What’s Common Between Egyptian Cotton and Indian Pulses?

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In the recent past, Welspun India Ltd, has been in the news for all the wrong reasons.

The US retailer Target terminated its contract with the company for supplying bedsheets. Bloomberg puts the value of this business at $90 million. The stock price of Welspun has fallen by half over the last 10 days (between August 19 and August 29).

Welspun was supposed to supply bedsheets and pillowcases made of Egyptian cotton to Target. It seems that over the last two years, the company had been substituting Egyptian cotton with non-Egyptian cotton.

Fibres made from Egyptian cotton are longer than those made from regular cotton. This makes the fabric stronger. Further, bedsheets made from Egyptian cotton are also softer than those made from regular ones. For these qualities, in Egypt, cotton is also referred to as white gold.

Hence, given that Welspun was using other types of cotton, it wasn’t producing bedsheets that Target wanted it to. In the process, it lost the contract.

As to why Welspun did what it did, I really don’t know and that is not the reason behind writing this piece. What I am basically interested in is Egyptian cotton and the one common characteristic it shares with Indian pulses.

The production of Egyptian cotton has been falling over the years. Estimates made by United States Department of Agriculture – Foreign Agriculture Service (USDA—FAS) suggest that in the 1980s, Egypt grew cotton on an area of 5,00,000 hectares per year. This fell to 4,00,000 hectares per year in the 1990s. By the turn of the century this had fallen to 2,23,000 hectares of area. In 2015-2016, this fell to 1,00,000 hectares of area.

The USDA—FAS suggests that in 2016-2017, the area on which cotton has been planted in Egypt has fallen further to around 50,000 hectares. This is a huge fall of 50 per cent in just one year. The production is expected to fall to 1,50,000 bales from a production of 3,20,000 bales last year.

This is happening primarily because the cotton farmers are concerned “in terms of their ability to market the crop, especially with the lack of strong commitment from the government that it will buy the crop from farmers.” Over and above this, “Egypt’s industry is relying less on the domestic crop which is comprised mostly of extra-long staple and long staple varieties, while users’ needs have shifted to medium and short staple varieties.”

Hence, while there is a demand for long staple Egyptian cotton internationally and there is a premium for it, that doesn’t seem to be the case within the country. This along with the fact that the Egyptian government hasn’t shown a strong commitment of buying cotton, has led to farmers planting less and less of cotton. Instead of growing cotton, the Egyptian farmers seem to be growing rice. The area under cultivation has jumped from 4,62,000 hectares last year to 6,50,000 hectares this year.

In fact, in India, pulses have been going through a similar phenomenon. While, the total production of pulses hasn’t fallen as dramatically as the production of cotton has fallen in Egypt, it hasn’t gone up either.

Take a look at the following chart. This shows the total production of pulses over the last 30 years.

As is obvious, the total production of pulses has more or less been flat over the last thirty years. In 1986-1987, India produced 16.32 million tonnes of pulses. In 2015-2016, the total production was at 17.06 million tonnes, as per the third advanced estimate published by the ministry of agriculture.

What does this tell us? It tells us that production of pulses has more or less been flat over the last three decades, even though the demand for it has gone up. How do we know that? Take a look at the following chart. It shows the total quantity of pulses that India has imported ever year, since 1990-1991.

In 2015-2016, the import of pulses peaked at 5.80 million tonnes. The increased import of pulses shows that the demand for pulses has gone up over the years, as the income has gone up and people have started eating better, leading to a demand for protein based food products. Pulses are an excellent source of proteins for vegetarians.

In fact, it is safe to say that the real demand for pulses is higher than the total production plus import number, given that even after increased imports, the price of different kind of pulses has continued to remain strong. Hence, many people are either not able to afford pulses or have had to simply cut down on its consumption.

A further increase in imports is not the solution given that India is the largest producer, consumer and importer of pulses in the world. The interesting thing is that despite rising prices, over the last few years, the production of pulses hasn’t gone up. This is primarily because the government up until now had been procuring only rice and wheat directly from farmers. It hasn’t been serious about procuring pulses like the Egyptian government hasn’t been serious about procuring cotton.

And given this ready availability of a buyer, the farmers find it safe to grow rice and wheat. This has led to the production of rice and wheat going up at a steady rate. In fact, now we have reached a stage where on the whole we are overproducing rice and wheat and not producing as much pulses and oilseeds as are required.

Along with the farmers preferring to grow rice and wheat what has not helped is the fact that the last two years’ rains have failed. Given that only 16.1 per cent of area under production of pulses is irrigated (2011-2012 data), the total production took a beating.

This year the government has started to buy pulses (like it buys rice and wheat) to build a buffer stock. The idea is to encourage the farmers to grow pulses given that the government is a ready buyer. It remains to be seen whether the procurement machinery of the government can gear up to the challenge of procuring pulses.

As economists Ashok Gulati and Shweta Saini write in The Indian Express: “The existing procurement machinery is more attuned to procuring rice and wheat than pulses — they require an operationally different treatment. This necessitates gearing up the system accordingly.”

Also, on August 26, 2016, the government ordered imports of 90,000 tonnes of pulses in order to add to the buffer stock. Following this procurement, the buffer stock of pulses has jumped to 1.76 lakh tonnes.

The other encouraging piece of information is that area on which kharif pulses (arhar, moong and urad) have been sown this year has gone up dramatically. As on August 26, 2016, the total area on which pulses had been sown stood at 13.94 million hectares, up by around 34.3 per cent from last year.

This basically means that the prices of the kharif pulses will come down in the months to come as the increased production starts to hit the market. At the same time the government needs to step up procurement in order to ensure that a bumper crop doesn’t lead to a dramatic fall in prices. If that turns out to be the case, then enough farmers will not be encouraged to sow pulses again next year and we will end up with the same problem.

This is important given that even the bumper crop won’t be able to cover for the 5.80 million tonnes of pulses that were imported in 2015-2016. Also, the basic problem of Indian agriculture i.e. well-functioning private markets through which farmers can hope to make some money and not be taken for a ride by the intermediaries, continues to remain.

The column originally appeared in Vivek Kaul’s Diary on August 30, 2016

 

Why Monsoon Still Matters So Much

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The stock market wallahs have been excited since April 12, 2016. On that day, the India Meteorological Department(IMD) came up with the forecast for the monsoon season rainfall for 2016. The forecast this time is that the monsoon rainfall during the period July to September 2016 will be 106% of the long period average (LPA), averaged over the country, with a model error of ± 5%. At 106%, this will be an above average monsoon.

The long period average over the country as a whole for the period 1951-2000 is 89 cm. So the question is how good have the IMD’s forecasts been over the last few years? The short answer is—not good.

In 2015, the IMD had forecast a rainfall of 93% of the long period average. The actual rainfall was 86% of the long period average. The actual result was outside the ± 5% model error that IMD works with. When the IMD forecast a rainfall of 93% of long period average, it was essentially forecasting a rainfall of anywhere between 88% and 98% of the long period average.

In 2014, the IMD had forecast a rainfall of 95% of the long term average. The actual rainfall was 88% of the long period average. This was also outside the model error of ± 5%. In 2013, the actual rain was 106% of the long term average, in comparison to a prediction of 98%. This was also outside the model error of ± 5%.

In 2012, the actual rain and the predicted rain were at 92% and 99% of the long period average. This prediction was also outside the model error of ± 5%.

In 2011, the actual rain and the predicted train were at 101% and 98%. This was within the model error of ± 5%. Hence, in the last five years, the IMD has got only one prediction right. This makes one wonder if the stock market wallahs have taken this bad record of IMD at predicting monsoons into account or not. Between April 11, 2016 and April 18, 2016, the BSE Sensex has gone up by around 3.2% in four trading sessions.

The tragic thing is that nearly 70 years after independence from the British in 1947, the country is still so highly dependent on the monsoon season. As Raghuram Rajan, the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, told the Wall Street Journal in a recent interview: “We’re looking for signs of a good monsoon. Unfortunately, India is still somewhat sensitive to monsoons.”

So why is India so dependent on the monsoon season? Data from World Bank suggests that in 2012, only 36.3% of India’s total agricultural land had access to irrigation. This number would have improved since then. Nevertheless, nearly 60% of India’s agricultural land still does not have access to irrigation.

Hence, for water, Indian agriculture is majorly dependent on the monsoon rains. In this scenario, it is important that monsoon rains arrive on time, are well spread over the season and across different parts of the country, which do not have access to irrigation systems.

Once there are adequate rains, the farmers will be able to grow a good crop and then sell it at a good price. (Of course, a good crop does not mean a good price, there are other issues at play as well. But we will leave that for some other day).

The money that they thus earn will be spent on consumer goods, two-wheelers and so on. This will benefit the companies that manufacture these things, along with those who supply the inputs to these companies and so the multiplier effect will work. For example, more two-wheeler sales mean more sales for tyre companies. More tyre sales mean more demand for rubber and so on. The same logic applies to other inputs that go into making a two-wheeler.

At least this is how the stock market wallahs are thinking. But there are a few caveats that need to be made here. First and foremost, as I said earlier in this column, IMD forecasts more often than not have turned out to be wrong in the last few years. But given that they have made a forecast of 106%, unless they go majorly wrong, the rains this year will be better than the last two years. Second, a good crop need not necessarily mean a good price for the farmer. The agricultural markets around the country still don’t function like they should and benefit the trader community more than the farmers.

Third, the agricultural crop that will benefit from the monsoon rains (i.e. the kharif crop) will start hitting the market only in October 2016. Hence, the fillip to consumption (if any) will start happening only around then i.e. in the second half of this financial year.

Over and above this, there is another important point that needs to be made here. Data from the World Bank tells us that in 2014, India’s population was 129.5 crore. The population growth rate in 2014 was at 1.2%. Assuming that the population in 2015 grew at the same rate, the population for 2015 comes in at around 131 crore.

Data from World Bank shows that 50% of India’s population depends on agriculture. Hence around 65.5 crore out of the 131 crore are still dependent on agriculture. Data from the Central Statistics Office(CSO) shows that in 2015-2016, the total contribution of agriculture, forest and fishing to the gross domestic product (at current prices) was Rs 2,082,692 crore.

Hence, the per capita income of every individual dependent on agriculture, forest and fishing, works out to around Rs 31,797 (Rs 2,082,692 crore divided by 65.5 crore).

Now how do things look for the other half which is not dependent on agriculture? Their total contribution to GDP was Rs 101,69,614 crore. Hence, their per capita income works out to Rs 1,55,261 (Rs 101,69,614 crore divided by 65.5 crore).

What these calculations tell us is that in 2015-2016, those not working in agriculture earned nearly 4.9 times those working in agriculture. If we were to use GDP at constant prices (at 2011-2012 prices), the ratio comes to 5.5. Constant prices essentially adjust for inflation.

And this huge differential in per capita income between those who work in agriculture and those who don’t, is India’s single biggest problem. (Of course since I am using averages here, a lot of other issues are getting side-lined, but the broader point remains valid nonetheless).

This also shows the tremendous amount of inequality present in the country between the haves and the have-nots.

Agriculture no longer yields enough to feed the number of people dependent on it. The only solution to this is to improve crop yields (i.e. more production per hectare), ensure that the farmers are able to sell this increased production through a proper market which works and finally, people need to be gradually moved out of agriculture into doing other things.

This is going to be a slow process because people dependent on agriculture simply do not have the required skillset to be moved to do other things, in most cases. Until then we will simply be dependent on monsoon rains.

The column originally appeared in Vivek Kaul’s Diary on April 19, 2016