A risky business called farming

Thanks to the green revolution of the mid-Sixties, Indian agriculture has made rapid progress in raising the production and productivity of different crops. Foodgrain production has increased from around 60 million tonnes in early 1960s to over 210 million tonnes today. But studies show that over the years farmers have not been able even to recover the cost because of the higher risk in cultivation and the uncertainty in price.

The risks the farming community faces are many; they relate to natural calamities such as drought and floods, high fluctuation in the prices of output, domination by middlemen, spurious inputs, and so on. Of late, there have been many cases of desperate farmers ending their lives in different parts of the country.

Recognising the risk faced by farmers, the Government of India has been making efforts to reduce the income-related risk through direct and indirect interventions. Agricultural insurance is one among them. This book, using both primary and secondary data, aims at identifying the problems and discusses the prospects of agricultural insurance in India. It also suggests ways of improving the coverage and effectiveness of the scheme.

Full report here Hindu

Masanobu Fukuoka: The man who did nothing

More than 30 years after it was published, farmer sage Masanobu Fukuoka’s cult book One-Straw Revolution, continues to inspire. On the occasion of his second death anniversary, DNA talks toIndian farmers whose lives were transformed by Fukuoka’s radical vision of farming, nature, and life.

Do-nothing’ or minimal interference is a radical idea. Especially for a civilisation obsessed with jumping from one complexity to another while simultaneously idealising simplicity. In 1983, a group of 20 farmers in Rasulia, a small village near Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh, was trying to find an alternative to chemical-intensive agriculture. Since 1978, they had been battling the legacy of the Green Revolution — hybrid seeds, pesticides, fertilisers — to redeem the promise of rishi kheti (farming as practiced by ancient sages), a practice that involves letting nature take its course. They had been successful. But there was more to be done, or rather undone. What that was, they weren’t sure. But they were open to learning.

It was no coincidence, then, that they attracted the internationally recognised Japanese spiritualist and Buddhist farmer Masanobu Fukuoka into their lives. One of the Rasulia farmers, Pratap C Aggarwal, came across a review of Fukuoka’s The One-Straw Revolution. Here he heard of the ‘no-till’ technique, a farming philosophy pioneered by Fukuoka. Aggarwal couldn’t wait to read the book, which was not published in India back then. So he wrote a friend in London asking her to send him a copy.

Full report here DNA

Barefoot - Naren’s last testament

Naren’s book is an insider's plea to save farming from the many ills that afflict it today, mainly as a result of the industrial-chemical agricultural practices…

A little over a year ago, we lost one of the finest men I have known. As his wife Uma aptly noted, ‘Naren passed away peacefully after (not) fighting brain cancer on July 5, 2009'. I wrote then in these columns about the many ways in which my friend Naren had taught me many lessons about life and goodness. I continue to learn from him.

Naren left behind an almost completed manuscript, “Dilemmas in Agriculture: A Personal Story”. We persuaded Uma to update the volume, and add a few personal notes. The little book is ready and published by Vasudheva Kutumbukum ( kutumbukum@gmail.com). It is rich with wisdom and gentle insights about the predicaments of rural life in India today, but what makes it significant is that it is based on their own journey. The narrative begins in 1987, when Naren decided to leave his well-paid job in a Bank to return to his ancestral village Venkatramapuram in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh, for a ‘life of organic farming and social work'. With heavy hearts, they sent their older daughter Samyuktha to a school, Kalakshetra in Chennai, whereas the younger Lakshmi was raised for many years in a village school. Looking back, Uma writes: ‘I have no doubt that villages are the best places for children to grow up'.

Full report here Hindu

REVIEW

Agricultural Growth in India: Role of Technology, Incentives and Institutions
A. Vaidyanathan
Oxford University Press
Rs 675
Pp 225
ISBN: 9780198064473
Hardback

Blurb
In these essays a renowned expert examines the persistently slow and uneven growth in Indian agriculture in recent years. Presenting a comprehensive review of trends in output, costs and prices, and crop patterns at the national, state, and district levels, the volume evaluates the impact these trends have on different segments of the rural population and the growing rural–urban disparities. Substantiated by extensive research, the book argues that these patterns reflect changing agrarian structures and rural labour markets; uneven spread of technology and its sub-optimal performance; government policies that are not conducive to efficient use of resources and inputs; and serious deficiencies in the functioning of institutions.

The author suggests caution in assessing future growth prospects in the light of the slowing down in domestic demand and the risks of trade liberalization. He argues that agriculture cannot be jacked up to a higher growth trajectory without a significant shift in strategies, priorities, and major institutional reforms.

Appreciating the role of technology in raising output, this collection advocates a long-term plan for Indian agriculture with important policy implications. It will be useful for agricultural experts, students and teachers of agriculture, policymakers, researchers, academics, and those actively involved with inclusive growth.


Reviews
Needed: Farm sector reforms  Hindu
There have been concerns about the growth, equity, and sustainability of Indian agriculture in the last few decades, particularly in the post-reform period. The annual growth of agriculture in the long term has been around 2.5 per cent. The business-as-usual approach will not help. Significant reforms in the agricultural sector are needed to accelerate growth and achieve equity. In this context, this book, a collection of essays by A. Vaidyanathan, is timely. A leading agricultural economist of the country, he has written extensively on various aspects of Indian farming.

As Vaidyanathan says, there have been serious gaps in an analytical understanding of agricultural growth and its determinants. In an attempt to correct this lacuna, this book examines the trends of agricultural growth in India and provides an in-depth analysis of the role of technology, incentives, and institutions in facilitating this growth. The discussion on technology also covers irrigation and fertilizers, while the one on incentives includes price policy and input subsidies. The chapter on institutions deals with agrarian structure, land and water management, research, infrastructure, marketing, and credit.