Power curbs in AP to go; farm sector to get 7-hour supply

The Hindu Businessline - Hyderabad, Oct. 28: 

Power consumers in Andhra Pradesh are heading for better days ahead with the load shedding on farm sector, industrial consumers and also domestic consumers set to be lifted.

The State Chief Minister, Mr. N Kiran Kumar Reddy, today asked the AP Transco to immediately restore seven hours of power supply to farmers and also remove supply restrictions in the peak hours to the industrial sector. The power position has improved now.

According to a statement from the Chief Minister’s Office, top priority would be to restore the agricultural power supply to seven hours and also remove the restrictions on the industrial sector.

The industries were faced with power holidays and domestic sector in urban areas of up to four hour cut.

During a detailed review meting of the energy sector, the Chief Minister wanted the energy sector to chalk out a comprehensive action plan to make the State power surplus by 2014. The Energy Department was asked to tighten all loose ends. The State Government on its part will take up with the Centre issues like gas allocations and coal linkage for power projects and other clearances to increase the capacity.

The power supply position, which was satisfactory till September 13 with no scheduled cuts to any sector, worsened due to steep fall in thermal generation from AP Genco and NTPC due to strike by miners of Singareni Collieries. Inflows into Srisailam, which was 1.5 lakh cusecs then, had stopped from September 29, leading to fall in hydel power output.

The average demand during October 2011 was 268 million units (MU) per day against 219 MU per day during the same period last year registering an increase of 22.5 per cent. In September 2011 it was 253 MU per day (209 MU per day) an increase of 21 per cent.

Due to this, AP DISCOMS were forced to impose power cuts to all sectors. The average load relief during September 2011was 21.5 MU per day and during October 2011 is 38 MU per day.

During the strike period, Discoms purchased 1250 MU at a cost of Rs.405 crore to meet the increasing power requirement. Additional expenditure of Rs. 149 crore was incurred to procure coal.

Officials said that to preserve water for power requirement during rabi, the hydel generation from Srisailam was stopped.

Farming activity resumes in Konaseema

B.V.S. Bhaskar - The Hindu

After observing a ‘crop holiday' for five months, farmers in ten mandals in Amalapuram division in Konaseema resumed agricultural activity. They were seen busy draining out water from the fields and keeping ready seedlings for sowing in the first week of November. “We will begin transplantation on November 6, an auspicious day,” said Satyanarayana, a farmer from Allavaram.

Meanwhile, farmers under the banner Konaseema Rythu Parirakshana Samiti met Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy in Hyderabad on Friday and sought his help in increasing MSP, additional 10 kg seed to Konaseema farmers. It is understood that the Chief Minister did not give any concrete assurance to them. To mount pressure on the government, the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh staged a huge rally in Kakinada. Parirakshna Samiti leaders Rambala Bose and M.L. Prabhakar confirmed that ‘crop holiday' was over and sowing would start, marking the beginning of the rabi season.

Distribution centres

On its part, the district administration is taking all measures to open seed and fertilizer distribution centres. “We will distribute 20 kg seed per acre,” said K. Raju, Agriculture Extension Officer. Agriculture activity picked up in Allavaram, Uppalaguptam, Inavelli, Razole, P. Gannavaram, Amalapuram Rural, and other mandals.

Upset over the State government's apathetic attitude, Konaseema farmers made ‘crop holiday' declaration at Bendamurulanka village in Allavaram mandal on May 28 this year and stopped cultivation in 85,000 to 1 lakh acres.

During their five-month-long agitation farmers took to the streets, organised bandhs, seminars and laid siege to the Collectorate and RDO offices. National leaders from the Opposition, including the BJP, visited the region. Pushed on the back foot, the government had constituted the Mohan Kanda Committee to look into farmers' grievances.

The government, in principle, agreed to implement the committee's recommendations, but the farmers were not impressed and termed it ‘eyewash.'

Rabi season takes off on a dull note in AP

K. V. Kurmanath, The Hindu Business line - Hyderabad, Oct. 28: 

After a disastrous kharif this year, farmers in Andhra Pradesh seem to have entered the rabi season without too many hopes.

While cotton farmers are still hoping to get a few more ‘pickings' to reduce their losses, others are just waiting for favourable conditions though it is two weeks into the season.

Though it is just the beginning of the season and farmers still have enough time to come back if the situation turns positive, early signs do not seem too encouraging.

In a total average (rabi) cropped area of 40.44 lakh hectares, farmers normally would have covered 5.65 lakh ha as on October 27. But they have covered only 2.96 lakh ha so far, reaching just above the 50 per cent mark.

Serious stress due to lack of moisture, which had affected kharif crops in 15.70 lakh hectares, continues to pose a problem through the rabi season.

Paddy, sunflower and bengalgram are the worst hit. As against the as-on-date figure of 0.12 lakh ha, paddy was sown in about 1,200 ha, registering just 10 per cent. Sunflower, which should have been sown in 0.72 lakh ha, was sown in just 0.12 lakh ha or 17 per cent of the area.

Official figures show a deficit of 56 per cent in rains with North-East monsoon failing to cover most parts, leaving 12 districts in the bracket of districts that witnessed scanty (with a deficit of 60-99 per cent) rainfall and seven districts in a deficit of 20-59 per cent. This coupled with erratic power delayed sowing operations.

The Andhra Pradesh Government, which has pegged the number of drought-hit mandals at about 500-600, estimates that there would be severe yield losses in all kharif crops in the range of 50-80 per cent. In some mandals, this could be 100 per cent, meaning that farmers would be left with nothing.

It is blackgram (sown in 0.18 lakh ha) and chillies (sown in 0.126 lakh ha) that have crossed the averages, while maize (0.16 lakh ha) managed to reach the average figure.

Cotton yields may plunge 50% in Andhra Pradesh

K.V Kurmanath, Hindu Business Line  Hyderabad, Oct. 27: 

Thousands of farmers sowed more cotton this year after prices topped Rs 6,500 a quintal last year. Some shifted from chilli while others shunned tobacco and sugarcane to shoot up the cotton acreage to 18.55 lakh hectares as against the season average of 13.51 lakh ha.

But nothing has gone right. Delay in announcing seed price and erratic rainfall have forced farmers to buy seeds more than once in most parts of Telangana region. “I had to sow 12 packets of seed for three acres to make most of scanty rainfall,” Mr T. Rajaiah, a farmer from Warangal, told Business Line over phone.

Though advised to sow one packet an acre, farmers generally go for two packets to tackle problems of insufficient germination. Growth of weed and erratic power (that accentuated during the 42-day general strike for statehood fro Telangana) only added to the cost of production. A dry spell of 45 days in most parts worsened the situation, starving the plants of moisture in the crucial growth phase.

Cost of production has gone up to Rs 40,000-45,000 an acre from Rs 30,000 last year, with farmers buying at Rs 2,000 a packet in the black market following fears of shortage of stocks. Farmers like Mr Rajaiah did a survey involving about 100 of them and arrived at this figure for the season. Cost of fertilisers, too, went up significantly. Acreage went up to five lakh ha from four lakh ha in Warangal.

Mr Inna Reddy, who heads the Cotton Interest Group recently set up by Federation of Farmers' Association, said the cost of production for a quintal would be Rs 3,500. But what they are getting at the Yenumamula market yard in Warangal is about Rs 3,300. “Though they are officially saying it is Rs 4,200, only a fraction of the produce is getting that,” Mr Rajaiah said.

Low yields

“We are expecting a drop of 50 per cent in yields. As against normal yield of 10-12 quintals, we can expect only 5-6 quintals. Some areas in Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam might get two quintals more. This is going to be a tough season for farmers. They will end up in losses,” Mr Inna Reddy said.

“The acreage would have crossed the 20-lakh ha mark this year had rains arrived on time. Several farmers shifted from tobacco and some from chilli in Guntur district, he said.

Keywords: Cotton yield, rain, power situation, prices plunge

Wrong Agri Data

Beware of wrong farm Data
( content curtesy : “Farm data Woes” The Hindu Businessline dt.25/10/11)

Be careful with any data in hand related to agriculture sourced government – warns the newspaper editorial. The editorial of Hindu BL also goes ahead  and suggest that for farm data accuracy its time to switch over to remote sensing technologies.

Some of the data released in recent times with full of blunders are as below:

It was reported ( year ended September 2011) that India exported an all time high 3.57 lakh tones of coffee, making a 33 percent jump over 2009-10 ?? Whereas the production for the year is only 3.02 ( domestic consumption is over a lakh …..shipping out more the country produced !!???).

Take sugar…says the editorial – where the output during the2008-09 season was first pegged at 220 Lt and the successively brought down to 205 Lt, 150-155Lt and finally to 145.38. It was just the other way around in 2009-10, where the first estimate was 146 Lt, which finally ended up at 189.12 Lt

In Cotton the 2010-11 crop was initially assessed at 325 Lakh Bales, then raised to 329 Lb, and suddenly slashed to 312 Lb before finally being restored to 325 Lb.

Its Ok if these data is used purely for academic interest but those who use it a preamble to business strategies…. beware !

The editorial suggests that its time to implement A vaidyanathan Committee’s recommendations of adoption of remote sensing, GPS sensors for village level data for improvement of agriculture statistics..

Agri-infra player NCMSL raises Rs 203-cr debt

Mumbai, Oct. 21:  

National Collateral Management Services, an agriculture-warehouse, has raised a debt of Rs 203 crore from a consortium of four banks — YES Bank, Corporation Bank, Karur Vysya Bank and Development Credit Bank.

YES Bank will lend Rs 75 crore, Corporation Bank will pay Rs 62 crore, Karur Vysya Bank Rs 40 crore and DCB Rs 26 crore. The loan will carry a floating interest rate and is currently pegged at 11 per cent. It will be repaid over 10 years with a moratorium of 2 years, NCMSL said in a press release.

This debt will complement an equity investment of Rs 101.75 crore by International Finance Corporation, Rabo Equity and four shareholders — IFFCO, KVB, Haryana State Co-operative Supply and Marketing Federation Ltd and NCDEX.

The equity and the project debt will finance a Rs 304-crore warehousing project being under taken by NCMSL.

Mr Sanjay Kaul, Managing Director, said NCMSL plans to deploy these funds over the next two years to set up warehouses in over 40 locations across the country.

SBI Capital Markets was the merchant banker engaged by NCMSL for this debt placement.

(This article was published in the Business Line print edition dated October 22, 2011)

Why not GM?

 by Harish Damodaran - The Hindu Businessline
Farmers have a different take from NGOs on weedicide-resistant cotton.

Balu Mogal made a decent sum last year, planting cotton on eight out of his 12-acre holding. The 38-year-old farmer, from Nilajgaon in Paithan Taluka of Maharashtra's Aurangabad district, harvested an average 14 quintals of kapas (seed-cotton) an acre. At roughly Rs 4,500 a quintal, it would have generated Rs 63,000, against cash expenses of some Rs 20,000, giving a return of Rs 43,000 an acre. Not bad.

But it wasn't always like this. 2010 was an exceptional year, with farmers like Mogal realising Rs 4,000-4,200 for their first ‘flush' pickings. As the season progressed, the subsequent flushes yielded between Rs 5,000 and Rs 6,000, compared with just Rs 3,000-3,500 in the preceding two crop years.

Favourable prices apart, another major factor for cotton becoming the preferred crop for Maharashtra's farmers — proof being the area jump from under seven million to more than 10 million acres in the last ten years — is Bt technology.

Before Bt hybrids arrived, Mogal rarely got more than five quintals an acre. A seven-month kapas crop sown in early June typically gives up to five flushes, the first after 120 days of sowing, and the subsequent ones following every 20-25 days.

In the pre-Bt period, vulnerability to bollworm insect attacks meant that few of the ‘squares' or buds on the branches could develop into full bolls (the pods containing seeds from which the cotton fibres grow). The first couple of flushes were often near-washouts — the mid-thirties temperatures, high humidity and cloudy climate being most conducive for larvae infestation.

BT AND AFTER

That changed with Bt cotton, genetically engineered to produce proteins toxic to bollworm pests. As a result, the number of bolls per plant rose from 30-40 to 80-100. This led farmers to increase the plant population itself, as they saw more bolls forming and also surviving.

“Earlier, I used to keep 3.5-feet distance between rows and the same even from plant to plant. Now, I have shifted to five feet row-to-row and 1.5 feet plant-to-plant. That enables me to have more number of plants — although they grow only to 5-6 feet, against 7-8 feet previously — with much higher boll yields,” said Prakash Bapu Pawar, a 10-acre grower from Pimpri Raja village in Aurangabad Taluka.

(One acre equals 43,560 sq ft: 5x1.5 spacing allows 5,808 plants for every acre, whereas it is 3,556 with 3.5x3.5.)

The flexibility to increase plant population hasn't been an unmixed blessing though. The main downside relates to weed management. With 3.5x3.5 planting, farmers could use bullock-drawn harrows to go in between the rows as well as plants to uproot most of the weeds. Only the balance had to be manually removed.

But closer spacing reduces the room for intercultural operations through bullock-powered hoes. “I have to now rely much more on manual weeding, unfortunately, when labour itself has become expensive. Five years ago, the daily wage rate was Rs 60-70 for working from nine to six. Today, it is Rs 125-150, that too only from 11 to five,” complained Ganesh Bharatrao Chauduri, a 30-acre farmer from Garkheda, a village near Pimpri Raja.

For Pandurang Wamanrao Iname, who grows cotton on half of his 60-acre land at Ranjangaon in Paithan Taluka, it is scarcity of labour, more than higher wages, that is a problem. “In the past, if I wanted 10 labourers, 20 would turn up. Now, if I seek 10, only five will come and I have to also arrange for transport,” he noted.

Many cotton growers today list weeding as their top expenditure item, ahead of even picking. The latter is relatively predictable: The rate varies from Rs 400 to 600 a quintal; so for 14 quintals, that averages around Rs 7,000 an acre.

WEEDING WOES

In weeding, it isn't so simple. The first round, which happens 15-20 days after sowing at the early-leaf stage, involves deployment of approximately 10 labourers per acre. At Rs 125 each, it comes to Rs 1,250. This is followed by at least two more — after 35-40 days (before square formation) and 55-60 days (before flowering).

The labour requirement for these rounds is higher, since the weed population goes up. Also, the continuous rains during July-August forces staggered operations. It translates into employing 15 people, or spending Rs 1,875, both times. Adding the cost of bullock inter-culture operations — four times for Rs 500 each — takes the overall weeding outlay to Rs 7,000 an acre.

“This is a minimum figure that can go to Rs 10,000. Sometimes, it rains so much that you cannot enter the fields. But in our desperation to control weeds (especially in the critical vegetative stages, where they compete with the crop for nutrients, sunlight and moisture), we have no choice other than paying overtime for labour,” claimed Iname.

Besides weeding and picking, the growers' other major costs are Rs 3,000 on fertilisers, Rs 2,000 on pesticides (for pests such as aphids, thrips, jassids, mealy bugs and whitefly), Rs 1,400 on seed (1.5-1.6 packets are used for every acre@ Rs 930 per packet), and Rs 1,000 on ploughing. They all total up to about Rs 22,000.

“We badly need a solution for weeds, which will also bring down our fertiliser consumption. Today, half of the fertiliser and the subsidy on it goes to the ghaas (weeds),” remarked Iname.

One option is weedicides. But that isn't easy in cotton, where the weeds include both monocots (grasses like Cyperus rotundus and Cynodon dactylon) as well as broad-leaved dicots from parthenium to Commelina benghalensis.

“Farmers sometimes use quizalofop-ethyl and some other chemicals that, however, work only against grassy weeds and not dicots (more so, the ubiquitous parthenium that locals call Congress ghaas). For cotton, you need systemic, non-selective weedicides, and glyphosate is a clear candidate,” explained Dr Dinesh Lomte from the Marathwada Agricultural University's Aurangabad Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

MONSANTO AGAIN

But spraying glyphosate would kill all plants in the field of application, be it weeds or the cotton crop itself. That is where Monsanto's Roundup Ready Flex (RRF) cotton is being offered as an alternative. It contains three alien genes, two of which are already incorporated in the existing Bt cottons to confer resistance against bollworm and spodoptera insect pests.

The third gene codes for a protein that inhibits the action of glyphosate. The RRF cotton is, therefore, ‘tolerant' to application of Roundup or any other brand of glyphosate. But are farmers ready for it? “Why not, if it can solve my weed problems even partially?” asks Santosh Dahihande, a 40-acre grower from Garkheda.

“Why not”, is a uniform response one hears when talking to farmers about RRF cotton. They seem little worried about it fostering seed monopolies or reinforcing technological dependence on a company headquartered in St. Louis, US. For them, the more immediate concern is how to reduce dependence on manual weeding.

(blfeedback@thehindu.co.in)

Farm sector growth to touch 3.5% during 11th Plan: Montek

Hindu Business Line - Hyderabad, Oct. 18: 

Contrary to certain views that growth in the Indian agriculture sector has stagnated, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, said the Commission expected growth in this sector to touch 3.5 per cent during the Eleventh Plan Period, as against 2 per cent in the previous Plan Period.

“Latest figures show that monsoons were good in the current year and even marginally above normal. So there has been no stagnation in the farm sector and, instead, there has been an improvement,” Mr Ahluwalia told media persons on the sidelines of the 17th convocation at Vignana Jyothi Institute of Management, here on Tuesday.

He said the Planning Commission was targeting a higher growth rate of 4 per cent in this sector during the 12th Plan Period.

On rising coal prices, he said during the next Plan Period, energy costs will be higher. “India will have to continue to import coal at higher prices. You cannot fight higher energy prices. And the sooner we adjust ourselves to this (high energy cost regime) it is better,” he said.

He was, however, confident that the Planning Commission target of adding 100,000 MW of power generation capacity during the 12th Plan Period. “We did fall short of the target during the 11{+t}{+h} Plan, as when we began we were low on start ups. But, when we enter the 12th Plan, we will have projects of 50,000 to 60,000 MW in the pipeline,” he pointed out.

On inflation, he said it was high on a year-on-year basis, but expected it to cool down from November and come down significantly next fiscal.

Nabard outlines steps to make farm credit societies competitive

Business Standard - Sanjay Jog / Mumbai October 19, 2011, 7:13 IST

Devises scheme to improve share capital, deposit safety of 92,000 societies.
The inspiration is from abroad; the idea is to boost the country’s primary agriculture credit societies (PACSs). The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has planned to implement a country-wide programme in a bid to improve the share capital and deposit safety of over 90,000 PACSs

The proposed institutional protection and deposit safety scheme (IPDSS) will be on the lines of similar projects that are successfully operating in two European countries: Germany and Hungary. The apex development bank is devising the scheme at a time when members these days are hesitant to keep deposits even with their own PACSs, unsure about their safety. IPDSS has been drafted, considering that such deposits are not being covered by the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) and on noting that the the deposit insurance schemes of the states have remained only on paper, Nabard officials said on Tuesday.
The government-run institution believes that it should go for a sustained campaign to instill the habit of thrift among farmers — like what self-help groups do. “It is necessary as part of the financial literacy and counselling initiatives,” a Nabard official told Business Standard.
He says the IPDSS will boost such an initiative. “The critical issue is increasing member participation in the affairs of PACSs and ensuring that the members have a substantial financial stake in the cooperative. As PACSs were often formed as state-led initiatives in the name of the “poor farmer”, the face value of membership fee or a share in a PACSs has often remained at a paltry Rs 10, or at best Rs 100 per member. And, more often than not, even this was provided by the state under ‘universal membership’ campaigns.”
Such a low share-price, the official notes, has no value when it comes to the capital of even a small financial institution like the PACS. “The share capital of a member is linked to the quantum of loan, thereby, notionally increasing the capital base of the cooperative. But the fact remains that unless dividend is paid on such share capital, the cost of credit from a cooperative becomes much higher than that from competing banks, including RRBs (regional rural banks) and commercial banks.”
The 1982-founded Nabard’s newest move comes at a time when poor resource base of PACSs, their continued poor management and governance, and lack of effective member participation continue to be major barriers to increasing credit flow through the cooperative credit societies. According to Nabard, PACSs have an average membership of about 1,400 and owned funds of Rs 13 lakh per society.
However, barring around 22,000 PACSs in the four southern states and West Bengal (where average PACS-level deposits are around Rs 90 lakh), the average deposits in the remaining 70,000-odd PACS in the country is around Rs 9 lakh per society. That is, less than Rs 650 per member. The downside of the limited resources of PACS has been to the determent of members, as they have been often driven to operate within credit-rationing frameworks.
Today, Nabard also plans step up its efforts to transform PACSs into one-stop shop for farmers. “As the first step of a national drive, we have started a planned initiative to develop at least five such multi-purpose PACSs in each district within one year. These will have demonstration and demand effect and help other PACSs in the district to develop similarly,” the official notes.
Available in some states are examples of PACSs engaged in procurement, providing warehousing facilities, stocking and providing other inputs including seeds and saplings, leasing out farm equipment, becoming e-enabled common service centres providing land records and information on weather, market prices and extension advisories. “Such societies also need to provide other financial products, especially insurance, and enhance their fee based income,” he adds.
In order to overcome the limitations of the low resource base of district central cooperative banks and state cooperative banks, Nabard has decided to make available a new product of lending to PACSs through RRBs and commercial banks.
Besides, Nabard is also designing a programme to equip selected PACSs in each district with warehouses conforming to the requirements of the Warehousing Regulatory Authority. This is done to ensure that farmers benefit from product aggregation, quality storage and enable them to take pledge loans but even trade against warehousing receipts.
“To provide such benefits to farmers, the PACSs will have to collaborate with larger bulk handling entities — they may even be in the private sector,” the official notes.

AP announces zero-interest loan for farming community

The Hindu Businessline - Hyderabad, Oct. 2:  

The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, today announced that farmers would get a loan of up to one lakh without any interest for their requirements from the beginning of the rabi season later this year.

About 95 lakh farmers are expected to benefit from the new ‘zero-interest' scheme which the Chief Minister announced coinciding with the 142 {+n} {+d} birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi during his tour of Yeraguntapalem village, according to a statement from the Chief Minister's Office.

According to estimates, about 95 per cent of the farming community in the State secure a loan of up to Rs 1 lakh and then take up farming.

The rest of the five per cent borrow more than Rs 1 lakh. All farmers, including tenant farmers, are eligible for loans under this new scheme. This zero interest loan is being considered for the first time ever by any State in the country, the statement claimed.

This would require about Rs 650-700 crore which the State Government would deposit into banks. However, the details of the scheme and how its works has not been provided by the Government.

Irrigation

In yet another important development, the State Chief Minister announced a Rs 1,800 crore Indira Jalaprabha scheme at Bangalapalli village in Prakasham district in the presence of the Union Minister for Health, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Land scheme

The new scheme proposes to bring 10 lakh acres of land belonging to Scheduled Castes and Schedules Tribes under cultivation over the next three years.

The focus of the scheme is to help bring poor people belonging to the SC and ST community come out of the poverty line.