Dr C. D. Mayee Former Chairman, Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board- Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ASRB-ICAR), New Delhi
Indian Agriculture is a vital sector of the national economy with nearly 50 percent population engaged in crop agriculture and allied fields. India’s 1.3 billion population, 17.9 per cent of the global population, lives on 2.4 per cent land and 5 per cent water resources of the world. Despite being highly populous, India has made remarkable strides in agricultural production since independence. India’s agriculture is often quoted as a success story.
India ranks second in the world in agricultural production as a leading producer of several commodities like food grains, cotton, spices, fruits, vegetables, dairy, poultry, aquaculture etc. After self-sufficiency in food grain production in early eighties the country witnessed periodical revolutions in all allied sectors. Except vegetable oils, India has achieved true independence in agricultural production. As per the latest estimates from Government of India, the country is likely to produce record production of food grains (285 metres) – rice (116.5 metres), wheat (102.2 metres) and pulses (24 metres). Interestingly the yesteryears policies of promotion of horticulture under Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) have paid rich dividends as the country’s horticulture production has surpassed that of food grains for the seventh consecutive year in a row. It was 310 metres from only 25 million hectares of land in 2017. This was achieved even though there was no dramatic rise in cultivated area or irrigation. Such efforts of diversification have now become India’s inherent strength in agriculture. No country grows as many crops as India cultivates. Family managed small farms and their crop-livestock/fisheries or alternative agriculture type of mixed farming systems and many other specialities are unique to Indian agriculture.
The success of this kind has come after a long struggle by agriculture researchers, development agencies and of course, the Farmers. The history of agriculture development clearly spells out the contributions of all these stakeholders but specifically mentions the unstinted support of policy makers and the politicians since Independence. Agrarian revolutions, like the green, yellow, golden, white and blue, are a matter of national pride.
Current Challenges
It is said that in agriculture ‘Past is Perfect, present is imperfect and future is tense.’ The population is expected to grow to nearly 1.7 billion by 2050. Nearly 55 per cent of them shall reside in cities, so urbanization shall alter the food demands to diversified basket. The projections for food grains and other items to meet that demand are enhancing the production by 40 per cent by then. This is already constrained by depleting soil health, issue of crop health due to newer pests, diseases & weeds, climate change and the yield gaps. Major issue today is apathy of the farmers towards farming as they feel it to be a no more a remunerative business.
Therefore, the twin challenge today is to raise productivity to meet the demand of growing population coupled with making the farming remunerative for farmers. Farming has to pursue dual purpose, to ensure both food security of the nation as well as income security of the growers and it has to be achieved without disturbing environment and natural resources.
India is said to be the fastest growing economy. However, its nearly 20 crore people live below poverty line, 40 per cent are suffering from malnutrition, 42 per cent children are underweight and 13 lakh of them die before their first birthday. Therefore, the so-called development in the life of rural inhabitants depresses all of us. This obviously points the finger at the mismatch between resource allocation, governance, management and our developmental claims.
Low national productivity and high regional production disparity can be met with efforts to give quality farm inputs like water, fertilizers, pesticides, seeds etc. and ensuring their judicious use. Farmers need to be encouraged to shift to high value commodities in horticulture, fisheries, animal production and so on. Too much emphasis on production and procurement over the years shows that we are unnecessarily obsessed with food security in spite of the fact that our storages are full with food grains.
Innovative Solutions
Research and development in India after independence has helped to grow the per capita production and has gone a long way easing the pressure on meeting the food and nutritional requirement securities. Let us remember that this was the impressive contributions made by agricultural scientists in the past. Unfortunately, the system is under stress with lack of clarity over where to focus and financial resources. Our past experience should be enough for us to keep faith in our R&D systems. They have potential to mitigate the challenges posed by climate change, biodiversity, small farming issues, and market reforms for the benefit of farmers. According to ICAR-NAIP study, returns to investment on research have been found to be highly paying proposition. Internal rate of return on investment in agricultural research is estimated to be more than 42 per cent, which is much higher than any other sector. Then what prevents us from investing in this sector? Investment in generation of new technologies which have direct implications on proper and efficient use of resources, needs to be enhanced. So also in teaching and extension programme. The gap in financial commitments made at the beginning of the plan period and thereafter in annual plans is widening. It is constraining to take the research programmes to the logical conclusions.
To improve productivity and profitability in a sustainable manner our policy needs to be changed from input intensive to technology intensive; rather skill intensive agriculture. In recent years the benefits of new technologies have been experienced and still we are not open to adopt those technologies. For example, GM seeds for Cotton, Mustard, Maize, Brinjal Rice, Groundnut etc. Hybrid technologies in maize, vegetables, conservative agriculture, system of rice intensification (SRI), precision farming, farm mechanization, hi-tech cultivation of fruits, vegetables & flowers, primary and secondary processing introduced in farm produce and many other technologies have already shown that they can deliver the goals of meeting the objectives of higher productivity and profitability. The traditional breeding of crops is now supplemented by new biotechnological innovations like gene editing, genome rewriting, speed breeding. The scientists need to encourage to do research in modern technology areas.
GM seeds have emerged as a powerful new technology promising high productivity with less use of natural resources and also chemicals in the last two decades. The GM technologies have gained increasing acceptance around the world. The technologies are likely to play useful role in addressing some of the intractable problems that the current methods of improvements in stocks of crops, animals and fisheries, cannot answer. It is also worth noting that the new methods and materials are being discovered practically every day in production of new GM seeds that are bio-environment safe and largely acceptable. As a part of strategy therefore, to bring second evergreen revolution, India must return to permitting proven and well–tested GM technology with adequate safeguards. When we are importing heavily the vegetable oils, still we stop the entry of GM mustard is a fact not easy to digest. The technologies may also be useful in groundnut, pigeon pea, chick pea and some other oilseeds and pulse to resolve the intractable biotic and abiotic problems that are hampering the productivity of these crops.
Doubling Income of Farmers
The major challenge is to double the income of farmers in three years, rather making the farming remunerative so that the young generation may be attracted towards it. Today’s paradox is that on one side we have enough production, stores are full, middlemen and consumers are happy that they get what they want at reasonable prices but on the other hand the farmers are driven to suicides as they are unable to maintain their families on their farm income. We have adopted a classical model of minimum support price (MSP) for a long time to help farmers from price distress and market fluctuations. We are also ensuring to fix the prices above the cost of cultivation. Unfortunately, MSP operation is limited to states and crops. For perishable goods it is difficult to be used. Therefore, the farmers are throwing the vegetables, milk and such perishable commodities on road as a protest for better returns. To improve the share of farmers in the price paid by consumers, a different strategy has to be adopted. The solution lies in market reforms and altering the structure of APMC Act. Model APMC act has never been implemented in spite of several efforts made in the past. The all-round market reforms can ensure better price through direct negotiations between the producer and consumer.
There are several good examples of such marketing reforms, which are needed to be universally implemented. Similarly, the Essential Commodity Act has created an environment of uncertainty and discourages entry of large players into agriculture infrastructure in the country. Maharashtra has shown the way as to how small holder farmers can come together in the form of ‘Gatsheti’ (Farmers’ Producing Groups) that can scale up production and then bargain for remunerative price returns, a win-win situation for both, the farmer and consumer.
Investment and Technology
Investment and technology creation are two major drivers of growth. A major cause of present agrarian crisis is somewhere lies in inadequate investment in agriculture sector and restrictions on the use of modern technologies.
Investments in farm connectivity, irrigation facilities, roads, markets, cold storages, rapid transportation for perishables coupled with development of new technologies to improve resource use efficiency could mitigate the current agrarian distress. Unfortunately, investment in agriculture R&D has been reduced from 0.8 to 0.4 per cent of total agricultural GDP. Considering that there is a resource crunch which will continue then it is imperative to prioritize the resources to ensure their optimum allocation and use.
The current focus of R&D investment appears to be misplaced. If we do not invest in new generation technologies instead of evaluating, promoting and exploring the traditional ones then we will be too far behind the world. Similarly, any delay in agricultural investment is going to be costly to meet the goal of doubling farmers’ income.
