Indian Farmers And Biofuel

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Indian Farmers And Biofuel
By Parvathy Thualaseedharan Sailaja
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Introduction

• Agriculture is one of the most
• prominent sectors in Indias
• economy
• It accounts for 18.6 of the GDP
• Employed 60 of the country's
• population .

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• It accounts for 8.56  of Indias exports
• 43  of India's geographical area is used for
  agricultural activity
• Average yield in India is generally 30 to 50
  of the highest average yield in the world

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Production
Trend of output of cereals and major foodgrains
(in thousands of tonnes)
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Composition of India's total production
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Problems faced by Indian Farmers

• Illiteracy, general socio-economic backwardness,
  reforms and inadequate or inefficient finance and
  marketing services
• The average size of land holdings is very small
  (less than 20,000 m²) and are subject to
  fragmentation

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• Inadequate adoption of modern agricultural
  practices and tecnologies
• Inadequate Irrigation facilities only 53.6 of
  the land was irrigated in 2001
• Farmers still being dependent on rainfall,
  specifically the Monsoon season.

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Indian Farmers and WTO

• WTOs Agreement on Agriculture protects subsidies
  in the developed countries and allows them to
  dump cheap commodities
• They are sold at a rate well below the cost of
  production of indian farmers.
• Decline in domestic agriculture prices and has
  deepened the agrarian crisis in rural India.

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Price Decilne

• World prices for 18 major export commodities fell
  by 25 in real terms.
• Decline was especially steep for
• Cotton (47)
• Coffee (64)
• Rice (61)
• Cocoa (71)
• Sugar (77).

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• For example
• International cotton prices came down from 128
  cents /lb in 1981 to 38.7 US cents /lb in 2002.
• Rice prices came down from 565 US/tonne in 1981
  to 160.8 US/tonne in 2002
• Sugar prices came down from 18.11 US cents /lb in
  1981 to 5.68 US cents /lb in 2002

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• Key agricultural goods having the minimum applied
  tariff which include pulses 10, Maize 15, milk
  powder 15

Import in thousands of tonnes
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Agriculture exports from US were sold much below
the cost of production

• Wheat was exported at an average price of 28
  below.
• Cotton was exported at an average price of 47
  below.
• Rice was exported at an average price of 26
  below.

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Tariffs

• Import tariff was 113 in 1990-91
• 35 in 1997-98
• 41 in 2001-02,
• 2004-2005 the average applied tariff is 37.5
• Average applied tariff rate in 2004-05 is almost
  65 lower than the average applied rate in
  1990-91.

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• The dumping of these agricultural commodities led
  to depression in the domestic farmgate prices,
  which led to a deep agrarian crisis and caused
  increased cases of farmers suicides because
  farmers fail to get even their principal capital
  investment in agriculture.
• The crisis in Indian agriculture is evident from
  farmers suicides in every corner of the country
  and since 1995 more than 25000 farmers brethren
  have committed suicides all over the country

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Over 50,000 Farmers Protest Against WTO

• On October 2, 2005, more than 50,000 farmers from
  14 states of India participated in a huge Rally
  against WTO in Mumbai
• Their demands were-
• To take out agriculture from the purview of the
  WTO
• Increase in the import duty on agricultural
  commodities
• Reinstating Quantitative Restrictions

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• Take away anti-farmer policies of the Government
  of India like
• Seed Bill 2004,
• The Food Safety and Standards Bill 2004
• The National Agriculture Policy encouraging
  contract farming,
• The dismantling of the Public Distribution System

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• Withdrawal of Minimum Support Price for the most
  of the commodities
• The dismantling of the government procurement
  system
• The reversal of the land reforms for MNCs and
  agro-businesses, the setting up of the private
  mandis by ITC and Cargill, and the free import of
  seeds and plant materials.

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Ways to improve the farmers condition

• State government is providing money for settling
  the farmers debts.
• Money is also given for the economic
  rehabilitation of family of farmers who
  committed suicide.
• Government is undertaking a Sustainable
  Livelihood Project

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• According to the scheme projects like soil and
  water conservation through construction of bunds,
  promotion of biomass to increase the crop
  production would be undertaken for land owners.
• For the landless farmers, financial aid would be
  given to promote cottage industry, dairying etc

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• The state government have taken steps to ensure
• Availability of seeds and fertilizers to the
  farmers
• Power available for a fixed time to the farmers
  so that the farmers can irrigate their fields
• Officials of irrigation and minor irrigation
  departments to increase their resources and make
  sure that all government pumps are functional

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The biofuel projects in india

• Indian Oil Corporation, (IOC) had placed an order
  of 450 kiloliters of bio-diesel in 2004, for
  field trials with the Indian Railways and State
  Roadways. IOC will be able to supplement 5 of
  diesel with bio-diesel by 2007
• Cleancities Biodiesel India Limited is setting up
  a Large State of Art Biodiesel Production Plant
  in India The company setting up a Two hundred
  fifty thousand Tons per annum Biodiesel plant in
  Visakhapatnam .

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• Kochi Refineries Ltd (KRL) is setting up a pilot
  plant with a US firm to extract biodiesel from
  rubber seed oil.The company proposed to have a
  pilot plant set up with a daily capacity of 100
  liters.
• Pune-based Shirke Biohealthcare Pvt. Lld., is
  setting up a refinery, with a capacity to process
  5,000 liters biodiesel per day from Jatropha oil.
  
• Nova Bio Fuels Pvt. Ltd, has set up a Indian
  Rupees 200 million, biodiesel plant with a
  capacity of 30 tons per day in Panipat in 2006.

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Questions?