People’s Mid Term Appraisal of the Eleventh Five Year Plan - National

Consultation 5th Feb 2010

Dr. V Rukmini Rao, P.S. Vijay Shankar

With Inputs from State Consultations, Deccan

Development Society, Center for Sustainable Agriculture and Samaj

Pragati Sahayog

Agriculture

Critical Issues

• Land

• Agriculture land converted to other use

• Only 67% land in the eastern states is utilized properly at present.

• Reclamation of cultivable waste land

• Utilization of cultivable fallows

Critical Issues Contd..

• Soil Erosion

• Establishing clear land ownership and land reform

• Farmers are being dispossessed of their land due to industrialization

General Issues

• Agriculture Policy continues to focus on green revolution technology and resource rich areas.

• Evidence available to show slowing down in the rate of growth of per hectare yields of important crops such as rice and wheat.

• Within agriculture, rainfed dry lands neglected and characterized by low productivity and accumulated backwardness

General Issues (Contd..)

• Gap between irrigated and rainfed dry land agriculture has steadily widened over time as a predictable consequence of higher rates of investments to already well endowed regions and farmers.

• India became food self sufficient but farmers lost their self sufficiency

• All inputs became externalized increasing the costs of cultivation

Water

• Emerging crisis of ground water in India now spread over 31% of the districts

• 21 million tube wells have become the main source of irrigation covering 37% of the irrigated area in the country

• Depletion of ground water closely associated with worsening water quality

• Ground water planning neglected• Current legal framework of “CONTROL”

misplaced

Seeds

• Timely availability of certified quality seeds with good yield potential major constraint

• Public investment in seed development minimal

• Privatization and monopoly over seeds leading to high costs of cultivation

• Multi national companies threat to Seed sovereignty

• Neglect of millet diversity

Pest Management

• Pesticide use extremely high particularly in regions with good irrigation facilities damaging health and environment

• Five states, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharasthra, Gujarat and Punjab account for 40% of total pesticide use in the country

Research

• Systematic dismantling of public sector research & extension & public support systems

• Lab to land research takes too long to benefit farmers

• Too much emphasis on GM crops

• No independent bio safety studies

• Failure of regulatory systems

Credit and Marketing

• Rise in share of non institutional players increasing the cost of cultivation and pushes farmers deeper into the debt trap and suicides

• Uncertainties related to marketing and fair price

• Lack of basic infrastructure for storage and marketing of produce

Need for Livestock Improvement

• Industrial agriculture leading to neglect of livestock in spite of farming families deriving 20% of their income from this source

• Small and marginal farmers and landless labor constitute all most 2/3rds of 70 million households

• Backyard poultry management neglected

Current Recommendations

• “Comparative Advantage” – free trade• “Frontier technologies” – Ex, BT• Landholding consolidation• Corporate & contract farming• Private agri-clinics for extension• “Public-Private Partnerships”• Support agri-processing rather than primary

production• Legislative changes to support private sector

What could change the situation?

• Farmers gain control over their agriculture through reclaiming resources and knowledge

• India in itself is a huge market for various agricultural products – we don’t need long distance trade for development

• Government allows liberalized trade only if it is a level playing field

What could change the situation? (Contd…)

• Public sector research and extension made farmer-centric and farmer-led

• Public support systems in place for all farmers [credit, insurance, livelihood support]

• Promotion of ecological technologies that conserve resources & put control in the hands of farmers

Recommendations related to Land

• Articulate a relevant national policy on rain fed areas, agriculture

• Land reforms with clear titles ensured

• Use of para legal workers in collaboration with SHGs

• Use of organic land management practices

• Sustainable agriculture promoted

Recommendations related to Land (Contd..)

• Governments must support Environment Friendly and Small Scale Domestic Production through DIRECT SUPPORT mechanisms not linked to market based inputs.

• Ensure rights of women over land and other productive resources and market space.

Recommendations Related to Water

• Initiate a National Ground Water Action Plan focused on aquifer based management

• Shift from supply side augmentation to demand regulation

• Learn from existing civil society initiatives to promote democratic community water management

Recommendations Related to Water (Contd…)

• Shift the existing legal framework and ground water management institutions from control based to play a facilitating and enabling community action.

• Need to run ground water management pilots in different regions to arrive at appropriate practices for each hydro-geological setting

• Increase the use of scientific input into current methodology of estimation of ground water balance and management

Recommendation Related to Seeds

• Make a policy shift from concentration only on rice and wheat to: – Recognizing the bio diversity of seeds in the

country– Recognize that millets provide nutrition and

incomes in rainfed regions– Gather the 100s of varieties of available

millets and other seeds and create seed banks at local level

– Learn from and support communities to manage their seed banks

Recommendation Related to Seeds (Contd…)

– Institutional finance and insurance be made available to farmers to cultivate millets of their choice

– Enabling legislation to give control to farmers over their seed material

– The existing policies and seed laws applicable to seed production need to be changed to prioritize local seed production

Recommendations related to Pest Management

• Recognize ongoing innovations to promote organic pest management

• Research institutions to learn from the field and promote up scaling

• Knowledge to be made available across the country in local languages

• Curb use of dangerous pesticides

• Follow international norms

Research Recommendations

• Public sector research and extension should be made farmer-centric and farmer-led

• Public support systems in place for all farmers [credit, insurance, livelihood support]

• Promotion of ecological technologies that conserve resources & put control in the hands of farmers

Research Recommendations (Contd…)

• Government must recognize farmer innovations, respect these and upscale the innovations

• Example, Non chemical pest management upscaled to 10 Lakh farmers in Andhra Pradesh with the potential to upscale in 100 districts in the country (now under consideration)

• Process NGO innovation, Panchayat level decision-making, up-scaling through SHGs by knowledge transfer with low financial input

Research Recommendations (Contd…)

• Agriculture universities and other public sector institutions must make farmers, men and women partners in their research and ensure transparency

• Results of trials conducted by private sector must be monitored by citizen groups including scientists. This information should be made available at gram sabhas

Recommendations related to Credit and Marketing

• Reform cooperative credit structure to make it democratic,member driven professional organization

• Strengthen SHG bank linkage programme with potential to provide agriculture credit seasonally

• Basic infrastructure to be developed for storage and marketing

• Loans to be provided to enterprises who are ready to market less water intensive agriculture produce

Recommendation related to Credit and Marketing (Contd…)

• Value addition to marketable surplus promoted to SHGs

• Scale of operation and appropriate level decentralization of the infrastructure is crucial

Recommendations related to Livestock

• Find effective ways of providing credit support for livestock specially bullocks

• Promote appropriate fodder management through SHGs and local farmer organizations

• Promote feed and care systems which are people oriented

• Develop strategies to integrate fodder and food crops production

• Provide support systems for backyard poultry management

Thank You