Key Metrics

1. Food prices are projected to increase 50-100 percent over the next 10 years even as Agro-productivity is only decreasing and Agro costs are increasing. Hence, using arable land for other than Food production (eg: for Fuel – Ethanol and Biodiesel from edible oil seeds such as Palm or Soya) is being short sighted. Of course Agro waste and seeds of Jojoba trees grown in non-arable land can be so used.
2. India has much more arable Land than China, yet China produces:- 11 times more meat, 9 times more maize, 1.5 times more other cereals, 2 times more cotton. Only in milk production is India twice that of China and it remains ahead of China in the quantity of Fruits, Vegetables, Pulses, Spices and Tea, but even here not in productivity per hectare. In many of the crops India is the number one producer in the world but much of the produce is lost to wastage and bad storage etc.
3. India produces 2.91 Kgs of Rice / ha while China produces 6.33 Kgs / ha. India produces 266 Kgs of Cotton / ha while China produces 943 Kgs / ha, and such productivity differences can be seen across almost all crops.
4. China has most of its arable Land under Irrigation and uses 6 to 7 times as many Tractors and twice the quantity of Fertilizers than India. However, the over use of chemical and petroleum based Fertilizers has already led to much environmental damage in China, something we need to guard against.
5. Fertilizer use – Use of chemical / inorganic fertilizers has resulted in degradation of soil. After all soil without organic content and bacterial life is just dead sand. Chemical fertilizers utilize 10 units of Nitrogen to 1 unit of Phosphorous (from Phosphate, an already very scarce item). Only 30 percent of Nitrogen fertilizer is actually taken up by the plant. The excess Nitrogen and Phosphorus runoff into the water system is most damaging to the entire ecology. Drip irrigation with fertilizers added to water as required would be better. Development of natural farming techniques as demonstrated by many innovative farmers and the many other advisors to Farmer Producer Organizations (See-Annexure) should be implemented. Such innovative techniques would make the Farmer Corporations even more productive. Organic fertilizers i.e. animal waste and forest residue and tree detritus etc are necessary for proper soil organic condition.
6. The value of water embedded into a farm product (eg: 1 Apple – 70 Ltrs, 1 Kg Rice – 2500 to 8000 Ltrs, 1 Kg wheat – 4000 to 8000 ltrs, 1 Kg Potatoes – 300 ltrs, 1 Kg meat – 10,400 ltrs, 1 Kg Pork – 6000 ltrs, 1 Kg Chicken – 4300 ltrs) must be considered, especially when exporting, along with the value of other more easily measurable items such as Chemicals and Fertilizers, Labour and Power and Fuel etc and also, the Transportation costs.
7. Intensive farming saves Nature. Matt Ridley notes that – in 2005, twice as much grain was produced from the same acreage as in 1968. Consider, if the average yields of 1961 had still prevailed in 1988, then to feed 6 billion people would have required 7.9 billion acres instead of 3.7 actually used. Today people farm only 38 percent of the land area of the Earth, whereas at 1961 yields they would have had to farm 82 percent. Intensification has thus saved 44 percent of the planet for wilderness and afforestation.
8. Encouraging tree farming, agro-forestry and orchards, will also, help improve water retention and soil condition.
9. Due to advantageous climatic conditions most of India’s arable land allows for year round cultivation, thus allowing 3 properly selected crops per year if properly irrigated, compared to only 5 to 7 months in most other Countries. If even Israel with its poor climatic conditions and water scarcity can claim to be able to grow food enough to feed the world, imagine then our potential to increase Agricultural production.

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