, he reiterated the request made by Hon’ble President wherein he had ex-horted the Scientific Community and ICAR to contribute to the public discourse and provide clarity on this sensitive issue.” 

Shri Anwar further said, "Contract farming and value addition of Indian food through food processing would play a major role in improving agricultural productivity as well as providing economic return for agricultural produce. Contract farming can provide the close hand holding regarding seed selection, seed treatment, soil testing, fertilizers, pest management and income support through procurement, which Government programme cannot possibly provide."

The Minister also said that Indian agriculture faces a number of serious challenges like shrinking land, depleting water resources & inefficient water use, adverse impact of climate change, ineffective management of energy resources, shortage of farm labour, poor and inefficient market infrastructure, lack of access to appropriate technology, increasing cost and uncertainties of domestic and international markets and the biggest challenge which the country would be facing in the coming years shall be how to ensure food security in face of constantly growing population. 

Underlining measures to tackle impact of climate change on Indian Agriculture, Minister said that steps are being taken to mitigate the impact of climate change. Among the various areas in which interventions are being planned include improved crop seeds, livestock and fish culture, water efficiency, pesticides management, nutrient management, agriculture insurance, market access and livelihood diversification. Shri Anwar further informed that Indian Council for Agriculture Research(ICAR) has initiated a network project “National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture”(NICRA) aiming at enhancing resilience of Indian Agriculture through Strategic Research, Technology Demonstration and Capacity Building. 

Source: Ministry of Agriculture

Manufacturing Pesticide for Export, Export Norms to be Relaxed in India

The norms for pesticides exports and manufacturing of pesticides through foreign technology from India may be liberalized.

According to official sources, the liberalization is aimed at making hub for manufacturing pesticides especially those through buying the technology from foreign companies. After manufacturing of those high end pesticides, these pesticides will be directly exported out of India. These pesticides will not be marketed at all into the domestic India market.

Thus as per the proposal of liberalization, these products will not be put through stringent inspection norms as regards to the quality and procedures. However factories engaged in such technology transfer from overseas and manufacturing in India will have to comply with the safety, environmental norms and labour standards.

A discussion has already taken place between the ministries of agriculture and chemicals and fertilizer with the Ministry of Commerce.

A similar endeavour has also been taken for export of imported processed foods.

While the exports of such product will import the processed food, they will only export it and not market it in the domestic market. Thus these products will not be subjected to stringent inspection of food standards in India.

India is one of the largest producers of pesticides in Asia. In value terms the size of the Indian pesticide industry alone was $3.8 billion in the year 2011 that producers even those pesticides, which are banned in the developed countries.

Key destination markets for Indian exports of agrochemicals are USA, UK, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, South Africa, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Singapore. India is one of the most dynamic generic pesticide manufacturers in the world with more than 60 technical grade pesticides being manufactured indigenously by 125 producers consisting of large and medium scale enterprises (including about 10 multinational companies) and more than 500 pesticide formulators spread over the country.

However, the industry seems to financially constrained, said official sources mainly due to rising costs of inputs, governmental duties and taxes, and the cost of capital. There are also high rates of excise duty both on intermediates and finished products, and excise and sales tax account for nearly 20% of the cost of pesticides.

The pesticide industry is a part of the chemical industry. Reportedly, the global turnover of the chemical industry is more than three trillion US dollars.

The Indian Chemical Industry ranks 12 by volume in the world production of chemicals. With the current size of approximately $108 billion, the Indian chemical industry accounts for about 3% of the global chemical industry.

By 2017, accordingly to the Planning Commission of India, it could reach the size of $224 billion or $290 billion (about 6% of global industry). Indian chemical industry accounts for approximately 7% of Indian GDP and the share of industry i national exports is around 11%. In terms of volume, India is the third largest producer of chemicals in Asia, after China and Japan.


Source: Agropages 

'Increasing Farm Production the Only Long-Term Solution to Food Security World Food Day Focuses on “Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security & Nutrition”

Agriculture and Food Processing Industries Minister, Shri Sharad Pawar on October 16, 2013 emphasized that the only long-term solutions to ensuring food and nutrition security lay in increasing farm production. 

In his message on the World Food Day, the Minister also called for promoting sustainable food systems. Since sustainability of the farm sector depends to a great degree on the performance of small and marginal farmers, the Government has taken a number of initiatives keeping in view these farmers and other beneficiaries especially women and children, the Minister has stated. 

“World Food Day is observed all over the world every year on October 16 to mark the founding of the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The basic idea of observing this Day is to raise public awareness about the plight of the hungry and malnourished people all over the world and to encourage all concerned to take concrete action to tackle and overcome the menace of hunger. The theme selected for World Food Day this year is “Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition”. 

“The only long term solution to ensuring food and nutritional security in the country lies in increasing production and productivity in the agriculture sector with diverse and integrated farming systems to provide nutritious diets to each and every citizen. Rapid industrialisation and urbanisation in the country has reduced the availability of natural resources such as land and water for growing food. It is therefore imperative to utilize the limited resources available for sustainable supply of food to the ever increasing population of the country through efficient and effective policies. While ensuring the sustainability of our food systems, we have to not only produce nutritious food for our present population but also protect the capacity to feed the future generations. Sustainable food systems require a commitment from food producers as well as food consumers to use resources efficiently at every stage – getting the most out of every drop of water, inch of land, grain of fertilizer and minute of labour. Sustainability can also be improved by turning waste products into valuable fertiliser or energy and also by minimisation of food losses and waste. The future of sustainable agricultural growth and food security in India is dependent to a great degree on the performance of small and marginal farmers. Government of India has accordingly launched a number of schemes and initiatives keeping in view these farmers and other beneficiaries especially women and children. 

“On this day, let us all resolve to use the scarce and limited resources at our disposal to ensure complete eradication of malnutrition and hunger in our country. On this occasion, I urge renewed commitment from all stake holders to ensure food and nutrition security of the people of this country through concerted action for sustainable food systems.” 

Source: Ministry of Agriculture

IFAD and FAO Target Small-Scale Agricultural Projects Facing Challenges

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have launched a new joint project to help developing countries, particularly fragile states, manage public investments in small-scale agriculture more effectively.

The UN food agencies will co-finance the $2.6 million initiative focusing on countries where a lack of strong national governance means development projects can face serious challenges in delivering results.

Up to 15 projects in ten countries will be targeted over a two-year period, with priority given to projects that are already under way but that are encountering difficulties.

FAO’s Investment Centre Division, which leads the Organization’s efforts to generate increased investment in agriculture and rural development, will work with countries to improve their ability to plan and implement investment programs funded by IFAD.

Kevin Cleaver, IFAD Associate Vice-President, Programs, said: “Fragile states host the greatest proportion of poorly performing agriculture projects, and IFAD has found that the major problems consist of weak local institutions and weak local management. This co-financed project will address both the capacity-building and institution-building requirements of these poorly performing projects.”

Laurent Thomas, FAO Assistant Director-General, Technical Cooperation Department, said: “This initiative presents a more strategic approach to collaboration which will enable both UN agencies to better plan and significantly enhance the effectiveness and quality of their services to member countries. It will lead to better results and, ultimately, to a greater impact on the livelihoods of those targeted by the programs.”

IFAD's Executive Board approved a $2 million grant for the project in September 2013, while FAO and participating countries will each add another $300 000 to the initiative.

FAO regularly works with its sister agency through the FAO-IFAD Cooperative Program, which has seen over 300 joint operations worth almost $9 billion between 1977 and 2012.


Source: FAO (http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/200906/icode/)