Sustainability in Agricultural Marketing:

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1 International Journal of scientific research and management (IJSRM) Special Issue On National Level Conference Business Growth and Social Development Pages Website: ISSN (e): Sustainability in Agricultural Marketing: N. Jayanthi* Assistant Professor, Department of MBA, Dr.SNS Rajalakshmi College of Arts &Science (Autonomous), Chinnavedampatti Post, Coimbatore Abstract: In the beginning farmer or rural entrepreneur, focus on previous personal, economic, environmental, and community experiences that triggered current desire to begin a business. An experienced farmer or business owner, think about the different phases have gone through in terms of marketing, operations, human resources and finances. Most important successes and failures as well as the key opportunities and challenges for agricultural businesses are to be identified. Understanding and developing strategies to serve viable markets is a key aspect of the business planning process and a critical ingredient for the success of agricultural business plan. It s important to look beyond the operations to its economic environment. This article analyses farmers awareness towards sustainability in agriculture, energy management in agriculture and it also investigates marketability of agricultural products in a sustainable manner. Introduction: Business planning is an on-going, problem-solving process that can identify business challenges and opportunities that are applicable to marketing, operations, human resources and finances, and develop strategic objectives to move the business beyond its current situation towards future business vision. Once developed, the business plan can be used as a long-term, internal organizing tool or to communicate the plans to others outside of the business. Sustainable agriculture addresses the ecological, economic and social aspects of agriculture. To be sustainable, agriculture can operate only when the environment, its caretakers and surrounding communities are healthy. Sustainable agriculture, as defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the 1990 Farm Bill, should "...over the long term, satisfy human needs, enhance environmental quality and natural resource base, make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and integrate natural biological processes, sustain economic viability and enhance quality of life." A sustainable agriculture does not deplete soils or people. A sustainable agriculture must be economically viable, socially responsible and ecologically sound. The economic, social and ecological are interrelated and all are essential to sustainability. An agriculture that uses up or degrades its natural resource base, or pollutes the natural environment, eventually will lose its ability to produce, it's not sustainable. An agriculture that isn't profitable, at least over time, will not allow its farmers to stay in business and fails to meet the needs of society, as producers and citizens as well as consumers, will not be sustained by society. N. Jayanthi, Special Issue On Business Growth and Social Development Page 19

2 Statement of the Problem: The sustainability of our agriculture supply chain is critical to any business. Agricultural marketing companies are essentially approached to sustainable agriculture also to be guided by Mission & Values and external human rights frameworks. The Supplier Code of Conduct should be further clarified to fulfill the expectations for all farmers. Indian tobacco companies purchase tobacco from U.S. growers as well as other domestic and international suppliers. Additionally, Indian wine business grows and harvests grapes on its vineyards in Washington, California and Oregon and also purchases wine grapes from growers. While tobacco and grapes are critical to Indian businesses, in some cases, they are one of many crops managed by the grower or supplier. Indian agricultural marketing companies can involve in a productive and responsible way by: How to gather information for better understanding of evolving landscape in sustainable agriculture and related issues surrounding farms and farming communities; How to work within the sphere of influence by setting clear expectations for growers and encouraging other industry stakeholders and How to encourage wider adoption of sustainable agriculture practices by working with stakeholders in education, university extension programs, relevant agencies, grower organizations and nonprofit organizations. Indian operating companies actively engage with others in support of a broad, agriculture-wide approach to effectively address challenges to sustainable agriculture. Governments, non-governmental organizations, other manufacturers, other buyers of agricultural products and growers all must work together to bring sustainable change to the agricultural supply chain. Objectives: Identifying regular or seasonal marketing, operations, human resources and finance decisions in agricultural business To assess long-term personal, economic, environmental and community goals To develop a business profile for communicating within or outside the family to potential business partners, lenders and customers. The marketing component of any business strategy will determine, in large part, the success of any business. Marketing strategy is about defining the customer or target market and tailoring for a product, pricing, distribution and promotion strategies to satisfy that target market. Marketing experts warn that businesses that are product oriented those that try to sell what they can produce without first looking at customers needs risk developing a product that won t sell. Instead, most successful businesses are customer oriented they design marketing strategies around the needs of their customers. To complete the N. Jayanthi, Special Issue On Business Growth and Social Development Page 20

3 Marketing segment of the Develop a Business Strategy step, the marketer will address the issues. Most marketing plans begin with a description of the business target market, or its potential customers. In building a customer strategy and to identify the target market, direct marketing to individual households or customers can be performed on a small scale. This form of marketing tends to be more profitable than business-to-business marketing because of value-added opportunities and lack of middlemen. Most direct market products are consumer goods or services. Popular direct market opportunities include Community Supported Agriculture Sustainable Agriculture Policy & Guiding Principles: Water management PepsiCo aims to optimize the applied water footprint to crops and to reduce water waste during irrigation as well as responsibly manage runoff risks of pollution or contamination of ground or surface water with pesticides, nutrients or soil. soil conservation & Preservation PepsiCo aims to preserve and improve soil fertility and nutrients, minimize soil loss through erosion and avoid soil damage due to disease and contamination. Agrochemical management PepsiCo aims to optimize the use of pesticides, nutrients, and other agrochemicals. PepsiCo supports sustainable practices that substitute natural controls for some agrochemicals, foster ecosystem balance, reduce direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions and reduce crop losses. Energy management PepsiCo aims to optimize the use of energy in crop production and management of agriculture waste to improve economics for the farm and reduce both direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions. Farm economics & land management PepsiCo supports sustainable agriculture practices that enable farmers to improve product value by maximizing the desired outputs of an agriculture system while minimizing the required inputs and avoiding any negative impacts to the farm and surrounding lands. PepsiCo aims to work with farmers that develop a long-term economic plan of efficient, responsible farm production. Social & community improvement.pepsico aims to invest in new knowledge and innovations in farming practices which can improve both social and human capital of the local economies. Sustainable agriculture practices can help to make the best use of local and available resources to improve the welfare of communities supporting Indian agriculture supply chain Water Management: Saving Water by Direct Seeding of Rice India grows approximately 130 million tons of rice across roughly 108 million acres, making it one of the largest rice producers in the world. Traditionally, rice is cultivated by sowing seeds in a small nursery, where the seeds germinate into seedlings. The seedlings are then transferred manually into the main field and then grown with four to five inches of water at the base of the crop for the first six to eight weeks, mainly to prevent weed growth. In India, a region that faces severe water shortages, an agriculture process called direct seeding of rice helps growers avoid three water-intensive steps: puddling, transplanting and standing water. After successful trials with direct seeding in PepsiCo s research and development fields, the company has developed a direct seeding machine for its farmers. In 2010, PepsiCo expanded direct seeding and applied it to approximately N. Jayanthi, Special Issue On Business Growth and Social Development Page 21

4 10,000 acres, saving more than 7 billion liters of water. And, because in direct seeding there is no water at the base of the crop, there is also a 70 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions Soil conservation and Preservation: Growing Oats Protects the Soil Oats provide excellent soil erosion control. In Canada, many areas of Indian supplies are planted with zero tillage, a way of growing crops from year to year without disturbing the soil through excessive use of cultivation practices. Advancements in machinery technology and weed control chemicals have made zero tillage a viable farmer practice that promotes soil, water and wind erosion reductions. Oats have an extremely fibrous and prolific root system similar to, and in some cases, better than wheat and barley. Many farmers use oats in areas with soil erosion risks from other crops to control further damage and help stabilize the soil. The extensive root system of oats enables the crop to efficiently utilize available nutrients in the soil, resulting in a lower requirement for applied fertilizers than many other crops. Other than weed control, few to no chemical additives are required to grow oats, because the crop is resistant to many soil-borne diseases. Compared to other crops including wheat, rice, corn and soy, oats serve as a premier rotation crop, and the straw and crop residues returned to the soil are viewed as good sources of crop nutrients. In addition, Quaker Oats grains are grown from a select group of varieties that have been bred from a diverse germplasm to assure high productivity and optimal nutritional content. Agrochemical management Optimizing Agrochemical Application, PepsiCo has several ongoing projects to try to minimize fungicide usage in Russia, the UK and Egypt. One of these projects provides online data that advises growers on the correct type, amount, and time to apply fungicides for effective control of the late blight pathogen. These tools increase fungicide use efficiency and often lower the amount of active ingredient applied. Pest management plans encourage the use of tools, such as weather monitoring, to predict the arrival of plant pathogens, which result in targeted pesticide applications. PepsiCo is actively engaged in basic and applied research to control Zebra Chip (ZC), a disease resulting from bacterial infection in potatoes. This disease causes significant quality defects in potato chips in several countries across the globe, and is transmitted by the potato psyllid, an insect which is challenging to control. Frito-Lay, with the industry s support, introduced new science-based solutions to replace organophosphates and more effectively control the potato psyllid. This targeted approach to pest management can reduce risk to non-target organisms, such as pollinators and other beneficial. Pest management plans have led to increased scouting programs to monitor for the arrival of the potato psyllid. Through effective surveil-lance of the potato psyllid population, the total number of insecticide applications has been reduced Energy Management Developing Sources of Low-Carbon Fertilizer Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice is the first consumer product in the U.S. to obtain a carbon footprint certified by the Carbon Trust. The results found that almost 40 percent of the carbon footprint was from the growing of oranges, with the main contributor associated with the manufacturing process of standard fertilizers. To reduce the carbon footprint of this product, N. Jayanthi, Special Issue On Business Growth and Social Development Page 22

5 PepsiCo launched a three-year, 7,200-tree pilot project in Florida in 2010, which is designed to compare low carbon fertilizers with standard fertilizer and measure the impact on tree and soil health and quality of juice. The first year results look encouraging. As a result of this work, Tropicana plans to deploy the best fertilizer solutions across their Florida supply base and globally to citrus and other crop production. Reducing Irrigation Water: Increasing Potato Yields for three years, PepsiCo has been evaluating the impact of drip irrigation technology on water and chemical use efficiency and its effect on the energy footprint of potato production. By utilizing drip irrigation to deliver crop inputs, the number of tractor passes through the field can be reduced while optimizing timing and accuracy of delivery. Nitrogen was applied several times in smaller targeted amounts, optimizing nutrient uptake and avoiding leaching versus conventional fertilizer application that applies the entire amount at the beginning of the season. This application method resulted in improved plant health and better crop yield, and saved one tractor pass that equates to a savings Conclusion: The world is facing serious challenges in agricultural products and it cannot be overcome through short term measures. Sustainable development in agriculture can be an important tool for economic development within the country. In planning for the future, the government and agricultural development agencies should make aware about the demand for agricultural products in India to the consumers. Therefore, India should resort to sustainable products to overcome food product shortages and eradicate poverty. It not only in the hands of people but the government should provide financial resources and should take necessary promotional measures for the sustainable development of agriculture through Water Management, Soil conservation and prevention Management, Agrochemical Management, Reducing the consumption of Irrigation Water. Hence steps should be taken by the key actors such as Government, financial institutions, marketing agencies and Intermediaries, to educate farmers, and promote the usage of these devices in order to the adaptation of sustainability, to lead a happy life for the future generations without the threatening of global warming. References: 1. Herzog F, Dreier S, 2005 Effect of ecological compensation on floristic and breeding bird diversity in Swiss agricultural landscapes. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 108, doi: /j.agee Kenkel D.S, Manning W, 1999 Economic evaluation of nutrition policy. Or, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Food Policy. N. Jayanthi, Special Issue On Business Growth and Social Development Page 23

6 3. Olsson P, Folke P 2001 Local ecological knowledge and institutional dynamics for ecosystem management. 4. Pretty J, Noble A, Bossio D, 2006 Resource conserving agriculture increases yields in developing countries. N. Jayanthi, Special Issue On Business Growth and Social Development Page 24