After two consecutive years of normal monsoon, India received below-normal rains in 2018, both in terms of spatial distribution and timeliness, which added to the income woes of the agriculture sector.

What’s in store for 2019?

Forecasts diverge. While the India Meteorological Department has forecast a normal monsoon, private forecaster Skymet believes it will be sub-par.

As for profitability of crops, 2018 saw a decline, while things have improved in the 2019 rabi season. But there have been concerns of late around consumption demand.

How rural sentiment – dictated by the fortunes of the agriculture sector – pans out this year will thus be a billion dollar question.

And that’s where CRISIL Research’s Agriculture Report 2019 comes in.

It offers sharp insights into market dynamics, state- and crop-wise profitability, government policies and key agricultural inputs. It also analyses emerging technologies to improve production, monitoring and market access.

There is an additional module on sub-regional profitability, which provides granular insights on how profitability varies within a state.

The report will thus help organisations tailor their regional strategies and make data-driven decisions on pricing, inventory and overall business planning.

Key answers from the report:

• Profits per hectare for the upcoming Kharif/Rabi season for top 15 states (crops covering ~75% of the gross sown area). 
  
• Trends and growth potential in the key agriculture input segments (FY19-FY22)
  
• Difference in sector profitability across various input categories
  
• Policies and regulations governing the input segments
  
• State wise crop wise opportunities in each input segment
  
• Estimates of pre- and post-harvest agriculture credit including warehouse receipt finance and tractor finance
  
• State-wise lending mix and opportunity-risk evaluation for top 15 states
  
• Role of NBFC and microfinance units in agriculture financing
  
• Overview of the crop insurance sector, state wise coverage & claims, outlook, players and profitability
  
• Emerging technologies in agriculture
  
• Data and statistics across various agriculture segments at district, state and pan India level
  
• Interactive tool for comparison between ~250 companies on operational parameters (share of exports/imports, product mix, regional mix, crop presence and distribution network) across agriculture input segments
  
• Interactive tool with financial information for ~250 companies (both listed and unlisted) which allows comparison with peers & industry and provides ranking based on several parameters
  
• Interactive tools which provides crop-wise, state-wise and district-wise profitability estimates