Oh, how hard we work to keep our agriculture inefficient!, By- S Viswanathan, DNA, Saturday, December 20, 2008.

“Would one cry for ghee when one has butter on hand?” goes a Tamil proverb. The neglect of agriculture and the consistent refusal to make agriculture vibrant and contribute a large, consistent share to economic growth is inexplicable and unpardonable. With economic growth now recording a slowdown, there is all the more reason to get the best out of India’s very considerable advantages in agriculture:

- The country has the largest arable land, of over 420 million acres
- Farming is possible almost round the year from Jammu to Kanyakumari, Rajkot to Dispur, unlike in the US where due to snowfall, farming is limited to just one season
- Water shortage is lower compared to elsewhere in the world – water-scarce Tamil Nadu, for example, has around 38 inch of rainfall annually, against 10 inch in California.

It is another thing that California accounts for a humungous ontribution to agricultural production in the US, while Tamil Nadu, despite 2,000 years of agricultural tradition, sees a dismal growth rate of just around 1% in production.

Except for 2007-08, India’s food production has been stagnant at 200-215 million tonnes for over a decade; annual growth rate has averaged less than 2% through these 10 years, contributing less than 0.4% to economic growth that averaged over 9% over the last four years.

The booming services and industrial sectors led to complacency in growing the share of agriculture despite the fact that it impacts the lives of over two-thirds of the population.
After C Subramaniam and Jagjivan Ram, until the advent of Sharad Pawar, the Krishi Bhavan, the seat of the agriculture ministry, had no bright leader at the helm.

Pawar has done wonders for Maharashtra’s agriculture. The state, despite being endowed with poor water resources, is a leader in sugarcane and fruits and vegetables.

The policy direction of Pawar to focus on horticulture from the 1990s has helped Maharashtra emerge as the leading producer of grapes, mandarin oranges, alphonso mangoes, cavendish bananas and a variety of other fruits that have also contributed to flourishing exports.

Disappointingly, today Pawar shines more in cricket stadia than at the Krishi Bhawan.
The Indian Council of Agriculture Research, which used to be in the vanguard for agricultural innovation, productivity improvements through research and technology, is a huge bureaucracy that gulps humungous resources and has little to show.

The senior bureaucrats and scientists at the hundreds of Krishi Vigyan Kendras are busy attending international and national conferences and conventions with little time for field work. Remember how C Subramaniam involved the scientists in field work that triggered the green revolution in 1967?

It doesn’t require rocket science to bring about the much needed transformation in agriculture. Most issues need common sense, albeit a sharp focus from policymakers, especially at the state level.

The country has been divided into different agro-climatic zones. Crops should be chosen to suit the agro-climatic and soil conditions of these zones. Do we do this? From J&K to Tamil Nadu, from Assam to Rajasthan, every state focuses on rice, a practice introduced centuries ago, when markets were confined to limited geographic contiguity. Is it relevant today?

In the US, a handful of states in the Midwest produces the entire corn and soybean not just for home consumption but also for handsome exports. Productivity of corn at around 10,000 kg per acre is 12 times that in India, of around 750-800 kg. California, likewise, focuses on fruits and vegetables, on almonds and pistachio; New York does not compete with these.

Gujarat and Maharashtra provide shining examples of such focus. Gujarat accounts for close to 40% of cotton and 38% of groundnut production in the country. Its growth rate of agriculture, of around 12%, contributes significantly to the state’s GDP. And the farming sector in Gujarat is a flourishing contributor to improved incomes and living conditions of its rural population. This comes out of the state’s leadership focusing on assured supply of water and power plus a vibrant campaign to reach quality seeds, fertilisers and other inputs through an efficient administration. Why can’t this proven success be copied by other states?

There is a simple five-point formula that needs focus:
- Select the crop suited to the agro-climatic and water endowments;
- Prepare the land through select mechanisation;
- Test and correct the soil for the needs of the crop chosen;
- Go for quality seeds and nurse these healthy nurslings; and
- Go for total management.

With around 200 million malnourished people, India accounts for a fifth of the world’s hungry. The country has the potential to expand food production to at least 500 million tonnes over the next 5-10 years. Like national security, food security and nutrition standards, deserve utmost attention. It is no use just having scorekeepers on farmer suicides. The spirit of ‘we can’ needs to be imbibed in regard to food security more than elsewhere.

By- S Viswanathan,
The writer is editor, Industrial Economist. Views are personal.