Status of Farm Mechanization in India

Agro processing is defined as set of techno-economic activities, applied to all the produces, originating from agricultural farm, livestock, aquacultural sources and forests for their conservation, handling and value-addition to make them usable as food, feed, fibre, fuel or industrial raw materials. Agro processing sector has experienced expansion during last 5 decades, starting with a handful of facilities which were mainly operating at domestic/cottage level. The paper provides a summary of the growth history of the sector covering role of R&D, recent trends vis-a-vis crop-wise status of agro processing industrialization and problems, export trends, SWOT analysis and thrust areas for future for achieving greater role of this sector in the national economy. 2. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE By the middle of the nineteenth century, common agro processing industries included hand pounding units for rice, water power driven flour mills, bullock driven oil ghanies, bullock operated sugarcane crushers, paper making units, spinning wheels and handloom units for weaving. In British India, during the year 1863, a note was written by the Governor of Madras state, Sir William Denison to the government of Madras state for laying greater stress on agriculture and agro processing (Royal Commission, 1928). Based on this, a set of improved machinery was brought from England for demonstration and adoption. It included threshing machines, winnowers, chaff cutters, besides steam ploughs, steam harrows, cultivators, seed drills and horse hoes. The demonstration continued at Saidapet near Madras till 1871 with little outcome. Importance of agro-processing sector was first realized and documented after the disastrous famine of Bengal during 1870’s. Report of the Famine Commission, set up by the British Government, in its report submitted in 1880, clearly stated the need for agricultural improvement and improved post harvest infrastructural development specifically, rail network. Need was also felt for incorporating chemical interventions in the agricultural sector and precision farming through agricultural mechanisation manned by engineers. The Royal Commission on Agriculture setup by the British Government, conducted a detailed study. In its report published during the year 1928, it called AGRO-PROCESSING INDUSTRIES IN INDIA GROWTH, STATUS AND PROSPECTS ◆ 115 ◆ for scientific approach to the sector and stressed for developing rural industries and cooperatives. Realizing the importance of the agro-processing sector for rural development as a tool for POORN SWARAJ (complete self rule), Mahatma Gandhi during 1930’s promoted CHARKHA (spinning wheel) and balanced nutrition by setting example and writing articles in his famous magazine “Harijan”. It was continued by his followers namely, Narhari Bhave, Binoba Bhave and Jay Prakash Narayan. They promoted self-dependence through KHADI and village industries. The R&D institutions developed by the British for taking care of agricultural and rural industries included: The Imperial Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa; Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Mukteshwar; Dairy Research Institute at Bangalore; Poona Agriculture College; Public Agriculture College, Saidapet (Madras); Sibpur Engineering College (Bengal) etc. Horticultural Research Station was created at Chaubatia (U.P.) in Kumaon Hills for horticultural research including packaging and transportation improvements. Post independence era in India witnessed rapid growth in agro processing sector specifically during 1980s. It followed the first phase of the Green Revolution that had resulted in increased agricultural production and the need for its post harvest management. The importance of the sector was realized by the business community leading to diversification from grain trading to processing. Lead was given by the rice processing industry, followed closely by wheat milling, paper and pulp industry, milk processing sector, jute industry, sugarcane processing and oils extraction through solvent plants. In some areas like the solvent extraction industry, the growth in installed processing capacity has been far higher than the supply of the raw materials. However, in other areas like fruits and vegetable processing, the growth has not been encouraging on account of poor demand for processed products by the consumers. In such cases, the industry has also not been able to develop the demand adequately. 3. TRENDS IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION At the start of the twentieth century, Indian agriculture was in a stage of subsistence. By the year 1925-26, the total area under some major crops in undivided British India was: rice – 32 mha, wheat – 9.6 mha, sorghum – 8.2 mha (Royal Commission on Agriculture (1928). The yields were very low. In the year 1950-51, India produced only 50 million tonnes of food grain and a variety of other crops. By the year 2000-2001, India started producing about 700 million tonnes (Mt) of biological materials per year including food grains, oilseeds, fruits, vegetables, sugarcane, milk, eggs, meat, fish, tea, coffee, fiber crops, floricultural produce, forest produce and so on. The country has diverse agro-climatic conditions and consumer preferences and hence it produces a vast variety of agricultural and livestock materials. Table 1 gives the change in agriculture production over the last fifty years. As could be seen, India holds a major share for some of these products in the global context. However, their market potential is not being fully realized due to poor post harvest management and inadequate infrastructure and programme for processing of agro-produce. 4. EXTENT OF POST HARVEST LOSSES On account of poor post harvest management, the losses in farm produce in India have been assessed to be of a very high order. Various studies have estimated post production losses in food commodities to the tune of Rs. 75,000-1,00,000 crore per annum. Table 2 provides a view of the extent of losses and the monetary value of the lost produce in terms of quantity and quality. It may be mentioned that the estimated loss includes losses during storage, handling and milling/processing. It does not include losses at consumer’s end. It is also estimated that the extent of losses could be brought down to less than 50 per cent of the existing level on proper transfer and adoption of agro processing technology. For reducing the rest of the losses, new Table 1. Production status change over last fifty years Commodity 1950-51, Mt Mt Food grains 50 206 (99-2K) Oil seeds 5 24.5 Fruits 12 41 Vegetables 10 72 Potatoes 1.7 25 (24.2) (1998) Onion 1.0 5.5 (4.75) Mushroom 40 kt Livestock & Poultry Milk 17 78 (99-2K) Meat 0.7 (1971-72) 4.6 Eggs 10 bn(#) (1980-81) 30 bn(#) (99-2K) Fish 0.75 5.6 (99-2K) Marine 2.9 Fresh water 2.7 Honey 0.7 kt (1963-64) 5.5 kt Coconut 4.5 bn(#) 15 bn(#) Spices 3 Sugarcane 57 309.4 Certified seeds 0.75 Lac 40 kt 20 kt Fibre crops Cotton 0.7 2.5 Jute 0.67 1.67 Coir 0.13 (1954-55) 0.34 Wool 32 kt (1980-81) 45 kt STATUS OF FARM MECHANIZATION IN INDIA ◆ 116 ◆ initiatives need to be called for. Hence, it would be in the long term interest of the economy to invest in developing suitable infrastructure such as proper grain storage structures, cold stores and processing systems to avoid the losses. 5. R&D IN AGRO PROCESSING SECTOR Significant increase has taken place after early fifties in the number of institutions engaged in agro processing research. In the area of teaching, presently there are 18 universities/colleges offering first degree, 11 offer post graduate and 7 offer Ph.D. degree. Among R&D organizations in the area of agroprocessing, ICAR has 17 Institutes with some component of Post Harvest Technology (PHT), CSIR has 3 laboratories, State Agricultural Universities have 18 programmes, IITs have 2 progammes and 11 other organizations have similar programme. Some of the leading government funded R&D Institutes (based on their infrastructure and sanctioned scientific manpower) in 2000-2001 were: CFTRI, Mysore; CIPHET, Ludhiana; IARI, New Delhi; NDRI, Karnal; DFRL, Mysore; CIAE, Bhopal; IIT, Kharagpur; GPBUA&T, Pantnagar; IGMRI, Hapur; TNAU, Coimbatore; PAU, Ludhiana; GAU, Anand; RAU, Udaipur; BCKV, Kalyani; OTRI, Anantpur; PPRC, Thanjavur; MERADO, Ludhiana; MPKV, Rahuri; ILRI, Ranchi; IVRI, Izatnagar; NIRJAFT, Kolkata; CIRCOT, Mumbai; IISR, Lucknow; IGFRI, Jhansi; KVIC Mumbai; HBTI, Kanpur and PHT Institute, Pune. The ICAR has a system of All India Coordinated Research Projects (AICRP) in various important areas. In the field of PHT, there are 4 AICRPs: (1) All India Coordinated Research Project on Post Harvest Technology (21 centers in the country, coordinated from CIPHET, Ludhiana), (2) Processing, Handling, and Storage of Jaggery and Khandsari (5 centers, coordinated from IISR, Lucknow), (3) Table 2. Present level of production of different types of food commodities and their estimates of post-harvest losses Type of food Present level of production Post-harvest losses commodity Quantity (Mt) Average price Value (Rs. in Crore) %* Quantity Monetary value (Rs/t) (Mt) (Rs. in Crore) 1. Durables (cereals 230 10,000 230,000 10 23.0 23,000 pulses, oilseeds, etc.) 2. Semi-perishables 40 3,000 12,000 15 6.0 1,800 (potato, onion, sweet potato, tapioca etc.) 3.Perishables (fruits, 210 15,000 315,000 20 42.0 63,000 vegetables, milk, meat, fish, eggs etc.) Total/Average 480 11,604 557,000 14.8 71.0 87,800 * On a conservative scale Application of Plastics in Agriculture, Plant Environment Control & Agricultural Processing (5 centers, coordinated from CIPHET, Ludhiana) and (4) Post Harvest Technology of Horticultural Crops (8 centers, coordinated from IARI, New Delhi). Also, there are other AICRPs that have a component of PHT. These are (1) Renewable Sources of Energy for Agriculture and Agro-based Industries (16 centers, coordinated from CIAE, Bhopal), (2) Farm Implements and Machinery (21 centres, coordinated from CIAE, Bhopal), (3) Utilization of Animal Energy with Enhanced System Efficiency (6 centers, coordinated from CIAE, Bhopal), (4) Human Engineering and Safety in Agriculture (4 centers, coordinated from CIAE, Bhopal). Besides these, there are about 60 ad-hoc research projects operating in different SAUs, universities, IITs, CSIR Institutes and other laboratories that have been working on problems related to PHT. A number of Universities have programmes in the area of agro processing. Some of the state governments also have been supporting R&D activities on agro processing in a number of their laboratories/departments. Although nearly 2000 scientists were associated with agro-processing R&D in the year 2000-2001, only about 200 out of them could be considered as full time R&D workers in agro-processing. R&D Work in agro-processing carried out in India during the last 50 years categorized as follows: • Studies on physical, biochemical, nutritional, and engineering properties/characteristics of different food, feed, fibre, and industrial raw materials. • Response studies of different biological materials w.r.t. their storage, handling, and moisture conditioning. • Refinement of traditional equipment and processes for production of different foods, feeds, fibres and fuel materials for better quality, higher capacity, AGRO-PROCESSING INDUSTRIES IN INDIA GROWTH, STATUS AND PROSPECTS ◆ 117 ◆ energy efficiency, and reduced drudgery to workers. • Development of new produces and processes for better nutrition, convenience and taste. • Enhancement of shelf life of the produces, safe storage/packaging and development of better performing materials. • Better economic utilization of agricultural residues, by-products and recycling of wastes. • Design and Development of instruments and equipment for post harvest operations and their evaluation, feasibility analysis, field trails/multilocation evaluation etc. • Design, layout planning and development of pilot plants, agricultural produce bulk handling systems and area specific agro-processing models. • Studies and modeling/simulation of post harvest systems and industry for the purpose of optimization, forecasting and policy analysis. • Energy auditing and use of non-renewable sources of energy for post harvest operations. • Product quality analysis, sensory evaluation and consumer acceptance studies. • Work conditions, safety and pollution control. Among large number of technologies developed, the most popular ones include: 1. Agriculture produce refinement equipment such as, cleaners, graders and driers for on-farm operations as well as industrial operations. 2. Processes and equipment for parboiling of rice, preparation of puffed rice and flaked rice. 3. Development of processes and equipment for processing of pulses to produce dhal for higher recovery and better quality. 4. Development of driers using agricultural residues, by-products and solar energy. 5. Adoption and development of processes, and equipment for production of protein rich produces such as full fat soy flour, soy drink/ soy milk, soy paneer (TOFU) and soy fortified baked products. 6. Development of equipment such as, leaf cup and dona making machine, multipurpose mills, mini flour mill, grain pearlers, maize dehuskers, shellers, groundnut decorticators, fruit graders, juice extractors, high recovery mechanical oil expellers and improved storage structures for cereals, pulses, oilseeds, onion and potato. 7. Processes and equipment for production of high quality ground spices and spice mix, development of raw materials and processes for production of instant sweets, curries, snack foods, instant soft drinks, idli, dosa, sambhar mixes/powders, egg powder, production and packaging of milk products such as shrikhand, butter milk, paneer, ghee and sweets. 8. Equipment for high recovery of sugarcane juice, processes for production of high quality jaggery and liquid jaggery. 9. Processes, equipment and pilot plants for production of various industrial raw material from lac including dyes and pharmaceutical products. 10. Improved technology for processing of jute sticks to yield jute fibre and impregnation, preparation of jute based textile materials and bags. 11. Control of stored grain insects by using chemical and physical methods, storage structures for onfarm, trade, and process plant level operations. 12. Processing and canning of meat, meat products and fish. Some work has also been done in the area of processing forest produce such as oil extraction from oil bearing materials, collection and processing of resins and production of dyes, chemicals and pharmaceutical products. The latest developments have been in the area of floriculture. Due to high export potential, R&D work has been initiated at some centres on pre-cooling, packaging, and transport of cut flowers and low cost designs of green houses. Agro-processing models have also been developed for some of the agro-climatic regions in the Country. In the area of agro-processing of fruits and vegetables, development of tools and techniques for harvesting, precooling of freshly harvested produce, minimal processing, controlled ripening, juice extraction, concentration and storage has been done. Similarly, in the area of spices & condiments, floriculture, production of mushrooms, honey, eggs and fish, technologies have been developed for post harvest loss reduction and value addition. 6. GROWTH OF AGRO PROCESSING SECTOR Starting with a small number of processing facilities in 1950-51, a fairly well spread network of processing facilities has developed in the Country. Various estimates suggest the number of processing units in 2000-2001 as: atta chakkis and small hammer mills 2,70,000, rice hullers 90,000, rice shellers 11,000, huller-cumshellers 12,000, modern rice mills 30,000, bullock/ electricity operated oil ghannis 2,00,000, oil expellers 55,000, dhal mills 12,000, roller flour mills 700, rice flaking and puffing units 2,000, bakery units 54,000, solvent extraction plants 700, vanaspati plants 100, fruits and vegetables processing plants 5,000, dairy plants 450, cold storage units 3,000, licensed units in organized sector for meat processing 165, pork STATUS OF FARM MECHANIZATION IN INDIA ◆ 118 ◆ processing units – 144, fish processing units 18 and so on. Major problems faced by these units have been: (a) low capacity utilization, (b) poor recovery of the finished product from the raw materials, (c) problems of arranging adequate working capital and its management, (d) low product quality and (e) unreliable assured power supply. Strong R&D support will have to be continued to over come these and many other problems to ensure that our agro-processing technology becomes competitive at the global level. As stated earlier, inspite of the problems, agro-processing technology in India has continued to make steady progress towards modernization. Table 3 gives information of the latest development trends in respect of major crops/crop groups. 7. CROP AND COMMODITY WISE STATUS OF AGRO-PROCESSING INDUSTIRES AND PROBLEMS The commodity-wise growth of agro-processing industries in the country during the years 1950 to 2000 has been as given below. Rice Processing Industry Starting with 20.6 Mt of rice production during 195051, the country has come a long way to produce about 89.48 Mt of rice in the year 1999-2000. Similarly, in processing sector, the technology has undergone significant changes. Earlier, hand pounding, pedal Table 3. Recent trends in agro processing technologies S.No. Crop/ Item Recent products, processes, trends and technologies 1. Rice Fully automatic modern rice mills Partially cooked/quick cooking rice Breakfast cereals and value-added products Attractive packaging and branding 2. Wheat Fully automatic roller flour mills Whole bran wheat flour Fortified wheat flour Attractive packaging and branding Large number of baked products Automatic chapatti making machines 3. Maize Corn flour-packaged and branded Corn flakes and value-added products including ready-to-eat snacks (salted & sweetened) Starch material, corn oil with specific consumer desired attributes Cattle feed Baby corn Large, automatic corn processing plants 4. Coarse Cereals Value-added products including breakfast foods & extruded fortified tasty products Industrial raw materials 5. Pulses Automatic processing units for pulses with driers, colour sorters and packaging unit Attractive consumer packaging with branding Cold storing of processed pulses Snack foods and other value added products 6. Soybean Production of full fat soy flour/enzyme active soy flour for bakery and fortified foods Ready-to-eat snack foods operated system and Engleberg huller units were common for milling of paddy. By the year 1998-99, there were nearly 30,000 modern rice mills using rubber rolls for paddy dehusking. Of these, more than 5,000 are large rice mills with parboiling facility and nearly 100 have colour sorters for removal of discoloured rice for export market. Innovations in rice processing include improved process of parboiling developed at IIT, Kharagpur; CFTRI, Mysore; PPRC, Thanjavur and other R&D centres. Starting from sun drying, the technology for drying of paddy now includes use of a variety of driers, specifically for parboiled paddy. Continuous flow LSU type driers have been most commonly used units followed by tray driers (batch type). Thermic fluids are used as medium of heat transfer for heating the air used for drying in a large number of rice mills. Though efforts have been made to improve the rice hullers, limited success was achieved in improving their performance with respect to reduction in broken percentage. Rubber roll technology for dehusking has now been well established. Efforts are ongoing to find use of tafflon to replace rubber rolls for economy. Several types of rice bran stabilizer have been designed and tested. Chemical method developed at CFTRI, Mysore; steam heating at IIT, Kharagpur, electrical heating method developed at Pantnagar could find limited applications in Industry. Stabilization through extrusion technology has also been tried with AGRO-PROCESSING INDUSTRIES IN INDIA GROWTH, STATUS AND PROSPECTS ◆ 119 ◆ limited application of expanders. Among most common value-added products of rice include puffed and flaked rice used as snack foods. Rice and wheat form the major part of government operated procurement system and storage. In the month of March 2001, the total stocks of rice and wheat in FCI/ CWC and other government owned godowns were about 35 million tonnes for the public distribution system, for processing industry and for future use. Significant achievements have been recorded in packaging technology for milled rice for ready-to-cook applications in domestic market and export. Quick cooking rice has been developed at DFRL, Mysore and CFTRI, Mysore. The technology is being used for making available food supplies to defence personnel in boarder areas under war or war like situations. Rice is partially cooked and packed under highly sanitary conditions. It is autoclaved and supplied for safe use upto 6 months of period. Rice bran oil is a common form of edible oil besides its application in industry specifically as soap stock. For utilization of rice husk, a number of efforts were made at GBPUA&T, Pantnagar; PAU, Ludhiana; CFTRI, Mysore; IIT, Kharagpur; TNAU, Coimbatore; PPRC, Thanjavur and other R&D laboratories. Its application as sources of furfural, high grade silicon, insulation material, particle board and as source of fuel have been well demonstrated. However, rice husk is being used only as source of fuel in rice mills, in making particle boards, in poultry houses as bedding material and in land fills. Similarly, paddy straw has found limited applications as cushioning material in packaging of fruits and for preparation of soft boards. It is extensively used as cattle feed in many parts of the country. The upcoming areas in rice processing R&D include high capacity dehuskers and more efficient polishers improved technology for storage of paddy and rice, onfarm/community level drying of paddy, mechanical handling systems for grain markets and millers, cold storage of rice and down stream products, products diversification in the form of flakes, puffed rice, snacks, bakery items, quick cooking and ready-to-eat rice etc. The recovery of brown rice as obtained from the hullers, shellers, and modern mills could be in the range of 62-64, 65-67 and 68-70 per cent, respectively. The potential yield of rice is 70-72%. The need is therefore, to promote modern rice mills and develop milling technology for fine rice. If all paddy is milled in modern rice mills, 3 million tones of additional rice worth Rs. 15,000 million could be obtained. Wheat Processing Industry Wheat is a major crop of India. In the year 1950-51, the country produced 6.5 Mt of wheat, that has increased to 76 Mt by the year 2000-2001. India has emerged as the second largest producer of this cereal in the world. Wheat contains 12% bran, 3% embryo and 85% flour. It is mainly processed for flour (atta), maida, suji and