A few days back, Parliament passed following bills,
claimed to be “ Farmer – friendly “:
Ø Farmers
Produce Trade and Commerce ( Promotion and Facilitation ) Bill 2020 ( Free Market )
Ø Farmers
( Empowerment and Protection ) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services
Bill 2020 ( Contract
Farming )
Ø Essential
Services ( Amendment ) Bill 2020 ( Unlimited Stock )
Some 18 opposition parties have got together and
decided to launch a Nation-wide agitation to protest against these Acts
Opposition parties finding fault with
government-sponsored bills, is nothing new. Nor any undisciplined behavior in
parliament, much of a surprise
If however, these protests spill-over across entire
country, then we can conclude that :
Ø Government
has miserably failed in “ Convincingly Selling “ the “ Farmer-Friendly “ provisions of these bills
to the farmers
Ø Opposition
has admirably succeeded in “ Convincingly
Misleading “ the farmers , by raising doubts / fears
Here, I would like to talk about just one law – Contract Farming – where
the fears are :
Ø Farmers
say corporates will have upper hand in fixing prices and resolving dispute in
courts
Ø They
will not want to deal with small farmers
Govt says : Not
true ! ( Why
are Modi govt’s ‘ Farmer-friendly ‘laws facing protests
Industry leaders say : ( Contract farming to help farmers,
says industry )
Extract :
Ø It will help increase
income for farmers, particularly the small and marginal ones, as they will get
better access to good quality inputs and better farm practices
Ø “A deeper engagement
between the farmers and food processors or retailers helps in guiding the
farmers align the crop varieties, quality, farm management practices etc with what the
market wants,” said S Sivakumar, head, Agri & Tech, ITC Limited.
Ø Besides, long-term
contracts with farmers will justify the higher investments made by companies on technology
and farms,
said Ashok Sharma, president – agriculture sector & MD and CEO –Mahindra
Agri Solutions Ltd, (MASL), the agri-business initiative of the Mahindra Group.
Ø The companies will implement best practices on usage of seeds and farming techniques with a focus on technology to bring in efficiencies
===================================================
It is high time, Central Government / established
Agro-processing Companies and Agro-business Start-ups, launch a massive
campaign to EDUCATE the farmers by sharing with them the following examples of
how TECHNOLOGICAL INPUTS are revolutionizing farms in
the developed countries and raising
the farmer’s income :
( Source : The
Future is Faster than you think / Peter Diamandis +
Steven Kotler / pages : 202 – 205 )
[ A ] …Apeel Sciences
…. Is
using biomimicry and material science to take on the problem of food waste. Apeel has found a way to use completely
natural, plant-derived materials to make cutin
in te lab, where it can be sprayed onto food ( or the food can be dipped in it
). It’s odorless, tasteless, colorless, and food coated with it is still
considered organic. Avocados, protected in this manner, take 60 percent longer to soften and are already available at most
major American grocery stores
[ B ]…. Plenty
Unlimited Inc
…………… With over $ 200 million funding, Plenty is taking
a smart tech approach to indoor agriculture. Plants grow on twenty-foot-high
towers, monitored by tens of thousands of cameras and sensors, and optimized by
big data machine learning. This allows to pack forty
plants into the space previously occupied by one. It also produces yields 350 times greater than
outdoor farmland, and uses less than 1 percent as much water. And rather than bespoke
veggies for the wealthy few, Plenty’s process allow them to knock 20 to 35 percent off the costs of traditional grocery
stores. To date, Plenty has their flagship operation in south San Francisco ; a
one-hundred-thousand-square-foot farm in Kent, Washington ; an indoor farm in
the United Arab Emirates; and they have started construction on over three
hundred farms in China
[ C ]…. Aero-Farms
On the other side of US, in a repurposed
seventy-thousand-square foot factory in Newark, New Jersey, a company called
Aero-Farms has figured out how to grow over 2 million pounds of
leafy greens a year with neither sun nor soil. Instead, inside their
facility, rows of AI-controlled LEDs provide the exact wavelength of light each
plant needs to thrive. Using aeroponics, nutrients are misted directly onto the
plant’s roots, so no soil is required. Rather,
plants are suspended in a growth mesh fabric made from recycled
water bottles. And here too, sensors, cameras, and machine learning
govern the entire process.
[ D ]… Iron
Ox
Iron Ox has designed a thousand-pound robot that can
tote around eight-hundred-pound growing containers
[ E ]…. Perfect Day Foods
… has figured out how to make
cheese without need for cows. By blending gene sequencing with 3-D
printing and fermentation science, they’ve created a line of animal-free dairy products
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ( in this book ) :
Ø The
average American meal travels 1500 to 2500 miles to
get to your plate
Ø 40 percent of the food in United States is never eaten. Either it rots in
the field or ends up in a landfill
Ø If
it takes two weeks for food to make it to your table-a not uncommon travel
time- it can reduce the nutritional value by as much a
45 percent
Ø Beyond
eliminating travel time, VERTICAL
FARMS solve a number of other problems. Since they are completely closed
environments, the need for pesticides also disappears.
As does the need for water. Relying on
hydroponics and aeroponics, VERTICAL FARMS allow us to grow crops with 90 percent less water than traditional agriculture –
which is critical on our increasingly thirsty planet
Ø One
out of eight Americans will go to bed hungry tonight, yet farm animals
consume 30 percent of the world’s food crops
Ø Meat
production accounts for 70 percent of global water use. Compared to 1500 liters
required to produce ONE KG of wheat, it takes 15,000 liters to produce ONE KG of beef, meaning
there’s enough water in an adult steer to float a US Navy destroyer
Ø ==================================================
Related Reading :
Agricultural wastage is India’s problem No 1 – Here is why
Extract :
Ø
India ranks
103rd out of 119 countries in 2018’s Global Hunger Index.. The key reason for
the discrepancy : Agricultural food wastage
Ø
Some 194
million Indians go hungry every day
Ø
about US$14
billion (12.42 billion euro) worth of food is wasted in India every year
Ø
In fact, the
UN estimates that more than 40% of food
produced in India is wasted before it reaches the consumer
===================================================
Related Reading
:
This
is how AI could feed the world’s hungry while sustaining the planet
Agro-tech Companies using
AI for food production, listed in this article :
Ø
Prospera
Transforming the way food is grown
with Data and Artificial Intelligence
Ø Root AI
We believe tomorrow’s farms won’t look like the endless outdoor crop rows we
remember and that the security
limited by an increasingly unpredictable climate or access to land.
- and quality of our food will no longer be limited by an increasingly
unpredictable
climate or access to land.
Instead, hyper efficient indoor farms will grow delicious and chemical free
produce. At Root, we are on a mission
robots that will help growers build the farms of the future.
Ø
Not Co
Plant based food that looks, smells, functions and tastes better than animal-
based
Ø
Fazenda Futuro
We are the first Brazilian
foodtech to create plant-based meat with the
same texture , juicy and the taste of meat
Other observations :
Roughly 820 million do not get enough to eat
on a daily basis. SDG 2, Zero Hunger, aims to “end hunger, achieve food
security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture
With global population projected to expand to almost 10 billion
by 2050, experts estimate that feeding the planet will require farmers to grow 69% more calories than
they did in 2006
The World Economic Forum recently launched a partnership with
the Government of India
and the State of Telangana to identify
high-value use cases for AI in agriculture, develop innovative AI solutions,
and drive their widespread adoption.
===================================================
Today’s Business Line carries following
news report :
We
are ready to talk to farmers : Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar
Quotes :
Ø “ If anyone has any doubts, and I want to appeal to all farmer
organizations, they are welcome to have a frank discussion with us any time of the
day. We are ready even at midnight to address the farmers’ concerns “, said
Tomar
Ø “ The farmer was forced to sell in the mandis…..He had to bring
his produce to the mandi where te crop was auctioned and he was forced to sell
for fear of transporting the produce back in case he is not able to dispose of
it in the mandi “
Dear Shri Tomarji
[ nstomaroffice@gmail.com
/ ns.tomar@sansad.nic.in ],
I am sure those farmer organizations
would send their delegates to meet you. When they do, I request you to consider
telling them following :
Ø Around the world, companies employing new technologies have
started “ revolutionizing “ the agriculture ( hand over print outs of this E Mail
)
Ø On your own, you may not be able to get these companies to “
License “ their technologies to individual Indian farmer but they would readily
license Indian Companies who sign an agreement with you for CONTRACT FARMING .
In turn, these Indian Companies can train you on implementing these
technologies on your farms
Ø On part of the Central Government, we will undertake following PRO-ACTIVE
actions for bringing these technologies to India :
# We will incentivize our 75 Agriculture Universities and 700 + Agriculture
Colleges , to set up on their premises,
AGRI-TECH INNOVATION CENTRES,
which will offer subjects on “NEW AGRI-TECH“, collaborate
with Agri-
Tech Companies / Universities around the
World and train our farmers
# We will incentivize these foreign AGRI-TECH companies to set up “
PROTOTYPE “ operations in India for DEMO
We will offer them free land / electricity + expenses incurred in training
Indian farmers .
There will be one such demo-center in each of our 718 districts.
# We will urge companies entering into CONTRACT FARMING agreements
with a farmer, to construct on the f
GRAIN STORAGE SILOS / COLD STORAGE ROOMS ,
to enable a farmer
to store
perishing under our harsh climate.
We will allow the concerned Companies to set off expenses incurred in
constructing these facilities towards their CSR obligations.
Alternatively , we will consider use of already announced Agri Fund of Rs
1 LakhxCrore , for this purpose . We have also provided Rs 700 crore for
setting up COLD CHAIN across the country
# As it is, farm income is already exempt from Income Tax.
To enable rapid adoption of CONTRACT FARMING ,
Profit “ that a Company will make by “ Value Added through Processing “,
of farm produce purchased by entering into CONTRACT FARMING
This provision will be for 5 years and will encourage thousands of
Companies to enter into CONTRACT FARMING agreements with farmers.
This will expand the market and bring in COMPETITION among these
Corporate
# On the existing Govt portal ( e-NAM ) , we will introduce a section called
CONTRACT FARMING ,
where the farmers desirous of entering into contract farming agreements,
will submit their full details ( Name / Farm Size / Location of farm / main
crops / past yields per acre / no of workers / family members engaged /
existing loan liabilities / water availability etc )
Companies on look out for CONTRACT FARMING can search this database
( of c
shortlist / select potential farmers and send them their “ Purchase
Proposal “ ( by filling in an Online Standard Form ).
Central Government would have full access to these contracts entered
Online between the parties and ensure that no contract is entered into
below the MSP for the concerned crop . No one else can see these
contracts but the parties concerned would have a provision to EDIT these
This will enable the Govt to know the I
Company “ , and link it with the “ Profit made through Processing Value
addition “, in order to grant tax exemption described earlier
--------------------------------
With regards,
Hemen Parekh / hcp@RecruitGuru.com / 25 Sept 2020
CC :
kkailashchoudhary@gmail.com / Kailash.c14@nic.in
====================================================================================
References
:
LIST
OF TOP B.SC (AGRICULTURE) COLLEGES IN INDIA BASED ON 2020 RANKING
Agricultural
Universities
Ø Govt Owned Agriculture
TV Channel / DD Kisan
Ø Atal
Innovation Mission / Atal Innovation Labs in Schools / Atal Innovation
Incubation