VIJAYAWADA: The Agricultural Market Intelligence Centre (AMIC) of Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU) in Guntur, which analysed the forecast prices of important crops grown in Andhra Pradesh, has announced that pulses, chilli, cotton, sunflower and millets will fetch better prices to farmers compared to paddy, maize and turmeric in Kharif season.
Speaking on the occasion, ANGRAU Vice-Chancellor A Vishnuvardhan Reddy said, "It is high time to orient Indian agricultural policies towards market driven strategies (demand side) rather than mere crop production strategies (supply side). Although food grain production increased by 6 times since Independence, the realisation of lesser net returns to farmers is the grass root reality."
At present, the market prices cannot be determined only by the forces of supply and demand within the boundaries of a local area or a country and there is a marked asymmetry of access to market information and market intelligence.
"Every State must have an Agricultural Market Intelligence Centre. The market network will enable Indian farmers to be more competitive in the international market and it will be a potential move to double the income of farmers," he explained.
The AMIC adopts scientific evaluation through comprehensive computer software packages using the secondary data on earlier price related information and various other parameters and seeks the opinion of market functionaries through extensive surveys and finally arrives at the price forecast estimates after due consultation with the statistical wing of the university.
The accuracy of the forecasts is between 86.54 and 96.38 per cent for the crops under study compared to the realtime market prices. The forecast prices are disseminated to the registered farmers through voice messages, uploaded to ANGRAU website, monthly Vyavasayam and Rythu Bharosa magazines, and research/extension wings of ANGRAU for further spread. The price forecast bulletins are available on www. angrau.ac.in.
Better market prices for pulses, millets
Cultivation of red gram, black gram, green gram, groundnut, cotton, chilli and maize in the Kharif season may provide positive returns because of expected better market prices and low cost of production compared to paddy
Sticky prices of paddy will continue in the next season because of its huge earlier stock irrespective of the MSP to be announced by the Centre
More price is expected for sunflower because of Russia and Ukraine crises
Demand for non-GMO soybean is expected to be high