A policy for agriculture and rural investment:
This policy brief on agriculture and rural development is aimed to make agriculture and rural producer communities sustainable in the long term. It would not only avert the impending food,nutrition and health crisis but also improve security, climate risks whilst increasingly reduce the subsidies of the Governments in the next one decade.
In the light of the increasing evidences from across the world in support of integrated ecological agriculture for sustainability, the policy in line with the best of understanding of making agriculture and rural communities sustainable. It is also substantiated by various practices, policies and declarations from different national and international organizations. A few of them are cited below:
1. According to FAO,
http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/nr/sustainability_pathways/docs/Factsheet_SMALLHOLDERS.pdf,
Smallholder family producer communities,
http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/wess/index.shtml, 50 percent women, provide up to 80 percent of the food supply in South Asia, are productive, drivers of change and given the resources could increase farm production by 20 – 30 %. They mostly follow their low cost ‘Agro Ecological, climate-resilient agriculture’, primarily for meeting the producer communities own ‘Food, Nutrition, Health and
Cash’ needs. A few examples are cited below:
1. Nava Jyoti, Orissa
www.navajyoti.org,
2. One village. 60 millionaires, the miracle of Hiware Bazar, Maharashtra, the suicide State of India,
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main54.asp?filename=Ne201012VILLAGE.asp
3. Panchavat Academy, Kuthambakkam (34 miles from Chennai),
Website: www.modelvillageindia.org
4. The System of Crop Intensification (SCI) -
http://independentsciencenews.org/un-sustainable-farming/how-millions-of-farmers-are-advancing-agriculture-for-themselves/,
now being followed by millions of prosperous farmers worldwide,
5. Protect Water Quality, Replenish Aquifers and Saves the Soil:
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/How_Farmers_Can_Protect_Water_Quality.php,
6. Increasing ‘Cropping System Diversity’ balances productivity, profitability and environmental health, a USDA and Univ of IOWA case study,
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0047149,
These systems ensures the producer communities’ access to nutritious food, reduces hunger, malnutrition, poverty, suicides and the effects of climate change, whilst improving rural livelihoods, increasing net incomes and purchasing power, thus making their country sustainable in the long term and the key to agriculture contributing substantially to the country’s security and economic growth, Coventry report as attached.
Thus, the emphasis should be on low cost economies of scope integrated agriculture system, as applicable to the soil and agro climatic condition of each area (cereals, horticulture, animal husbandry, aquaculture, water harvesting, etc.), water harvesting, producing seed, energy, inputs on farm /locally and minimizing demand for water, energy, etc., over the years.
In contrast, as we know, that the green revolution technologies require increasing quantities of the high cost seeds, agro chemicals, water, etc., year after year, reducing the net incomes/
purchasing power of the producer communities and which have and will continue to have disastrous effects on climate change/drought, the soil and their long term sustainability. Briefly:
a. Agriculture Policy: needs to take a clear direction towards sustainable agriculture for minimizing the risks of the farmers and increasing risks of climate change .Some of the key areas of intervention that the policy needs to cover are on farm/agro forestry, kitchen garden, fodder cultivation, cattle shed, kitchen gardens, in-situ water conservation, bio-villages, action research and codification of science of sustainable agriculture, facilitate training of sustainable agriculture with the help of locally successful sustainable agricultural farmers. This also means that policy should develop a clear time plan to exit from the external input based industrial agriculture. (Nayak. 2014. Baseline Study on Sustainable Agriculture in India)
b. Institutional Architecture: To make the sustainable agricultural policy work among the smallholder producer communities, an appropriate institutional architecture needs to be set up to deliver both ecosystem services and effectively deal with the pre harvest and post harvest needs of the small and marginal farmers (Nayak, 2014. Baseline Study on Sustainable Agriculture in India).
c. Following Integrated Agriculture System of the area shall be given the predominant role it deserves in our agrarian society, with the emphasis on self sufficiency for the producer communities’ meeting their own nutrition, food, health and cash requirements. Adequate land area shall be identified & reserved for agriculture and allied activities, and such lands shall not be diverted to any other activities except under very rare circumstances for which the consent from the concerned state legislature and the parliament shall be obtained after due diligence in establishing the critical national need for such a diversion.
d. With more than 60% of the population in the country being smallholder rural producer communities, depending on activities associated with agriculture, but contributing only about 16% of GDP from agriculture, there is an urgent need to refocus on funding
innovative agriculture research for development (IAR4D) and meeting all their needs, making this the backbone of our economy and thus substantially increasing agriculture’s contribution to the national economy.
e. Adequate funding, support and encouragement for converting to the integrated agriculture system and allied activities ( producing inputs, value addition to increase the shelf life of the produce, storage and minimizing post harvest losses) shall be ensured in order to produce enough nutritious food (horticulture, grains, dairy produce, etc.,) for their own and the growing requirements of the people in the vicinity on a long term sustainable basis and thus minimize the cost of transportation and pollution (climate change), eradicating import of food grains. In order to develop and implement sustainable practices the effective involvement of various stake holders such as CSO/ NGOs, successful farmers following their low cost integrated agriculture system and agricultural institutions should be
ensured in the policy/decision making levels.
f. Focus on low cost economies of scope staple crop of the area such as ragi and other millets and following the integrated agriculture systems which are suitable for dry/ arid regions of the country should be encouraged, not just the high cost economies of
scale mono crops like rice and wheat green revolution technologies, which requires increasing quantities of water, seed, fertilizer and other agro chemicals each year and closely associated with Climate Change/ Global Warming as is the case now.
g. Vast varieties of native fruit species such as banana, jack fruit, mango, guava, pomegranate, orange etc. have huge potential to reduce the dependence on water intensive agricultural crops, and hence should be encouraged fully and as part of the integrated agriculture system.
h. Many varieties of tree species which can become perennial source of fodder, bio mass, etc., additional income to our farmers through bio-fuel and/or timber value potential, and which are also environmentally friendly should be encouraged as fencing crops, and
also on barren lands and as an integral part of their integrated agriculture system.
i. In view of large areas of arid and semi arid areas in many parts of the country, widespread use of water harvesting for scientific dry land farming practices such as millets, horticulture, perennials, etc., should become an important part of agrarian economy.
j. In order to make agriculture a viable/ attractive option in rural India, human and institutional capacity should be developed adequately in women and educated youth being trained to become general practitioners in agriculture to shoulder the entrepreneurial risks and responsibilities, with good roads, telecommunication, health, and education facilities.
k. Agricultural produce/ products should be produced primarily for meeting the nutritious food needs of the rural producer communities, accessible to them at farm gate price, value addition for storage and release when prices peak, if we are to make the rural life meaningful through the intervention of the producer communities setting up their producer org/ company (PC) but staffed with professionals, to manage the ‘cash to cash cycle’ of each member.
M. Subhash Mehta