“Ramesh and Suresh are
legendary (atleast for some) character of famous Indian Television ad for a chocolate
company they represents the similarity”
Agriculture represents the soul of India, yes it does, not
only factually but also emotionally. If they would have been some sort of
individuals they would have certainly greeted themselves like the brothers lost
in some mega fair (Kumbh k Bichade
Bhaiiii).. ouch Sachin and he just banged on my head asking what kind of
joke is this .. and I said: perhaps it isn’t, just look at the below Ramesh –Suresh
moments and you might agree to it..
Agriculture and India
as primitive as it could be
Indian civilization is one of the oldest civilization in
world same as Agriculture one of the most primitive industry around the world
and both holds its traditional practices intact especially in India.
Just a top line
India having 16% of world population
holding less than 3% share in global GDP similarly agriculture employing 60% Indians
contributing only 16.7% to Indian GDP.
Caste and religion
system
They say castes and religions are manmade, yes they are.. Especially
in agriculture industry atleast :P
Treat Agriculture industry as a religion, where any agri
graduate is bound to borne and it is so receptive like Indian society that it
adopts any other graduate with utmost humble and gratitude but vice versa is
something, which every Indian wants to but barely can.
Hold-on, let’s get to the caste system of this religion
Seems complex, yes it is but very well defined in Krishi-Shastra of any agriculture
industry in india.. So, how does it start.. once you get out of the college,
you are born as an agri professional, now your caste is decided by the first
company you join.. Supposedly if your first company is a seed company then this
is how you are labeled throughout the life (as it does in typical caste
system).
A relationship between
like recruiter and recruit is like marriage affair. So be prepared that your
resume (lets write biodata atleast here) exhibits the typical caste of that
recruiter company. So a seed guy may not be entertained at pesticide industry
or vice versa. And if you are too modern
and join the recently formed castes such as banking, tech etc then it will be a
typical orthodox Indian family situation and back of the mind there may be a
voice like – “Dekh tu ja to raha hai
banking me, teri marji hai but aaj se input industry k sare raste band hai tere
liye, tu jindagi bhar ek banker ban k hi rahega (see you are going to
banking, now all the doors for agri input industry is closed for you, you would
be labeled as a banker for life) .. Seriously isn’t it like you are going for a
love marriage and your father says – “now you are no more my son from today
onwards I am ending this relationship for life”.
On the other hand we need
innovation, new perspective but we are not getting over by this caste system.. Do
we need here a Nana Patekar of Krantiveer movie moment, where he says – Ye le nikal diya maine seed or pesticide
resume se ab pahchan kaun seed wala, kaun pesiticide wala.. jab distributor
wahi, farmer wahi crop wahi to tu kaun hota hai fark karne wala :P (I have removed seed and pesticide from
resume, now identify who is from see and who is from pestcicide .. when
distributors are same, farmers are same, crops are same then who you are to
differentiate :P)
Predictions are as
dubious as opinion polls
When the population and variables are too large the sample
often doesn’t represent the true situation, like opinion polls, demand
estimation in agri input is also a critical but very challenging and often lead
to failure.
As democratic as agriculture
You might have often heard
the democracy in agriculture, recently I realized that democracy is nothing
more than somebody exercising his power of saying no, isn’t it happen when you
launch a new technology in Indian agriculture.
As chaotic (dharne wala) as opposition
A small complaint become
quite chaotic, no matter what the issue is, like opposition party your customer
are agitated in groups and start paying dharnas..
Obviously they are few PIL wala
advocates who pings customer to file a case on any complaint no matter what it
is.
Product sales is equivalent to contesting election
Collection of crop wise
village wise data, strategizing who will buy your product, the full of food and
entertainment mega famer meetings.. Those forcefully captured audience in
buses/autos for a speech by bade wale
managers. The tireless rallies oops
farmer meetings. You even don’t know till the season ends what your exact sales
is just like till the results are announced you can’t say who is going to form
the government.
Products are as legendary as leaders
There are few agriculture
products in India, which has become so legendary that the customer even keeps
them at their religious place, he is completely gung-ho about it and can go any
stretch to get a feel of it. Like the politico leaders in India.
Controlled by outside
India is reliant on its external
trade and investments so does agriculture on external factors.. Sometimes I wonder
if god should shower the rain by measuring in beakers. From water logging to dry-spell
you can observe in same field in one season... from drought to flood etc..
Too many segments
If you are to classify Indian
customer into different segment may be you can do it basis different attributes
– could be economic, social, geography, age, income, education, aspiration etc,
similarly in agriculture you can do it like- soil type, crops, irrigation,
management, geography, landholding etc. and
yeah you can’t give exact segment by mixing 3 or more attributes.
Hawa Chal Rahi hai (can’t
find right English for it :P)
Before elections you might have
heard that this time – “Modiji ki hawa
chal rahi hai” and that’s the constitutional sales language during sales
season in agriculture – “Hawa Chal rahi
hai”.
The growth lies here
As entire world is looking India
as one of the biggest market so does entire India is looking towards
agriculture, both has a potential to give the growth rate and returns in double
digit.
There are many more such
moments, agriculture is surely a true representation of India. As they used to
say during my college days – “Desh ka
Culture Agriculture”.
Kindly excuse the spell check and grammar (written on the go)..
Love,
Ankit
