Basmati rice, guargum drive India s April-June agri exports. Buffalo meat shipments stay flat

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1 Basmati rice, guargum drive India s April-June agri exports Buffalo meat shipments stay flat India s agri exports for the April-June quarter rose by almost a tenth in dollar terms and 7 per cent in rupee terms on strong overseas demand for products such as basmati rice and guargum. Exports in dollar terms stood at $4.39 billion, up from $4 billion in the corresponding period last year. In rupee terms, the exports stood at 28,230 crore, against 26,525 crore in the previous year period, according to provisional estimates by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda). The shipments of buffalo meat, which had slowed down in the immediate aftermath of a ban on trade of cattle for slaughter, have registered a 3 per cent growth in dollar terms at $849 million for the April-June period, although the export volumes were flat at around 2.79 lakh tonnes. Basmati rice, the largest product in the agri-exports basket, saw increased buying from Iran during the period. Basmati volumes for the April-June quarter stood at 1.25 million tonnes, a growth of 6 per cent over last year s 1.18 million tonnes.

2 The renewed demand for Indian guargum saw the export volumes almost double during the period. Shipments of guargum, used by the US shale gas industry in extracting the gas, stood at 1.45 lakh tonnes in April-June this year, against 77,174 tonnes in the corresponding period last year. Besides increased buying from Iran, the higher per unit realisation fetched by basmati shipments also contributed to the overall export growth in value terms, said DK Singh, Chairman of Apeda. As against per tonne realisation of around $850 last year, basmati rice has commanded an average price of $1009 per tonne in the April-June quarter this year. Higher realisations for non-basmati rice has also pushed up the growth in exports of the cereal as volumes saw a marginal dip at 1.72 million tonnes (against 1.78 million tonnes). Also, the issue relating to ban on trade of cattle has not impacted exports. Singh said Apeda is focussing on new markets in South-East Asia, such as Malaysia and the Philippines, to boost buffalo meat exports. We are expecting a delegation from these two countries this month to visit India for approving the abattoirs. Once we get the approval, we should be able to export more, Singh said. Presently, Vietnam is the largest buyer of India s buffalo meat. Further, Singh said Apeda is focussing on boosting fruit and vegetable shipments, where the state-run entity sees big potential. Fresh fruit exports went up marginally to 1,349 crore this year (against 1,332 crore). India s total agri and processed food exports stood at lakh crore in (This article was published on August 1, 2017) Punjab academics develop drip irrigation tech for wheat Early wheat sowing and adopting drip irrigation technology could result in a 50 per cent reduction in water usage and improved yields, researchers at the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in Ludhiana have found. The technique was successfully tried out by researchers led by AS Brar of the Department of Agronomy at PAU on the university s experimental farms. It could emerge as a major boon for Punjab, where 110 of 138 water blocks were found to be overexploited, with groundwater tables dipping steeply.

3 According to the scientists, it is one of the first attempts to develop a drip irrigation protocol for wheat crop and they perfected after carrying out trials across two crop cycles in and In a paper published in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment last week, Brar and his doctoral student Eajaz Ahmad Dar showed that this could yield great savings in water budget, if widely adopted. The third author of the paper is KB Singh, a scientist at PAU s University Seed Farms in Ladhowal. Technique offers 50% water saving Further, the study has shown that the yields can be enhanced by about 10 per cent if the sowing is advanced by 15 days from the normal date of November 10, said Dar, who is the first author of the study. Advancing the crop cycle by a few days will not be difficult, he said. Conventionally, rabi wheat crop in the State requires close to 50 cm of irrigation. This comes down to cm if the drip irrigation technique is deployed, said Dar. However, Brar admitted that implementing drip irrigation in wheat crop may face some challenges. Farmers normally grow wheat in the same field where their cultivate paddy in kharif. As of now, flooding the field is needed for paddy cultivation and hence farmers will not find it attractive to go for drip irrigation for wheat crop alone. A way out, however, is to lure at least a section of farmers to grow maize in kharif, and subsequently use the land to grow wheat. Maize is grown over one lakh hectares in the State already, Brar said. The government may have to offer better prices for maize so that farmers may opt for the crop instead of paddy, he added.

4 We have already developed drip irrigation protocols for maize and cotton and they are found to be working wonderfully, he said. Brar s team is also exploring the possibility of using sub-surface drip irrigation. Once the pipes are laid beneath the soil, they won t be destroyed even if the farmers grow paddy in kharif. We also want to see whether drip irrigation will work for paddy as well, as we recently received funds for such a study, Brar said. According to him, drip irrigation offers other benefits as well. It improves nutrient efficiency and therefore brings hdown the input cost. Moreover, it helps prevent yield loss if there is a sudden raise in temperature closer to the time of harvest. How it works Dar, who hails from Kashmir, said typically the field where wheat is to be grown is first flooded with 10 cm of water. Wheat crop, which has a duration of over 150 days, would require another five rounds of irrigation each with an average of 7.5 cm water before it is ready for harvest. The first heavy irrigation is required for the new cultivation method too. But the water required for subsequent irrigation rounds comes down to just one-fifth. Even though the frequency of irrigation goes up two to three times depending on the rainfall received in a season, there is a substantial saving in the water used, he said. The number of irrigation cycles is decided by measuring the soil moisture content. When the rainfall is low, more irrigation rounds are required. For instance, in , the PAU scientists irrigated the experimental fields 11 times as the region received 190 mm rainfall, but required 16 irrigation rounds as the precipitation was just 70 mm that year, Dar said. (This article was published on August 1, 2017) Now, onion does a tomato; prices climbing up steadily The floods in Gujarat and large-scale procurement by the Madhya Pradesh government have pushed onions prices northwards. Close on the heals of tomato, onion prices have also started climbing rapidly. The floods in Gujarat and large-scale procurement by the Madhya Pradesh government have pushed onions prices northwards. At the Lasalgaon market, prices have risen from 700 to 1,400 a quintal in a week s time.

5 Maharashtra produces over 30 per cent of the nation s onion crop and the Lasalgaon market, controlled by the State s Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC), is the largest in the country. The sprawling market is the national bellwether for onion prices. In June, in order to provide support to farmers against falling onion prices, the Centre as well as the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh had decided to procure about 2 lakh tonnes of the red bulb. Higher production in kharif had pushed the prices below 600/quintal. Pressure from farmers agitations had also pushed the State government to buy the crops at 800 a quintal. There were violent farmer protests in Madhya Pradesh over a massive fall in agri-commodity prices. The farmers sought a higher support price for their produce and waiver of loans. The move to increase onion price was taken against this background. Nitin Jain, an onion trader from Lasalgaon,said the prices are now seeing a jump because of the unforeseen Madhya Pradesh government procurement. The floods in Gujarat have also impacted the supplies nationally. Higher in contrast Chairman of Lasalgaon APMC, Jaydutt Holkar, said the price increase is perceived to be higher because onion prices were subdued for the greater part of the year. The marginal decrease in supplies from Karnataka has also impacted supplies. The prices will remain high until early September, when the new crop hits the market, he said.

6 Onion trader Gajadhar Bhansali from Jhalawar, Rajasthan, said that in his area there is never a huge demand for onions but due to drop in supplies the prices have risen to about 1,800 a quintal.