All small and big farmers will have to be assured about their daily livelihood through systemic earnings. Systemic earnings refer to perpetual earning sources for at least a period of 20 to 25 years. This again would depend on systematic organisational structuring of agricultural efforts. Such efforts should basically offer self-sufficiency to every farmer, in every village.

BT earning benchmarks

Initially, the earnings based on bio-technological experimentation in agriculture are going to be minimal whereas the primary costs are expected to be huge. Therefore, farmers will have to be thoroughly convinced about the gradual earning graph of their BT ventures. Mass participation in BT - based farming activities will largely depend on good visibility in the performance projections offered by concerned authorities. Non-government organisations can bring lot of credibility to such projections, if they are involved actively.

+ Strategic Earnings -	Systemic Earnings +
	Sub-optimal Financial Sustenance Most Optimal Business Model Average model A Case of Doom Average Earnings with threatened competitive advantag
	Brand Earnings +

Somehow, for achieving higher and sustainable success in the BT - based agricultural ventures, the unit cost of BT - R&D will have to be brought down. Future earnings will have to be appropriately projected and discounted, to give reasonability to the computation of today’s cost of B T - based experimentation. Following diagrammatic explanation should clear this point further --

Wealth valuation for mass participation

Farmers from villages will definitely support various financial algorithms to promote IT-BT experimentation in agriculture, if they are properly educated about their wealth creation process. Such education should include simple valuation of their existing agricultural wealth and future appreciation. Such valuation will have to be done differently for different purposes. A few examples are listed below.

Multi-purpose IT business valuations

• Business Model Assessments
• Ownership - sharing Formulae
• Brand Networking Exercises
• Mass - Networking and Subsidisation
• Strategic Positioning in a business group
• Segmental Funding

Multi-purpose BT business valuations

• Speciality Business Valuation
• Mass Application Business Models
• R&D Valuations
• Patents Earning - based Valuation
• Economic Rate of Return - based Valuation

Rural financial participation

A massive mass movement will have to be initiated on all the possible fronts in the rural areas, to garner whole-hearted support from the farmers. Only economies of scale will ultimately make this movement financially viable. Some farmers may not have ready finances to participate in the IT-BT programmes. Hence, they may be involved by asking for their time and efforts. Some farmers may be willing to offer their land for BT-based experimentation, for an appropriate royalty. Different permutations and combinations will have to be tried out to garner maximum participation of maximum farmers. A few possibilities are illustrated as follows -

Small farmers financial confederation

India needs to be pragmatic and assertive while tackling the tricky issues of the WTO mechanism. One issue is of financial subsidisation offered to the small farmers. Hidden and strategic subsidies can be built up without disobeying the rules framed by the WTO. Such strategic approach would require immediate change in our approach to agriculture management’. Such change will have to be operational and strategic through the following innovative arrangements

• Corporate Cooperatives
• Process-wise and Product-wise Integration
• Composite Securitisation and Fund-raising through confederation
• Appropriate I T - B T Modules with entrepreneurial flexibility, within the frame of the confederation

Our farmers should be competent to understand and participate in the wealth acceleration process, which goes through IT and BT applications to agriculture. The question is one of organisational credibility. Non-government organisations can bring such credibility; with the support of genuine professionals in the field of IT and BT. Such credibility will also be possible, if the IT-BT-based agricultural ventures are kept away from political interference.

The author is chief consultant, Jakhotiya & Associates Management Consultants