Well, what is so sad about it? 
That is good chunk of money on which a few generations of the farmer can live happily; and if he is still interested to farm, he can take a tiny fraction of the amount to buy as much land as he wants on the outskirts, canāt he? This is a natural phenomenon around growing cities and in my opinion is certainly beneficial to the farmer.
yes he said he will be buying around 20 to 30 acres in outskirts for farming but he added that already he is 60 and his sons dint learn agriculture from him and not showing interest in it.if he buys also no one is to look after him
Dear sir
It was interesting to read on the above topic . Have you any idea of the cost of lands that are available in the outskirts ? You would be surprised to know that the day is not far when agriculture is going to be categorised as industry without the agriculturists asking for it. Yes i want more more lands to be converted to concrete monsters. Then only people who are clamouring for SEZs and who have potful of money struggle to buy a bagful of grains/ vegetables. We are ruled by senseless politicians who have no vision----- the only vision they have is buying properties in Mount Road and hoarding money to last a decade. You cannot shoe one politician who places value in agriculture . I was told That Shri. Alagiri the present Minister for agriculture was good enough to procure fertilizer for home consumption at rates far below that what was done during BJP rule.Can any one corroborate this? Looting is the order of the day . A worker can go on a strike but not an agriculturist . Seeing the plight of his father the son has taken a right decision to keep away from farming.
the production cost increase is because of a system flaw not only in law but also the monetary system we live in.
Sir, I m too against SEZāsā> its only way of deviating people from their land into more of concrete jungle. There is absolutely no excuse to make SEZās which logically speaking are worst ideaās from environment point of view but best from the view of politico- economic slaves & corporates.
{these slaves do get well paid, but you knowā¦ no 1 can run from inflation!..except the few politicians, industrialists, corporates}
if SEZs are the way for progress in this country then its definitely NOT for Peopleās REPUBLIC OF INDIA.
Thanks to start this topic as this very useful for new comers to agriculture like me.
I think there are tremendous opprtunities in this sector provided you take a holistic approach-- a complete business model.
Recently I thought about to start a green house project at my village.During my home work I explored many resources.I have visited the Govt agency-they told me about policies -nothing else(no data to analyse your concept),agriculture institute-only technical data (no concerete product yield data).
In hope of finding the solution I visited Horti expo at Pragati Maidan.Then I come to know why the agricultural sector is in so dismissal state.The information provided by the Govt agency are of little use .You just ask them about the production demend supply status and they have no idea.
Secondly I am not able to find the experts in this zone who can guide me through the whole project.
So demonstrable resources are scare in this field.
Marketing is the biggest problem in this area.
Still I think opportunities are there and new enterpreneures have to make the way .
thanks
rajneesh
@Rajneesh - We will be starting a green house project later in the year and would like to learn from your research and experiences. If possible even collaborate with you at some level if you are still interested in the project.
where can we touch base with you?
Thx and good luck with your future agri plans.
Just happened to meet a pomegranate farmer today. He has all of his 80 acres under pomegranate, now in its 4th year with a complete set up of 10 bore wells, a sump, centralized drip system, a few cows, worker quarters and even a generator. Hi operation is largely organic.
What I found interesting was that he did not believe there was not much return in any agricultural crop when it comes to practical reality. He was quoting his own annual operating costs were about 36 lakh and with the price falling to as low as Rs. 25 a kg in crop season (from about Rs. 250 in off season), it is often a no profit no loss proposition. He was also referring to vegetable and fruit farmers around, where, except for periodic windfalls, there is not a lot of money any farmer can make.
Thoughts?
This is not an isolated incident. The problem is marketing is not in the hands of the farmers. And when all the farmers dump in their produce , that too when they are easily perishable, the middle men take advantage of this and mint money easily. The net result is middle men make good money while the farmers are left at their mercy. Once storage facilities are developed and marketing is done by the farmers themselves on co-operative basis under controlled environment , this problem could be mitigated.
I donāt the economics of the farmer referred to , but having spent 36 lakhs of rupees and getting a not-so-good profit is definitely appalling. But there are cases ( found in this same forum) wherein a farmer earns much more money with just a couple of acres of farm than that of three software engineersā income combined. It all depends upon the variety of produce , farming methods involved and market forces.
Very true and all I am trying to get before us is a balanced picture, than make it appear too optimistic and enticing for newbies. What could or should this farmer do to be stabler?
It would really be nice if farmers could pitch in with actual numbers for some of the crops.
this happens due to the greed of the farmers. For example when one farmer grows sugar cane in an area where rice is the predominant crop , and gets a good profit , immediately majority of the farmers switch to sugarcane hoping to make a huge money. When there is such a sudden increase in acreage of sugarcane cultivation , the sugar mills take an upper hand and play all sorts of games in getting the sugar cane to their mills. And the best period for milling in sugarcane is between 10 months to 12 months . But there are incidents where the cutting order was given late (even after 12 months) and this results in reduced sugarcane juice output which lessens the profit margin of the farmers. To avoid this some farmers woo the sugarcane supervisors of the sugar mills by giving them bribes and this results in corruption affecting fellow farmers.
So is the case with cotton and rice. When a large number of farmers bring their produce to the market at a time, naturally the prices fall down resulting in reduced profits to the farmers. The only solution to this problem is to form village level farmersā committees to control the type of plants cultivated and also to take up collective and controlled marketing by farmersā themselves eliminating middle men. But who is to bell the cat ?
For those who have not followed the communication on the subject, we now have a wiki on http:/farmnest.com/
Looking forward to everyoneās contributions of subject matter
THE TECHNOLOGY IS AVAILABLE ON A LARGE SCALE FARMING.
BUT, THE PEOPE HAVE TO APP;LY THIER MIND. THIS IS LACKING.
Dear Mr.Chanda
In near future " F " will dominate- FOOD GRAINS, FRUITS, FISH, FROZEN FOOD - for the proper
Implementation FINANCE also one of the factors. Just I mentioned about the case of ORANGES,
APPLES are Dominating in Supermarkets, Now it is also reached the hands of small fruit sellers.
You see the change. In Agriculture it is must to have āSound Post Harvest Technologyā to make
value added products , there by prevent market dumping during Crop Season, This the main
Cause low price. If we do so producers can control market price. Farmers co-operatives can do a
lot. See . Gandevi Phal Sakbaji Mandli, They are having strong post harvest system for Mango
pulp, tomato sauce etc , They are exporting to different countries. If any one need more details
contact me .
Thank You
Good Luck
Thanks biofarms, I agree with your points.
Mehta early on in the discussion mentioned that the chief issue in agriculture was not technologies but marketing. This is very true.
Consider an old company like Tata Tea that was in plantation tea and coffee. Today they have changed their name to Tata Global because they have realized that the producers share of final price for a Starbucks coffee is much less than that taken by the trading and marketing companies. So today, we have Tata Global focusing on not just producing tea and coffee, but also producing generic competitors to tea and coffee like water and juices, besides ramping up their involvement in the trading and distribution and retailing side with acquistions like Tetley, launch of coffee chains, etc.
Further, marketing by just connecting primary users and sellers is not enough. Farmers must form cooperatives so that they can do value-addition to their products. Form a coopertive and build a cold storage. This will ensure better price realisation. Form a cooperative and mill the rice grown collectively. Form a cooperative and make oranges and fruit into jams, juices, squashes, jellies, etc. This way farmer ensures that he gets a better price for his produce and also benefits from the value addition that enables it to be marketed to the final consumer.
YES IN FARMING THERE ARE MORE AND MORE OPPORTUNITIES AS COMPARE TO OTHER FIELDSā¦FARMING IS THE BEST ONE WITH FULL SATISFACTION IN WORKā¦BUT NOW DAYS THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT AT ALL GIVING JUSTICE TO FARMERS THEY ARE CUTTING SUBSIDIES OF FERTILISERS, NOT GIVING FIXED MINIMUM PRICE TO MAJOR CROPS LIKE SUGARCANE, PUTTING HIGH DUTIES ON EXPORT OF ONION,SUGARCANE SO PRICES OF SUCH CROPS REDUCESā¦WE ALL LITERATE FARMERS KNOW THAT GOVERNMENT IS PUTTING FARMERS AT BACK FRONT AND GIVING ALL FACILITIES TO BIG INDUSTRALISTā¦I WANT TO KNOW THAT CAN IT COMPANIES, MOBILE PHONES, AEROPLANES, COMPUTERS, CARS ETC CAN NOT GIVE THE GRAINS AS FOOD FOR INDIAN PUBLICā¦ WE ALL THINK IT IS TIME TO CHANGE SYSTEM OF OUR COUNTRY THEN ONLY INDIA WILL BECOME TRULY SUPER POWERā¦BUT DO NOT FORGET THAT AGRICULTURE IS BASE AND ALL THINGS DEPENDS ON AGRICULTUREā¦my mail id lookatamitd@gmail.com
The discussions so far has been good and enlightening. in the nutshell, old fashioned farming with limited area and money has no future. it is time to reverse the trend by doing away with small farms and promote large holdings where investment and returns can be managed with certain precision.This would also create employment opportunites to local agriculture labours. The bane of indian agriculture has been the unscientific land reforms which has mor damage than and benefits to the farming community or the society at large.
Practical experience is that small farmers are getting optimum of produce from their small land holding, where large land holding farmers left the lands barren by the reasons of labour problem, heavy expenditure etc. No such problem for small farmer who personally cultivate entire land without any labour assistance for most of the times.
Few of my friends who has got small land holding are earning more than software engineers in city or land lord next to his land. Important here is perfect planning of agriculture with crop patrons to win market gamble.
However it depends on a person how he approach getting production from land. Now all are in a need of comforts but not jobs, hence no labour is coming forward for agriculture work as they are getting their every months food with the support of govt subsidized rates, therefore, they can do work only for gaining of certain amount which is sufficient for their present expenditures to keep them happy. They donāt care of tomorrow to earn and keep more for tomorrow.
Agriculture reforms have their own good and bad impacts, but it is important for any one to come out from such hurdles to win the situation
I concur with your opinion. There are few things that is bothering the society. One food production. earning money from small holdings by growing commercial crops cannot be generalised. only those who have irrigation facility and investment capacity can do it. majority of small and marginal farmers lack both. As we travel interior areas and places where rainfall is always deficit the situation is grim. such situation is common than persons earning some good returns here and there. Basically, such farmers do go hungry on many days as they would not the requiste money to purchase food grains whose prices are spiralling day by day. Our aim should primarily be to promote food production and reaching those who cannot afford. In this way probably farmnest would serve the purpose.