Madhya Pradesh Agri-Revolution: Taste of things to come…

With an aim to peep into the future of agriculture in the state, the second panel discussion ‘Future directions for Madhya Pradesh’ was held. This dialogue had panelists like (in alphabetical order) Bharat Char, Lead Biotechnology, Mahyco Ltd; Suhas Joshi, Head-Sustainability, Bayer group, South Asia; Amitabh Mohan, DGM, Nabard; and Amit Vatsyayan, Partner, EY. The panellists reached a consensus that state would need to create opportunities that allowed the flow of value to primary producers.

The current system and its offerings

Suhas Joshi, Head-sustainability, Bayer group, south Asia: Contract farming appears to be the only sustainable solution. The basic logic – sustainable income for cultivators and supply visibility for processors – cannot be doubted. However it is necessary to tweak the framework.

The clear objective should be that farmers get money rather than middlemen. The cornerstone of thinking, even in downstream activities, should be – when there is value generated through processing, how does the value reach the farmer?

Amitabh Mohan, DGM, NABARD: After output, value matters most to the farmer. In that context, if his bargaining power is increased, the results will be more beneficial. NABARD has participated in the process of creation of 360 farmer producer organisations, at different stages of evolution in Madhya Pradesh. These organisations focus on collective action, with backward and forward linkages. They also generate storage and chilling capacities at local levels, which is particularly of help in products like milk, but should grow more in terms of products serviced. Collective marketing is also an activity which helps the agri-producers.

Linkages with processors are very vital – all over the state, there are six food parks being set up by the state government and four mega food parks being set up by the central government. Processing units aiming to set up facilities in such parks can directly access finance from NABARD at around 8 per cent interest.

Suhas Joshi: Productivity and farmer empowerment go hand-in hand, as was evident in the Operation Flood— for prosperity to flow to the farmer. For farmers and consumers (corporate buyers) to connect, there are logistics, time and management issues and therefore efforts are needed from both sides. In that context, the establishment of FPOs is a welcome development because it is empowering the farmer. Structural changes needed

Amit Vatsyayan, Partner, EY: I believe there are four core areas where attention is needed. First is stop the wastage and value deterioration between the time the crop is harvested and the time it is sold. That value deterioration of 20 30 percent goes away from the farmer’s income and does not do anything for the buyer. The next core area is to create more value, mainly through warehousing and processing. All stakeholders must understand the value and there has to be greater impetus both to create more capacities as well as to enhance usage of existing ones. If cooling plants today operate at around 35 per cent utilisation, it does not reflect well on the ecosystem.

Next, the farmer has to understand that, if he wants to gain more, he must participate more. Rather than just selling their output en masse to traders, they should actively engage in sorting, grading and use of infrastructure like packhouses, with a view to increasing the aggregate sales realisation from the same crop. Value-addition is a constant need. Even in the milk sector, if processors can focus on cheese and ice-cream they will find there is profitable demand.

Last but not the least, is the need for value-added services (insurance, credit etc) also need to evolve and keep pace with the times, rather than just give options which are outdated and not in sync.

Bharat Char, Lead Biotechnology, Mahyco ltd: I will speak a bit on the scientific aspect. There is a need to focus firstly on soil health for sustainable output. We definitely needed the Green Revolution, no question about that but at that time we availed of whatever techniques and technologies were available. However, the output maintenance and growth now onwards can sustain only by soil growth. We as a company do research on beneficial microbes which would organically maintain and/or improve soil health. This treatment is released directly into the soil or indirectly via treated seeds.

The other scientific focus area is precision agriculture which primarily means use of available digital technologies. Drones can be extremely useful in this sector. They can save time in mapping data, can provide better visuals. With proper sensors, drones can heighten the data output quality and improve the process ability of the data generated. Satellite images today give global crop estimates and updates, which translates into price movements on commodity exchanges. The need is to get such technology accessible at the farm level. Any improvement in estimation and forecasting can only enhance effectiveness of sowing and harvesting efforts.