Going into General Election 2009, the UPA government, in order to woo rural voters, hiked the MSP for most food grains by record levels. While it led to high and sticky food inflation, the big beneficiaries of the move were farmers. Flush with cash, Indian farmers started looking for modern equipment, which meant a surge in the imports of, among other things, agricultural spray pumps

Naveen Kumar | June 2015 Issue | The Dollar Business

Five years ago, Sushil Singh, a Delhi based knapsack manual sprayer importer, was in a big quandary. He just couldn’t fathom what had caused a sudden plunge in the demand for manual sprayers. A bit of market research revealed that farmers’ affordability had suddenly risen, thanks to the government’s food procurement policy, and not many were interested in manual sprayers anymore. Making matters worse, battery and petrol/diesel/ kerosene operated automatic spray pumps imported from China were flooding the markets. However, Singh was not sure if the new trend was sustainable. Assuming it to be an aberration, he stuck on to importing manual spray pumps. Unfortunately for him, the demand for manual sprayers never recovered and he had to shut shop two years back.

The surge

FY2009 was a watershed year for India’s agricultural spray pumps imports. Until then, their imports had never crossed the 2 lakh units/annum mark. But thanks to the largesse of UPA II, by FY2014, India was consistently importing over 2 million units/annum! And as you would expect, most of them were being imported from China. Ravi Gupta, Director of Indore based Neptune Sprayers, thinks there are several reasons why not only India, but the entire world, is making a beeline for ‘Made in China’ spray pumps. “Thanks to bulk production, China can afford to regularly offer new products and designs. The Chinese government offers 7% export incentives to local exporters, which makes them very competitive. Hence, buyers from all over the world attend various Chinese trade fairs and purchase directly from Chinese manufacturers. Because of bulk production and regular demand from all over the world, Chinese manufacturers can afford high investments, and hence, enjoy economies of scale as well,” Gupta tells The Dollar Business.

But as is the case with most Chinese products, even when it comes to power sprayers, quality is always a concern, particularly the quality of the battery in battery-operated sprayers, and the quality of motors in fuel-powered sprayers. And many Indian assemblers have used these concerns to their advantage by importing Chinese components and fitting them with more reliable batteries and motors. In order to boost credibility, these assemblers have also started offering warranties on their products. Validating this, Gupta adds, “Today, many manufacturers import only battery pumps from China, and assemble the sprayers here in India.”

More and better

Today, chemicals are widely used to control diseases, insects and weeds in crops. While herbicides are applied to reduce weeds; protective fungicides to minimise the effects of fungal diseases; insecticides to control various kinds of insects and pests; micro-nutrients like manganese and boron are also applied to boost produce. But since these chemicals are costly and can be applied on plants and/or soil only as spray, dust or mist, there’s a need for equipment that can help uniform and effective application, thereby creating a demand for dusters and sprayers. Although dusting is a much simpler method and can be done using very simple equipment, it’s not as effective as spraying due to low retention of the dust. Similarly, within sprayers, although high volume spraying equipment, like sprinklers, are very effective and reliable, they are way too costly for most Indian farmers. All these factors have created a massive market for low volume spraying equipment that are both affordable and effective.

Water breakers

What sprayers essentially do is break the chemical/nutrient in liquid form into tiny droplets of effective size and distribute them uniformly. This is very important since extremely fine droplets of less than 100 micron tend to get diverted by air currents, resulting in wastages. When it comes to the size of these droplets, the optimum size differs from application to application. While fine droplets are required to control insects, pests and diseases, bigger droplets are needed for the efficient application of herbicides.

Another function of sprayers is to regulate the quantity of insecticide that is applied and avoid excesses that might prove harmful or wasteful.

An interesting aspect of the agricultural spray pumps business is that demand is seasonal and fluctuates on the basis of the quality and quantity of the monsoon. “Generally these pumps are in great demand during the rainy season. If the monsoon is uncertain, all crops require spraying, thereby increasing the demand for spray pumps,” says Gupta.

Another reason, at least according to P. David Raja Beula, Assistant Director of Horticulture, Kadayam, Tamil Nadu, and a leading advocate of sprayers, for the rising demand for agricultural spray pumps in India is a rise in fruits and vegetables farming. “Many people are now getting into agriculture as the average wholesale price of vegetables has gone up to Rs.15/kg. And vegetable farming requires sprayers to maintain the crop by spraying fertilisers and pesticides,” Beula tells The Dollar Business.

Everyone’s blessings

Factors like ease of handling, less labour requirement, and easily mixable with herbicides, if required, have made liquid fertilisers like nitrogenous fertilisers, phosphate fertilisers and potash fertilisers, very popular in India in recent years. This popularity of liquid fertilisers has only further increased the demand for sprayers as the latter help in the controlled application of the former, thereby helping the conservation of the quality of soil. Similarly, in India, just the four southern states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, put together, produce almost 90% of the country’s total plantation crop. And plantation crops, generally, require sprayers and that too of high drift, to allow greater reach, thereby creating a demand for powerful and advanced power sprayers in South India.

At the same time, as per National Centre for Organic Farming (NCOF), organic manures provide all the nutrients that are required by plants, but in limited quantities. NCOF claims they help maintain the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio in soil; increase its fertility and productivity; and improve its physical, chemical and biological properties. They help improve both the structure and texture of soil, apart from increasing its water holding capacity. Hence, the Ministry of Agriculture body advises and promotes the use of liquid organic manures, in cropping and fruit production – another reason for the high demand for agricultural spray pumps.

Government play

While these sources of demand for agricultural spray pumps were enough themselves, Government of India has also emerged as an unexpected buyer of them. For, in order to address the constraints that are limiting the productivity of ‘rice based cropping systems’ in eastern Indian states of Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, as well as eastern Uttar Pradesh, a sub scheme of Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana named BGREI, was launched in FY2011. And with an allocation of Rs.400 crore each in FY2011 and FY2012, and an annual allocation of Rs.1,000 crore since then, the scheme has ensured the free distribution of 28,571 plant protection sprayers to farmers. Similarly, under Crop Diversification Programme, Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh have been allocated Rs.500 crore each for the last two years, to help the states’ farmers diversify from water guzzling paddy to pulses, oilseeds, maize and agro forestry. This programme has also seen the distribution of 13,168 knapsack, 2,407 power operated and 1,691 battery operated sprayers in Punjab and 1,383 power and 1,316 tractor operated spray pumps in Haryana in FY2014.

Jai kisaan

While the Modi government seems to have stayed away from the populism card of UPA II, food grain pricing and agricultural subsidies are extremely sensitive issues in India. Reducing MSPs and cutting subsidies are unthinkable and are akin to political suicide. Add to this the fact that farmers’ issues are again making front page headlines, and that there are serious question marks over the upcoming monsoon, and the only conclusion one can draw is that the demand for agricultural spray pumps can only move northwards. Are you willing to bet on the Indian farmer?