Agro-based Industries and their Role in Economy and Conservation

Agro-based industries are one of the biggest in the country and contribute roughly 20% to the GDP of India. With textile, sugar, paper, vegetable oil and food processing industries being the backbone of the economy, their role in environmental protection and conservation becomes equally important.

There are many ways in which agro-industries make significant contributions to the economy and conservation.

How Agro-based industries boost the economy ?

Apart from having a large share in the GDP, agro-based industries also boost the economy in various other ways.

•    They uplift the rural economy and alleviate poverty

•    The production and commercial activity take place in rural areas as they are raw material   
      thus developing these areas

•    Employs the rural workforce

•    Helps contain the migration and limits the burden on urban economy and infrastructure

•    Reduces income disparity between rural and urban areas

•    Encourages balanced growth between agriculture and industry

•    Helps solve the problem of exploitation of the farming community

•    Reduces transportation costs

•    Provides purchasing power to large sections of the population and gives a push to other segments       like FMCG .

•    Cuts down wastage of perishable agricultural products

•    Helps improve rural infrastructure

How agro-industries help the environment

Agro-based industries enter into contract farming agreements with the farmers.

Under contract farming apart from assuring them of buyback of their produce. They also provide the latest equipment, share the know-how of new methods of farming and help them practice sustainable agriculture.

Sustainable agriculture is the way to ensure the current generation meets its food and textile needs without affecting the capability of future generations to do the same.  

Tissue Culture - Revolutionising Banana Plantation

India is the largest producer of banana in the world with an annual production of around 29.7 MT. The use of tissue culture in banana plantation is being hailed as the prime reason behind this rapid increase in production.

What is Tissue Culture? 

Tissue culture, a biotechnology initiative to increase the yield by five times the traditional farming, has taken farmers across the world by a storm.

Tissue culture is a process of cloning and micro-propagation of the selected high-quality plants and applied for mass production of high-grade planting material for most crops. This method of cultivation ensures higher yields and better quality as well.

Traditionally the banana crop is cultivated by vegetative methods like suckers and bits. However, it responds very well to tissue culture as well. The tissue culture samples are taken from crops that have been disease-free for years. These are then cloned in a controlled environment to cultivate the desired amount of saplings for each variety of bananas.

Importance of Tissue Culture in Banana Plantation

1. Banana sapling cultivated using tissue culture technology is high yielding and high quality, and          there is uniformity in the banana crop.

2. Banana saplings are disease-free at the time of planting, and it is easier to maintain a similar                condition by following good agriculture practices.

3. Tissue culture technique of planting is available throughout the year. Therefore bananas can be            grown all year round without any shortage of the disease-free material.

4. A big plus point of this technology is that the entire crop matures at a uniform rate, which makes        harvesting easy and reduces the cost of labour.

5. Higher productivity, better quality, and best prices: The banana yield is higher; the quality of the          crop is much superior, which further helps in getting a better price for the harvest.

6. Ratoon crop: The traditional banana crop blooms in 16-18 months, while tissue culture ensures the      maturation of the crop in 11 months.

Jain Irrigation Systems Limited’s ‘Jain Tissue Culture’ is the pioneer in tissue culture and offers ‘Minimum Resources, Maximum Produce Technology’ for banana, pomegranate and strawberry in the country.

There will be no Future to Talk about Without Sustainable Agriculture

We don’t need sustainable agriculture for a better future. We need it to be able to have a future at all.

The future of the human race has been totally dependent upon cultivated crops for far too long, i.e. thousands of years since the invention of agriculture. In modern times, advanced agriculture technology has made it possible for humans to meet all their needs as well as have surplus food stock and all of it has become a necessity now.

Except that all of that may end if we don’t use sustainable agricultural practices.

What is Sustainable Agriculture ?

Sustainable agriculture is the way to ensure that the food and textile needs of the current generation are met without affecting the health of the environment and the earth's capability to fulfil the needs of the future generations.  

The single most important objective of sustainable agriculture is the protection of environment and conservation of natural resources including, water and soil.

The farmers, the consumer, the food processors (hyperlink), and the government – all play important roles in encouraging the practice. Framers need to use methods that require minimum water use, cause less pollution on the farm and promote soil health. The consumers have to make sure they buy food products that have been grown using sustainable agriculture practices.

Food processing companies like Jain Farm Fresh Foods Ltd. promote sustainable agriculture by encouraging conservation and providing knowledge and technology to the farmer under their contract farming programme.

The government has to develop policies and programmes to encourage and incentivise sustainable agriculture practices and discourage those that have a high environmental cost.

If we keep using up the depleting natural resources of our planet, there may be a day very soon that the earth may not be able to produce the required amount of cereal,  vegetables, fruits and other crops needed to feed the seven billion plus humans.

That would be a future much more dystopian than a George Orwell novel.

The New Age Mango Cultivation – Higher Yields and Increased Profits

India is the largest producer of mangoes in the world, but the fruit’s productivity still remains low.  Mango cultivation in most Indian farms follows the traditional method of planting lesser saplings per hectare.

Additionally, the absence of efficient and modern methods of irrigation, dismal nutrient and pesticide management, inefficient use of water and energy resources, huge losses due to pests and diseases and overall mismanagement of the orchards are primarily the reasons for the low productivity.

However, there is hope on the horizon. Some aware farmers are increasingly moving towards adopting newer and advanced farming techniques and technologies to improve the productivity of their crops.

They are supported by responsible agricultural companies which are making that transition viable for these farmers by providing them with the required technology.

Modern Mango Plantation

Mango Plantation managed by these farmers use the Ultra-High Density Plantation (UHDP) technique of planting mangoes.

This modern technique sees the mango trees bear fruit in 3-4 years as against the traditional 7-8 years. It also helps in doubling the mango yield, thus increasing the farmers’ income.

UHDP allows a farmer to plant nearly 700 mango saplings in an acre as against 60 when using the conventional method of mango cultivation.

Moreover, disease-free saplings, use of good agricultural practices, optimal use of resources, on-going farmer training, using sustainable means, and many more factors help the farmers not only increase the yield by around 200% but also the quality of the produce. This goes a long way in helping the Indian farmer move towards a brighter future.

This change is much required not just in the way mango is cultivated, but in the entire agricultural sector.

It is time, the agricultural sector of our country, which employs over 50% of the country’s population, got a facelift. This can be made possible only with the support of the bigger entities in agro-business and government’s support through policies, grants and subsidies. We need committed contributions to take our agricultural economy towards agricultural, economic, social and environmental sustainability.

It is time the oldest profession of our country got its due.