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