proceedings - ndri.res.in
TRANSCRIPT
National Webinar
on
Marketing of Agricultural Commodities:
Challenges & Opportunities
January 12-14, 2021
Proceedings
Organized by: Division of Dairy Economics, Statistics & Management
ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute Karnal-132001, Haryana
Compiled and Edited by
Gunjan Bhandari
Udita Chaudhary
B.S. Chandel
R. Sendhil
R. Malhotra
A.K. Dixit
Sanjit Maiti
Sanchita Garai
Babita Kathayat
Adeeth Cariappa
Raj Jaiswal
Amit Thakur
Poulami Ray
Program Schedule
Day 1 (January 12, 2021)
10.00-11.00 Inaugural Session
Chief Guest: Dr. Ramesh Chand, Member, NITI Aayog
Technical Session-I
11.15- 13.00 Minimum Support Prices (MSP): Booster or Deterrent?
Is MSP the best way for boosting farm income or a hindrance in the operation of
free market and agricultural development?
Chairman:
Dr. P.C. Bodh, Advisor, Directorate of Economics & Statistics
Speakers:
a) Dr. Anuj Kumar, PS, ICAR- Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research
b) Dr. Sukhpal Singh, Professor, and Chairperson, Centre for Management in
Agriculture (CMA), IIM-Ahmedabad.
Technical Session-II
14.30-17.00 Issues and opportunities in marketing of livestock products
What are the specific problems in dairy marketing? How new innovations and
marketing strategies can help in increasing the income of dairy farmers?
Chairman:
Dr. P.S. Birthal, ICAR-National Professor and PS, ICAR-NIAP
Speakers:
a) Dr. R.S. Sodhi, MD, GCMMF (AMUL)
b) Dr. Anjani Kumar, Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy
Research Institute
c) Dr. D. Bardhan, PS, Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute,
Jabalpur
d) Mr. Kuldeep Sharma, Chief Thinking Officer, Suruchi Consultants
Day 2 (January 13, 2021)
Technical Session-III
10.00-13.00 Decoding new farm laws
How well ‘New Farm Laws’ address the existing problems of agricultural markets
in India? What are their merits and limitations?
Chairman:
Dr. P.K. Joshi, Former Director- South Asia, International Food Policy Research
Institute, New Delhi
Speakers:
a) Mr. Devinder Sharma, Food and Trade Policy Analyst
b) Dr. Raka Saxena, PS, ICAR- National Institute of Agriculture Economics and
Policy Research
c) Mr. Arabind Das, Chairman and MD, NutriWiz Global Advisory Services
d) Mr. Vikas Chaudhary, Progressive Farmer and FPO Member, Haryana
e) Dr. Shivendra Kumar Srivastava, Scientist, ICAR- NIAP
Technical Session-IV
14.30-17.00 New avenues in agricultural marketing
What are the new developments (institutions, product diversification, mechanism
etc.) in the field of agricultural marketing? Do they have the potential to be a
game-changer?
Chairman:
Dr. P. Chandra Shekara, Director (Agricultural Extension), National Institute of
Agricultural Extension Management, Hyderabad
Speakers:
a) Dr. Ritambhara Singh, Assistant Professor, International Agribusiness
Management Institute, Anand
b) Mr. Arabind Das, Chairman and MD, NutriWiz Global Advisory Services
c) Dr. Sendhil R., Scientist, ICAR- Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley
Research
Day 3 (January 14, 2021)
Technical Session-V
10.00-13.00 Marketing and trade of high value crops
How marketing of high value crops differ from the rest? What kind of marketing
intervention is required for them?
Chairman:
Dr. R.S. Pundir, Professor & Head, International Agribusiness Management
Institute, Anand
Speakers:
a) Dr. Hema Yadav, Director, CCS-National Institute of Agricultural Marketing,
Jaipur
b) Dr. Raka Saxena, PS, ICAR- National Institute of Agriculture Economics and
Policy Research
c) Dr. Saikat Banerjee, Professor, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade-IIFT
Inaugural Session Chief Guest: Dr. Ramesh Chand, Member, NITI Aayog
Introduction of the Chief Guest: Dr. M. S. Chauhan, Director and Vice Chancellor, ICAR-
NDRI
Inaugural Address
Dr. Ramesh Chand started by introducing the concept of marketing to participants who were not
familiar with the topic. Marketing is the process which takes agricultural commodity from the
producer to the end user. Marketing creates space utility, time utility and form utility. It involves
transactions among different functionaries. Every transaction involves costs, margins and returns
which determines welfare of producers and consumers. He then explained the importance of
agricultural marketing at the present time. Price realization through efficient marketing has more
potential than technological advancements for doubling farmer’s income. For instance, 10%
yield improvement due to technology translates to around 6% increase in farmers’ income
whereas a 10% increase in price realization leads to 16% increase in income. Marketing is an
instrument which can either be exploitative or developmental. Government must ensure that
agricultural markets are developmental. There are 6 important aspects on which the government
must focus to keep it developmental. They are regulation (balanced/optimum regulation),
competition in markets (related closely with regulation), role of institutions (like cooperatives,
FPOs), role of infrastructure inside and outside the market (like processing and storage
facilities), policy instruments (MSP, futures trading etc), and technology and innovations (like e-
NAM). He then set the floor for the 3 day webinar by stating that the speakers could discuss
around these 6 issues in the webinar.
Dr. Ramesh Chand went on to speak on regulations and also the need for changes in regulation
of the agricultural markets. Regulations are dynamic. As situations and infrastructure change,
new players emerge and regulations must evolve. He highlighted that APMC is an important
regulation. It has served many and denied some purposes. APMC was started as an infrastructure
service to the farmer. States over time started using APMCs as a source of revenue by increasing
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market fees, commissions and cesses. He added that it slowly morphed to be pro-trader from pro-
farmer. For example, according to APMC Act, traders cannot form unions. Nowadays there are
trader associations which call the shots at APMCs. Continuing, he stated that this is also an
important aspect of regulation. If you use regulation for rent seeking, markets will stop being
developmental and become exploitative. Regulations are universal and it should be treated that
way.
Keeping in mind the farm laws, he gave an example of what happens if there is no government
regulation of markets. One of the reasons for making PAN card as the only requirement for
traders in the new farm laws is that farmer or their children can also register and become traders.
About 6 crore dairy farmers transact daily without regulation. Majority of them are smaller than
small farmers. Dairy farmers can choose to sell their milk through cooperatives, MNCs like
Nestle and Hatsun and local milk collectors. Local milk collectors earn a substantive amount of
income. Markets work (welfare gains for all the stakeholders from producer to consumer) even
in the absence of regulation.
He elaborated a few situations (from his paper that has 12 such points) which strongly
necessitated the change in regulation. 1st paper on these lines, in 1995 by Hanumantha Rao and
Ashok Gulati pleaded for reforms in agriculture sector. Others followed.
1. Need for exports – surplus production resulting from exploiting land and water resources
should be exported as the demand for food is far less than what is produced. At least,
1/4th
of the incremental production should be exported, for which, we need efficient
marketing and logistics. As of now, logistic costs in India are 16% as compared to
China’s 7%. We have to bring down cost of logistics. We have to develop a model value
chain.
2. Agrarian distress from 1990s – the present system of agricultural system is unable to
revive the sector. New model is required to resolve agrarian distress. In the short run
government support like PM-KISAN might help. Why not develop a system where a
farmer becomes self-reliant than the present system where he is dependent on
government for MSP and subsidies? Government must help them by providing
infrastructure and enabling them to export.
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Regarding concerns about amendment in Essential commodity act being a black law – he said it
is only being modified and making it more transparent. He believes that there is a lack of
understanding of the new laws. He concluded by saying farmers deserve better prices for their
produce; best way to do that is through competition and if competition fails, government could
intervene.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Technical Session 1 (Day 1)
Theme: Minimum Support Price (MSP): Booster or Deterrent?
Chairman : Dr. P.C. Bodh, Advisor, Directorate of Economics &
Statistics
Rapporteurs : Dr. R. Sendhil, Scientist (SS), ICAR-IIWBR
: Ms. Babita Kathayat, PhD-III year, DES&M
Is MSP the best way for boosting farm income or hindrance in the operation of free market and
agricultural development?
The session was chaired by Dr. P.C. Bodh, Advisor, Directorate of Economics & Statistics. He
initiated the discussion by highlighting the importance of marketing of agricultural commodities
and its decisive role in continuing the farming. There were two speakers in the session: Dr.
Anuj Kumar, PS, ICAR- Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research, and Dr. Sukhpal
Singh, Professor and Chairperson, Centre for Management in Agriculture (CMA), IIM
Ahmedabad.
Dr. Anuj emphasized how the MSP system has incentivized high yielding varieties of wheat and
rice cultivation, which has led to tremendous environmental degradation in the form of
groundwater depletion, soil degradation, etc. There is a need to rationalize the MSP system since
the cost of cultivation varies across states. Quoting the inefficiencies in the present market
system, like rice procurement exceeding the production in Punjab for 2019-20, the need to
identify the real beneficiaries of MSP was stressed. Citing a couple of case studies of formation
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of FPOs, product diversification and value addition, it was pointed out that farmers in Punjab and
Haryana have developed an alternate marketing system and gain high profit levels.
Dr. Sukhpal began by pointing out that the average age of the Indian farmer is 54 years,
suggesting that majority of farmers are not young and entrepreneurial. The ongoing debates
surrounding the Farm Acts as introduced by the government in the recent past are regulatory in
nature, while the MSP is a policy issue. Dr. Singh raised some key questions like how to make
good use of MSP as a policy instrument, and how to assess who is actually benefitting from
MSP? The rationale behind the MSP was discussed – including its introduction as a policy
instrument with major objectives such as production enhancement, food security, risk
stabilization and market assurance. An important issue that is mostly missed out in discussion is
illegal lending promoted by Arhatiyas (kuccha) leading to an interlocking between farmers and
local credit market. Even in the case of FCI procurement, payment goes to Arhatiyas instead of
direct payment to farmers. This issue needs to be addressed pertinently. In order to assess the
beneficiaries of the MSP, first, we need to have a clear understanding on the classification of
farmers. As per the official definition of land holding size in India, only 1% are large farmers,
which is not truly representative. Another concern that needs a clear understanding is that the
assessment of beneficiary should be either as per volume of produce procured or number of
farmers benefitted. Some of the issues like short procurement window, MSP coverage for only a
few crops, delayed payment, quantitative restrictions imposed by some states like Chhattisgarh
and fair and average quality in the present marketing system were highlighted in the discussion.
One of the speakers identified MSP as a legal right of farmer, an important price stabilization
tool. Even if 15-30% procurement takes place at MSP, the remaining purchase by private sector
will automatically be regulated/ traded at the support price. Various government reports that
made recommendation like Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) and Bhavantar Bharpai Yojna
(BBY) along the lines to legalise MSP were also cited.
The key message of the session was an enabling environment along with entrepreneurial zeal, let
the new generation of farmers derive huge profits from farming as a business without any
dependence on support price. Innovations in the present MSP-based procurement system were
also recommended, including standardized warehousing system, incentives for storage, changing
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crop focus of MSP and involvement of local institutions in procurement, so that the existing
procurement system efficiency could be increased.
Technical Session 2 (Day 1)
Theme: Issues & opportunities in marketing of livestock products
Chairman : Dr. P.S. Birthal, PS, ICAR – National Professor
Rapporteurs : Dr. R. Malhotra, PS, DES&M
: Mr. Adeeth Cariappa, PhD-III year, DES&M
The chairman, Dr. P. S. Birthal, highlighted the importance and uniqueness of the livestock
sector. Livestock sector growth has been consistently higher than the crop sector and is driven by
factors like institutions and technology, unlike crop sector where one of the major drivers is
commodity prices. He also highlighted that livestock sector has a lot of potential. Lot of
opportunity lies especially in the marketing of non-food by-products like dung, hides and skins
etc. He also emphasized that the market for livestock products is less developed and informal,
except for some like milk, poultry and meat. The chairman posed 7 questions for the speakers to
discuss in the session.
1. How important are the informal livestock product value chains? Can they withstand competition
from modern value chains? Equity in marketing?
2. Will the modern value chains be beneficial to small farmers?
3. How modern value chains deal with food safety and quality issues?
4. What kind of policies is required to create level playing field to all the stakeholders?
5. Why value chain models like cooperatives (or other institutions) are barely present in eastern and
north-eastern states of India?
6. How finance (credit and insurance) be linked to value chains?
7. Does India have comparative advantage in livestock markets like buffalo meat?
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There were four speakers in the session: Dr. R.S. Sodhi, MD, GCMMF (Amul), Dr. Anjani
Kumar, Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute, Dr. D. Bardhan,
PS, Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute, Jabalpur, and Mr. Kuldeep
Sharma, Chief Thinking Officer, Suruchi Consultants.
Dr. Sodhi began his talk with the remark that Livestock sector is in the limelight of policymaking
and industry in the past 2 years because of its significance in doubling farmer’s income,
immunity and nutritive value of livestock products. Livestock farmers do not demand anything
like MSP or income tax exemption or subsidies. Despite contributing around 30% to agricultural
GDP, only 7-8% of state budgets are allocated to livestock sector. Concentration of the dairy
sector is on innovation and institutional efficiency. Potential of dairy sector – In 8-10 years, the
value of milk handled will increase 4 times from around INR 8 lakh crores now, to INR 30 lakh
crores (with organized sector handling upto INR 10-20 lakh crores).
There will be INR 80,000 crore investment and 100 million new employment opportunities in
the same period. However, there are a few challenges for this potential to be realized. First, no
government support despite significant contribution of GDP. Allocate funds equal to the
contribution of GDP which will boost investments on technology, research and development.
Second is the threat of fake and artificial products which affects producers’ income like
soya/almond milk which is imported and less nutritive. We should be able to convince the state
and union governments about the tremendous growth potential of milk and its nutritional
importance. We should realize and harness the buffalo potential. It’s gold. We should promote
buffalo milk because it has more calcium and fat; it is whiter and tastier. Responding to the
issues flagged by Chairman, Dr. Singh iterated the importance of formal institution like
cooperatives. Informal sector also gets better prices due to the presence of cooperatives and
competition. Due to the competition from local informal players, modern value chains aim for
improving efficiency such that 70-80% of the consumer rupee goes to the producer. Also, make
sure that products are cheap and accessible to consumer. Organized players have started
investing in eastern and NE states. AMUL is handling 1 lakh litres In Guwahati alone.
Investments are underway in West Bengal and Jharkhand. Speaker believes that the future of
dairy industry lies in eastern and NE states of India.
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Q & A session
A participant asked why NDDB was not promoting dairy goat. Speaker replied as an outsider,
NDDB aims are aligned in preparing feeding and breeding plans and promoting FPOs.
There were questions on bringing milk under MSP regime. Speaker replied that it would be a
burden and it might lead to inefficiency.
There was a question on A1 and A2 milk. Speaker replied that it was a marketing strategy of
developed countries and it is a myth.
The chairman had a final question; if the government doubles investment, where should it be
invested? Speaker replied that the investment should be prioritized under production (breeding,
feed and fodder), logistics (milking machines, chilling, transport etc) and marketing.
Dr. Kumar began his presentation titled “Traditional vs modern milk marketing channels in
India: implications for smallholder dairy farmers”. It was based on his paper on “Impact of
traditional versus modern dairy value chains on food security: Evidence from India’s dairy
sector”. Objective was to determine factors influencing farmers’ decision to sell to a milk
marketing outlet and to estimate the impact of it on welfare. Milk markets are dominated by
traditional outlets. Small farmers only contributed 21% to the total milk production. Modern
milk-marketing outlets significantly increase net returns from dairying and consumption
expenditure. Dr. Kumar concluded that presence of multiple milk marketing outlets increases
competition and results in higher net returns. Therefore, participation of smallholder dairy
farmers should be encouraged. He also suggested removing barriers to entry in the market to
encourage more number of milk marketing channels.
Q & A session
There were questions on quality issues of milk. Speaker responded that if incentives are provided
for better quality of milk, higher prices could be realized.
Which market channel is beneficial to the farmers? Speaker’s response was that selling to
cooperatives was beneficial however; selling to combination of cooperatives and household
directly was a more beneficial option.
Chairman asked the speaker that prices are a better indicator than net return in your model.
Speaker replied that, to account for size effects net returns were taken. Further, there were
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questions on MSME in dairy sector and the speaker replied that it has started picking up and
there are good prospects in processing and value addition.
Dr. Bardhan’s presentation was on “Marketing of buffalo meat”. Literature on meat marketing in
the Indian context is scarce. Growth rate of meat is higher than milk and wool and share in GVA
is also increasing. Buffalo meat constitutes 54% of live and livestock product (LLP) exports.
Food safety and standard act, 2004 governs the food industry. Some states have banned
slaughtering, but buffalo slaughter is not banned. Speaker presented a case study of buffalo meat
value chains of Bareilly, UP. Study mapped various value chains, its governance and sanitary
risks. Different value chains had stakeholders like urban and peri-urban dairies, farmers,
livestock market, traders/registered suppliers, restaurants, export slaughter house, municipality
slaughter house and consumer. Disease risk is a concern for the marketing of buffalo meat;
disease area and exposure of animals to diseases. Quality concerns like cleanliness should also
be taken care. Speaker also elaborated the tradeoff between buffalo milk and meat. Farmers sell
older lactation buffaloes to slaughter houses. The detailed profitability analysis of which he said
would be available by March 2021. The speaker also highlighted some issues or opportunities in
domestic markets like utilization of by-products obtained by slaughter in pharmaceutical and pet
food industry. Secondly, developing and modernizing municipal abattoirs and retail outlets for
slaughter and sale. Exports from India are majorly to South East Asian countries and indirectly to
China. No market for Indian meat in Europe and US due to disease risks like FMD. Speaker
concluded by a call for reviving the “Salvaging and rearing of male buffalo calves” scheme. If
the death of 14 million male buffalo calves could be salvaged, there would be an export of INR
38000 crores. The speaker said that credit should be provided for salvaging and slaughter houses.
Q & A session
Is buffalo milk production more profitable than meat? Speaker replied that according to
preliminary analysis, slaughter of late lactation animals was profitable to farmers.
Another question was can we have policy for male cattle culling? Speaker answered that it was
allowed before 2-3 years, some states like Maharashtra have banned.
Chairman had final questions like, is carabeef not preferred over beef? What can we do to export
to Europe? Speaker replied that, carabeef is bit tough which is in demand in south east Asian
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countries. Tinned/canned boneless meat is exported which is an issue when exporting to
Europe/US. They prefer tender meat. Consensus is that there is no issue in carabeef or beef.
Preventing diseases and clean production and processing of meat is required to export to EU/US.
Mr. Sharma’s presentation was titled “How new innovations and marketing strategies can help in
increasing the farmers’ income?” Create a contemporary set up in rural India using internet and
IT enabled farming. COVID-19 has been a blessing in disguise. Milk vendors and women dairy
farmers used innovative delivery system of milk and AI in villages. Atma Nirbhar Bharat is the
way forward. Strategies like creating community infrastructure like cow shelters, community
biogas plant, community processing and kitchen could become prosperous. Inclusive services
(like hydroponics, silage, mobile veterinary pathlabs), inclusive marketing (like Project Shakti
and Colgate type initiative in dairy) and inclusive nutrition are some areas. Dairy can be game
changer. Speaker also presented a case study of a joint venture “Grameen Danone Project” of
Bangladesh which supplied affordable yoghurt containing 12 nutrients missing for malnourished
children. Speaker concluded, by answering the questions, that farmers must do costing and
develop ‘business intent’ in dairy farming. The right question is not why aren’t we getting higher
prices, but that how can we reduce cost and improve productivity.
Concluding remarks by the Chairman
After listening to all the speakers and moderating the session, the Chairman delivered the
concluding remarks with some research questions to early career researchers:
The issue of efficiency and inclusiveness of dairy and livestock value chains.
Market research on by-products of livestock sector like dung, hides & skins and other non-food
products.
NDDB, cooperative and private sector prices milk on the basis of fat content; export companies
based on food quality issues like microbial content; we should also look at adding cost of
production.
How can farmers benefit from value addition or exports?
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Food safety related issues (exports are rejected due to FMD and others). How can we ensure,
right from the production level itself like vaccination etc. Can we analyze, how much should we
spend on vaccination relative to control measures?
Contract farming in dairying like in Punjab which helps in scaling up.
COVID has presented new normal, IT enabled marketing prospects could be explored.
Technical Session 3 (Day 2)
Theme: Decoding New Farm Laws
Chairman : Dr. P. K. Joshi, Former Director, South Asia, International
Food Policy Research Institute, New Delhi
Rapporteurs : Dr. Anil K. Dixit, Principal Scientist, DESM, ICAR-
National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal
: Mr. Raj Jaiswal, Ph.D. Scholar, DESM ICAR-National
Dairy Research Institute, Karnal
How well the “New Farm Laws” address the existing problems of agricultural markets in India?
What are their merits and limitations?
The session was chaired by Dr. P. K. Joshi, Former Director- South Asia, International Food
Policy Research Institute, New Delhi. He started the session by welcoming all the speakers and
participants. He appreciated the efforts of the organizers in conducting the webinar on the current
issue of New Farm Laws. He then briefly introduced all panelists - there were a total of five
speakers in the session: Mr. Davinder Sharma, Food and Trade Policy Analyst, Dr. Raka
Saxena, PS, ICAR- NIAP, Mr. Arabind Das, Chairman, and MD, NutriWiz Global Advisory
Services, Mr. Vikas Chaudhary, Progressive Farmer, and FPO member, Haryana, and Dr.
Shivendra Kumar Srivastava, Scientist, ICAR- NIAP.
Mr. Sharma emphasized that the farmers are in stress across the globe. The farmers situation
does not prevail only in India but also in the US, Europe, and Canada. The efficiency and
competency of European agriculture is driven by subsidy under green box. He cited the
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statement of former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh ji, that “A farmer born in India is
born in debt and dies in debt”. Famers need assured price of their produce. Farmers Protest in
New Delhi against three Farm Laws is an indication of farmers’ stress and anger built over the
decades. Now there is a need to look out of the box rather than borrowing the model of advanced
countries of America and Europe, where they failed to favour the farmers, leading to small
farmers opting out of agriculture and many committing suicide. This may not be the design for
us. Throwing away APMC may not be the way forward for this country, as we have experienced
outcome of abolishing APMC in Bihar state. Of course there are problems with APMC and there
is a need for structural reforms instead of throwing it. We need a network of huge mandis across
the country and expand the provision of delivering MSP in the country. He cited an OECD study
along with IFPRI that had shown that between 2000-2016-17, the Indian farmer lost Rs 45 lakh
crore, and every year they were losing around Rs. 2.64 lakh crore. According to the economic
survey 2016, the average farm income in 17 states of India is Rs. 20000 a year, which is less than
Rs. 1700 per month. The amount is very less even for survival, hence there is a need for reforms
in agriculture. According to OECD, 80 percent of the global subsidies in agriculture in 2018 (246
billion dollars) were provided to the corporates and only 20 percent went to small farmers. The
new laws are not for us (India). Agricultural policymakers and young economists have to think
out of the box and look beyond the market and cover the entire country. He concluded that
country needs re-thinking to see How to revitalize agriculture? And make ‘Amta-nirbhar Bharat’
and Sabka-Sath Sabka-Vikas by enhancing the farmers’ income. It is our moral duty to stand
with our farmers and understand their difficulties and to build up a narrative that they are also a
part of the society and give them a level-play ground.
Dr. Saxena started by highlighting that price is very critical in enhancing the farmers’ income.
There is large price-spread and smaller farmers’ share in the consumer rupee. There has been a
growing disparity between agriculture and non-agriculture incomes leading to the need for
market reforms in agriculture. There are demand-supply gaps and the problem of surplus in
several commodities and we have been continuously importing many commodities, particularly
vegetable oils. There is a need to attract modern capital and investment into logistics and food
value chains. Farmers’ produce trade and commerce (promotion and facilitation) act will provide
freedom and remove restrictions to sell farm produce outside the APMC mandis across the
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country. It will facilitate demand driven production and hence promote farm diversification and
agri-entrepreneurship. Much of the trade happens outside APMC in most of the commodities
except for few crops like wheat, paddy, redgram and mustard. Local private traders and mandi
involved in trade across the states and by legalizing this trade we are anticipating competition−
which will eventually lead to transparent and efficient marketing system.
Majority of the rice trade happened at higher than MSP in most of the states while in the case of
wheat, some proportion was traded below the MSP. Spread and penetration of MSP across
geographical regions and other commodities remains extremely limited. Punjab and Haryana
occupy the bulk of the share in rice and wheat procurement. A non-traditional state like
Telangana has shown an increasing trend in rice procurement. Based on the situation assessment
survey it is clear that awareness and participation of farmers remain very low across
commodities and regions. MSP benefit was realized only by 7% of the farmers as per the
government report. Farmers’ share in consumer rupee remains low in horticulture commodities
like banana, apple, pineapple; it remains around 40-60% while the situation is better in the case
of non-high value commodities like cereals where perishability component is less.
There are several successful cases indicating the welfare impacts of contract farming, i.e.,
Nestlé’s partnership with dairy farmers in Punjab. Contract farming is practiced in India in a
limited manner in different pockets like Tata Chemicals in Maharashtra for grapes, HUL in
Madhya Pradesh for wheat. Biased contracts, formalization of contracts, fear for smallholders,
profit sharing, and bargaining power are implementation constraints, as there are 87%
smallholders in the country. Market infrastructure, cold chains, and processing plants remain big
challenges in poor income states which also lead to post-harvest losses. The export potential in
rice, shrimp, prawn, many horticultural crops and fruits can be tapped through establishing world
class market infrastructure. She concluded that the new reforms are critical for farmers’
prosperity and transformation of the rural economy. They will provide more frequent channels to
farmers to sell their produce. We need to provide some kind of guarantee price for horticultural
crops, promote crop diversification, and insure better financing and infrastructure.
Mr. Das started the presentation with the genesis of the laws. He explained how the Shankarlal
Guru Committee report, Montek Singh Ahluwalia Chaired Task Force Report, RCA Jain Task
Force (Inter-Ministerial) Report, and Model APMC Act, M.S. Swaminathan First Report:
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Serving Farmers and Saving Farmers, M.S. Swaminathan Second Report, The FAO Report to
NCF, M.S. Swaminathan Third Report and M.S. Swaminathan Fourth Report lead to the
formation of New Farm Laws.
Economic Survey 2013-14 suggested seamless farm to fork value chain. It also revealed that the
monopoly of government-regulated wholesale markets has prevented the development of a
competitive marketing system in the country. Economic Survey 2014-15 reported that APMC
levy multiple fees of substantial magnitude that are non-transparent and hence a source of market
power. He emphasized on crop diversification and demand-driven agriculture with focus on
quality and standards. Mr. Das concluded his presentation by highlighting how agriculture could
be made sustainable by focusing on crops requiring less water and other natural resources. He
gave the slogan “Per Drop More Nutrition”.
Mr. Vikas (progressive farmer) shared his experience while working with CGIAR Institutes like
CIMMYT, IRRI, and ICAR Institutes to conserve natural resources through conservational
agriculture. He stated that initially farmers will face issues with the New Laws and will need
storage structures for storing their produce and sell it at a remunerative price after few months of
harvest and FPCs will play a vital role in the process. Farmer should diversify the cropping
pattern to avoid the degradation of soil health and groundwater level. He also suggested that food
processing industries and FPCs could help farmers in crop diversification. He concluded that the
New Farm Bills are good for the farmers and will help farmers in getting better prices. He
suggested that there is a need to strengthen the FPCs with better financial support.
Dr. Srivastava presented the status of food production and farmers’ income. The growth in food
production is higher than the population growth and now we have moved from food scarcity to
food surplus condition. Different studies had shown that agricultural output has improved its
stability. The rising commercialization of Indian agriculture is evident from increased
consumption of quality seeds, increased irrigation coverage, increase in per hectare fertilizer
consumption, and more electricity consumption and decline of per hectare labour use. Despite
this, the farm income is low in comparison to non-agriculture workers except in few states like
Punjab, Telangana, and Haryana. Low level of productivity, higher production cost, low price
realization, and slow pace of diversification are factors responsible for the low level of farmers’
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income. The wholesale price of fruits and vegetable are up to seven times more unstable as
compared to the cereals which discourages the farmer to go for high-value cultivation. The
vicious cycle of ‘Low income – Low investment’ prevails in agriculture. As per his study on a
per hectare basis, a small farmer invests up to five times less as compared to a large farmer, and
the share of small and marginal farmers in the total household investment is just 9%. New farm
laws are expected to break this vicious cycle.
Dr. Srivastava concluded that the New Farm Laws will create an ecosystem for efficient,
transparent, competitive, barrier-free inter-state, and intra-state trade outside the APMCs. The
role of aggregators, creation of efficient market intelligence, and foster investment for improving
infrastructure and services of APMCs’ will be critical for the effective implementation of new
farm laws.
Dr. P. K. Joshi, Chairman of the session congratulated all panelists for sharing their insights on
the said theme. He said that he will not share his personal view owing to ongoing controversy on
members of committee constituted by Hon’ble Supreme Court. However, he motivated the
researchers to undertake good studies in the areas of marketing of crop, dairy, and poultry sector,
as it is not explored much beyond market margins and price spread. He emphasized that private
sector investment is needed for infrastructure development and for developing a conducive
environment for the agri-business sector. Studies related to frontier technologies consisting of
hydroponics and vertical farming are needed to be explored and documented. In conclusion, he
highlighted that Public-private partnership in the agriculture sector, export potential, taste and
preferences of importing countries, safety issues of residues including pesticide and fertilizer, the
role of FPOs and self-help groups are the areas to be investigated in the upcoming future.
Technical Session 4 (Day 2)
Theme: New avenues in agricultural marketing
Chairman : Dr. P. Chandra Shekara, Director (Agricultural
Extension), National Institute of Agricultural Extension
Management, Hyderabad
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Rapporteurs : Dr. Sanjit Maiti, Scientist, D.Ext
: Mr. Amit Thakur, PhD-II year, DES&M
The session was aimed at exploring the new developments and potential of new avenues in
shaping the future of agricultural marketing. The session was chaired by, Dr. P. Chandra
Shekara, Director General, National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management,
Hyderabad. He initiated the discussion by emphasizing on new innovations in marketing, role of
FPO/FPC, and focus on market led extension. He appreciated and congratulated the organizers
for conducting the webinar on the issue of agricultural marketing avenues.
There were three speakers in this session viz. Dr. Ritambhara Singh, Associate Professor,
ICAR- Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa Bihar; Dr. Arbind Das, Director
and MD, NutriWiz Global Advisory Services; Dr. Sendhil R., Scientist, ICAR-Indian Institute
of Wheat and Barley Research, Karnal.
Dr. Ritambhara introduced her presentation on ‘Farmer Producer Companies (FPC): Could they
be the game changer? She highlighted the constraints faced by Indian farmers in terms of
accessibility to the credit and markets, natural calamities, land fragmentation, debt traps. Her
view was that FPO/FPC is the viable solution to deal with these problems. She further
highlighted the importance FPC/FPO in post-production activities i.e., Agri logistics, Processing
and Marketing which will strengthen the value chains. There were 7374 FPC registered and 4.3
million members (3% women) associated with them. Most of the FPC were farm based (92%)
but concentrated in 4 States (50%). Pune district has good ratio of successful FPC. She
emphasized that FPC must strengthen their backward and forward linkage in form of support
services to members and expand their capacities. FPC must focus on multi-commodity approach
for production and diversifying marketing channels for marketing. Infrastructure, equity, and
lack of regulatory agencies are constraints in FPCs working at field level. She suggested that
proper business planning is the main tool for success of FPCs.
Mr. Arabind Das focused on the marketing avenues in exporting the agricultural commodities
especially horticultural and aquaculture. He started his discussion with two main stakeholders in
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agriculture, producers and consumers. He focused on consumers aspect; to reap the benefits of
exports, India needs to focus on value chains strengthening, skilling at all levels and introducing
technology for complete traceability of product. His presentation reflected the trend in exports
and opportunities for Indian producers to be global. Horticulture (Mango, orange, banana),
vegetables and aquaculture can be the game changer for India and can enhance the exports. India
needs to focus on value addition, focus on high value species to leverage global markets in
aquaculture. Embedding technology in the value chain like Block chain can help to deal with
various issues of traceability of products. Scale of farming, storage, processing, packaging,
shipping, food safety, and lack of traceability of exports are the major constraints hindering the
growth of Indian exports. He concluded that the traceability, food safety and collective
bargaining like FPC will decide the future of Indian exports.
Dr. Sendhil delivered his presentation on new avenues in marketing from technology aspect. He
discussed about market innovation and technological advancement. In particular, he discussed
the Block Chain technology, its scope, and its benefits and challenges in agriculture. This
technology is distributor-led technology which is transparent in transaction without involving
intermediaries and can ensure safe transaction throughout the supply chain. He described its
usefulness in terms of its application in complete end –to-end traceability of the products.
Consumer can track the product origin, shipment route, etc. Some examples of this nascent
technology adoption in marketing were quoted, like application of Block chain in India by Tea
board to know about decline in exports, and another example of a Kerala start up mission. Some
challenges associated with technology are accessibility, digital gap, governance, regulation and
technical changes.
He concluded that with integrating core actors in the value chain, block chain technology can be
used for reducing transaction cost and increasing transportation and information flow. For safer
and smart marketing, he stressed on integration of block chain technology with machine learning
and AI.
Remarks by the Chairperson: As most of FPOs are skewed in Pune, Maharashtra can be used
as Social laboratory for widespread adoption of FPC. Market literacy, leadership, scale of
operation, market diversification should be the focus of policy for success in marketing. Market
literacy may be improved among the farming community as well as extension service providing
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agencies to ensure better farm gate price of the agricultural commodity. Focus on developing
FPC alongside with following quality standards, acknowledging food safety importance will
enhance Indian export opportunities at global level. FPC/FPO is not just an aggregation of
people but more of socioeconomic integration which works for the common goal. Extension
worker must shift focus to market literacy. MANAGE FPO academy provides platform for
training people and promoting FPO. He also stressed on local production and local consumption
through FPC. There is need to develop district level facilitation centres for supporting FPC
blending them with technology use for market expansion.
Technical Session 5 (Day 3)
Theme: Marketing and Trade of High Value Crops
Chairman : Dr. R.S. Pundir, Professor & Head, International
Agribusiness Management Institute, Anand
Rapporteurs : Dr. Sanchita Garai, Scientist, D.Ext
: Ms. Poulami Ray, PhD-II year, DES&M
How marketing of high value crop differ from the rest? What kind of marketing interventions is
required for them?
The technical session on “Marketing and Trade of High Value Crops” was chaired by Dr. R.S.
Pundir, Professor and Head of the Department of Agribusiness Economics and Policies
International Agri-Business Management Institute (IABMI), Anand Agricultural University. He
initiated the discussion by highlighting the importance of market intelligence in the marketing
and trade of high value crops. He quoted then about the prospects of marketing of high value
crops and said the main drawback in marketing of high value crop is price volatility. There were
three speakers in the session: Dr. Hema Yadav Director, CCS-National Institute of
Agricultural Marketing, Jaipur, Dr. Raka Saxena, PS, ICAR- National Institute of Agriculture
Economics and Policy Research, and Dr. Saikat Banerjee, Professor, Indian Institute of Foreign
Trade-IIFT
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Dr. Hema Yadav introduced her presentation on ‘Agri-exports of high value crops’ which was
based on research work in North-Eastern region. There are 5 critical challenges that contribute to
India's relatively low rank among global agriculture exporters and these are - low productivity
and high logistics costs, limited value addition, export promotion and branding challenges, non-
tariff barriers, and quality issues. She then gave a brief report of analysis of cost build-up for 1
kg of pineapple, kiwi & apple. In case of pineapple, farmer’s share in the final rupee spent by a
customer is only about 15%, while 50% is accounted for retailers, which suggests that farmers do
not have any bargaining power in the trade. But in case of Kiwi, lack of cold storage
infrastructure and refrigerated trucks leads to higher wastages and lower value realization. The
export growth of cumin has slowed in recent times and therefore there is a rise in prices of the
product in the domestic market. The probable reason for less export of cumin are less production
of good grade quality cumin for export, lack of awareness and large amount of fertilizer content
in Indian cumin. She highlighted the importance of targeting the market of high value crops.
Marketing efforts need to focus on essential oils, oleoresins, isolates, and nutraceuticals, which
compete in attractive markets serving customers that cater to consumers who appreciate the
distinctive taste, aroma, colour, or other more flexible uses and product application. The current
market architecture isolates farmers from options to access the national market.
Dr. Raka Saxena covered the production environment for horticulture in India, case studies
related to horticulture crop onion and potential for market intelligence in India and some insights
on the trade of horticulture or high value crops in India. After 2011-12 horticulture production
has surpassed food grain production in the country. This gap is widening over a period. So, we
need strong infrastructure or logistic support to handle the huge volume. Horticulture production
is extremely volatile. She portrayed the domestic marketing conditions of horticulture crops.
Local private traders are an important agency for the marketing of the crops. The marketing of
horticultural commodities follows different mechanics and channels. She elaborated on the
details of monetary losses arising in horticultural commodities. Growth in the case of food
processing at the household level was found to be negative. She elaborated the case study on
onion and discussed the speculator growth in onion production after 2008-2009 and also
mentioned how onion export is regulated followed by a brief discussion on onion export policy
in recent years. She also pointed out the losses to farmers from high price volatility of onion,
especially in case of Maharashtra. As per some studies there are two ways in regulating onion
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exports; these are through export restrictions and imposing minimum export price (MEP).
Market intelligence can be the game changer for high volatile market conditions. In price
forecasting for horticultural commodities, it is found that price accuracy for fruits is lower in the
analysis. Combinations of different models like ARIMA, GARCH, ARCH, etc., are successful in
case of price forecasting of horticultural commodities. There are some price stabilization options
like geographical expansion through focus on emerging pockets (seasonal expansion, spatial
expansion,), improved logistics, market surveillance, market reforms and improved marketing.
She further discussed the trade dimension, especially the export facilitation in case of
horticultural commodities as export facilitation remains the key for enhanced revenues. She also
touched upon the impact of COVID-19 on trade aspects of horticultural commodities. In spite of
the hardship due to COVID-19, India exported a huge quantity of vegetables in 2020. She
concluded with the following take-away for improving trade, like pushing up the trade for
compensating coronavirus impacts, recent reforms would strengthen the domestic supply chains,
hence, the international trade efficiency, barrier-free trade of agricultural products, contract
farming arrangements with processors, aggregators, etc., specific Export Promotion Forums for
various agricultural and allied products like Grapes, Mango, Banana, Onion, Rice, Nutri-Cereals,
Pomegranate and Floriculture, need for greater capacity building for supply chain participants,
and international trade and market intelligence cells.
Dr. Saikat Banerjee introduced his presentation on ‘Branding of High Value Crops’. He started
the discussion by quoting two examples of Ragi and Bajra and different brands that came out of
these products and how the branding procedure helps the companies in better price realization.
He elaborated on the process of Brand creation by citing some insightful examples. He discussed
the relevance of brand and mentioned that important element of the brand is the product or
service, which meets basic consumer need. In a competitive environment, the product or service
must have some extra value attached to differentiate it from the competition. Branding is not an
expenditure rather it is an investment that works as a top-down approach. Marketers have to
measure customer perceived value and have to provide customer perceptions of value through
marketing mix elements. He concluded by saying that marketing efforts need to focus on
essential oils, oleoresins, isolates, and nutraceuticals, price stabilization options may be
promoted through geographical expansion focusing on emerging pockets, improved logistics,
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market surveillance, market reforms, etc., and consumers’ perception may be taken into account
in value added products of the agricultural commodities.
Glimpses of Webinar
Organizing Committee of the Webinar
Chief Patron Dr. M.S. Chauhan, Director and VC, ICAR-NDRI
Patrons Dr. R.R. B. Singh, Joint Director (Academic) Dr. Dheer Singh, Joint Director (Research)
Chairman Dr. B.S. Chandel, PS & Head, DES&M
Co-Chairmen Dr. R. Malhotra, PS, DES&M Dr. Ajmer Singh, PS, DES&M Dr. Anil K. Dixit, PS, DES&M
Technical Coordinator
Dr. A.K. Sharma, PS & In-charge, Computer Centre
Organizing Secretaries Dr. Gunjan Bhandari, Scientist, DES&M
Ms. Udita Chaudhary, Scientist (SS), DES&M
