Crop Protection’s Role Grows in Feeding India

R D Shroff

He’s a visionary in every sense of the word and one of the most recognizable people in crop protection. But Rajju Shroff’s passion extends far beyond business, and he is leading the crop protection industry in India on a mission to improve yields, create more prosperous farmers, better food security and more stable communities for the world’s second-most populous nation.

Advertisement

Tackling India’s rural poverty and food security is an ambitious challenge, but Shroff is accustomed to overcoming conventional wisdom to accomplish what others would say is impossible. In 1969, he started a phosphorus company to provide raw materials to an emerging Indian chemicals industry. At the time, colleagues told him that India wasn’t able to produce raw materials. Shroff took his modest startup capital and personally trained 20 employees in Gujarat to make red phosphorus. Today, United Phosphorus Ltd’s more than $1.37 billion in revenue make it the third-largest post-patent company in the world behind Makhteshim Agan and FMC; more than 75% of its revenue is generated internationally, and it employs almost 2,500 people around the world.

In 1972, UPL and Shroff earned the President’s Gold Shield Award for recognition for the development of technology and research, the first such award for a small business in India. Since then, UPL has continued to innovate its core business while evolving into a full-service, multinational agriculture company including a sizeable seed portfolio with the acquisition of Advanta in 2006. It even has a proprietary grass seed called Nutrifeed, a cattle feed that enhances the quality of dairy.

Like any innovator, Shroff prefers to discuss the challenges ahead instead of successes in the past. As chairman of the Crop Care Federation of India, Shroff is mobilizing the crop protection industry to invest not only in R&D and international business as he did, but also to help companies engineer programs that create better incomes and lives for Indian farmers and communities. The federation of Indian crop protection businesses lobbies government on agriculture policy and increasingly organizes education and implementation of good agricultural practices and integrated pest management.

Top Articles
ADAMA Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Results

Q What are the agricultural trends for India?

More farmers are using better technology and getting higher yields each day. Previously, the main consumption of food was wheat and rice, but now the production and consumption of milk, fruits and vegetables has gone up. Even poultry and egg production in India is increasing very fast. Urbanization has reduced total planted area, but production has gone up drastically.

The government is influencing some changes as well. Though subsidies are not given for agrochemicals (like fertilizers), some farmers in some states are getting subsidies for free power and discounts on irrigation equipment and farm machinery.

Also, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act has resulted in shortages of labor everywhere. Farmers are using more herbicides instead of hand weeding, and they are using more farm machinery when they can afford it. A large number of pesticide manufacturers, fertilizer companies and farm machinery companies are doing extension work and training farmers in good agriculture practices. These activities have given very good results.

Q How do those trends affect crop protection? What are some success stories?

In spite of yield improvements in some areas, India’s yield for rice, wheat, maize, cotton and oilseeds is still below the global average and far below the highest standard.

Extension work done by government organizations and funding for agriculture research institute is lacking. The private sector has stepped in to provide extension services and education with satisfactory results in many cases. As a result, the Finance Ministry has offered tax benefits on extension work by private parties in agriculture, but the scheme is not yet implemented properly.

There are many success stories in private sectors, where yields have improved as a result of proper guidance, good quality seeds, proper treatment of seed dressing and soil treatments. In some areas where there is a good water supply, the yield of sugarcane has increased from 30 MT per acre to 100 MT per acre. Even in deep rural areas where poor and marginal farmers were hardly getting 1.5 MT yield of rice, now they are getting more than 4 MT per acre with hybrid seeds and better methods of cultivation.

The industry and social organizations are working together with the help of state governments for the development of tribal areas. The tribal areas have been able to increase their production and yield of vegetables, and truckloads of vegetables are going from tribal areas to the different locations. The average income of farms in tribal areas has increased tenfold as a result.

Q How is technology improving small shareholder farming?

More farmers have started using herbicides and other pesticides to prevent soil-borne disease. Some industries have started some type of agro clinic, where farmers are given information on plants, insects and diseases. This has yielded excellent results in many areas. There are examples where in the southern India where farmers are constructing brick houses to replace their mud huts as a result of their newfound successes.

Q How does the Center of Environment and Agrochemicals fit into this discussion of agriculture technology’s positive influence on food production, farm incomes and responsible use?

The Center for Environment and Agrochemicals (CENTEGRO) has a large number of members, including industrialists, farmer leaders and political leaders. The biggest problems faced by the Indian agriculture are environmental NGOs, and CENTEGRO is working to expose corrupt NGOs. We have been successful in getting public apology from some of the environmental extremists. They have also paid heavy penalty. These environmental NGOs are funded from abroad to harm Indian agriculture.

Q Can you discuss any cases where better information and access to chemistries have resulted in more prosperous communities?

Even in the most rural areas in southern Gujarat in Dang district, more than 80% of tribal growers have been successful in getting high crop yields with the help of Rotary Club, the government of Gujarat and UPL. Local social workers are teaching them to use hybrid seeds and protect their crops. Fruits and vegetables are transported by the trucks, which were organized by the social organizations.

Recently, traders from Surat and Baroda are coming to the farmers directly and offering very good prices for their vegetables and fruits. This has increased the income of tribal growers from about $15 per month to about $150 per month. Now there are good schools in tribal areas, run by the industry. They are improving their homes and infrastructure, and poor and hungry people are prospering. In neighboring areas of around 100 km, social and political unrest is creating new naxalites [communist insurgents] searching for guns instead of food and social stability. But we can prove that concentrating on agriculture can remove hunger and poverty from Indian villages, and no other investment will be able to remove poverty.

Q Why should crop protection companies be concerned about hunger and poverty? What moral obligation do we have to conduct community outreach?

We have noticed that in rural areas in India where poverty is persistent, there are no medical facilities or health and hygiene facilities. There is no measure of earning other than agriculture. Industrial production can increase employment in big cities, but unless we concentrate on agriculture, there will be migration from rural areas to cities and towns, which can cause serious social problems. So it is in our own interest that affluent citizens see that there is a compounded benefit to ongoing agricultural development in our rural areas. Agriculture productivity will also improve the infrastructure in villages.

Q What other topics would you like to emphasize?

The Indian crop protection industry is very advanced now. Today India is able to produce high-quality inputs and is able to export to Europe, the United States, Latin America, Africa and the Far East. Acquisitions have enabled Indian companies to take successful control of some factories in Europe, U.S., Latin America and other parts of the world. Even in farm machinery, Mahindra & Mahindra is among the biggest manufacturers of medium-size tractors. Jain Irrigation is also able to reach the world market.

There are serious complaints of government policies in India. In all other countries, the local industries are given support and protection, but in India, the policy has been to allow multinational companies to import ready-made formulations at high cost. Because of this, good Indian companies are deprived of coming into production. The industry is working with the government to change these damaging rules and the high cost of imported formulations at the expense of domestic development.

Hide picture