Rare. Government and farmers together attempt to conserve water!

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/current-affairs-trends/haryana-farmers-give-up-rice-crop-to-conserve-water-4231431.html

Haryana farmers give up rice crop to conserve water

According to Haryana’s farm department, every hectare (2.4 acre) brought under maize cultivation from rice would save 14,000 litres of water needed for irrigation.

Hindustan Times@moneycontrolcom

 

  

A unique experiment in Haryana could well break a long-standing chokehold on the state’s seriously depleted water table: rampant paddy.

Fifteen thousand farmers in the state, who have traditionally grown only rice, will not be growing the water-intensive crop this summer, the first time in 30 years. They have signed up for a state government drive that rewards them with cash and freebies for ditching paddy for maize.

According to Haryana’s farm department, every hectare (2.4 acre) brought under maize cultivation from rice would save 14,000 litres of water needed for irrigation.

CLOS

"India currently holds surplus rice stocks and it was not easy convincing farmers to give up paddy," said Suresh.

The campaign worked because of a string of freebies and a state-backed guarantee that all the maize harvested by farmers, who signed up for the programme, would be bought by the state at federally fixed minimum support prices.

The share of Haryana’s districts that have depleted water reserves to "dangerous" levels has risen from 63 percent in 1995 to 89 percent in 2014, according to Ranjan Aneja, an economist with Central University of Haryana.

The state has seen an alarming fall in its groundwater levels. According to the Central Water Commission’s data, the average depth at which groundwater was available in 1975 was 9.19 metre. It dropped to 18.66 metre in 2016.

Despite a frightening water crisis, farmers prefer paddy, which requires 80 percent more water than, say, maize, because the power needed to draw water is virtually free for farmers. In the 1960s, such subsidies, along with better seeds, had spurred India’s green revolution, whose benefits are now wearing off.

Apart from the assurance to buy the harvest, each farmer who has switched to maize has got Rs 1,200 worth of good quality maize seeds free on a per acre basis, apart from Rs 2,000 in “production subsidy”, which is essentially a cash reward for not growing water-intensive rice crops.

"We tried explaining to farmers that while rice would fetch them Rs 1,750 per 100 kgs, they would get nearly as much for maize, whose minimum support price is Rs 1,700 per 100 kgs. Plus, the cost of cultivating maize is lower on an average by Rs 12,000," Gehlawat said.

Farmer Producer Company success story

Sayadri Farmer Producer company claims to be largest grape exporter in 2018-19 season

By: FE Bureau | 

Published: July 4, 2019 1:12:57 AM

Sahyadri Farms contributes 15% to the country’s grapes export. SFPC is among the major farmers’ producer companies in India with more than 8,000 marginal fruit and vegetable farmers.

The company has facilities in Mohadi, Nashik, with 6,000 tonne of cold storage facilities and has the capability to pack 250 tonne per day in a pack house system employing 2,000 labour on a daily basis.

Sahyadri Farmer Producer Company Ltd (SFPCL) said on Wednesday that it had exported 22,000 tonne (1,459 containers) of grapes to various overseas markets during the season of 2018-19. The company said this makes it the largest grape exporter in India. Sahyadri Farms contributes 15% to the country’s grapes export. SFPC is among the major farmers’ producer companies in India with more than 8,000 marginal fruit and vegetable farmers. As much as 63% of the total farmer population in India is made up of growers with less than 1 hectare of land and Sahyadri provides the infrastructure to allow even the smallest farmers to be part of a global supply chain, chairman & managing director Vilas Shinde said.

From 2010, the group of farmers in the company quadrupled to 550 in 2013. The year 2015 saw the company establish two divisions with the retail division providing 100% traceable produce.

The company has facilities in Mohadi, Nashik, with 6,000 tonne of cold storage facilities and has the capability to pack 250 tonne per day in a pack house system employing 2,000 labour on a daily basis. SFPC is among the country’s largest Global GAP certified groups.

The group’s retail chain extension — Sahyadri Farms — has set up company-owned retail stores for fresh and quality fruits and vegetable. There are 10 stores in function at New Mumbai and Nashik. In the next two years, Sahyadri intends to set up 200 retail outlets .

SFPCL, which is 100 % owned and run by farmers, has bagged exclusive production and marketing rights for India for ARRA grape varieties. Jupiter Group, a major European company, has chosen SFPCL as a growing partner in India for the ARRA varieties.

Sahyadri Farms, the country’s largest FPC, had signed an agreement with Jupiter and started a new era in the agricultural sector of the country. Jupiter’s CEO and Group MD Mark Tweddle and Vilas Shinde, CMD of Sahyadri Farms, recently announced at Sahyadri Farms. As the first table grape breeding programme to enter India, Grapa Varieties, which commercialise the ARRA varieties on behalf of Agriculture Research & Development, is also part of this venture.

After experimenting with ARRA varieties in the region of Nashik on test blocks, the company plans to cultivate ARRA plants by the end of 2019 and to scale it up by an additional 2,000 hectare by the end of 2023. Volume harvest is expected as early as 2020 for export to global markets. This includes many varieties of green, black and red grapes, Shinde said.