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How To Save Punjab Agriculture

By Devinder Sharma

05 October, 2011
Ground Reality

For over 40 years now, ever since Green Revolution began,the nation has eulogised the Punjab farmer.Newspapers have reported time and again about the visible prosperity ushered inthrough intensive agriculture. Magazine articles have featured the opulent lifestyle of prosperous Punjabi farmers. The story of the bygone era somehow remainstransfixed in our memory, and that perhaps is the reason why policy makers,economists and scientists still continue to live in the past.

For nearly two decades now, Punjab’sunderbelly has been gradually caving in. Excessive use of chemical fertilisershave turned the verdant lands poisonous, water mining has dried the aquifers leadingto the expansion of the desert, and chemical fertilisers and pesticides haveplayed havoc with the environment and human health. With the input pricesclimbing year after year and the output prices remaining static, Punjab farmers became a victim of the same economicpolicies that projected them as country’s heroes. Agriculture has turned notonly unsustainable but economically unviable.

Over the years indebtedness began growing to phenomenallevels. A recent Punjab Agricultural Universityshows as many as 89 per cent of Punjab farmhouseholds are reeling under debt. The per farm family debt stands at astaggering Rs 1,78,934. In other words, for every hectare of land holding, theoutstanding debt is Rs 50, 140. In my understanding, indebtedness has grown stillhigher in the last few years. One of the main reasons being the push for moresophisticated but unwanted farm machinery. Take the case of tractors. Once a symbolof prosperity, tractors have now turned into a symbol of suicides. With everysecond farm household owning a tractor, more out of prestige than necessity,the resulting indebtedness has grown.

Mainline agricultural scientists cannot think beyond costlyequipments and chemicals. New equipments are being introduced with regularfrequency. Even the World Bank supported ‘Conservation Agriculture’ which ismore or less centred on zero tillage brings its own set of farm equipments.Farmers are being asked to purchase laser land leveller; zero till planters,including the second generation ‘happy seeds and ‘turbo seeders’; rotary discdrill used for intensive soil working and of course a range of costly herbicides.And before you realise the importance of these equipments, you find over 150fabricators and entrepreneurs descending on your farm. All such innovations addto the costs of the farmer.

Farm incomes continue to dwindle. As per NSSO 2003-04estimates, the average monthly income for a farm family in Punjabdoes not exceed Rs 3,400. No wonder, younger generation is refusing to take upfarming as a profession.

Increasing crop productivity and shifting to cash crops isthe only solution that is being suggested to provide more income into the handsof farmers. Still struck up in the Jurassic age, some scientist-administratorshave been seeking policy directions to remove small and marginal farmers, andhand over Punjab’s agriculture to agri-business.Already efforts have been made, without much success, to usher in corporateagriculture through the backdoor. For instance, ‘contract farming’ was one suchapproach although it is widely known that most of the private companies thatentered into contracts have run away, leaving farmers in lurch. Some studiespoint to nearly 65 per cent of the farmers who went into ‘contracts’ withprivate companies saying they are so disillusioned that they would never liketo burn their fingers again.

Still worse, the progressive farming techniques beingdisplayed, and which form part of the crop diversification plan for Punjab, are all based on water guzzling crops (essentiallyhybrids and GM crops). Sugarcane farmers, who follow a system on cane bondingwith the mills, actually are drawing 240 cm of water every year, which is twoand a half times more than what wheat and rice requires on an average. Rosecultivation requires 212 inches of groundwater consumption in every acre. On anaverage, cash crops require five to ten times more water and three times morechemical fertilisers than what is used in wheat and rice.

What Punjab needs is a newmodel of agriculture based on the principles of natural resource regeneration.Instead of bringing in the industry-driven 2nd Green Revolutionapproach, which is an extension of the intensive-farming systems that has ledto the present crisis, Punjab needs to take aleaf from the world’s biggest sustainable farming system being laid out inAndhra Pradesh. Within a span of six years, AP has brought in 40 lakh acresunder no pesticides farming. It has set a target for increasing the acreageunder sustainable farming to 100 lakh acres by 2013. Significantly, farmincomes have increased, environment has become much clean, pest attack has comedown, and the health expenses too have come down drastically.

At a time when Punjab’sagriculture is at the cross-roads, it needs a radically different approachdrawing from the lessons of its recent past. Here is a six-pronged strategythat can sow the seeds of revival of Punjab’sagriculture:

Set up State Farm Income Commission: Increasing farm incomes remains the top priority. Like all other sections of the society, farmers too should have a monthly take home package. Ironically, the minimum monthly income for a peon is Rs 15,000 where as farmers get only a fraction of this. Therefore, instead of providing him with more credit, which increases indebtedness, farmers too need assured monthly income. This cannot come from big retail (like Walmart/Tesco) which is wrongly believed to remove middlemen and thereby provide more income to farmers. Like in the US/Europe, farmers need direct income support.

Introduce Non-Pesticides Management: To begin with, pesticides on rice need to be phased out under a time bound programme. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines has already accepted that ‘pesticides use on rice was a waste of time and effort”. Knowing this, the Department of Agriculture should be directed to work out an alternative farming system using biological options. Punjab needs to aggressively pursue the NPM farming systems being promoted under the National Rural Livelihood Mission by the Ministry of Rural Development. This will also impact positively the health mission that the State is grappling with.

Restore Soil health and fertility: Over the years, Punjab soils have turned sick and the organic matter hovers around zero per cent. Indiscriminate use and abuse of nitrogen fertilisers has also created a huge nutrient imbalance. All efforts to induce balanced application of nutrients have failed to make any marked improvement. This must be supplemented by State-wide campaign to rejuvenate soils utilising the available biomass and the forgotten green technologies. It should be made mandatory for fertiliser companies to ensure green manuring, composting and use of panchkavya and jeev amrit in farming. Only a healthy soil can produce healthy food.

Regenerate Groundwater: Considering the water crisis that looms large, Punjab must shift to farming systems that require less water. As a matter of principle, hybrid and GM crops (which require much more water) should be discouraged. Instead of pushing more farm equipments, effort should be directed to promote System of Rice Intensification (SRI), which does not require much standing water and also does away with heavy labour at the time of transplanting. Direct seeding of rice also saves a lot of water. In addition, water harvesting and revival of village ponds should be given incentives. Artificial regeneration of groundwater along borewells and wells too need adequate allocation.

Research Priorities: Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), once the seat of Green Revolution, needs to undergo transformation in its research approach. So far crop varieties were being evolved looking into its fertiliser-response, photo-period insensitivity and the application of chemical pesticides. From inorganic crop breeding, research focus should now shift to organic breeding where varieties are developed in response to the availability of nutrients in organic form. These varieties have also to respond to climate change that stares ahead. Multiple cropping systems, incorporating dairy cattle, need adequate emphasis. Science must cater to the changing consumer needs rather than remain driven by industry interests.

Farm land Acquisition: No agricultural land, whether single-cropped or multi-cropped, should be diverted for non-farm purposes. Even in US, from where we increasingly borrow our economic policies, all efforts are to ensure that farmers do not sell off their lands for private use. US has brought in a Farmland and Grazing land Protection Programme that provides economic support to farmers for not diverting their land for non-agricultural use. In the 2008 Farm bill, US has allocated $ 743 million (approximately Rs 3,500 crores) to farmers over a five-year period 2008-2012 for conserving and protecting their farm lands. Budgetary allocation must be made for improving and conserving farm lands, and coupled with monthly income package; it would provide the right kind of incentive to make agriculture profitable.


 



 


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