THE EVOLUTION OF THE US WHEAT INDUSTRY :: essays research papers

The US wheat industry demonstrates how integration crosswise the food strand can raise efficiency. At the beginning of the century, it was a lot ilk what India is today. It was fragmented, with a proliferation of small regional markets. There was no bill grading system each state had its own informal grades. Farmers, although large, were wasting diseased by traders, who often bought wheat at low prices by claiming that it was light or that demand was weak. The storage, handling, and transport infrastructure was limited. The result was high intercessor margins, a dearth of accurate market signals to citers, waste, and low processing yields. Today, however, the US industry is the benchmark for efficiency in food grain processing and procurement. Its farmers produce 36 bushels per acre, one of the highest yields in the world, and its millers achieve flour extraction levels of 75 percent. Its average waste level of 2 percent is the lowest in the world, and well ahead of the 8 to 11 percent in India.Large, unified grain processors such as Cargill and Archer Daniel Midland (ADM) played a central role in this transformation. They take a crap influenced all parts of the chain agricultural inputs, agricultural production, procurement, and processing and in so doing have been fit to build profitability in a low-margin business. Agricultural inputs - Cargill has developed high-yielding ejaculate varieties that are resistant to disease and pests, raising productivity and reducing the necessity for agrochemicals. Agricultural production - Large, integrated processors have established joint ventures with farmers cooperatives and provided marketing support, access to credit, and extension services. ADM, for example, works with Growmark, a cooperative of 175,000 farmers, to encourage them to use better seed varieties and improve farming practices. Procurement - Integrated companies have invested in upstream infrastructure to streamline procurement. ADM owns a lmost 200 grain elevators in which grain is stored according to moisture content, grade, and dockage (impurities). The elevators allow entryway streams of wheat to be blended to achieve uniformity of grade and usable characteristics. ADM also owns almost 1,900 barges, 800 trucks, and 130,000 railcars for the rapid movement of grain. All loading and discharge is done using pneumatic blowers. Investment in infrastructure enables companies like ADM to achieve waste levels as low as 1 to 2 percent. Integrated companies have also influenced grain marketing. They played a tonality role in the development of grading systems and the standardization of grades in 1916.