Agriculture is the largest consumer of water in Abu Dhabi

ABU DHABI // Farming authorities are planning to cut the use of water used for agriculture, forests and parks from about three quarters of total consumption to less than half.

New figures show such purposes account for 72 per cent of the emirate's water use, says a report by The National's Arabic-language sister paper, Al Ittihad.

The Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority has set a target of cutting agricultural water use by 40 cent from its September 2011 level by the end of this year. That would double the amount available for other purposes.

Mohamed Jalal Al Rayssi, communications director for the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority, said the move would "affect our environment and the future of the next generations".

A study on the sustainable management of ground water in Abu Dhabi, issued by the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi and ADFCA, found that agriculture, forests and parks accounted for 72 per cent of water use, but contributed less than 1 per cent to the economy.

"Agriculture is the largest consumer of water in Abu Dhabi," said Mr Al Rayssi. "Rhodes grass uses the most water with 59 per cent of all the irrigation water used in the emirate, followed by date palm trees with 36 per cent."

He said the authority was focusing on using the most water-efficient technologies and the most appropriate plants related to the UAE's climatic conditions.

"This kind of environment has very low rain throughout the year and a very harsh environment," Mr Al Rayssi said.

"The area that uses the majority of water in the UAE and other places in the world is agriculture."

Demand for desalinated, processed and ground water is expected to rise by 30 per cent by 2030.

The agency recently embarked on a new project to save ground water. It now uses 27 million litres of treated waste water a day to irrigate food crops on 220 farms across Abu Dhabi.

"Water demand is expected to rise," said Dr Mohamed Dawoud, the agency's manager of water resources. "But we can try to control water used in agriculture by using new technologies and new irrigation systems. This might lead to its decrease."

A five-year action plan is currently being prepared. It will require residents as well as government bodies to drastically cut their water use.

"It all depends on the actions that are done towards this," said Dr Dawoud. "If it's business as usual, then the situation will not improve."

He said the first step was more efficient irrigation systems. "Using more efficient technologies for agricultural production such as greenhouses, new technologies for irrigation, hydroponics and soilless systems is [vital]," he said.

"We should also use cash crops, instead of growing high water-consuming crops like Rhodes grass. All this will lead to a dramatic decrease in agricultural water use."

"I'm hopeful it will decrease in the future, especially with this momentum of improving the agricultural and irrigation sectors, I think we can do it."

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Agricultural scenario 2012-13

By Dr Aamer Irshad

LAST year, the agricultural sector achieved a growth rate of 3.1 per cent against the target of 3.4 per cent.

Low production of wheat and some minor crops was the main cause of missed targets despite better harvests of some major

crops like cotton, sugarcane and maize along with satisfactory performance by the livestock sector.

Bad weather and floods predominantly remained the major causes of lower agricultural output.

In the same year, GDP growth was recorded at 3.7 per cent , lower than actual target of 4.2 per cent but above the revised target of 3.6 per cent and also the three per cent in 2010-11.

The positive correlation of agricultural GDP with the overall GDP suggests that agriculture is a significant factor in determining the economy’s performance. Keeping in view the thrust of growth of agriculture sector, a target of 4.1 per cent was fixed for this

year.

The targeted growth was based on the expected contributions by the major crops ( four per cent ), minor crops (4.5 )), livestock (4.2), fisheries (two) and forestry (two per cent).

The projections for major crops were based on the output of 25.5 million tonnes wheat, 6.9 million tonnes rice, 59 million tonnes sugarcane, 14.5 million bales of cotton, and 4.3 million tonnes of maize. The assumption was based largely on the level of production already achieved along with the performance over the last three years. Minor crops such as gram, onion and sunflower remained extraordinarily low because of unfavourable weather conditions last year. It was expected that performance of minor crops will revive and contribute positively towards the overall agricultural GDP.

For the crop sector, key contributing factors, including weather conditions, have remained comparatively better. Agriculture credit disbursement is increasing along with availability and use of fertiliser and improved seed. Plant protection measures and farm mechanisation are improving.

The underlying assumptions for the livestock sector, whose contribution in agricultural GDP (55 per cent) is more than the crop sector, are that its performance has been very steady being less prone to vagaries of weather.

The sector has achieved growth of about four per cent for the last many years. The poultry sector also witnessed sustained high growth rates well above six per cent annually.

A big push in growth rate of livestock is, however, not possible due to peculiar nature of the activities and gestation period required for an activity to become productive. The resilience of the livestock supports growth even in worst natural calamities.

Target for fisheries and forestry growth has been fixed at two per cent. The share of both is negligible in agricultural GDP and hence to the overall economy.

In Kharif (or summer) season, major crops like cotton, rice and sugarcane are grown. Wheat is only the major crop of Rabi or winter season.

The Kharif season is already over. Provisional production data available from Suparco indicate that about 13.9 million cotton bales of standard weight (170 Kg) will be produced this year. The production of sugarcane and rice can be anticipated at 68.5 and 7.2 million tonnes respectively.

If the production of minor crops is assumed normal and the livestock sector follows the fixed growth pattern i.e. around 4.1 per cent per year, wheat remains the only decisive factor to determine the actual agricultural GDP for 2012-13.

With the available data of cotton, rice, sugarcane and anticipated achievement of livestock sector, the performance of agricultural GDP may be viewed in two scenarios depending upon the production of wheat crop in ensuing season. In one instance, if wheat harvest meets the target of 25.5 million tonnes, the agricultural GDP will record a growth rate of 4.6 per cent.

However, if it misses the target by one million tones, the agricultural GDP will comfortably surpass the target figure of four per cent.

Wheat productivity largely depends on weather conditions along with the availability of critical inputs in the coming Rabi season. Weather is single most important factor in wheat production. Pre-Rabi rains provide moisture for timely sowing in rain-fed wheat growing areas which contribute to around 15 per cent towards overall production.

Likewise rains during the growth period of wheat especially in December, February and March are very significant. Intensity and duration of frost, fog and temperature in the later part of the wheat plant life are very decisive. Because of the non filling of Mangla reservoir up to the level of last year i.e. 1210 feet, comparatively less irrigation water will become available for wheat crop but it may not affect the overall productivity, being strongly linked with other factors of production. The factors under human control such as timely sowing with certified seed, balanced fertiliser use, and good crop husbandry will also have significant impact on wheat production.

Presently, the agricultural outlook appears positive. Policy and overall sector environment suggests a healthy growth in agriculture sector. Due to strong vertical and horizontal linkages of agriculture with the country’s economy, a high level of economic activity is expected. Most importantly, food security will be ensured for the ongoing as well as for the year to come.

Heavy dependence of overall GDP on agriculture also suggests a better overall economic performance .

The writer is Chief, food and agriculture, Planning Commission

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Gabon: Agriculture bouncing back

New ventures in cash crops, such as rubber and palm oil, should help to boost revenues from Gabon’s still-modest agricultural sector, with increased public and private sector investment schemes helping to jump-start the revitalisation of the sector.

The most prominent example of the country’s renewed focus on non-extractive commodities is the recently-announced partnership with Singapore-based multinational Olam – an agricultural product supply chain management firm with extensive holdings in Gabon – to create a large-scale rubber plantation for a total investment of $183m.

With a focus on both upstream cultivation and downstream transformation, the project fits firmly within the government strategy of not only boosting agricultural production but industrialising the sector through local value-added activity.

The joint venture, signed in March, includes the creation of a rubber tree (hévéa) plantation, as well as a processing plant in the Bitam area of the northern Woleu-Ntem province. The project’s location should provide several benefits: weather conditions in the province are ideal for the cultivation of rubber trees, and the proximity to the border with Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea may also foster intra-regional trade. Furthermore, it has a surprisingly ample labour force on-hand – the country’s massive rural exodus has been less dramatic in this traditionally agricultural area, where upwards of 40% of the population remains in rural areas.

The first phase of the project is set to begin in 2013. The plantation will cover an initial surface area of 28,000 ha and will be extended to 50,000 ha in the second phase. The first harvest is projected for 2020, and initial output estimates vary between 2 tonnes and 2.2 tonnes of natural latex per ha. At full capacity, the plantation is expected to generate 62,000 tonnes per year.

The joint venture also provides for the construction of a processing facility with a capacity of 225 tonnes per day. Olam will hold an 80% stake in the joint operation, and the Gabonese government will hold the remaining 20%.

Increased turnover from existing rubber cultivation in recent years bodes well for the new project. The local operator, SIAT Gabon, which was privatised in 2004, currently maintains approximately 10,000 ha of hévéa plantations in Bitam and the Kango area of the Estuaire province. In addition to industrial plantations, Gabon has roughly 3000 ha of smaller-scale village plantations, which help to stimulate the economic and social development of rural areas.

As global commodity prices have risen since the global economic downturn, the purchase price of natural latex has improved for rural farmers. In January 2011, SIAT Gabon announced an increase in its farmgate price from CFA450 (€0.68) per kilo of natural latex to CFA600 (€0.91) in an effort to encourage local producers.

In 2010, national production of natural latex increased 16.6% year-on-year (y-o-y) to reach 38,967 tonnes, and granulated rubber production increased by 9.6% y-o-y to reach 19,559 tonnes. Sector turnover increased by 64.7% over the same period, from CFA13.04m (€19,900) in 2009 to CFA21.47m (€32,600) in 2010. While there is a slow return on investment in rubber, with the first harvest coming years after the original plantation, global prices promise considerable medium- to long-term benefits. Rubber prices have risen rapidly since 2009, and growing demand from emerging economies, particularly in Asia, should continue to support high prices in the coming years.

Olam officials have indicated that prices may continue to increase by upwards of 3% per year over the next decade. World Bank data indicates the price of TSR20 (technically specified rubber) increased from $3380 per tonne in 2010 to a peak of $4510 in 2011. Prices have averaged slightly lower in the first quarter of 2012, at $3682 per tonne.

The success of new, large-scale agricultural projects is critical to the government’s goal of revitalising the sector. Agriculture, once an anchor of the economy, suffered from declining investment after the discovery of oil in the 1970s. As part of the nationwide economic diversification and development programme, Emerging Gabon, the government is working to ramp up sector activity to increase productivity, create rural employment and decrease overall reliance on costly food imports.

The new joint project should also have significant socioeconomic benefits in terms of rural development. The plantation and processing plant are expected to create 6000 direct and 5000 indirect jobs, and Olam has stated it will introduce training programmes for sector employees. The government confirmed that the project will also include the construction of 3366 housing units, as well as schools and a health centre for the neighbouring population.

Provided that the government and its private sector partners can overcome delayed return on investment in rubber and the currently insufficient levels of skilled local labour force, new agricultural investments, such as the Bitam rubber plantations, should help to diversify Gabon’s agriculture sector and boost the industry’s contribution to GDP.

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Indian Agriculture in Dire Straits, Farmers' Woes Persist

Shubham Ghosh

Noted agriculture scientist MS Swaminathan has recently said that agriculture, as a profession, was losing its appeal to the new generation in Punjab. This apparently innocuous statement implied something serious and as Swaminathan has said, the government must look into it.

A pressing crisis has engulfed the country's agricultural sector today. The crucial sector, which contributes 17 per cent to the nation's GDP and employs around 60 per cent of the population, has witnessed a microscopic growth over the last few decades. The scenario has been particularly bad since the late-1990s, a period which saw a tragedy unfolding in the form of farmer suicides. The fact that over a few lakh farmers committed suicide between 1995 and 2010 suggests that something has gone wrong.

Farmer suicides initially plagued the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh (which was shaped out of MP in 2000) but slowly spread to other states of the country, including those which have been agriculturally rich.

The largest number of farmer suicides has been recorded in Maharashtra, which is ironically, the home to the country’s Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar. Over 40,000 farmers have committed suicide in that state alone since the mid-1990s. Providing relief packages and visit by top officials have not succeeded in yielding any results. The media, too, has failed to create any major impact on the issue, like it did, for example in several terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

The problem is indeed a big one. The five states mentioned above account for just around a third of India’s population but an alarming two-third of the farmer suicides. Farmer suicides are rising even as the number of farmers has reduced in the last two decades.

The reasons for such unabated cases of suicides are many. Scholars often say that neo-liberal economic reforms in India have increased the farmers’ debts to such levels that life turned practically impossible for them. Studies say most of the overburdened farmers who committed suicide were mainly growers of cash crops (like coffee, cotton, sugarcane, vanilla) and not food crops. Chasing the idea of ‘export-led’ growth forced several farmers in the country to shift to cash crops (like rice, wheat, pulses) and ultimately pushed them into their graves.

The shift to cash crops meant that the farmers had to bear much more expensive cultivation costs and that gradually pushed them to take loans and getting indebted. They also fell prey to volatile global commodity prices. Massive subsidies provided to the rich farmers in the western world by the US and EU also saw prices of the produce of the cash crop-growers crash.

Introduction of new foreign seeds replacing the cheaper, traditional ones, did them in further. The Bt Cotton, for example, had seen Indian farmers losing one billion rupees due to crop failure. This was not compensated in any form.

While these were financial hardships created by external compulsions, the farmers’ community also had to face domestic assault. Ruthless commercialisation in the rural sector proved to be a curse on the farmers. Healthcare cost shot up, so did prices of other essentials like food, fuel, and clothes. Millions of Indian farmers are dependent on food grain for consumption and not self-dependent and even if a food crop grower can manage to survive by some means, a cash crop grower can not.

One of India’s prominent economist once warned that an average poor family’s share of food has got reduced by about 100 kg. There is no shield to protect the rural folks (small farmers or landless ones) from the assault. Even the average youngsters of farmers’ households, no matter how meritorious they are, have had to give up education to take up the parents’ occupation to deal with the financial hardships.

Corporatisation of various sectors, including inputs, outlets, marketing, prices and even the intention to privatise an essential resource like water have not created a conducive environment for the farming community.

Reduction of rural credit also gave a deadly blow to the farmers. A consumption-driven state system cares more about its aspiring elites and is ready to sacrifice the needy. The fact that several rural bank branches shut down in the past one-and-half decade says the plight of agriculture in India. This deadly blow to the financial infrastructure pertaining to agriculture has pushed the farmers into the debt trap. Failure of the co-operatives has forced them to fall back on moneylenders to keep up with the high input costs.

These moneylenders charge exorbitant interests, sometimes even as high as 60 per cent and failure to pay off such loans see the farmers often taking the most drastic step in their life.

Moreover, key issues like improving the irrigation system, providing fertilizers and training farmers on their use, essential soil testing and conservation and others have been systematically ignored.Agriculture also lost its appeal as an investment sector, thus endangering its financial prospects further.

The problem does not end here. Job opportunities are rare in the agrarian sector due to poor growth, which has resulted in forcing large number of rural people to the urban areas or increase the pressure on land, resulting in further fragmentation of land and continuation of their poverty.

But what has been the state doing, if at all, to address the menace? Unfortunately, it is doing not much to bail out the farmers and agriculture, except providing periodic financial packages. But since the problem is a structural one, such populist measures are not going to settle the issue.

Leaders and officials, surprisingly, refuse to accept that farmers at all suicide. The debate soon gets diverted to who is a farmer and who's not. The West Bengal government recently involved itself in such a debate following the death of a quite few number of farmers in districts like Burdwan and Malda. According to the officials, those who committed suicide were individuals disturbed by some form of problems, psychological, social, family, but not by any agrarian crisis.

There is hardly any alternative livelihood option for the farmers, either, thanks to the widening urban-rural divide. Tamil Nadu can be cited as an example where despite an agrarian crisis around the late-1990s, farmer suicides never reached an alarming level. This is mainly because the state has a sound urban-rural linkage. High-scale of urbanisation, distribution of a number of cities and towns across the state accompanied by good road network help farmers in finding alternative employment during times of crisis and hence not face a desperate situation.

India, today has come a long way from the days of slogans like Jai Jawan, Jai Kishan. The country, with a gigantic consumers' market, has turned into an urban-industrial society with a crucial sector like agriculture almost pushed into oblivion. There has been no comprehensive state initiative to address woes of agriculture. Farmers are not getting due prices for their produce and often have to rely on middlemen for their survival.

Even for poor farmers who live at far-off places, there is no state assistance to ensure that their crops are bought and sold in the market in an orderly way. There is no system to counsel the farmers to help them find a way out of difficult situations. Lack of strong farmers' movement against the suffering has also not helped their cause.

In a way, the agricultural sector in India has been grasping for breath. But we have not bothered to exhibit some care for those who feed us and our families. If this way the sector is allowed to suffer, the day is not far when we face the tragic consequences of some drought-hit African states. Youngsters of the Punjabi farming families have learnt it fast, it seems.

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