Agriculture continues to have a huge share in the rural economy and is extremely important for the incomes of rural households: both farmers as well as wage earners. Therefore agricultural development programmes, particularly those that generate employment, are extremely important for alleviation of poverty in the rural areas. It is very important that this emphasis is not diluted.
After the reforms there is a shift in the cropping pattern away from food crops and towards cash crops. This is likely to adversely impact the food consumption of the poor - especially those who receive payments in kind for farm labour or as sharecroppers. In order to prevent this it is very important that the availability of food grains through the fair price shop system be maintained and improved.
The majority of improvements of modern green revolution technology use have touched mainly the households with land, irrigation and livestock. There is need for technology generation and diffusion programmes to address the resource base and constraints of other groups such as those without irrigation, particularly through research and extension.
Livestock, particularly dairy milk production, has emerged as a very important income generating activity for a wide variety of households, including the landless. Cooperatives have played a major role in this development. Programmes to improve and strengthen these cooperatives can contribute substantially to alleviating poverty.
Formal credit institutions cover only 16 percent of the households even for business credit. Access to financial resources needs to be greatly improved either through formal or through informal institutions, such as micro-credit and savings groups, to support smallscale income generation activities.
Informal groups such as savings groups, labour groups, cattle rearing groups, women’s groups and youth groups are important and play a significant role for the landless and poor. These can be used, as a basis for addressing a range of social and economic development needs.
The participation of women in the membership as well as management of different institutions is very limited and needs to be substantially improved. In general, greater and more active participation by all members in the institutions needs to be encouraged.
With the reforms, the economic environment has become considerably more challenging and competitive for many local institutions and organizations. At the same time the management of the institutions is purely local, resting heavily on individuals who have no specialized training. There is a great need to plan, develop and conduct good training programmes for the management and staff of these institutions in order to improve their knowledge and skills in running their organizations in a competitive market economy.
