VOLUME 1 > ISSUE 4 > JANuARY-MARCH 2014

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INDiAS FiRST MAGAZiNE DEDiCATED TO iNNOVATiON VOLUME 1 > ISSUE 4 > JANuARY-MARCH 2014

NEED FOR INNOVATION IN GOVERNANCE

SHAILESH GANDHI I ROHINI NILEKANI I P SAINATH I MARK TULLY

THE THINKING HAT DR. MiRCHANdANi

DR. RAHUL MIRCHANdANI is Executive Director at Aries Agro Limited

nurturing the planet

Environmentally friendly ways of agriculture is the way forward for the agrichemicals industry. Entrepreneurs, who wish to enter the fertilisers space in the agriculture sector, first need to focus on developing cost-effective nutrient complexes that use safe chemicals. Second, their marketing strategy also needs to be aligned to the availability of other resources such as power and water.
Farmers in India have learnt some tough lessons in the past few years. The changing seasons have become a certain uncertainty. This adversely affects farm productivity, and over the past few years, the impact of climate change has been significantly higher. With shrinking land resources, there is also no choice but to increase productivity and income from a smaller unit of land area. Adverse climatic conditions have placed Indian farmers in survival mode and they have in the recent past been forced to look at micro-irrigation, hybrid and drought resistant seeds, scientific weather forecasts, soil mapping techniques and integrated crop management as necessary practices to sustain their harvests. The good and bad megatrends The changing [weather] has changed the quality of Indian land resources, and we now believe that it is crucial to conduct soil testing and soil health assessment before starting any form of cultivation for the season to check soil conditions, crop suitability, nutrient deficiencies, and presence of soil-borne pathogens. The usage of hybrid and genetically modified seeds has found favour among the farmers. Most new generation farmers preferred to use hybrid seeds to reduce the germination losses and also because these were drought and pest resistant. Pre-germinated seedlings have also become the norm in many

Innovation in agri:

Micronutrient Market by Type (Zinc, Manganese, Boron, Copper, Molybdenum, Iron), Form (Chelated & Non-Chelated), Application Mode (Soil, Foliar, Fertigation), Crop type and Geography - Global Trends and Forecast to 2017

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Innowin January-March 2014

Swapnil Redkar

Shutterstcok/IndiaPicture

THE AGRICULtURE MICRONUtRIENtS MARKEt IS EStIMAtED tO GROW At A CAGR OF 5.5% FROM 2012 tO 2017, REACHING 1,236.5 KMT BY 2017. ZINC, BORON, AND MANGANESE ARE REPORtED AS tHE MOSt DEFICIENt MICRONUtRIENtS ACROSS tHE WORLD.1

THE BAIt:

agriculturally progressive areas, with farmers transferring the risk of germination losses due to uncertain rains to seed nursery owners who have emerged as valued service providers. A prominent shift in cropping patterns away from traditional cereals to horticultural crops is also evident. Many prefer crops with a shorter duration cropping cycle such as fruits and vegetables. Even if rains arrive late, these crops still allow enough time to take at least two cycles of these short-duration horticultural crops while also earning the farmers much more per unit of land area.This does put additional pressure on fertility of the land under cultivation. The major roadblocks Water management has become a larger problem than water shortages. A growing number of farmers have installed drip and sprinkler irrigation systems on their land. This shows a positive trend as the use of micro-irrigation is a major water management and water resource conservation technique. One of the major challenges that the sector faces is the overuse of traditional, chemical fertilisers and its consequent harmful effect on the soil and crop ecosystems. The problem is accentuated with subsidised fertilisers available at artificially low prices leading to further overuse. Moreover, with more intensive use of available land, depletion of crop nutrients is taking place at a significantly accelerated rate leading to a need for balanced fertilisation. The sector is also plagued with acute labour shortages. Hence, technologies and processes that save on labour usage are valuable. On the positive side, awareness has increased among Indian agriculturists with exposure, communication, connectivity and improved integration of the rural Indian with urban areas. Fertilise sustainably It has become essential for farmers to create an integrated nutrient management programme. This uses a combination of primary nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassiumNPK fertilisers, secondary nutrients and micronutrients in appropriate pre-determined proportions, ensuring balanced crop nutrition, which was crucial in increasing the crop health and consequently disease and pest resistance during adverse climatic conditions. Many farmers now prefer using organic agricultural inputs and safe chemicals on soils and crops.Though organic farming is the most ideal, it is also Utopian. With the low concentration of nutrients in most organic fertilisers, addressing the increased nutritional needs of the crops in stressed soil conditions is not a viable option for most farmers. As an alternative, to address the challenge of sustainable, integrated nutrient management, we have created a range of

Lending a helping hand

An innovative process, pioneered by Aries Agro in India, is known as Chelation Technology and has been successfully adapted to the Indian agricultural sector. The process involves taking positively charged metal nutrients like zinc, iron, copper, manganese, magnesium, etc. and enveloping these ions with a negatively charged chelating agent. Once this process is complete, the end product is a stable complex which is chemically inert until it enters the plant system. The enzymes inside the plant system reactivate the product and release the nutrients to the crop. Thus, Chelation is a delivery system which leads to the nutrients being delivered to the plant in its most unharmed form. Post delivery of the nutrients, the Chelation agent is released back into the root zone and it attracts heavy metal (positively charged metals) like lead, arsenic cadmium, etc and neutralises these toxins thereby making them chemically inert and incapable of causing further harm to the crop. This residual effect is an added advantage of Chelation Technology.

speciality plant nutrient solutions that are chemically inert in nature and hence do not react and cause harmful effects on the soil. For a lush green future Majority farmers are not attempting to reduce pesticide usage on their farms. This is a disturbing trend that must be reversed in the years ahead. Improving the agro-economics of agriculture, reducing chemical residues on farm output and making farming more sustainable requires farmers to reduce the rampant overuse of harmful crop protection chemicals. Information on post harvest management techniques to reduce losses in adverse climatic conditions is also scarce. If farmers get accurate and timely information on correct storage, transportation and warehousing practices, this can become important for them to store seeds in cold storages in times of drought and floods when they cannot be sown and also to protect their harvests and release them for sale when they get the right price. Infrastructure bottlenecks in storage and warehousing is a major gap that needs to be addressed. Farmers must also be trained and encouraged in the use of commodity exchanges such as MCX, NCDEX and commodity markets to get accurate future price information and consequently adjusting crop selection in line with these expected price trends. In addition, more widely accessible and accurate weather predictions and weather alerts via the cellular phone network is a service that would be valuable.
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