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Book Review
Revival of agriculture
S. MAHENDRA DEV
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A road map for rescuing farmers from the prevailing agrarian crisis in several parts of the country
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AGRICULTURE CANNOT WAIT— New Horizons in Indian Agriculture: M.S.Swaminathan– Editor: Academic Foundation in Association with National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), New Delhi, 4772-73/23, Bharat Ram Road (23 Ansari Road), Darya Ganj, New Delhi-110002. Rs.995.
There are several concerns regarding the agriculture sector in India. Its growth rate was less than two per cent in the last decade. Yield growth has also declined. Farmers’ suicides have continued/increased in some states. Farming is becoming a non-viable activity. Further scope for increase in net sown area is limited. Land degradation in the form of depletion of soil fertility, erosion and, water logging has increased. There seems to be a technology fatigue in agr
iculture. Surface irrigation expansion rate and ground water table have declined. Risk and vulnerability have increased. Disparities in productivity across regions and crops persist. It has long-term structural problems like slower decline in the share of employment in spite of faster decline in its share of GDP and, significant increase in small and marginal holdings. Globalisation policies and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements have created many challenges for agriculture like exposure of domestic agriculture to international competition.
Policy papers
There have been several discussions within the government and outside regarding policies for reviving the Indian agricultural sector. Agricultural development is an important component of inclusive growth. Reports of the National Commission on Farmers, NDC Sub-Committee on Agriculture, the Eleventh Plan working groups and, the Steering Committee Report of the Planning Commission have discussed the problems and solutions for the revival of agriculture.
In this context, the present book which includes 39 policy papers issued by the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NASS) during the last 15 years is timely. The book covers a wide range of issues such as sustainable livelihood and nutritional security, water resources management, soil health enhancement and fertilizer use, agri-biodiversity and bio-safety, agricultural research and education, and globalisation and agri-exports. The draft National Policy on Farmers prepared by the National Commission on Farmers takes into account many recommendations contained in the book.
Sustainable livelihood
The policy issues raised in the book are relevant for revival of Indian agriculture. Because of their importance, the first section of the book rightly deals with sustainable livelihoods and nutritional security.
Generation of productive employment is crucial for reduction in hunger and poverty. The papers in this section highlights the potential of employment generation through technological interventions for primary value addition in agricultural products like food grains, vegetables, fruits, sugarcane, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture. It is known that around 45 per cent of India’s children and a significant number of adults suffer from malnutrition. Diversification to non-cereal foods by maintaining food grain security and increase in purchasing power of the poor can improve nutrition.
There are also some interesting papers on water resource management. One of the papers indicates that India has five possible property regimes and water has presence in all of them. These are: individual private property (ground water); state or public property (surface water resources); common property (tanks with communities or Panchayati Raj Institutions); common pool resource – access to identified group but no one has a right (village tank); no man’s or woman’s property (open access water bodies). It discusses the emerging complex issues in water management under these five property regimes.
Technological upgradation of agriculture is the core element of agricultural development strategy. Therefore, issues relating to agriculture research and education are given a lot of importance in the book. Technology fatigue occurred because of problems in both research and extension. As a result of extension collapse, the gap between potential and actual yields is quite large in many parts of the country. Although the WTO regime started 12 years back, farmers are still not aware of the implications of globalisation and the WTO agreements. As M.S. Swaminathan mentions in the introduction, “Serious attempts are yet to be made to launch in rural areas movements for quality literacy (sanitary and phytosanitary measures and codex alimentarius standards of food safety), trade literacy (likely demand-supply and price situation), legal literacy (Intellectual Property Rights, farmers’ rights) and genetic literacy (genetically modified crops).” As a result, farmers are unable to make use of the traditional and new opportunities in agriculture.
Delivery systems
Apart from lower allocation of public investment/expenditure to agriculture, one of the problems is the poor delivery systems in spite of good policies. The book should have given more emphasis to this aspect. There is a view that public institutions in agriculture including seed and other input supplies, extension and marketing have collapsed. More discussion should have been given to revival of public institutions for raising agricultural growth and incomes.
Another issue is the political economy of agriculture. There is a feeling that the governments have become less sensitive to the farmers’ problems notwithstanding the pro-farmer rhetoric. There are apprehensions that governments are more interested in pleasing the corporate sector (e.g. the SEZ policy) rather than helping the agriculture sector which bears 60 per cent of the burden.
On the whole, the papers in the volume discuss important issues on agricultural development. This volume will be useful for the academic community in general and scholars in agricultural universities and research institutions in particular, policy makers and, civil society. The book is appropriately dedicated to the vision of Jawaharlal Nehru who emphasised that “everything else can wait but not agriculture.”
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