The first edition of Rythu Pragati was held in Guntur from 6 to 9 March 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJGgtPwCim4
March 30, 2011
January 27, 2011
Hi-tech holds promise for small landholders
Economic Times - 25 January
Stanford Engineer’s Novel Drip Irrigation Product Benefits Farming Community Across States
Omkar Sapre PUNE
ARSAJUL Mani from Hubli in north Karnataka experimented with a new irrigation equipment, which to his delight halved his effort and the quanta of water needed while doubling the output from his two-acre farm.
Mani, a small landholder, could not afford costly and complex traditional irrigation systems. What won him over was a drip irrigation innovation from a Stanford graduate — and produced out of a startup at Palo Alto — which is designed for small farms like his apart from being three to four times cheaper than normal systems. And to boot, it worked without electricity.
A mechanical engineer from Stanford, Peter Frykman, stumbled upon the idea of using a lowcost plastic tubing assembly that uses gravity to deliver water to the plant’s roots. He refined the idea at his California socio-commercial start-up and called his product, Driptech.
“Water and labour shortages result in hard toil for small farmers across the world,” Frykman says. “Traditional irrigation control systems are costly and complex for them. They resort to flood irrigation which wastes a lot of water. Small farms need cheap, low-maintenance, drip irrigation systems to reduce effort and use of water, which is what Driptech does.” Driptech comprises a low-cost laser-punched plastic tubing linked to a water tank. Gravity drives water through the tubing and to the plant’s root from these holes. Simple tap valves control the flow of water and the farmer can even install, and maintain it, all by himself.
While a traditional drip irrigation system costs Rs 40,000 an acre, Driptech costs a modest Rs 10,000, not to talk of reliability and easy maintenance. The low cost is because Frykman’s proprietary production technology can use the same machines that make plastic carry bags for the Driptech tubing.
“That is where innovation is,” he says. “There are thousands of such machines across cities. This enables low-cost, speedy, distributed production. We can deploy production facilities directly where the product is being sold, which also enables customisation.” Traditional drip irrigation systems are made in specialised factories and need skilled technicians to install and maintain them.
Frykman’s insights came from a visit to drought-hit Ethiopia as part of his course. "It was the worst drought Ethiopia had experienced in 20 years. Farmers had no means to grow crops with the meagre water available. The drip irrigation products that were locally available were too expensive for most farmers and seldom worked properly," he said.
After incorporating the firm as a for-profit social enterprise in the United States — in which Postini founder Scott Perry invested $40,000 — Driptech’s team travelled to rural India for a five-month pilot with 15 farmers who were unable to afford drip irrigation. Following this, Driptech raised another round of funding, recruited people, established relationships with partners and began scaling up the business.
He is touring India and China to market the product vigorously having signed on the Usha Martin group in Jharkhand, Husk Power Systems in Bihar and the Godrej group in four districts of Maharashtra and Karnataka, to hawk his system.
Frykman says he sees a huge potential in India for his innovation, and not without reason. Government data says 86% farmers here have landholding of less than two hectares.
Accentuating the problem and increasing the business potential, is falling average landholding — from 1.67 hectares in 1982 to 1.34 hectares during 1992 to 1.06 hectares in 2002. And income-wise, most small farmers are worse off than the lowestpaid government employee with an average monthly income between Rs 1,500 and Rs 8,300, according to the Confederation of the Indian Farmers Association (Cifa).
Driptech in action (left and right) and engineer-innovator Peter Frykman (centre), the product’s creator
January 03, 2011
Nabard projects Rs 70,800-cr credit potential for AP
Hindu Businessline - Hyderabad, Dec 31
Nabard has projected a credit potential of Rs. 70,849 crore for the farm and non-farm activities under the priority sector for 2011 -2012 in Andhra Pradesh.
According to a State Focus Paper (SFP) prepared by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development released by the Andhra Pradesh Minister for Finance, Mr Anam Ramnarayan Reddy, today at the State credit seminar, organised by Nabard, this amount shows a growth of 16.3 per cent over last year.
State Focus paper
The State Focus Paper is an aggregation of the district-wise potential-linked credit plans (PLPs) prepared for each of the districts, and district development managers of Nabard identify realisable targets, enabling infrastructure required and issues having a bearing on the development under related sectors in the State.
The seminar was organised to deliberate on the issues connected with credit flow and finalise the same for the 2011-2012.
Lend more to farmers
Dr A.K. Bandhopadhya, Executive Director of Nabard, in his address, indicated that while there was massive investment by the State Government, especially in the irrigation sector, the ground level investment credit has not picked up in a commensurate manner. He urged the bankers to step up the financing at the farmers' level.
Rural infrastructure
The Minister stressed on the need to provide increased investments to the agriculture sector and strive to provide alternative income sources to the farmers so that the distress could be avoided.
While outlining the initiatives of the State Government, including investments in irrigation, providing extension services through Rythu Sadassus, he said that more infrastructure is being created by the Government through the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund of Nabard.
The SFP projected the crop loans at Rs 33,528 crore, the agriculture term loans (Rs 10,531 crore), non-farm sector (Rs. 7,157 crore) and Rs. 19,633 crore for other priority sector, including Rs 8,920 crore for financing the self-help groups (SHGs) in the State, both under SHG-bank linkage programme and community based sustainable programme
Nabard has projected a credit potential of Rs. 70,849 crore for the farm and non-farm activities under the priority sector for 2011 -2012 in Andhra Pradesh.
According to a State Focus Paper (SFP) prepared by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development released by the Andhra Pradesh Minister for Finance, Mr Anam Ramnarayan Reddy, today at the State credit seminar, organised by Nabard, this amount shows a growth of 16.3 per cent over last year.
State Focus paper
The State Focus Paper is an aggregation of the district-wise potential-linked credit plans (PLPs) prepared for each of the districts, and district development managers of Nabard identify realisable targets, enabling infrastructure required and issues having a bearing on the development under related sectors in the State.
The seminar was organised to deliberate on the issues connected with credit flow and finalise the same for the 2011-2012.
Lend more to farmers
Dr A.K. Bandhopadhya, Executive Director of Nabard, in his address, indicated that while there was massive investment by the State Government, especially in the irrigation sector, the ground level investment credit has not picked up in a commensurate manner. He urged the bankers to step up the financing at the farmers' level.
Rural infrastructure
The Minister stressed on the need to provide increased investments to the agriculture sector and strive to provide alternative income sources to the farmers so that the distress could be avoided.
While outlining the initiatives of the State Government, including investments in irrigation, providing extension services through Rythu Sadassus, he said that more infrastructure is being created by the Government through the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund of Nabard.
December 23, 2010
Complex Fertilisers get a let-up from nutrient based subsidy
The Hindu Business Line - December 19, 2010
Harish Damodaran
New Delhi, Dec. 19
The institution of a nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) regime from April 1 has given a huge boost to consumption of complex fertilisers.
During April-November, fertiliser firms have sold 7.07 million tonnes (mt) of complexes, containing varying proportions of nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), potash (K) and sulphur (S). This represents a one-third jump over the 5.32 mt for the corresponding eight months of 2009-10.
Conventional fertilisers
On the other hand, sales of conventional fertilisers such as urea and di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) have registered a mere 5-6 per cent increase, while being negative in muriate of potash (MOP).
“Complex sales will easily top 10 mt this fiscal,” said Dr G. Ravi Prasad, President (Fertiliser Marketing) at Coromandel International Ltd (CIL). In 2009-10, CIL manufactured around two mt of complex fertilisers, which was next to the 2.75 mt by the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (Iffco).
Besides these two, the K.K. Birla Group-controlled Pradeep Phosphates and Zuari Industries (0.8 mt), Fertilisers & Chemicals Travancore (0.75 mt), Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilisers (0.5 mt), Tata Chemicals (0.4 mt), GSFC (0.3 mt), GNFC (0.2 mt) and Deepak Fertilisers & Petrochemicals Corporation (0.1 mt) are the major producers of complexes.
According to the industry, the introduction of NBS – linking subsidy payable to the nutrient composition of individual fertilisers – has made complexes attractive to both companies as well as farmers. This is unlike the earlier regime, where subsidy was limited to specific products (urea, DAP, MOP) with little linkage to nutrient content.
Under the NBS, the Centre is now providing a per-kg concession of Rs 23.227 on nitrogen , Rs 26.276 on phosphorous , Rs 24.487 on potash and Rs 1.784 on sulphur . These translate into a respective subsidy of Rs 15,521 and Rs 15,114 a tonne on the two most popular complexes, 10:26:26:0 and 12:32:16:0, enabling them to be retailed at Rs 8,200 and Rs 8,650 a tonne. Lower prices (against Rs 9,950 for DAP) and the presence of K (DAP only contains ‘N' and ‘P', albeit at 18 and 46 per cent) makes them a value proposition.
Companies, in turn, have responded by augmenting production of complexes. Iffco's Kandla plant manufactured 0.7 mt of DAP in 2009-10, whereas this year, “we are hardly making any DAP and bulk of its 2.4-2.5 mt output will consist of 10:26:26:0 and 12:32:16:0”, informed Mr Arabinda Roy, Marketing Director, Iffco.
Apart from DAP, even potash is being increasingly sold in the form of complexes rather than as MOP. “That probably explains declining sales of MOP. Although MOP imports are higher this time (six mt against 5.3 mt in 2009-10), a significant part of it is going for manufacture of complexes,” he added.
Higher complex sales
The other reason for higher complex sales is imports, adding to the overall availability. The extension of NBS benefits to imported material has led to over 1.1 mt of complexes – mainly 10:26:26:0, 16:16:16:0, 16:20:0:13 and 20:20:0:0 – being brought in from Russia, China and Indonesia during April-November, compared with just 0.2 mt in the whole of 2009-10.
Interestingly, the import of complexes have been undertaken not just by Iffco, Zuari and Deepak Fertilisers, but even by companies such as Nagarjuna Fertilisers & Chemicals and Indian Potash Ltd that do not manufacture them domestically.
The other major fertiliser to have benefited from the NBS is single super phosphate (SSP), which, on account of its lower 16 per cent phosphorous content, has faced steady marginalisation from DAP. But with the NBS recognising the 11 per cent sulphur content in SSP, this fertiliser, too, has become a marketing proposition.
“I foresee SSP consumption to touch 3-3.5 t this year and also more production capacity being added,” said Dr Prasad.
Harish Damodaran
The institution of a nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) regime from April 1 has given a huge boost to consumption of complex fertilisers.
During April-November, fertiliser firms have sold 7.07 million tonnes (mt) of complexes, containing varying proportions of nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), potash (K) and sulphur (S). This represents a one-third jump over the 5.32 mt for the corresponding eight months of 2009-10.
Conventional fertilisers
On the other hand, sales of conventional fertilisers such as urea and di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) have registered a mere 5-6 per cent increase, while being negative in muriate of potash (MOP).
“Complex sales will easily top 10 mt this fiscal,” said Dr G. Ravi Prasad, President (Fertiliser Marketing) at Coromandel International Ltd (CIL). In 2009-10, CIL manufactured around two mt of complex fertilisers, which was next to the 2.75 mt by the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (Iffco).
Besides these two, the K.K. Birla Group-controlled Pradeep Phosphates and Zuari Industries (0.8 mt), Fertilisers & Chemicals Travancore (0.75 mt), Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilisers (0.5 mt), Tata Chemicals (0.4 mt), GSFC (0.3 mt), GNFC (0.2 mt) and Deepak Fertilisers & Petrochemicals Corporation (0.1 mt) are the major producers of complexes.
According to the industry, the introduction of NBS – linking subsidy payable to the nutrient composition of individual fertilisers – has made complexes attractive to both companies as well as farmers. This is unlike the earlier regime, where subsidy was limited to specific products (urea, DAP, MOP) with little linkage to nutrient content.
Under the NBS, the Centre is now providing a per-kg concession of Rs 23.227 on nitrogen , Rs 26.276 on phosphorous , Rs 24.487 on potash and Rs 1.784 on sulphur . These translate into a respective subsidy of Rs 15,521 and Rs 15,114 a tonne on the two most popular complexes, 10:26:26:0 and 12:32:16:0, enabling them to be retailed at Rs 8,200 and Rs 8,650 a tonne. Lower prices (against Rs 9,950 for DAP) and the presence of K (DAP only contains ‘N' and ‘P', albeit at 18 and 46 per cent) makes them a value proposition.
Companies, in turn, have responded by augmenting production of complexes. Iffco's Kandla plant manufactured 0.7 mt of DAP in 2009-10, whereas this year, “we are hardly making any DAP and bulk of its 2.4-2.5 mt output will consist of 10:26:26:0 and 12:32:16:0”, informed Mr Arabinda Roy, Marketing Director, Iffco.
Apart from DAP, even potash is being increasingly sold in the form of complexes rather than as MOP. “That probably explains declining sales of MOP. Although MOP imports are higher this time (six mt against 5.3 mt in 2009-10), a significant part of it is going for manufacture of complexes,” he added.
Higher complex sales
The other reason for higher complex sales is imports, adding to the overall availability. The extension of NBS benefits to imported material has led to over 1.1 mt of complexes – mainly 10:26:26:0, 16:16:16:0, 16:20:0:13 and 20:20:0:0 – being brought in from Russia, China and Indonesia during April-November, compared with just 0.2 mt in the whole of 2009-10.
Interestingly, the import of complexes have been undertaken not just by Iffco, Zuari and Deepak Fertilisers, but even by companies such as Nagarjuna Fertilisers & Chemicals and Indian Potash Ltd that do not manufacture them domestically.
The other major fertiliser to have benefited from the NBS is single super phosphate (SSP), which, on account of its lower 16 per cent phosphorous content, has faced steady marginalisation from DAP. But with the NBS recognising the 11 per cent sulphur content in SSP, this fertiliser, too, has become a marketing proposition.
“I foresee SSP consumption to touch 3-3.5 t this year and also more production capacity being added,” said Dr Prasad.
December 16, 2010
Brand Line - Harish Bijoor column
Brand Line - The Hindu Business Line, December 16, 2010
The urban-rural debate has been on forever. Do you see this changing as we work towards inclusive marketing as the basic ethos of all marketing?
Inclusive marketing is a faraway dream as of now. Today, exclusive marketing has hijacked all semblance of inclusiveness.
Post-Independence, India witnessed a creeping and crawling morphing of mindsets and consumption from the rural to mindsets that are more aggressively urban. The marketer has been largely responsible for this. The movement, that was a crawl, literally became a gallop in the early and mid-Eighties when television knitted the nation as one, pumping urban imagery of the modern marketing man to rural audiences. Television and all the advertising it carried fed rural markets the urban way of life. In more ways than one, India became an instant urban society.
This, I believe, is an undoing that needs to be corrected. In many ways, marketing is a hegemony in India. The urban-educated and privileged marketer markets to the rural person. Never mind that rural is three times bigger than urban. The imagery that consumers emote with in India today is the urban imagery.
Overturn this and emote with the real India. Emote with the imagery that is rural. Put a programme that is rural in your marketing mix. Go one step further and show the archetypical brand hero in your TV commercials to be the rural person. See what it does. I do believe India is ready to turn marketing imagery on its head. The bottom-of-the-pyramid market will admire this and will certainly reward this effort — with market share, and money, and more than that, consumer affection.
The urban-rural debate has been on forever. Do you see this changing as we work towards inclusive marketing as the basic ethos of all marketing?
"Even I thought it was another Fevicol Ad! But they're all marketing men out to capture the rural sector, it seems."
Post-Independence, India witnessed a creeping and crawling morphing of mindsets and consumption from the rural to mindsets that are more aggressively urban. The marketer has been largely responsible for this. The movement, that was a crawl, literally became a gallop in the early and mid-Eighties when television knitted the nation as one, pumping urban imagery of the modern marketing man to rural audiences. Television and all the advertising it carried fed rural markets the urban way of life. In more ways than one, India became an instant urban society.
This, I believe, is an undoing that needs to be corrected. In many ways, marketing is a hegemony in India. The urban-educated and privileged marketer markets to the rural person. Never mind that rural is three times bigger than urban. The imagery that consumers emote with in India today is the urban imagery.
Overturn this and emote with the real India. Emote with the imagery that is rural. Put a programme that is rural in your marketing mix. Go one step further and show the archetypical brand hero in your TV commercials to be the rural person. See what it does. I do believe India is ready to turn marketing imagery on its head. The bottom-of-the-pyramid market will admire this and will certainly reward this effort — with market share, and money, and more than that, consumer affection.
December 13, 2010
Agricultural fields in mechanisation mode
The Hindu, December 13, 2010
SANGAREDDY: M. Hanumantu of Nawabpet village in Hatnoora mandal in Medak district recently destroyed his paddy crop. He was one among the thousands of farmers in the district who were unable to hire labour for harvesting crop.
Mr. Hanumantu has 4.18 acres of land, out of which paddy was cultivated in three acres. He grew cotton in the remaining 1.18 acres. When the crop was ready for harvesting, he tried to hire a harvesting machine.
Though the operator brought the machine to the field, he refused to start it saying the field was wet and it would damage his machine. His efforts to hire labour did not yield result as they preferred to work for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) instead of the hard labour. Vexed with that, he lit his crop.
Time saved
Contrary to the experience of Mr. Hanumantu, many farmers in the district are preferring to hire machines to harvest the crop. According to sources in the Agriculture Department, more than 100 machines are functioning in the district.
Each machine is replacing about 1,000 mandays if it is to assume that machines are working between six to eight hours a day. While it would take five days for eight persons from harvesting to packing paddy in one acre of land, it is consuming only one-and-half hour for the machine to complete the job.
Farmers prefer these machines as it is becoming hard to find manual labour, in addition to consuming more time. The labourers are also demanding wages between Rs. 100 to Rs. 150 to work in the fields.
Cost factor
“This is benefiting farmers as the operator is charging Rs. 2,500 per acre whereas it will cost about Rs. 4,000 if labour is hired. In addition, the trader will be ready to procure the produce once it is ready in bags,” said Chandrasekhar, Joint Director of Agriculture.
According to department estimates, out of the 45,000 hectares of paddy that was cultivated in the district during the current rabi season, at least 30,000 hectares will be harvested by the machines.
Doubts are being expressed in the official circles whether the labourers would lose work in the farms in the long run as the farmer, once habituated to harvesting with machines, would only prefer machines.
SANGAREDDY: M. Hanumantu of Nawabpet village in Hatnoora mandal in Medak district recently destroyed his paddy crop. He was one among the thousands of farmers in the district who were unable to hire labour for harvesting crop.
Mr. Hanumantu has 4.18 acres of land, out of which paddy was cultivated in three acres. He grew cotton in the remaining 1.18 acres. When the crop was ready for harvesting, he tried to hire a harvesting machine.
Though the operator brought the machine to the field, he refused to start it saying the field was wet and it would damage his machine. His efforts to hire labour did not yield result as they preferred to work for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) instead of the hard labour. Vexed with that, he lit his crop.
Time saved
Contrary to the experience of Mr. Hanumantu, many farmers in the district are preferring to hire machines to harvest the crop. According to sources in the Agriculture Department, more than 100 machines are functioning in the district.
Each machine is replacing about 1,000 mandays if it is to assume that machines are working between six to eight hours a day. While it would take five days for eight persons from harvesting to packing paddy in one acre of land, it is consuming only one-and-half hour for the machine to complete the job.
Farmers prefer these machines as it is becoming hard to find manual labour, in addition to consuming more time. The labourers are also demanding wages between Rs. 100 to Rs. 150 to work in the fields.
Cost factor
“This is benefiting farmers as the operator is charging Rs. 2,500 per acre whereas it will cost about Rs. 4,000 if labour is hired. In addition, the trader will be ready to procure the produce once it is ready in bags,” said Chandrasekhar, Joint Director of Agriculture.
According to department estimates, out of the 45,000 hectares of paddy that was cultivated in the district during the current rabi season, at least 30,000 hectares will be harvested by the machines.
Doubts are being expressed in the official circles whether the labourers would lose work in the farms in the long run as the farmer, once habituated to harvesting with machines, would only prefer machines.
December 10, 2010
Ministry drags feet on paying fertiliser firms
The Economic Times, December 10, 2010
NEW DELHI: The country's cash-strapped fertiliser makers are blaming the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers for the delay in compensating them for the losses they suffered on selling government bonds.
The long-tenure bonds were issued to public sector fertiliser companies in lieu of the cash subsidy they receive from the government for selling their produce below cost.
People close to the matter said the finance ministry is ready to repay the fertiliser firms but it can't do so until it receives a proposal from the ministry concerned. "We can only act if we receive a proposal," a finance ministry official told ET.
The delay is adding to the grief of fertiliser makers as they have to sign contracts for the kharif season by the end of January or early February. "Normally , it is the administrative ministry that should aggressively push for the resolution of this problem," said an industry representative. "But in this case, it is the finance ministry that is taking the initiative." The government had issued Rs 27,500-crore worth of bonds to fertiliser companies in lieu of subsidies for 2007-08 and 2008-09.
Some of these companies had sold Rs 13,611 crore worth of these bonds at a discount after they failed to find ready takers for them. This led to a loss for these firms, which was pegged at Rs 543.3 crore at the end of March 2009. They are ready to sell the remaining bonds at a loss of about Rs 1,400 crore if there is a commitment from the government that the losses will be made good. The finance ministry had in October agreed to compensate the fertiliser firms but the department of fertilisers has not yet moved a detailed note on the issue. "There is simply no market whatsoever for these 20-year bonds," said a Fertiliser Association of India official. "Should we manage to sell them, the industry will end up suffering a big loss against a backdrop of higher interest rate and a consequent drop in the value of the bonds."
The market is currently valuing these special securities at a discount of over 10% of their face value. This means that a bond holder will receive only Rs 90 for a bond worth Rs 100. The discount is highest in the bonds issued in the last two tranches because the coupon on them was 6% against the current benchmark rate of over 8%. Bond prices and interest rates move in opposite directions.
The lack of urgency is despite estimates that the annual fertiliser consumption will shoot up 20% under the new nutrient-based subsidy scheme, which means resolution of liquidity problems of fertiliser companies is critical. The worries of fertiliser companies over unpaid dues by the government do not end with the bonds.
The long-tenure bonds were issued to public sector fertiliser companies in lieu of the cash subsidy they receive from the government for selling their produce below cost.
People close to the matter said the finance ministry is ready to repay the fertiliser firms but it can't do so until it receives a proposal from the ministry concerned. "We can only act if we receive a proposal," a finance ministry official told ET.
The delay is adding to the grief of fertiliser makers as they have to sign contracts for the kharif season by the end of January or early February. "Normally , it is the administrative ministry that should aggressively push for the resolution of this problem," said an industry representative. "But in this case, it is the finance ministry that is taking the initiative." The government had issued Rs 27,500-crore worth of bonds to fertiliser companies in lieu of subsidies for 2007-08 and 2008-09.
Some of these companies had sold Rs 13,611 crore worth of these bonds at a discount after they failed to find ready takers for them. This led to a loss for these firms, which was pegged at Rs 543.3 crore at the end of March 2009. They are ready to sell the remaining bonds at a loss of about Rs 1,400 crore if there is a commitment from the government that the losses will be made good. The finance ministry had in October agreed to compensate the fertiliser firms but the department of fertilisers has not yet moved a detailed note on the issue. "There is simply no market whatsoever for these 20-year bonds," said a Fertiliser Association of India official. "Should we manage to sell them, the industry will end up suffering a big loss against a backdrop of higher interest rate and a consequent drop in the value of the bonds."
The market is currently valuing these special securities at a discount of over 10% of their face value. This means that a bond holder will receive only Rs 90 for a bond worth Rs 100. The discount is highest in the bonds issued in the last two tranches because the coupon on them was 6% against the current benchmark rate of over 8%. Bond prices and interest rates move in opposite directions.
The lack of urgency is despite estimates that the annual fertiliser consumption will shoot up 20% under the new nutrient-based subsidy scheme, which means resolution of liquidity problems of fertiliser companies is critical. The worries of fertiliser companies over unpaid dues by the government do not end with the bonds.
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