The “Lift” That Shook Parliament

As a child it was fun waving the thumb of your hand in the direction that you would want to travel and asking somebody for a “lift” and then enjoying the short ride as a pillion. Those were the times when the world around us was relatively less mechanical, less busy and more kind towards mankind. The result - eight of 10 times the ride was on.

Over the years, I first drove a bike and now commute by a car but whenever somebody asks for a “lift” a.k.a (also known as) “drop,” I invariably oblige their request and sometimes go out of my way to offer a “lift” if the person is known to me.

While giving “lift” has now become more or less part and parcel of my life, I still cannot forget the day October 9, 1996 and the “lift” that I gave. On that day as usual I was rushing to my office AP Times (a Daily Newspaper published from Hyderabad and now closed) where I was working as a Sr. Business Correspondent.

An old-man was waving his hand to get dropped and even as I was slowing my bike the old man literally fell on my bike thinking that I might not stop. His eyes were moist and with a feeble tone asked me where I was heading to. I told him that I am going towards the lower tank-bund road where my office is situated. He then asked me “can you drop me till Masab Tank (a stop mid-way).” I said “fine” and asked him to board the bike.

Barely after two minutes and after travelling a distance, I could hear the man weeping. I was not surprised but then asked him to control himself and tell me if there was any difficulty and let me know if I can be of some help.

The old-man said that his family has gone bankrupt because of his son taking a “LPG” dealership of a company which was nothing but a farce. He also said the dealership was bought with his lifetime savings and a loan taken by his son almost five years ago and today they are fighting with the company for re-fund of the dealership fee.

For a minute I was moved but then immediately sensed a “story” for my Newspaper. Without telling him that I was a Journalist, I asked him whether there are other parties who have been duped like them. The old man replied “there are 50 other dealers like us across Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal and I am now going to attend the dealers’ association meeting and discuss further course of action.”

I then introduced myself and asked him if I can attend the meeting. The old man’s joy knew no bounds and my journey took his route. I told my Editor that I am following a good “story” and might return to work with the “lead” for the day.

The next couple of days was full of hectic activity (please see the attachments) and the “fraud” having the blessings of one of the MP’s from Orissa gave our budding Newspaper the publicity it badly needed.

With an MP being involved in the “scam,” there was big hue and cry in the Parliament and an enquiry was ordered to probe the fraud.

It’s more than a decade since I have left mainstream Journalism, but still I haven’t left my habit of giving “lift” to individuals.

I haven’t had any such experience in the last 15 years but definitely narrate this story to each and everyone who gets to travel a distance with me (I mean a lift) and that is the “price” they pay whether they like it or not.

Indian Agriculture - Of productivity & use of chemical fertilizers

Home to 110 billion people, if we can provide our population two square meals per day, the global hunger will go down by half. By linear method of calculation, in the year 2020, it is estimated that India’s population will be 138 billion and the food grain requirement will be 268 million MT.

Longest day length hours diversified climatic condition, diversified soil, diversified crop, highest irrigated land, ecological condition supporting all types of crop. Over the last 40 years, food production has grown multi folds thanks to increased fertilizer usage, hybrid seeds and better irrigation facilities.

The Problem: However, productivity levels for various crops still below world average. Growing population, shrinking agricultural land, limited scope for irrigation, limited growth in mechanization primarily due to fragmented land holding, low level of agriculture extension services, stagnant food production despite increase in fertilizer consumption and neglect of organic fertilizer use are affecting farmers’ profitability. Farmers want to quit agriculture if other option is available.

Fertilizer usage and productivity: With shrinking agricultural land and the limited scope for irrigation given the long gestation periods for constructing viable dams, the onus is now more on improving the “soil health” through effective use of “fertilizers” for better productivity of food grains.

Food grain consumption crosses 250 million MT in 2010 and the challenge is to produce more from the shrinking arable land. Increased demand of food grains will drive nutrient consumption from 25 million MT to 29 million MT. In this scenario, increasing yield will be the key for future sustenance. For the last 10 yrs, Crop yield growth rate has been only 1.20% where as Nutrient consumption has grown by 3.6%. Fertilizer use efficiency is the major concern in the Indian Agriculture.

Indian Chemical Fertilizer Industry is the largest in the world and ranks second both in production and consumption. The industry produces over 50m MT of fertilizers from 28 operational urea plants, 12 DAP plants, 19 complex fertilizer plants and about 80 single Super Phosphate plants.

However, bulk availability of nutrient fertilisers is concentrated in certain regions. ‘N’ (Nitrogen) nutrient in Middle East, USA & FSU; ‘P’ (Phosphorous) nutrient in North/West Africa, USA & Jordan; ‘K’ (Potassium) nutrient in Canada, FSU & Middle East.

India contributes 16% of the Global consumption and imports of fertilizers for 2009-10 pegged at 18 MMTs. For the last 10 yrs, Fertilizer Subsidy Bill’s growth rate is 21.53%. Though Fertilizer Subsidy Bill has gone up, efficient usage of Fertilizer remains a major area of concern.

The Solution: While a right nutrient balance for optimum farm productivity and usage of other micro nutrients like Boron (B), Zinc (Zn), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), Molybdenum (Mo), Nickel (Ni), Chloride (Cl) and Copper (Cu) can help the Indian farmer to improve productivity, the new Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) Scheme where the market price of the fertilizers will be determined based on demand supply balance will help the government to contain Fertilizer Subsidy Bill.

Thus, adoption of an appropriate pricing policy for ensuring balance use of fertilizers, a pricing policy to encourage use of all plant nutrients in balanced manner followed by subsidies for Research & Development in the Soil and Technology related matters are pre-requisites for ensuring continued health and growth of the fertilizer industry in India, ensuring high level of self sufficiency in food production and at the same time sustainable development of Indian agriculture.