India's southwest monsoon, crucial for the economy, is expected to be close to normal this year as the devastating El Nino weather pattern that has caused drought is nearly over, said the officials and analysts on Thursday.

"The El Nino effect has become a little favourable for the monsoon," HR Hatwar, deputy director general of India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. In 2002, poor June-September annual monsoon rains caused the worst drought in 15 years which badly hit farm output and economic growth.

The IMD had in April forecast this year's monsoon rains to be 96 per cent of the long-term average calling them "below normal" in its new set of classifications aimed at giving a more accurate picture.

According to the IMD's new scale, below-normal rainfall is 90-97 per cent of the long-term average, near normal 98-102 per cent of the average, and above normal 103-110 per cent.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, 15^th May '03
(Website : www.economictimes.com)

Reliance Institute of Tech. to develop IT - related courses for agriculture

According to sources, efforts are on to develop IT-related courses for agriculture which will prepare IT personnel to equip farmers with agri-based information to improve their products.

Maharashtra draws up plan for WLL-versed villages

In A big step towards improving rural connectivity in Maharashtra, the state government has planned an integrated project using WLL (wireless in local loop) technology to provide extensive and dynamic information to farmers through internet and video-conferencing.

Work on two pilot locations, at Baramati and Pabal, near Pune, will begin soon.These two places will have one WLL centre each. The proposed project, once ready, will extend internet facility to surrounding villages within a radius of 25 km through WLL. The facility could be utilised to access agricultural and marketing information for the farmers.

Technical and marketing information available with the state agriculture department, as well as private organisations, is being made available for these WLL centres. The villages in the vicinity of the WLL centres would be provided with internet kiosks from where users can access information and various web sites. Once open, the farmers in the area can browse agriculture-related web sites, download information on various agro technologies, get meteorological information as well as disaster management plan, pest incidents and remedies.

Similarly, farmers could get global and country-wide market information, various government schemes, facilities, agro-processing and marketing information, communicate directly with scientists and other farmers and utilise e-commerce in agriculture. Currently, a number of special export zones for agriculture produces are coming up in the state. These will benefit immensely by the WLL project, feels the government.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, 21^st April '03
(Website : www.economictimes.com)

Food processing sector flourishes despite drought

The food processing sector recorded growth for the fiscal ended March ’03 despite the negative growth in agricultural sector and the consequent downward revision of GDP estimate following last year’s drought

According to CII, while the poor monsoon had affected suppliers of agricultural inputs like tractors and fertilisers, industries such as beer, biscuits, edible oil etc have bucked the trend. In fact, growth in some of the sectors has accelerated last year compared to the previous year.Production of sugar machinery rose 6.5% as against 8.5% in the previous year.

As regards the outlook for the next six months, except edible oil all other sectors have positive expectation. Alcoholic beverages, beer, biscuits, processed food and sugar machinery expect output to rise by 5-10%. Cigarettes and tobacco, fertilisers, malted food, tea, and vanaspati expect to see a muted rise in production in the region of 0-5%.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, 17^th April '03
(Website : www.economictimes.com)

Gherkin exports brought under DEPB-linked subsidy scheme

The government has sparked off its new DEPB-linked subsidy scheme for farm exports with the humble gherkin. Other agricultural exports that could take advantage of the subsidy include cut flowers, pickles, jams and jellies, processed fruits and vegetables, and potato flakes.
The Exim policy announced by Union commerce Minister Arun Jaitley a fortnight ago aims to compensate exporters for the fertilisers and seeds that are used in growing a commodity. A higher DEPB (Duty Exemption Pass Book) rate gives exporters higher compensation for imported inputs, and thus allows them to price their products cheaper in the world market.
Till now they only get the flat 2 per cent DEPB for packaging material. But with a new higher rate, selling their DEPB licences in the local market will also fetch more.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, 15^th April '03
(Website : www.economictimes.com)

Corp India gets agro as states sign up exec farmers

Basmati cultivation is returning to Punjab after decades. Basmati, which had almost vanished from Punjab due to unremunerative prices, is now grown abundantly in the state, mostly due to contract farming. Several corporates including Hindustan Lever (HLL), the UB group, PepsiCo and Escorts are increasingly becoming involved in the contract farming of agri-products to ensure better quality and minimise cost. Even players like Ahmedabad-based textile major Arvind Mills are in the process of identifying locations to start a contract farming project to grow cotton. States like Punjab and UP are amending the rules to promote contract farming in a big way. The UP government has recently amended the Agriculture Produce Marketing.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, 14^th April '03
(Website : www.economictimes.com)

Farm hand: ICICI plans to offer weather cover via non-life arm

The ICICI group is looking at introducing weather insurance through its non-life arm ICICI Lombard General Insurance as a part of its new focus towards agriculture. As against the present state-subsidised crop insurance programme administered by the General Insurance Corporation (GIC), ICICI's plan is to protect contract farmers from the vagaries of the weather.

At present the government approach is not very scientific. The state and Central governments grant a subsidy on the insurance premium to small and marginal farmers on a 75:25 sharing basis. The scheme covers ten kharif crops, namely, paddy, jowar, bajra, groundnut, tur, sunflower, sesamum, nigerseed, soyabean and ragi and seven rabi crops - jowar, wheat, gram, sunflower, summer groundnut and summer paddy- are included in the scheme.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, 04^th April '03
(Website : www.economictimes.com)