An evening with Mr. David Lobo: A paradigm shift in Indian agriculture

On Friday, August 20, we had a very insightful session by Mr. David J Lobo, Chairman of the Deejay Group, a pioneer in hybrid coconut breeding. The session was moderated by our Prof R Prasad and Prof Sudhakar Rao.

The Deejay group has 600-acre farms all over the country and has distributed 3 million hybrid seedlings to famers. The hybrid coconut technology pioneered by Deejay Group enables farmers to improve their farm yields and productivity and earn Rs 200,000 per acre per year.

Mr. Lobo has won the Shiromani Award for outstanding achievement in poultry and livestock farming. (Deejay has subsequently withdrawn from the poultry business.) He has also won the Karnataka Agrotech award for excellence in applying and Technology in Agriculture and the SME innovation excellence award in 2017.

Mr Lobo co-founded the Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship (XIME) rated among the top Management Colleges in India. He was also instrumental in bringing the McDonalds Fast Food chain to India, running their food processing factory for almost a decade.

As part of his outreach initiatives, Mr. Lobo has set up two foundations: The Bridge Foundation, one of India’s largest microenterprise development trusts set up in 1983 and the Agri Support foundation. Mr. Lobo has distributed thousands of hybrid coconut seedlings to poor women.

Introduction

The first Deejay Farm was started in 1969.  A UN Expert, Prof. Anthony Davis, convinced David Lobo to get into coconut breeding. In 1983, Deejay Coconut Farm Pvt. Ltd. was started in Madurai, Tamil Nadu on a 200-acre plot. The result was the Deejay Sampoorna Hybrid. Today with years of experience and research in coconut hybridization, Deejay produces the fastest and highest yielding coconut palms in the world.

The benefits of coconut farming

Mr Lobo emphasised that coconut farming is beneficial in many ways: high output, high profitability, significant benefits for small farmers and inter cultivation (growing many crops on the same farm).

Coconuts are very versatile and can be used to produce so many value added products: tender coconut water, oil, sugar, jaggery, copra, virgin coconut oil, charcoal powder. Spent tender coconut can even be crushed to produce leather. A large nutraceutical/cosmetic industry (food, confectionery, ice cream, desserts) is growing around coconuts. The value added by these industries will grow from the current $ 35 bn to $ 95 bn in the next 5 years.

Mr Lobo used various data points to illustrate why he is so passionate about coconut farming.

Coconut sugar vs cane sugar

Coconut sugar (extracted from the juice coming out of the flower stem) is superior to cane sugar in various ways. Coconut sugar has a low glycaemic index (35 vs 80 for sugarcane. The glycaemic index is assigned to carbohydrate-containing foods according to how much each food increases blood sugar.). It is good for diabetics as it releases energy slowly through the day. The price of coconut sugar is 8 times that of cane sugar. Compared to sugarcane where we get 3000 kg of sugar per acre, we get 15,000 Kg in case of coconut. The returns for farmers can be as high as Rs 15 lakhs per acre per year. Coconut sugar is also environment friendly as it needs only 200 litres of water per kg compared to 3000 litres for cane sugar.

Coconut oil vs edible oil

Edible oil is India’s second biggest import after crude oil. Within edible oil, palm oil is one of the biggest items of import. Coconut oil is superior to palm oil in various ways.

Coconuts vs dairy products

Coconuts can generate the equivalent of many dairy products. Coconut products are also superior to equivalent dairy products. Coconut palms are environment friendly and sequester 24 tons of carbon dioxide per acre. In contrast, dairy is the second largest producer of global warming gases.

The Deejay commitment

Deejay is committed to evangelising the use of hybrid coconut palms across the country. Under a continuous improvement program, Deejay replaces the lowest 0.5% performing stock by new ones each month. So, in 20 years, the farm will be full of high yielding plants. A coconut database management system tracks thousands of palms (about 30,000) from the day they were planted. Deejay is one of the few organizations that can guarantee that a coconut sapling is a true hybrid by a colour coding process.

Now Deejay is using genome sequencing, in a tie up with Karnataka Agri University for further improvements and for changing the architecture of the Sampoorna. Deejay has a long-term plan stretching over 10/20/30 years to improve the yields further. Deejay helps famers embrace inter cultivation (fruits, vegetables, cereals, etc) to increase the incomes of farmers. Deejay’s efforts are also directed to conserving water and minimising waste.

The “Deejay for you” app has ready answers to all the questions of farmers. The app plays a vital role in addressing the problems of farmers and finding solutions to their problems quickly.

Deejay has a simple way of conveying the benefits of coconut farming:

• 10 coconut palms for financial security
• 50 coconut palms for financial comfort
• 100 coconut palms for financial freedom

Deejay is committed to helping small farmers. While Deejay’s seedlings are sold out and there is a long waiting period, for small farmers who want up to 50 seedlings, there is no waiting period. Already, thanks to coconut farming, many small farmers have been lifted out of poverty.

A paradigm shift in agriculture

Coconut palms can play an important role in stabilizing the income of farmers. Coconut farming can increase food output, create jobs, generate value added products and increase exports. India is lagging the rest of the world when it comes to modern farming practices. The government should foster a culture of productivity and not subsidies. Our coconut processing factories are still very small (less than 65,000 coconuts per day), compared to even countries like Sri Lanka and Thailand. We need more investments and a much larger scale of operations. To facilitate this, Mr Lobo argued that coconut farming should be included in the Plantation Act. Contract farming should also be encouraged to attract investors who do not have the time to manage farms directly.

Q&A

On leadership

Many of Mr Lobo’s leadership qualities were shaped at a seminary where he spent a few years when he was a small boy. One of the important things he learnt there was the importance of doing a task in the best possible way. We tend to do things in the first way that comes to our mind. That is often suboptimal. If we develop the attitude of doing things in the best possible way, we will also run the business in the best possible way. Mr Lobo has always believed in correcting mistakes and moving on to better ways.

Mr Lobo recalled his early days in farming. In his first poultry farm, things were not being done in the most optimal way. So, he borrowed a little money from his father and started setting things right. He put everything on a chart to design an optimal flow of activities. Later, a friend told him that he had drawn a PERT chart!

It is also important to be sincere to our purpose. Mr Lobo believes that a sale is not complete till the farmer gets the benefits. It is important to help the farmers in the best possible way. He tells his staff to visit farmers every 3 months for the first 3 years to help the farmers. After that the trees grow on their own.

Mr Lobo stressed that it is important to get our objectives right. We should not get distracted by the problem. We should also not confuse objectives with the means. Mr Lobo is the founder of a B School. The objective of a B School is not to provide the best management education but to produce the best managers.

We should also try to get the best out of our people. While at the seminary, the young David complained to his mother in a letter about a fellow student. His mother’s response: Every criticism shows a need in the criticiser. You are in the way or on the way.

Over time, Mr Lobo identified his corporate purpose: make the world a better place through coconut farming.

Mr Lobo explained that at the core of leadership are love and concern. These in turn come from our priorities. If we view ourselves as trustees of our wealth and not owners, we will behave and take decisions very differently. Mr Lobo has had several setbacks in his life but by embracing a trustee mindset he has handled these shocks with equanimity and resilience.

On improving Indian agriculture

Indian farmers are small. Yet with individual attention, farm productivity can be increased. For this, farmers need support. In China, the government buys and leases out equipment to small farmers and even does the harvesting for a small fee. Mr Lobo once visited China at the request of the government to advise them on coconut cultivation. He saw a research station where farmers can request any kind of support for a small fee. India should also embrace such good practices.

Many farmers harvest their crops in small quantities. They need help with the logistics and marketing. They also need a more efficient supply chain. Trucks should be made available to pick up small truckloads (even 20 kg or less) from many individual farmers. Today, in the absence of such support, a lot of agricultural output is wasted and does not reach the consumers.

On the new farm regulations and the farmer protests

In India, monopolies are common. Only by breaking these monopolies, against heavy odds, Mr Varghese Kurien could launch the milk and the edible oilseed revolutions. As a country, we seem to like allowing a few business houses to control the market. Unfortunately, their intentions are often not good. So, if farmers are protesting, they have a good reason. Their main concern is that large corporate houses may start dictating terms.

On organic farming

Indian farmers should be able to produce and sell more and generate higher income. India is not a rich country. The market for organic food is still small. So, Mr Lobo felt that organic farming may not serve the best interests of the country. At this point, we must emphasise quantity rather than quality. Of course, if we can figure out ways to increase the market for organic products, things might change.

On retaining rural youth in agriculture

The answer is simple. We must make farming more profitable. All of us desire to lead a good life. If we are condemned to a life of low income, there is no point. One way to improve profitability is through the better use of technology such as IOT.

On getting into farming

Farming should not be looked at as a hobby. There is a difference between a hobby and an occupation. Many people get into farming, try various experiments, and fail. Commercial farming calls for focus. People entering farming should be clear about their objectives, understand the domain more and get themselves the best advisors.

On coconut farming in mountainous areas

In general, it is difficult to grow coconuts in colder climates where temperature is below 10 degrees Celsius. In each region, the local conditions should be carefully assessed and the problems facing agriculture in the region must be solved using technology.

On bamboo cultivation

Bamboo is a very good plant. It can be grown in uncultivated waste lands. Bamboo is a very good sequestering agent for carbon dioxide.

On reducing imports of pulses and oilseeds

In India, the government advisors give general advice rather than specialist inputs. (Just note the statements of our bureaucrats and technocrats in the Covid taskforce and this point will become amply clear.) A focused approach is necessary to identify the states where the production of pulses and oilseeds can be increased. The government is spending a lot of the taxpayers’ money, but the value generated from this spending is not commensurate.

On Hydroponics

Hydroponics involves growing plants without soil. Hydroponics has the potential to save water and fertilizers. The government should fund studies on the use of these and other novel farming techniques. Great session by Mr Lobo and excellent moderation and paraphrasing by Prasad and Sudhakar.

We thank Dr. Vedpuriswar for bringing out the highlights in the form of this note