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The food crunch in India.
India “needs another green revolution”, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Unescap) recently urged. “Growth and productivity in agriculture are slowing, and the green revolution has bypassed millions.”India has the most to gain from improvements in agriculture because it is home to nearly two-thirds of Asia’s poor, most of whom rely on farming, Unescap said.
Middle-class Indians are eating more and better food. Yet its population of 1.1bn is growing at about 1.4 per cent and food grain production increased just 0.9 per cent last year, according to ministry of agriculture statistics.
Agricultural growth has steadily decelerated because of years of under-investment as attention has focused on high-growth manufacturing and service industries.
It’s somewhat understandable that this has happened given that the economic rewards for investment in manufacturing and service industries are high, and those for agriculture have been so low in the past. Food was cheap. But India has had some deadly famines in living memory, and faces big trouble if such things begin to happen again.
There are ways to improve.
But big strides can be made with relatively simple measures. In Kurthia, which is 40 km from the bustling holy city of Varanasi, the e-choupal consists of a computer in a modest house rigged with a small satellite dish. Farmers pose questions that are e-mailed to ITC -agricultural scientists and experts at agricultural -institutes.Yogesh Bhrigulanshi, a farmer and the ITC local manager in nearby Bisuari village, says rice yields have risen 70 per cent, to 3,900kg per acre, since the arrival of the e-choupal. “We used to use fertiliser without any knowledge,” says Mr Bhrigulanshi. “We used to use pesticides for any disease on plants. Now we know which pesticide to use and if it needs to be used.”
Activists try to profit from agricultural ignorance to advance their political agendas. It is common to hear claims that fertilizers or pesticides don’t work in India, or are too expensive or any number of other FUD claims. Such claims make no sense but are believed and repeated by those who oppose their use.
The issue is proper use. Ag may seem simple to urbans, but it takes some skill and knowledge. Simply giving bags of stuff to people who have no understanding is unlikely to result in good outcomes. Education and experience are required, and that is increasingly available due to telecommunications.
ITC plans to invest $1bn on e-choupals in the period to 2015 to connect farmers to information, products and services. The hope is that as rural incomes rise, farmers will buy more products and services, ranging from seeds and fertilisers to insurance and healthcare.
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