Question on Indian Agriculture?

Question

An Indian farmer, in response to a question, mentioned that a huge problem to overcome there is THEFT of their crops. Arthur, I'm sorry that you do not have open email so I can respond personally but please email me. How many other farmers in India have these issues involving crop theft, and have there been any significant deterents?

Answer 1

Thank you Mike, I just thanked you on my "Rock Dust" question.

Tell me Mike which part of the world you belong to? I recall; you visited India many times.Next time please inform me.

Sheshadri has answered your question, we usually barley make our ends meet. This is why I plan to go for Industry for which I can use my own farm produce, grapes.

Add 481947 to my name and send it yahoo dot com

Awaiting your mail

arthur

Answer 2

Howdy Mike,

Obviously I'm not Aurthur.  I just wanted to let you know about an interesting article I read about Thailand.  Because rice prices have jumped so much they too are having theft problems.

Thieves are usually targeting the rice after its been harvested, but its become such a problem that rice farmers have taken to sleeping in their rice paddies.  Villiages are also banding together, and doing patrols, to try and deter theives.  

That same article mentioned that the India Government has banned the export of rice this year (their fragrant rices sell for a great deal of money at export), to make sure the people of India have enough food.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 3

There are two types of theft of crop. The first one is largely high value crops facing normal theft problem. However, the farmers can largely control this with the help of local farmer groups.

However, there is a second type of theft, this is by the traders who buy the produce from the farmers. They under weight the commodity taking advantage of their financial clout. (These traders normally fund the farmers at high rates of interest to but inputs and to cover tilling cost etc), However, this problem is restricted to small and marginal farmers.

This is why Mike, I have been a vocal advocate of "Zero Budget Natural Farming" as your input costs are very small and labout can come from the farming family itself as far as possible.

Answer 4

there r really many more

Answer 5

IT IS A VERY GOOD QUESTION RAISED

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It was a fluke situation. Lawrence Penner normally never leaves his grain in the back of his truck. He and his brothers, who farm together in Kola, Man., have never all been out of town at the same time. But one week in February, Mr. Penner ran short of storage space and loaded his canary seed, due to be delivered to a buyer the following week, into his truck ahead of time.

He and his partners left it there a few days, unattended. When they returned, they discovered the truck and its cargo had been stolen. Whoever did it had brought back the truck. The grain was gone.

"It's somebody that knew what they were doing," Mr. Penner says, adding that he suspects the $10,000 load of seed, the price of which has tripled in 12 months, "probably isn't too far from here."

He is just one of a growing number of farmers victimized by grain rustlers: As the price of commodities has soared, so has the incidence of agricultural thefts.

It's a problem on both sides of the border. Marquis, Sask., farmer Doug Froehlich had 1,200 bushels of canola snatched from his grain bins last month - a booty worth roughly $16,000.

In January, Kansas police began investigating nearly a dozen reports of thieves driving their trucks up to farm bins and siphoning out tens of thousands of dollars worth of wheat. A bushel of spring wheat, which has historically traded between $3 and $7, has spiked as high as $24 in recent weeks.

"The value of it now is such that it would be very worthwhile for a thief," says Maureen Fitzhenry, a spokeswoman at the Canadian Wheat Board.

California growers have reported a rash of almond heists - a result of the price having tripled in the past few years. Barley futures fetch twice what they did in 2006. Canola prices are up 50% over last spring's contracts. Over the past three years, soybean futures have tripled. The market has been just as bullish for oats and corn. Farms have become treasure troves for looters. A report from the Washington, D.C.,-based think-tank, the Urban Institute, calculated losses from agricultural thefts in the United States are now US$5-billion - though the real figure is perhaps 10 times higher, because uninsured farmers often don't report their losses. Those producers with thousands of bushels stored might not even notice their missing grain for months.

That's one reason farms make alluring targets. Plus, they're isolated, going unwatched for hours when owners head to town with a load of grain or for Friday night dinner. The logistics of this nation's market in particular - limited holding capacity at rail and port terminals - mean grain is stored for long stretches on the farm, Ms. Fitzhenry says. For someone who knows their way around an auger, breaking into a bin and funnelling out a truckload's worth of cereal can be done in an hour.

Getting rid of it can be trickier. Buyers usually have long-standing relationships with area farmers. A stranger appearing at the local elevator with a semi full of soybeans stands out. Selling wheat or malt barley in the West requires Wheat Board permits. But an under-the-table transaction with a farmer who doesn't ask too many questions, eager to add to his inventory, would likely go unnoticed.

"No one's going to dispute if you have an extra 10 tonnes of grain in there. The buyer wouldn't even know," says Rolf Penner, a Manitoba farmer and director of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association.

Producers are getting nervous. Lynn McLean, who farms near Rosetown, Sask., says he has been ploughing large mounds of snow across his driveway to stop, or at least slow down, any would-be thief. "Maybe he'll decide it's easier just to go somewhere else," Mr. McLean says. "Some of the crops you're looking at maybe $50,000 for a load so it's quite a bit of money."

Ron Kroeker, owner of Country Graphics and Printing in Rosenort, Man., makes something called Cropgard, handfuls of number-coded confetti pieces that farmers mix into their grain, allowing buyers to trace the ownership. He says he is getting five times as many calls as he did this time last year, and it's still the off-season. "There's definitely more concern out there, but we'll really find out this summer when it's a little bit closer to harvest time," he says.

As the stakes of the grain business rise, farmers across North America will have to adjust quickly to the new reality, Mr. Penner says. He has already ordered surveillance cameras for his bins and no longer leaves the keys in the truck. "It's a new wake-up call," he says. "Nobody ever locked up their bins before. I'm sure there are a lot of guys locking them up now."

This is what all i have to say ,Thanks.