Agriculture Minister says state is benefitting from the premier school’s think tank on policy & practice
16 December, 2016, Bengaluru: “IIM Bangalore has been very proactive in involving with issues of agriculture and the institute’s contribution to changes the policy makers are trying to make is notable. IIMB is working with the Government of Karnataka in this regard and the government is a beneficiary of IIMB’s involvement,” said Krishna Byre Gowda, Minister of State for Agriculture, Government of Karnataka, while delivering the inaugural address during a one-day workshop on ‘Building Sustainable Agri-Food Supply Chains in India’, jointly organized by IIMB and the Hull University Business School (HUBS), UK, on December 16, 2016.
The minister went on to list some of the main concerns relating to building sustainable agri-food supply chains in India. “In our country water is scarce and there is gross inefficiency in water utilization. Water efficiency is the responsibility of the government, the farmers, the society and each one of us.”
Regarding land, he said that operational holding size had come down which is not viable economically. “We must increase operational holding, so that land is optimally utilized as fragmented holding will lead to more economic hardship. Viable scale is a must. Sustainable agriculture will bring down cost and the benefits are tangible.”
Describing the current supply chain as “ad hoc”, he said although it had resilience, an inefficient agricultural supply chain and marketing led to loss. “We need to bring in efficiency in place of traditional means,” he observed. Explaining that agricultural produce changed hands four to five times before it reached the final consumer, he said as a result, there were high cost overruns which amounted to loss. “The cost is not going to the farmer as it is being consumed by the middlemen, plus the consumer has to pay a higher price. There is no free flow of information from the market to the producer because of the multiple intermediaries, which leads to various deficits and an unstable market, which in turn is the greatest destabilizer. Since the farmer does not know the price, life is insecure, there is agrarian distress in various forms which makes agriculture not a viable means of livelihood. So we need to bring in efficiency in agricultural marketing networks,” he said.
Suggesting the need for organized retail in food supply chain, Krishna Byre Gowda called for proper implementation of reforms.
Earlier in the morning, the audience was welcomed by Professor R. Srinivasan, Director Incharge, IIMB, and Professor Gopal Naik, Chairperson, Economics & Social Sciences area, both of whom stressed on the fact that the topic of the workshop was extremely significant for the Indian economy. “Globalization and urbanization will bring in more challenges. So significant policy changes and production practices are needed to better manage agricultural food chain,” said Professor Gopal Naik.
In his address, Dr. Ramesh Chand, Member, NITI Aayog, explained that supply chain should improve pricing for producers, contributing to their growth and income. “We need to do quality research on agricultural marketing, not just large quantity of research, as a result of which many policies are hostage to myths, which is an impediment for big investments. Moreover, we need to work on the Indian model of supply chain and not ape models of other countries. We also need to see why safety is low in the Indian food supply chain,” he added.
In an invited talk on ‘Issues in Assessing Performance of Sustainable Agri-food Supply Chains’, Professor G Raghuram from IIM Ahmedabad, focused on demand and supply side issues, food wastage, food security supply chain and infrastructure issues. “According to Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations (UNFAO), 1/3rdof food produced do not reach our plates, which is a concern,” he said, adding that challenges were, in fact, opportunities for improvement and that it was indeed possible to better manage food reserves.
The workshop also featured a session on ‘Management of Natural Resources – Land, Water and Coping with Climate Change’ by Professor A. Damodaran, IIMB and Professor K.V. Raju, ICRISAT. The session on ‘Achieving Sustainable Production Practices’ had Professor Gopal Naik, IIM Bangalore, Dr. T. N Prakash Kammaradi, Chairman, Karnataka Agriculture Price Commission, Udayakumar Kollimath, Sri Sri Institute of Agricultural Sciences & Technology Trust, and Sunil G. Awari, General Manager, Namdhari Seeds. The session on ‘Role of Agri Markets in Making Agri-food Supply Chains Sustainable’ featured Manoj Rajan, Addl Secy Coopn, MD & CEO, ReMS, Vikram Ogale, Director, National Supply Chain & Quality Assurance, McDonald's India, Ganesh Sundararaman, COO, Staples/Snacks Business, ITC Foods, and Dr. Ashish Dwivedi, University of Hull, United Kingdom.
Agriculture Minister says state is benefitting from the premier school’s think tank on policy & practice
16 December, 2016, Bengaluru: “IIM Bangalore has been very proactive in involving with issues of agriculture and the institute’s contribution to changes the policy makers are trying to make is notable. IIMB is working with the Government of Karnataka in this regard and the government is a beneficiary of IIMB’s involvement,” said Krishna Byre Gowda, Minister of State for Agriculture, Government of Karnataka, while delivering the inaugural address during a one-day workshop on ‘Building Sustainable Agri-Food Supply Chains in India’, jointly organized by IIMB and the Hull University Business School (HUBS), UK, on December 16, 2016.
The minister went on to list some of the main concerns relating to building sustainable agri-food supply chains in India. “In our country water is scarce and there is gross inefficiency in water utilization. Water efficiency is the responsibility of the government, the farmers, the society and each one of us.”
Regarding land, he said that operational holding size had come down which is not viable economically. “We must increase operational holding, so that land is optimally utilized as fragmented holding will lead to more economic hardship. Viable scale is a must. Sustainable agriculture will bring down cost and the benefits are tangible.”
Describing the current supply chain as “ad hoc”, he said although it had resilience, an inefficient agricultural supply chain and marketing led to loss. “We need to bring in efficiency in place of traditional means,” he observed. Explaining that agricultural produce changed hands four to five times before it reached the final consumer, he said as a result, there were high cost overruns which amounted to loss. “The cost is not going to the farmer as it is being consumed by the middlemen, plus the consumer has to pay a higher price. There is no free flow of information from the market to the producer because of the multiple intermediaries, which leads to various deficits and an unstable market, which in turn is the greatest destabilizer. Since the farmer does not know the price, life is insecure, there is agrarian distress in various forms which makes agriculture not a viable means of livelihood. So we need to bring in efficiency in agricultural marketing networks,” he said.
Suggesting the need for organized retail in food supply chain, Krishna Byre Gowda called for proper implementation of reforms.
Earlier in the morning, the audience was welcomed by Professor R. Srinivasan, Director Incharge, IIMB, and Professor Gopal Naik, Chairperson, Economics & Social Sciences area, both of whom stressed on the fact that the topic of the workshop was extremely significant for the Indian economy. “Globalization and urbanization will bring in more challenges. So significant policy changes and production practices are needed to better manage agricultural food chain,” said Professor Gopal Naik.
In his address, Dr. Ramesh Chand, Member, NITI Aayog, explained that supply chain should improve pricing for producers, contributing to their growth and income. “We need to do quality research on agricultural marketing, not just large quantity of research, as a result of which many policies are hostage to myths, which is an impediment for big investments. Moreover, we need to work on the Indian model of supply chain and not ape models of other countries. We also need to see why safety is low in the Indian food supply chain,” he added.
In an invited talk on ‘Issues in Assessing Performance of Sustainable Agri-food Supply Chains’, Professor G Raghuram from IIM Ahmedabad, focused on demand and supply side issues, food wastage, food security supply chain and infrastructure issues. “According to Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations (UNFAO), 1/3rdof food produced do not reach our plates, which is a concern,” he said, adding that challenges were, in fact, opportunities for improvement and that it was indeed possible to better manage food reserves.
The workshop also featured a session on ‘Management of Natural Resources – Land, Water and Coping with Climate Change’ by Professor A. Damodaran, IIMB and Professor K.V. Raju, ICRISAT. The session on ‘Achieving Sustainable Production Practices’ had Professor Gopal Naik, IIM Bangalore, Dr. T. N Prakash Kammaradi, Chairman, Karnataka Agriculture Price Commission, Udayakumar Kollimath, Sri Sri Institute of Agricultural Sciences & Technology Trust, and Sunil G. Awari, General Manager, Namdhari Seeds. The session on ‘Role of Agri Markets in Making Agri-food Supply Chains Sustainable’ featured Manoj Rajan, Addl Secy Coopn, MD & CEO, ReMS, Vikram Ogale, Director, National Supply Chain & Quality Assurance, McDonald's India, Ganesh Sundararaman, COO, Staples/Snacks Business, ITC Foods, and Dr. Ashish Dwivedi, University of Hull, United Kingdom.