India’s small-holder farmers (those owning less than 2.0 ha of farmland) comprise 78 percent of the country’s farmers, but own only 33 percent of the total cultivated land; they nonetheless produce 41 percent of the country’s food-grains. Their productivity is somewhat higher than that of medium- and large-size farms. Moreover, their marketable surpluses are increasing. In the nation’s food-security interest, such increase must be sustained. Those features notwithstanding, small-holder families, together with the families of land-less agricultural workers, constitute the bulk of India’s hungry and poor.
During the 1990s, annual rates of increase in agricultural productivity and yields were less than in the 1970s and 1980s; it is thus noteworthy that in the 1990s the investments in agriculture - in its research, technology, and infrastructures - were substantially less than in the two preceding decades. Worrisomely, new analyses here presented suggest that during 2002-2004 the growth rates in the index of total agricultural production, in the all-cereals yield, and in the all-cereals production, shall each fall below the forecast rate (1.3 %/ann) of human-population increase.
Hence there is crucial need - and national self-interest - for policy actions to reverse the trend of decreasing investment, and to strengthen and sustain the productivity and livelihood of the small-holder sector and its value-addition component. Such actions must include strengthening of agrarian reform and of land-lease markets and of infrastructures and institutions, creating off-farm employment through small- and medium-size enterprises, and developing and diffusing size- and scale-neutral technologies that save land and costs, and that enhance crop and livestock yields. Notably, food insecurity and poverty are each less for those rural households that own a piece of land (however small) and/or a buffalo. Correspondingly, these institutional and technical interventions shall need to be complemented by expanded rural education and skills development, especially for rural women, and by information systems and rural-friendly mechanisms to access them.
There must also be action to improve domestic agricultural-produce markets and co-operatives. Internationally - and recognizing the power and the opportunities within the World Trade Organization - there are needs for pro-poor safety nets to counter imports-induced instability, and for supports, including market intelligence and quality-control mechanisms, to facilitate export of small-holding products. Government initiatives within the international trade arena shall be crucial to help ensure that India’s small-holders are competing in an arena in which the playing pitch is level.
This publication stems from analyses undertaken by the authors within the Asia-Pacific Regional Office of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The authors thank Prof. D.P. Chaudhri, University of Wollongong, Australia, and Prof. S.S. Acharya, Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur, India, for helpful comments and discussion. However, the views expressed and inferences drawn are those of the authors in their individual capacities.
R.B. Singh
P. Kumar
T. Woodhead
