An exotic extravaganza

In conversation with Ankush Agarwal, Binny Sabharwal closely examines the inherent scope in cultivating exotic vegetables as against conventional crops.

The traditional wheat-rice cycle is giving way to newer and more eco-friendly crops in the state of Punjab. The Punjab Agri Food Parks (PAFP) is extensively promoting the cultivation of certain exotic vegetables like excalibur onions, bird’s eye chillies, sweet corn, snap peas and so on. We spoke to Ankush Agarwal, Managing Director, PAFP. The organisation is a joint venture between Punjab Agri Export Corporation, and the IDMA group, promoted by a group of NRI scientists, to introduce new horticulture crops in the state through contract farming.

What are the ‘exotic vegetables’ that are being grown extensively in Punjab? And how much area is under the cultivation of these vegetables in the state?
Collectively 1,000 acres have been put under vegetable – exotic and indigenous – cultivation under the contract programme in the state. These exotic crops include cherry tomato, broccoli, lettuce, yellow capsicum, baby corn, nantis carrots, cabbage (off season), radish (off season), leek, paprika, snow peas, bird’s eye chillies, yellow onions and others

What are the inputs that are required to cultivate these crops in Punjab successfully and how is the quantity and mode of application of these inputs different from what are used for cultivating conventional crops?.
Broadly, special kinds of inputs are required for the cultivation of exotic crops. These crops being new introductions in the plains of Punjab require special attention in terms of agronomic and cultural practices. Take the case of baby corn, the maturity indices of the crop need to be monitored on a daily basis. For a crop like cherry tomato special support structures or staking is required for quality fruitset. This is because a certain size of the cob and other factors like crispness are demanded in the market. For crops like broccoli and lettuce, maintenance of the cold chain becomes a mandatory feature, as these crops are highly perishable in nature.Reports say that Indian seed companies don’t have the seeds for these vegetables.

What is the reason behind the same and what are you doing to tackle the issue? Also, so far, how have the farmers managed to grow these crops if the seeds are not available locally?
The unavailability of seeds is because these vegetables are not cultivated in Punjab on a commercial scale. In fact, 85 per cent of the farmers in Punjab weren’t aware of these exotic vegetables. Therefore, the indigenous seed companies do not have the seed stock for most of these. As a solution, we have already involved around eight major players from the Indian seed industry for our ongoing contract farming and research programmes. Each company specialises in different products and we want to have the best varieties with us.

What role did the Punjab Government and Punjab Agri Export Corporation play in promoting these crops in the state and to provide timely inputs, like seeds, for growing these crops?
What role did the Punjab Government and Punjab Agri Export Corporation play in promoting these crops in the state and to provide timely inputs, like seeds, for growing these crops?
Punjab Agri Export Corporation, a Punjab State Government Undertaking is jointly promoting this project along with Idma Group; a transnational company. Their contribution towards this project has been a joint and coordinated effort to bring a horticulture revolution in the Punjab by breaking the ancient wheat-paddy cycle.

Since when have the farmers in Punjab been growing these vegetables and what were the problems faced by them initially? Also, what was the kind of training that was provided to farmers to cultivate these crops?
The farmers have been associated with us for contract cultivation of these vegetables since 2002-03. Today we feel proud to associate ourselves with around 1,000 farmers spread all over Punjab.
Our experience with these farmers has been very encouraging and enriching. When we started, majority of the farmers had opted for vegetable cultivation for the first time. Therefore initially they faced some problems. But timely assistance provided by our agronomists and the technical staff from the seed companies helped them to carry the cultivation smoothly. One of the things that we did was to distribute literature on cropping practices to the farmers in their local language. A special training cum R&D demonstration programme was also conducted for the farmers especially for yellow onions and hybrid onion cultivation.

How have the farmers responded to the initiatives and what has been the response so far, both in the domestic and the global markets?i
The ever-increasing enrollment of farmers with us, speaks for itself about the farmers’ response to this initiative. The fresh vegetable supplies are targeted to the processors and intermediate processors. Our unique USP “Farm fresh vegetables with minimum pesticide residues” is beginning to satisfy the requirements of the customers. Regarding overseas markets, we have been sending consignments to the European and the Middle East countries. This year itself, 90 per cent of the yellow onions’ supplies have been diverted to the UK market.Reportedly, wholesale distributors like PB Consiel of France and Focal Food of UK, along with retailers like Pronatura, and Bonterre of France have entered into a collaboration with PAFP, to market fresh and processed vegetables out of India in Europe.

Can you give us some details about the association between PAFP, the farmers and these companies?
A series of MoU’s have been signed with renowned wholesalers and retail chains for marketing of fresh and processed foods. We have entered into a marketing tie up with PB Conseil of France for the supply of fresh and processed foods in Europe, Pronatura of France for marketing of organic fresh produce and Bonterre of France for marketing organic fresh produce and other agri commodities. Besides, a tie up has already been undertaken with Focal Foods of UK for the export of Yellow Onions.

Can you tell us something about PAFP and the IDMA group, who are promoting these vegetables in the state?
IDMA group is a joint venture partner for Punjab Agri Food Parks; having a majority stake. The transnational functioning of the company has been a great asset in exploring markets abroad and entering into tie-ups with the most competitive players in the field.

What is the business potential of these crops, in comparison to conventional crops, and how have they translated into profits for the farmers?
In comparison to conventional crops, horticultural crops are more profitable. This is mainly due to the short duration of these crops as compared to grain and other cash crops. On an average, for most of these vegetables the crop duration varies from two to four months. Due to this, the farmer gets an extended benefits of cultivating two to three crop cycles in a year as compared to one crop cycle for traditional crops. The benefits per acre also vary from Rs 15,000 to Rs 45,000; depending upon the....

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