Plant Nutrients & their importance for high value farming (Part - 1)

           A plant nutrient is a chemical element that is essential for plant growth & reproduction. “Essential element” is a term often used to identify a plant nutrient. Presently the term is “Plant nutrient”. Commonly for an element to be an element, it is must to fit certain criteria.

1.     The first criterion is that the element must be required by plant to complete its life cycle i.e. from seed to seed.

2.     The second criterion is that no other element substitutes fully for the element being considered as a nutrient. For example, in an enzymatic reaction manganese may be considered as substitute to magnesium but no other element can replace magnesium by being constituent of chlorophyll.

3.     The third criterion is that all plants require the element.

All the nutrients that have been identified as nutrients, however, do not meet fully these criteria.

There are 17 nutrients which meet these criteria and can be designated as “Plant Nutrients”. The three nutrients of which are derived from air like carbon, hydrogen & oxygen and 14 of these nutrients are obtained from soil or nutrient solutions.

Few elements that are required by plants in considerable quantities (Macro-nutrients), generally accumulating to 0.1% and upward of the dry mass in plants tissues, were shown to be nutrients in the mid-1800s. Most of the elements required in small quantities in plants (Micro-nutrients), generally accumulating to amount less than 0.01% of the dry mass of plant tissues, were shown to be essential only after techniques were improved enough to ensure that the water, media, atmosphere and seed did not contain sufficient amount of nutrients to meet the needs of the plants.

  

Beneficial elements may stimulate the growth or may be required by only certain plants. Silicon, cobalt and sodium are notable beneficial elements. Selenium, aluminum, vanadium and other elements have been suggested to enhance growth of the plants. Nickel is an example of an element that was classified as beneficial but recently has been shown to be essential.

List of plant nutrients-

Ø Macro-nutrients-

·        Primary nutrients-

1.     Nitrogen

2.     Phosphorus

3.     Potassium

·        Secondary nutrients

1.     Calcium

2.     Magnesium

3.     Sulfur

Ø Micro-nutrients-

1.     Iron

2.     Manganese

3.     Copper

4.     Boron

5.     Zinc

6.     Molybdenum

7.     Chlorine

8.     Nickel

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List of high value crops

Where to start – Agro Business?

The agro-business has multiple options to start working. To make a decision you have to understand certain barriers which I have explained in my early blogs. If you have gone through them all then we can start further, to choose something good for you.

For better understanding, please check out the flow chart below-

Let take a brief tour of this all-

1.       Agro Business –

Agriculture is an industry which has very simple definition “Production of food & fiber”. So it’s your call, where to start.

1.1   Processing industry – Agro-processing industry needs a lot of grading, packaging, weighing, waxing, washing, pulverizer, peeling, dicing, slicing etc. machines. Options are so many like pulps making, juice making, spices manufacturing etc. Processing industry requires a big investment, fund planning, and excellent marketing team. Sometimes you will need pack houses, cold storages and refrigerated vans depending upon your project requirement. An average agro-processing industry requires minimum 1 Cr. INR,  which will be spent on-

Ø  Land

Ø  Building

Ø  Machinery

Ø  Raw material purchase

Ø  Labor

Ø  Packaging material

Ø  Marketing

Ø  Logistics

Ø  Electricity

Ø  Water

Ø  Maintenance

     If you are a fresher then hire a professional who can look after the raw material purchase,         machinery selection and purchase at the right price, labor training, packaging material selection, production capacity decision, marketing strategy, brand making, right market selection and logistics. No shame in telling him if you don’t understand the industry but want to start the work.

1.2   Domestic & Export supply-

You can supply both processed and fresh produce in domestic and export markets. The major thing is you will have to get the information that which market is appropriate for your products and in what form like, if you supply papaya fruit – North central Indian markets require the bigger size of papaya but Mumbai market requires small size papaya. The Same thing is with processed agro-products. Even the international markets have different norms. You can supply material –

Ø  Own production supply –

You can start your own cultivation practices to get quality material and make your own brand in domestic and international markets but for you will have to assure a consistent and reliable production capacity and quality.

Ø  Middleman/ Trader –

If you have a group of farmers in contact or any reliable suppliers that you can be a middle man and supply the material to domestic buyer or export it. Be prepare for “credit” in both markets, domestic market credit period is 7-10 days and export market credit period is 45 -90 days.

Better to hire a professional for this to identify appropriate markets, products, payment terms and certain specific documents for an export market.

Note: - There is also an option to enter into the partnership with some experienced team, it will also investment but safety for money.

1.3   Cultivation/ Production-

Cultivation/ production is comparatively safe than other two option but also less profiting than both two options, big risk big gain- no risk no gain.

For this option please read another post in this blog “Seeking success in AGRI-BUSINESS?”

For any query, please do not hesitate to mail me at “contact.agrofayda@gmail.com”

Seeking success in AGRO-BUSINESS?

In the past few years, global trade has been increased by millions of dollars. Since always India has been keeping a remarkable place in global trade of agriculture produce. We are one among the largest agro commodity producers in the world.

Now, the new era has been started where the trend is changing. Indian agriculture is able to attract engineers, IT professionals, entrepreneurs to take part in agriculture. Everybody is seeking success in the agro-business industry but as I mentioned in my early blogs, agriculture has certain barriers like any other potential industry in the world. The problem above all is our stereotype mind and its decision- that agriculture is easy, it’s just  u grow something in the field and sell it somewhere you get easy money but this mentality never makes money, resultantly the fresher who entered with enthusiasm to  do something remarkable becomes dull and loses his hard earned money.

We can avoid all these situations by just changing our perspective and that is- Agriculture is not just a farming practice, it’s a science and it needs a lot of homework. So, what I have for you today is the homework which you should first before being an agropreneur or being an advanced farmer.

Points to be taken seriously –

1.      Financial planning –

Finance is the first and most important factor for any work, project or industry. Primarily one should decide the budget of the work so that work moves smoothly without any financial crisis because if you are growing something and in between any issue come, you can’t ask the crop to wait for a while. Your fund size will decide the work size and pattern.

2.     Hire a professional –

A doctor cannot make a machine, an engineer cannot do a heart surgery and an IT professional cannot what he is not trained for, like all this, if you are not an agro professional or you don’t hire, you cannot reach what you have planned.

An agro professional -

v  Reduces you investment or may increase the capacity of your project in the available funds.

v  Tells you what to grow, where to grow, when to grow and how to grow.

v  After growing, harvesting in a perfect way is necessary. Agro professional teaches you how to manage post-harvest, packaging, logistics and handling.

v  Explains to you where to sell your produce or agro professional may arrange BUY-BACK cultivation also in which before growing anything you will have fixed rate for whatever you grow.

v  Soil is a very important content for farming. After soil analysis, he will teach you how to select fertilizers and pesticides because excess and unnecessary use of fertilizer will reduce the efficiency of you farm soil and quality of your produce.

Note: - Hiring an agro professional will give you benefits of more than you will pay to him, resultantly – SUCCESS ASSURED (that too hustle free).

3.      Field selection-

If you have hired an agro professional than let him decide from the options of available at you end. If you don’t have options than he can prepare your available land according to the desired crop and he can also decide a crop according to your land. Never force him to take decisions influenced by what you have decided, you may suggest but let him decide.

4.      Backup plan-

Where big investments are involved, you should always ask your consultant for backup plant. It means a crop which has to be grown simultaneously with the premium crop because in case premium crop fails, your lesser investment crop will recover some of your losses.

Backup crops are conventional crops wrapped in advanced post harvesting and packaging techniques.

5.      Paycheck to consultants-

If he is taking care of your investment then you should take care of his investment. Your investment is money and his investment is time and knowledge. Better pay him enough and on time because in some cases due to bad payment behaviors consultant leave the work or do not take the work seriously which may cause a serious loss for you.

6.     No favor policy-

Never expect any favors from consultants like asking him for partnership, financial support or anything else. In that case, you are wasting your time and for next meeting with you, he won’t give preference to your meetings. If you want him to take you and your proposal seriously than never waste his time.

7.       Identify the good or bad-

As you might be feeling that the whole work is depending on a consultant that it is necessary for you to identify between good and bad. Yes, a good consultant always explains a lot, logically and based on experiences but a bad consultant never gives you logics and much speaks theoretically. I am sure you can differentiate between those two.

8.      Data collection-

An experienced and good consultant always collects the data for future use. If your consultant is not doing that then certainly, he is not the good one. In the very first meeting, you should ask him his pattern of collecting the farm data, things will be more cleared.  Data collection plays very important role in gradual growth. Once something is planted in your soil it tells a lot of inside stories about soil, climate, and nutrient availability and water conditions, so what you are lacking this time will be able to fulfill next time.

9.      Nutrient management-

Soil testing report explains a lot about your soil health. Hiring a professional will keep your soil healthy and will give you good productivity.
Conclusion-

When you go to war, don’t forget to carry your weapons.

An agro professional is your weapon which assures your victory before the war starts. So, choose your consultant wisely. Whatever I have shared is based on my experiences as I am also a consultant. If you like it don’t forget to comment and in case you can contact me also, I will be happy to help you.

Agro-Business, WHY ?

Agriculture is something where we can work according to our choice. It is a sector where we can target our limits. We can work with conventional methods or we can go beyond the boundaries like we can grow something which is being cultivated in our country or region since last thousand years OR we can grow something which nobody has seen and tasted here yet. Technology makes life easier as so agriculture. We can import some new agriculture techniques or we can innovate some. 

Growing something is easy but growing it for profits and money-making is a bit tough as there are few key things people forget like agriculture is also a science and we will have to understand it first. 

So, before getting started- Let's try to understand & for that, keep reading.

Agriculture; An introduction.

Agriculture is as old as simple we can define it- production of food & fiber. Since the human civilization, agriculture has grown in a parallel way with us. In the meantime, depending upon the necessity we have upgraded the agriculture techniques. I will not provide any statics here on my blog, that whole material is already available on the web. I will share my personal views and experiences being a trader, exporter, grower, and biotechnologist. 

India has a very remarkable contribution to world agriculture. Our government also has actively introduced so many schemes to develop agro business in our country. Today, we are not only fulfilling our own requirements but also we exporting a very large number of fruits and vegetables all around the world.

If we talk about our strengths- our geographical location, climate, versatile soil availability larger market and a big number of active farmers are our strengths. We can grow almost anything and everything in our nutrient rich soil and climate. We also have started importing various exotic fruits & vegetables, cultivating here and exporting. 

Today, agriculture has become an attractive & profitable industry worldwide. Even engineering, IT and medical professionals are trying to find out possibilities in agro business but there is a certain barrier which has to be taken seriously to start and grow successfully.

To know, understand and resolve the barriers in agro business keep reading further posts and do not hesitate to contact me if necessary.

Thank you!