AGRO PRODUCTS IN INDIA

The agro products and food processing industry sector in India is one of the largest in terms of production, consumption, export and growth prospects. The government has accorded them a high priority, with a number of fiscal relief's and incentives, to encourage commercialisation and value addition to agricultural produce; for minimizing pre/post harvest wastage, generating employment and export growth.

Important sub sectors in agro-products and food processing industries are: Fruit & Vegetable Processing, Fish processing, Milk Processing, Meat & Poultry Processing, Packaged/Convenience Foods, Alcoholic beverages & Soft drinks and Grain Processing etc.As a result of several policy initiatives undertaken since liberalisation in August 1991, the industry has witnessed fast growth in most of the segments. As per a recent study on the agro products and food processing sector, the turnover of the total food market is approximately Rs. 250,000 crores (US $ 69.4 billion) out of which value-added food products comprise RS 80,000 crores (US $ 22.2 billion)

Since liberalisation in Aug '91 till Dec '98 proposals for projects of over RS 72,000 crores (US.18 billion) have been proposed in various segments of the food and agro-processing industry. Besides this, Govt. has also approved proposals for joint ventures, foreign collaboration, industrial licences and 100% export oriented units envisaging an investment of Rs. 18.700 crores (US $ 4.70 billion) during the same period. Out of this, foreign investment is over Rs. 8800 crores (US $ 2.2 billion).

Agriculture and petroleum :- Since the 1940s, agriculture has dramatically increased its productivity, due largely to the use of petrochemical derived pesticides, fertilizers, and increased mechanization (the so-called Green Revolution). Between 1950 and 1984, as the Green Revolution transformed agriculture around the globe, world grain production increased by 250%. This has allowed world population to grow more than double over the last 50 years. However, every energy unit delivered in food grown using modern techniques requires over ten energy units to produce and deliver, although this statistic is contested by proponents of petroleum-based agriculture.The vast majority of this energy input comes from fossil fuel sources. Because of modern agriculture's current heavy reliance on petrochemicals and mechanization, there are warnings that the ever decreasing supply of oil (the dramatic nature of which is known as peak oil) will inflict major damage on the modern industrial agriculture system, and could cause large food shortages.

Modern or industrialized agriculture is dependent on petroleum in two fundamental ways: 1) cultivation—to get the crop from seed to harvest and 2) transport—to get the harvest from the farm to the consumer's refrigerator. It takes approximately 400 gallons of oil a year per citizen to fuel the tractors, combines and other equipment used on farms for cultivation or 17 percent of the nation's total energy use. Oil and natural gas are also the building blocks of the fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides used on farms. Petroleum is also providing the energy required to process food before it reaches the market. It takes the energy equivalent of a half-gallon of gasoline to produce a two-pound bag of breakfast cereal. And that still does not count the energy needed to transport that cereal to market; it is the transport of processed foods and crops that consumes the most oil. The kiwi from New Zealand, the asparagus from Argentina, the melons and broccoli from Guatemala, the organic lettuce from California-most food items on the consumer's plate travel average of 1,500 miles just to get there.

Oil shortages could interrupt this food supply. The consumer's growing awareness of this vulnerability is one of several factors fueling current interest in organic agriculture and other sustainable farming methods. Some farmers using modern organic-farming methods have reported yields as high as those available from conventional farming (but without the use of fossil-fuel-intensive artificial fertilizers or pesticides. However, the reconditioning of soil to restore nutrients lost during the use of monoculture agriculture techniques made possible by petroleum-based technology will take time.

The dependence on oil and vulnerability of the U.S. food supply has also led to the creation of a conscious consumption movement in which consumers count the "food miles" a food product has traveled. The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture defines a food mile as: "...the distance food travels from where it is grown or raised to where it is ultimately purchased by the consumer or end-user." In a comparison of locally-grown food and long-distance food, researchers at the Leopold Center found that local food traveled an average of 44.6 miles to reach its destination compared with 1,546 miles for conventionally-grown and shipped food.

Consumers in the new local food movement who count food miles call themselves "locavores" LINK; they advocate a return to a locally-based food system where food comes from as close as possible, whether or not it is organic. Locavores argue that an organically-grown lettuce from California that is shipped to New York is still an unsustainable food source because of dependence on fossil fuels to ship it. In addition to the "locavore" movement, concern over dependence on oil-based agriculture has also dramatically increased interest in home and community gardening.LINK