Dear Colleagues:
- Communities followed sustainable agri ‘Culture’ in their areas to produce nutritious food, mostly for their own needs.
- Conversion to mono crops, with a focus on farm management, was done by the colonial rulers, for serving their political and commercial interests.
- Increasing conversion each year to commercial crops like cotton, tea, coffee, jute, rubber, sugarcane, etc., resulted in less production by the small holders of nutritious food for their own and their country’s needs (decrease in purchasing power), leading to scarcity and famine like conditions
- Increased cost of production, taxes and the reducing prices for commodities (green revolution techs) produced also reduced producers’ access to nutritious food and net income.
- Post independence, senior scientists sent for advanced education abroad, mostly specializing in green revolution (GR) technologies – loosing focus on sustainable integrated agriculture systems of the local areas
- GR tech increased productivity for about a decade, with production plateau and decreasing in some cases whilst cost of production and requirement of water increased each year
- Agricultural and Education System (ARES), Central & State Government agri depts. were and are staffed by scientists, mostly specialists, responsible for policies.
- Focus was to meet the supply side (top down) when the need was more for the demand side (bottom up smallholder needs)
- Production cost increased due to dependence on external inputs and hybrid/ GM/ BT seeds for implementing Green Revolution technologies, oil crisis, etc., further reducing net incomes, access to low cost nutritious food, resulting in rural hunger, malnutrition, poverty, debt, suicides and climate change
HISTORY:
Communities followed integrated agriculture system of their area to produce nutritious food for their own needs and at little or no cost, before the arrival of their colonial rulers, For serving their political and commercial interests, farms were converted to produce mono crops importing agro chemical inputs, converting more and more land for commercial crops like cotton, tea, coffee, jute, rubber, sugarcane, etc., reducing the land for production of nutritious food by the smallholder producer communities for their own needs. Policies, rules and regulations focused on commercial mono crops,, resulting in the decrease of purchasing power, taxing rural producers, increasing cost of production also resulted in the decrease of farm produce prices and the producers’ net incomes. The resulting decrease in smallholder farm production and availability of nutritious food, leading to scarcity and famine like conditions during the world wars and also after independence (early 1960 in India).
After many countries became independent from colonial rule, large sums of money were made available as aid for development of agriculture by the erstwhile colonial powers as well as the USA, with subtle conditions attached, eg., USAID made provisions to give scientists grants for advanced studies in the land grant universities of the USA, where the curricula focuses on mechanized industrial GR agriculture (most farms being over 100 hectares), training them as specialists, with little or no knowledge about the integrated low cost agriculture of the local areas in their country and sustainable in the long term for the smallholder producers. Most returned with PHD’s and thus on their return were given the responsibility to replicate the industrial agriculture models with AID funds, pursuing commercial mono crops, primarily to keep down the world prices of agricultural commodities, like rice, wheat, maize, cotton, rubber, tea, coffee, etc, loosing focus on producing nutritious food, good agriculture and management practices (GAP).
The agri policies of the Indian government, post independence, continued to serve the commercial interest of the North (Europe/ USA/ Canada/ Australia), rather than the bottom up knowledge and management needs of smallholder friendly, integrated agriculture systems of each area for their long term sustainability primarily producing nutritious food to meet their own needs and that of the increasing rural populations in the vicinity, The continuing focus on commercial crops lead to shortages, scarcity and famine like conditions in the sixties, creating a panic among policy makers. By now, in addition to the agriculture research & education systems (ARES), most Central and State Government positions in agriculture were filled by Scientists, mostly specialists, opening the flood gates for conventional agri technologies being forced on all farmers, as official extension programmes and schemes (subsidies) of the Government, especially in the irrigated areas of the country. The use of agro chemicals on rich soils built over centuries, did increase productivity for a decade, temporarily solving the immediate problem of shortages by meeting supply side but ignoring the demand side of access to good management to produce nutritious food needs of the rural producer communities.
However, in about ten years there was enough evidence documented that the GR productivity had plateau and decreasing in some areas, requiring increasing quantities and higher prices for fertilizer, seed and water each year. Added to this was the global oil crisis since the 70’s, resulting in the huge increase in the costs of imports, transportation, production of agro chemicals, etc., making conventional farming unviable and forcing governments to subsidise production of external inputs. In spite of subsidies, the purchasing power (mono crops) and net incomes of farmers, especially smallholder producer communities reduced each year (often below cost of production, waste, etc., due to un abling policies), resulting in rural hunger, malnutrition, poverty, suicides and climate change.
UN agencies have taken the initiative over the last 5 years to support holistic solutions for the long term sustainability of over 2 billion hungry, malnourished, poor, deep in debt rural producer communities, with UNCTAD’s TER of September 18, 2013, taking the ARES, World Bank, etc., head on, urgently calling for a ‘Paradigm shift in agriculture’. attached.
M. Subhash Mehta