Aussie ag talent to bridge trade gap with India

Australia’s trade and agriculture ministers recently joined India’s High Commissioner for a roundtable discussion and last week launched a report into bilateral trade between the two nations.

It found trade was worth $21 billion, with 23 per cent of imports into Australia and 77pc into India.

Research institute the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics has played a significant role in lifting Indian agriculture above subsistence level and as such, it cuts significant sway with the government.

Significantly, two of ICRISAT’s three director generals are Australian: acting head honcho Peter Carberry and assistant director general Joanna Kane-Potaka.

Both work at the institution’s headquarters in Hyderabad, India .

The joint India-Australia trade report recommended research partnerships as interim measure in place of a comprehensive agreement.

Australia has got a significant headstart through expat’s efforts in institutions like ICRISAT, and in the Hyderabad office of the World Vegetable Centre - which is headed by another Aussie – Asia regional director Warwick Easdown.

Agriculture has been a sticking point since former Trade Minister Andrew Robb said his top priority was to sign an FTA with India by 2016.

The farm sector offers significant gains for Australia, with a growing market for high value produce in the middle class.

Indians’ taste for heavy red wines is growing apace, demand for fruit and vegetables is expected to rise by up to seven per cent by 2025, religious beliefs make sheepmeat the obvious protein preference and demand for pulses could increase from 21.5 million tonnes in 2015 to more than 45mt by 2035.

But ad-hoc tariffs imposed by India are a hurdle. Currently, India has a 50pc tariff on field pea imports, a 30pc tariff on chickpeas and lentils and a 20pc tariff on wheat.

With a population of 1.3b people and rising, 70pc of whom live in households dependent on farm incomes, the Indian government has to balance a wide range of social concerns with the economic benefits of trade.

Western Sydney University Professor Brajesh Singh prepared the report.

“Combined with its geo-location, rapidly growing middle class and educated and skilled technologists, India offers unprecedented strategic and economic opportunities,” Mr Singh said.

Indian High Commissioner Dr. A.M. Gondane said India’s agriculture-based economy could benefit from Australia’s processing and infrastructure know-how.

“Increase in productivity in the agriculture sector is an imperative for maintaining India’s growth,” Dr Gondane said.

“Joint research in this vital sector between scientists from Australia and India would go a long way in improving agri-practices...”

Five point trade growth plan:

ICRISAT’s cropping research headquarters was founded on fertile farmland in Hyderabad in 1972 as an agricultural research facility for semi-arid farming.

It has developed a range of new crop varieties, farming techniques and post harvest initiatives to capitalise on the dramatic crop yield improvements that emerged during the Green Revolution in the 1960s.

The research and commercial partnerships envisioned in the report have got a headstart through the Australian connection in institutions like ICRISAT and the World Vegetable Centre.

Last year ICRISAT had a major breakthrough when it produced a groundnut (peanut) variety that is resistant to aflatoxin.

Aflatoxin is produced by a fungus that is particularly prevalent in peanut crops.

Aflatoxin impacts 5 billion people globally. It reduces immunity, causes stunting in children and is a significant cause of cancers, particularly in the liver.

There were no natural resistance in existing varieties and aflatoxin is a major curb on export markets for the developing nations such as india which grow groundnut.

Mrs Kane-Potaka is spearheading ICRISAT’s push to expand the list of cropping staples from rice, wheat and maize to include mass production of high-protein sorghum and calcium-rich millet.

The Smart Food program is designed to address the “hidden hunger” in developed and developing nations and diets based on the monocultures of one of the big three crop varieties.

While many societies have overcome food shortages, nutritional deficits are major cause of disease and reduced life expectancy.

Sorghum and millet have been selected because they are nutritious and well suited to marginal, dry cropping country which is under-utilised or worse, used for failing crops in poor countries.

The World Vegetable Centre has contributed to a number of successful breeding programs and works side by side with governments to improve malnutrition through farming practices. India falls below World Health Organisation guidelines for vegetable consumption.

The Centre also works with government to boost smallholder farmer returns on important staple crops such as onions and tomatoes.

It is working with government to roll-out programs to improve post-harvest onion processing techniques, to boost crop quality and increase the wholesale price to farmers.

The Centre is also working to diversify farmers’ marketing options with new lines of dual purpose tomatoes that can be sold on the fresh and processed market.

Indian farmers currently grow just one tomato variety. The market is extremely variable and unfavourable for farmers, as the processing market relies of gluts in oversupply to the fresh market when prices are at rock bottom.

Michael Foley is travelling in India with assistance from the Crawford Fund and financial support from the DFAT Australia India Council.