Despair, haplessness everywhere: no succour in sight
I have come back with despair. To me it is increasingly evident that farming is not a sustainable livelihood option for 90% of the farmers in India. They can only get enough yield to survive and satisfy hygiene factor needs – food, clothing and primitive shelter. There is no surplus that can take care of the future, good education, good health and a higher standard of living. The main reasons are poor quality of land, sub-optimal use of rainwater, insufficient irrigation and appalling ignorance. A farmer is only an object of exploitation –
- Moneylenders who charge 5% and upwards a month in interest.
- Input (seed, pesticide and fertiliser) dealers who overcharge for outdated and poor quality inputs.
- Food grain dealers who ensure that jowar which is bought from a farmer at Rs. 7/- a kg reaches the consumer at Rs.16/-per kg. Mind you there is little or no value addition : just transport from one point to another.
- Petty government officials who expect favours for doing their jobs.
- Bank managers who withhold credit till their palms are greased.
All these and other powerful persons in rural areas join hands in extracting the maximum out of farmers. No concession is given… No quarter granted…. Just like a sugarcane juice dealer passes the cane a number of times through the grind to extract the last drop and then use the fibre for fodder / paper boards.
The urban consumer is also responsible to a certain extent : after all would we be willing to pay Rs.50/- for a kg of wheat so that the farmer can get Rs. 20/-? We who do not blink twice before spending Rs.1000/- on a family day out?
The exploiters are careful. They know that it is of no use in killing the farmer. Remember that the Nazis knew that concentration camp inmates had to be fed and sheltered so that they could work. Dead inmates were of little use. This is what society at large is doing….. Keeping the farmer at a stage where he continues to grow food that is necessary for us all to live : but not letting him earn enough so that he can reap the benefits of development… that may be dangerous… What if, God forbid, the farmers daughter / son decides to move away from farming? How will we eat?
1. I think that it is time that all stakeholders radically revisit the development paradigms that they have been adhering to for the last 6 decades. Incremental measures are not going to make things better. Not at a pace that will make a difference anyway. We need to look at
- Serious diversification from agriculture (and on farm labour) as the ONLY means of livelihood for rural families. This diversification could happen in industry or services.
For this to happen education must improve and become relevant. It is time for India to put to rest the ghost of Lord Macaulay and design an education system that will suit our needs. - Infrastructure must improve. What is the point of creating irrigation facilities if there is no electricity to pump out water? How can one start a value added business if there are no roads to truck out the produce?
- Government spend must be made in the right areas and with long term vision. Short term politically expedient announcements must make way for mature decision making.
2. Consolidation of land holdings and co-operative farming should be promoted. This will enable use of technology and mechanised farming giving economies of scale. I am not personally in favour of contract farming. The equation is too skewed against the illiterate farmer. He gets lured by short term gains and often sacrifices long term interests : simply because there is no one to caution him.
3. Governance must be improved. The scale and extent of corruption is appalling. Almost no one believes that things can happen without a kickback. Measures like Right to Information Act are a step in the right direction. Many more are needed. Sterner and swifter means of dispensing justice are a natural corollary to good governance.
Foolish and utopian suggestions, I can almost hear you mutter. I forgive you for that. I seriously believe that this needs to happen
OR
We should get ready for an armed revolution. Believe me this is on the cards. No populace can live under so much stress and not erupt. The storming of the Bastille and the Naxalbari agitation is a good pointer. There are stirrings.. we need to wake up before the beast awakens.
Makarand
Labels: agrarian crisis, farmers, suicides
posted by Makarand at 3:02 AM
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16 Comments:
Deeply saddening. I don't believe though that this is about urban consumers being willing to pay more. The other inefficiencies in the system, which you have pointed out, if these are taken care of, there is money to be made for the farmer, and still for the consumer to buy at a reasonable price.
i have heard that the traders in the 'mandi' do all chalugiri they can to make the farmer sell his stuff for any arbitrary price they decide. everything works against the farmers and unsustainable farming practices have killed the land. also i heard that it is impossible to do sustainable farming if your neighbouring farms dont do it.
if this is the situation of the farmers then the farm-labourers must be doing really really worse.
Yes.. Apu.. there are a lot of glaring inefficiencies that need to be taken care of.. There is also a lot of exploitation.. Which is why wheat that leaves the farmer at Rs. 7 per kg reaches us at Rs. 16/-.. There is no value addition and the price nearly triples.. Producers and consumers get shortchanged by the powerful trader lobby..
This has to change first..
anish... you have heard right.. see also my response to apu on traders... actually watching traders do a deal by touching hands under a napkin is fascinating... its an art! no words are exchanged and deals are done.. for more information you can visit any major mandi where farmers get produce early in the morning or read P Sainath's "Everybody loves a good Drought"..
That brings me to your second point.. about farm labour..
it may sound strange but the situation of labour is actually better (if one can call it that).. they have no investment.. they dont really depend too much on the monsoon.. they can always up anchor and move away to find work (there are no assets that need watching) and they can use all the employment guarantee schemes available.. a farmer with land has a social position that prevents him from doing menial jobs.. no such problems for labour.. is it a great way to live? NO... but is it a way to survive? most assuredly..
It feels bad sitting in AC office and commenting on this issues, and not doing anything for it, and you can accuse me to some extent for that. But I want to understand, how far has things like e-chaupal (ITC initiative reached). It has not reached this villages. Am doing some research on that.
Goli.. Well no one ia accusing anyone here.. you can rest easy.. Re E Chaupal.. thee is no doubt that it is an interesting concept and needs to be seriously exploited. there have been some attempts in Maharashtra but they are yet to see gains in the hands of the farmer. There are a number of reasons.. to wit...
(1) the average farmer is not net savy and has to depend on the computer operator (e choupal) to get out the info for him. Where there is a middle-person in info transfer there are barriers..
(2) the info on e-choupal is not percepived to be without bias.. people believe that ITC has an axe to grind.. may be outsourcing their supplies or maybe hawking their products.. that gives rise to a feeling os mistrust
(3) when output prices are controlled by government and middlemen, mere knowledge of prices say in Delhi is not going to help. where is the access to the market?
(4) where there is no electricity for days on end.. what can e-choupal do?
anyway.. e-choupal remains a good initiative and an important step in getting information to the farmer.. it has to become more efficient... read more about e-choupal in C K Prahlad's book - Fortune at the bottom of the Pyramid.
Pl.see Glenn Davis Stone's papers, in particular "Agricultural deskilling.." paper. Andrew Leonard commented on the paper in http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2007/01/31/glenn_davis_stone/index.htm
The situation in Gujarat seems to be different from the one in Warangal (which Stone discusses)"
"http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2007/02/08/gujarat/index.html
I found Stone's papers interesting and am still reading them. A 2002 paper goes back to 60's and discusses why the grain prices have been low. Some of his papers are available at:
http://artsci.wustl.edu/~anthro/blurb/b_gds.html
None of these deals directly with Yavatmal and may be useful to give a general picture. I have been trying to follow the situation in A.P. and found these papers interesting. Regards,
Swarup
I would love to see the report, if you make it available.....I could not, but agree that infrastructure needs to be improved, but this does not only include power and roads but through the entire value chains like creations of storage facilities, cold chains and so on. Nearly Rs 65000 crores are required for the development of agri marketing infrastructure.....
Somethings i wish could be clarified further by you....
1 Your reasons against contract farming, of which, the very little I know is that it invovles adequate extension support and is never is short term, either for the farmer or the corporate
2 What could be the long term vision of the government?
Yes Nitin.. The report will be available and in due course I shall post a link to this blog and put up the report. Right now we are on the 36th page (recommendations) and I expect that we will finalise shortly.
I agree with you when you say that all of the infrastruture needs to be improved.
Coming to the specific queries that you have..
Contract farming : see I have nothing aginst contract farming, per se. Only the way in which it is done. Corporates rarely get into negotiation with farmers themselves. They have neither the time nor the understanding. Their solution is an agent or a facilitator. Most of the times the agent is unscrupulous and has sticky fingers. The farmer ends up with little profits. Another issue is that contract farming promotes mono cropping - technically dangerous because it leads to rapid degradation of land. Second is that it is always cash crops - the farmer ends buying all the grain and vegetables he needs. That, as you are aware, is much more expensive that growing it himself. The farmer could reserve a plot of land for his needs but most contract farming agreements prohibit that. All inputs are bought out. Seeds are provided by the company or its agent. The result is that the farmer becomes DEPENDENT on teh corporate or iots agent for inputs and purchase of outputs. That leads to skewed bargaining power and will always lead to exploitation (eventually).
I know that these are heretical views in the times of globalisatio but I feel that armchair afficiandos of globalisation have no idea of what it means. Come on.. In the geo-political scenario how much pull does India have vis-a-vis the USA? Replace India with farmer and USA with corporate and you will see what I mean.
your second query was related to 'government vision'. I have only ONE comment. For the last ONE year (minimum) one of the best 9in terms of understanding) agriculture ministers has been busy trying to manage INDIAN CRICKET. Shades of Nero fiddling while Rome burns.. That'a another story.
Makarand
I will never say that your views are heretical but as you have already written it in the end of article, they are utopian, whichs makes it always desirable but rarely achieved......
And as you say that co-opertive farming should be promoted, I would say that echoupal is kind of a virtual co-opertaive that has enabled farmers to earn $1 - $2 more per tonne, this is besides the fact the various other facilities like soil testing, nutrient requriements and relaible inputs etc were also provided. At the same time, it is also true that Aashirwad brand of Atta by ITC became a market leader in 2005 as a result of e choupal ( I dont have the current market share, it was nearly 15% in 2005). In a way, both stakeholders benefit.
How this can harm the farming fabric of the nation, i'll tell you,if you are interested (don't wish to spam your comment space)
my 2 cents, and thanks for your reply on contract farming, i needed it
Nitin
Dont think of your comments as spamming blogspace. My friend who is managing this blog (he is also the creator) has assured me that there is lots of space. There is merit in continuing discussion here because I am sure others may have similar thoughts and will benefit from our interaction.
I would love to hear from you on whay co-operative farming is not a good idea..
Incidentally I am aware of the E-Choupal and Ashirwad connection but then that's what SYMBIOSIS is all about is it not? Incidentally do you have any source which has authentic information on the impact of E-Choupal? I keep hearing some rumours and wish to learn for myself..
Makarand, when you say co-operatives, I presume you have the following understanding in your mind.....
"that the cost will be shared equally and profits will consequently be shared equally"
This is itself is a design issue / problem.....for eg. you own 10 ha of land and I have .5 ha.....now if we are members of a co-operative the costs of our co-opertive efforts would be shared equally and so will be profits.....
So if there is total 15 ha of land that the has to be worked upon by co-operative, (15 ha includes the land of other members too, besides you and I). The cost of your 10 ha would be a major portion, and which now will be shared by all the members of the co-operarive. As a result you are better off doing farming in a co-operative. But in the case of a marginal farmer like me who has just .5 ha, sharing the expenses of your 10 ha in the combined operations of teh co-operative, makes me worse off.
As a result the net effect of cost and profits, does not make much difference to my position.
This is one of the design problems with co-op, and probably the reason why barring milk co-ops in Gujarat, there has not been much success with co-operatives in India
When i say this, please understand that I am still a learner in the field of development. You can dispute it, if you wish.
As regards an authoratative source on echoupal, there is a case study by David Upton and VIrginia Fuller and available at HArvard Business Online. This is paid content and available here
http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=604016
Nitin
A small correction. In a co-operative set up I hold SHARES of the co-operative. These shares are in proportion to my investment. Thus if you have 10 Ha and I have 0.5 Ha, I may hae 1 share and you will have 20. All the costs will be apportioned in ratio of our holding and so will the profits. No fear on losses therefore. Further, co-operatives imply that our input costs can be reduced (we can buy in bulk getting discounts and transport produce in bulk saving costs there). Our sale price can be increased by gaining sheer mass increasing our bargaining power. Yield can be increased by doing away with bunds that seperate the fields. Risk can be reduced by planting different crops on different fields to meet different needs. All in all it i good news if the spirit of co-operation is to be maintained. Amul is a superb example of co-operation. Sugar in Maharashtra would have been too only if the political lobby had not raped the concept.
thanks for your link to the e-choupal report. will try and access.
What both of us have been harping on is the Patronage Cohesiveness, the number of co-operatives that have incorporated the same can be counted on fingers.....
What you say about economies of scale, risk moderation etc is in principle correct.....
Little exposure that I have to co-ops, tells me that the number of shares held by me, eventually decide how much influence I can have on the governance structure of the co-operative, and eventually rig it.....
But as you say All in all it is good news if the spirit of co-operation is to be maintained , but this did not happen in most of the cases
Nonetheless, gladly accept your point of view
As you know, farmer suicides continue in Vidarbha and a solution doesn't seem to be in sight.
However, during my trips to Yavatmal and Ghatanji in the past 2 months, I did notice several farmers switching (if only partly) to organic farming... thanks to the good work being done by NGOs like Dharamitra and Chetana Vikas.
I feel, adopting organic farming practices may not be everything, but it is definitely a part of the solution we are seeking.
Runaway sun...
what you say is sadly true.. suicides not only continue but are also showing an increasing trend. You also know that the government has announced a relief package... I had occasion to participate in a study into the impact of the relief package... the report is available at http://www.greenearthconsulting.org
The one line summary of the report is that IT HAS FAILED.. read the report for more...
what you say about organic farming is also true... if you have indeed visited Chetna Vikas and Dharamitra, you would have got a good insight into what can work in agriculture... these institutions are very good... sadly their data on profitability (as against profits) of organic farming have not been widely publicised as should have been... they have remained experiments.. similar good work is being done by Subhash Sharma...I am sure you know that..
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