Introduction

Agriwatch is overwhelmed by the support and participation of the government, trade and processing industry in the annual pulses summit.  The event has proved an effective platform for both government and trade to take stock of the present situation in the domestic and global pulses scenario.   Numerous requests were received in the past few months to increase the frequency and scope of these conferences and provide farmers, processors and other trade participants in regional and producing centers across the country an opportunity to join these events and further articulate state level issues including infrastructure, local taxes, processing and industrial environment, funding financing and related facilities available for industry,  besides latest developments in food safety, packaging, storage and movement of pulses in particular and food products in general.

Why regional conferences?

Agriwatch has successfully organized five Global pulses events and one National event on Rabi Commodities during 2004-09. These events were well received by the industry and attended by over 2,500 participants from India and abroad. However, it was increasingly being realized that participation in a national event often gets restricted due to time/cost consideration and distances from key producing and consuming centers.  Thus the regional workshops are expected to help in greater coordination and interaction between authorities and the industry at regional level and create awareness about emerging situation across the country in trade, processing and related infrastructure.

According to MoFPI data, hardly 25% of processing units are modernized. Grain and pulses processing/milling as an activity is largely concentrated in the tiny, small and medium enterprises.  To create a radical impact, it requires greater participation of industry stakeholders. Due to constraints concerning time and travel, participation in national events in Delhi or other metropolis is restricted.  Whereas it is increasingly felt by the industry that regional events will serve the trade and industry effectively and eventually national events will be the logical culmination of such regional summits.

These conferences are aimed at promoting technological advancements and creating awareness on minimum standards or norms, which a processor should adopt or follow for increasing operational efficiency of his mill/processing plants, better recovery and compliance under various laws.  The key outcome of these conferences is to bring about efficiency in value supply chain, highlight infrastructural and policy issues, which will eventually help in cutting costs, serving the interest of both consumers and nation at large.  Trade and industry would also have an opportunity to analyse and discuss supply and demand scenario, besides production estimates.

The regional distribution of major clusters in pulse and rice milling units is as under,

• Vasad in Gujarat – 225 Units approx
• Indore – 600 Units approx
• Hyderabad Karnataka Belt – 500 Units approx
• Nagpur-Bhandara-Balaghat – 650 Units approx
• Durg-Rajnandgaon-Raipur – 300 Units approx

The above is just a glimpse of the situation in central India and surrounding areas.  In addition, most states across the country have a vibrant trade and industrial environment in this essential commodity.

Thus the regional consultations will culminate into a national level workshop in Delhi in November/December 2010 (Post Commonwealth Games).

Notwithstanding the supply side economics in both pulses and grains, India is a big consumer and a dominant importer/exporter in this field.  It is no exaggeration in stating that pulses and grain business alone in India could be easily over 6 trillion rupees in turnover.  Thus we can imagine the potential for generation of industrial activity and employment in these essential commodities.

Grains and pulses are consumed as staple food in almost all parts of India and are grown in most states.  India is largest producer of pulses and second largest producer of rice and wheat, besides being the sixth largest producer of corn/maize globally. Given the size of domestic market and enormous export potential, domestic pulses and grain industry will continue to arrest the attention of government, trade and common man alike. Besides, storage, movement and related infrastructural bottlenecks are presently eating into profits and proving an enigma for government.  Consequently prices are hitting the roof.  Agriwatch events are expected to focus on these pressing issues and look for suggestions aimed at timely and early solution to such humungous crisis.

There are nearly one lakh of rice hullers and 0.5 lakh of modernized rice mills/huller-cum-shellers, with around 11000 mechanized units in organized segment for dall milling. Dall milling is third largest in the grain processing industry.  However, technological advancements in processing of grains and pulses in India have caught up more recently, as few decades ago these were processed at cottage level or by small scale industrial enterprises.  Still only 25% of rice units are equipped with latest milling technique. Maximum grains are wasted during the process of de-husking. Recovery of grains in traditional rice mills is as low at 52-54%, whereas it goes up to 62-64% with modern technique. Similarly in case of Pulses, recovery percentage remains low with traditional processing methods. Yield of split pulses varies between 65-70% in traditional mills, which can be improved to 82-85% with the adoption of modern techniques.

Further with the entry of retail chains and changing concepts in packaging to tap the retail sector potential more and more, market is growing more dynamic. Organized retail (which at present is less than 3%) is likely to improve further in near future because of changing life-styles, consumer preferences and increasing disposable incomes. This has attracted many big groups bringing about radical change in whole of the business environment. Thus packaging and branding in these products is fast picking up, which again calls for thorough understanding of rules/regulations in packing, including labelling, weighment, etc.  So, it is imperative for the industry to keep itself abreast with the latest technological advancements and also properly understand the statutory requirement in this sector.

With the above objectives, Agriwatch is planning to hold four Regional Seminars for pulses in MP, Gujarat, AP, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra and one Global Summit Delhi in 2010-11(April-March).   Further a National/International summit on Rice is planned during the first quarter of 2011 in Delhi.