i l(|if iir H

3nf>10, ^ 5FTcr 2007

T E C H N I C A L DIGEST ISSUE 10, January 2007 For Private circulation only

ifiin'^sii^iisi fIrajMfe ^^T^KT^5fq

NATIONAL BANK FOR AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

TIpftuT ^^Tljfe eft ^ # ^TTff^ ^ ^ W I i

Two Decades of Committed Service to Rural Prosperity

Message From jWmayhig Di^'^c-'rvs' Though the growth of the Agriculture Sector is limited, there are some sub sectors which show promising trends - like dairy, poultry and horticulture. The Dairy sector has emerged as a tool in the hands of planners and bankers to usher in rural development. Dairy development have flourished in the able hands of women. So it is not surprising that SHGs have taken up much of the recent dairy activity. The concept described as happening in Andhra Pradesh, is expected to repeat itself in other areas also in the near future.

The Northeast has enormous potential in many sectors which are waiting to be tapped. The broiler integration in Assam, Food processing in Manipur are some of the sectors where large strides have been made in the region in the recent past. I feel that much more needs to be done in exploiting Bamboo and Passion f ru i t cultivation and processing. With the projected demand of Rs. 26000 crore for Bamboo products by the end of 2015, bankers should pay more attention to Bamboo cultivation and value addition specially in down stream industries.

Our nation's diversity and potential is brought out by the article on Lakshadweep where fishing is the main occupation. Canning Tuna or processing it into Masmin are all activities which need to be introduced there. I t is the need of the hour that a plan be made to introduce facilities to encourage deep sea fishing on a sustainable basis without affecting the ecosystem in the area.

There is a lesson for all of us to learn from the experiments being made to use I T in agriculture extension. The farmers' receptiveness has been high in some States like AP, but in other States also, we need to take the new technologies to them by intensive extension. Private sector initiatives in this area has to be 'show cased' for benefiting all.

The share the producer gets in the consumer's price is an important factor as it determines the efficiency of the supply chain. The factor is brought out well for the cashew sector of Goa. This should encourage other commodity markets also to organise themselves for better prices and constant quality improvements.

Water is becoming the most important subject in the world. Issue of governance in irrigation system is gaining importance as we go in for diversification of our crops and at the same time plan to meet the growing demands of our population. I am glad that this major issue is being discussed in our journal. Location specific ideas on water use is also covered by discussing the hydrams where lifting water is powered by fall of the water. They can be employed to the farmer's advantage in hilly areas with year round flow of water.

I am happy to present this issue of "Technical Digest' with such a wide range of articles. The concepts and ideas contained in them need to be propagated among bankers and farmers alike to make our mission of rural prosperity a reality.

( br.K.GXarmakar )

ara»i»i»ci/g^^^ 3 R i l O , 2007 PratqrWl?rl-i%l

From the Desk of the Editor

I am happy to present the 10th issue of "Technical Digest" which includes the articles from our colleagues on a wide range of topics based on field level experiences and studies. In the present era of commercialisation of agriculture, where corporates are making substantial investments for value addition and export of agriculture produce; it is essential to build super-specialisation on various sun rise sectors by technical specialists for taking up Project consultancy and financing. Sharing of scientific knowledge and expertise is, therefore, essential and we have initiated "E-mail Groups" in various specialised disciplines within NABARD for dissemination of latest developments. I urge all the sector specialists to join the concerned e-group and to harness the benefit.

The present issues covers a wide range of areas like Water Management and its governance, processing and supply chain management of horticulture products, people's participation in Dairy and Development of Tuna Fishing, Bamboo Cultivation, etc. besides some innovations in Agricultural Extension. ,. r

Capital formation in commercial agriculture especially for post harvest and export is essential in a fast developing economy like ours, for which substantial investment is required for the agro processing sector. Integrated projects from Farm to Fork in the supply chain would require to be funded on "Project Mode" through dedicated SPVs on a consortium approach. Therefore, sustainable project funding would require a dedicated team of multi-disciplinary techno, financial specialists. Many new generation private sector banks have already emerged as main credit agencies in commercial agriculture including the Agriculture Export Zones (AEZ). We would have to sharpen our skills and design suitable products to take up the emerging challenge with innovative approach of 'Project Financing' to remain relevant as the apex agriculture development bank in the country.

In the coming issues, it is proposed to focus attention on innovative projects including the use of non-conventional energy like mini and micro hydel projects, wind farms, etc. We invite contributions from all our colleagues especially those from the Regional Offices, who are involved in implementation of various programmes in the State.

- ^ W . ys^-TTi^p^

John Kurien Chief General Manager Technical Services Department

ISSUE 10, 2007 For Private circulation only TECHNICAL/DIGEST

Chief Editorial Advisors: Dr. Y.S.R Thorat Chairman, NABARD

Dr. K.G. Karmakar Managing Director, NABARD

Dr. R. Balakrishnan Executive Director, NABARD

Chief Editor: John Kurien

Chief General Manager,

NABARD

Editors: SKPatra,GM Agricultural Engineering

Dr. B Sethuraman, GM Animal Husbandry

Dr. S.S. Roy, GM Plantation and Horticulture

G.S. Mehta

Fisheries

B K Samal, DGM Land Development 8 Agronomy

Rekha Sanjay, Mgr Commercial Forestry

C R Abuvarajan, Asst Manager

Biotechnology

Supporting Staff : VB.More H. T Balsaraf

IN THIS ISSUE

ARTICLES

1. Theory and Application of Hydraulic Ram Pumps

(Hydrams)

S.Hazarika

2. Ground Water Governance issues in Irrigation

Development - A Perspective

John Kurien b Ashutosh Kumar Sinha

3. Integration of SHGs with Dairy Cooperatives -

A Model Concept

Dr.K.Swaroopa Rani & Dr.K.R.Rao

4. MANIPUR - the hidden 'Jewel of India' in food processing

A. Ramanathan, Dr. D. V. Deshpande 8

Dr.Y. Mara Gopal

5. Fisheries of Lakshadweep with special reference to

Livelihood issues

Shaji Zacharia

6. Supply Chain Analysis of Raw Cashew IMuts in Goa

Dr T.Vilasachandran

7. Agriculture extension - An innovative thinking

M KDe & Dr Bhavani Shankar

8. Bamboo Cultivation - Potential and Prospects

Sangeeta Prasad Mehra & L. K. Mehra

BUSINESS MEET

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

FIELD STUDY

NEW INITIATIVES

Page No.

10

12

16

20

23

26

Published by: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, Technical Services Department,

C-24, G Block, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Bandra (East), Mumbai - 400 051, Tele : (022) 26530038; Fax : (022) 26530091

E-mail: nabtsd&bomS.vsni.net.in Website : http:/lwvm/.nabard.org.

Note : The weivs expressed in various articles are those of the authors and not necessarily of NABARD.

^ftiraiH/Si^^ 3T^ 10, 2007 ft#4R^M-i%^

Theory and Application of Hydraulic Ram Pumps (Hydrams) S.Hazarika^

INTRODUCTION ": '^ "M^'":':':^-: '^^/'^i-"

Hydraulic ram pumps commonly known, as hydrams

are water-lifting devices that are powered by falling

water. Such pumps work by using the potential energy

of water falling through a small height to lift a small

part of that amount of water to a much greater height.

In this way, water f rom a spring or stream in a valley

can be pumped to a village or irrigation scheme on

the hillside. The main advantage of hydraulic ram

p u m p s is tha t it ope ra tes a u t o m a t i c a l l y and

continuously with no other external energy source. It

uses a renewable energy source (stream of water) and

hence ensures low running cost. Hydraulic ram pumps

are simple, reliable and require minimal maintenance.

All these advantages make hydraul ic ram pumps

sui table for rural c o m m u n i t y water supp ly and

irrigation where there are no other sources of power

and topography and hydrology is suitable.

Ram Pumps have been used for over two centuries in

many parts of the wor ld . Their simplicity and reliability

had made them commercial ly successful, particularly

in Europe. As technology advanced and become

increasingly reliant on sources of power derived f rom

fossil fuels, the ram pump was neglected. In recent

years however, an increased interest in renewable

energy devices and an awareness of the technological

needs of a particular market in developing countries

have prompted a reappraisal of ram pumps. In hilly

areas with springs and streams, the potential for a

simple and reliable pumping device is large.

Fig 1 shows a typical layout of a hydram installation

Storage

Design

D = Amount to be delivered in liters per 24 hours.

d = Amoun t to be delivered in l i ters/minute = D/

(60X24) = 0/1440

S = Quantity of water supplied f rom the source in

l i ters/minute.

F = The fall or height of the source above the ram in

meters.

E = The efficiency of the ram (for commercial models

use 0.66, for home built use 0.33 unless otherwise

indicated).

L = The lift height of the point of use above the ram

in meters.

Equating the potential energy on the fall side and the

rise side we have

d X L = S X F X E

O r d = ( S x F x E ) / L

O r D = 1 4 4 0 X ( S x F x E ) / L • : ' ,

Table 1 gives the amount of water delivered in 24 hours

for a supply of 1 liter per minute for various working

fall and lift. An efficiency of 50% has been assumed

for the purpose. For supplies greater than 1 liter/

m inu te , s imp ly mu l t ip l y by the number of l i ters

supplied.

Chief General Manager (Retd), HO

ISSUE 10, 2007 For Private circulation only

TECHNICAL/liJGEST

Table 1 :

Working Fall (F) 4 Meters

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0

8.0

9.0

10.0

12.0

14.0

16.0

18.0

20.0

Hydram

^HHHHH|

5.0

144

216

288

Performance -

7.5

96

144

192

240

288

336

10.0

72

108

144

180

216

252

288

360

432

Water Delivered

1 Vertical H

15.0

48

72

96

120

144

168

192

240

288

336

384

432

eight thro

20.0

36

54

72

90

108

126

144

180

216

252

288

324

360

432

504

in 24 Hours (liters) for

ugh wh Met

30.0

24

36

48

60

72

84

96

120

144

168

192

216

240

288

336

384

432

480

ich wate ers

40.0

18

27

36

45

54

63

72

90

108

126

144

162

180

216

252

288

324

360

r is to be lifi

50.0

22

29

36

43

50

58

72

86

101

115

130

144

173

202

230

259

288

a Supply of 1 Lits/Min

ted (L)

60.0

18

24

30

36

42

48

60

72

84

96

108

120

144

168

192

216

240

80.0

18

23

27

32

36

45

54

63

72

81

90

108

126

144

162

180

Efficiency 5 0 %

100.0

18

22

25

29

36

43

50

58

65

72

86

101

115

130

144

125.0

17

20

23

29

35

40

46

52

58

69

81

92

104

115

Design of Components of Hydraulic Ram

A hydraulic ram installation consists of a supply, a drive

pipe, the ram, a supply line and usually a storage tank.

These are shown in Figure 1. Each of these

component parts is discussed below:

Supply. The intake must be designed to keep trash

and sand out of the supply since these can plug up

the ram. If the water is not naturally free of these

materials, the intake should be screened or a settling

Table 2 : Range of Drive Pipe Lengths for Various Pipe Diameters

I Drive Pipe Size (mm)

13

20

25

30

40

50

80

100

Length (meters)

Minimum Maximum

2

3

4

4.5

6

7.5

12

15

13

20

25

30

40

50

80

100

basin provided. When the source is remote from the

ram site, a supply line can be provided to conduct the

water to the drive pipe. The supply line, if needed,

should be at least one pipe diameter larger than the

drive pipe.

Drive pipe. The drive pipe must be made of a non-

flexible material for maximum efficiency. This is

usually galvanized iron pipe, although other materials

cased in concrete will work. In order to reduce head

loss due to friction, the length of the pipe divided by

the diameter of the pipe should be within the range of

150-1,000. Table 2 shows the minimum and

maximum pipe lengths for various pipe sizes.

I Table 3 : Sizing the Delivery Pipe

Delivery Pipe Size (mm)

30

40

50

80

100

Flow liters/min

6-36

37-60

61-90

91-234

235-360

Bterascr/sR^'^ 3te 10,2007 Prat MR^HH I ^

The drive pipe diameter is usually chosen based on

the size of the ram and the m a n u f a c t u r e r ' s

recommendations.

Del ivery Pipe. The de l ivery p ipe can be of any

material that can withstand the water pressure. The

size of the line can be estimated using Table 3.

Storage Tanl<. This is located at a level to provide

water to the point of use. The size is based on the

maximum demand per day.

Installation

In installing the ram, it is important that it be level,

securely attached to an immovable base, preferably

concrete, and that the waste water be drained away.

The pump cannot operate when submerged. Since

the ram usually operates on a 24-hour basis the size

can be determined for delivery over a 24-hour period.

APPLICATIONS AND LIMITATIONS OF HYDRAULIC

RAM PUMPS

The advantages of a ram pump are :

• Use of a renewable energy source ensuring low

running cost

• Pumping only a small proport ion of the available

f low has little environmental impact

• Simplicity and reliability give a low maintenance

requirement

• There is good potential for any particular site; there

is usually a number of potential water lifting options.

Choosing between them involves consideration of

many different factors. Ram pumps in certain

conditions have many advantages over other forms

of water lifting, but in others, it can be completely

inappropriate. The main advantages of ram pumps

are: for local manufacture in the rural villages

• Automat ic , cont inuous operat ion requires no

supervision or human input.

The main limitations are;

• They are limited to hilly areas with a year-round

water sources

• They pump only a small fraction of the available

f low and therefore require source flows larger than

actual water delivered

• Can have a high capital cost in relation to other

technologies

• Are limited to small-scale applications, usually up

to I kW

Specific situations in which other technologies may

prove more appropriate are:

• In terrain where streams are falling very rapidly, it

may be possible to extract water at a point above

the village or irrigation site and feed it under gravity.

• If the water requirement is large and there is a large

source of falling water (head and f low rate) nearby,

turbine-pump sets can provide the best solution.

Many ram pumps could be used in parallel to give

the required ou tpu t but at powers over 2kW,

turbine-pump systems are normally cheaper.

• In small-scale domestic water supply, the choice

can often be between using a ram pump on a

stream or using cleaner groundwater. Surface

water will often need to be filtered or treated for

human consumpt ion , increasing the cost of a

system and requiring regular filter maintenance.

Under these condit ions, to select a hydram pump,

economical considerat ions compared to other

technologies has to be looked at.

REFERENCES £ >:

1. Jeffery, T. D., "Hydraulic Ram Pumps - A Guide to

Ram Pumps Water Supply System", Intermediate

Technology Publications, ^Q22.

2. Dr. Tessema, Abiy Awoke " Hydraulic Ram Pump

System Design And Appl icat ion"

ESME 5th Annual Conference on Manufacturing

and Process Industry, September 2000

ISSUE 10, 2007 For Private circulation only

TECHNICAL DIGEST

GROUND WATER GOVERNANCE ISSUES IN IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT - A PERSPECTIVE

John Kurien^ and Ashutosh Kumar Sinha^

1. Introduction

Irrigated agriculture is fundamental to Indian economy, particularly, f rom poverty alleviation point of view. Agriculture alone accounts for nearly 30 percent of GDP and 70 percent of employment in the Country. Irrigation is a primary input to agricultural production. With the rapid expansion of irr igation in terms of commissioning of major, medium and minor irrigation projects through various Five Year Plans, the potential created has grown manifold since 1951. This has resulted in India moving f rom the spectre of periodic famine and import of food grains to the actuality of achieving self sufficiency in food and drought proofing, besides exporting select food and horticulture crops. With ever increasing population, however, India would be required to feed about 1.40 billion people by 2025. The current food product ion of nearly 210 mil l ion metric tons wil l therefore have to be raised to 350 mill ion metric tons by then. At the same t ime, there w i l l be an increas ing p ressure to d ive rs i f y the agricultural output by raising high value crops, such as, cash crops, horticultural crops etc., so as to give fu r ther boost to the rural e c o n o m y in te rms of generation of higher rural income and employment. Hence , j u d i c i o u s use of wa te r under i r r i ga ted a g r i c u l t u r e w i t h s t r o n g e m p h a s i s on wa te r management in terms of water conservat ion and augmentation of both the surface and the groundwater resources of the country is most important.

1.1 Water Resources of India

The utilisable water resources of India are estimated at 1090 billion cubic meter (BCM) which includes 690

Dugwell

Ground water

Shallow Tubewell

Deep Tubewell

BCM of surface water and 400 BCM of groundwater. It is however possible to augment additional surface water resources up to 240 BCM through inter basin transfer. Out of the available utilisable resources, only 605 BCM are presently util ized, of which Irrigation accounts for nearly 500 BCM, Domestic use for 30 BCM, Industry for 20 BCM, Energy for 20 BCM and other uses account for balance 35 BCM. Thus, irrigation alone constitutes about 80 percent of the total utilised water resources of the Count ry . However , th is comfortable posit ion would not continue in future because of competing demands f rom other sectors, par t icu lar ly d r ink ing water requ i rements , s ince priori t ized under National Water Policy.Therefore, future planning for expansion of agriculture / irrigation wou ld not have the luxury of unrestr icted water availability and one has to proceed differently on a natural resource management concept, if only to set the path for a second green revo lu t ion of f ood sufficiency and high marketable surpluses.Although surface and ground water are inter-related resources, this paper wi l l focus mainly on the theme of this Symposium i.e. the ground water governance issues. Let us begin by looking at the status of physical progress in this regard.

2. Progress of Ground Water Development

Our country started with big publicly owned surface irrigation systems. However, over the past two-three decades, the major expansion in irrigation capacity has taken place in the private ground water irrigation and ground water has been the life line for agriculture specially during this period.

(in thousand nos.)

Surface water*

Sub Lift Flow Sub total total

North

North East

East

Central

West

South

Total

1,197.6

10.3

876.5

1,606.9

2,599.8

3,335.7

9,626.8

1,570.8

80

1,300

3,943.2

112.6

1,349

8,355.6

92.1

0.9

15.9

77.6

171.4

172

529.9

2,860.5

91.2

2,192.4

5,627.7

2,883.8

4,856.7

18,512.3

5.6

3.2

157

228.8

104.1

108.1

606.8

25.7

47.4

148.6

140

90.3

189.9

641.9

31.3

50.6

305.6

368.8

194.4

298

1,248.7

irrigation tanks included here

* Chief General Manager' , Assistant Manager^, TSD, HO

^nii|iiicT/si^'^«= 31^10,2007 P T # 4R--)leH f^

2.1 Number of structures

As per the latest 3rd Minor Irrigation census(as of 2000-01 )of the Go!, the number of minor irrigation structures existing in the country are as below.

It may be recalled here that ground water irrigation structures almost entirely fall in the minor irrigation category. Thus we see that there are as many around 18.5 million ground water structures as of now-a big governance challenge. . , .

2.2 Area irrigated

The irrigated area has increased handsomely over the years , con t r i bu ted in no smal l measure by the expansion of ground water irr igat ion. The current estimated position is as below.

(in mha)

HIIP** I K B • Ultimate Potential available

Potential created

Potential utilised

Major/ Medium

Sub-sector

58.5

32.69

28.20

Minor irrigation Sub-sector

Surface Water

17.4

12.24

10.82

Ground Water

64.05

45.88

42.05

Sub Total

81.45

58.12

52.87

Grand'

Total

139.95

90.81

81.07

The gap between ultimate potential, potential created and utilised points to the need for better governance wh i ch can s t imula te e f f ic ient u t i l i sa t ion , to the maximum extent, of the potential available.

2.3 Credit flow

The f low of credit to minor irrigation sector of which more than 90 per cent is accounted f rom ground water over the years, is as below.

(in Rs. crores)

Year

IX Plan

1997-98

1998-99

1999-00

2000-01

2001-02

XPIan

2002-03

2003-04

2004-05

Ground Level Credit

1,584

1,856

2,132

1,820

1,845

1,975

2,730

4,214

It may be noted that this credit as well as that over earlier year5, has mainly f lown to the private ground water sector through structures owned by farmers. However, as a percentage of the total number of private

ground water structures created, it is estimated not to cover more than 30% of them, i.e. a major portion of ground water irrigation has been self-financed by the farmers, and it is this category which has been almost entirely ungoverned.

2.4 GW available for future irrigation development

Recently, the assessment of the dynamic ground water resourcesof the country was completed (March 2004) whose summary is given below.

Region Net Annua! ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ available for future

irrigation development (in million ha.m/year)

North -1.27

North East 4.12

East 3.64

Central 4.84

West 1.84

South 3.03

Total 16.2

This shows that as of March 2004, there are 16.2 million hectare meter of dynamic ground water resources ava i lab le in the c o u n t r y fo r f u tu re i r r i ga t i on deve lopment wh i ch , however, are very unevenly distributed in the different regions. The Western and Northern regions have low ground water availability and the assessment units are mostly categorised as critical and over-exploited, which denotes areas to be regulated for future use.

2.5 Status of ground water use ,'

The trend of block categorisation over the last 15 years is indicated in the Table below, which shows the fast depletion of resources.

Table : Status of Ground Water use in the country, over the years 1992-2005 - increase in the numbers of 'unsafe'fsemi-critical, critical and over-exploited) blocks

Block Categorisation within the 'unsafe' category

Over-exploited

Critical/Dark

Sub total

Semi-critical/grey

Total

Position as in

January 1992

309

309

16

325

April 1998

-416

416

448

864

August 2005

839

226

1,065

550

1,615

Thus, we see the situation is fast deteriorating, and urgent steps are required. Sound governance is the single most important necessity in this direction.

teSUE 10, 2007 For Private circulation only rEGHNIGAl DIGEST

3. Governance

The term governance deals wi th the processes and systems by which an organisation or society operates. The World Bank defines governance as "the exercise of pol i t ical author i ty and the use of inst i tut ional resources to manage society's problems and affairs". An alternative definition suggests that governance is "the use of institutions, structures of authority and even collaboration to allocate resources and coordinate or control activity in society or the economy". Thus, governance can be taken to be broadly synonymous with authority, decision making, power, administration, or politics.However, more specifically, we shall take governance to mean two broad things - Rules and Institutions/Agencies.

3.1 Rules

Rules are the agreed sets of behaviour to be complied by the whole society. There can be formal rules in the shape of Constitution, various legislations, bye-laws, customary laws, case laws, etc., and there can be informal rules in the form of social consensus/wisdom, which although not codi f ied, have some force for compl iance by ind iv idua ls , and tend to become codified over the years.The rules existing in the water sector are - Constitutional entries in the Union/State lists. Inter State Water Dispute Act, some State Water Acts, WUA Acts, Easement Act, etc.

3.2 Institutions/Agencies

Then there are the institutions - to operate those rules

(the executive), and to change those rules as and when

required in a dynamic wor ld (the legislature), and to

ad jud ica te (the j ud i c i a ry ) . Thus w e have the

Government, the Parliament and the Courts, at the

Central, State and Panchayat levels, besides which

there are institutions operating exclusively in the water

sector e.g. the Water Disputes Tribunals, WUAs, Water

Resource Regulators in some States. The objective of

this entire process of governance - the rules and the

institutions - is to bring about efficiency, equity and

sustainability of resources.

3.3 Efficiency

Efficiency or productivity is the quantum of output per unit of resource. In the irrigation sector, it would mean more crop per drop and no wastage/over use.

3.4 Equity

Equity in allocation of natural resources means that the benefits of using them are distributed fairly. In an operational and restricted (human rights) sense, it

would mean that everybody has access to water at

least as per their min imum needs.

3.5 Sustainability

This is about meet ing the needs of the present

generation without harming the prospects of the future

generat ion. This may require curtai lment of the

present levels of consumption of the resources. An

example of this is the current restrictions on the ground

water use to the annual ly rechargeable dynamic

resources.

4. Ground Water Governance

Institutions

Rules and

In the backdrop of the above, let us see what is the

position in the ground water sector and what more

needs to be done.

4.1 Technical Issues for Governance

The major development of irrigation capacity in the

private sector over the years, as indicated earlier, has

been ground water based and a portion of the same

has taken place th rough bank f inance which was

supported by NABARD refinance. NABARD used its

position to promote efficiency, equity, sustainability

and also to direct irrigation development in areas with

abundan t g r o u n d wa te r resources , t h r o u g h its

mandatory norhns of refinance that the banks have to

fol low for availing it. Some of these norms are given

ahead.

4.1.1 Norms for NABARD refinance

(A) Ground Water Availability

The first requirement for judicious use of any :; • resource is its accurate assessment to define

availability on a sustainable basis. Unless we know the quantum of resource available, we will not be able to plan development strategy. In th is d i r e c t i o n , NABARD ( i nc lud ing previously, ARDC) alongwith CGWB and State Ground Water Departments have played a cr i t ical role in in i t iat ing the ground water assessment, since 1972 (JK Jain Committee), 1979 (Over-Exploi tat ion Commit tee) , 1984 (Groundwater Estimation Committee/GEC-I), 1997 (GEC-II) & 2004(Hard Rock Committee). These methodologies were used to quantify the dynamic resources. Currently, an R&D Advisory Committee of CGWB is working on the quanti f icat ion of phreatic and confined aqui fers.We may have to fur ther th ink of

M establishing Aquifer Boards(an institution) on

Bftirairf/S15^^ ^^iS>''

3T^ 10, 2007 f^ MR'=)lcdH %rf

the lines of the River Boards for better aquifer-w ise assessment , p lann ing of u t i l i sa t ion s t ra tegy and m o n i t o r i n g the s tage of development for various aquifers.

(B) Block categorisation

As part of assessment, blocks were categorised using stage of ground water development and long term trend of ground water table, and this was i n t i m a t e d to the banks and State Governmen ts for d i rec t ing the i r f inance. NABARD ref inance for new g round water structures is available only for safe and semi-critical blocks. All the Centrally Sponsored and State -Sector subsidy linked credit assistance for ground water development are governed by NABARD on the c a t e g o r i s a t i o n of assessment units.

(C) Spacing norms

To ensure that the extraction f rom one well does not affect the adjacent one, min imum distance between two ground water extraction structures has been prescribed as spacing criteria, depending on the hydrogeoiogical character is t ics of the area. This is made m a n d a t o r y fo r v a r i o u s g r o u n d wa te r abs t rac t ion s t ruc tu res based on deta i led aquifer parameter tests and monitored on a continuous basis.

(D) Quality of pumpsets/Energy Efficiency

Based on 'Pilot project studies for qual i ty control of agricultural pumpsets' taken up in 18 States, two publications have been brought out, spelling out a matrix for selection of lifting dev ices fo r g r o u n d wa te r a b s t r a c t i o n , depending on crop water requirement and total head for irrigating the designed command area f r o m va r i ous g r o u n d wa te r abs t rac t i on structures (DW, STW, TW, BW, etc.). Further, the matrix details have been taken up with Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and IS 10804 -1994 for 'complete pumping system (CPS) for qua l i t y c o n t r o l of a g r i . p u m p s e t s ' was formulated for selection, installation, operation and quality control of agricultural pumpsets fo r o p t i m u m e f f i c iency . CPS was made m a n d a t o r y fo r NABARD re f inance for pumpsets f inancing by banks. Necessary certification f rom authorised manufacturers/ dealers have been made mandatory including certification f rom the financing banks.However, the ground reality is that the guidelines are

(E)

(F)

often ignored. Inefficient lifting devices like air compessors, piston pumps, which even resort to surging of water, are also being used widely. This leads to over-exploitation of the aquifer and also disturbs their hydraulic efficiency. The main reason for the above is that energy is almost free for agricultural operations. Hence, there is no incentive for farmers to bother about energy efficiency. A scheme formulated by NABARD fo r rec t i f i ca t ion of ag r i cu l tu ra l p u m p s e t s has also not been successfu l because of t h i s . Th is is a very ser ious governance issue.The way out is subsidising energy-eff iciency (by giving grant for more efficient pumps and systems improvement) and, removing subsidies on energy (i.e., power charges to be increased). In such a case, the farmer's payout for electricity may still remain the same, on account of decreased energy c o n s u m p t i o n . Thus , power re fo rms can fac i l i t a te wa te r r e f o r m s . A n o t h e r issue pertaining to the quality of lifting devices is the use of imported low-cost pumps with very high spec i f i c speed and h igh spec i f ic fue l consumption. NABARD is taking up the issue w i t h BIS fo r the i r s t anda rd i sa t i on and certification. Such large-scale use of pumps of this type mainly imported from China, has been mainly reported in Eastern and North Eastern States.

Crop Water Based Design

Crop water requ i rement based design of structures and lifting devices are promoted by NABARD for various hydrogeoiogical units for the peak requirement period (rabi crop) to ensure susta inabi l i ty and f inancing banks advised of various crop commands feasible.

Information Dissemination

As indicated earlier, optimisation matrix was p r e s c r i b e d fo r se lec t i on of ag r i cu l tu ra l pumpsets based on design discharge, total head and pipe diameter(mandated velocity of f low to bring friction losses within 10% of the overall length of piping system). State Level Technical Committees have been constituted under Agricultural Production Commissioners in the states to short list type, brand and average costs of ef f ic ient l i f t ing devices, essential accessories and protective devices covered under IS-10804-94.The above rules/ prescriptions were created in the past to direct the f low of credit appropriately. However,

SSUE 10, 2007 For Private circulation only,, TECHNICAL DIGEST

nowadays banks are financing the structures out of their own resources, or the farmer has been self f i n a n c i n g s ince l ong , o f ten

: d is regard ing these n o r m s , resu l t ing in a

substantially ungoverned and subsequently overexploited ground water sector.

The above situation surely calls for making : these norms a part of the State Legislations

., for better compliance.

4.2 Other Technicallssues

There are certain wise s t ra teg ies/ technica l best

practices being promoted in a big way these days.

These have not yet become laws, and are similar to

the Directive Principles of State Policy of the Indian

Const i tut ion in the sense that they are desirable

prescriptions but, cannot be enforced through a Court

of Law, although there have been cases of healthy

judicial activism of late which have been supportive

of such causes. It is suggested that some of these may

have to be brought to the realm of governance, i.e.,

rules/laws/legislations may have to be formulated, to

give them greater force for compliance.

(A) Micro Irrigation

Drip and sprinkler irrigation systems besides

effecting water conservation and management,

also enhance the c rop p r o d u c t i v i t y and

therefore, may be made mandatory in ground

water scarce (over-explioted/critical) blocks, or

for water intensive crops like sugarcane in all

areas. Quality control as per criteria laid by

Bureau of Indian Standards(BIS) have been

made mandatory for credit assistance.Further,

a variety of low cost innovative micro irrigation

systems are being widely used by the farmers,

for which the issues of quality standards and

cer t i f i ca t ion sys tems need to be se t t led .

NABARD is taking up the issue with BIS, as this

w i l l p r o m o t e wa te r c o n s e r v a t i o n and

management and make it affordable to even

small and marginal farmers.

(8) Rain Water Harvesting/Artificial Recharge

In v iew of the dep le t ion of g round water

resources and cont inuous decline of water

levels, water harvesting techniques feasible for

various physiographic and hydrogeological

regimes has to be an integral part of the

management practices in critical and over-

exploited areas.

(C) Cropping pattern

A cropping pattern appropriate for the available water resources in the area may be suggested and public awareness created for its adoption by the extension wing of the State Agricultural Departments, Krishi Vigyan Kendras and ICAR Ins t i tu tes as an ind i rec t gove rnance fo r conservation and management.

IP) Integrated Water Resource IVIanagement (IWRIVI)

IWRM planning including conjuctive use may be incorporated in the development plan of all completed surface irrigation projects under participatory irrigation management(PIM) as a governance strategy for equitable distribution and ward ing off against water- logging and salinisation in command areas.

(E) Coastal aquifers

As per the existing regulations, only single phase pumping structures are permitted within a narrow belt f rom the coastlines for domestic use, and pumped irrigation f rom ground water is restricted for a distance of 2 km. and 10 km. respectively f rom the coastline in West and East Coast. However, sea water intake structures have been created of late in the coastal areas upto a distance of 5 kms. f rom coastline which leads to land-ward salt water ingress ion. Regulation needs to be strengthened to take care of the situation.

4.3 Economic Aspects of Governance

4.3.1 Property Rights

Scarce resources become economic resources and ground water in India has been increasingly becoming scarce. Proper ty r igh ts are in tegra l to how the economic resources are governed. Market systems based on property rights combined with competitive voluntary exchange are widely believed to bring about eff iciency of the resource use. These rights are classified into four broad management systems called property regimes, that allow us to expect certain kind of behaviour f rom other members of the society about their rights and duties pertaining to the resource and smoothen their use and exchange. These four regimes are private property, state property, common property and open access (or, nobody's) property.Ground water is generally regarded to be in the open access regime, i.e., anybody can extract as much water as he wants from the ground below, i.e., unlimited rights and no rules. This situation is believed to be one of the major reasons for over-exploi tat ion of resource, i.e., the

i^RHtlirf/^*

tragedy of t i ie commons starts operating. This has to be set right, i.e., the property regime has to be changed f r o m open access to commun i t y / s ta te , if not to complete private property regime. This wou ld require a legislation by the state.

A suggestion to be debated in this regard is for creating a system of ent i t lements. Firstly, there can be a Min imum Entitlement of a certain quantum of water for all citizens, mainly for domestic use (based on the human r ights concept ) .Th is w o u l d be avai lable irrespective of land ownership, and it would be the duty of the State to make it available to all citizens at nominal cost/free. Beyond this Min imum Entitlement, some Additional Entitlement (in the sense of private water rights) may be given to the existing/traditional users of water as per their current usage and frozen at that level. Both these entitlements should be tradeable in the market. Beyond the entit lements, all the water would be owned by the state and auctioned in large numbers of smaller aquifer blocks/modules to private highest bidders for a specified leased period as done in the case of awarding of oil-field contracts. It is hoped that the market trading of entit lements and private sector compet i t ion wou ld br ing in efficiency. The equity would be taken care of by the entitlements and sustainability, by state/community ownership and a regulator (an institution).

4.3.2 Water pricing

Pricing depends on the kind of property regime in force. It is suggested that after putt ing in place the property regime as suggested above, all water may be allowed to be priced by their owners as per the play of free market forces of demand and supply. Currently, some small ground water markets do exist in Western (Gujarat, Maharashtra) and Eastern (Bihar/ West Bengal) regions.

The above system of governance looks a bit elaborate and cumbersome, involving elements of human rights, as well as private and state property regimes. But this is understandable in view of the fact that water is a basic human need, besides being a scarce economic g o o d . The new s y s t e m may have subs tan t i a l transaction costs and putting in place an institutional framework for the same also may be difficult. But, w e have to also realise that merely the existence of a set of laws, even with tardy implementat ion, acts as a deterrent for abuse and as a promoter of wise acts; it is better than no laws as is the case now.

A pilot project experiment may be taken up establishing the property regime as indicated above and future policy may be decided on the basis of the learnings.

4.3.3 Financial Incentives

Another economic approach-an alternative to the property rights approach indicated earlier, specially in the area of pollution abatement, is the system of taxes/ subsidies and marketable permits (analogous to the Clean Deve lopment Mechanisms).Some of these systems are already in place e.g. subsidy for clean and conserv ing technolog ies (e.g. micro irr igat ion).A suggestion in this direction is to put in place higher taxes for higher HP submersible pumpsets which are responsible for ground water depletion in a big way.

Overa l l , an a p p r o p r i a t e c o m b i n a t i o n of all the approaches out l ined above- regulatory, as wel l as market-oriented(property rights, and incentives),may work best and would be more practical to implement.

4.4 Other Economic Issues

Besides the foregoing, the fol lowing miscellaneous issues also require attention for governance.

(A) Insurance for Well failures

Lot of well failures take place in hard rock areas putting the farmers to debt trap in the absence of insurance facilities. Financial incentives, in the shape of h igher insurance p r e m i u m , budgetary support may have to be put in place to attract the insurance companies and banks to offer services in this area. The failed well compensat ion scheme wi th 50:50 percent Central and State Government contribution for failed wells, has been dispensed with for more than a decade.

(B) Reuse of treated water

Large scale reuse of treated water from urban and semi-urban sewage and industrial effluents

• may be p r o m o t e d fo r i r r i ga t i on as per

' app rop r ia te qua l i t y s tandards , a longw i th

financial incentives, and pricing for suitable c rops as p rac t i ced w i d e l y in d e v e l o p e d countries to govern scarcity areas.

5. Sum Up

This paper has sugges ted cer ta in exper imenta l changes in the rules (technical and economic) and institutions governing the ground water use in the country. Comprehensive institutional mechanism and regulations a longwi th market-oriented approaches would have to be put in place by the Central and State Governments for governance of ground water use in the country to ensure equitable and sustainable water avai labi l i ty for fu tu re domest ic , agr icul tura l and industrial uses.

ISSUE 10, 2007 For Private circulation only

TECHNICAL DICESf

INTEGRATION OF SHGs WITH DAIRY COOPERATIVES A MODEL CONCEPT

Dr.K.Swaroopa Rani^ and Dr.K.R.Rao^

Status of Dairy in Andhra Pradesli :

A n d h r a Pradesh occup ies 4 th Pos i t ion in Mi lk Production in India in 2001-2002, with the annual Milk production level of 69.6 lakh MT. Growth rate of Milk p roduct ion is 6.4 % per annum against national average of 4.5 %. Total number of Dairy Farmers in the state are about forty lakh and number of farmers affiliated to Dairy Cooperatives are only 10 lakh. The total number of poor engaged in dairy Activities are around30 iakh. Of the total milk produced in the state, 8 3 % is p rocured by unorgan ized sector ( larger Proportion by Dudhwalas) and rest 17% procured by o ragan i sed sector . A m o n g o rgan i zed sector . Cooperatives procure around 8 % and Private dairies procure around 9% of the milk produced.

Andhra Pradesh Dairy Deve lopment Cooperat ive Federation(APDDCF), an enterprise of farmers for dairy deve lopment , was establ ished in 1981 on AMUL pattern, wi th the objective of procuring milk f rom producers at remunerative price, providing technical input to increase milk production, creating infrastructure for processing milk, manufacturing of dairy products, market wholesome and quality milk and milk products to consumers at affordable price. Though it has a vast net work of infrastructure and processing/handling capacity, the federation is facing fol lowing challenges :

> Low par t ic ipat ion of mi lk p roducers in milk cooperative movement i.e only 30 % of villages covered under milk cooperative network

> Low volume of milk procurement coupled with high overhead cost

> The unions and federation together has a handling capacity of 32.30 LLPD. However, the capacity u t i i sa t i on of Mi lk ch i l l i ng & p rocess ing Infrastructure is only 25%

> 1 Million Farmer Members organized in societies/ associations (25% of dairy farmers covered under cooperative net work)

> Unable to pay better price for the milk and also unable to prov ide qual i ty inputs & technical services to the members.

Therefore, the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP - a project under taken by Govt, of AP) joined hands wi th APDDCF to el iminate rural poverty by utilizing its strong Community based organisations

network and milk handling infrastructure & marketing network of APDDCF SERP is implementing the project initially in Medak, Nizambad, Warangal, Mahabubnagar and Khammam districts and based on success it will be replicated in other areas.

i

+

Zllla Samakhya

(ZS)

Mandal Samakhya

(MS)

Z

District

MS 894

'^y.

Block

Village Organization

(VO)

2.0 SERP Structure

VO 27,350

Self-Help Groups 5,84,000

Village

The organisational structure of SERP is given below :

In the SERP structure, all SHGs federate at village level into Village Organisaton (VO) and it is registered as Cooperative under MACS, 1996. All VOs federate at mandal level into Mandal Samakhya (M.S.) and registered as a Society. The M.S.s and VOs implement key project components. The SERP programme is targeting to cover 30 lakh Poor Milk Producers by 2009 so as to provide atleast 30 % of total Household income from dairy enterprises. They are likely to invest about Rs 300 crore on dairy activities every year in next three years totaling to Rs. 900 crore. The main aim of SERP is to provide guaranteed milk market through out the year so as to ensure maximum returns to the producers.

3.0 Partnership arrangement :

At village level the VO is the milk collection agency and utilizes the exist ing infrastructure of DCS. At

The article is based on the discussions with Dr. N.K.Mandal, Consultant for Dairy, SERP and Mandal Samakhya of Addakula, Mahboobnagar district.

Manager', Chief General Managar^ NABARD, HO •

10

Btompf/sS^^ 3 1 ^ 10, 2007 Pfsfr t

(VO/MS/DS)

Village Organisation (VO)

Mandal Samakhya (MS)

Type and members

VMPO (Village Milk Producer Organization) Members are both VO & Non VO

Cluster Level Milk Producer Organization (15-20 VPMO)

Zilla Samakhya (ZS) Apex body at District level and it is functioning through an Executive

Committee (30-40 Cluster level Milk Producer Organization)

Own & Operate Milk Collection Centre

Sale of cattle feed& fodder seed to the farmers

Own & Operate Bulk Milk Chilling Unit (BMCU)

Own & Operate Integrated Live Stock Development Centre (ILSDC)

Linkages with Livestock Support Organization for feed& fodder, cattle breeding, and health & hygiene

Community based Livestock

Insurance

Price Negotiation for chilled Milk.

Forward linkages with processors / manufacturers

'Support services

Vet Services -I- Health Education

Feed& fodder, cattle breeding, and health & hygiene

Provider of Support services

MSs through BAIF or Godrej agrovet

BAIF (animal breed ing)

Godrej Agro Vet (feed)

Marketing support

Policy Support

NDDB

APDDCF

SERP

Private Sector

BAIF, in agreement with MS, will establish an Integrated Livestock Development Centre (ILSDC) at mandal level which

covers 15-20 villages and 1000 families and run for 5 years. After the expiry of the period BAIF will handover the center to

Mandal Samakhys along with the assets.

mandal level the MSs are entrusted wi th the milk procurement f rom VOs and chi l l ing which wi l l be transported to Milk Unions processing plant. .At all levels agreement will be signed between APDDCF and MSs or DSs regarding the modalities. The arrangemet or model fo l lowed at various levels is as under :

Mandal Samakya purchases cattle feed f rom Godrej Ag rove t in bulk and also procures fodder seed/ sapplings f rom A.H department and then supply to Vos for onward distribution to members of VO. Further, VO arranges for communi ty fodder Plot by taking land on lease f rom panchayat or other sources. The district samakhya negotiates with marketing agencies (here APDDCF) for p rocurement price of milk g iven to farmers, margin for MS. ZS also arranges for milch animal insurance either on its own or through some private partner like TATA AIG. 4.0 Impact :

• Abou t one lakh poor accessed Assets (Milch Animals)

90 Bulk Milk Coolers & 1000 Milk Procurement centres set up or revived

• About 2 lakh litres of milk being procured daily

• Mi lk P r o c u r e m e n t V o l u m e of Coopera t i ves increased by 4 t imes in the operatinal areas.

• Procurement network of Dairy Cooperatives has became stronger

• The procurement cost reduced f rom Rs. 4 to 2 per litre and payment to farmers regularized. APDDCF able to of fer be t te r pr ice to mi lk producers and the increase is over Rs. 1 per lit.

5.0 Projections for 2006-07 :

SERP proposed to set up 50 BMCUs £f 500 Milk Procurement centers to establish direct linkage of 50,000 poor milk producers with the market as well as backward linkages. Also proposed to provide financial support (100 % bank loan) for 20,000 Milk Producers.

6.0 Conclusion :

The SERP believes in people's participation. Further, capacity building of people, establishment of forward linkages coupled with backward linkages makes the activity viable, sustainable and also raises standards of living. The model can be duplicated in other parts of the country, where the cooperative net work is comparatively week.

11

ISSUE 10, 2007 For Private circulation only

TECHNICAL DICEST

MANIPUR - the hidden 'Jewel of India' in food processing

A. Ramanathan, Dr. D. V. Deshpande and Dr. Y. Hara Gopal

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru called Manipur 'a jewel of India' perhaps because 'Manipur' does literally mean 'the land of jewels'. One of the North Eastern States, Manipur is unique in several ways. And, of late, it has started attracting some attention. In this article an attempt is made to highlight the potentials it offers to become a 'jewel of India' in real sense, especially in the area of food processing.

The uniqueness of Manipur also arises from the long international boundary of 352 Kms. with Myanmar as it offers enormous trade potential not only with Myanmar but also with other Asian countries.

anipur

ietnam

mbodia

alaysia

Moreh, the international trade center on Manipur-Myanmar border, is already very popular with both the sides (Manipur and Myanmar). One has to visit it to appreciate the impact it could have, if, what is happening at Wagah border with Pakistan, could be implemented even partly at Moreh. To boost the potential, the Saurashtra-Silchar Super highway is being extended to Moreh. This combined with the proposed Moreh to Mae Sat (Thailand) highway, is set to make Manipur as the 'Gateway to South east Asia' - as Manipur Government has christened their state. The sentiment further is boosted due to

Chief General Manager\ Deputy General Manager & Manager , Punjab & Haryana RO

12

our Govt. 's ' look east ' pol icy the spate of preferential trading arrangements (PTA) and the free trade arrangements (FTA) wi th neighbouring countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

Basic features

To go to the basics, Manipur is a small landlocked State with a geographical area of 22,327 sq.kms. It has two distinct topographical zones namely hills and valley. Hills constitute 90 % of the total area and the remaining 10 % of the area, including the State capital- Imphal, falls in the central valley portion. The State is surrounded on the East by Myanmar, on the North by Nagaland, on the West by Assam and Mizoram on the south (see map). Manipur has rich bio-diversity and is the abode of rare species like 'Shiroy lily' (Lilium Macklinae), the paradise flower, Dzuko Lili (L/7ium Chitrangada) and Brow Antlered deer (Cervus -eldi-idi) locally known as Sangai. It also has the Kelbul Lamjao, the only floating National Park in the world.

Resource endowment

Manipur state is mostly forest (17,418 sq.kms or 78% of the total geographical area). The climatic conditions are temperate. The average rainfall in the state is 1507 mm- much higher than Indian average. Agriculture plays a vital role, as it is the backbone of the State economy till today. The existing area under cultivation of different crops in Manipur is 2.85 lakh hectares as against the available potential area of 3.25 lakh hectares. Moreover with a range of natural conditions and varied soil and topography, the state produces sizeable quantity of Paddy, Wheat, Maize, Pulses, Oilseeds such as Mustard, groundnut, Soyabean,

Sunflower. Cultivation of paddy is the largest both in the plains and hills, and covers 82% of the total cultivated area. Among the varieties of rice, there are two local variet ies called as "CHAK-HAO POIREITON" having its natural colour (dark violet) and a distinct flavour and "CHAK-HAO" having its natural white colour, scent and distinct flavour.

ttSprairr/sS^«^ .ai«4«.2W>? ft*! itfi'slM'i i g

Table 1: Area production and yield of major crops in Manipur ( 2002-03)

Name of the crop

Area {'000 ha)

Production COOOMT)

Yield/ha (MTI

Paddy

Maize

Pulses

Oil seeds

Sugarcane

Potato

207.73

17.00

20.12

22.94

3.50

7.00

439.00

26.53

15.19

14.92

172.66

57.76

2.11

1.56

0.75

0.65

49.33

8.25

Source: Department of Agriculture, Manipur

Next to paddy, maize is the second largest cultivated crop. It occupies about 40% of the gross cropped area and grown mainly in the hills. The area, production and productivity of major crops (2002-03) is presented in Table 1.

Wide variety of horticultural crops

The state has highly sui table agro-c l imat ic conditions for a wide variety of horticultural crops especially on the foot hills, mild hill slopes and along the river banks. Identified potential area by the State Government is estimated at 2.77 lakh Hectares. Out of this only about 24,000 Hectares are presently covered under different fruit crops. Important fruits grown in the state are. Pineapple, Lime/Lemon, Banana, Orange, Papaya , Plum and Passion fruit. Passion fruit, is unique to this state (see Box) . It is used for its 'heavenly juice' It has tremendous opportunity as is visible from area expansion in the last two years Besides spices like chilli, ginger and turmeric and vegetables like. Cauliflower, Cabbage, Tomato, Pea, Squash, Carrot, Pumpkin, etc., are also abundantly grown in the state. The area and

production of major hortultural crops for 2003-04 is presented in Table 2.

Other fruit crops like amia (Aonia), olive, figs, mandarin and "Heirukokthong"- a small cherry like fruit- are also grown locally and have potential for commerc ia l exp lo i ta t ion . The qual i ty of the pineapple (Kew-variety) so available in Manipur has distinct taste and flavour. Ginger is another major item cultivated as a cash crop mostly in fields spread over the hills and tribal areas. Ginger grown in the region is similar in quality to that grown in Myanmar and has export potential- both as raw and in processed form.

A new thrust area in the state is cultivation of mushrooms. Mushrooms have a low gestation period ensuring fast returns in terms of income and realisation of investments. In India during the past few years w i th the l iberal isat ion of fore ign investments, an increasing number of multinational institutions have invested in with 100% export oriented mushroom production units in the country. Thus, there is, vast scope for commercial cultivation of mushrooms in India and especially in Manipur,

Table 2 : Area and production of major horticultural crops in Manipur

Sr. No

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

Crop

m Pineapple

Banana

Papaya

Orange

Lime/Lemon

Passion Fruit

Other Fruits

Fruits - Total

Vegetables

Spices

Chillies

Ginger

Turmeric

Others

Total

2003-04

^ ^ A r e a (ha) Production (MT)

10652

1950

1945

1243

1227

1425

8566

27008

7670

7324

1265

372

991

9952

79889

15308

21282

5097

7890

15747

22524

167737

57018

29296

12524

4092

6878

52790

Source: Department of Horticulture, Manipur

13

ISSUE 10, 2007 For Private circulation only

TECHNiCAl DieiST

Passion fruit- as the name suggests, is believed to be capable of generating passion! Besides this the juice is 'heavenly' as it invigorates the body on consumption. This plant is native of tropical America and was noted by the Spanish in the early 1500's. There are more than 400 species of which at least 50 are edible. Two main commercial varieties are Passiflora edulis, a purple fruit and Redulis f. flavicarpa, a yeloow variety. Australia is the largest single market for passion fruit and the bulk is used for blending with other juices and in soft drinks.

In Manipur purple variety is under cultivation. The fruit is of the size of egg and the flesh of the fruit contains small black seeds that are suspended in flavorful golden to greenish flesh. Unripe fruits are too tart to eat. The riper the fruit, the better the sweet taste. It makes a delicious treat simply scooped out of its skin with a spoon. The seeds are edible, although when using the fruit in recipes it is best to strain them out. The pulp of this fruit can be used as a flavoring in baking or for mixing cocktails. Canned passion fruit nectar is a delicacy and is found in specialty markets.

which offers ideal weather conditions for the crop. Pleurotus and Agar icus mushroom (Button Mushroom) varieties can be grown throughout the year in this State. Raw material for cultivation of mushrooms are available locally.

Bamboo- unique potentials

In Manipur, bamboo grows in wild abundantly along the low altitude hill areas where the rainfall is high. About 3,218 sq. Kms. area is covered with bamboo forest mainly by Melocana bambusoides sp. (Muli) in the reserved, protected and unclassed forest. The available resources of bamboo and bamboo shoots are yet to be commercially utilised fully in Manipur. It is mainly consumed at present in the construction of houses, mat and baskets etc. Tender bamboo shoots can be processed into canned bamboo shoots in brine, candies, chutneys, sweet pickles, fermented bamboo shoots (Locally named as Soibum and Soidon) and Bamboo shoot powder. About 20-30 tonnes of bamboo shoots are consumed annually for the production of canned bamboo shoots- a unique dish in Manipur-consumed locally as well as exported to Myanmar. There is still good scope for commercial utilisation of bamboo in the food-processing sector.

Entrepreneurship in Manipur

The farming community in Manipur is reasonably progressive and willing to take new initiatives and adopting modern agricultural practices as well as cultivating new crops and new varieties. Manipur has many prosperous towns i.e., Imphal , Churachandpur and Thoubal, which are excellent

markets for fresh and processed hort iculture produce such as vegetable, fruits and flowers. There is a undercurrent of entrepreneurship which is wi l l ing to come out and set up variety of processing and value addition units. However, this entrepreneurship is currently suppressed due to difficult law and order situation and social unrest. It is expected that this temporary phase will be over sooner than later as the state as well as central government are taking all possible steps to bring normalcy in the state.

The state of Infrastructure

In Manipur, poor deve lopment of requisi te in f rast ructure, like good roads, power and communication is adversely affecting process of industrialization and tapping of the vast potential of the state especial ly in the f ields of food processing and exports.

Food processing - a sunrise sector for Manipur

Global expansion in horticulture trade is one of the most important economic development occurring world over. India as the second largest producer of fresh fruit and vegetable and now is accelerating pace into hi-tech production of horticulture produce especially after launch of Government of India's National Horticulture Mission and several other schemes. At present in India processing of fruits and vegetables is extremely low (below 2%). Value addition to the raw produce is only 7% compared to as much as 23% in china, 45% in the Philippines and 188% in the UK. The low processing also inhibits industry to achieve economic scale which

^ftpraf^/iS^w 3T^ 10, 2007 f r a t MRT-JHH %•

^\mv. X - »

results in high per unit cost of p roduc t ion . Moreover, the food processing also has additional advantages to reduce post-harvest wastage, control of price fluctuation, reduction in distress sale by farmers and also generate large employment potential.

There is increasing growth in demand of processed products due to urbanization, rising income level and changing life style. These developments offer tremendous opportunities for the growth of sector.

Keeping the various factors discussed earlier in view. Government of Manipur is looking forward to develop the Food Processing Industries in the state as this sector plays a significant supportive role in diversification and commercialisation of Agriculture, Horticulture, Fisheries, Poultry, Animal husbandry and Forestry. This sector helps in value addition in the agr icul ture, employment generat ion and providing income and production of agro-food products for export. Prospective mobilisation of this sector is mainly concerned with the raw material resources and its potential for future expansion, improvement of infrastructure, investment ability and up-gradation of technology.

The Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Gol with a view to facilitate establishment of food processing industry, has introduced a scheme for establishment of Food Park. As per the scheme of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, a sum of Rs. 400 lacs is available as grant for setting up of the Food Park.

Food Park refers to an integrated infrastructure system/estate created w i th in a demarcated geographical area for production and marketing of different processed food products. The system

comprises of several food processing units of different types and sizes that make use of common infrastructural facilities created out of a common pool of capital. The common facilities range from; water and electric power; well connected roads; cold storage/chain; warehouse; sewage, effluent and water treatment facility, quality control and testing laboratory; truck terminal; information/ business counselling and problem redressal cell and usual services like bank branch/ ATM, post office, STD/PCO, etc. These facilities could be used for a reasonable service charge by all the processing units operating in the Park. Such common facilities maintained and operated by an external agency reduce the operating time and cost of the candidate enterprises significantly.

Government of Manipur is also planning to take the benefit of the scheme by setting up a Food Park at Imphal. In view of the resource endowment, markets and entrepreneurship available in this state, there is good potential for setting up of food processing units in the proposed food park in Imphal. A variety of food processing units could be set up in such a food park as indicated below:

• Food grain based units like Mini dal mill for pulses, mini grain mill for maize. Rice flakes. Puffed cereals and Bakery units;

• Fruit & Vegetable based units like Jams, Jellies, Ketchups, Sauce, RTS (Ready To Serve) beverages, Pickles & Chutneys, Canning and dehydration units;

• Mushroom production units,

• Spice powders & Oleoresin units for chillies, turmeric, ginger;

• Bamboo processing units etc.

Conclusion

In view of the favourable agroclimatic condition and geo-poli t ical advantage, the authors feel that Manipur can be an active contributor to the food processing industry in the country as a whole taking advantage of proposed food park in Imphal, Gol's new "Look East Policy", Technology Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture in NE States, National Bamboo Mission and Indo-Myanmar Border Trade. This would help Manipur in harnessing the immense potential of food processing sector and in turn would make it real 'Jewel of India' of this sector.

15

ISSUE 10,2007 For Private circulation only TECHNICAl/DICEST m^ -p" veisssm

FISHERIES OF LAKSHADWEEP WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO LIVELIHOOD ISSUES

Shaji Zacharia^

1. UT of Lakshadweep - An Introduction

The Union Terr i tory of Lakshadweep (UTLD) consists of 11 inhabited islands and 25 uninhabited islands. The total land area of these 36 islands, which are lying scattered in the Arabian Sea, is 32 sq.km. These islands are essentially coral formations built up on a submarine ridge rising deeply from a depth of about 1500 m to 4000 m along the west coast of India. These islands form an interrupted chain of coral Ato/s on a contiguous submarine bank, covering a distance of about 2000 km.

As per the latest census, the populat ion of Lakshadweep is 60650 with 88% literacy, and in this regard, the UTLD can be considered as one of the better developed regions in the country. The economy of the Lakshadweep is influenced by the limitations of it's geography. The major sectors of it's economy are Fisheries (Tuna), Horticulture (Coconut) and Tourism (Island / Coral reefs).

The islands have been declared as a "No-Industry Area" by the Government of India considering it's geographical and environmental limitations. Only very limited number of small scale industries were allowed to be set up. Coconut husk defibring units and various coir-fibre based units form majority of the small scale industrial units of the Islands. The workforce of the coir processing units consists mainly of women. Other industrial units include tuna canning plant at Minicoi, hoisery factory at Kalpeni, boat building cum repair units, restaurants and tourists huts, production units for fish pickles, smoked fish, coconut jaggery etc.

The islanders depend heavily on mainland for everything except for fish and coconut. Most of the items for daily consumption and materials for utilities and construction have to be transported from either Kerala or Karnataka. Considering these realities of the islands and also due to the strategic geographic location, from the defence and shipping points of view, the Government of India is providing substantial subsidy assistance to almost all sectors of the economy.

2. Fisheries of Laiishadweep

The fisheries of Lakshadweep can be broadly div ided into Tuna Fishery, Non-Tuna Fishery (comprised of Sharks, Seer fishers, Rays, Perches) and Marine Ornamental Fishery. The fishing season of the UTLD is from October to May. The major fishing activity revolves around the Pole and Line fishing of the Skipjack Tuna (Katsuonus pelamis). The Tuna constitutes about 74% of the total fish landings of Lakshadweep and Skipjack Tuna contributes 79% of the total Tuna catches of UTLD.

It is estimated that about 13% of the total population of UTLD are active, full time fishermen and fisheries sector provide livelihood for about 60% of the people of Lakshadweep. Consequently the UTLD administration has devised several promotional programmes for the sector. The major programme is for the supply of Pole & Line boats (Pablo boats) and country crafts to the f ishermen on hire-purchase basis. The development programmes also include the supply of fishing implements and inputs at a subsidised rate. The department also imparts training in Fishing Gear Technology, Navigation, Fishing Technology etc.

The real growth in the fish landings of the UTLD was f rom the year 1980 with the large scale introduction of mechanised / motorised boats. The total fish production had increased from 2400 tonnes in 1980 to the present level of 12800 tonnes. During the same period, the number of specialized fishing crafts had also increased from 194 to 752.

It is estimated that the exploitable potential of Tuna from the UTLD waters is 150000 tonnes. The total fishable potential of non-Tuna resources of UTLD waters is 100000 tonnes, prov ided, there is significant development in the introduction and use of nontraditional fishing techniques like Trolling, Long Lining, Perch Traps etc.

Recently, with the technical collaboration of NIOT, Chennai, one Fish Aggregating Device (FAD) each were established in the major fishing ground of all

Assistant General Manager\ Kerala RO

16

^KMi|ici/s»g^«= 3P?f 10, 2007 Prat M R ^ M - I %S[,,.

Investme

Country Crafts

Motorised Boats

Nets & Accessories

Total

(Rs. Lakh)

2002-03 2003-04 2004-05

No. Amt No. Amt No. Amt

3 0.85 4 1.15 2 0.8

- - - 2 0.9

28 5.35 29 8.45 38 9.58

31 6.2 33 9.6 42 11.28

islands. It is expected that there wi l l be an increase

of f ish landings to the tune of 25-30% over the next

2-3 years due to the posit ive impact of these FADs.

3. CREDIT SUPPORT FOR FISHERIES I

The Ground Level Credit f l ow for Fisheries f r om

the banking inst i tut ions dur ing the past three years

is g iven be low : .

One of the major reasons for the low off take of

bank credit by the sector is the avai labi l i ty of hire

purchase fac i l i ty fo r craf ts and gears f r o m the

Government of UTLD. For instance, hire purchase

faci l i ty for a Pablo boat used in Pole & Line f ishing

of Tuna is available f r o m the UTLD admin is t ra t ion.

At present, the total cost of the boat is Rs. 5.5 lakh

and a f i sherman need to repay the same as 80

i n s t a l l m e n t s w i t h i n 9 yea rs . Th i s i n c l u d e s a

repayment hol iday of 3 months each every year.

The repayment pattern of th is soft loan is now at

an excel lent level of 9 8 % , thanks to the good Tuna

f ishery and excel lent repayment ethics general ly

prevalent in the UTLD.

4. TUNA INDUSTRY OF LAKSHADWEEP

The Tuna const i tutes 7 4 % of the f ish catches of

UTLD. The total Tuna land ings dur ing the year

2004-05 was 9472 tonnes. It is, est imated that out

of the to ta l Tuna l and ing of UTLD, 7 9 % is of

Skipjack Tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis). The other

major resource, wh ich is grossly under exp lo i ted

at present, is the Yellofin Tuna (Thunnus albacares)

and it 's present share now is 18%. The remain ing

Tuna land ings are c o n s t i t u t e d by s o m e of the

s m a l l e r spec ies l ike L i t t le T u n n y ( E u t h y n n u s

aff/nis), Frigate Tuna (Auxis thazard), Bullet Tuna

(Auxis rochie) etc.

Tunas are known for their meat value and are known

internationally as "Chicken of the Sea". The present

study on the Tuna industry of UTLD was based on

the problems and prospects of Skipjack Tuna and

Yellowfin Tuna which together constitute 97% of the

total Tuna landings of UTLD.

4.1 Present System of Tuna Fishery

The f ishing season for the UTLD is f rom October to May. The f ishermen specialized in the Pole & Line f ishing of Skipjack Tuna start f rom their base early in the morn ing . Each Pole and Line boat wi l l have 10-15 crew depending on the length. They wi l l f irst fish for bait fishes in the lagoon using specially designed nets of small mesh. The bait fish will be stored live in specially designed tanks onboard the vessel.

The boat w i l l now m o v e to the f i sh ing g round outside the lagoon scout ing for Tuna shoals. Once the Tuna shoal is s ighted, the boat wi l l approach the shoal and the f ishermen wi l l t h row live baits at the shoal to keep them together near the boat. The pole & line f ishermen wi l l now swing into action and hooking of f ishes wi l l cont inue until the boat is f i l led up or ti l l the shoal gets disaggregated. If the shoal size is good enough the boat wi l l get f i l led up in 60-90 minutes. If the shoal scout ing is unsuccessful, the boat wi l l return to base after preserving the live baits in f loat ing baskets in the lagoon. The average body weight of a Skipjack Tuna caught by the pole £f line f ishery is 5 Kg. It is est imated that, one Pole & Line boa t of UTLD w i l l ca tch 12-15 t onnes of Skipjack Tuna dur ing the season f rom October to May. The studies conducted by CMFRI clearly prove the direct relat ionship between the number of Pablo boats and the Skipjack landings in UTLD. The ideal way to catch the large deep water Yellowfin Tuna is by long l in ing. The Tuna f ishery is a trans-national migratory species. However, consider ing the size of the EEZ of UTLD, the est imates made by the researchers on the sustainable f ishing potential as 1,50,000 tonnes, can be treated as realistic and also can be taken as the basis for development planning.

4.2 Present System of Tuna Processing

At present, a lmost 95% of the Tuna landings are

processed and marketed as Masmin , wh ich is a

cooked, smoked and dr ied delicacy developed by

the people of UTLD. Abou t 2 % of the total Tuna

catches is processed as canned product by the

canning plant at Minicoy.The remaining port ion is

sold as iced f ish.

4.2.1 Masmin Production & l\/larl<eting

The processing of Tuna into masmin is undertaken

by the f ishermen themselves. Each Tuna wi l l be

17

ISSUE 10, 2007 f=6f Private circulation only

TECHNICAL/DIGEST #

cut into four fillet like pieces without bones. These pieces will be slow boiled in a sea water-fresh water mixture for about 6-7 hours. The cooked pieces will be smoked on indigenous kilns for 2 days. The cooked and smoked pieces will be sun dried for 8-10 days unti l they acquire hard, wood like consistency. The masmin, which is used widely in UTLD, will be packed in plastic bags and sent to mainland via Kozhikode port. It will then be exported to Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesian through Tuticorin port.

The masmin, trade fetches almost 95% of the total income to the fishermen. For producing 1 kg. of Masmin, 5 kg of whole fish is required. At present, the fishermen get Rs.llO/kg of Masmin. In other words they get Rs.20/- per kg of Skipjack Tuna without considering the cost of their labour for processing. The masmin trade is through a traditional channel involving 3-5 middlemen and the fishermen will get the payment only after 3-4 months. The commodity is also subject to frequent price fluctuations.

The masmin sector has good scope for quality improvement, product diversification and value addit ion which may eventually lead to higher income for fishermen. Efforts for capacity building among fishermen for quality improvement coupled with infrastructure development, export market development etc., are essential. It is indicated that a similar Tuna product from Japan, Katsuobuschi commands 200% higher price and wider acceptance in the international market.

4.2.2 Canned Tuna of UTLD

The Tuna meat, which is internationally known as "Chicken of the Sea", is most popular and globally acceptable as canned product. In the UTLD, the canning facility is available only in Minicoy. The canning plant commissioned in 1969, with an installed capacity of 1500 cans per day, is now under the management of Lakshadweep Development Corporation (LDC). The canning plant has outlived it's life and it could utilize only 50% of the installed capacity. The LDC procure Tuna from the Pole & Line boat at the rate of Rs. 22/Kg. The price realisation by the fishermen is comparable as to that from the Masmin. But the Mincoy fishermen prefer to sell the catch to the cannery as they get the payment within a week's time. But the infrastructure impediments allow the cannery to procure only 115 tonnes of

fish per season which is just 12% of the total landings in Minicoy.

It is reported that there is a resurgence for canned Tuna industry all over the world mainly due to the increasing interest in health foods. UTLD can benefit from this development by developing the infrastructure for the Tuna industry and as a part of long term strategy, the UTLD administration can think of establishing a modern Tuna cannery each at Minicoy and Agati. The canneries should also be provided with blast freezers and cold storages of appropr iate capacity to handle the catches efficiently. Similarly, the passenger ships which are undertaking regular voyages to mainland can be fitted with reefer holds to transport the Tuna and other fishes to mainland for better returns.

4.2.3 Frozen Tuna for Sashmi Grade

It is estimated that around 50,000 tonnes of Yellowfin Tuna can be fished from the EEZ of UTLD, provided suitable f ishing crafts and gears are introduced. The Yellowfin tune with a body weight of 30 Kg and more can be processed as Sashmi Grade Tuna and can be exported to countries like Japan. Sashmi grade produces are for raw consumption and the raw material should undergo specialized handling and freezing onboard followed by air l ift ing. It is reported that as against the average realisation of Rs.23 per kg of Tuna at present in the UTLD, the Sashmi Grade Tuna can fetch upto Rs. 200 per kg. The enormous potential available under this sector is totally untouched.

5. CORAL REEFS AND THEIR IMPORTANCE TO UTLD

Each island of UTLD, is formed at the centre of an Atol, by continuous accumulation of coral sand which eventually got stabilised by vegetation. Therefore, the survival of these islands fully depend on the survival of the coral reefs and the ecosystem of the coral lagoon. The scientific management of resources within the coral reefs is of paramount importance to the l ivelihood of the people of Lakshadweep in many ways. It is estimated that the coral lagoon of UTLD is the habitat for about 75 species of Marine Ornamental Fishes belonging to 13 families. Similarly, the lagoon is the source of l ive-bait f ishes, which is the most essential component of the Pole & Line fishery of Tuna. The studies undertaken by CMFRI shows that the

^rtHiiirii/g^^^^fe 3 t ^ 10, 2007 pTSft^rlTsrf i HI

population size of 15 species of fishes, which are most commonly used by the Pole & Line fishermen are crucial in the sustainability of Skipjack Tuna Fisheries of UTLD. The rich bio-diversity of the coral lagoon is also the base for the development of tourism in the UTLD for events like coral reef diving and snorkeling.

Preservation of the coral ecosystem; scientific, responsible exploitation of resources for the live-baits of Tuna f ishery and establ ishing an infrastructure for developing the export of valuable marine ornamental fishes are some of the priorities for ensuring the livelihood security of the people of UTLD. To undertake these conflicting tasks in a balanced manner, act ive commun i ty based development is essent ia l . Consider ing the importance of this sensitive sector spreading over 4200 sq.km in 36 islands, there is need to develop a well designed lagoon management plan, to undertake capacity building programmes for islands commun i ty ; and to develop in f rast ructure development for conservation and trade of marine ornamental fishes.

6. SUGGESTIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT

(i) The UTLD administration may launch a project for the qual i ty upgradat ion and product diversification for Masmin.

(ii) Modern canneries may be established at Minicoy and Agati.

(iii) Blast freezers and cold storages of adequate capacities may be established at Minicoy and Agati to handle the Tuna landings effectively.

(iv) All passenger ships of UTLD should be fitted with reefer holds of adequate capacity for transport off ish from islands to mainland.

(v) There is a need to initiate inter state/ inter agency discussions to chart out a road map for the deve lopment of the untouched Yellowfin Tuna sector for Shasmi market. The sector requires heavy investment for infrastructure and fishing vessels. At the same time issues related to the external investment / external ent repreneursh ip by legally protecting UTLD may be addressed.

(vi) There is an urgent need to conduct SHG orientation meets in all inhabited islands.

(vii) There is an urgent need to establish a lagoon management plan based on scientific research and active community participation. Capacity

: ' building programmes for the selected youths of the islands may be undertaken. . •

(viii) In order to develop the export oriented sector of marine ornamental f ishes through a environmentally responsible manner, there is need to create an institutional framework for trade, capacity building of selected youth to undertake the activity and to establish suitable infrastructure along with effective links for transport and market.

^ • • 1 ' . . " ' i ' • t " . / ' - ' ' . ' - . • • ' • ''. ' • ' . ' •

7. CONCLUSION I f

UTLD deserves perpetual focus and attention on its developmental issues due to the strategic location of the islands. Fisheries sector provides livelihood for about 60% of the population of the UTLD. The geographical spread of the UTLD has helped the country in possessing a wider Exclusive Economic Zone after the implementation of the UN charter on Law of the Seas. But at the same time, proper use of our national resources from the EEZ off the islands of UTLD, without affecting the livelihood security of the people of the islands, needs to be addressed at the highest policy making level. The case of Yellowfin Tuna is particularly relevant in this regard. Planned exploitation of these resources wi l l help increasing our fish product ion, export earnings and employment. Other wise these "trans-national migratory fishes will be caught elsewhere or die of old age." The global resurgence visible in the market of Canned Tuna and Sashmi grade Tuna should the encashed for the benefit of UTLD. The product improvement

.for Masmin is an urgent priority. ; *

The issues of Tuna fishery, Tuna processing, Tuna marketing. Coral Reef management. Exploitation of marine ornamental fish. Development of Coral Reef tourism etc., are inseperably enmeshed in the islands of UTLD. In view of this, capacity building for different sections of the ULTD society for undertaking various tasks of conflicting interests is to be taken up on a priority basis.

Based on a study undertaken by the author at the UTLD, on behalf of NABCONS, Mumbai.

ISSUE 10, 2007 For Private circulation only

TECHNICAl/DICEST « i S d 2

SUPPLY CHAIN ANALYSIS OF RAW CASHEW NUTS IN GOA , ., Dr. T.Vilasachandran

1. Introduction

The use of nuts as food goes back to pre-historic times.

Many primitive societies of the world subsisted primarily

on nuts together with roots and berries. After centuries

of neglect, the nuts have come again into prominence

as a result of advances in food research. Today nuts form

an important part of every day meal in several countries

of the world. Nuts in general are high in protein, fat and

carbohydrates. They are also rich in many minerals and

vitamins essential for the well-being of a human body

Cashew nut ranks among the most nutritious food

items. Cashew kernel, graded according to the size

and colour, is available in the form of wholes and

pieces. Contrary to the popular belief, it contains no

harmful cholesterol. It is rich in minerals and vitamins,

essential for the well being of a human body.

India has expanded its cashew production over the years

and has become the world's largest producer. Currently,

we account for about 40 per cent of global production.One

of the major problems that the Indian cashew industry

faces is the acute shortage of raw cashew nuts produced

within the country. All the units in India put together have

a processing capacity of over 10,00,000 MT of raw nuts

per year, but the domestic production is less than 5,00,000

MT per year. Therefore, India resorts to import of raw nuts

Table 1. Time series data ( 1990-91 to 2002-03) on import of raw cashew nut

Year Raw nut import

Quantity (MT) Value (Rs. Lakhs)

for processing and exports. Our import bill on raw cashew

nuts has increased over the years (Table 1). During 2002-

03, India imported 4,00,199 MT of raw cashew nuts from

different countries resulting in a foreign exchange outflow

of Rs 1,23,000 lakhs.

In addition to import, there is lateral movement of raw

cashew nuts among major cashew pockets within the

country. The price mechanism of the commodity is

broadly influenced by the import as well as lateral in-

country trade movements. In this context, the supply

chain analysis of raw cashew nuts produced within

the country assumes relevance. An analysis of supply

chain of raw cashew nuts in Goa is attempted in the

fol lowing section.

2. Marketing net work for raw cashew nuts in Goa

There is an organised marketing net work for raw

cashew nuts in Goa. Availability and trading season

of the commodi ty in the state is f rom March to May.

Due to the highly competitive nature of the cashew trade,

growers have few marketing problems. Grades and

standards for cashew are yet to be introduced in the state

as is the case with the rest of India. Quality is generally

determined by appearance and cutting tests that traders

employ prior to purchase. The raw cashew nut market

Table 2 : Price trend of raw cashew nut in Goa vs other states

Price Rs. per Kg.

._ ys9r l<ie£aia._Kamataka Andhra Tamil Goa aka Andhra Pradesh

Tamil Nadu

1990-1991

1991-1992

1992-1993

1993-1994

1994-1995

1995-1996

1996-1997

1997-1998

1998-1999

1999-2000

2000-2001

2001-2002

2002-2003

82639

106080

134985

191322

228109

222819

192285

224968

181009

200584

249318

356566

400199

13400

26668

37633

48270

69094

76008

64060

74400

68024

95352

96080

96001

123000

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

12.25

14.50

22.00

20.63

20.50

25.00

29.00

26.40

30.60

42.30

42.00

26.75

25.00

29.50

N. A. - Not Available

14.50

19.75

25.40

19.50

21.50

26.00

29.00

21.50

25.00

N. A.

N. A.

N. A.

N. A.

N. A.

13.00

17.50

20.75

19.50

23.20

25.50

29.00

30.00

30.00

33.75

34.50

28.25

27.75

N. A.

13.19

21.25

23.51

19.60

22.80

27.50

29.00

24.00

24.00

N. A,

N. A.

N. A.

N. A.

N. A.

16.75

23.00

29.13

24.13

29.50

32.30

30.15

33.10

33.10

47.00

46.50

33.50

34.10

35.50

Deputy General Manager, ICD, HO

20

^RHtiipl/sig'^«^

involves large capital deployment as around 80 per cent

of the produce is transacted within a matter of 35 days.

2.3 Raw cashew nuts - Price trend ,

Due to its premium quality, Goan cashew nuts fetch a

premium price - the highest as compared to those

produced in Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and

Tamil Nadu as may be evinced f rom the data furnished

in table 2. This trend remained unchanged during the

entire period f rom 1990 to 2003. •

The higher prices realized in 1999 and 2000 are in line

with all India price pattern and is attributed to short

supply situation.

Analysisof the t ime series data (Table 2) revealed the

growth in price commanded by raw nut in Goa over

the per iod f r om 1990 to 2003 and exh ib i ted the

fol lowing features

Table 3 : Features of price trend of raw cashew nuts in Goa : 1990- 2003

CAGR

Maximum Price (Rs/Kg)

Min imum Price (Rs/Kg)

Price variation (Rs/Kg)

2.4 IVIarl<eting channels ,';

5.06%

47.00

16.75

30.25

There are 3 prominent marketing channels for cashew

nuts in Goa, as outlined below j -

Z4.1 Channel 1 : Co-operat ive as intermediary

between producer and processor

Though a portion of the produce in Goa is brought

by i t i ne ran t m e r c h a n t s and t he agen t s of the

processing units, co-operat ive marketing societies

have a major stake in raw nut trade. Examples of

working models of cashew nut marketing operating

in the state wi th co-operative set up as intermediary

are presented in the fol lowing section.

One of the models based on growers' co-operative,

functioning in the state is the Goa Bagayatdar Co­

operat ive Society Ltd. This Primary Co-operat ive

Society in which the producers are the stakeholders,

plays a key role in cashew procurement and trade in

Goa. The society's prime motto is to protect farmers'

interest. With 8500 horticulture farmers as members,

3?^ 10, 2007 Prafr qR^ieiH %u

the soc ie ty covers a round 5 0 % of the agrar ian

population in the state. It has 24 collection centers

located in the production centres. The society procures

cashew f rom 5000 growers . In 2002-03, the society

traded 1193 T raw cashew and realized Rs. 416.54

lakhs. Presently the volume of of raw cashew nuts

handled by the society ranges between 1600 T to 2000

T The procurement prices are notified on a daily basis.

During the 2004 harvest season, the procurement price

offered by the society varied f rom Rs. 35 to Rs. 36 per

Kg. The sales price is f ixed at Rs. 1.50 per Kg above

the procurement price. Processors have to lift the

produce f rom the society/collection centre and have

to bear the transportation cost f rom society/collection

centre to the processing centre.

Ano ther co -opera t i ve set up viz., Adarsh Krishi

Sahakari Kharedi Vikri Prakriya Samstha Maryadit

directly procurs cashew nuts f rom producers. This co­

operat ive society at Balli, South Goa also runs a

processing unit on lease. Through this mode, the

supply chain is further shortened. The trade turn over

of the society f rom raw cashew nut and kernel during

the last four years varied f rom Rs 233.14 lakhs in 2000-

01 to Rs 300.46 lakhs in 2003-04.

Farmer

Cooperative

Processor

Fig 1 .• Channel 1 - Co-operative as intermediary between producer and processor r.

2.4.2 Channel 2 : Direct marketing by producer to

processor

The m o s t r esou rce fu l p rocesso rs con tac t the

producers d i rect ly and in the process avoid the

commission agents. In certain instances under this

mode of trade, processors establish good bargaining

power by providing credit facilities to the producers

and entering into pre-harvest contract arrangements.

ISSUE 10, 2007 For Private circulation only

ECHNICM/mStST

Farmer

Processor

Fig 2 : Channel 2 - Direct marketing by producer to processor

2.4.3 Channel 3 : Traders as intermediary between producer and processor

A number of wholesale merchants and the processing factories open their collecting centres in important cashew producing areas during the harvesting period. The cashew trade is seldom handled by exclusive traders. Usually, those traders who collect other plantation products also trade in cashew. The petty traders who buy the nuts from the growers also sell the nuts to these collecting centres. Growers also sell the nuts to small traders in primary or village markets who in turn sell to the urban markets. Cashew nuts are brought for sale to the assembling markets largely by the itinerant merchants.

Farmer

Trader/s

Processor

Fig 3 : Channel 3 - Traders as intermediary between producer and processor

At the stage when large quantities are collected by middlemen, the processors enter the marketing chain and make wholesale purchases. Due to the presence of intermediaries operating between the primary producer and the processing unit, the spread in price

between the producer and the processing unit is quite

significant.

2.5 Supply chain analysis

The supply chain analysis of raw cashew nut in Goa ( Fig 4 ) reveals that the trade route involving the co­operative as intermediary between the farmer and processor is the most popular one. While processors look at it as an assured and reliable source of supply,

Chart 1: Share of marketing channels in raw cashew trade in Goa

Channel 3 Farmer-Trader-Processor

10%

Channel 2 Farmer-Processor

30%

Channel 1 Farmer- Cooperative-Processor

60%

Fig 4: Supply chain analysis of raw cashew nut trade in Goa

the farmers favour it for the transparent and competitive pricing mechanism.

The direct marketing of the produce by farmers to the processors offers the shortest supply chain. However, there is a school of thought that the pre harvest contract and advance credit, which are integral part of the channel, may make it less advantageous to farmers from price realisation point of view.

The marketing mode involving the traders as intermediary between producer and processor has the longest chain and the number of players involved are 4 or more. This channel makes the raw material costly for processors while the farmers are subjected to exploitation by the intermediary tiers.

3. The inference

The emergence of a supply chain model for raw cashew nut trade in Goa is quite evident from the foregoing discussion. From the angles of supply chain management and value chain analysis, this model anchored by the growers' co-operative appears to be beneficial both to producers and processors.

. ^ ^ • • • . ^ ^ ^

'''smtmSsi&fA.iis^JsjBA^i!^

^KHtlici / 3Tg^>^ 3 57 10,2007 fWr MR^ICH %ri;

Agriculture extension - An innovative thinl<ing Sri M K De^ and Dr Bhavani Shankar^

There have been several attempts since independence

to in fo rm and educate fa rmers t h rough var ious

extension services and mass media such as radio,

newspapers etc. on modern agricultural practices. This

has gained momentum after green revolution in sixties.

According to National Sample Survey Organisation

(NSSO), 2005, the most frequently accessed source

of information related to modern farming was 'other

progressive farmers' which constitute 17 % fol lowed

by the 'dealer providing inputs' and 'radio' (13 %) .

Television (9 %) , newspapers (7 %) and extension

workers (6%) were some of the other impor tant

sources.

Over 50 per cent of the farmers who received farm

in format ion f rom the sources like Radio, TV and

Newspapers have actually ' tr ied' the information or

adopted the recommendations, whereas, over 80 %

of those who obtained the information f rom ' input

dealers' or 'other progressive farmers' tried or adopted

them. About 65 per cent of farmers who accessed

informat ion f rom extension workers or the 'Krishi

Vigyan Kendra' actually tried or adopted it.

One of the interesting f indings of the survey, contrary

to the belief is that, only less than 10% of the farmers

are gett ing the extension services f rom the huge

Government machinery. Input dealers contribute a lot

to the farmers as they have regular contacts with the

farmers and farmers also gain confidence because of

their acquaintance. Moreover, some of them also have

access to hassle free credit f rom the input suppliers.

But at the same t ime, formation provided by the input

suppliers wou ld have some drawbacks, like profi t

motive and vested interest in favour of the products

marketed by them. Despite the various mechanisms

evolved over a per iod of t ime, a large section of

farmers is still left untouched and an effective service

oriented, economical and t imely extension service is

wanted. , „

At this juncture, innovative models like e-chaupals by

ITC, Dr. Swamina than Foundat ion 's Know ledge

Centres etc., are playing crucial roles, by making use

of in format ion and communica t ion technology to

reach the needy farmers. E-sagu is one such model

developed by International Institute of Information

Technology (HIT), Hyderabad. This has been evolved

in association wi th Media Lab Asia and Acharya N G

Ranga Agriculture University, Hyderabad.

e-Sagu is a tool for IT-based personalized agricultural

extension system. ("Sagu" in Telugu language means

cultivation). It aims to improve farm productivity by

delivering high quality personalized farm-specific agro-

expert advice in a t imely manner to each farm at the

farmer's doorstep wi thout farmer asking a question.

The advice is provided on regular basis (typically once

a week) f rom the sowing to harvesting, which reduces

the cos t of cu l t i va t i on and increases the f a rm

productivity as well as quality of agri-commodities. In

e-Sagu, the developments in IT, such as database,

Internet, and dig i ta l pho tog raphy are ut i l ised to

improve the performance of agro-advisory services.

e-Sagu offers the next generation, self-sustainable

a g r o - a d v i s o r y t o o l t ha t can s u p p l e m e n t or

complement the existing agro-advisory systems.

e-Sagu architecture

In e-Sagu, rather than visiting the crop in person, the

agricultural scientist delivers the expert advice by

ge t t i ng the c rop s ta tus in the f o r m of d ig i ta l

photographs and other information. The farmers are

the end users of the system and can be illiterate. A

coordinator is an educated and experienced farmer

who can be found in the village. Agricultural Experts

possess a university degree in agriculture and are

qualified to provide the expert advice. Agricultural

Information System is a computer based information

system that conta ins all the related in format ion .

Communication system is a mechanism to transmit

information between farms to agricultural experts and

vice versa. If enough bandwidth is not available,

i n fo rmat ion can be t ransmi t ted t h rough cour ier

service. However, the advice text can be transmitted

through dial-up Internet connection.

Manager''^ Andhra Pradesh RO

ISSUE 10, 2007 For Private circulation only

TECHNICAL DlliESf

Operation of e-Sagu

The operat ion of e-Sagu is as fo l lows- A team of

agricultural experts work at the e-Sagu (main) lab

( n o r m a l l y in a c i ty) s u p p o r t e d by ag r i cu l t u ra l

information system. One small computer center (few

computers and one computer operator) is established

for a group of five to six villages. Appropriate number

of coord inators were selected f r o m the vi l lages.

Depending on the crop, each coordinator is assigned

a f ixed number of farms. The coordinator collects the

registration details of the farms under him including

soil data, water resources, and capital availability and

sends the information to the main e-Sagu system.

Every day, the coordinator visits a f ixed number of

farms and takes four to five photographs for each farm.

A CD is prepared wi th the photographs and other

information and transported to the main system by a

regular parcel service. The Agri-experts, with diverse

background (Entomology, Pathology, Ag ronomy ,

Horticulture, Soil Science, etc.) at the e-Sagu (main)

lab analyze the crop situation wi th respect to soil,

weather and other agronomic practices and prepare a

farm specific advice. This advice is downloaded at the

village e-Sagu center electronically through a dial-up

Internet connect ion. The coord inator col lects the

advice and delivers it to the concerned farmer. Each

farm gets the advice at regular intervals, starting f rom

pre-sowing operations to post-harvest precautions.

Summary of implementation

The development of e-Sagu was started during Kharif

2004. The system has provided the personalized expert

advice for each farm once in a week (by analyzing the

photographs) to 1051 cotton farms in Oorugonda,

Gudeppad and Oglapur villages of Atmakur mandal in

Warangal district (Andhra Pradesh, India). The e-Sagu

main system was built at MIT, Hyderabad. The system

was very successful. Encouraged by results, during

Kharif and Rabi 2006, a scaled-up version of cluster-

based e-Sagu for 5000 farms has been implemented

on Cotton, Chilli, Rice, Groundnut, Castor, and Redgram

by selecting two to three villages for each crop. The

results are very encouraging. Efforts are on to build a

self-sustainable and replicable e-Sagu for all crops. The

results of the e-Sagu project are as fol lows:

• It is possible for the agriculture expert to deliver

expert advice based on the photographs and other

information, without actually visiting the farm.

• The farmers are pleased with the expert advice

as it is helping them to improve the input efficiency

by encouraging integrated pest management

(IPM) methods, judicious use of pesticides and

fertilizers by avoiding indiscriminate usage.

• The benefit to cost ratio assessed to be 3. The

evaluation study shows that the e-Sagu farmers

accumulated benefits worth Rs. 3820/- per acre

in monitory terms in addition to the gain in terms

of knowledge.

• An agriculture expert can deliver advices to about

150 farms a day. Each coordinator can send crop

observation for 30 farms a day.

• The round-trip advice delivery time is 24-36 hours

(farm to lab and back to farmer's house).

• In Warangal district, the farmers have paid the

registration fees and expressed satisfaction with

the service.

• An effort is being made to start an agri-business

center in one of the e-sagu centers by providing

multiple services under one roof. The services

would include expert advice, agri-inputs, banking,

warehousing, and marketing.

• The e-Sagu sys tem is p rov id ing s ign i f icant

benefits to capital intensive crops such as cotton

and chilies. It is also very effective for rice. For

o ther c rops , a l te rnat ive mode ls have to be

developed to make the e-Sagu cost-effective.

Benefits of e-Sagu

Powered by the latest developments in ICTs such as

database, internet, and photographic technologies, e-

Sagu offers a multitude of comprehensive advantages

and provides oppor tun i ty to improve the exist ing

agricultural agro-advisory systems.

• It provides a high quali ty personalized expert

advice.

• It is a query-less system and provides expert

advice wi thout farmer asking a question.

• It provides accountable advice. The advice is

comprehensive, complete and regular in terms of

diagnosis, analysis, advice delivery, fol low-up and

feedback.

• It fol lows a proactive approach that will avert many

problematic situations.

^f^iigicr/i^^T? 3W 10, 2007 PratqR^idwtg

It enables quick deploymeht of services during

the times of crises.

It reduces cost and saves t ime and energy of both

farmers and agricultural experts.

It capacitates rural l ivelihoods and generates rural

employment.

It helps in validation of agricultural technology for

d e v e l o p i n g l oca t i on spec i f i c m o d u l e s and

modifications.

It aids in successful imp lementa t ion of crop

insurance scheme by making farm as a unit.

It is a cost-effective system. It can be made self-

sus ta inab le by cha rg ing a f fo rdab le serv ice

charges.

It is a scalable system. The complexity increases

l inearly w i th the number of fa rms. It can be

incrementally developed to cover all the farms of

India without any bottlenecks.

It can be developed on the available infrastructure

as computers and cameras are already available

in many places. It can be implemented even

bandwidth is not available.

It significantly reduces the lag period between

research to practice.

It shows a great promise in the era of globalization,

as it can provide the expert advice that is crucial

to the Indian farmer to harvest different kinds of

crops based on the demand in the world market

wi th quality and assurance.

Limitation of the model

The interpretation and diagnosis of diseases and pests

are purely based on the digital photographs. At t imes,

symptoms of diseases are very much similar to the

deficiency or toxicity of essential nutrients. Further,

only corrective steps can be advocated and there is

no scope for preventive measures. Market intervention

has not been integrated in the system, which is a major

requirement of the farming community.

Conclusion . ;

Nevertheless, the model has a tremendous potential,

looking at the personalized services accountable to

the farmers. As on May 2006, the concept is being

implemented in 8 centres, cover ing 38 villages in

Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh. It has covered

30 field crops, including aquaculture. 3429 farmers

having 4894 agriculture farms have been benefited.

The e-Sagu programme has so far delivered 34,544

advises after interpretation of 2,62,039 photographs.

It is further gathered that HIT has submitted a proposal

to NABARD AP RO to expand its programme to two

more villages, covering 400 farmers each, in Warangal

and Khammam districts. This wi l l definitely create

some impac t on m i t i ga t ing the distress due to

overuse of pesticides and other inputs and bring in

improvement in input use efficiency and profitability.

The text of e-Sagu Is reproduced from the article of Dr B Bhaskar Reddy, Associate Professor, International Institute of

Information Technology, Gachibowli, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.

^ - ^

ISSUE 10, 2007 For Private circulation only

TICHWCfll/DiGlSf

Bamboo Cultivation - Potential and Prospects Sangeeta Prasad Mehra^ & L. K. Mehra^

1. Introduction:

1.1 The world market for bamboo has been valued at Rs. 50000 crore (US$ 10 billion) in 2001 and is expected to grow to Rs. 100,000 crore (US$ 20 bi l l ion) by 2015. India, China and Myanmar together h ave about 198 lakh ha of bamboo reserves - 80 percent of the wor ld 's bamboo forests. Of this, India's share is about 45 percent. However, its share in global market is only 4.5 per cent. On the other hand, China alone has captured 50 per cent of the World market, export ing as much as 20 mil l ion tonnes of varied products a year. India, a lmost 20 years beh ind China in commercial production, produces only 3.5 million tonnes of bamboo a year.

1.2 The Govt, of India, has lately come to regard bamboo as an easily manageable export item that provides high yields, has multiple uses and has the potential to provide employment for millions. In this backdrop, the Planning Commission, Govt, of India, has accorded special status to bamboo and launched ' National Miss ion on Bamboo Technology and Trade Development' , The target is to capture 27 % of the wor ld bamboo market by the year 2015.

1.3 In tune with the Government policy, NABARD has developed a 'Bamboo Development Policy' to give focussed thrust to develop the sector wi th an integrated approach. The major objective is to commercialize Bamboo at farmers level. The policy env isages c o m p r e h e n s i v e d e v e l o p m e n t of bamboo resources as a marketable commodity and a linkage of bamboo farmers with bamboo artisans.

1.4 In the context of the above, it is high t ime we put bamboo into industrial pedestal with appropriate t i e -up a r r a n g e m e n t s w i t h b a m b o o based industries viz. paper, handicrafts and the new emerg ing areas of eco- f r iendly products e.g. c o r r u g a t e d shee ts , b a m b o o t i l es , b a m b o o f l oo r i ng , b a m b o o fabr ic , etc. There is huge untapped potent ia l in the waste lands under purview of Farm forestry/ Agro-forestry in the country. However, the progress under the sector is hampered with lack of information, supply chain management , lack of inst i tu t ional credi t and

restrictive rules. There is a need to integrate the efforts at various levels for evolving workable strategies to promote the sector, which would not only be instrumental in addressing environmental concerns but also economic and livilihood security to millions of people in the country.

2. Potential for Bamboo Cultivation :

2.1 A vailability of Land:

As per the National Remote Sensing Agency, about 20% of the geographical area of the country, i.e. a b o u t 638.5 lakh ha. are c lass i f ied as wastelands Cover ing 10% of this land under bamboo cult ivation can achieve the suggested target of 60 lakh ha under the National Bamboo Mission.

2.2 Availability of Technology:

The 'National Mission on Bamboo Application (NMBA)', established under the TIFAC (Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council), Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi has been suppor t ing bamboo sector through techno log i ca l upg rada t i on , deve lopmen t of indigenous capacities/enterprise and linkages with markets. The agency presently is working with about 60 partners, mainly Research institutions. Enterprises and Govt, agencies, across the country for technological intervention and demonstration of bamboo as a business venture, both at cultivation and utilization level. Venture capital support is avai lable t h rough the agency, for interested entrepreneurs to establish hi-tech bamboo industry in the country.

2.3 Availability of Market:

According to the Planning Commission, the annual ma rke t po ten t i a l f o r va lue added b a m b o o products in India is Rs.4,463 crore as against the current market size of Rs. 2043 crore. This is projected to touch Rs.26,000 crore by 2015.

The current size of bamboo use in Agarbat t i industries itself has been estimated at Rs. 135 crore and bamboo utilized in ice-cream industries, kites, crackers, lathies and fishing rods has been estimated to the tune of 10 lakh tonnes annually.

Manager^'2 Karnataka RO

' i ! S ® ^ M M ^ W « J * * W * ^ 26

^ftlilQIcT/^l^^ll? ajgrio, 2007 Prat 4R.^WH%g

The Indian bamboo shoots industry is expected to grow at the rate of 25% per annum and capture a market worth Rs. 300 crore by 2015 f rom the current level of Rs. 4.8 crore. A large potential

Table 1: Bamboo - Projected Demand and Supply

• Country's bamboo economy is expected to grow

by over 15% to touch Rs. 26,000 crore by 2015.

• Bamboo can replace the projected import of

t imber to the tune of Rs.30,000 crore in the next

20 years i.e. 2025.

• The marke t size fo r b a m b o o p l y w o o d is

expected to grow to Rs. 500 crore in 2015 f rom

Rs. 200 crore in 2001.

• It has been estimated that the total market size

of bamboo flooring materials will rise to Rs. 1,950

crore by 2015 f rom the current Rs. 200 crore.

• The demand for bamboo pulp is expected to

grow to Rs. 2,088 crore by 2015 f rom Rs. 100

crore in 2001.

• The demand for bamboo furniture is expected

to grow to Rs.3,265 crore in 2015 f rom Rs.380

crore in 2001.

• By 2015 bamboo scaffolding requirement wil l

rise to Rs.861 crore and for housing purposes

the demand wil l be Rs.1,163 crore.

• The demand for bamboo in road construction

wil l rise to Rs.274 crore and for bamboo grids

the demand will be Rs. 100 crore by 2015.

• The demands for miscellaneous industry viz. ice

cream sticks, fire crackers, bamboo lathis and

ladders will rise to Rs. 600 crore by 2015.

export market exists for shoots in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand. The Projected demand and supply of Bamboo as envisaged by the Planning Commission is given in table 1.

2.4 Credit Potential:

The Bamboo Mission envisages expanding the area under Bamboo plantat ion by 20 lakh ha. during the X Five Year Plan (10 lakh ha in forest area and 10 lakh in areas outside forest) and overall 60 lakh ha by XI Five Year Plan. This calls for a massive requirement of quality planting material viz. 100 crore during the X plan period and another 200 crore during IX plan period. This itself requires an investment to the tune of about Rs. 500 crore . A part of the requ i remen t is expected to be met through credit.

Further, the financial requirement during the Xth plan for Bamboo Mission is estimated at Rs. 2608 crore under various components, wherein, Rs. 2000 crore has been earmarked for plantation in 20 lakh ha. of area. Consider ing the cost of plantation as 20,000/ha, the financial gap under the sector is to the tune of 2000 crore, which needs to be supported through credit by way of building private public partnership for investment.

The financing institutions can play a significant role . in greening India under the behest of bamboo

cultivation . Various financing models are available to cater to the need of different clientele, viz.

• Finance for Nurseries - Centralized/ Decentralized/ Tissue Culture Unit etc.

• Captive Bamboo plantation by SFDC and User Industries

• Contract farming

• Area Development Project

• Joint Forest Management (JFM) - under (RIDF)

• Forest regeneration/ development- under (RIDF)

• Financing to Village Forest Committees (VFCs)/ Sel f Help G r o u p s - under m i c r o - c r e d i t programme.

• C lus ter D e v e l o p m e n t fo r A r t i sans and

Craftpersons

Financing for nursery and plantation of bamboo are covered under 'Direct Finance to Agriculture' under Priority Sector Lending.

3. NABARD Initiatives in Bamboo Sector:

3.1 NABARD, as an apex bank for development of agriculture and rural sector, has identified bamboo sector as " Thrust Area " and has taken distinct po l i cy in i t ia t ives fo r c reat ing an enab l ing environment for promoting this sector under farm and n o n - f a r m sector . NABARD's B a m b o o Deve lopmen t Pol icy a ims at ma ins t reaming bamboo fa rm ing , processing and market ing. Interventions are taken under four broad areas viz. Pol icy; P romot iona l and Financial ; Capaci ty Building and Networking and Coordinat ion. A 'Bamboo Cell' has been created at NABARD's Head Office, Mumbai wi th Nodal Officers in all the Regional Office for a concerted effort.

3.2 A p e r s p e c t i v e p lan fo r f i n a n c i n g b a m b o o plantations by banks in 3 lakh ha potential states.

27

ISSUE 10, 2007 For Private circulation only

• • - ' » . . TECHNIGAl DIGESf

with an investment outlay of Rs. 1,000 crore during Tenth Plan per iod was fo rmu la ted . Bankable Model Projects for Bamboo have been prepared to su i te d i f f e ren t a reas / c l i en ta l . A n Area Development Project for Bamboo cultivation in Barak valley of Assam has been developed which envisages covering 2500ha of area under bamboo cultivation over a period of three years. RIDF assistance has been provided to APFDC for raising bamboo in degraded forest.

4. Techno - Economic Parameters of Bamboo Financing:

4.1 Nursery:

Bamboo can be raised through seeds, rhizomes, cu lm cutt ings as also th rough tissue culture techniques. Nursery cou ld be central ized or decentralized. Whi le Centralized nurseries are expected to be developed by Forest Department. Forest D e v e l o p m e n t Co rpo ra t i on and En t rep reneurs , decen t ra l i zed nurser ies are expected to be taken up by VFCs, SHGs or farmers to cater the local requirement of bamboo seedlings. The Cost of for raising a decentralized nursery (1000 plants) is about Rs. 25,000. Detail break up of the unit cost and economics is given in Annexure I.

4.2. Bamboo Plantations:

Bamboo can be raised profitably on wastelands to yield recurring income for 20-30 years. The techno- economic parameters of raising bamboo is given as under:

a. Site and Composition : Bamboo is non-exacting, hardy and drought-resistant in nature and posses a wide range of soil/climatic adaptability and grow on marginal and degraded land, elevated ground, along field bunds and river banks f rom coastal regions to mountain slopes (upto 4000m above mean sea level) unde r m o i s t to sem i -a r i d conditions. Bamboo however, cannot withstand saline soils, alkaline soils and waterlogged areas.

Bamboo can be raised as block plantations in degraded slopes, watershed areas, and cultivable was tes or under j o i n t Forest M a n a g e m e n t programmes. It also combine well wi th grasses, pulses, oilseeds, soyabeans and shade crops like ginger turmeric, c innamon, etc. and can be raised under various agro-forestry systems.

b. Planting Tecimique: Monsoon is the best t ime for planting of the nursery-raised plants in the field. About 1 year old plants may be planted for better survival. The commercial spacing recommended to obtain good crop varies f rom 5m x 4m to 6m x 6m. Plants are planted in pits of 45 cm x 45 cm x 45 cm size.

Organic manure mixtures along with fertilizers containing NPK should be applied in the planting pit at the t ime of planting. Weeding and protective irrigation are essential in the first two years of p lanta t ion for stabi l izat ion of the plant. The plantation needs to be protected f rom fire and biotic pressures for initial 3-4 years, thus fencing or d i g g i n g c a t t l e - p r o o f t r e n c h a r o u n d the plantations is advisable.

c. Management: Proper management practice is the key to the success of bamboo plantations as the yield realized f r om the bamboo plantations is d i rect ly dependent on the soil nutr i t ion and cultural operations. 'An eight year bamboo clump can have about 90 culms, of which 70-80 culm are destroyed, if left unmanaged'. Bamboo is a heavy feeder and even a r ich soil becomes dep le ted after a f e w years. On an average. Bamboo plantations removes about 2300 kg of nutrients per ha in a period of 6 years. Therefore, soil supplements in the form of organic manures and fertilizers must be added to the clumps every year. A little bit of soil working around the clumps enhances production of new culms and is a must management practice. From 4th year onwards, the d e a d / d y i n g c u l m f r o m the c l u m p mus t be r e m o v e d to a v o i d c o n g e s t i o n . Prun ing of excessive thorns is necessary to maintain a hygienic condit ions of the clump and must be carried out every year f rom 3rd-4th year onwards. Insect and diseases, if any, need to managed, t h o u g h b a m b o o s have c o m p a r a t i v e l y f e w problems of insects or pests.

d. Harvesting: Well-managed commercial bamboo plantation matures within 4-5 years and can be harvested every year. Selection fellings rriust be practiced, and should be done in summer months. For harvesting, the mature culms should be cut at a height between first and second node above the ground level. Harvesting should be done in a horse shoe-fashion (instead of peripheral cuttings) to avoid congestion of the clump and give space for the newly emerging clums and thus give a better yield. As a good management practice, a few mature culms should be left well distributed in the c lump to provide support to the current year's culms. Al l immature culms (less than 4 years old) must be left to mature.

The cost for raising Dendrocalamus strictus on wastelands, under rain-fed condition is Rs. 23,600 per ha. (capitalized for 6 years). The detail break up of unit cost is given in Annexure II.

niiiiii; i i i i ^ 3 t ^ 10. 2007 Prsfr 4R^HH %g;

5. Limitations and Required Interventions:

Despite the available potential under the Bamboo sector viz. availability of land, availability of technology, availability of credit, as also. Government thrust, the sector has not gained the desired momentum in the country. The main l imiting factors in the promot ion of the sector are:

a. Lack of awareness: Bamboo has been traditionally raised, to a limited extend, in village commons and homestead gardens. However, it still remains a forest species in respect of industrial use and commercial plantations. There is a need for changing the 'forestry mindset' to the 'farming mind set' and creating awareness on the c o m m e r c i a l v iab i l i t y and profitability of the species. In this regard, extensive awareness and capacity building programme are required at all level viz. farmers, extension workers, banks, user industr ies, etc.. The Research & Development (R&D) under the sector needs to be c o m p l i m e n t e d w i t h awareness c rea t ion , demonstration and extension supportfor a multiplier effect. SHGs, VFCs, Farmers clubs, etc. could be used as vehicle for such extension programme.

b. Harvesting and Transport restrictions: It is evident, to meet the domestic and International demand of bamboo, the 'raw material' has to necessarily come from the private sources. The Indian Forest Act. 1927, defines bamboo as a " forest produce", and the species attracts the felling and transit restrictions under most of the States Forest Rules. Procedures for taking permi ts are, more of ten than not , cumbersome, time consuming and harassing. These legal restrictions, detract farmers/ entrepreneurs f rom raising bamboo on their private wastelands on commercial basis and is one of the most crucial issues in promotion of bamboo sector in the country. The probable option lies in exemption of Bamboo from the restrictive harvesting and transit rules, as in case of many other agro forestry species or at least simplifications of these rules.

c. Land Ceiling Act: The Land Ceiling Act is one of the deterrent factors for entrepreneurs interested in taking large-scale industrial plantations of the species. Plantation crops such as tea, coffee, cardamom and rubber have been relaxed f rom the purview of Land Ceiling Act. Similar relaxation needs to be extended for the bamboo sector.

d. Policy for leasing revenue wastelands for forest plantations : A large p o r t i o n of ava i lab le wastelands, which could be profitably used for raising bamboo, are under the contro l of the Revenue Department. Such lands are neither being

developed by the Department nor leased away to the interest entrepreneurs for development. There is therefore desirable that the State Govts, evolve su i tab le po l ic ies fo r leasing of the revenue wastelands to the farmers/ SHGs/ entrepreneurs/ industries for raising forest plantations for industrial use. Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu and, Chattisgarh have come up with such policy. Other States may also f o l l o w to encourage the publ ic pr ivate partnership for greening the wastelands.

e. Need for Organized Supply Chain Management: Though a vast market exists for the bamboo sector, there is a need for an organized market with assured min imum price regime to encourage the small farmers to take up bamboo plantations on their private wastelands. Contract farming by user industries needs to be encouraged. There is also a need for promot ing 'Bamboo Governance' and encouraging the bamboo products at the Govt. Offices, Corporates and Public-sector undertakings to pave the way for large scale demand, supply, production of bamboo- based utility items and regeneration of bamboo by strengthening the supply chain

/. Need for rationalization of taxation and price fixation: In some States, viz. Karnataka, bamboo raised under private sector is subject to tax by the forest depar tment , as also by the APMC. This needs to be rat ional ized. Similar ly, the price f ixat ion mechanism by the Forest Department mus t be ra t i ona l i zed to ensure su i tab le remuneration to growers viz. a viz. the industries.

g. Need for incentives for raising bamboo plantations: Cultivation of Bamboo under the farm sector is a new activity and may be given fill ip through extending capital/ interest subsidy to the f a rme rs / en t rep reneurs fo r ra is ing b a m b o o plantations.

6. Conclusion:

From a 'poor mans t imber ' , bamboo is fast emerging as a 'Green Gold'. Markets are growing and offer new opportunities for promot ion of bamboo as alternative to w o o d as also other products. This is a golden opportunity for the farmers, entrepreneurs, industries. Banks, as also govt, agencies to tap the potential under the sector for economic, ecological and social gains. However, pol icy and operat ional bott lenecks, viz. restrictive harvesting and transit rules, land ceiling act, double taxation of bamboo, non-remunerative price regime, lack of organized market, lack of awareness among entrepreneur and banks, etc. needs to be addressed to give the desired momentum to the sector.

ISSUE 10, 2007 For Private circulation only TECHHICftl/DiMST

Annexure

Unit Cost of Decentralised Bamboo Nursery of 1000 Sq. Mt. (10000 seedlings)

Techno-economic parameters Spacing : 6m x 6m No. of plants per ha :278 Mortality replacement :10% No. of harvestabie plants per ha : 90%

S. No. Particulars of Works

A Capital Cost 1 Land preparation/ Sitr development

2 Fencing (Bamboo/ live hedge) 3 Repair and maintanence of irrigation source 4 Tools and Implements

f 5 Water Tank -1 if 6 Layout and preparation of poly beds ( 24 beds of 10x 1 m size)

7 Shading Net of 80% shade with installation or thaching by grass

8 Subtotal Contigencies (5% of subt total) Total Capital Cost (A)

B Recurring cost 1 Land rent (1000 Sq. mt) 2 Preparation of seed beds (2 beds) of 10m X imt 3 Seeds 4 Polybags (6x9 of 100 gauge) 200 PB/Kg Pot mixture-

sand manure, earth (2 kg/bag) 5 OM includingLoading ., unloading 6 fertiliser, 10 gms/ polybags (in two doses) 7 Plant protection chemicals 8 Sowing on seed beds 9 Weeding and Hoeing 10 Picking up from germi beds 11 Filling Polybags 12 Irrigation (labour cost)

13 Application of fertiliser

14 Application of pesticides/ insecticides 15 Maintainace of path and channels 16 Maintenace of pumpset 17 Subtotal

18 Supervision/ management cost® 10% of subtotal Total recurring Cost (B) Total (A + B) Margin @ 10% Bank Loan

Income Sale price per seedling/ Poly bag Installed capacity of nursery Capacicity utilzation lYr. II Yr. onwards

Avg. wage rate Rs. 50 per Man Day Interest on term loan 12% margin 10% of the unit cost Species Dendrocalamus strictus.

Unit

2MD LS

LS LS LS

10 MD

LS

@Rs.1000/year 2MD LS

20MT@ 120/Tand 10 MD 100 kg

LS 1 MD

5MD 2MD

50 MD @200 PB/ MD 10 MD

2MD 2MD 2MD LS

Cost (Rs.)

100 500

500 800

2000 500

4000

8400 420

8820

1000

100 1000

2400 2900

1000 200

50 250 100

2500 500 100 100 100

2500 14800

1480

16280 25100

2510 22590

3 10000

60% 85%

30

tftsraiFf/sS^*^ a t ^ 10,2007 Prat MR-^iid-i %^

, . Annexure II

Unit Cost of bamboos (Dendrocalamus strictus) in Wastelands (One ha model)

Spacing : 6m x 6m

No. of plants per ha :278

Mortality replacement :10%

No. of harvestable plants per ha : 90%

S. No. Particulars of Works

Techno-economic parameters

Unit

Avg. wage rate Rs. 50 per Man Day

Interest on term loan 12%

margin 10% of the unit cost

Species Dendrocalamus strictus.

Cost (Rs.) per year Total (Rs.)

1 Site preparation, alingment and staking

2 Digging of pits (45 cm x 45cm x 45cm) and refilling

3 Cost of Plants including transport and replacement plants ( 278/28))

4 Planting & Replanting expenses @50 plants per MD

5 Cost of Insecticide

6 Cost of FYM @ 5kg / pit/year

7 Cost of Fertilizer @ 0.1kg / plant/year

8 Weeding in first two years

9 Soil Working (per year)

10 Pruning from IV year onwards.

11 Plant Protection

12 Irrigation cost - 3 per annum for 2 • years® Rs. 750/- per irrigation

13 Fencing @ Rs.6/- RM / cattle proof trench

Sub Total

Contingency @ 5%

Grand Total (Unit cost taking first 6 yrs of expenditure)

Unit cost per ha. with a spacing of 6m x6m

Margin @10%

Bank loan @ 90%

LS

@ Rs. 4/pit

Rs. 3.00/

plant

6MD/1MD

LS

Rs. 0.3/kg

Rs. 8 / kg

10MD/8MD

lOMD/yr

10 MD

LS

LS

round off

1

2000

1112

834

300

150

417

222

500

500

250

2250

2500

11035

552

11587

11600

1160

10440

2

112

84

50

417

222

400

500

250

2250

4285

214

4499

4500

450

4050

3

417

222

500

250

1389

69

1458

1500

150

1350

4

417

222

500

500

250

1889

94

1983

2000

200

1800

5

^

417

222

500

500

250

1889

94

1983

2000

200

1800

6

417

222

500

500

250

1889

94

1983

2000

200

1800

2000

1224

918

350

150

2502

1332

900

3000

1500

1500

4500

2500

22376

1118.8

23495

23600

23600

2360

21240

Recurring Expenditure : # Rs. 3700/- towards the maintainance (pruning, soil working, fertilization) and harvesting cost.

^•^-4^

ISSUE 10,2007 For Private circulation only

TECHNIGAl DIGEST

PLANTATION & HORTICULTURE

The Thirteenth Business Development IVleet of Plantation and Horticulture Discipline of NABARD was held at Tocklai Experimental Station, Jorhat, Assam during 20 - 21 November, 2006. The meet was inaugurated by Dr K.G.Karmakar, MD, NABARD. He stressed on the need to achieve financial inclusion by involving all agencies and the people. He also stated that horticulture and plantation / tree based farming models are best suited for the North Eastern Region and we need to nurture good NGOs to take this mission forward. Dr. M.Hazarika, Director, Tocklai Experimental Station, in his address, stated that the future of the Indian tea industry lies in the production of value added teas, development of diversif ied products from tea and in reducing production cost. Dr P.G.Rao, Director, Regional Research Laboratory(RRL), Jorhat also a-ddressed the participants and highlighted the thrust areas of research being undertaken by RRL, Jorhat. Presentations were made by Dr.S.S.Bagel, Vice Chancellor, Assam Agricultural university, Jorhat on New Vistas of Agricultural Research in India with an accent on Commerc ia l Product ion and Processing of Horticultural Crops of North Eastern States and by Dr.Jayanta Madhab, Advisor to Chief Minister f Assam, on the Prospects & Problems of Horticulture Development in the North East . The business session of the meet discussed the state wise developments and the policy and operational

issues. The important issues identified at the national level are indicated below :

• Non-availability of adequate quantity of ^ quality planting materials.

• Inadequate extension services from the State Governments including farmers

• ' training on modern technologies, post harvest handling, etc.

• Absence of adequate marketing infrastructure.

• Price fluctuation in horticulture products.

• Inadequate post harvest management facilities including processing infrastructure.

• Grossly inadequate manpower at bank branch level, particularly technical to take care of horticultural projects.

• Banks' apathy towards f inancing horticultural activities.

• Lack of entrepreneurship acceptable to the banks in most states.

• Inadequate coordination amongst different agencies such as those concerned with horticulture development with institutional credit facilities.

• Insurance coverage.

• Non availability of updated land records to facilitate mortgaging.

• Small fragmented land holding.

• Stronghold of middlemen in marketing the horticultural products.

• Poor connectivity from farms to road heads to markets.

A field visit was undertaken to a tea estate and a tea factory run by Tata Tea. The diversification programme within the tea estate into floriculture and allied agricultural activities, initiated by Tata Tea gave the participants a first hand insight on the enterprising ability of the Company in their effort to revive the tea industry.

^ ^ ^

^te^pf/sS^te •afe 10, 2007 Prsfr "qft^jrcR %^ ,

WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT DISCIPLINE

Tlie Business Development Meet of Officers of Water Resources Development and Management Discipline was held at Water T e c h n o l o g y Cent re (WTC), Coimbatore f rom 7 - 9 August 2006. The objective of the meet was to take stock of the changing scenario, make plans for the future and to draft a plan of action for 2006-07. The Meet was attended by 36 officers f rom various Regional Officers and HO of NABARD. The Meet was inaugurated by Shri K.V. Ragavulu, CGM, Tamil Nadu RO. In his inaugural address Shri Ragavulu flagged issues like pricing of water, efficiency of power and irrigation for discussion. He also touched upon the Vaidhyanathan Commit tee and the X Finance Commission. Dr. M.V. Rangaswami, Director, Water Techno logy Cent re , Tami l Nadu A g r i c u l t u r a l University(TNAU), in his address, emphasised on the sustainability aspects of water resources management projects. He highlighted the urgent need for water resources management through the use of micro irrigation system. He feared that Tamil Nadu may soon become another desert as the water table had gone down in many parts of the state. Shri John Kurien, CGM, TSD gave a brief presentation on the overview of activities of WRD&M/MI discipline. He also released the national status paper prepared on Minor Irrigation du r ing the occas ion . This was f o l l o w e d by presentations by resource persons from Central Ground Water Board, Ministry of Agriculture, Go!, faculties from Water Technology Centre, TNAU, Jain Irrigation Limited and senior officers in the Irrigation sector. Shri John Kurien guided the deliberations of the Meet and spoke in detail on the Vision for Future for the Water Resources Development and Management Discipline Officers. Some of the impor tant national level issues that emerged during the meet are :

• Exploringthepossibil i ty of supporting micro level studies in overexp lo i ted areas by the State Government under R&D Fund of NABARD.

• Ensuring exploration of recharging ground water in project areas, extraction of water only f rom deeper aquifers by incorporating the same as a part of our terms and condit ions for projects sanctioned under RIDF

• Examining the technical details of efficient and low cost foreign made pump sets since the same are not eligible for NABARD refinance due to lack of BIS certification.

• Revisit ing the exist ing NABARD circulars on eligible investments in critical areas and areas

w h e r e g r o u n d wa te r is over e x p l o i t e d . Categorisation of blocks as per GEC-1997 to be notified to all SLBCs for compliance.

Emphasis on issues like ground water legislation, participatory irrigation management, revival of fa i l ed we l l s c o m p e n s a t i o n scheme and con junc t i ve use of water special ly in canal command areas.

P r o m o t i o n of m i c r o i r r i ga t i on ac t i v i t y fo r sus ta inab le u t i l i sa t i on of wa te r resources especially in critical and over exploited ground water areas and other water scarce areas. There is a need for standardisation of low cost micro irrigation systems and their wide scale availability.

Ground water governance is the need of the hour. Some states like Govt, of Andhra Pradesh has enacted APWALTA 2002 & 2004 to promote water conservation, regulate exploitation and use of ground and surface water.

Formation of WUAs should be made mandatory and they may be involved right f rom the planning stage and overhead and maintenance should be entrusted to them.

The security deposit / power connection charges and recurring charges should be rationalised in order to enable small / marginal farmers to be able to use power supply. This is in view of the non-ava i lab i l i ty of power (both in te rms of quantity and quality) which is acting as a major deterrent for operation of agricultural pump sets.

Impact assessment studies of Ml investments and correction action are required in some states

The existing MIS needs a relook to capture the f l ow of ins t i tu t ional f inance under d i f ferent investments of Ml discipline.

gllWPWWtf^,^

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33

1 ^ ^ ISSUE 10, 2007 For Private circulation only TICHHICftl/DIUEs" * - t '*-^:^t' ig^

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN DAIRY INDUSTRY

NABARD has supported a research Project for using

informat ion Technology in Dairy Sector.

The project has two major parts viz.,

A. Herd Health : The f irst major part is to collect

data on health of animals, examine the cl inical data

as revealed f rom blood and dung samples col lected,

apart f rom individual animal data and work out the

average for each vi l lage (treating each vi l lage as a

herd). The f indings in each vil lage is compared wi th

accepted norms and the problems exist ing in each

vi l lage is identi f ied and solut ions suggested. This

has brought out revealing results. For example, in

a v i l l a g e the H a e m o g l o b i n and Red B l o o d

C o r p u s c l e s c o u n t s are l o w i n d i c a t i n g i r o n

deficiency. This result was further conf i rmed f rom

examina t i on of faecal samp les , w h i c h s h o w e d

presence of worms which suck b lood and reduce

iron level in b lood of animals. Suitable remedies

have been suggested.

Similarly, the study has brought out that, average

ca lv ing in te rva l d i f fe rs by more than 90 days

between vil lages indicat ing that, in some vil lages

breeding management needs to be improved. In

some area, soil analysis reveals, calcium is adequate

and there is no need for calcium supplement in feed

of animals. This type of analysis can help to prevent

poor per formance and minera l mix tu res having

required ingredients only are used, which saves cost.

B. Performance Recording : The second major part

is about the performance recording of dairy animals.

In our country, the most important factor affecting

the eff ic iency of animal improvemen t is, lack of

r e c o r d s . The p r o j e c t has e m p l o y e d su i t ab le

ha rdwa re , w h i c h can be used by v i l l age level

workers for record ing the per fo rmance of dairy

animals. The software deve loped, can be used by

m i l k u n i o n s , p r i v a t e d a i r y u n i t s and even

Government cattle farms.

Development of Software

Project envisages recording the data of all animals

f r om vil lages by f ie ld level para-veterinarians by a

handheld PC (simputer), wh ich are transferred to

PC at the milk union for analysis, ident i f icat ion of

problems and suggest ing remedial measures.

The sof tware "Herdman" used for analysing the

data f rom the village centres, provides the fol lowing

report: ^ / ,

(i) Breed Master : Breed-wise data, (ii) Farm Master :

Farm-wise data, (iii) Staff Master : Staff-wise data,

(iv) Parameter Master : Parameter-wise data and (v)

Source Master : Source-wise data.

Collection of Data and Follow- up

An action list generated on the animals tells the village

level worker, which are the animals to be examined

for heat or pregnancy, which animals are expected to

calve etc. An alarm list is also generated which gives

him a list of animals which are having delayed heat,

fertility problems, low milk yield etc.

This is an excellent tool in the hands of paravet.s and

veterinarians, who supervise the village level workers,

as they can easily identify and treat the animals before

they actually become sick. In dairy farming, if a heat

is missed (animal not inseminated), 21 days milk

production is lost. For the first t ime in our country,

some effort has been made to record the observations

for future use.

Data Management

The data is available at three levels.

(1) At the farm level, the owner has approximate

figures. Animals can have a chip embedded in

the body which can store all information.

(2) At the livestock centre in the village level which

maintains data on all animals. The plan is to

put-up touch screen so that, farmers wi l l have

access to in format ion on own animals. This

' 3 4 '

^tetPFr 315=^^ 3jg; 10.2007. f ^ Ci^ct-l %f

PC also will get results of analysis done at milk

union level which will help farmers to understand

the local p rob lems and use the remedies

suggested. For example, iron deficiency and

reason for this like worm infestation. Classifying

data breed-wise and unit-wise, generates average

results which can be compared with accepted

norms and level of performance at the unit or

village level can be zeroed on.

(3) At milk union level which maintains all data on

all animals covered by it. Our project supports

maintenance of data at this level only. However,

the milk unions is interested in maintaining data

at village level, so that, feedback to farmers is easy.

From the project, dairy farmers are benefitted

; through reduction of infection in animals and

feeding cost and increase in milk production.

ON FARM RESEARCH ON PULSES - MAJOR FINDINGS

NABARD has sanctioned the above R&D project to

Tamil Nadu Rice Research Ins t i tu te , Ada thava i ,

Than javur Distr ic t , Tamil Nadu wh i ch has been

completed successfully.

The existing viable technologies adopted by the pulse

g rowing farmers and constraints in adopt ing the

improved technologies in the Cauvery command area

of Than javu r and Nagapa t t i nam d is t r i c t s were

identified through a comprehensive survey conducted

among the selected farmers, fo l lowed by on-farm

experiments conducted during 2000-2003. There is

significant improvement in adoption of the technology

by the selected farmers when compared to pre-project

survey. Major findings that emerged f rom the studies

are fol lows:

1. Pulses are grown in rice-fallow utilising the

residual moisture and the moisture obtained

f rom dew. The seed is broadcasted in the

standing rice f ie ld, 5 to 10 days before the

harvest of rice w h e n the soi l mois ture is

opt imum, i.e., seed should get embedded in

wet waxy layer. Black gram and green gram

are the two main pulses grown.

2. In black gram, high yielding varieties like ADT1,

ADT2, ADT3, ADT4 and in green gram ADT2

and ADT3 are found to be suitable for rice-

fallow situation.

3. To realize higher yields f rom rice fallow, the

correct t ime of sowing is very important. The

crop wil l give higher yield when sown during

15 January to 15 February.

Op t imum plant populat ion is the basis for

higher yield. Opt imum seed rate of 30 kg/ ha

is recommended. The gaps are to be filled with

p re -sprou ted seeds to maintain o p t i m u m

population.

To prevent the spread of seed borne diseases,

pre-seed treatment wi th fungicide/ bio-control

agent is to be resorted. For this seed treatment

with Trichoderma viride @ 4 gm/kg of seeds

or Pseudomonas @ 10 gm/kg or Carbendazim

@ 2 gm/kg must be done to prevent root rot

disease. For leaf crinkle disease, spraying with

Dimethonate @ 500 ml/ha is recommended.

To control leaf beetles and pod borer, Neem

Seed Kernel extract @ 5% or Neem Oil @ 3%

can be sprayed.

Foliar spraying of 2% ADP -t- 40 PPM NAA on

25 and 40 Days gives higher grain yield in rice-

fa l low black gram (ADT3) wi th increase in

number of pod on plant and in number of seeds

per pod. The average yield of sample farmers

was 639 kg/ha with min imum of 375 kg/ha and

maximum of 1250 kg/ha.

For new Cauvery Delta area where irrigation

facility is available, black gram variety ADT5 is

highly suitable through suitable foliar spray of

nutrient mix.

^ ^ ^ — • ^ ^

10, 2007 For Private circulation only TECHNICAL DIGEST

INCENTIVISING FARMERS FOR ORGANIC FARMING B.K. Samal and H.N. Bhuyan

Organic farming is a production system of crops that

avoids the use of synthetic and chemical inputs like

fertilisers, pesticides, growth regulators and livestock

feed additives. Appl icat ion of genetically modif ied

organisms and irradiation of food stuffs are prohibited

under organic farming system. It is a system approach

utilising natural cycles and biological interactions for

crop product ion and p ro tect ion. This method of

farming produce food for healthy consumption and at

the same time protect the soil and environment. India

as a leading agriculture producer and with a tradition

of organic farming has unique opportunities to capture

growing organic markets both in fresh and processed

forms, in the domestic and export market. However,

desired growth is not there due to lack of awareness

and constraints faced by farmers for going organic.

Under the c i rcumstances, NABARD management

Committee in one of its decisions advised TSD to

examine if incentivisation is required for encouraging

farmers to go in for organic farming and to identify

areas of incentivisation if required.

In an attempt to examine the issue of incentivising

farmers to go for organic fa rming. TSD, HO has

conducted one field study in Yavatmal, Amaravati and

Pune some selected distr icts of Maharashtra and

interacted with some leading f irms that has gone for

organic.

Major Observations

1. With organic farming the yield gets stabilised

after the end of the conversion period (2 to 3

years). The differences in yields and economics

of organic and conventional systems are only

marginal and organic systems offer comparable

productivity.

2. Inadequacy of input mater ia l avai labi l i ty is

no t i ceab le . C o m p o s t / v e r m i c o m p o s t is

produced in the villages mostly for own use;

no commercial unit is there in any of the villages

covered. Some farmers w h o do not have

sufficient or any cattle, prefer to stay inorganic.

3. Physical quality of grain/product improves under

organic system of p roduc t i on . Rice grains

remain unbroken after pounding and weight

more with less volume indicating higher density.

Rice recovery ratio is higher (100 : 70) against the

inorganic (100 : 60).

4. Organic farming improves soil qualities f rom

physical chemical and biological point of view.

5. The Nat iona l Project on Organic Farming

initiated by Government of India has l imited

components. Different subsidy schemes related

t o o rgan i c f a r m i n g have been f l o a t e d /

imp lemen ted by Government of India and

Government of Maharashtra.

6. Major cost components for organic production

are i npu ts l ike c o m p o s t / v e r m i c o m p o s t ,

certification, transportation, storage, cleaning,

sorting, packing and marketing, which makes

organic cult ivat ion higher than conventional

farming.

7. India has 20 crores potential customers for

; o rgan ic p roduc t s to be tapped . There is

increasing demand for organic food items in

. Mumbai market wi th an annual demand growth

- of about 40%. The growth in other Indian cities

is also very fast.

8k Total annual market for organic product is

around $ 13 bil l ion. In developed countries, the

organic food trade represents about 2% of the

tota l f ood t rade. Indian expor t markets in

European countr ies including U.K., USA and

Japan are expanding.

9. The retail prices of organic items are significantly

higher than the regular ones.

10. Agencies like Eco-farm, Maharashtra Organic

Farmers' Federation, etc. facilitate group training

to farmers, provide guidance, purchase organic

farm products and facilitate marketing.

11. Major constraints faced by the organic farmers are:

i. Shortage of input materials including cow

dung.

Deputy General Managers, TSD, HO

iflHiPel/iSSS 3T^ 10, 2007 Prat MR'MMH %g

ii. Certif ication - cost and complicated procedure.

iii. Capacity building.

iv. Market linkage.

V. State support.

12. For realising premium price, two important requirements are : I '

i. Facilities for testing and certifying the produce as organic at local level.

: ii. Adequate and appropriate market infrastructure exclusively for organic products, so as to prevent mixing up with conventional products and to enable fetching premium prices providing safeguard to the farmers'interest.

Recommendations

1. Banks may give priority to projects related to organic farming.

7.

There is a need to develop separate scale of

finance for crops grown under organic system

and enhanced refinance support.

Farmers may be incentivised for rearing more

cattle to have more cowdung/compost and also

for establishing bigger vermi compost units.

Capital subsidy scheme on organic farming may

be extended for production of biopesticides and

compost from other bio-resources.

Production subsidy may be provided for

popularising organic inputs at affordable retail

prices as done for chemical fertilisers.

Creation of infrastructure for testing and

certifying at local level.

Cost of certif ication being costly, may be

incentivised.

Service providers such as NGOs may be

incentivised for providing training, technologies,

exploring marketing, etc.

^^-4^

Hi-tech market infrastructure - The TN initiative

The Tamil Nadu Government is reported to be planning to create terminal markets for agriculture

produce with necessary infrastructure in three places, to eliminate post-harvest loss and ensure

remunerative prices to farmers. These markets will have facilities such as collection centres,

pre-cooling equipment, sorting and treatment facilities, and electronic auction. They will be

established in Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai, declared the State Finance Minister, Mr. K.

Anbazhagan recently. Presenting the 2006-07 budget, he said these markets wil l provide good

export opportunities besides enhancing marketing prospects for agricultural produce. He said

cold storage facilities wil l be created for onion in Palladam in Coimbatore district, for mangoes

in Krishnagiri district, and for grapes at Odaipatti in Theni district to enable export of these

produce. The Government wil l also take action to produce ethanol in all sugar mills for blending

it with petrol. Farmers wil l be encouraged to cultivate sweet sorghum and sugar beet as these

can also be used for producing ethanol.

37

ISSUE 10, 2007 For Private circulation only

TECHNICAL/DiGlST

BROILER POULTRY IN BODOLAND Thanks to the initiative of our Assam Regional Office , we have formed a nucleus of contract broiler farming in Assam. It all started at a workshop held in Guwahathi. With the great demand for poultry meat, the potential for the activity in Northeast is very high. VHPL accepted our request to establish a centre for broiler farming. RO acted as a catalyst and coordinated the entire plan by liaising with State Government, local people etc. In spite of many teething troubles, persistence paid off in the end. The present position is:.

• With the cooperation of Venkateswara Hatcheries in Kolkotta, persons in 4 districts of Assam were trained on broiler farming.

• 65 units under contract farming has been established with the help of local authorities. (6 units by Bodo women. (Kokrajar and Chirang districts)

• Average size of farm is 2000 birds

• Bodoland Livestock Farming and Marketing Society(BLFM) is providing help for cheap shed construction (Bodo Tribal Council has announced assistance to farmers for poultry farming).

• Another 100 new groups are being formed and they will take up broiler farming after training.

Venkateswara Hatcheries Pvt. Ltd ( VHPL) supply chicks, feed, equipment like feeder, waterer, and also help in marketing.

So far no bank finance is involved.

There were threats from local poultry Industry but our RO has enlisted the support of locals.

Our staff in Guwahathi RO really deserve to be congratulated for the unique efforts taken.

NATIONAL FISHERIES DEVELOPMENT BOARD

With the objective of achieving full potentials of Indian fisheries. Government of India has constituted "National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB)" under the Ministry of Agriculture with a budget of Rs. 2,100 Crores during 2006-2012. The board consists of Governing Body and Executive Committee, whereChairman of NABARD is a member of the Governing Body and Managing Director of NABARD is the member of Executive Committee. The Headquarter of the NFDB is at Hyderabad.

The objectives of NFDB are as follows:

1. To bring major activities relating to fisheries and aquaculture for focused attention and professional management.

2. To coordinate activities pertaining to fisheries undertaken by different Ministries/ Departments in the central government and also coordinate with the State/Union Territory Governments.

3. To improve production, processing, storage, transport and marketing of the products of capture and culture fisheries.

4. To achieve sustainable management and conservation of natural aquatic resources including the fish stocks

5. To apply modern tool of research and development including biotechnology for optimizing production and productivity from fisheries

6. To provide modern infrastructure mechanisms for fisheries and ensure their effective management and optimum utilization.

7. To generate substantial employment

8. To train and empower women in the fisheries sector

9. To enhance contribute offish towards food and nutritional security.

MAHARASHTRA EMERGES AS A TOP PRODUCER & EXPORTER OF POMEGRANATE

R.N. Hegde

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Pomegranate is a native of the region from Iran to Himalayas. While the crop has been cultivated since time immemorial , commercial cult ivation of pomegranate was taken up in India since mid 70s. Over a period of 30 years, India has emerged as a top producer of pomegranate and has been able to enter the export market. The other pomegranate producing countries in the world are Afghanistan, Iran, Spain and some Middle East countries. At present, an area of 1,12,500 ha is under pomegranate cultivation. Maharashtra state accounts for 72 per cent of the total production of pomegranate in the country, with 88,500 hectares under cultivation and an output of around 7,92,500 metric tones. Earlier, "Ganesh" variety was popular among the farmers, but, of late, "Bhagwa" variety has taken over Ganesh variety. Bhagwa variety is medium in size, with 35% juice, hard seeds, good keeping quality and without black seeds (arils), which is normallyfound in othervarieties of pomegranates.

Pomegranate fruits can remain for one month at room temperature and at 15Ceven up to three months. "In 2004, there was a demand from Spain for two containers of pomegranate and in 2005, it grew to eight containers from Holland and two from United Kingdom" says Shri Prabhakar Chandne, President, Maharashtra Pomegranate Producers & Research Society, Pune.India exported 10,000 Mt of pomegranate of Bhagwa variety in 2004. Bhagwa variety which is a selection from farmers fields is now recommended by MPKV Rahuri Agricultural University. Maharashtra. Rahuri Agricultural University has released two other varieties viz. Mrudula and Arakta which are also becoming popular. This crop is best suited for drought prone areas as it requires light soil and a rainfall of 25-50cms only. A National Research Centre (NRC) for pomegranate is to be established in Solapur over an area of 60 hectares soon. The Centre to be set up will be under the control of the Central Institute for Arid Horticulture (CIAH), Bikaner. The Centre will be equipped with laboratories and other infrastructure for research to improve the quality of pomegranates. Efforts will be made to produce processed products like squash and anardana from pomegranates. Research will be conducted in coordination with the CIAH and other agricultural universities.

Interventions needed in the cultivation and marketing of pomegranate

The pomegranate growing areas often experience drought conditions. Hence provision for irrigation is required. This necessities the need for water harvesting structures. Water harvesting structures lined with plastic sheets have become popular among the farmers. This increases the credit needs of pomegranate growers. Nowadays, farmers exporting pomegranate get around 4 Euro for a 3'2 kg box. It is understood that the same amount is sold at 8 Euro in Europe. In other words, the trader gets as much as the farmer gets. Marketing interventions are required to increase the share of the farmers in the consumer price by strengthening the marketing system. It is understood that the world demand for of pomegranates is around 500 containers. High temperatures have an adverse effect on the colour of the fruits. So to obtain export quality fruits, farmers require shade nets in their orchards, which is capital intensive. Interventions are also required for technology transfer on production of export quality fruits to farmers.

Solapur district in Maharashtra, has the maximum area under pomegranate There is a cooperative society of pomegranate farmers with 5000 members in Solapur. Efforts are on to brand their produce under "MAHANAR" for the export market. Another interesting fact is that India has very few competitors in the world market for pomegranate. It will be no wonder, if India's pomegranates reach the supermarkets of America & Japan soon.

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General Manager, Maharashtra Regional Office

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Ephedra gerardiana

The plant is a woody shrub and it can grow well in sandy and loamy soils.The plant contains active alkaloid known as Tphedrine' and they are widely used in preparations for the treatment of asthma. Ephedrine acts promptly to reduce swellings of the mucous membranes and has antispasmodic properties, thus making it valuable in the treatment of asthma. The plant also has antiviral effects, particularly against influenza. Ephedrine is seen as a performance-boosting herb and, as such, is a forbidden substance in many sporting events such as athletics.