CIRCULARITY IN AGRICULTURE
SESSION VIDEO
SESSION OUTLINE
Agriculture is the mainstay of livelihood for more than half of the Indian population, with the majority of the farmers being small and marginal (SMF). The increasing climate-induced exogenous shocks coupled with rising water security issues, declining soil health and productivity are accelerating the declining number of cultivators and poverty in the self-employed cultivating households. The profitability of marginal farmers is one of the foremost challenges of our times. The pandemic induced economic crisis has stimulated efforts to transform agriculture and food systems through policy reforms, new investments, and a renewed focus on regenerative and circular practices.
In this session, a diverse and knowledgeable panel of practitioners working on distinct spheres relevant to SMFs, participated in insightful and engrossing deliberations on the vital aspects to promote and accelerate the adoption of circularity and resilience for farming, focusing on the SMFs in India. The conversations brought out holistic insights for connecting the missing links for creating value for SMFs based on circularity and regenerative approaches.
There is an enabling policy environment in India with well-designed schemes for promoting resilient and profitable agriculture. The opportunity likes looking at the levers for increasing incomes and addressing the gaps systematically to the transition towards unlocking the value.
PANEL
Srivalli Krishnan
Senior Program Officer,
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Santosh Singh
Director,
Intellecap Advisory
Aparna Bijapurkar
Partner,
Boston Consulting
Group
Dr. Baskar Reddy
Executive Director,
Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture
Ashok Kumar
Director,
Transforming Rural India Foundation
Melissa Ho
Senior Vice President,
WWF-US
SESSION TAKEAWAYS
TACKLING PRIVATE COST AND PUBLIC BENEFITS
The biggest obstacle to transitioning the SMFs to circularity or regenerative practices is the cost of the transition. An immense opportunity lies in identifying the levers for additional value addition in circularity and regenerative agriculture and leveraging the enabling policy initiative to generate new revenue streams for the SMFs. For instance, the policy provides an enabling framework: the massive one lakh crore Agri Infrastructure Fund for creating infrastructure at farm-gate and aggregation points.
MARKET FEEDBACK LOOPS
The feedback loops between the market and the R&D are missing in India. The farmers are currently growing for the climate that existed 20 years ago and not for the future climate scenarios changing over the next decade. The markets drive what the SMFs grow, and market side reforms are crucial to getting the right mix of product pipeline in the R&D and consequently to the producers.
LAST-MILE DELIVERY CHALLENGE
Majority of the interventions reach farmers in a siloed form. The interventions can be leveraged better by the SMFs, if they reach in a bundled form. This can be achieved by creating rural delivery networks, establishing a strong business case for the interventions’, a strong demonstration of technologies and services and building trust with the farmer. Developing a network of hyperlocal village level entrepreneurs can bridge this gap by helping SMFs with a bouquet of context-specific technology and services.
"A lot of policy today provides a very strong enabling space for resilient, profitable agriculture. The gap really lies in the last mile, in helping farmers unlock the benefits of the interventions."
"India needs to increase its consumption of protein by 21% per capita by 2030. However, there is an incredible environmental context for what it would take to scale up right? We need to look at the balance of nutritional scaling up but within planetary boundaries."
"The risk of small holder farmers can be reduced through regenerative farming practices. Emerging markets are looking for responsibly produced products. There is an opportunity there for small holder farmers and bring them to prosperity.”