ONION TEARS

The spiraling prices of onion has once again questioned the rationality of decision makers at Krushibhawan. The union Agricultural minister and the NAFED chairman are talking at cross purpose,with the former blaming it on the unseasonal rains and the latter denying it The fact of the matter is that onion has a very minimal share in our overall Agricultural production scenario.With just 10 million tonnes of production it is not considered as a major crop But the political overtones of this crop is immense. It is a fact that unseasonal rains and eratic weather conditions have created adverse situations for various crops including onion. But the Government never took people into confidence and gave a sense of misplaced optimism that everything is right. Infact the appreciatory trend has been visible since last two months But it allowed the situation to drift which gave ample time to the hoarders to have a field day The decision to ban export could have been taken a month back instead of now afterall onion export is notone of the priority area. But this sudden knee jerck reactions so very late in the day is further aggravating the already worsening situation.More importantly due to Global warming situation this indifferent pattern of behavior would be more regular in future times and our agri planners have to sit and find an effective solution not only to increase production and diversify agro products mix but also faster real time weather data,field situations and effective policy decisions accordingly.

FOOD INFLATION- A PERPETUAL WORRY

There is often the talk of Good Monsoon bringing down the prices and people expectation soar accordingly. But these kind of predictions given by the Governmental agencies & economists are finding few takers in recent times. People continue to struggle with high prices . But there is a fear that this trend would continue even in future times This can be attributed to the structural problems associated with Indian Agriculture and unavailibility of labor in the rural sector .Our production strategies have all along been skewed in favour of staples Production of diary products,meat,fruit & vegetable have lagged behind This has been further aggravated by lack of better facilities to store and transport perishable items Even in case of cereals the economic cost of procurement of Rice & Wheat has gone up by 40.2% and 35.96% respectively (TOI) In this context mention must be made of Government of Indias MSP policy By hiking the MSP regularly the Government has allowed the farmers to cultivate the MSP crops with other crops are given less importance In this context it has become a Zero sum game- one acre addition in one crop has led to the simultaneous reduction in which MSP is low So this has thwarted the much needed diversification . Apart from these structural problems,the input costs have gone up considerably in the last few years. Labour shortage for farming and low mechanization process in Indian Agriculture has further aggravated the problem The continuos hike of social net programmes like MNERAGA and state goverments scheme of cheap rice have already created a difficult situations in rural labor markets So we are witnessing a situation where investment by farmer is just not matching up with returns So falling production & the resultant spikes in the prices So the time has come to attend to these structural problems and expediate the mechanization process so that the much needed growth can be achieved It is easier said but the problems that we are in, there is no scope for soft peddling . Urgent & timely actions are the order of the day.

PROTEIN DELIGHT

There are chances of Eggs & Meat becoming more price friendly in coming months thanks to an anticipated bumper corn cultivation. According to an estimate corn production is likely to be over 20 million tonne up from last year's 17 million tonne In fact prices in futures market have already shown descending trend.Poultry industry is one of the major consumer of corn and consumes almost 60% of the total production & rest is contributed by the starch industry ,cattle feed &human consumption But the only worrying factor from the consumers point of view is the continuous rise of global corn prices due to the partial damage of crop due to bad weather conditions and increase in global demand .In that scenario if exports takes place from India in a substantial manner,then it can harden the prices in India But to many analysts this is most unlikely as availibility would be significantly more to neutralize any export led hardening But all this is more welcome from the farmers point of view as increased MSP (Rs 8800 per tonne) & profitability would lead more & more farmers to go for maize cultivation Already Maize acerage has crossed 72 lakh hectare Infact taking a cue from the national scenario the Odisha Government has taken a ambitious project of Maize cultivation in 30000 hectre Though the marketing arrangements & other micro details are still in the nascent stage,but still the attempt to diversify from paddy based cultivation to other profitable crops is most welcome Additionally it would help in the establishment of downstream projects leading to value addition which should be the utmost priority in the contemporary times

PROTEIN DELIGHT

There are chances of Eggs & Meat becoming more price friendly in coming months thanks to an anticipated bumper corn cultivation

Basmati surge

Recent damaging floods in Pakistan has revived the hopes of higher Indian basmati exports India exports around 3.2 million tonne basmati mainly to Europe and The Middle east but generally faces tough competition from Pakistan in the Price front According to a survey Pakistans Rice output is expected to decline by nearly 40% in 2010-11 Indias two important varieties Pusa &pusa 1121 are already quoting high by $30-70 But with major orders expected around october &november there is ever reason for the hardening of prices But all is not well in the basmati front with private testing laboratory in Europe pointing out high pestcide level in these exported rice And in addition to this countries like Iran and Saudi-Arabia who are the biggest importers of Indian Basmati have decided to promote their own variety and have stopped issuing licenses and also withdrawing subsidy to their importers So its the right time for the Government to take up all these problems which is supposed to affect the exports in coming months

MEDICINAL PILL - PROMISING TIMES

Government of India has been desperately trying to usher in diversification of multi cropping systems so that much needed flexibilty is acquired in order to increase the returns of the farmers In this context introduction of medicinal plants into the rice based farming system can provide the much needed flexibility Various medicinal plants like Brahmi,Jalbrahmi,Bhrungaraj,Bhukadamba,Kalakeshdura,Panmadhuri,Isabgol,and Bacha can be well adopted in a rice based cropping system According to the experts by adopting Brahmi only a farmer can garner a gross return of Rs 1.38 lakh per crop in addition to his kharif rice yeild The only requirement is the farmer has only to switch from Rabi season rice cultivation to Brahmi cultivationAfter harvesting of early rice in the last week of september,the preparation for Brahmi should be done If proper techniques are adopted a farmer can even manage two harvests,the first after 120 days of transplantation,and second after 90 to 100 days of the first cutting Thus it can be freed later on for paddy cultivation Brahmi are used for several ailments like disorders of brain,epilepsy,rheumatism,respiratory diseases and cardiac ailments Apart from pharmaceutical use it has also commercial use in products like hair oil,tea,health food etc This can be used in both fresh and dry form The average yeild per hectre ranges from 30000kg-40000kg In a conservative estimate after taking care of input costs like land preparation,procurement of planting materials,irrigation,drying and storing the net gain could be around a lakh of rupees Given the difficult times of rice based system with decreasing yeild and other associated problems these sort of value addition can bring in much needed flexibility in the rural economy

MEDICINAL PILL - PROMISING TIMES

BRANDING GAME IN FOOD COMMODITIES

In recent times there has been a spurt of brands in commodities like Atta,basmatirice & edible oil According to a survey branded atta market is growing at 15% annually The large players in the segment are Hindustan lever (Annapurna), ITC (AASHIRVAAD) According to an estimate the packaged Atta industry in India is a 700 crore market With Aashirvaad having 45% market share and Annapurna 25% Similarly in branded basmati India Gate a brand owned by KRBL has a market share of 25% with the market growing at 15% annually In the edible oil segment about 40% of the total consumption is packaged Here different segments have different priorities In cities health enjoys a premium,whereas in rural areas people want value for money The branded oil is witnessing a larger growth than the edible sector as a whole Here the leading brands are Marico industries Saffola (13% growth) ,Sweekar (8%), Mother diary Dhara (6%) & Adani wilmar Fortune (24%) Similarly Nature fresh is doing fairly well with growth touching double digit But in Sugar however brands are yet to make any substantial progress companies like Mawana sugars,bajaj hindustan,Balarampur chini have not been successful All these developments augures well for branded food commodity industry The developments on the FDI front allowing companies to own 100% in the food processing sector,the removal of dividend balancing norms and other similar procedures has helped the industry With Modern retail format has started making foray, the future of brands in food commodity sector looks promising

Misgivings of Future

There has been much analysis regarding the usefulness of Futures in our commodity market more importantly in our Agri commodity market Everytime when there is a spike in the prices of the major cereals and other important agri commodities there is a concerted move by the political establishments to attack the policy of futures In order to acquaint ourselves with this concept lets first know about Futures Futures trading is characterized by a transaction which is agreed upon between the parties and the settelment is contractually deferred to a predefined future date Future dated supply and future dated demand generate the future prices A farmer who sells goods at a future harvest date at a locked in price appears to be fundamentally sound proposition But a key source of mistrust vis -vis futures arise in context of spot-futures arbitrage For example when a bad news comes about Monsoon the futures price goes up immediately At this point traders,big companies buy goods from the spot market and start storing them If it is done to honour your contract it is fine but when you start buying substantially in order to influence the future course of action then it is seen as profiteering or more precisely; Hording; But conversely one can argue that this a common natural reaction of the market exchange system In case of anticipated bad news the spot prices go up and thus consequent economic activities So its not only true for agri commodities but for all commodities in general Infact they argue spot- futures arbitrage entice all correct resonses; stock prices go up, stocks are built up and future prices are watered down enabling stabilisation of prices So if we analyse the scenario the truth lies in between Whereas Futures as a mechanism is needed in the system, at the same time we should try to build in mechanisms so that misuse of this system is averted In this context there is a need to strengthen the Forward contract regulation act As in USA where there is commodity futures trading commission which deals with all the aspects of derivatives ,similarly there is aneed to have a body like this In India Too many supervisory organizations work at cross purpose often promoting their own agenda and interests in addition vested political interests Let there be transperancy and used as a tool of economic activity and nothing else

PROBLEMS IN IRRIGATION

Farmer suicides and distress has taken alarming proposition in the country Infact many suicides by farmers have been traced to the crop failure because of unpredictibility of rains That is why rapid expansion of irrigation was made one of the six components of the ambitious Bharat Nirman project currently undertaken by the central government But mere allocation of budgets is not going to solve the problem as we have already seen in equally ambitious project lunched a decade back under Accelerated irrigation benefit programme The major focus under accelerated programme was to focus resources on easy to complete project Sometimes facts can be harsh Despite all the ambitious planning no more than 1.4 million hectares of additional irrigation potential was reported to be created in the 10th five year plan But the fact is for more than half a century the country has added close to a million hectres of irrigation potentially annually If we compare to this the 10th five year plan performed dismally Similarly already lofty projections have already been made in the 11th five year plan Infact Bharth nirman programme of extending irrigation to 10 million hectares has not be met either The net result is that a sizeable part of the countrys total irrigation potential -recokned at 139.9 million hectares will continue to be unexploited for a long period to come The major problem of underperforming in this crucial sector is because irrigation is in the state list and most states are unable to raise resources required to be invested in irrigation Work under even the accelerated programme has got stuck because of the states failure to put in their share of resources-usually a half to a third of the centres allocation In addition to this the populist approach towards water and power charges have converted irrigation works from revenue generation to a financial burden This has affected not only the maintenance and operation of irrigation projects but also command area development work so as to make use of the irrigation capacity that has been created The result is water logging, and soil salinity So the country needs urgently water sector reforms including the fixation of realistic user charges and establishment of water user bodies for maintaining and operating irrigation works It is only when irrigation is made commercially viable then states and private institutional bodies will be prompted to invest in the expansion of irrigation

PULSE REMEDY

Out of all agri commodities which has seen a spike in the price, the pulses scenario is the most worrisome In the post Green revolution period the production of most of the crops has increased except for the Pulses It is shocking to learn that the production of pulses has remained stagnant for the past 45 years since 1965-66 It has moved in the narrow band of 12million tonnes to 14 millin tonnes per year In the past 20 years the growth has been measely o.33% and the important reason is stagnancy in the area under the crops Further there is no major technological breakthrough with certified seeds not available in adequate quantity Usually inferior lands are devoted in this crop and when the land gets irrigation farmers switch over to other crops The government has not showed any interest in augmenting production But now suddenly there is a concerted move to prioritize this important segment which has come very lateThe Government announces the minimum support prices every year and goes for relatively higher prices to give incentive to the farmers to shift towards production of pulses However this has not acted as a catalyst as there is any significant increase in the production As a result of which supplies have remained stagnant and the prices are rising fast And with a rise in population the per capita availability of pulses has decreased from 13.9kg in 1985 to less than 9 kg in recent years Further the per capita expenditure on pulses has decreased Pulses are the only source of protein for most indians and fall in the consumption of pulses will have negative impacts So the urgent need is to augment the production with the government has taken beleted steps in the current budget by allocating higher resources And the productivity of pulses in India is very low-only a 1/3rd of that in China and 1/10th that of France Also the gobal situation is not very welcome World production has increased at a very low rate of 0.48% per annum and that unit value of imports has increased by three times in the past 20 years Consequently supply and prices could become a problem in the international market Seeing this scenario DAAL ROTI KHAO PRABHU KA GUN .... WOULD BE a nightmarish experience Sooner we realise the enoromity of the problem the better it is for us Lets welcome Govts move and sincerely wish it would provide us genuine breakthrough in our production stagnancy

SUGAR WOES

Recent announcement of Union Agriculture Minister to free sugar industry from controls have been welcomed by the Industry at large But given the complexities of Sugar dynamics that prevail in India it require more than political will to set this industry right In order to understand the real problems ,one need to first analyse various issues with this regard In India Sugar is under the perview of essential commodities act of 1955 which means that Government control sugar capacity additions through industrial licensing and determines the price of sugarcane and the quantity that can be sold in the open market As a result of which the sugar mills are expected to surrender 20% (currently) of their production to the Government at prices below the market level prices This sugar is known as Levy sugar to be used by the public distribution system In addition to this there is a second restriction on the mills in the form of Free sale quota After surrendering 20% the remaining 80% are to be sold by mills in a restricted marketing environment The Government releases what is called monthly free sale quota to mills to be sold within the stipulated time frame In addition to this there is a differential pricing systems by the centre and the State governments The centre announces MSP and the states have their own SAP (state adminstrative price) In the latter case most of the times the prices are determined by political expediency to humor the farmers without a clear analysis of the production lecel,international prices etc as a result of which the cane grower farmers are made to wait for months to get their payments Then there is this curious principle of growers have to sell to the miller within a 15km radius Apart from these policy problems the major problem of sugar industry all over the world is its cyclical nature Other countries have offseted this problem by diversifying into ethanol and power generation from Bagasse But in India we dont have any clear policy with this regard Some share of profits can be envisioned for the farmers by actively pushing for additional byproducts Similarlyin india the sugar yeild is one of the lowest in the world A perfect oppertunityis knocking our doors with European union opening up its sugar industry India exports primarily to Asian countries like indonesia,bangladesh,& Pakistan Though we have limited capacity of production of refined sugar which is the requirement of EU,but still our production process can be adjusted accordingly With every chances of having a bumper production( estimated to rise to 25million tonnes from existing 18 million tonnes) these plethora of issues assume added significance What we need today is the fine balance of protection of consumer interest and commercial viabilities of the millers The Government has much work to do with this regard

SUGAR WOES

Recent announcement of Union Agriculture Minister to free sugar industry from controls have bee

ARTIFICIAL BARRIERS- serious threat to International Agri trade

The major problems that have been encountered by the Indian Exporters is the arbitrary quality and technical restrictions setting by the western markets This is despite clear cut requirement of WTO standards regarding food security and technical barriers to trade The major problem with this regard is continuous shifting of quality standards and specifications to the ignorance of the exporters of the third world countries A lot of times Indian Exporters send consignements to countries only to discover that they have failed some specific quality or technical norm and consignements have to be returned The number of these TBT (technical barriers to trade) have increased sharply from just 365 in 1995 to 1030 in 2007 China alone has 560 TBT measures followed by USA and european union India has already asked the WTO to examine these multiplicity of international standards These non tariff measures (NTM) the efforts should be made by the member countries to list these NTMs Once WTO makes it mandatory to post all NTM data there would be some sense of uniformity which would obligate the countries not to change the standards frequently Moreever exporters would know the existing standards in the destination countries Sometimes WTO prescribed international certification is not considered by various groups The requirement of Aflatoxin in Groundnut is prescribed at 15 parts per billion by CODEX whereas EU has a standard of 4 PPB These multiplicity standards creates hurdle in the smooth flow of international agri business

QUALITY ISSUES IN INDIAN AGRI-EXPORTS

The importance of quality parameteres in Agri exports is increasingly becoming important in the world arena Since World Trade Organization emphasized the importance of Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures nations have increasingly become selective with this regard India is no exception to this Since last year when importers in European Union reported high levels of Aflatoxins,a Fungus and returned a number of consignments Indian Government has started implementing laws to set right the the Groundnut industry With this regard Agricultural and processed food products export development authority (APEDA),A BODY ENTRUSTED BY Union Government for development of Agri and allied products has come out with strict guidelines for exporting Groundnuts to the EU countries APEDA is now ensuring compulsory registration of the entire supply chain including processing and shelling units,godowns as well as storage facilities In addition to this APEDA is stressing to bring the processing units under HACCP (Hazard analysis critical control points) certification,which is a approved international certification As a result there has been a decline in Groundnut exports to the tune of 726.21 crores during Apr2009/January 2010 as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year But according to the analysts there might be some problems initially,but it would benefit exports later Also the quality of groundnut sold in India is poor as we accept aflatoxin level upto 30% compared to single digit level in EU Similarly in exports to non EU countries which is twenty times more than the EU there is no need for these type of stringent mointoiring of supply chain But with the international global standards becoming uniform in nature the Government would be ill advised to drop these precautionary measures in case of exports to non EU countries Rather it should use this oppertunity to make the whole industry quality controlled so that exports reach a critical mass in this important 1500 crore export dominated business

ITC E CHOUPAL- PIONEERING BREAKTHROUGH

One of the pioneering concept which has revolutionized Indian Agri system has been ITCs E-choupal If we look back at the circumstances which prompted ITC to go for an alternate supply chain model is purely innovational and inspirational based on the inadequacies of the Indian Agri system To go back into the history ITC had set up an International Business Division (IBDS) in 1990 for exporting agri commodities ITC was exporting Rice,Soyabean,acquproducts,peanuts,wheat,coffee,black pepper, sesamum seeds, processed and frozen fruits and vegetables It had over the years established tremondous capability But ITC believed that the profit margins were not high as they would ideally have been because it did not have sufficient control over the supply chain of Agri produce In Madhyapradesh Soya one of its important exportable item was facing huge problems as the farmers were located in remote villages Furthermore the company did not have any control over the quality of the products In addition to this the middlemen exerted influence on the farmers by concealing the prevailing market prices and other related informations They made huge profits by themselves by blocking access to such information So ITC conceived an alternate supply chain management model by using internet to provide realtime flow of information and market signals directly to the farmers Thus the primary task for ITC was to bring marketing information to the farmers The basic idea was to equip the village choupals with a PC and internet connectivity The Echoupal model was based on two important coordinates 1 Samchalak +PC and internet who uses Net to provide spot quotas and after examining product sample and if the price is right ,farmers take the produce to the ITC collection centre 2 Samyojak who coordinates a group of villages and performs documentation work He also supplies inputs from ITC and associate companies to Sanchalak The Sanchalaks were paid 0.5% of the procurement price for each tonne of soya procured by ITC from their Choupal The Sanchalaks paid operating cost like electricity and internet connection charges ( Rs 2900 to7600 per year) and ITC covered cost of PC maintenance and misalleneous travel(Rs 4800 per year per unit) Similarly Samyojak were paid 1% commission for each tonne of soyabean sold to ITC and they were also responsible for collecting the produce from the villages and bring it to the collection centres Thus by this innovative scheme ITC could prevent middlemen excessive price, could control quality and more importantly farmers got right price At present ITC has 6500 choupals and has projected to increase it to 20000 by 2012 covering 100000 villages in15 states covering almost 15 million farmers This homegrown strategy seemed to be a clear winner and more importantly has left important lesson for Agri companies and cooperatives for future times

ITC E CHOUPAL- PIONEERING BREAKTHROUGH

One of the pioneering concept which has revolutionized Indian Agri

Food security- Need for objective Analysis

The National Food Security Bill 2010 which aims to provide subsidised foodgrain has been hotly debated by the Experts The Targetted public distribution system which provides 35kg of food grains including Wheat & Rice to 65.2 million families classified as BPL (Below poverty line) and 24.3 million families in Antyodya scheme ( Rs 2 for wheat and Rs 3 for Rice) is proposed to be replaced by a new arrangement where all the BPL families would have access to 25kg of Foodgrains priced at Rs 3 ( In case of BPL families Rs 4.15 is being charged for Wheat & Rs 5.65 for Rice now) But the major question with this regard is the delivery problem According to planning commission own estimates 58% of food does not reach BPL families under existing distribution system Yet we seem to put all our confindence in the implementation of the new arrangement on the same distribution system Furthermore there are many fundamental flaws in the methodology of identifying families living Below poverty line There is also no common grounds among experts on what should be the poverty line In this context any legislation to be effective has to be more broadbased and objective A strict analysis of the existing apparatus is the need of the hour It should also take into account large number of families who are just above the povertyline because poverty is not a static situation Any hasty implementation would thwart the basic and noble objective that this legislation aspires to achieve

Free trade agreement - A boon or bane ?

In recent times Free trade Agreements ( FTA) undertaken by Indian Governments have polarized public opinion regarding the efficacy of the same Infact the Ministry of commerce lists 19 regional trade agreements which are in various stages of negotiations According to a rough estimate by 2014-15 India would have agreed on a reciprocal basis to eliminate tariffs on 85-90% of products with countries that account for 70% of Indias global trade But how prudent it is to open our huge market to the trading partners As like many issues in India it has thrown up arguments sometimes bordering on irrationality & sensationalism If we closely look at the FTA entered with ASEAN, one can understand the above assertion The FTA provide for eliminition of Tariffs on over 4000 products agri as well as industrial products This account for almost 80% of products It stipulates tariffs to be reduced to NIL by 2016 Roughly 10% products ( mainly agriproducts 500 in number) tariffs would be brought down to 5% These products are mainly plantation crops like coconut, tea,coffee,pepper,crude palm oil The final duty on sensitive farm products would still remain in the range of 37.5%to 50% Apart from this 489 items ( mostly farm products) would not be subjected to any tariff cuts So under the current situation Govt has done a commendable job The major grouse of the producers in India is that these smaller asian countries with better infrastructure and lower transaction costs would make our product offering uncompetitive which would later result in unemployment But this is a farfetched argument as international food boundries transcends every barriers Now the fight is for larger competitive production, high yeild & environmental issues We have to be prepared for the same As is clearly evident the future of every country in this planet is linked to food availability & production But at the same time Government has to keep a proper balance between the increase in imports & exports And more importantly SPS measures in Agricultural & food products some time act as a barrier So the govenment should remain vigilant while pursuing the objectives of FTA as for as Agrisector is concerned

PEST MENACE

Recent findings concerning huge amount of losses due to pests & diseases have alarmed analysts of Agri-sector According to a survey done by Crop care foundation of India, the country is losing agri-production worth Rs 1.48 lakh crore due to damage from weeds,pests & plant diseases This works out to almost 10-30% of the farm production Actually plant protection chemicals are being used only in 20% of cultivated area which is resulting in farmers losing their investment in seeds, irrigation & labour The per hectare use of pesticides is far low in comparison to developed countries India has less than 200 registered plant protection molecules which is lower than countries like Pakistan & vietnam According to a rough estimate the cost benefit raio of pesticide use is at 1;5 ,that is from the current consumption of chemicals ( which is 4000crore) if we raise it to 10000crore then the production would go up to 30000crore annually So the time has come for the government to reorient policies which would encourage use of environmentally friendly new generation pesticides and come hard on sale of spurious pesticides which is ruling roost in our villages Utmost importance should be given to safer and newer molecules as International food market has become very sensitive to the overuse of pesticides So the mantra is increase use of safer pesticides according to international norms & increase food productivity- production

Food security - The new global issue

Over last one year the food prices have rose alarmingly In a survey by the World bank the numbers living on less than$1.25 a day would increase by 89m between 2008 and 2010 This has alarmed Govts world over Thats why renewed emphasis on Agriculture has been on the agenda of many Governments But the problem is international grain trade suffers from lots of shortcoming which has resulted in this kind of situation The western countries have done little to reduce subsidies on Bio fuels which has taken out large quantities of Maize out of the food market and thus spike the prices Big food importers like Saudu-Arabia,kuwait,china & south-korea have prefered to grow food on land they own or control abroad rather than prefering to import through international trade Similarly in 2008 when Thailand vietnam (The worlds two largest exporters)banned exports of Rice there was an International panicky including India which resulted in all time high prices of Rice This coupled with Indias poor harvest further stressed the market This has led to a growing number of people advocating a mechanism which could replace such individual decisions by the government Thats why the International food summit in 2009 attended by 60 odds head of the states is a welcome sign The more we discuss about the food inadequacy the better would be fight against malnourishment,malnutrition This in addition to govenments determination to upgrade agricultural production of the respective country would be a welcome sign

Renewed emphasis on Agriculture

Sometimes i wonder whether we are giving sufficient thought to the ground realities whenever we are framing our policies The policies though well intentioned is not achieving the desired results Now the question is not about money but the practicability of the said policies Govt is spending huge money on the demonstrative effect to popularize various agrischemes But is there any evaluation of the so called demonstration? Take for example Maize cultivation and popularization among tribals We are working in the same project where each and every milestone was documented So that the work can be improved upon in the consequent years But curiously in case of Govt implementation there was no such accountability and more importantly they never prepared the poor farmers for consequent maize cultivation The poor farmers still feel that the Govt would give them free inputs year after year so they need not pick up the prudent agri-practices Had there been vigorous monitoring at least we could have created small number of farmers who would have taken up this cultivation as an appropriate income generating farming activity So time has come for vigilant civil society organizations to pursue these so that a vibrant farm activity can see the light of the day

The silent assasin

What happened in New-york is the stark reminder of the modern ways that the terrorists operate They are simply one among us who have been brain washed to take up this cause Now the question is how to deal with these people ? No amount of police activities can deter these people The time has come to understand the seriousness of this situation and carve out a pragmatic solution