Doubling the farmers’ income

The introduction of high-yielding varieties of seeds after 1965 and the increased use of fertilizers and irrigation are known collectively as the Green Revolution, which provided the increase in production needed to make India self-sufficient in food grains, thus improving agriculture in India.

Famines in India, once accepted as inevitable, have not returned since the introduction of Green Revolution crops. Continuing Critical Role of Agriculture in India Agriculture is the principal source of livelihood for about 48 per cent of the population of the country.

It caters to the food security of the nation besides generating exportable surpluses. It provides the bulk of wage goods required in non-agriculture sector and most of the raw materials for the industrial sector. Agriculture, with its allied sectors, is unquestionably the largest livelihood provider in India, more so, in the vast rural geographies.

It contributes significantly to the Gross Domestic Product (GDPJ1 of the nation's overall economy, though in terms of percentage, it has been declining. This also highlights the need for increasing the size of agri-GDP (agri-GVA since 2012-13)2, so that per capita share of the farmers dependent on the sector improves.

As per 2011 Agriculture Census, number agricultural workers in the country were 26.3 crore comprising 11.87 crore of cultivators and 14,43 crore of agricultural labourers. This in terms of percentage of the total number of agricultural workers accounted for 45.1 per cent and 54.9 per cent respectively.

In comparison, the corresponding figures for the year 1951 were 9.72 crore of total number of agricultural workers, consisting of 6.99 crore of cultivators (71.9 per cent) and 2.73 crore of agricultural labourers (28.1 per cent). It is clear, that not only has there been an increase in the total number of agricultural workers, but also relative to the total number of cultivators, the numbers of agricultural labourers have increased.

It is also important to learn from these statistics, that while the percentage of people depending on agriculture has reduced to 48 from the high of 80 in 1951, in terms of absolute figures, the dependency on agriculture sector for employment, income and livelihood has increased. The term “Green Revolution” is a general one that is applied to successful agricultural experiments in many Third World countries. It is not specific to India. But it was most successful in India.

Punjab was selected by the Indian government to be the first site to try the new crops of Wheat from International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), Mexico because of its reliable water supply and a history of agricultural success.
India soon adopted IR8 – a semi-dwarf rice variety developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines that could produce more grains of rice per plant when grown with certain fertilizers and irrigation.

As India marks 50 years of the Green Revolution this year, the architect of the movement,M.S.Swaminathan, says sustainability is the greatest challenge facing Indian agriculture.

What is the greatest challenge of Indian agriculture today?

There are two major challenges before Indian agriculture today

Ecological

• The conservation of our basic agricultural assets such as land, water, and biodiversity is a major challenge.
• How to make agriculture sustainable is the challenge.

• Increasing productivity in perpetuity without ecological harm is the need of the hour.

• In Punjab, and in other Green Revolution States, the water table has gone down and become saline.

• The growing population pressure

Economical

• Need to devise ways to lower the cost of production and reduce the risks involved in agriculture such as pests, pathogens, and weeds.

• The expected return in agriculture is adverse to farmers. That’s why they are unable to repay loans.

• Addressing the ecological challenge requires more technology while the economics requires more public policy interventions.

• Raise the current MSP

What are the ways to improve the incomes of farmers?

Existing issue

All kinds of excuses have been given by governments for not implementing these recommendations like food price inflation.Farm loan waivers are posing a bigger burden on the government exchequer compared to what higher pay for farm produce will incur. At the same time Government has a goal of doubling the farmers income by 2022.

Implementation of Swaminathan Commission Report is important to achieve to improve farmers income.

Recommendation of MS Swaminathan’s Report

1. Irrigation

Enables farmers to have sustained and equitable access to water

Increase water supply through rainwater harvesting and recharge of the aquifer. (“Million Wells Recharge”
programme)

2. Agricultural productivity

Substantial increase in public investment in agriculture related infrastructure particularly in irrigation, drainage, land development, water conservation, research development and road connectivity.

A national network of advanced soil testing laboratories with facilities for detection of micronutrient deficiencies.

3. Credit and insurance

Expand the outreach of the formal credit system to reach the really poor and needy.

Issue Kisan Credit Cards to women farmers, with joint pattas as collateral

Expand crop insurance cover to cover the entire country and all crops, with reduced premiums

Competitiveness of Farmers

Improvement in implementation of Minimum Support Price (MSP). Arrangements for MSP need to be put in place for crops other than paddy and wheat. Also, millets and other nutritious cereals should be permanently included in the PDS.

MSP should be at least 50% more than the weighted average cost of production.

Why double farmers’ income?

• Past strategy for development of the agriculture sector in India has focused primarily on raising agricultural output and improving food security.

• The net result has been a 45 per cent increase in per person food production, which has made India not only food self-sufficient at aggregate level, but also a net food exporting country.

• The strategy did not explicitly recognise the need to raise farmers’ income and did not mention any direct measure to promote farmers welfare.

• The net result has been that farmers income remained low, which is evident from the incidence of poverty among farm households.

• Doubling real income of farmers till 2022-23 over the base year of 2015-16, requires annual growth of 10.41 per cent in farmer’s income. This implies that the on-going and previously achieved rate of growth in farm income has to be sharply accelerated. Therefore, strong measures will be needed to harness all possible sources of growth in farmers’ income within as well as outside agriculture sector.

The major sources of growth operating within agriculture sector are

• Improvement in productivity

• Resource use efficiency or saving in cost of production

• Increase in cropping intensity

• Diversification towards high value crops

The sources outside agriculture include

• Shifting cultivators from farm to non-farm occupations, and

• Improvement in terms of trade for farmers or real prices received by farmers.

Niti Ayog agricultural marketing and farmer friendly reforms index

• The index ranks states based on their initiatives taken in implementing provision of seven farm sector reforms.

• These reforms have been proposed under model APMC Act, joining e-NAM initiative, special treatment to fruits and vegetables for marketing and level of taxes in mandis.

• States are ranked based on score on the scale ranging from 0 to 100. The minimum score of 0 implies no reforms at all and score of 100 means state is friendliest to farmers.

The index identifies three major parameters. They are:

• Reforms in agricultural marketing

• Land lease

• Forestry on private land.

Major government initiatives in India's agriculture sector

Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana

The primary objectives of PMKSY are

• To increase the area of agricultural lands covered by irrigation and reduce dependency on monsoon.

• To improve on farm water use efficiency by adopting water management techniques adoption of precision-irrigation and other water-saving technologies to reduce wastage of water.

• Enhancing recharge of aquifers and introducing sustainable water conservation practices.

National Agriculture Market

The Department of Agriculture & Cooperation formulated a Central Sector scheme for Promotion of National Agriculture Market through Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund (ATIF)  through provision of the common e-platform.

Implications / Benefits for various stakeholders

Farmers

• They can sell produce without the interference of any brokers or middlemen thereby making competitive returns out of their investment.

Traders

• Traders will be able to do secondary trading from one APMC to another one anywhere in India. Local traders can get access to larger national market for secondary trading.

Buyers, processers & exporters

• Buyers like large retailers, processors or exporters will be able to source commodities from any mandi in India thereby reducing the inter-mediation cost. Their physical presence and dependence on intermediaries will not be needed.

Consumers

• NAM will increase the number of traders and the competition among them increases. This translates into stable prices and availability to the consumers.

Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana

• Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana is an elaborated component of Soil Health Management (SHM) of major project National Mission of Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA). Under PKVY Organic farming is promoted through adoption of organic village by cluster approach and PGS certification.

The scheme envisages

• Promotion of commercial organic production through certified organic farming.

• The produce will be pesticide residue free and will contribute to improve the health of consumer.

• It will raise farmer’s income and create potential market for traders.

• It will motivate the farmers for natural resource mobilization for input production.

Pradhan Manthri Fasal Bima Yojana

• The new Crop Insurance Scheme is in line with One Nation – One Scheme theme. It incorporates the best features of all previous schemes and at the same time, all previous shortcomings / weaknesses have been removed.

Objectives

• To provide insurance coverage and financial support to the farmers in the event of failure of any of the notified crop as a result of natural calamities, pests & diseases.

• To stabilise the income of farmers to ensure their continuance in farming.

• To encourage farmers to adopt innovative and modern agricultural practices.

• To ensure flow of credit to the agriculture sector.

Mechanisation

• Mechanisation has the potential to change many agricultural output challenges as it will lead to higher productivity and economic contribution. Yet, it has been inaccessible to farmers for long largely due to economic reasons.

• With small land ownership and constant fragmentation, small and marginal farmers find it almost impossible to own a tractor. To make agriculture economically viable ICAR started many initiatives.

• It is working towards developing need-based and region specific engineering technologies and is engaged in planning, co-ordination and monitoring of R&D programmes in a national and international level.

• It has developed many improved machinery such as laser and leveller, self-propelled sprayers, precision seeders and planters, harvesters for cereals and sugarcane etc.

• It has introduced gender friendly tools for reduction in the drudgery for women farm workers.

• Lab to Land programme recently set up of modern mechanised farm units.

Infrastructure interventions

Mega food park scheme

• The Scheme of Mega Food Park aims at providing a mechanism to link agricultural production to the market by bringing together farmers, processors and retailers so as to ensure maximizing value addition, minimizing wastage, increasing farmers’ income and creating employment opportunities particularly in rural sector.

• The Mega Food Park Scheme is based on “Cluster” approach and envisages a well-defined agree/ horticultural-processing zone containing state-of-the art processing facilities with support infrastructure and well-established supply chain.

• 9 Mega Food Parks namely Patanjali Food and Herbal Park, Haridwar, Srini Food Park, Chittoor, North East Mega Food Park, Nalbari, International Mega Food Park, Fazilka, Integrated Food Park, Tumkur, Jharkhand Mega Food Park, Ranchi, Indus Mega Food Park, Khargoan, Jangipur Bengal Mega Food Park, Murshidabad and MITS Mega Food Park Pvt Ltd, Rayagada are functional as on 30.06.2017.

Cold storage

• India is the largest producer of fruits and second largest producer of vegetables in the world.

• In spite of that per capita availability of fruits and vegetables is quite low because of post-harvest losses which account for about 25% to 30% of production.

• The Task Force on cold-chain development in India had suggested in its report to establish a National Centre for Cold-chain Development (NCCD) in India as an autonomous centre for excellence to be established as a registered society to work in close collaboration with industry and other stake holders to promote and develop integrated cold-chain in India for perishable F&V and other perishable allied agri – commodities to reduce wastages and improve the gains to farmers and consumers substantially.

Food processing and safety

• Food processing levels are quite low in India at 3% when compared to 30-70% in developed countries and wastage of agriculture produce is as high as 40%.

• National Food Processing Mission was launched to address these problems and create potential for higher revenues. The objectives of the program are:

• Promote Primary processing centres close to the farms and link them with Clusters through hub and spoke models.

• Facilitate exports of high value products like Cheese, Peanut butter etc. and encourage such facilities through subsidies.

• Develop food processing clusters, Food parks and Agriculture SEZs; Contract farming, Warehouses (Cold chains) development was also given an important role by providing tax rebates. This scheme has resulted in some positive outcomes like

• Exports from Agriculture SEZs have increased over the years.

• Exports of Meat, Marine products have improved.

• But the performance of this scheme on the whole has left us much to be desired with warehouses, processing facilities have not been developed.

• In the absence of APMC reforms, contract farming and private procurement is virtually absent.

Crop pattern

• Record productions of sugarcane, ground nuts, and vegetables were seen but wastage was higher as export opportunities shrunk.

• Indian farming suffers from excess cropping of water-intensive crops like sugarcanes in dry areas. This is one of reason for agricultural and farm distress. The high dependency on Monsoon adds to worry.

• The recent initiative from government which has emphasized the crop diversification and climate-appropriate agriculture and cropping are helping the shift from switch to value added and less water intensive crops.

Model land leasing law

• Taking note of increasing incidents of leasing in and out of land and suboptimal use of land with lesser number of cultivators, NITI Aayog has formulated a Model Agricultural Land Leasing Act, 2016 to both recognize the rights of the tenant and safeguard interest of landowners. A dedicated cell for land reforms was also set up in NITI.

Soil health card

• The campaign to provide soil health card with nutrient information of soil would help the farmers to educate about most viable and appropriate cropping pattern suiting the climatic conditions in region.

• Shortage of infrastructure like soil testing labs is hindrances but it‘s a move in right direction.

Higher MSP increase in pulses and oil seeds

• From last two years, the MSP has tried to address the issues of higher MSP in cereal and lower in Pulses and oil seed. The recent move to increase pulses MSP by 7% in move towards the Crop-neutral MSP regime.

What needs to be done to address the crisis of farmer’s suicides?

• In the last few years, a large number of farmers have committed suicide. Cases of suicides have been reported from states such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh.

• The National Commission on Farmers has underlined the need to address the farmer suicide problem on a priority basis.

Some of measures suggested include

• Provide affordable health insurance and revitalize primary healthcare centres. The National Rural Health Mission should be extended to suicide hotspot locations on priority basis.

• Set up State level Farmers’ Commission with representation of farmers for ensuring dynamic government response to farmers’ problems.

• Restructure microfinance policies to serve as Livelihood Finance, i.e. credit coupled with support services in the areas of technology, management and markets.

• Cover all crops by crop insurance with the village and not block as the unit for assessment.

• Provide for a Social Security net with provision for old age support and health insurance.

• Promote aquifer recharge and rain water conservation. Decentralise water use planning and every village should aim at Jal Swaraj with Gram Sabhas serving as Pani Panchayats.

• Ensure availability of quality seed and other inputs at affordable costs and at the right time and place.

• Recommend low risk and low cost technologies which can help to provide maximum income to

• Need for focused Market Intervention Schemes (MIS) in the case of life-saving crops such as cumin in arid areas. Have a Price Stabilisation Fund in place to protect the farmers from price fluctuations.

• Need swift action on import duties to protect farmers from international price.

• Set up Village Knowledge Centres (VKCs) or Gyan Chaupals in the farmers’ distress hotspots. These can provide dynamic and demand driven information on all aspects of agricultural and non-farm livelihoods and also serve as guidance centres.

• Public awareness campaigns to make people identify early signs of suicidal behavior.

How do we cope with these adverse effects of environmental degradation and loss of biodiversity?

Evergreen Revolution to increase in farm productivity but without ecological harm.

This will also include

• Integrated pest management

• Integrated nutrient supply

• Scientific water management to avoid the kind of environmental damage witnessed during the Green Revolution

• Mandatory rainwater harvesting

• Introduction of fodder and grain legumes as rotation crops to be adopted by wheat farmers in States like Punjab to ensure sustainability of farming.

• Government may declare fertile zones capable of sustaining two to three crops as Special Agricultural Zones

• Provide unique facilities to farmers here to ensure food security

• Soil health managers should be appointed to monitor and ameliorate the soil conditions in degraded zones and rectify defects like salinity, alkalinity, water logging.

• The idea of more crops per drop has been implemented well in Israel. We should adopt those practices here.

• Post-harvest technologies like threshing, storage, etc. will have to be given greater attention

Can GM technology help address food security challenges?

There are many methods of plant breeding, of which molecular breeding is one. Genetic modification has both advantages and disadvantages. One has to measure the risks and benefits before arriving at a conclusion.

• First, we need an efficient regulatory mechanism for GM in India.

• We need an all-India coordinated research project on GMOs with a bio-safety coordinator.

• We need to devise a way to get the technology’s benefit without its associated risks.

• Barring the U.S., most countries have reservations about adopting GM technology. Europe has banned it on grounds of health and environmental safety. Normal Mendelian breeding itself is sufficient in most cases.Parliament has already suggested a law based on the Norwegian model where there are considerable restrictions on GMOs.

What is the scope for organic farming when it comes to addressing food security?

• Organic farming can have a good scope only under following conditions.

• Farmers must possess animals for organic manure.

• Farmers must have the capacity to control pests and diseases.

• Farmers should adopt agronomical methods of sowing such as rotation of crops. Even genetic resistance to pests and diseases can help organic farmers. Adoption of the requisite crop-livestock integration by Sri Arobindo Ashram in Puducherry is a good model to follow.

How do we address the challenges of climate change on Indian agriculture?

• Both less rainfall and a higher mean temperature affect farming adversely. Currently we are witnessing drought, excess rainfall, sea-level rise.

• There are both adaptation and mitigation measures to follow in this regard. Some of the recommendations include

• Setting up a multi-disciplinary monsoon management centre in each drought-affected district, to provide timely information to rural families on the methods of mitigating the effects of drought, and maximising the benefits of good growing conditions whenever the season is normal.

• Animal husbandry camps could be set up to make arrangements for saving cattle and other farm animals because usually animals tend to be neglected during such crises.

• Special provisions could also be made to enable women to manage household food security under conditions of agrarian distress.

• kShould start breeding varieties characterised by high per day productivity than just per crop productivity. These will be able to provide higher yields in a shorter duration.

By Gudipati Rajendera Kumar