India, France to cooperate in food processing sector

India and France agreed to cooperate in the field of food processing to take advantage of each others expertise in the sector. A letter of intent for bilateral cooperation in the food processing sector was signed between India and France in the presence of Minister for Food Processing Industries Subodh Kant Sahai and French Minister for Agriculture Bruno Le Maire, an official release said. Sahai said levels of food processing are far higher in France compared to India and the latter can benefit from it. Specialities of the French industries in cultivating the specific variety of standard size of vegetables for the purpose of canning and bottling are well known internationally, Sahai said, adding exchange of the information and technology in this field will be of immense help to the industries in India. Sahai said France is ranked fifth in the list of India's trading partner among EU countries. India is the 13th largest investor in France. There are about 90 Indian companies in France and have invested in IT, pharmaceuticals, plastic industry, auto parts, etc. Sahai said the government has set an investment target of around Rs one lakh crore by 2015 in the sunrise sector. The sector is expected to grow by 20 per cent and value-addition to increase by 35 per cent by 2015. India accounts for 10 per cent of world's fruits production and 13 per cent of vegetables output.

Shri Sharad Pawar Calls for Higher Private Investment in Agriculture

The Minister of Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Sharad Pawar has called for higher investment by the private sector in agriculture sector. He was speaking at the National Conference on Rural Prosperity through Better Agriculture, which was inaugurated by the President, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil. Shri Pawar said, new technology which helps in developing affordable farming equipments suited to Indian conditions and farm sizes is the need of the hour and the private sector will have to take a leading role in this. Shri Pawar said “as Indian agriculture gains momentum, there is growing demand for quality inputs, support services through effective extension and knowledge dissemination and adequate agricultural infrastructure. Farmer awareness and capacity building have to be taken up in a big way”. Here is the full text of Agriculture Minister’s speech: “It gives me great pleasure to participate in this National Conference on ‘Rural Prosperity Through Better Agriculture’ organized by Crop Care Federation of India. When this idea was mooted by Shri Rajju Shroff, it took me no time to decide that we, in Ministry of Agriculture, should support it for reasons I will enumerate a little later. But the most forceful impetus to this programme came from Mahamahim Rashtrapatiji herself who graciously agreed to inaugurate this conference. Your Excellency, by doing so you have demonstrated your great concern for agriculture on which depends the livelihood of 60% of our countrymen and on which the entire nation depends for food security. The success of green revolution has ensured our food security today. However, agriculture faces new challenges the world over. The world’s population is set on a course to increase beyond nine billion by 2050 even as we are experiencing shifts in weather patterns due to climate change. Growing income levels on one hand, and limited scope in bringing more land under cultivation on the other, underline the challenges of production keeping pace with demand. The task, therefore, is clear – to scale new peaks of agricultural productivity. But this alone would not be sufficient. Today, the farmer has both the need and the opportunity to diversify farming and generate income through activities such as horticulture, animal husbandry and fisheries. The twin imperatives of productivity increase and diversification are not only important to continuance of our food security, but also to enhancement of rural incomes. In recent years, we have witnessed a renewed focus on agriculture. Major programmes such as the National Horticulture Mission, the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana and the National Food Security Mission have been launched. As a result, the plan outlay for the agriculture & allied sector has increased substantially from Rs. 7,431 crore in 2006-07 to Rs. 19,070 crore in 2010-11, an increase of about 156%. These initiatives seek to enhance both production and productivity by encouraging high yielding varieties/hybrid seeds and quality planting material, efficient farm equipments, micro and minor irrigation and improving agricultural infrastructure. Separately, a new fertilizer subsidy policy has been introduced to encourage site specific nutrient management. Efforts have been made for increasing availability of credit to the farmer and offering better risk mitigation instruments. The flow of agriculture credit since 2003-04 has consistently exceeded the target. From the level of Rs 86,981 crore credit flow in 2003-04, the agriculture credit disbursed in 2009-10 has touched Rs. 3,66,919 crore. New legislative measures such as the Seeds Bill and the Pesticides Management Bill have been formulated for consideration of the Parliament to usher in a more effective regulatory system for these critical inputs. Some states like Maharashtra and Orissa have started sophisticated pest surveillance and monitoring systems which must be launched by other states as well. Similarly, IT-enabled soil test based advisories are being given to the farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. The efforts to channelize higher investments – both public and private – have shown encouraging results. There has been a significant increase in the gross capital formation in agriculture as a proportion of agricultural GDP which has gone up from 14.1 per cent in 2004-05 to 21.3 in 2008-09. Besides increasing investment in agriculture we also need to give a correct and encouraging price signal to the farmers as they are an extremely effective tool for increasing agricultural production and productivity. Government has increased the MSP of major crops such as paddy, wheat and pulses by as much as 79%, 75% and 125% respectively between 2004-05 and 2010-11. All this has spurred a new dynamism in the agriculture sector today. The country achieved record food production of 234 million tonnes in 2008-09; a substantial jump from the production of about 198 million tonnes of food grains in 2004-05. The increases in MSP of paddy and wheat have resulted in record production and procurement of wheat and rice during the last two years. Last year, despite the severest drought in the past four decades, the production of food grains stood at about 218 million tonnes. This year, overall rainfall has been good and record production in kharif pulses, sugarcane and cotton is expected. The substantial hike in MSP of kharif pulses is showing results this kharif season with increase in estimated production of kharif pulses from about 4.3 million tonnes in 2009 to 6 million tonnes in 2010. However, due to deficit rainfall in Bihar, Jharkhand and parts of West Bengal there is likelihood of some loss in paddy production. On the positive side, due to the good South West monsoon, reservoir levels are very comfortable and soil moisture levels are high, promising a robust rabi production this year. Hopefully, agricultural growth has picked up again. As Indian agriculture gains momentum, there is growing demand for quality inputs, support services through effective extension and knowledge dissemination and adequate agricultural infrastructure. Farmer awareness and capacity building have to be taken up in a big way. The private sector has a critical role to play in meeting the demand of higher investment, inputs and services in agriculture. New technologies which help develop affordable farming equipments suited to Indian condition and farm sizes is the need of the hour and the private sector will have to take a leading role in this. I am sure that the deliberations in this conference over the next two days will address these issues and help in charting out the road map for the private and the public sector in maintaining agricultural growth and increasing rural incomes and prosperity. Before I end, I must sound a word of caution. While much has been achieved, the road ahead is riddled with many problems and bottlenecks. The most daunting of these is the Climate Change and its impact on Indian Agriculture. Rising temperatures causing heat stress in the crop, erratic and ever changing rainfall patterns are a cause of grave concern for us as they have already started affecting our agriculture negatively. We are all witness to the severe drought of last year and the untimely rains this year which have brought down our production and productivity. To counter these ill effects National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture along with the ongoing ICAR network on Climate Change that involves 25 centers across the country has been launched. We are also coordinating with all the renowned research institutions worldwide on this front and are hopeful of a breakthrough in developing heat resistant seed varieties to successfully meet the challenge ahead. While I am hopeful and desirous of a prosperous future for our farming community, I am fully aware of the huge responsibility on my shoulders to steer the agriculture sector to serve as the vehicle for ushering in rural prosperity in our vast hinterland. I am confident that our government will deliver on this count and ensure a “sufalam - sujalam bharat”. Mahamahim Rashtrapatiji I would like to once again thank on behalf of the organizers and on my own personal behalf for blessing this conference with your benign presence. Your presence here today will motivate not only the private sector present here and my colleagues from the government to rededicate themselves to ushering in an era of rural prosperity and development”.

Gadkari for cooperation with Israel on water management

BJP President Nitin Gadkari today underlined the importance of enhanced cooperation between Israel and India in the fields of water management and high technologies. Talking to PTI on the eve of his goodwill visit to Israel, Gadkari said the scarcity of irrigation facilities is a serious challenge to food production in India, where 700 million people are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood .He said India and Israel signed a MoU in the field of agriculture in 2008, paving the way for setting up of six excellence centres covering production of vegetables and fruit using ultra-modern technologies in Haryana and Maharashtra and new projects for the use of saline water and drip irrigation in Gujarat and Rajasthan. The growing agricultural cooperation between India and Israel, the BJP President said, underlines the mutual capacity to develop, absorb and implement state-of-the-art innovation which will increase production levels at appreciably lower cost to the farmer and the consumer. Cooperation with Indian firms also facilitates Israel''s entry into the Indian market and enhances Israel''s access to other south Asian markets, he pointed out. He said that the two countries were at an advanced stage of concluding a formal free trade agreement for a two-way arrangement that would give Indian industries access to the Israeli high technology sector and Israel access to Indian domestic market. "This is a step ahead of the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) that a Joint Study Group (JSG) set up by the two countries had recommended to improve trade ties. It is estimated that bilateral trade would exceed USD 12 billion in 5 years with this trade agreement," Gadkari said. The current areas that need to be given focus are software, communication, homeland security, science and medicine, bio and agro-technologies, water and tourism and Israel''s water technology, the BJP president said.

India Yet To Decide On Lifting Rice Export Ban Says Agriculture Minister

India has yet to decide on lifting an export ban on select varieties of common-grade rice, although a few states have asked the federal government to allow some shipments following a bumper crop this year, Food Minister Sharad Pawar said. India imposed a ban on the export of wheat and rice in 2007 to curb prices, but there is no fear of a shortage this crop year through June as good monsoon rains prompted farmers to increase cultivation. We have received requests for export of some varieties of non-basmati [common grades] rice from certain states like Andhra Pradesh, but we haven't decided anything yet, Pawar said. I have been informed that there have been some damages [to the rice crop]. Our team has gone to those areas. We are waiting for the report, he added. Earlier, food ministry officials had said the government could review the ban after the harvest of summer-sown crops in October-November. Private traders have also been lobbying the government to allow exports of premium non-basmati rice at a floor price of $900/ton.The government currently allows exports of only premier, aromatic basmati rice at a floor price of $900/ton. Exports from India, the world's second-largest rice producer, may help to cool global prices that have been rising due to tight supplies and a drought in the wheat-growing Black Sea region that has raised demand for other grains. The Rice Price Index of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, a measure of the monthly change in international prices of the grain, rose 11.12 points to 260.37 in November from the previous month and is up 30% since May. Although India's federal grain stocks are more than double of its requirement for welfare programs, the government will likely weigh any decision on exports cautiously as it will need enough stocks for a proposed law that guarantees cheap food grains to the poor. Government officials are also concerned about late rains in key rice growing areas that may have damaged the crop just when it was ready for harvest. The government had in September forecast summer rice output to rise 5.9% to 80.41 million tons in 2010-11 on higher plantings.

Protest rally by farmers to oppose MoU

The Kisan Swaraj Yatra, a rally of farmers marching from Sabarmati in Gujarat to New Delhi, reached Jaipur on Thursday. Participants appealed to chief minister Ashok Gehlot to cancel the MoU that the state signed with Monsanto India Ltd, saying the agreement was anti-farmer. The Kheti Virasat Mission's Kavitha Kurunganti, who is among those leading the rally, claimed the government was surrendering famers' interests over seeds to profit-oriented multinational companies. The state government should work to ensure irrigation water, electricity and land for the peasants, she said. Enumerating hazards of letting the profit-making MNCs control agriculture techniques, Kurunganti said, "From witnessing increased productivity initially, Punjab today has turned into the cancer capital' of India." Addressing a press conference, Kavitha said people of Punjab were fighting with problems like premature greying of hair, infertility and abortions caused by unhealthy' farm-food grown through ill-thought out agricultural techniques and policies. Vice-president of the state planning board, V S Vyas said while 85% farmers in the country did not have landholdings of even five-acre size, the actual number of such farmers in Rajasthan was much higher. The 75-day rally has being organised by farmers, youth, NGOs and civil rights groups to create awareness among general public on issues related to farmers and farming.

Zambia gives 100,000 hectares of land to Indian firm

The Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) has given an Indian company 100,000 hectares of land. ZDA and Neha International signed an MOU on Tuesday which will see the Indian company occupy 100, 000 heactares of land in Zambia. It is not yet clear which part of Zambia will be sliced to the Indians. It is not clear how much the land has been sold at. The Indian company is said to be planning to use the land for agriculture. Satisfied with the acquisition, the Indian company boasted that it would continue to acquire and develop arable lands in other countries of Eastern and Southern Africa as part of its business development strategy.

Indian farmers teach drip irrigation to Harvard

At a time when India is looking towards the US to unleash its second green revolution, two small-time farmers from the country travelled to America to explain to academicians at the prestigious Harvard University about the successful drip irrigation techniques. Rajendra Patil, 40, and Hemchandra Dagaji Patil, 50, explained to a rapt audience at the university how they have successfully used drip irrigation to expand their farm holdings. They were selected by Mumbai-based Jain Irrigation System to present their story at the Harvard Business School.

Hemchandra Dagaji told the audience that the land earlier was cultivated by flood irrigation and irregular use of fertilisers due to which the yield levels were marginal and the profits were less and the quality of the farm product was not good. "Whole land was cultivated by micro-irrigation, fertigation which helps me to raise the yield levels as well as financial position. The quality of the farm product drastically improved which leads to better prices in the market," he said. In his presentation, Rajendra Patil, said his farm land was 1.5 acres and the whole land was rain fed and hence the yield levels were very low. Now, he owns seven acres of land and has about 60 acres of land on lease. Hemchandra Dagaji, had received the "Kantabai Jain Pandhara Kanda Navtantra Puraskar" during the year 2003 for taking highest productivity of white onion.