Yes, for the right reasons!
You can’t become monopolies overnight!
Yes, that is what the men-in-hurry type new corporates try to do in an area where much modern day farming is left neglected. Far too long!
See what an average farmer psychology is?
An average Indian farmer today is a cellar debtor! He is exploited all around, from the local revenue, court officials. He is tied to his land and the village for too long for various causes.
Then, he is a small land holder. The government policy is to keep him so.
The finance minister may be a good man. The other day he came to Chennai to open a new building for the PSU bank, IOB. What he spoke? He spoke about the need to open bank branches in every village with 1,000 populations.
Did any banker care? No, not at all.
We always treat bankers as special people. They are supposed to lend to farm and priority sectors.
They simply don’t care. We try to interview them, ask harmless questions, how many farmers you have helped etc.
They simply dismiss us! Yes, they are afraid. Bankers as a lot are very secretive, they know their NPAs are hidden from public view, they try very hard to protect their own misdeeds and they have misgivings when a media outlet like ours want to approach them for talking with.
So, as the publishers of agri journals, online media etc we know the very psychology of the bankers. In India, bankers and even the government departments, have developed their own vested interests, negative attitudes, a badly noticed cynicism, we find everywhere when it comes to farm issues!
Yes, it is a tragedy and let us recognise this pathetic tragedy that prevails in all depts. and why even among the corporates. If the Infosys doesn’t keep its huge deposits it becomes front page news! If the huge deposit moves to say HDFC, then it becomes news. Not when a hapless farmer runs down knocking at the bank doors. Since most farmers live and operate in remote corners, it is next to impossible to get to know his plight and that too only when such hapless cases, suicides, take place it makes news. Even such tragedies are not now reported. For such reports won’t sell newspapers either!
So, too the big corporates. There are corporates with huge advertisement budgets. Even the big banks spend too much ad money on flashy glossies! But they don’t take note of us, the specific agri media and they don’t think it would catch the attention of the bureaucrats and more the politicians in New Delhi.
Bankers have to hide their huge NPAs and also their black money transactions etc from public view, let alone public scrutiny!
Now, as for the big corporate to enter the weakly constituted agri sector, all the big players, the Tatas, Birla’s, Mittal and Biyani and others have flopped in the vegetables and fruits procurement, distribution business.
Let us be clear.
This horticulture area if basically a small and medium enterprises and family business area.
There are success stories aplenty. The Nilgiris, a 100 year old strong brand in food and retail business.
So too them MTR. They have drawn heavy investors and made a big profit in selling off to foreign investors.
So too are others who are all going strong.
In Bangalore, the Namdhari Fresh is a new and high quality venture in F/V business.