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Transcript

Hello friends in class we were discussing about Agri input scenario. According to an estimation the agriculture is supposed to be a venture an enterprise of worth 12lakh crores of rupees and discussing since beginning of this course around 60% of the population is deriving its livelihood from this particular profession and it is having the worth of 12 lakh crore rupees per annum. It means non on this country can take this profession or this venture very lightly because it has lots of potential with it. And basically it is a primary sector of production which provides good numbers of inputs for various enterprises. In that context the agriculture become more important venture also. But for ensuring sufficient production we need to have assured supply of inputs various agricultural inputs. The most important agricultural input that comes into the picture is the plant protection pictures. So let us begin with the scenario that we have at the national level regarding the plant protection chemicals. The Indian crop protection industry is about 27,625 crores of rupees as per estimation. The total domestic capacity what we have is 1,39,000 tonnes/annum with 219 manufacturing units and about 4000 formulation units. As we said this is one of the most important agri input industry but over a period of time so there is decline in the use of plant protection chemicals as far as various crops are considered. On one side we can take it as positive trend because we are using minimum plant protection chemicals. But from the industry side it is going to be a negative development. But in between there are good number of challenges that what we are facing. As far as the production is considered India is the fourth largest producer of plant protection chemicals after United States, Japan and China. And this is what is the importance of this particular industry.

Now if we look into the Indian crop protection industry of the total plant protection chemicals manufactured 65% constitute the insectides which is consuming the major amount. Then the second place goes to the Herbicides which are generally spread on the field pre-emergent as well as the post emergent herbicides that what we generally use and only 15% of the plant protection chemicals are fungicides and very meager amount that is 4% are Rodenticides or Nematocides. When we look into the global scenario so there is a contrasting difference that we come across. In case of Global scenario the maximum plant protection chemical that comes under the Herbicide industry. It means in Indian context 65% was the insecticide usage but at the global level the Herbicide usage is the highest. And at the global level very meager amount of insecticide is being used compared to the Indian context and as far as the fungicides is also considered in India it is around 14 or 15% but at the global level it is almost double that is 27%. The other plant protection chemicals constitute only 7%. It means there is contrasting difference between the global scenario and the Indian scenario. Then the challenges before the plant protection industry is the low awareness of the farmers who are using these plant protection chemicals. As per the reports only 25 to 30% of the farmers are aware about the agro chemicals and the usage. Many times we come across the incidents that farmer is going to the shop for purchase of different chemicals but many times he is not able to differentiate between the insecticide the fungicide the rodenticide and the herbicide. Whatever the shopkeeper gives farmer accepts it most of the time blindly maybe his lack of education is one of the important factor. The second important factor is the managing its inventory and the distribution cost. Management of the inventory from the production side as well as the farmer side also it is very very weak and the distribution costs are becoming very very high. The rising sale of the spurious pesticides, there are good number of examples that we can come across. The name of the chemical is something different or they are making use of the names of the reputed companies but the farmers are getting ultimately the spurious pesticides. So this is what is the major problem what we are observing incase of industry.

Then coming to the second input which is very very important as for the agricultural production is considered that is seed. And the quality of seed alone contributes for about 20 to 25% as far as the productivity is considered. Until and unless we have access to good quality seed our production as well as the productivity is also affected. Many times there are good numbers of examples that we come across. As far as the cereals and pulses are considered and some of the oilseeds we have satisfactory situation in many of the crops but there are certain crops where we find the shortfall as far as the availability of certified or the quality seeds in case of the gram, lentil, pea, soyabean and potato. But as far as the majority of the vegetables are considered we have good amount of the quality seeds that are available for the benefit of the farmers. So if we can understand the value of the seed industry in monetary terms it is having about Rs 13,500crores alone as far as seed industry is considered. And as you can see from this graph over a period of time there is constant increase  from 2000 to 2014 and in the years to come it is expected to increase more and the Indian seed industry is poised to grow at around compound annual growth rate of around 17% the next four years. So this is what the estimate says. It means there is a bright future for the seed industry also because it has lots of entrepreneurial opportunities. As far as the professionals are considered as well as the farmers are also considered. And there are good numbers of incidences that we come across. The entire village has become the seed village, the entire farming community in a particular village is growing not the grains but the seeds and they are earning handsome amounts of profits and farmers are also establishing their own companies looking into the worth of this particular enterprise and there are many such examples that we come across. Another important problem the seed industry in India is facing is the seed replacement rate. In many crops the seed replacement ratio is around 10% or 12%. So there are some examples what we are quoting here. In case of Arhar the pigeonpea the replacement is very very low that is about 13.5%, but in case of wheat it is 30% and in case of paddy it is about 50%. We can see that wherever the crops are having the nature of the cross pollinated crops so there the replacement ratio is comparatively higher to the self pollinated crops. And because in case of cross pollinated crops the availability of hybrids’ are very very high comparatively and in case of the self pollinated crops the improved varieties that can sustain for longer period of time but in many extreme cases that which were observed by different surveys are farmers have not replaced their seed for more than 20 years or 25 years or so. So there are some extreme example are also available. Then coming to the fertilizer industry, there is a constant increase in the demand as well as usage of the fertilizer. Different types of fertilizer that we come across may it be urea or the ammonium phosphate or the different combinations or the mixtures that are available as far as the nitrogen phosphorous and potassium are considered. Single super phosphorate as well as merit of potash. These are the different categories of fertilizers that are available in the market. Over a period of time in all these categories we can see the increase in their production as well as utilization and the advanced estimates are also revealing the same thing the demand is increasing. In some of the cases especially for DAP so we are in a position to import because we are not able to meet out the domestic demand as DAP is considered but in other cases we are almost self sufficient that we can say. It means this is another industry wherein we promising industry as far as agricultural input is considered. So coming to the agricultural implements wherein the situation is very very pathetic we can say. So since beginning of this particular course we have been discussing various issues especially under the social issues where we are coming across the issues like the fragmentation of the land and because of which there are associated problems associated with the fragmentation of the land because the smaller size holding it becomes very very difficult to use the improved agricultural implements or mechanization of the firm. So as far as the comparative analysis between the wooden plough and the iron plough as you can see from the graph still the majority of the farmers are going for the wooden ploughs compared to the iron ploughs over period of time. It means still as far as the usage of agricultural implements are considered we are not able to modernize because of smaller land holding and because of which he is having lesser income and because of which he is not able to purchase good number of implements and even if he purchases on loan or various other issues so he don’t have the enough space for its operation into his field. So that is another associated problem. So when we compared the situation between the wooden plough and the iron plough the situation itself is pathetic. So if we look into the various other implements like it is harrow or the seed drills, sprayers, Dusters, chaff cutter so on and so forth. The situation is very very grim. Very few farmers are using the agricultural implements. The reason behind that are the smaller holdings, the marginal holdings and many of the farmers are ready to quit agriculture given an opportunity.

Let us come to the challenges of farm mechanization. Because the highly diverse agriculture with different soil and climatic zones requiring customized farm machinery and equipment, this is one important issue the small land holdings as I have already discussed with you with limited resources of the farmers and credit flow for farm mechanization is less than 3 % of the total credit flow in case of agriculture sector. So these are some of the issues which force challenges to the farm mechanization. In a nutshell we can say that the agriculture input industry is most promising industry worth as I said the entire agriculture industry is having the worth of 12 lakh crores of rupees wherein the inputs plays the dominant role then the output is having the direct dependency on the inputs and under such circumstances the input scenario plays the dominant role. So with this we are coming to the end of today’s discussion.

Thank You”>