Public Private Partnerships – Accelerating Agricultural Development

Public Private Partnerships are a popular type of collaboration in many sectors of the economy around the world. These partnerships may vary in nature and scope. They are not limited to bilateral collaboration between government agency and a private corporation. PPP’s especially for sustainable agricultural development can also include multi-partner structures that bring together private companies with entities such as non-governmental organizations (NGO), university research institutes and foundations.
As the world’s third largest producer of agricultural crops, India needs to take steps to improve productivity in agriculture. The Government should encourage better agronomic practices, create the right commercial, technical and regulatory environment and strengthen agricultural innovation systems like research, education, extension and infrastructure. In this direction the Government of India and some State Governments have initiated “Public Private Partnership (PPP)” concept particularly in the area of Research and Extension.
Nuziveeedu Seeds has proved that the contribution of the private sector to agricultural development goes far beyond research. As India’s largest Seed producer, the company has endeavoured to bring new products to the market and deliver value. The company has entered into Public Private Partnerships with the Governments of several states in India, for carrying out extension work and implementing its agronomic innovations.
PPP for Extension Services in Uttar Pradesh: NSPL has entered into an MOU with the government of Uttar Pradesh under Private Public Partnership (PPP mode) for carrying out extension work in the state. Under this project the company has provided extension services in 25 districts of Uttar Pradesh for paddy and maize crops. The extension work involved among other things, were Crop Demonstration, Farmers’ Training and Field Visits For Kharif season 2011-12, the project met the desired result successfully and the UP government appreciated this partnership.
Major Partnership for High Density Cotton Planting in Maharashtra: NSPL’s introduction of high density planting for cotton has found rich response in Maharashtra. The Government of Maharashtra has realized the importance of high density cotton planting to improve productivity of Cotton in Vidharbha region and sanctioned an extension program in PPP with NSPL to cover 10,000 acres with 2000 farmers in Akola, Amravati and Buldhana districts. The project is being implemented to assist poor farmers of major cotton growing districts of Vidharbha region to significantly improve productivity of their cotton crop. The project will include high density planting in 7500 acres under rain-fed conditions and 2500 acres under drip irrigation.
High Density Cotton Planting- A Boon to the Cotton Farming Community: The project is estimated to increase farmers’ yields from existing average productivity of 5 quintals / acre to a minimum of 7.5 quintals / acre under rain-fed conditions i.e. 50% increase in productivity among the selected farmers and 10 quintals / acre under drip irrigation i.e. 100% increase in productivity among the selected farmers. Farmers are being trained in groups in the use of technologies. The training programmes are conducted using POP material, Audio visual aids and demonstrations for better understanding of practices. In Akola, Buldhana and Amaravati districts, farmers have been identified and 112 farmer groups have been formed till date. 3423 farmers have been enrolled in the project from 74 villages and 4 training camps have been already conducted.
Heralding a host of benefits for the farmers: The formation of farmer groups will benefit individual farmers to share knowledge and give them better bargaining power to procure agri inputs. The farmers will be able to practice new technologies under the guidance of company’s technical personnel. They would also have timely access to inputs such as seeds, growth regulators, micronutrients etc. Moreover they will be able to get assistance for setting micro/ drip irrigation systems wherever minimum water is available. The farmers will be provided with convenient market linkage for their produce through close tie up with ginning and textile mills. All this will add to increased productivity and income for the farmers.
The usefulness of Public Private Partnerships is by no means limited to agricultural development, but they can make a major contribution in this area. Where the right partners come together in the right way, the synergies they achieve can lead to amazing results well beyond the reach of any one organization alone.
http://www.nuziveeduseeds.com/

Agronomic Innovations – Assuring the well-being of rural India

 Global agricultural production needs to increase substantially in order to assuage the hunger, cope up with national food insecurities, and meet the needs of a world population projected to exceed 9 billion in 2050. It is estimated that the major share of this increase will come from developing countries. An expected 50% growth in world population during the 21st century, demands new and innovative integration of advanced technologies and low input production systems based on soil and plant biology. Through the development of superior plant varieties that benefit from high agrochemical inputs and irrigation, the agricultural green revolution will be able to achieve doubled crop yields.
After conducting extensive research in crop improvement and innovative breeding techniques, NSPL has developed path-breaking concepts to increase farm yields. Nuziveedu Seeds Pvt. Ltd is recognized as India’s largest seed company and its intensive ongoing research has brought revolutionary results in the fields of agricultural research, production, distribution and extension activities related to Hybrid/HYV seeds of Cotton, Corn, Rice and several other important field crops in addition to vegetable crops.
Public Private Partnerships for greater productivity: The company has formed Public Private Partnerships in the area of Research and development, which is an ongoing process and has successfully participated in PPP mode in the areas of Seed Distribution and agricultural extension. Entering into PPP with public funded research institutes like ICRISAT, NRCPB (ICAR), NBRI, ICGEB, IIT Kharagpur in the area of biotechnology it has achieved remarkable progress in jointly developing commercially viable traits which can deal with the biotic and abiotic stresses in agricultural crops.
Meeting the challenge of increasing agricultural production the company has acquired seed production and marketing rights of public bred hybrids from the State Agricultural Universities like Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth (Maharashtra), Narendra Dev University of Agriculture and Technology (UP) and CCS Haryana Agricultural University. Moreover, the company has an exclusive tie up with KRIBHCO, India’s second largest fertilizer Co-operative for Seed Distribution throughout the country.
Agronomic Innovations to Revitalize Rural India: Contributing significantly towards the well being of rural India, NSPL has developed and introduced two agronomic innovations, through their in-house Research and Development in agronomy. These innovations are aimed at increasing the agricultural output and rural income levels. The innovations comprise (1) Optimizing the seed rate in research paddy cultivation and (2) High Density Cotton Planting.
Optimizing the seed rate in research paddy cultivation: NSPL has virtually changed the concept of growing varietal paddy through the remarkable results of its research. Traditionally varietal paddy was grown using 30-32 kg of seed per acre. Experimenting with a lesser seed rate per acre, after several large scale in house trials and university guidance, NSPL developed the concept of 10kg seed per acre as the optimum seed rate for improving yield. This innovation is being used with success in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa, Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh and reaping rich results.
High Density Cotton Planting: Nuziveedu Seeds Private Limited is one of the first seed companies to realize the opportunity of increasing the cotton yields by increasing the plant density to about 10,000 to 15000 per acre from the current population of 4500-6500 plants per acre. This could be achieved by reducing the spacing between rows and within the rows. The concept has been tested both in company’s R&D and at the State Agricultural Universities in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. The results confirmed that the yield increase could be between 30 to 50%. The vision is to make India the largest producer of cotton from its current number 2 position in the next 5-6 years. High Density Cotton Planting is more appropriate to rain-fed cultivation and it is a fact that more than 85% of the cotton in India is cultivated under rain-fed conditions.
These innovations have been taken to the farmers through extensive use of the company’s field force. The communication and training was done through hoardings, demonstration and distribution of product literature. It is estimated that 25-30% farmers are now adopting these practices and harvesting the benefits.

http://www.nuziveeduseeds.com

Seed Industry: The future to embrace

I am writing this article on the future of the seed industry in India with a great sense of hope and optimism. With a population of 1.2 billion, we contribute to almost 20% of the world’s population with a growth rate that would soon lead us to become 1.8 billion strong by 2050. This leaves us with almost 60 billion more mouths to feed with the existing resources of land and water within the span of a mere 3 decades. But, a greater cause of worry is that we can no longer take our depleting natural resources for granted as they are fast disappearing because of increased urbanization, conversion of agricultural lands to concrete jungles, and draining of our ground water reserves.
Given all the constraints, it leaves a great responsibility and puts an immense pressure on the Indian agricultural system to produce more from the existing or rapidly disappearing resources. Let us look at certain possibilities whereby the production of agricultural products could be increased in order to address the challenges of 2050.
Reducing the post-harvest wastage which accounts to almost 30% in case of perishables:
Generally, about 30% of fruits and vegetables are rendered unfit for consumption due to spoilage after harvesting. India annually produces fruits and vegetables to the value of about Rs. 7000 crores and wastage may be in the order of about Rs. 2100 crores. This is a huge loss of valuable food, and therefore, it is important not only to grow more, but also to save what is being grown at high cost. Focus on the supply chain and logistics is the need of the day which would come with increased investments. A strong infrastructure needs to be developed in order to reduce the wastage %age and see to it that more food reaches the table from the farm.
High yielding and disease-resistant hybrids – GM crops – a way forward:
More focus on hybridization and increasing awareness among farmers and stakeholders on the use of high yielding hybrids would plug the demand-supply gap in the future. Embracing biotechnology and use of GM crops would put us on the road forward as GM crops would allow us to reduce the economic cost by a huge margin which would result in increased yields. However, a great effort would be required by both the private individuals and the scientific community in convincing the people of the advantages of GM crops.
Since, the motive of writing this article was to highlight the future scope of the seed industry, I wouldn’t like go into the details of other factors such as increased input usage like fertilizers and pesticides whose consumption is very low as compared to the global standards and are key areas that cannot be ignored.
The present seed industry is close to Rs. 11,000 crores and is growing at the brisk rate of 15-20% YOY. This brings in a great promise and a sense of optimism, keeping in mind the challenges of 2050. But, considering the growth rate of population, there has to be a greater impetus on hybridization and GM crop adoption.
The reason for my insistence on GM crops is because of the classical case of cotton, which saw a 100% adoption of BT technology in less than a decade’s time. This is phenomenal, given the awareness and literacy levels of our farming community. BT-cotton has not only increased the yields but has also reduced the cost of production and has left more money in the farmer’s pocket than before. By applying the thought that the customer buys only if he sees value, has resulted in the BT-cotton becoming a success story.
Talking about hybrids, they occupy about 20 per cent share in the total seed market, of which cotton has the biggest share, followed by rice (15 per cent), and wheat and vegetables (over 10 per cent each). This is a great opportunity for the seed industry to utilize and grow in open spaces by increasing awareness levels and communicating the benefits of hybrids to the Indian farmer.
A thorough planning and consolidation of effort from all stake holders – public, private, policy makers, and most importantly the farmers, would be required in addressing the challenges of 2050.

Corn seeds Industry Overview & NSL growth

The Indian hybrid corn seed market has grown tremendously and it has earned a revenue of more than INR 1000 crores. A huge opportunity for corn seed exists due to the increasing demand year after year. Poultry companies are the single largest consumer of hybrid corn (50%), followed by the starch industry (12%) and the cattle feed industry (12%). Last year, the demand from the poultry sector and livestock was 17 million tonnes, whereas the production was 16 million tonnes. The demand-supply gap could be met through the use of jowar, bajra, and broken rice. Due to hybridization and a good monsoon, the maize production is likely to be around 19 million tonnes this year.

As the profitability are also gains by farmers while commercial cultivation due to good market price of corn grains as demand hikes manifold. As a result, the Government of India is also promoting corn in different states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP, UP, HP, Chattisgarh, Orissa, AP, and Karnataka through different modes – either through public-private partnership or non public-private partnership.

In this regard Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd is also committed to deliver the good hybrids of corn to farmers & having the strong R&D support as a result the farmers or channel partners acknowledges the products.

The revenue that comes in through the sale of different products is more than Rs. 50 crores. Our R&D strongly believes in and is committed to “Farmers’ preference” and so we choose and develop products to their liking.