Report on Officers’ Training conducted at Palakkad on 15-07-2010

INTRODUCTION

The transition of Indian agriculture from a “monsoon driven” production system

to “science-based, technology driven and industry-linked” modern agriculture was

smooth. However, Indian agriculture is yet to mature into a “market responsive” vibrant

agriculture. Marketing is as critical to better performance in agriculture as farming itself.

Therefore, an efficient marketing system ought to be an integral part of any systematic

policy and strategy for agricultural development because agricultural marketing links the

farm and the non-farm sectors in any economy. In this aspect, production is only half

battle won.

Plate1. Sri. M. Vanajadalakshan, Assistant Director (Marketing), Palakkad welcoming the gathering

Present day agricultural marketing necessitates that agricultural commodities have

to undergo a series of value addition in the supply chain before it finally reaches the

consumer’s plate. The changing market trends, consumer preferences, new markets, new

suppliers can all alter the nature of transaction in the new “farm to fork” approach. A

farmer while giving his entire time for planning production related activities single

handedly cannot keep track of the changing market or price signals. The relevance and

need of institutional mechanisms to advise the farmer on this market related aspects

assume significance in this context. It was against this background that an Officers’

Training Programme was jointly organized by the Agricultural Market Intelligence

Centre under NAIP of Department of Agricultural Economics of the Kerala Agricultural

University and the Department of Agriculture, Government of Kerala on 15-06-2010 at

Top-In-Town auditorium in Palakkad.

Plate 2. Sri. P.C. Ravindranath, Principal Agricultural Offi cer, Palakkad

District inaugurating the training programme

The programme consisted of an inaugural session followed by technical sessions.

The gathering was formally welcomed by by Sri. M. Vanajadalakshan, Assistant Director

(Marketing), Palakkad.

The function was presided over by Dr. K Jesy Thomas, Professor and Head,

Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Horticulture. Sri. P.C. Ravindranath,

Principal Agricultural Officer, Palakkad inaugurated the training programme. The

inaugural session concluded with Dr. K. Satheesh Babu, Professor and CCPI of the

project proposing the vote of thanks.

Plate 3: Presidential Address by Dr. K. Jesy Thomas, Professor and Head

This was followed by the technical sessions. The first session was handled by Dr. K.

Satheesh Babu, Professor & CCPI of the Agricultural Market Intelligence Centre. His topic of

discussion was “Changing Agricultural Market Environment: Options and Strategies”. He

explained the peculiar problems faced by the Kerala farmers in agricultural marketing on

account of the predominance of small and fragmented holdings.

Group approach initiatives were suggested to overcome the problems posed by

small marketable surplus and lack of on farm processing for value addition. The need to

shift from “production agriculture” to “market led agriculture” was explained in detail

with successful case studies. The importance of evolving a technology based, information

intensive agriculture in the changing scenario for farmers was dealt in detail by giving the

price behaviour of major commodities.

Plate 4: Dr. K. Satheesh Babu, Professor and CCPI handling the technical session

Unequal accesses to market related information and intelligence inputs lead to

unequal playing grounds for farmers and traders. The farmers’ ignorance was the trader’s

gain till now. Though farm related information has been provided by the radio, TV and

newspapers, there was no mechanism to analyze, interpret and convert this vast volume

of information into simple, comprehensible trade intelligence. This calls for a farmer

friendly, easily accessible market intelligence system, especially for the Kerala farmers

who are adversely affected by the world market easily because most of the commodities

are export oriented. It was in this context that Dr. K. Jesy Thomas, Professor & Co PI of

the project introduced the topic on “Agricultural Market Intelligence: Need and

Applications”. In her session, she explained in detail about the activities undertaken by

the consortium on “Establishing and Networking of Agricultural Market Intelligence

Centres in India”, and the concept of price intelligence with forecasts made by the Centre

for pepper, coconut and cardamom along with validations were exposed to the assembled

officers, who are grass root level technical officers, directly in contact with hundreds of

farmers. The major Agricultural Market Intelligence Systems in India were introduced to

the officers with their contact details. The activities of Domestic and Export Market

Intelligence Cell (DEMIC) of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University was also explained.

The latest forecasts released by the Centre for pepper and coconut and the related

publicity materials were also distributed to all Officers as hard copy.

Plate 5: Dr. K. Jesy Thomas, Professor and Co PI handling the

technical session

In all, 54 officers attended the training programme.

Plate 6: A glance of the audience

Plate 7: Sri. N.L George Sales & Marketing Manager, IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Ltd, Kochi demonstrating Green Card Facilities to the officers

Sri. George. N.L, Head-Sales and Marketing, IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Ltd

explained the importance of getting Green Card Mobile connections and demonstrated

how to access the recorded voice messages from the Green Card Mobile connection.

The technical sessions evoked enthusiastic response from the officers. During the

feed back session, Officers were given an opportunity to clarify their doubts regarding the

points deliberated in the training sessions.

Plate 8: The feed back Session in progress

Intersession tea and refreshments were provided to all participants during the

training programme and a lunch at the end of the programme.