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Sunday Reading
New Delhi, 28 July 2009
Shadow Of Drought
NEED FOR SECOND
GREEN REVOLUTION?
By Dhurjati Mukherjee
With rainfall this year being much less than expected,
specially in the green belt of Punjab, Haryana
and western Uttar Pradesh, the threat of food crop production being affected
looms large. In fact, June happened to be the driest month in the last 109
years, according to date released by the Indian Meteorological Department, with
rainfall across the country being only 48% than the 93% projected.
The Punjab Government has expressed apprehensions that it
might be unable to match its previous year’s contribution of rice to the
Central pool. Given that only 19-20 lakh hectares are under paddy cultivation
against the usual 27.5 lakh hectares, a drop of over 20%. In Haryana too paddy
has been sown only in 5 to 7 hectares, 42-45%t less than area covered last
year. Ditto in western and central UP where 20 districts have been declared a
‘black zone’ due to a drastic drop in the ground water level and a drought-like
situation in 40 of 71 districts with 57% sub-normal rains. The situation in Bihar and Himachal Pradesh is the same.
With the Government now unable to reach last season’s
procurement target of 30m tonnes of rice, it has banned rice and wheat exports
to maintain the domestic price. Thus, the projected 4% growth in agriculture
would dip, notwithstanding the impetus to pump money in the rural sector to
enhance its prosperity.
Against the backdrop of less rainfall and climate changes
there is need to think of ways to boost up agricultural growth through research
and development, wherein rainfall is not the sole determining factor. Another,
a second green revolution. This is all the more necessary in the face of a growing
population where we require over 40m tonnes agricultural output by 2020.
Studies of the first green revolution show that we need to go beyond 5 crops
and a few States which benefited rich landlords while the conditions of small
and marginal farmers remained same.
Whether the second green revolution would be able to
encompass all categories of farmers and incorporate the agricultural sector as
a whole remains to be seen. However, urgent reforms are needed for efficient
use of resources, conservation of soil, water and ecology, introduction of
newer technologies, encourage production and use of bio-fertilizers,
application of bio-genetics for improved plant and horticultural products. The
11th Plan has underscored measures for taking agriculture to 4% annual growth.
Apart from making technology available to small farmers, the
other measures include improving water management, rainwater harvesting and
watershed development; reclaiming degraded land for cultivation and soil
quality; bridging rich-poor gap; diversify into high-value fruits, flowers,
medicinal plants, bio-diesel etc.; access to credit at affordable rates,
enhance incentive structure and functioning of markets, farmers’ cooperatives
as in Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Besides, strengthen existing Krishi Vigyan Kendras and
set-up new Kendras at the block levels, reinforce animal husbandry and
fisheries, rain-fed areas converted into mono-crop zones, dryland farming
encouraged, create infrastructure for preservation of fruits and vegetables,
facilitate adoption of improved knowledge on production and value addition by
farmers.
Further, organize farmers’
development, specially inculcate leadership qualities and support their
organizations to take up new initiatives like technology applications etc, skill
training and entrepreneurship development; value addition of agricultural
products, both at the industry and farmers level; innovative marketing network,
including development of future market, improve delivery of support services at
the district and block levels through better coordination of various agencies
and explore options for private-public partnership in district planning.
Significantly, already around 183-190 experiential learning
units have been set up at 43 agricultural universities in different parts of
the country to impart requisite training so that the benefits of research
percolate down to the block and panchayat
level to benefit all categories of farmers.
However, the crucial thing that
remains to be ensured is that returns from agriculture have to be monitored so
that the farming community is not put in a precarious situation and mounting
debts do not lead them to suicide.
Needless to state, that the potential of Indian agriculture
gained importance since former President Kalam, highlighted the same at the
triennial conference of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research at New Delhi in 2006 as also
various forums. Since then several workshops have been held, including the
Second Green Revolution Summit at Kolkata last year. All emphasized that the
second revolution should reach all corners of the country and should ensure
financial inclusion of small and marginal farmers by providing the
technological inputs to increase and/or diversify their production.
In sum, there is no gainsaying that the present Budget has
allocated lot of funds for rural infrastructure development which would go a
long way in helping agriculture and agro- processing. If this could be
developed along with research inputs, stress on dryland farming and diversification
of crops to facilitate that it reaches the grass root levels there is hope that
Indian agriculture may reach the desired growth target in the coming years.
Clearly, a proper plan of action needs to be evolved in this direction with
specific directions for both high-yielding and low-yielding areas. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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