Shakespeare's Play - "Farm to Fork"

 What if William Shakespeare is alive and writes a play today. The genre is drama and the name is “Farm to Fork”. The same theme in Munshi Premachand’s word’s “Khel Kheti ka”. Yes, it is funny because what is happening in India these days is actually funny. Professionals like Engineers and doctors are becoming entrepreneurs and MBA are jobless. Then suddenly a boom comes with an innovative word “AGRO-TECH”.

I am a very optimistic person and I believe in research and innovations but what if people are wasting their and other’s time and money and running an industry named “Start-up”. Same ideas with different theme and color of Pitch-deck fooling investors around.

A person from IT background or MBA wants to change the agriculture. How?

Sitting in a corporate office, recruiting MBA in marketing, advertising on FB, Twitter and Instagram and by creating a mobile application where he will tell farmers the different mandi rates which they already know. He wants to connect farmers with traders because he doesn’t know that a farmer has more traders in contact then his data base. And if he is thinking a farmer from Potichetipatti in Tamilnadu will sell the material to a trader in Jaipur Mohana mandi then he is demonstrated fool.

India has always been a country of limitless opportunities and possibilities. Agriculture is the soul of India. Not only in our history but also in the present and future. Here are some recent proven facts:

·         In 2017-18 we had around 312 Mn tonnes of horticulture produce.

·         In 2017-18 we produced aprrox. 177 Mn tones of Milk.

·         Egg production was around 95.2 Bn in 2017-18.

·         Fish production was 12.6 Mn tonnes.

·        Food Retail market is majorly dominated by Food Grocery (growing at CAGR 25%) and Food Services (growing at CAGR 15%) segments.

We have sanctioned 42 mega food parks in India, 17 of which are operational, 21 in progress and 2 are in principle. By 2020, Indian food and retail market is projected to touch $828.92 Bn. The Indian dairy industry is expected to double to $140 Bn. By 2024,the food processing industry will potentially attract $ 33 Bn investments.

We have huge numbers guys, but still farmer is committing suicide. A farmer cannot send his kids for higher education on the basis of current agriculture scenario and most interesting part – they don’t get education loan also because Indian banks don’t consider agriculture land as collateral security.

And then this young, dynamic and innovative start-up lobby, thinks “Coding” will solve all farmer’s problems, Grow up guys.

Let me make it easy – A farmer’s every day and basic problems are locked somewhere and you need to find out the key to open it and then solve it. Here comes the interesting part, the problem is not that you are unable to find that key but the problem is you are finding it at a wrong place.

We can learn this from cricket, there is always a different squad for different formats and against different teams. The same rule applies here, you cannot every time hire MBAs and IT professionals and make your start-up successful (Specifically in Agro-tech). I know a coder can do a lot but only on computer, you have to move to fields. You will have to understand their basic problem which are very basic. Don’t offer them what they already have. They know how to grow bananas, they know it because they are practically doing it since birth. Growing bananas is not their problem, neither selling it. The problem is how to survive until the crop comes, how to reduce its cost, what to do with waste of it, how to beat the climate changes, how to compete with a company like “Dole” who is decades ahead then them in terms of quality, how manage post-harvest, how to understand logistical part, how to manage labor crisis, how to select inputs etc. This whole will only be solved by intense experience and concerned educational background.

Youth can change the fate of any society but misguided, greedy for money, success and only numbers will not make any difference. You might get “Angel Investor” for your next start-up but this way the start-up will not make any difference.

Think wisely what you choose. Don’t build business, build team first and that team will make business for you which will actually make some difference.

Melting Banana

Banana is essentially a tropical fruit which mainly requires hot and humid region to grow perfectly. India is the leading country in the world in terms of area of cultivation and production. The country has its own huge consumption of banana as it is available all around the year and very economic in comparisons to other fruits. Bananas are naturally free of fat, cholesterol and sodium. Bananas provide a variety of vitamins like vitamin A, C, B-6 and minerals like iron, magnesium and potassium.

Growing health awareness has increased the demand of banana in India as well as all around the world in past few years but this season did not do well for the banana growers and traders in India. The major factor affected the sell in the domestic market was the outbreak of NIPAH VIRUS in Kerala. According to the world health organization, the fruit bat is the natural host of the virus and often do not display any symptoms.

The outbreak of Nipah virus, which was resulted in the death of ten people in Kerala, was also likely to have an adverse impact on India's fruit exports and domestic markets. The virus, which is released through bats' saliva, urine and excreta, typically spreads due to bats consuming fruits on trees.

In India, the banana has space booked at the fruit stall all around the year still then the major season for banana is the month of SHRAAVAN, ten days of GANPATI, and the whole week of NAVRATRA. During these peak times banana could not perform well in the market. 

Resultantly, the loss in sell has put some extra burden on the pockets of banana growers, traders and exporters in all over the country. The major banana growing belts in India are Burhanpur, Jalgaon and Solapur. The nearest market to Burhanpur is Indore, if we look in to the past – In the month of SHRAVANA, the rates of banana used to be above 400 Rs./ Crate ( 20 Rs./ Kg- Wholesale Mandi Price) but this years it didn’t even cross 280 Rs. (14 Rs./ Kg). The season happened like this in every small or big market. 

Every year, before the season starts, growers expect more and more from the market so they try to catch up the season somehow some times by delaying the harvesting and mostly by using the crop cycle. This year’s season didn’t do well with them. The rates at the grower side were high but the in the market the rates were very low. The trader who traded the commodity faced the losses or very less margins but still traded to maintain their customer linkages.

Anyways, no other bad news from the NIPAH VIRUS luckily so we hope that the banana won’t melt next years.

Papaya Cultivation; Chapter 7 - Market of Papaya

Domestic Market 

Papaya (Carica papaya) is a tropical fruit having commercial importance because of its high nutritive and medicinal value. Papaya cultivation had its origin in South Mexico and Costa Rica. Total annual world production is estimated at 6 million tons of fruits. India leads the world in papaya production with an annual output of about 3 million tons. Other leading producers are Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, Indonesia, China, Peru, Thailand and Philippines. In India, it has a very broad market all around the year. The major papaya producing states are Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh. The farm price is almost same everywhere in India (Contact me if you are looking for market of Papaya in India).

Export import of papaya in India

 

 

Papaya Production in India

(000 Tones)

		2012-13
S.No.	State	Production	Share (%)
1	Andhra Pradesh	1,651.96	30.70
2	Gujarat	1,189.31	22.10
3	Karnataka	460.20	8.55
4	Madhya Pradesh	413.00	7.67
5	Maharashtra	363.00	6.75
6	West Bengal	331.00	6.15
7	Chhattisgarh	289.89	5.39
8	Tamil Nadu	184.24	3.42
9	Assam	174.59	3.24
10	Kerala	96.93	1.80
12	Bihar	44.28	0.82
13	Tripura	27.08	0.50
14	Mizoram	23.10	0.43
15	Rajasthan	16.01	0.30
16	Uttar Pradesh	12.86	0.24
17	Nagaland	7.50	0.14
18	Meghalaya	5.50	0.10
19	Jharkhand	5.11	0.09
20	Andaman & Nicobar	2.38	0.04
21	Himachal Pradesh	1.17	0.02
22	Sikkim	0.56	0.01
23	Lakshadweep	0.06	0.00
24	Chhattisgarh	0.00	0.00
25	Daman & Diu	0.00	0.00
26	Andaman Nicobar	0.00	0.00

(This is the final chapter of Papaya cultivation. Please mail me if you have any other query regarding process, procedures and marketing)