There is no immediate threat from climate change to the farm sector, said by experts while addressing the 12th Agricultural Science Congress at National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI).

“There is a no need to get panicky about climate change. There is no immediate threat from it to the farm sector. However, there is a need to be watchful and stay alert,” said T Jayaraman, a senior scientist from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

The theme of the congress is “How agriculture can be made sustainable for small farmers.” Apprehending that the rising temperature in the country, especially in agricultural states such as Punjab and Haryana, will affect cultivation, both states have been preparing strategies to deal with it.

Jayaraman said the impact of rising temperature could be seen in Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal. The rise in maximum temperature in lower hills of Himachal Pradesh has pushed apple cultivation to the higher reaches of the state. In West Bengal, the breeding season of pond fish has been prolonged as a result of the changed conditions.

“In the past 100 years, the average temperature has gone up by 0.7°C to 1.2°C in various part of the country. Variations in temperature, especially the rise in maximum temperature, were proving more harmful for cultivation,” he said.

Former Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Dr RS Paroda said the challenge before scientists was to make the Indian farm sector least dependent on the monsoon. There was a need for developing effective linkages between agricultural researches and farmers.

“We need to involve stakeholders (farmers) in researches to provide them knowledge at lab and field levels. Women can play a vital role in the post harvest management of food grains,” he said.

Dr Paroda said the country should move from the Green Revolution to the nutritional revolution.

Dr KL Chadha, president of the Horticultural Society of India, said there is only 17 per cent area under horticultural crops, but it contributes 35 per cent to agriculture GDP. “There is a tremendous scope for making Punjab a vegetable hub to export the same to the Middle East,” he said.

Source : Experts

The following measures are suggested to protect the sensitive crops from frost damage:

Pulses:
Following protection measures are suggested for pulse crops:
-Spray the crop with Thiourea @ 500 ppm (5 00 gm in 1000 litre water). Repeat the spray after 15 days if low temperature conditions persist/recurs.
-Apply light and frequent irrigation to protect the crops from cold / frost injury. Dry soils are poor heat conductors, store less heat and therefore r esult in a higher risk of frost.
-Create smoke cover over the field by burning waste materials/weeds and crop residues at night (Slow burning of farm waste around field preferably in north west corner in the evening to create a smoke screen over the field )
-Keep the fields weed free as the weeds blocks the sunlight and heating of the soil during daytime.

Rapeseed and mustard:
-Rapeseed and mustard are more sensitive at flowering/ early pod formation stage. The frost damage may be reduced by creating favo urable growth conditions and providing adequate water and nutrients.
To reduce further frost damage:
-Spray 500 ppm Thiourea (500 gm in 1000 litre water). Repeat the spray after 10 15 days, if required.
-Light and frequent irrigation is recommended.
-Create smoke cover over the field by burning waste materials/weeds and crop residues at night.
-Keep the fields weed free.
-Loose soil surfaces reduce conduction of heat to the surface at night and therefore tend to have lower surface temperatures than compacted soils. Thus it is advisable not to cultivate the soil if frost is expected.

Long term measures
-In regions prone to frequent frosts, raising of permanent wind breaks / shelter belts on the windward side is advised.
-Grow genotypes of different flowering/maturity span t o avoid coincidence of susceptible crop stages probably with the periods of occurrence to prevent crop failure.

Source : Agricultural Research

Data from World Bank shows that around 60.3 percent of India's land area is agricultural land. The bank defines agricultural land as “share of land area that is arable, under permanent crops, and under permanent pastures.” In fact India has the second largest agricultural land in the world. As India Brand Equity Foundation, a trust established by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry points out: “At 157.35 million hectares, India holds the second largest agricultural land globally.” Only, the United States has more agricultural land than India. What this means is that India has enough land dedicated to agriculture and even if some of it is taken away for other purposes there will still be enough land left for agriculture. Nevertheless, there are bigger problems when it comes to Indian agriculture.

Take the case of China. India has more arable land than China. This, despite the fact its total area is only a little over 34 percent that of China. However, China produces more rice and wheat than India does. As a report in The Wall Street Journal points out: “India is the second largest producer of rice and wheat after China, with China producing about 40 percent more rice and wheat than India. India is also the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world after China, but China’s fruit production is three times India’s production.” What this tells us is that India's agricultural productivity is low compared to that of China and many other countries in the world.

A report in Mint using 2013 data from the Food and Agricultural Organization points out: “India produces 106.19 million tonnes of rice a year from 44 million hectares of land. That’s a yield rate of 2.4 tonnes per hectare, placing India at 27th place out of 47 countries. China and Brazil have yield rates of 4.7 tonnes per hectare and 3.6 tonnes per hectare, respectively.”

In case of wheat the productivity is better than that of rice. “With 93.51 million tonnes of wheat from 29.65 million hectares, India’s yield rate of 3.15 tonnes per hectare places it 19th out of 41 countries. Here, we do better than Brazil’s yield rate of 2.73 tonnes per hectare, but lag behind South Africa (3.4 t/ha) and China (4.9 t/ha),” the report points out. There are multiple reasons for this low productivity.

The average holding size of land has come down over the decades. The State of the Indian Agricultural Report for 2012-2013 points out that: “As per Agriculture Census 2010-11, small and marginal holdings of less than 2 hectare account for 85 percent of the total operational holdings and 44 percent of the total operated area. The average size of holdings for all operational classes (small & marginal, medium and large) have declined over the years and for all classes put together it has come down to 1.16 hectare in 2010-11 from 2.82 hectare in 1970-71.”

The shrinking size of the average land holding of an Indian farmer has held back agricultural productivity and there is not much that can be done about this. But there are other areas which can be worked upon. As the State of the Indian Agricultural Report points out: “To enhance productivity, easy and reliable access to inputs such as quality seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, access to suitable technology tailored for specific needs, the presence of support infrastructure and innovative marketing systems to aggregate and market the output from large number of small holdings efficiently.”

Ensuring that quality seeds are available is very important. “The efficacy of other agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation is largely determined by the quality of the seed used. It is estimated that quality of seed accounts for 20-25 percent of productivity. Hence timely availability of quality seeds at affordable prices to farmers is necessary for achieving higher agricultural productivity and production,” the report further points out.

Another issue which adds to the problem is that “substantial chunks of scarce land remain untilled because of landowners’ reluctance to lease out land for fear of losing its ownership.”

What these details tell us clearly is that India has enough land for farming. The problem is that it is not productive enough. The other huge issue is that for nearly 58 percent of India's population (as per India Brand Equity Foundation) agriculture is a primary source of livelihood. But agriculture accounts only 14 percent of the GDP. Hence, there is a huge requirement to move people away from agriculture into other areas. This can be done if enough industry and jobs are created. For that land is required and farmers have that land.

First Post

Ahmedabad, Gujarat; December 15, 2014 – WIMWI Foods Private Limited, a venture by IIM-Ahmedabad Alumni (batch 2014) has recently launched India’s first high quality packaged Shii’take mushrooms under the brand name Le Gourmetz – the Foodies. The product is now available across all Hypercity stores in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Kanupradeep Subramanian and Srishti Shaw, the co-founders of WIMWI Foods chose to start their own venture to pursue a common passion to bring healthier food choices into India. The company is currently a part of IIMAvericks Programme, a Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship initiative, which invites IIM Ahmedabad alumni to pledge their support for graduating students, who want to tread the unconventional path of entrepreneurship.

“Indian consumers are looking for healthier options for food which offer them the taste without the calories. They are looking for both quality and affordability in their vegetables. We have responded to this consumer need by introducing high quality Le Gourmetz Shii’take mushrooms,” said Srishti Shaw.

Shii’take Mushrooms, the jewel of the oriental cuisine, are the second most consumed mushrooms globally. Kanupradeep Subramanian further added, ”In the near future, we want to promote the cultivation of these mushrooms in India and build the technologies to make this an attractive source of income for Indian farmers.”

Explaining the health benefits of these mushrooms, Kanupradeep said, “These flavorful Japanese wood mushrooms have high protein content, rich in B complex Vitamins and dietary fiber. When consumed regularly they reduce cholesterol and develop protection against multiple diseases. Shii’take contains an active compound lentinan, which helps protect against cancer and is an official adjuvant for stomach cancer in Japan. The high level of protein makes them an excellent source of protein for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians who want to reduce the amount of meat in their diet.”

Courtesy : IIM-Ahmedabad

Farmers can now access to solar and hybrid-powered cold storage solutions. IIT Kharagpur alumnus Devendra Gupta along with Vivek Pandey and Prateek Singhal started Ecozen Solutions in 2010 solar-cum-hybrid cold storage for Indian farmers. Gupta said, "The product works on solar power and uses thermal storage as the energy back-up. The cost of the solution depends on the commodity to be stored. Normally, a fruit farmer should be able to recover the cost within three years and earn at least twice of what he is currently earning."

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) student Rajat Sethi, currently pursuing his MBA, has co-founded Coolify as a new-generation cold storage solution, targeted to serve the back-end of the fruits and vegetable supply chain in India. He is planning to launch in India in 2015, after graduating from MIT. "We were awarded the most innovative business idea by the US Department of Agriculture, quoting a Rs 60 lakh prize money. This is an IT-enabled solution, wherein a farmer with a smartphone can activate the storage container and set the temperature," said by Sethi.

According to ColdStar, which supplies refrigerated storage to multinational companies and big farms, which in turn take it to farmers to retain quality of perishable produce, more than 18 per cent of India's fruits and vegetable produce worth Rs 13,300 crore goes waste annually due to lack of or poor cold chain facilities in India.

Cold Supply Chain reduces wastage of perishable produce said by Shagun Kapoor Gogia, founder-director of ColdStar.

There are business opportunities in dairy and milk industry providing facility for Dairy industry players.

Courtesy : www.economictimes.indiatimes.com

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) for agricultural professionals were launched at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) global headquarters, Hydrabad.

National Virtual Academy for Indian Agriculture offers online platform India's agricultural professionals. Advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) now enable building of "classrooms without boundaries" in the cloud to provide courses and learning approaches among academic institutions in India. The intension is to reach to the masses. With this platform, one course can have the potential to reach 50,000-150,000 learner participants at one time.

Top agricultural universities from India, Africa and USA are getting involved in online education for Agricultural Professionals.

The MOOCs is a recent development in distance education in the country, which has now been boosted by the consortium through the pooling of international expertise, experience and resources, offering free online agricultural courses aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the internet. Learning material will be videos, readings, and problem sets.

Courtesy : www.economictimes.indiatimes.com

TSaba Firdous
Srinagar, June 4:
As horticulture is emerging as lucrative business, the growers in the valley are fast converting their paddy land into orchards.
According to the growers, horticulture has been more profitable than other agriculture activities especially cultivation of rice.
“Horticulture is more profitable than any other agriculture activity,” said Chairman Kashmir Valley Fruit Growers and Dealers Association Ghulam Rasool Wagay.
Growers complain that paddy growing is more laborious than horticulture their family members are not willing to work in paddy fields.
Mohammad Akbar Sofi, a grower said, “People are not ready to work on paddy fields. Agriculture requires more hard work than horticulture. Horticulture is more profitable too.”
Sofi said there is no point in growing rice when it is imported at cheaper prices from outside the state to Valley.
“Very few people from Kashmir buy local rice which costs double that what is imported from outside,” Sofi added.
Director Horticulture PK Sharma said that growers prefer horticulture over other agriculture practices.
“Horticulture is less labor intensive. Growers earn more in horticulture than in agriculture,” said Sharma.
Director Agriculture, Mushtaq Peerzada, said they are trying their best to safeguard agriculture.
“We have introduced new methods of agriculture, new mechanism that is helpful for not only farmers but other educated youth who can contribute to the field of agriculture. This can help us where growers will also sustain in agriculture,” Mushtaq said.
As per the official figures, the horticulture contributes of about 300 lakh metric tons of production per annum, while more than 70% population is directly and indirectly involved in horticulture and allied activities.
The figures show that more than 7 crore boxes of fruit were exported per year, while 3 crore boxes were consumed in the domestic market.
There are 282 private registered nurseries of horticulture which produce 25 lakh plants per year with the income of Rs 9 crore. Over 5 lakh fruit plants were annually supplied to other States.
Each hectare of orchard generates employment of 400 man-days per year which is 13.80 crore man-days per annum.

Courtesy & Source : risingkashmir.com