Giving a leg-up to cultivation of malting barley in Haryana, SABMiller India has roped in 400 farmers across 2,500 acres for contract farming of barley. SABMiller India is the Indian arm of SABMiller Plc, one of the world’s largest brewers with popular brands like Foster’s, Castle lager, Haywards 5,000, Hayward’s Black, Knock Out and Royal Challenge. The initiative, to be taken up during the current rabi season, is spread in the arid regions of the state including districts of Gurgaon, Jhajjhar and Sirsa.
Discussing the plans of the company, Sundeep Kumar, director (corporate communication and affairs), SABMiller India told FE that the market for beer in India is growing at 15% per annum which has created a huge demand for malting barley. Unfortunately, due to lack of efforts towards improvement of barley crop and non-availability of technical knowledge, the farmers are able to produce only feed-grade barley. Also, the productivity is very low. This is leading to farmers getting only marginal returns from their barley crop.
In Haryana, which is one of the largest barley producing and trading states in the country, the area under barley cultivation has been reducing progressively over the years?from about 30,000 hectares during 2002 to less than about 26,000 hectares during 2006 “Contract farming of barley will not only ensure good quality raw material but the production will also go up,” he added.
Notably, Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board has partnered with SABMiller in the initiative. Under the arrangement, the company will provide support at every step, from providing better seeds, technological know-how for soil and water testing, imparting best practices through Haryana State Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation Limited to providing high-quality inputs and ultimately even enabling credit facilities for farmers.
Kumar added, “In the short term, the company plans to propagate the best among the existing lot of seeds. In the long run, however, the company has initiated a seeds development programme in collaboration with Seeds Corporation of India on 20 varieties of barley seeds imported from across the world. Out of these, five are undergoing field trials across 45 farms in Rajasthan, Haryana and UP. After the final trials, one variety would be selectedand propagated”.
