Micro-Irrigation Key For India's Farmers (TTO, DE, LNN)

It's hard to believe that anyone would want monsoon like rains, but for India's nearly 235 million farmers it's a necessity. More than 60% of farmers in the nation depend completely on the monsoon for irrigation. India is one of the largest consumers and producers of global food commodities and more than 18% of its GDP stems from agriculture. While heavy rains improve crop yields, the monsoon is hardly ever distributed evenly across the country. Certain areas are prone to flooding and others parched conditions. India is often subjected to both drought and deluge in the same year. Poor rainfall pushes up food prices and ultimately squeezes rural consumption. Finding ways to help improve India's usage of its water resources is paramount. Due to its efficiencies and relative inexpensive costs, micro-irrigation could be one of the best ways to help rural farmers in India. As food demand from emerging markets continues to grow, companies that provide these sorts of specialized irrigation equipment could see their revenues and share prices grow over the long haul. Both John Deere

and Toro

have extremely profitable micro-irrigation units tucked inside their vast agriculture operations. Similarly, large-scale irrigation specialist Lindsay's

products do help improve water efficiency in arid regions. These three companies represent great plays on the theme and growth of micro-irrigation.