Food and agribusiness in Karnataka, Karnataka agribusiness, Way2Agribusiness, Way2Foods

Food & Agribusiness in Karnataka

All the participants in the food and agribusiness chain mainly the famers need to continue with their livelihood agriculture activities though the desired results and returns not achieved in their operations. This is not only important for farmers’ point of view but also for consumers, to meet their food requirements. Practically, food sector will never face recession as consumers cannot forgo food. This reveal that there is a huge scope for growth in the sector, but change in perception mainly in the mind of the farming community from merely farming to agribusiness is a must. Concept of crop

production should change from production driven to consumer/ market driven for better results. Higher priority for commercial crop cultivation, value addition to produce and application of business principles in selected commercial agriculture operations is the indicator of transition towards agribusiness.However, there is a scope to do a lot more for betterment of food and agribusiness sector in India and also in the state of Karnataka. The state is blessed with 10 agro climatic zones, which are suitable for different products offering by taking up production and marketing of different food and agricultural crops. It is the time for adoption of crop cluster approach, adoption of better cultivation practices, value addition to the produce and have a practice of marketing excellence.

Government Policies & Notifications

Centre sets up committee to strengthen MSP system

Date: Jul 18, 2022 & Source: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/agriculture/centre-sets-up-committee-to-strengthen-msp-system/articleshow/92963234.cms
The government on Monday formed a committee on Minimum Support Price (MSP), eight months after it promised to set up such a panel while withdrawing the three contentious farm laws. Former agriculture secretary Sanjay Agrawal will be the chairman of the committee. The government has made a provision to include three members from Sanyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) as part of the committee but the farm organisation has so far not given any names to be part of the panel. Under the umbrella of SKM, thousands of farmers had held around one year-long agitation at Delhi borders and forced the government to withdraw the farm laws. While announcing the repeal of three farm laws in November last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to set up a committee to discuss the farmers' demand for a legal guarantee on MSP. The Agriculture Ministry issued a gazette notification announcing the setting up of a committee in this regard. The panel will comprise Niti Aayog member Ramesh Chand, agri-economists CSC Shekhar from Indian Institute of Economic Development and Sukhpal Singh from IIM- Ahmedabad and Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) senior member Naveen P Singh. Among farmer representatives, the committee will have National award-winning farmer Bharat Bhushan Tyagi, three members from SKM, and five members from other farmer organisations include Gunwant Patil, Krishnaveer Choudhary, Pramod Kumar Choudhary, Guni Prakash and Sayyed Pasha Patel.

Horticulture output may rise 2% to 342 million tonne in 2021-22: Govt

Monsoon 2022: Southwest monsoon rainfall June-September LPA likely to be 103%, says IMD

Karnataka set for hat-trick bumper food production

India must not lose focus on wheat and rice while encouraging millets

Date: New Delhi, May 31 2022
https://www.daijiworld.com/news/newsDisplay?newsID=963886

Amid concerns over global food shortage, India -- the world's largest producer of millets -- is looking at expanding its public distribution. The short nutritious grains may be distributed for mid-day meals and also at the Anganwadi centres. While it is imperative to reset focus on production of these short grains with their growing acceptance within the country and outside and rising threats of food insecurity, experts said it must be done in a well-planned manner ensuring that it does not lead to "lower cultivation of other staple crops such as rice and wheat". Millet crops are essentially resilient to drought and floods and can be produced even at drylands. "Increased production of millets should enlarge the overall food plate, not lower it by reducing other crops yields," a food analyst with one of the industry bodies told India Narrative. Compared to other cereals such as wheat, rice and maize, production of millets is still low in the country. "The increase in millet output and distribution can easily ease food pressure in India but authorities must prepare a roadmap for the same at the earliest," he said. In India, millets are grown in about 21 states but Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana top the list. In a total cultivated area of 13 million hectares, more than 16 million tonnes of millets of various varieties are produced. Dwijendra Nath Guru, an advocate and activist for sustainable food systems and founder of the Bengaluru-based resource and support organization The Millet Foundation told Deutsche Welle that "simply replacing the consumption of one type of grain with another in a way that would create a new monoculture of crop dependence". And we cannot have a myopic Eurocentric policy that simply deprives developing countries of their share of grains which will be exported," the news organisation quoted him as saying. In 2020-21, India accounted for 41 per cent of the total world production in 2020 and earned $27 million by exporting these ancient grains. Global export of millet increased from $380 million in 2019 to $402.7 million in 2020. Push for millet production: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in this year's budget had also announced assistance for post-harvest value addition and branding of millet products in the domestic as well as global markets. An Assocham report published last year said that post green revolution, the scenario of Indian agriculture has been changed and people shifted to cultivate rice and wheat due to several reasons such as changing in food habit, increased income, higher productivity, urbanization, competition with other crops. "That trend is changing and needs to be changed but with care and caution," the analyst said as he referred to increased global food concerns in the post Covid-19 phase driven by the Russia-Ukraine war. One of the main drivers of the Sri Lankan economic crisis is the policy shift in its agriculture sector. "While in Sri Lanka, the crisis has been led by a switch to organic farming, India too needs to learn a lesson -- a lesson of caution when it comes to the agriculture sector. The idea (in the case of millets) should be to increase production but definitely not in lieu of other important crops -- that must be kept in mind," the food analyst noted. Meanwhile, the UN General Assembly, which adopted a consensus resolution sponsored by India, has declared the year 2023 as the International Year of Millets.

Food & Agribusiness News & Events

News

India's agricultural, processed food product exports up by 31%

Heavy rains damage coffee crops, plantation infrastructure in Karnataka, growers incur 35% yield losses.

Paddy cultivation sees decline

06 August 2022
https://www.deccanherald.com/business/economy-business/indias-agricultural-processed-food-product-exports-up-by-31-1133738.html
Exports of agricultural and processed food products rose by 31 per cent in the first three months of the current financial Year 2022-23 (April-June) in comparison to the corresponding period of FY 2021-22, as per government data. As per the provisional data released by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S), the overall export of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) products increased to $7,408 m. The initiatives taken by the APEDA that works under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry have helped the country in achieving 31 per cent of the total export target in the first quarter of the current fiscal. As per the DGCI&S provisional data, fresh fruits and vegetables registered four per cent growth, while processed fruits and vegetables recorded a significant growth of 59.71 per cent (April-June 2022) in comparison to corresponding months of the previous year.
September 02, 2022
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/heavy-rains-damage-coffee-crops-plantation-infrastructure-in-karnataka-growers-incur-35-yield-losses/article65840177.ece
Heavy rains have been battering plantation districts of Chikkamagaluru, Kodagu, Hassan and Chamarajanagar since July 1, causing huge damage to the coffee crop, coffee plants and estate infrastructure, as per KPA. “The coffee plants are affected by both stalk rot and root rot diseases. Growers assess the damage to the coffee crop, coffee plants and estate infrastructure in general. The yield loss itself is estimated at more than 35%,’‘ N. Ramanathan, Chairman, KPA told The Hindu. Heavy rains have adversely affected normal life in these plantation districts. Streams are overflowing, water has stagnated in the low-lying areas and coffee plants are marooned. Several trees in the plantations have also fallen due to rains with strong winds further damaging the coffee plants, he said. A large number of coffee plants have been standing in water for weeks now. “Plants start shedding leaves and berries after standing in water for a week, causing huge damage to planters,’‘ Ramanathan added. Steady and slow rain for a long time is a good thing for plantations. But this time, in a short span of a few days, the region has received an overdose of rains. “The rains in July and August were 26% above average normal rainfall. Consequently, the coffee berries have turned black and have dropped off due to which the crop is lost and the quality of remaining coffee crop on the plants has also deteriorated,’‘ he stated.
Restructure loans for coffee growers: At this juncture, KPA asked the Coffee Board and departments of Revenue and Horticulture to inspect the flood-affected areas of coffee-growing regions in Karnataka and further assess the damage. KPA also requested the state government to declare affected villages in Chikkamagalur, Kodagu, Hassan and Chamarajnagar districts as flood-affected areas. Further, the planters’ body also asked both central and state governments to provide relief to the affected plantation growers. “Banks should also take note of the coffee damage and restructure existing loans and provide relief to coffee growers who incurred huge losses during this monsoon,” Ramanathan said.
NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 02, 2022
https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/agriculture/paddy-cultivation-sees-decline/article65841782.ece
The trend of decrease in paddy sowing has continued even as the monsoon season in northern India is in its last legs. According to the data released by the Union Agriculture Ministry on Friday, the decrease in the area of paddy cultivation is 22.90 lakh hectares, 5.62% less that the area covered in 2021. As of now, paddy has been cultivated in 383.99 lakh hectares of area and in the corresponding period of last year it was 406.89 lakh hectares. “Thus 22.90 lakh ha less area has been covered compared to last year,” the Centre said. States such as Jharkhand (decrease of 9.80 lakh hectares), Madhya Pradesh (6.32 lakh hectares), West Bengal (4.45 lakh hectares), Chhattisgarh (3.91 lakh hectares), Uttar Pradesh (2.61 lakh hectares) and Bihar (2.18 lakh hectares) are the major contributors for the decrease in the cultivated area of paddy in this kharif season. Meanwhile States such as Telangana (increase of 4.71 lakh hectares), Haryana (0.94 lakh hectares), Nagaland (0.78 lakh hectares) and Gujarat (0.55 lakh hectares) showed an increase in the area of cultivation of paddy. Farmers’ organisations have been maintaining that the higher input cost, particularly the increase in prices of fertilisers, is the main reason for the decrease in paddy cultivation apart from scarcity of water. The government is hopeful about a normal monsoon this year.
The coverage of pulses too witnessed a marginal decrease. In this kharif, the cultivation so far is in 129.55 lakh hectares compared to 135.46 lakh hectares in 2021. Increase in area in cultivation is reported from States such as Madhya Pradesh (4.08 lakh hectares), Uttar Pradesh (0.22 lakh hectares) and Assam (0.11 lakh hectares) while Maharashtra (decrease of 3.23 lakh hectares), Telangana (1.70 lakh hectares), Jharkhand (1.33 lakh hectares) and Karnataka (0.94 lakh hectares). Tur/arhar cultivation was down marginally at 44.86 lakh hectares as against 47.56 lakh hectares in 2021, while that of urad cultivation was at 36.62 lakh hectares against 38.18 lakh hectares in 2021. Oilseeds have been cultivated in 188.51 lakh hectares, slightly less than 189.66 lakh hectares of 2021. In the case of sugarcane, the cultivation is 55.65 lakh hectares, an increase compared to 54.70 lakh hectares in 2021 kharif. In the case of cotton, the cultivation 125.69 lakh hectares against 117.68 lakh hectares during last kharif.

Events

AgriTech India 2022, Fri, 26 – Sun, 28 Aug, at BIEC, Bengaluru

Krishi Mela Dharwad 2022, 27 – 29, May 2022, at UAS, Dharwad

EIMA Agrimach INDIA, Thu, 1 – Sat, 3 Sept, at UAS, Bengaluru

Asia-Pacific Conference on Sustainable Agriculture, Wed, 18 – Fri, 20 May, The Capitol Hotel, Bengaluru

Natural Products Expo India, ri, 6 May - Sun, 8 May, at UAS, Bengaluru

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Market Intelligence

Market information v/s intelligence: Market Intelligence is a process of analysis of data and giving insights into what might happen in the future. This

Trading platform

Building linkage between the farm and the market for the benefit of farmers and also trading community is the need of the day. This would assist to reduction

Horticulture

With commercial crops gaining momentum, there has been a great shift in the minds of farming community to go for horticulture. Horticulture

Vegetables cultivation

Demand for green vegetables and fresh vegetables is increasing with increase in population and also increasing demand for high.

Value Addition

Value addition is gaining momentum as the food is transported for longer distances and globalisation has created more opportunity to trade food products

Crop cluster

At a time when input cost, labour cost, management cost are going up, cluster approach play an important role in making efficient use of resources,

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