{"id":1939,"date":"2019-02-20T17:29:54","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T09:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/?p=1939"},"modified":"2019-02-20T17:29:54","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T09:29:54","slug":"drought-pests-force-india-grant-duty-free-corn-imports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2019\/02\/20\/drought-pests-force-india-grant-duty-free-corn-imports\/","title":{"rendered":"Drought, pests could force India to grant duty-free corn imports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Below-normal monsoon rains and an infestation of the fall armyworm, which devastated African crops in 2017, have slashed India\u2019s corn output and boosted prices, increasing the chances the government will grant duty-free corn imports for the first time since 2016.<\/p>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/img.agropages.com\/UserFiles\/FCKFile\/zkc_2019-02-20_07-55-09_036.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"314\" \/><\/div>\n<div><em>A farmer shows a corn shoot infested with fall armyworm at his farm in Narayangaon village in the western state of Maharashtra, India, December 18, 2018. Picture taken December 18, 2018. REUTERS\/Rajendra Jadhav<br \/>\n<\/em><\/div>\n<div>The shift to imports in the world\u2019s seventh-largest corn producer, which typically exports to Asia, highlights the breadth of the crop losses due to the drought and armyworm. It also demonstrates the potential harm that the armyworm may wreak on India\u2019s agricultural economy, which supports nearly half of India\u2019s 1.3 billion people.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>India harvests two sets of corn crops a year, a winter crop from March and a summer crop from September.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>For the summer crop in the 2017\/18 crop year ending in June, India harvested 20.24 million tonnes, according data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers\u2019 Welfare.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>However, between the lower-than-normal monsoon rainfall and the armyworm infestation, summer crop output for 2018\/19 crop year is forecast to drop to less than 16 million tonnes, according to Subhranil Dey, a senior research analyst at commodity brokerage SMC Comtrade Ltd in New Delhi.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThe weather wasn\u2019t good and there was the pest infestation as well,\u201d said Dey, adding that India\u2019s government will need to allow imports.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cImports will help in bringing down prices. But the government may not allow huge imports. It will allow them cautiously in a phased manner.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>India harvested 8.47 million tonnes of winter corn in 2018, but the planted area for the winter crop this year shrank 11 percent, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers\u2019 Welfare.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>As a result, corn prices in the state of Maharashtra, considered the domestic benchmark, have risen by more than 30 percent in the past two months to a record of about 20,000 rupees ($280) per tonne. That is up from 13,000 rupees a year ago.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Poultry producers and corn starch manufacturers are hopeful the shipments will rein in the price increases that they are struggling to pass on to consumers.<\/p>\n<div>\u201cWe have been demanding duty free imports of at least 500,000 tonnes. Our production cost has gone up due to the jump in corn prices,\u201d said Prasanna Pedgaonkar, general manager at Venky\u2019s, India\u2019s biggest poultry producer. Corn-based feed usually makes up two-thirds of poultry production costs.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Imports must overcome two hurdles. First, the government must agree to lift a 60 percent import tax. Second, imports must be non-genetically modified (GM) strains as India does not allow the cultivate or import of GM crops.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>India\u2019s government has allowed duty-free imports as recently as 2016, when the 181,000 tonnes were imported.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>However, few countries export non-GM corn in large quantities, so finding sufficient GM-free supplies may be a challenge for traders, said Amit Sachdev, the South Asia Representative for the U.S. Grains Council.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>India\u2019s government has not decided on petitions received from importers to allow duty-free imports, said a federal government official, who asked to remain unidentified since he was not authorized to speak to the media.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The government may also delay imports until after the upcoming national elections in May to bolster the ruling party\u2019s status with farmers, said Mumbai-based trader at global firm.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cAllowing imports just before elections may send a negative message to farmers,\u201d the trader said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The imports will not ease the losses for farmers grappling with the infestation of fall armyworm, a voracious caterpillar in its larval stage that can spread more than 100 km (60 miles) in a night as a moth.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In 2016 and 2017, the pest ravaged corn crops in Zimbabwe, Malawi and the continent\u2019s largest producer South Africa.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The invasive species, originally from Central and North America, arrived in India only in the middle of last year after plundering Sri Lankan produce.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The armyworm plague caught Indian farmers by surprise.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cBy the time we identify the pest, it had damaged the crop on a large scale,\u201d says farmer Mittal Waykar, showing the infestation effects on his 1-acre (0.4-hectare) corn plot in Maharashtra.<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"tl clearfix mt10\">\n<h4 class=\"p-source c-999 cb pt5\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Source<\/strong>:\u00a0<a class=\"c-orange fs16\" style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/news.agropages.com\/Media\/MediaIndex-1050.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Reuters<\/a><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Below-normal monsoon rains and an infestation of the fall armyworm, which devastated African crops in 2017, have slashed India\u2019s corn output and boosted prices, increasing the chances the government will grant duty-free corn imports for the first time since 2016. A farmer shows a corn shoot infested with fall armyworm at his farm in Narayangaon&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2019\/02\/20\/drought-pests-force-india-grant-duty-free-corn-imports\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Drought, pests could force India to grant duty-free corn imports<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industry-news","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Drought, pests could force India to grant duty-free corn imports - agrinoon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2019\/02\/20\/drought-pests-force-india-grant-duty-free-corn-imports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Drought, pests could force India to grant duty-free corn imports - agrinoon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Below-normal monsoon rains and an infestation of the fall armyworm, which devastated African crops in 2017, have slashed India\u2019s corn output and boosted prices, increasing the chances the government will grant duty-free corn imports for the first time since 2016. 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