A Certificate of Merit has been awarded to the State Dept. of Agric. 3th year in succession from National Agril. Productivity Council. Thus, state offers itself as a source of agro and forest products.

Neemuch is located in western Madhya Pradesh state, central India, located on a barren ridge. It has been constituted as a district on July 1998. Stone cutting and Handloom weaving is the major industry. Formerly a large British cantonment of Gwalior princely state, the town in 1822 became the headquarters of the combined Rajputana-Malwa political agency and of the Malwa Agency in 1895. It is a road junction and distribution centre for agricultural products and building stone. There is a college affiliated with Vikram University. The surrounding country was once famous as a tiger-hunting area. Pop. (1981) town, 65,860; metropolitan area, 68,853.

Neemuch is located on the North West side of Madhya Pradesh State. The district falls under Northern part of Malwa Plateau region. It is 206 km on train from Indore. The district is surrounded by Mandsaur on south in MP and by Kota in north east and north and by Chittorgarh on North west sides respectively (Kota and Chittorgarh being in Rajasthan). Administratively, district is divided as under:-

Tehsil Block Population 1991 Neemuch Neemuch 1,26,660 Jawad Jawad 1,48,899 Manasa Manasa 1,59,638

Social Set-Up

Neemuch is a relatively small district hence on many parameters it is better than state average such as:-

�	State Average	Neemuch
Population Density(000 persons/sqkm)	26.8	22.58
Irrigation %	32.9	38.73
Working Population %	37.7	47.11
Pop./post office	5866	5158

Neemuch holds exceptional position in terms of eye donors - the highest in India. Its pioneer work has been done by Gomabai Eye Hospital in 1992. Over the past decade and a half, Neemuch has donated 859 pairs of eyes and by 1998 was reported to have the highest per capita donations. Eye Bank Association of India is the largest non-Govt. organization in this field. Another major social achievement in the credit of this district is FundaSchool scheme in which 100 schools have been funded by private sector. The scheme is under Education Guarantee Scheme of MP Govt.

CRPF has its own Academy - National Internal Security Academy (NISA) at Mount Abu (Rajasthan) to provide basic and in-service training not only to the directly appointed gazetted officers of CRPF but also to officers from other police forces in the country and abroad. There are three Central Training Colleges (CTCs) located at Neemuch (MP), Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) and Nanded (Maharashtra). These training institutions organise basic, in-service, instructional and promotional courses

Soybean

Though district has a significant cultivation of many important cash crops, soybean is already doing well here. It already supports one major solvent extraction plants (Alpine Solvex : Closed). Neemuch and Manasa are important oilseed mandis of this area.

Being on the boundary with Rajasthan, agro-based resource position for this district should take in to account major crops being grown around it. Kota, Bundi, Jhalawar and Chittorgarh have substantial cultivation of soybean. In fact, each of these districts grow more soybean than Neemuch herself.

Opium

As regards cultivation, Neemuch is home to a number of medicinal plants including opium. India is the only country in the world to have a legalized production of this crop, under Narcotics Department. Govt. has set up in 1930, Govt. Opium and Alkaloid Factory for processing opium for industrial uses.

The farmers of Neemuch and Mandsaur are the largest licensed producers of opium in the country, though some cultivation is reported in Bhilwara, Banswara and Chittorgarh also. Unfortunately, brown sugar is a part of the product, manufactured from opium, brown sugar and heroin command a premium in the global drug bazaar. The portion earmarked for sale to the government is separated from the excess, which is then sold to the smugglers. But this brings enormous amount of capital in the district and inflates real estate prices. Real estate prices in Neemuch are often comparable to that in metropolitan cities. Many prospective entrepreneurs have been facing problem in obtaining land for their project on this ground.

In India, thousands of small land-owners are licenced to grow opium. From the seeds to the refined paste and medicinal alkaloids, production is controlled by Central Narcotics Bureau, a branch of the Ministry of Finance.

Today, under the surveillance of Central Narcotics Bureau officials, some 1350 tons of the sticky narcotic are collected from the farmers and shipped to one of two huge processing plants: Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh and Neemuch in Madhya Pradesh. At the factories, hundreds of workers, tend row upon row of open air vats filled with black opium paste. For weeks they stir and turn the tar-like substance, drying it in the hot sun until it looses most of its moisture. The process could be done more quickly and efficiently by machines. Once the opium has lost 90 percent of its moisture it is repacked and ready for export. A small portion is refined chemically in house and sold to Indian drug manufacturers. Most of the raw opium paste produced in Ghazipur and Neemuch is exported to the United States, the UK, France and Japan, generating an estimated Rs 300 million ($ 8-9 million) per year - a tidy profit for India's foreign-exchange starved coffers.

The government has collected 1,341 tonnes of opium in April 1997 as against the anticipated yield of 1,240 tonnes. The higher yield is being attributed to the new opium policy announced by the government in October 1996 which pushed up the average yield per hectare from 48 kg in the previous year to 54 kg this year. The increase in yield comes at a time when the government is under pressure from the international community and the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board for a low yield. The governments new opium policy, which is based on greater attention to opium cultivators, has also come in for criticism.

The yield of poppy in the country has international ramifications since India is the only country which allows farmers to grow poppy legally in some states for its use as derivatives in the manufacture of morphine and codeine.

The average opium yield in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh (the three main growers of opium) too has exceeded the previous years corresponding yields by 7 kg, 6 kg and 21 kg per hectare respectively. Though the number of opium growers was fewer in 1996-97 as compared to the previous year, the collection of opium was much higher. The government also unearthed nearly 10 tonnes of opium through preliminary weightage of produce of 35,000 cultivators (out of the 75,000 cultivators) before the regular weightage and procurement of opium began. As a result of the intensification of the enforcement machinery more than 500 tonnes of illicit opium was recovered during January-April alone. (Business Standard, May 17, 1997)

Vallabhdas Kanji Limited is another company which majors in medicinal plants exports. MP Federation also has many depots for collecting forest produce.

Garlic

The Chinese variety looks much cleaner and the larger pods make it easier to peel the skin off. However, The Indian variety is also better. Even one pod is strong enough. With Chinese garlic, even if one bites the pod raw, the tang doesn't hit.

Both the varieties are evenly priced in the wholesale markets, at around Rs 30-32 per kg. At the retail market at Kalyan, Chinese garlic sells at as high as Rs 48 per kg as against its Indian cousin, which sells for Rs 40 per kg. At Byculla, the rates for Chinese garlic are Rs 52 per kg, while the Indian variety is pegged at two rupees lesser.

Fenogreek(Methi)

Fenugreek grown here normally ends up in upcountry markets like Mumbai and export. While Mumbai prices are around Rs. 1850 per quintal, best quality is traded in the range of Rs 2000 to Rs 3000 per quintal.

There was a resistance at higher level that there is a potential for further rise. There is a hectic demand for meeting Gulf countries' needs. According to one estimate around 1.60 lakh tonnes of fenugreek has been exported to Singapore, Malaysia, Turkey, Japan, and Saudi Arab etc. Fenugreek gets buying support in local market also for longer period upto September/October. During monsoon demand for cultivation will support the prices. Moreover this year fenugreek output has fallen by 40 per cent compared to 1999. In Madhya Pradesh, farmers and traders have been incurring losses for last three years, forcing the farmers to reduce land under cultivation of fenugreek in main producing centers like Neemuch, Mandsore, Jaora and Ratlam of Madhya Pradesh.

Infra-structure

Roads

Govt. of MP has requested for a central assistance of Rs 2,600 crore for developing rural roads in the state in current financial year for connecting different panchayat with development blocks headquarters. It has also urged for an assistance of Rs.99 crore from Central government under Gram Samriddhi Yojna for developing 5 bio-village; lift irrigation in Indore-Neemuch; krishi production centre in Indore and horticulture project. While in terms of available road length, district is nowhere better than state average, it has an unusual high number of vehicles:-

�	MP	Neemuch
Road(km) per 100 sqkm	17.9	17.16
Vehicles per 000 population	47	78
Source: District Statistical Office, Neemuch

Railway

Ratlam Division came into existence on 15th August, 1956 under divisionalisation by merging into its forerunners erstwhile Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway (B.B. & C.I.) . The inauguration ceremony was performed by Shri Thakat Mal Jain, Chief Minister of Madhya Bharat state.

The metre gauge on Ratlam Division extends from :- A. Khandwa to Indore - formerly known as Holkar Railway. B. Indore to Nimach - formerly known as Scindia Nimach Railway C. Neemuch to Ajmer - Known as Neemuch Nasirabad State Railway

All the above Railways namely Holkar Railway, Scindia Railway and Neemuch Nasirabad Railway, form one system in 1881-82 and called as Rajputana Malwa Railway (RMR). The separate identity of RMR remained only for a shortwhile and its management was handed over to B.B. & C.I. company on 1.1.1885. Till independence of the country on 15.8.1947, the complete metre gauge network of Ratlam Division was managed by B.B. & C.I. Railway.

The Broad gauge portion extends from Godhra to Bhopal, Ujjain to Indore and Nimach to Chittorgarh.

Prior to divisionalisation, the mode of traction was steam and the section from Godhra to Ratlam was single line dealing with 9 goods trains each way per day on avearge. After the introduction of electric traction and double line, this has increased to 45 trains each way per day on average. The division has the longest and steepest gradients of 1:150 in Broad Gauge between Limkheda and Rentia stations of Ratlam-Godhra section; Metre Gauge also has longest and steepest gradients of 1:40 with reverse curve of 8.80 between Kakakund and Patalpani station of Mhow-handwa section.

Neemuch has broad guage connection to Kota etc but its narrow guage connection to Mandsour is still awaiting conversion. Neemuch serves as an important junction among railheads in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Communication

Neemuch is very well connected by telephone and internet. Integrated Services Digital Network facility in which on a telephone line from this, a network subscriber can send and receive data in digital form voice, image or a combination thereof from his premises. This facility is also available at Neemuch

Education

Newzealanders lived in Neemuch in 18th Century as a part of British Occupying forces which led to education taking deep roots in this area. Though in terms of literacy, now the area has fallen to state average, it still boasts of following system:-

Water

Gandhisagar dam in Manasa Tehsil takes care of water supply adequately. Neemuch has relatively a dry climate but as usual with its public participation, it runs a number of water conservation schemes very successfully. It has most successful record in Water Retention, Energizing tubewells, roof top water harvesting, tank de-silting, stop dam since such programmes are on highest priority of state Govt.(Krishak Jagat 26 Feb. to 2 Mar. 2001)

Existing Industries

Existing industries comprise of SSI units (mostly concentrating on stone cutting/polishing) and 3 medium to large scale industries. SSI units include oil mill, flour mill etc. Among medium to large scale industries are :-

1. Vikram Cement
2. Alpine Solvex
3. Govt. Alkaloid & Opium factory

Vikram Cement, India (Aditya Vikram Birla Group)

Vikram Cement(VC) Works at Khor is among the largest single location cement plant in India with clinker production capacity of 2.8 million tpa, from three lines. VC is a part of Grasim Cement which itself is the cement arm of the Aditya Birla (AB) Group, that owns a capacity 11 million tpa. It has captive quarries in Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh region, covering an area of 4.5 km�.

Location of Jawad for this cement has been so good that the company has taken up two expansions in quick succession:- 1985 Vikram Cement - Grasim's first cement plant goes on stream at Jawad (Madhya Pradesh) 1987 Vikram Cement's second production line is commissioned 1991 A third production line is added at Vikram Cement

Vikram Cement takes pollution control seriously, and environmental protection legislation is observed to the letter - one reason why the company was the first cement manufacturer in India to be awarded certification to ISO 14001. The conventional mining method of drilling and blasting can no longer be used in large parts of the quarry due to environmental aspects, government legislation and the presence of a residential development only 300 meters away. But there are still extensive limestone deposits in these parts of the quarry, and not mining them would amount to economic madness. Once it became clear that conventional drilling and blasting techniques were out of the question, Vikram Cement started looking at alternative methods to mine these deposits. As the limestone is medium-hard, a decision was ultimately taken to use a hydraulic hammer. With this decision, Vikram Cement has once again remained true to its maxim of providing maximum protection for the environment.

The Aditya Birla group's Vikram Cement Ltd, a unit of Grasim Industries, has bagged yet another prestigious quality award. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has conferred the Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award on Vikram Cement in recognition of its business excellence and its quality achievements in India. Hi-Tech Carbon, another Aditya Birla group company, received a certificate of commendation for its quality initiatives. These prestigious awards instituted by BIS in 1991 are based on a holistic assessment of a company on various quality parameters encompassing business and people processes. Vikram Cement's received the award on behalf of the Aditya Birla group from Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers Surjit Singh Barnala, and the president of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). For Hi-Tech Carbon, Anil Kumar, its president, received the award. Both Vikram Cement and Hi-Tech Carbon have implemented the total productive maintenance management system.

Alpine Solvex

The solvent extraction plant of this company is closed.

Govt. Alkaloid and Opium Factory

India is the only country in the world where cultivation of a drug crop is licensed. It is in operations since British era.

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