Agricultural and Rural Development in India: A Rejoinder --Shambhu Ghatak
Keywords: Agricultural and rural development; Food security; Nutrition; NFHS III; Right to food; NREGS; Interlocking; Zamindari ; Liberalisation; High yielding varieties; Green Revolution; Livelihoods; Intellectual property rights; World Trade Organisation; Plant Variety Protection and Farmers' Rights Act; International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants; Regional Rural Banks; Scheduled Commercial Banks; Co- operatives; green house gases; Multi national corporations; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; Small and marginal farmers; Minimum support price; Right to Information; People’s Union for Civil Liberties; Right to Development; World Food Summit; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Human rights; Public distribution system; Starvation
Introduction The primary focus of the present article is agricultural and rural development in India, as the title suggests. The article has attempted to address issues related to agricultural development, food security, poverty reduction and livelihoods generation. Keeping an area as huge as this at the center-stage of policy debates and discussion is important since a vast majority derives their livelihoods from agriculture, and they reside in rural India. The author has touched upon various issues related to agricultural development, which include: a. Labour market in India; b. Political economy of Indian agriculture; c. Indian agriculture before and after liberalization; d. The rural farm economy; e. Agrarian crisis and ‘liberal’ policies; f. Farmers’ suicides and its causes; g. Sustainability of Indian agriculture; h. Recent policy measures; i. Rural livelihoods and social audits; j. Agricultural R&D; k. Right to development; and, l. PDS, poverty and hunger in India. A thorough discussion from a historical context along with necessary data analysis has been done to understand the reality, as it exists. A detailed review of literature has been deemed necessary to understand the problematique . a. Labour market in India “…A free labour is one who is able to accept or reject the conditions and wages offered by the employer. If he wishes, he may refrain altogether from working. Once having taken the job, he can decide to give notice and quit. Economic stringency may indeed compel a free labour to agree temporarily to terms he does not consider favourable. But his basic right to refuse work or to seek alternative employment remains uncompromised…”
“…An unfree, or bond(ed) labour, by contrast, is one whose bargaining power is virtually non- existent, or has been surrendered. Such a labourer does not possess the right or has yielded the right to refuse to work under the terms set by his master. Through customs, compulsions, or specific obligation, the bond(ed) labourer is tied to his master’s needs. He can neither quit not take up work for another master without first receiving permission…” --Daniel Thorner (1962): Employer Labour Relationships in Agriculture, in Land and Labour in India by Daniel and Alice Thorner.
Studies on the labour market institutions, on the dynamic relationship between market forces and market institutions, show that transactions interlocking labour, credit,
1 land lease etc. are common instruments for not just reducing weather and market risks but also for land owners gaining market control through exercise of extra-economic coercion. There are three different schools, namely-the neo-classical school, the Marxian school and the neo-institutional school, who have their own approaches towards understanding the formation of wage labour market, labour wages and formation of other contractual arrangements involving labour. A chief phenomenon characterising exchange that has been noted widely is what is termed as ‘interlinked markets’ or interlocking of factor and commodity markets. A dominant party conjointly exploits the weaker party in two or more markets by interlinking the terms of contracts, according to the Marxian approach. The weaker party loses the option to exercise in other markets, where his free entry is already pre-empted or terms of participation pre-determined. The power of the dominant party to exploit in such interlinked markets is much more than in markets taken separately (Bharadwaj, 1989) 1. Agricultural labour constituted around 27% of the total number of workers (main plus marginal), according to the Census 2001. Almost 12.86% of agriculture labour originated from Andhra Pradesh. Between 1964-65 and 1974-75, the flush period of India’s Green Revolution, the number of primarily wage-dependent rural households with little or no land nearly doubled from 18 million to 25 million. The upsurge in rural proletarianisation has arisen from a combination of three factors: a. rapid population growth on a slower growing land-and-water base; b. agrarian structural changes simultaneously with population growth; and c. the push and pull effects of the increasing regional disparities, working through displacement and labour-market influx of the formerly self-employed . Agricultural labour is not the creation of the British economic policies alone as it has been in existence since the inception of the caste-system. British colonial policies aggravated the problem of land alienation to such an extent that during their rule a noticeable class of proletarian labour was formed, whose characteristics differed from the past. In almost all regions of the country, the lower caste agricultural labourers operated within the framework of the jajmani system (NCRL, 1991) 2. The peasantry itself was highly stratified and some segments were subjected to various economic and extra-economic constraints. Angus Maddison (1971) 3 found that of the total labour force in Moghul India, 72 percent was in the rural economy, and majority of them were landless labourers. Irfan Habib (1984) 4 found that the size of the labour force would have been 20-25 percent of the total rural population. Dharma Kumar (1965) 5, however, found that agricultural labour would have formed roughly around 10-15% of the entire population and 17-25% of the agricultural population of the Madras Presidency during 1800.
1 Bharadwaj, Krishna (1989): The Formation of Rural Labour Markets: An Analysis with Special Reference to Asia’ , World Employment Programme Research, International Labour Organisation, Geneva, May. 2 Report of the National Commission on Rural Labour (1991), Ministry of Labour. 3 Maddison, Angus (1971): Class Structure and Economic Growth: India and Pakistan since the Moghuls , George Allen and Ulwin, London. 4 Habib, Irfan (1984): Agrarian Relations and Land Revenue: c1500-1750 , in T Raychaudhari and Irfan Habib (ed.) The Cambridge Economic History of India, Vol. I: (1200-1750), Orient Longman. 5 Kumar, Dharma (1965): Land and Caste in South India , Cambridge University Press.
2 Tom Brass (1999) 6 explains that during the period 1870-1940, landholders in the area of United Punjab (which includes Haryana) utilized four kinds of labour, namely, sepidars , peasant smallholders, siris and casual workers. All these categories of labour suffered some degree of economic unfreedom. During the 1970s and 1980s, there was immigration of cheap migrant labourers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in Punjab. Labour contractors recruited tribals from North Bihar and transported them to Punjab. Migration of rural labourers has been a feature of the Indian economy for more than a 100 years; till Independence, the British economic policy and the process of uneven development influenced its character and pattern. While better employment opportunities and higher wages in economically developed regions (pull factors) attract labour, non-availability of employment opportunities and consequent economic hardships in the underdeveloped regions act as push factors in the migration process. Middlemen or jobbers (i.e. labour contractors) are called by different names in the country, namely: ardas , mistry , mukddam , thekedars , lambardars etc. Workers in the unorganized sector, including migrant labourers, are denied minimum wages and female workers get lesser wages than male workers. Rural labour constitutes the most marginalized section of the Indian society. It benefited the least during the last 60 years of development, which happened under the Indian five years planning. Dependence of rural agricultural labour on big landowners and moneylenders for consumption credit quite often results in bondage. Bonded or forced labour are called by different names in various parts of India, for e.g. gothi , vethi or bhagola in Andhra Pradesh, kamiya in Bihar, jeetha in Karnataka, hali in Rajasthan, vet or begar in Maharastra. Rural labour markets are segmented and segmentation could be based on gender, race or caste. Such labour market segmentation leads to differential wage rates and immobility of labour from one occupation into another (Lal, 1984) 7. The fragmentation of the Indian labour market is considerably reinforced by caste or community identity at the local level (Rodgers, 1993) 8. Wage payment system is not the only system as there can be existence of alternative contractual arrangements like sharecropping, attached laboour system and bonded labour system. The issue of unfreedom has been expressed in the form of credit- labour linkage i.e. perpetual indebtedness of the labourers. Under the neo-institutional economic framework, interlinkages (or interlocking) arise as a result of imperfections like uncertainty, asymmetry of information, absent markets or transaction cost. Within the Marxian framework, interlocked markets represent different modes of exploitation. The existence of a certain type of contractual arrangement is within a historical context, and not based merely on rational choice. Young girls, below the age of 15 years, bear the brunt of poverty-induced child labour. Almost 86.4 per cent of employed Indian women live with their families on less than US$ 2 per person per day, as compared to 81.4 per cent of employed men (ILO,
6 Brass, Tom (1999): Towards a Comparative Political Economy of Unfree Labour—Case Studies and Debates , Routledge. 7 Lal, Deepak (1984): The Hindu Equilibrium—Cultural Stability and Economic Stagnation , Vol. I, Clarendon Press. 8 Rodgers, Gerry (1993): The Creation of Employment in Segmented Labour Markets—A General Problem and its Implications in India , Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Vol. 36, No. 1.
3 2009) 9. According to the NCEUS (2007), Report on Conditions of Work and Promotion of Livelihoods in the Unorganised Sector: : • Agricultural labourers, estimated at 87 million in 2004-05, constituted 34 per cent of about 253 million agricultural workers i.e., farmers and agricultural labourers. • The unemployment rate for agricultural labourers by the CDS (current daily status) is quite high in rural areas by any standard; 16 per cent for males and 17 per cent for females. • The underemployment of usual status agricultural labourers by CDS rates increased during the decade 1993/94-2004/05. In fact, the CDS unemployment rate was exceptionally high at 16 per cent in 2004-05. • Overall, wage levels of agricultural labourers have been very low and their growth rates decelerated through the decade 1993/94-2004/05. • The Minimum Wages Act, 1948 is the only statutory legislation, which ensures minimum wages to agricultural workers. In 2004-05, about 91 per cent of the agricultural labour mandays received wage rates below the National Minimum Wage and about 64 per cent below the NCRL minimum wage norm in rural areas. • The total number of agricultural workers in India has been estimated at 259 million as of 2004-05. They form 57 per cent of the workers in the total workforce. About 249 million of them are in rural areas and that works out to be 73 per cent of the total rural workforce of 343 million. Their share in total rural unorganised sector employment is 96 per cent while in unorganized agricultural sector it is 98 per cent. • Nearly two-thirds of the agricultural workers (64 per cent) are self-employed, or farmers as we call them, and the remaining, a little over one-third (36 per cent), wageworkers. Almost all these wage workers (98 per cent) are casual labourers. • Agricultural workers constituted 56.6 per cent of the total workers in 2004-05, down from 68.6 per cent in 1983. In rural areas, agricultural workers constituted 72.6 per cent of the total workers in 2004-05, down from 81.6 per cent in 1983. • Farmers form a major share within the agricultural workforce though there has been a gradual decline in their percentage from 63.5 in 1983 to 57.8 in 1999-00. Between 1999- 00 and 2004-05, the percentage of cultivators increased to 64.2, the highest level achieved in 15 years • A comparison of employment growth rates between 1983/1993-94 and 1993-94/2004-05 shows that the growth rate of agricultural employment decelerated sharply in the last decade, from 1.4 to 0.8 per cent. Although the growth of total employment also declined from 2.1 per cent during 1983/1993-94 to 1.9 per cent during 1993-94/2004-05, this deceleration was clearly not so sharp. • The proportion of households with no land possessed increased from 13 per cent in 1993- 94 to 14.5 percent in 2004-05. The share of landlessness among the agricultural labourers was 19.7 per cent in 2004-05. More than 60 per cent of the agricultural labourers had sub- marginal holdings up to 0.4 hectares and that remained more or less constant over the period. Landlessness or small size of holdings forces the workers to engage as labourers to maintain their subsistence levels. b. Political economy of Indian agriculture Boudhayan Chattopadhyay (1991) 10 finds: “…In more than one sense, the depression and deflation in 1929-33 was the overture to the funeral march of the Bengal
9 ILO (2009): Global Employment Trends for Women, March. 10 Chattopadhyay, Boudhayan (1991): Food Insecurity and the Social Environment , in collaboration with CRESSIDA (Centre for Regional, Ecological and Science Studies in Development Alternatives), KP Bagchi and Co.
4 peasant, fisherman and the artisan, of which the denouement was inflationary war economy of the 1942-44, with its toll of the 3 million plus dead…” During the colonial rule until the First World War, surplus was extracted from agriculture, which was partly transferred to the home economy, partly invested in the military and bureaucratic machinery to sustain, and partly to strengthen the sources of revenue through public investments in railways, canals etc (Patnaik, 1984) 11 . He explains that in an underdeveloped economy, the ‘potential economic surplus’ (using Paul Baran’s concept) is used not for productive investment but for conspicuous consumption, unproductive investment, or is simply siphoned off abroad as tribute, dividends or remittances. The zamindari system adopted in some parts of Bengal gave rise to the class of moneylenders, traders and absentee landlords, which prevented productive investment in agriculture, unlike the case of ryotwari areas in Punjab. Commercialization of Indian agriculture during the British rule, comprised of two different processes: a. a shift in the agrarian economy from production for consumption to production for market; and b. land started acquiring the features of commodity, which could be bought and sold. Demand for raw materials in order to sustain the Industrial Revolution compelled the Indian peasantry to shift to crops that had better market value. The process of de- industrialization started since the Indian goods manufactured by the artisans could not compete with the cheap machine-made goods imported from England. Prior to Independence, Indian agriculture suffered from what Daniel Thorner termed as ‘built-in depressors’ . Big landlords used to extract huge rents during the days of zamindari . After Independence, the Nehru-Mahalanobis Plan placed more emphasis on industrialization by treating agriculture as ‘bargain basement’. However, a decisive shift in agricultural policy happened after the demise of Nehru. Agriculture became the focal point of State intervention under Agriculture Minister Mr. C Subramaniam. The miracle technologies of Green Revolution, which was backed by input subsidies helped the rich peasants at the expense of small and marginal farmers. The rich peasantry class gained wealth and political powers overtime. Farmers’ movements led by the rich farmers attracted the small and marginal farmers. Such movements demanded for higher agricultural prices and greater subsidies from the State. The HYV (high-yielding varieties) package necessitated more expensive seeds, greater amount of controlled water (irrigation) and chemical fertilizers, and hence, there was demand for more subsidies. Because of the presence of Mr. Charan Singh in power during 1977, farmers’ voice directly entered the highest strata of policy formulation. The ‘new’ agrarian movement during the decades of 1970s and 1980s was not revolutionary but reformist in nature since it relied more on pressuring the State for remunerative prices, loan waivers and a better rural-urban balance in resource allocation instead of land and tenancy reforms in favour of small and marginal farmers and landless labourers. Post Mandal and Mandir , India saw divisions in the name of caste and class among the farming community that affected farmers’ movements. Presently, agrarian interest is much more marginalized in the national policy agenda. Reforms of the 1990s and shift in economic priorities of the Indian government led to stagnation in agriculture and more hardships for farmers
11 Patnaik, Prabhat (1984): A Synoptic View of Underdevelopment , July 14, Economic and Political Weekly.
5 (Posani 2009) 12 . According to Patnaik (2003) 13 , the decade of 1990s not only saw a steady decline in the level of per capita food availability at the national-level, the absolute amount of per capita food availability during the year 2002-03 was even lower than during the years of the Second World War-years when the terrible Bengal famine took place . c. Indian agriculture before and after liberalisation There are 4 ways in which better agricultural productivity and output can contribute to an economy’s development: a. by supplying foodstuffs and raw material to other expanding sectors of the economy; b. by providing an ‘investible surplus’ of savings and taxes to support investment in other expanding sectors; c. by selling for cash a ‘marketable surplus’ that will raise the demand of the rural population for products of other expanding sectors; and d. by relaxing the foreign exchange constraint by earning foreign exchange through exports or by saving foreign exchange through import substitution. Before the liberalization of the Indian economy, exports and imports were controlled through licensing, quantitative restrictions and canalizing (by state trading boards). There were controls on exports and imports: a. for maintaining stability in domestic prices; b. to help both producers and consumers; c. to ensure food security; d. to maintain sound balance-of-payments; e. exportables and importables acted as wage goods or inputs for wage goods. Since majority of the poors’ income were not index- linked, so it was necessary to keep the prices of the agricultural goods lower; and f. to protect and become self-reliant in production of oilseeds and sugar during the 1980s. India went for trade liberalization for a number of reasons: a. to move domestic prices closer to international prices; b. due to comparative advantage in foodgrains production, India would gain; c. agriculture was net taxed due to high effective rate of protection being given to the industrial sector; agricultural products were not allowed to be exported; and, d. Indian currency was over-valued, which hampered exports of agricultural commodities. It has been apprehended that free trade is likely to lead to greater price inflexibility in the Indian domestic market and would lead to an increase in the relative domestic prices of most crops, most importantly rice. World prices of rice and cotton would fall but their domestic prices would rise. If cotton prices go up, then the domestic textile industry was likely to suffer. With the cut in input subsidies, there would be decline in the profitability for growing sugarcane and oilseeds. However, with the cut in input subsidies, poor rice growing regions would gain. Intellectual property rights (IPRs) would not allow the newer varieties of seeds to be diffused to rural hinterlands. Smaller farmers would not be able to pay higher prices for genetically modified (GM) seeds (Sen and Nayyar, 1994) 14 . The member countries of World Trade Organisation (WTO) are committed to follow a set of rules embodied in Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), which covers: (i) Domestic support; (ii) Market access i.e., tariffs, and restrictions
12 Balamuralidhar, Posani (2009): ‘Crisis in the Countryside: Farmer Suicides and the Political Economy of Agrarian Distress in India’ , Development Studies Institute, London School of Economics, ISSN: 1470- 2320, No. 09-95, February, http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/DESTIN/pdf/WP95.pdf 13 Patnaik, Utsa (2003): Agrarian Crisis and Distress in Rural India , Macroscan, http://www.macroscan.net/fet/jun03/fet100603Agrarian%20Crisis_1.htm 14 Sen, Abhijit and Nayyar, Deepak (1994): International Trade and the Agricultural Sector in India , Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 29, No. 20, May 14
6 on imports and exports; and, (iii) Export subsidies. The agreement required reduction in trade distorting domestic support like price interventions and subsidies; reduction in export subsidies; replacing quantitative restrictions and quotas on trade with tariffs, and reduction in tariffs to encourage more and freer trade. It was predicted that trade liberalisation and implementation of AoA would result in positive gains to the developing countries like India, through improved access to the developed countries’ markets, increased trade and better pricing structure for tropical and other products of interest to the developing countries (NAAS, 2006) 15 . Most of the cultivable land in India was brought under cultivation by the mid- 1960s. To the total rise in agricultural production, the contribution of area increase was around 70% and the contribution of yield increase was nearly 30%. India continued high production with the help of high pay-off inputs. Government invested in R&D of seed technology but it was irrigation dependent. Expansion of area happened through rise in population pressure, land reforms, implementation of community development programmes, and investment in irrigation. Land reforms in India revolved around: removal of landlordism, providing land to the tenants, putting ceilings on land, consolidation of land and co-operative farming. India went for adoption of biochemical technology (since it was a land scarce economy), which was a combination of high yielding varieties (HYVs), chemical fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides and irrigation. The technology was prone to pest and insect attacks, and was too much dependent on irrigation. The technology required a high working capital. Despite the increase in cost of cultivation, increase in profit was manifold. Subsidization of agriculture has been a major policy of the Government of India after the introduction of the new biochemical technology. Subsidy was provided to ensure quick adoption of the new technology by the farmers and to reduce uncertainties in production. Some have argued that subsidies disturbed efficient allocation of resources. However, if subsidies were removed, then investment in agriculture would go down, small and marginal farmers would get affected and the prices of agricultural commodities would shoot up. Government’s investment in agricultural R&D (i.e. biochemical technology) was dependent on the market situation, and hence its response was endogenous and not exogenous. Economic behaviors and decision-making of not only private but also public sector suppliers of scientific knowledge and technology are treated as endogenous (induced) 16 rather than exogenous to the economic system, according to Hayami and Ruttan (1971) 17 . Inducement to develop a technology depend on economic conditions i.e. the relative availability of labour and land, which in turn determines the relative prices of labour and land. The sources of power in traditional agriculture are: labour power, bullock/ horsepower. Mechanical technology means mechanization of irrigation, mechanization of harvesting, tractors replacing labour and bullocks etc. If the supply of
15 NAAS (2006): WTO and Indian agriculture: Implications for Policy and R&D , Policy paper 38, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi, December, http://www.naasindia.org/Policy%20Papers/policy%2038.pdf . 16 Note: In order to know about models of technological change, kindly go through: Ruttan, Vernon W (1996): Sources of Technical Change: Induced Innovation, Evolutionary Theory and Path Dependence (Draft), Economic Development Centre, University of Minnesota, Bulletin No. 96-4, December http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/12974/1/edb96-04.pdf 17 Hayami Y & Ruttan Vernon W (1971): Agricultural Development: An International Perspective, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press.
7 labour and bullock power is higher than its demand then the traditional technology’s cost is lower as compared to the mechanical technology. Certain features of mechanical technology are: a. It is time saving; b. It has a high fixed cost but low variable cost; c. It is labour displacing; and, d. Labour productivity goes up when mechanical technology is used since it displaces labour. Mechanical technology is a substitute for biological technology, which comprises of labour power and bullock power. Biological sources of technology will be preferred over mechanical technology if its prices were lower compared to the latter. Certain features of biochemical technology are: a. It increases yield; b. It absorbs labour; c. The variable cost is high; and d. It is a substitute for land . Latin America is characterized by the presence of latifundios (very large landholdings) and minifundios (very small landholdings). There is high level of inequality in the distribution of land under cultivation. Studies show that value of output per hectare under cultivation is higher in the minifundios as compared to the latifundios, particularly in countries like Brazil, Argentina and Chile. As opposed to Latin America, in the case of Asia, there exists too little land for too many people. Land ownership in Asian countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh has been affected by European rule, introduction of monetized transactions, rise in power of the moneylenders, and rapid growth of Asian populations [Todaro and Smith, (2006)] 18 . d. The rural farm economy Rural livelihoods refer to the various sets of entitlements before an individual, which can help him or her in order to live. For too long, Indian farmers have seen rise in prices of agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, seeds, electricity, water etc. during the decade of 1990s and 2000s. Without a corresponding rise in market prices or the minimum support prices, rise in input prices affected the profitability of the farmers. As a result of this, farmers became interested either to leave agriculture in order to move towards other professions or occupations, or they have fallen prey to money-lenders and middle-men so as to get loans and credits at exorbitant rates of interests. The rising cost of production has made the farmers depend on informal sources of credit since the transactions costs are too high to receive formal credit along with the problem of moral hazards. Rising input prices and falling market prices have reduced the economic sustainability of Indian agriculture. Not enough livelihoods are generated in the rural non-farm economy, which can be a ray of hope for the majority dependent on agriculture. According to de Haan and Zoomers (2005) 19 , “in the household studies, increased attention was paid to household strategies as a means of capturing the behaviour of low- income people. The concentration on households was considered useful for its potential to bridge the gap between micro-economics, with its focus on the atomistic behaviour of individuals, and historical structuralism, which focused on the political economy oif development. The household also came into vogues in a more practical sense; it was considered a convenient unit for the collection of empirical data”.
18 Todaro, Michael P and Smith, Stephen C (2006): Chapter 10: Agricultural Transformation and Rural Development , in Economic Development, Eighth edition, Pearson. 19 de Haan, Leo and Zoomers, Annelies (2005): Exploring the Frontier of Livelihoods Research , Development and Change, Vol. 36, No. 1, January, Blackwell Publishing.
8 Graph 1: Agricultural production in India (in million tones)
Rice 250.00 Wheat Coarse Cereals 200.00 Cereals Pulses Foodgrains 150.00
100.00
50.00
0.00 1980-81 1982-83 1984-85 1986-87 1988-89 1990-91 1992-93 1994-95 1996-97 1998-99 2000-01 2002-03 2004-05 2006-07
Y ear s
Source: Handbook of Statistics on Indian Economy, RBI
Rates of growth of foodgrains and cereal production have increased from 2003-04 onwards, as could be seen from the graph 1. However, there was stagnancy in the growth rates of production of pulses and coarse cereals over the years. Livelihood units such as the individuals, families or businesses change the composition of livelihood ‘portfolios’ to reflect changing opportunities, hazards, risks and constraints. Such behaviour falls under the broad term of livelihood diversification. In the case of India, there was lesser opportunity for such diversification. The increasingly urban nature of a national economy has turned out to be at odds with the increasingly rural nature of a particular enterprise or family strategy. Unlike the tied patron-client labour relationship during the olden days, many jobs nowadays are temporary in nature. Livelihood diversification is considered to be both a coping and a thriving mechanism–thriving where it is driven by a growing and more flexible economy. But the ‘coping’ dimension usually dominates where diversification is an enforced response to failing agriculture, recession and retrenchment. And, this is what has been happening in the case of India (Start and Johnson, 2004) 20 . Earlier, the report by the National Commission on Rural Labour (NCRL, 1991) suggested that labourers and land- poor farmers have a high propensity to migrate as seasonal labourers. These migrants are highly disadvantaged as they are poverty ridden with too little bargaining power.
20 Start, Daniel and Johnson, Craig (2004): Livelihood Options? The Political Economy of Access, Opportunity and Diversification , Working Paper 233, Overseas Development Institute, April, http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/odi-publications/working-papers/233-livelihoods-options-political- economy-access-opportunity-diversification.pdf .
9
Table 1: Trend growth rate during the past three decades Trend growth rate per annum 1980-81 to 1989-90 1990-91 to 1999-2000 2000-01 to 2007-08 Rice 3.55 2.00 1.86 R square 0.65 0.81 0.23 Wheat 3.50 3.51 1.36 R square 0.73 0.92 0.34 Foodgrains 2.70 2.07 1.99 R square 0.67 0.82 0.34 Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India Note: The trend growth rate in the production of rice, wheat and food grains for separate periods have been calculated by the author
From the table 1, one could make out that trend growth rate in rice production declined from 3.55 percent during the period 1980-81 to 1989-90 to 2.00 percent during the period 1990-91 to 1999-2000, and further to 1.86 percent during the period 2000-01 to 2007-08. Trend growth rate in wheat production increased marginally from 3.50 percent during the period 1980-81 to 1989-90 to 3.51 percent during the period 1990-91 to 1999-2000, but fell down sharply to 1.36 percent during the period 2000-01 to 2007- 08. Trend growth rate in foodgrains production declined from 2.70 percent during the period 1980-81 to 1989-90 to 2.07 percent during the period 1990-91 to 1999-2000, and further declined to 1.99 percent during the period 2000-01 to 2007-08. Among other things, the sustainable-livelihoods literature identifies five types of capital assets as the basis of household livelihoods: (i) financial capital (e.g. income from employment or self-employment, pensions, credit, remittances from relatives abroad or in urban areas); (ii) human capital (e.g. skills, knowledge); (iii) natural capital (e.g. land, forests, water, genetic resources); (iv) physical capital (e.g. equipment); and (v) social capital (e.g. networks of social relations). Household livelihoods depend on diverse and evolving combinations of these different assets. e. Agrarian crisis and ‘liberal’ policies It is increasingly felt that Indian agriculture is currently suffering from “technology fatigue”, due to which the earlier gains made during the Green Revolution has withered away. Moreover, Green Revolution itself has been criticized for being Euro- centric, environmentally unsustainable and being apolitical (it never addressed the issues of land and tenancy reforms, and other related institutional reforms). Green Revolution actually tried to improve yields and production, without taking into account the needed change in rural and social institutions. Since it offered a high-valued package, so it helped only the rich farmers (owning large landholdings) from assured irrigated areas. Areas where rainfed irrigation takes place could not gain much from the Green Revolution. Green Revolution only promoted production of certain crops, which are agro-climatically suitable for certain regions, which some say have affected biodiversity. It relied excessively on major irrigations (instead of minor irrigation and rainwater harvesting), chemical fertilizers and pesticides. In order to sustain Green Revolution, huge subsidies were given on inputs (for producers of inputs—firms, and consumer of inputs—farmers)
10 like electricity, fertilizers etc, thus making the entire effort economically unsustainable. It was the large farmers, which benefited from the subsidies provided at the cost of the small and the marginal farmers. The Bollgard Bt cottonseed and other such seeds, which have recently been introduced, have failed to cater the needs of the rural farming community who belong to the lower income group (as well as socially backward groups), and possess small-sized farmlands and cropping fields. In fact, there are allegations that due to the liberalization of the Indian economy, multi-national corporations (MNCs) from the North got the opportunity of plundering the farmers of the global South, by patenting and giving 'new names' to the indigenous varieties of plants (such as turmeric, basmati rice) and animals (via genetic engineering) from the South, thus leading to bio-piracy. Issues and debates surrounding bio-ethics, bio-piracy and violation of intellectual property rights (IPRs) have come to the forefront during the recent years, which are still needed to be resolved at international forums like World Trade Organisation (WTO). The 59 th round of the National Sample Survey states that agrarian distress is severe in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan. High levels of indebtedness are also reported from these states. The influence of moneylenders appears to be strong in Bihar and Rajasthan in terms of extending informal credit to farmers. Traders also have extended loans to indebted farmers (Ghosh and Chandrashekhar, 2005) 21 . The Plant Variety Protection and Farmers' Rights Act (PVPFR) 2002, which was formulated under the sui generis option of the WTO recognises farmers' rights to save, use, sow, exchange, share or sell his farm products including the seed of a variety protected. The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), on the other hand, which came into being in 1961, has the scope and potential to restrict the age-old traditional right of the farmer to "plant back seeds" in order to safeguard the vested interests of western seed manufacturing corporations. Hence, one can say that UPOV and the PVPFR cannot co-exist in the Indian context (Krishnan, 2002) 22 . Many have argued about the adverse impact of private seed manufacturing companies, which made their inroads into the rural Indian economy, after the formulation of the National Seed Policies in 1988 and 2002. The National Seeds Bill, 2004 has been criticized by the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and the Bharat Krishak Samaj (Saggi, 2006) 23 .
21 Ghosh, Jayati and Chandrashekhar, CP (2005): The Burden of Farmers’ Debt , Macroscan, http://www.macroscan.org/the/finance/sep05/fin140905Farmers_Debt.htm 22 Krishnan, BJ (2002): Move in join UPOV-Farmers’ rights in jeopardy , The Hindu Business Line, 2 October. 23 Saggi, Naiyya (2006): Seed Bill in India: Policy Analysis and Implications , CCS Working Paper No. 151, Summer Research Internship Program 2006, Centre for Civil Society, http://www.ccsindia.org/ccsindia/interns2006/Seed%20Bill%20and%20its%20implications%20- %20Naiyya.pdf
11 Graph 2: Yield in agriculture (kg per hectare)
3000
Rice Wheat Coarse Cereals 2500 Cereals Pulses Foodgrains
2000
1500
1000
500
0
Years Source: Handbook of Statistics on Indian Economy, RBI
Rate of growth of wheat yield has fallen down since 2001-02, as could be made out from the graph 2. There was stagnancy in the rate of growth of pulses yield. Growth rate in rice yield has increased marginally during the recent years. Subsidies should be cut to step-up investments in irrigation and for increasing outlays on poverty alleviation programmes, according to Rao (1995) 24 . Intensive use of inputs in limited pockets, have led to lowering the productivity of inputs, reducing employment elasticity of output through substitution of capital for labour, and environmental degradation such as water logging and salinity, on one hand and lowering of water table, on the other hand. The National Agricultural Policy (NAP) (2000) announced by the Government of India, sought to give a prominent role to contract farming. However, it is said that
24 Rao, CHH (1995): Liberalisation of Agriculture in India: Some Major Issues , Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 50, No. 3, July-September
12 contract farming has led to 'corporatization' of Indian agriculture, which has adversely affected the small and marginal farmers. Contract farming has been criticized as being a tool for the agribusiness firms to exploit an unequal power relationship with growers. However, advocates of contract farming view it as a way to create a synergy between agribusiness firms and small farmers that benefit both without sacrificing the rights of either. It is seen as a mechanism to modernize small peasant holders through transfer of technology. f. Farmers’ suicides and its causes According to the Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers Indebtedness of Farmer Households National Sample Survey (NSS) 59 th Round (January–December 2003):
Ø Out of 89.35 million farmer households, 43.42 million (48.6%) were reported to be indebted. A similar survey by the NSS relating to 1991 found indebtedness among only 26 per cent of farmers. On an average, the amount of debt per farmer household was Rs. 12,585. Ø At all-India level, estimated number of rural households was 147.90 million, of whom 60.4% were farmer households. Ø At all-India level, an estimated 60.4% of rural households were farmer households and of them 48.6% were reported to be indebted. Ø The incidence of indebtedness was highest in Andhra Pradesh (82.0%), to be followed by Tamil Nadu (74.5%), Punjab (65.4%), Kerala (64.4%), Karnataka (61.6%) and Maharashtra (54.8%). Ø Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal each had about 50% to 53% farmer households indebted. States with very low proportion of indebted farmer households were Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal. In each of these States less than 10% farmer households were indebted. Ø Estimated number of indebted farmer households was highest in Uttar Pradesh (6.9 million), to be followed by Andhra Pradesh (4.9 million) and Maharashtra (3.6 million). More than half of the indebted farmer households belonged to the states of Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh. Ø Going by principal source of income, 57% farmer households were cultivators. Among them 48% were indebted. Ø The percentage share of estimated all farmer households in different social groups was 13.3% in ST, 17.5% in SC, 41.5% in OBC and 27.7% in Others. Ø The prevalence rate of indebtedness of farmer households in different social groups was 36.3% in ST, 50.2% in SC, 51.4% in OBC and 49.4% in others. The average loan per farmer household in different social groups were 5,500 rupees for ST, 7,200 rupees for SC, 13,500 rupees for OBC and 18,100 rupees for others. Ø The size classes of land possessed considered were: <0.01 ha, 0.01-0.40 ha, 0.41-1.00 ha, 1.01- 2.00 ha, 2.01-4.00 ha, 4.01-10.00 ha and more than 10.00 ha. The proportions of total farmer households in these seven classes were estimated as 1.4%, 32.8%, 31.7%, 18.0%, 10.5%, 4.8% and 0.9% respectively. The prevalence rates of indebtedness in these seven classes were 45.3%, 44.4%, 45.6%, 51.0%, 58.2%, 65.1% and 66.4%, i.e. in the different size classes of land possessed, 44% to 66% farmer households were indebted. Ø At national level, on an average, 29 out of 100 indebted households borrowed from ‘agricultural/professional money lender’. Among the states the incidence of borrowing from this source was highest in Andhra Pradesh (57 out of 100 indebted households), to be followed by Tamil Nadu (52 out of 100 indebted households). Ø Marriages and ceremonies accounted for 111 rupees per 1000 rupees of outstanding loans of farmer households. Among the states the proportion was highest in Bihar (229 rupees per 1000 rupees), to be followed by Rajasthan (176 rupees per 1000 rupees). Ø The most important source of loan in terms of percentage of outstanding loan amount was banks (36%), to be followed by moneylenders (26%).
13 Ø Average outstanding loan per farmer household was highest in the state of Punjab, to be followed by Kerala, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Issues related to rural development and livelihood security gained the attention of scholars, citizens and policy-makers during the late 1990s and 2000s, following the spate of farmers’ suicides that was quite significant in magnitude, owing to agrarian distress, rural indebtedness and policy failures. Many a studies were conducted in reputed institutes like the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR) etc. that looked at the possible reasons behind such suicides being committed. Many study reports came out with various sets of policy recommendations so as to combat the pitfalls of agrarian grief. It could be found out that Vidarbha region in Maharashtra, Deccan and Hyderabad Karnataka regions in Karnataka, Telangana and Rayalaseema regions in Andhra Pradesh, and Wayanad in Kerala have received more attention and coverage by the press on the issue of suicides. The top five states in terms of the number of farmer’s suicides in 2001–viz., Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh–accounted for nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of the suicides in India. Farmers who committed suicides belonged to dry regions where agriculture is mainly rain fed. Farmers were growing cash crops in such regions for e.g.: cotton (particularly in Maharastra) , sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka) . In the recent times, farmers from the global South faced competition in the face of depleting social support and ‘safety net’. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics show that close to 2,00,000 farmers have committed suicide in India since 1997 (Bagchi, 2009) 25 . Apart from the psychological factors, socio-economic factors played a key role behind such suicides. Increased cost of inputs, dependence on and fluctuations in rainfall (due to the absence of irrigation), excessive supply of and excessive demand for the crops produced, level of and fluctuation in market prices etc. have affected the profitability of cultivation. Due to fall in the average size of the landholdings and prevalence of marginal holdings, the profitability has come down. Availability and usage of spurious inputs too has adversely affected production. There are other factors responsible for farmers’ suicides that included: crop failures, shifting to more profitable but risky (in terms of output, quality and prices) cash crops like cotton/ sugarcane/ soyabean, exorbitant rate of interest and other terms and conditions associated with loans, which is availed from money lenders, lack of non-farm employment opportunities, unwillingness to adopt to scientific practices, non-availability of timely credit from formal channels, absence of proper environment/ incentive for timely repayment of bank loan, unavailability of power supply for irrigation etc. Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides. The bargaining power of farmers’ associations so as to demand for remunerative prices and subsidies on inputs declined in 1990s as compared to the 1980s [Wakude (2009) 26 , Nagaraj (2008) 27 , Mishra (2007) 28 .
25 Bagchi, Subhojit (2009): Punjab suicides cast shadow on polls , April 12, BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7992327.stm 26 Wakude, SM (2009): ‘Suicide of Farmers in Maharastra: Causes and Remedies’ , NABARD, http://www.nabard.org/databank/IARD%20Web/csidfiles/Suicide%20of%20Farmers%20in%20Maharasht ra.pdf
14 Rapid economic growth has caused individualization of the farmers who committed suicides, if one could see the situation from a Durkheimian perspective. Farmer’s suicides in Vidharbha region in Maharastra happened due to indebtedness, high cost of inputs (including credit) and over-reliance on Green Revolution technology instead of traditional farming methods (Mohanty, 2005) 29 .
27 Nagaraj, K (2008): ‘Farmers’ suicides in India: Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns’ , Madras Institute of Development Studies, published in Macroscan.com, March, http://www.macroscan.org/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf . 28 Mishra, Srijit (2007): ‘Risks, Farmers’ Suicides and Agrarian Crisis in India: Is There A Way Out?’, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), WP-2007-014, September , http://www.igidr.ac.in/pdf/publication/WP-2007-014.pdf 29 Mohanty, BB (2005): We are the Living Dead: Farmers’ Suicide in Maharastra, Western India , Journal of Peasant Studies, 32 (2): 243-276
15 Graph 3: Percentage share of various sources of direct institutional credit (loans issued) for agriculture and allied activities for the short-term
100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 3.9 3.4 3.6 3.9 2.0 6.0 5.1 5.1 4.6 7.9 4.9 5.8 5.6 8.5 9.6 10.0 10.7 10.3 2.1 5.9 6.9 13.8 13.6 90.0 7.8
80.0 35.4 29.3 34.3 32.2 30.3 32.7 31.7 33.2 33.1 33.2 70.0 33.5 37.6 37.2 40.5 41.8 Loans issued by state government 48.5 60.0 Regional Rural Banks Scheduled commercial banks 50.0 Co-operative
40.0 Percentage share 61.9 30.0 57.7 59.5 58.6 60.5 59.4 57.3 56.0 54.1 57.4 56.8 51.9 52.2 49.2 44.4 20.0 37.9
10.0
0.0 0.0 1990-91 1991-92 1992-93 1993-94 1994-95 1995-96 1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 Years
Source: Handbook of Statistics on Indian Economy, RBI
From the graph 3, one could decipher that percentage share of scheduled commercial banks in advancing loans to agriculture and allied activities during the short-term has increased overtime at the cost of loans extended by the co-operative banks.
16 Graph 4: Percentage share of various sources of direct institutional credit (loans issued) for agriculture and allied activities for the long-term
100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 5.0 5.7 5.1 5.2 5.8 6.3 6.1 6.4 6.3 4.4 5.7 4.7 5.3 4.4 6.1 5.0
90.0
80.0 37.4 38.3 42.9 42.4 48.3 50.6 70.0 52.0 52.1 53.7 55.2 53.8 53.0 54.8 62.4 57.3 60.0 70.0 Loans issued by state government 50.0 Regional Rural Banks
40.0 Scheduled commercial banks Co-operative 30.0 56.9 57.0 52.7 52.4 42.9 46.5 45.0 20.0 40.6 42.1 40.1 40.7 38.5 36.4 39.1 32.6 25.0 10.0
0.0
Ye a r s
Source: Handbook of Statistics on Indian Economy, RBI
From the graph 4, one could get that percentage share of scheduled commercial banks in advancing loans to agriculture and allied activities during the long-term has increased overtime at the cost of loans extended by the co-operative banks. Improving the economic viability of credit institutions was the need during the reforms period. The existing large differentials between the concessional rates of interest charged by institutional sources and market rates is responsible for rent seeking by the middlemen who re-lend credit, especially to the poor households at higher rates of interest. Large farmers have been the major beneficiaries of long-term loans at concessional rates at the expense of small and marginal farmers (Rao, 1995)30 . Abolition of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and reducing the supply of rural credit as recommended by the Narasimham Committee (Committee on Financial Reforms, 1991) have been considered as counter-productive by many. It has been apprehended that demand for removal of restrictions on land market including that on lease market, abolition of ceilings on land holdings and full freedom of the corporate sector to access land for large-scale production can affect the small and marginal farmers (Bhalla,
30 Rao, CHH (1995): Liberalisation of Agriculture in India: Some Major Issues , Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 50, No. 3, July-September
17 1995) 31 . Since the early 1990s, RRBs put a curb on recruitment of new staff. As a proportion of total advances, priority sector lending to rural and agricultural sector dipped from around 70 percent in 1990 to 57 percent in 2001. While redefining the priority sector comprising of the small farmers and the tiny needy sector in industry, the Narasimham Committee recommended that credit to this redefined priority sector should be only 10 per cent of total bank credit. The Committee tried its best to reduce priority sector lending while recommending to reduce the burden of non-performing assets being held by the RRBs (Bose, 2005) 32 .
Table 2: Borrowers' view on causes of defaults (% of borrowers reporting)
Source: RBI (1989): A Review of the Agricultural Credit System in India, Report of the Agricultural Credit Review Committee, (Chairman: AM Khusro), Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai
Gulati and Bathla (2002) 33 have found that Commercial Banks (CBs), Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and Cooperatives are the three main rural financial institutions (RFIs), which provide credit to the agricultural sector at the village level. The informal sources of finance, which include local moneylenders, landlords, traders, etc. charge more than 20% rate of interest, often keep land as collateral against loan, and still have a
31 Bhalla, GS (1995): Globalisation and Agricultural Policy in India , Presidential Address, 54 th Annual Conference of the Indian Society of Agricultutural Economics, Shivaji University, Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 50, No. 1, January-March. 32 Bose, Sukanya (2005): Regional Rural Banks: The Past and the Present Debate , Macroscan, http://www.macroscan.com/fet/jul05/pdf/RRB_Debate.pdf 33 Gulati, Ashok and Bathla, Seema (2002): Institutional Credit to Indian Agriculture: Defaults and Policy Options , Occasional Paper 23, NABARD, Mumbai, http://www.nabard.org/FileUpload/DataBank/OccasionalPapers/OC%2023.pdf
18 very high recovery rate. However, RFIs charge almost half of this interest rate, do not take land as collateral for most of the crop loans, and still face high defaults. Between the period 1980 and 1998, the recovery of loans in Co-operatives, RRBs and CBs has varied between 39-66%. A categorization of the causes, provided in table 2, indicates that the external factors are essentially related to non-viability of agriculture. g. Sustainability of Indian agriculture Many feel that industrial agriculture and animal husbandry, which were being thrusted upon the developing countries by the multilateral donor agencies and multinational corporations (MNCs) for increasing production and raising the level of supernormal profits, have taken its toll on biodiversity, human health and quality of soil. The so-called Green Revolution technology, which emphasizes on large-scale production of cash crops, mono cropping and development of biotechnology, lately, has made the farmers much more dependent on chemical fertilizers, pesticides and credit. In the absence of these inputs and without the support (in the form of subsidies on inputs) coming from the government, crop-failures and non-profitability have emerged as major problems. Lust for biofuel production in countries from Latin America and the US has made the international prices of staple food sky-high, which affected the poorer section of the farming community (including the landless) as net consumers. Although India’s reliance on food aid (such as PL-480) has declined overtime due to increase in domestic production of food, there is little evidence that is available to show that increased production has reduced the levels of hunger and malnutrition. Rise in buffer stocks of foodgrains do not always mean that India has become self-sufficient in terms of food security. The rise in food stocks could have happened due to lack of purchasing power, and not necessarily due to changes in the tastes and preferences of consumers whereby they tend to move towards consumption of other products and services instead of food. Absence of purchasing power has also affected the ‘effective demand’ for industrial goods. From various studies, it could be found that not only agriculture induces climate but climate change too can affect agricultural production. Agriculture contributes about 14 percent of annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions . Changing crop mixes to include more plants that are perennial or have deep root systems is likely to increase the amount of carbon stored in the soil. Cultivation systems that leave residues and reduce tillage, especially deep tillage, encourage the buildup of soil carbon. Soil carbon improves the physical properties of soil. It holds a great proportion of nutrients, cations and trace elements that are of importance to plant growth. Carbon retained in the soil is considered good since that lead to lesser presence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It has been found that shifting land use from annual crops to perennial crops, pasture, and agroforestry increases both above- and below-ground carbon stocks. Changes in crop genetics and the management of irrigation, fertilizer usage, and soils can reduce both nitrous oxide and methane emissions (IFPRI, 2009) 34 . The Fourth Assessment Report of IPCC (2007) has suggested that a 2°C increase in mean air temperature could decrease rain-fed rice yields by 5-12% in China and under one scenario net cereal production in South Asian countries is projected to decline by 4 to
34 Nelson, Gerald C (2009): Agriculture and Climate Change: An Agenda for Negotiation in Copenhagen , 2020 Focus No. 16, Brief 1, http://www.ifpri.org/2020/focus/focus16/Focus16_01.pdf
19 10% by the end of this century. In India, “gross per capita water availability” will decline from around 1,820 cubic metres a year to as low as around 1,140 cubic metres a year by the year 2050. Due to melting of glaciers, Ganga, Indus, Brahmaputra and other rivers that flow in the northern Indian plain may become seasonal rivers with important ramifications for poverty. Climate change would affect forest expansion and migration, and exacerbate threats to biodiversity resulting from land use/cover change and population pressure in most of Asia. The IPCC report says that marine and coastal ecosystems in Asia are likely to be affected by sea level rise and temperature increases. Improvements in water productivity are critical. Since climate change would make rainfall more variable and change its spatial distribution, it will exacerbate the need for better water harvesting, storage, and management. There would thus be the need for innovative institutional mechanisms that give agricultural water users incentives to conserve. Some of the regions to be affected by climate change are: a. the Arctic, because of the impacts of high rates of projected warming on natural systems and human communities; b. Africa, because of low adaptive capacity and projected climate change impacts; c. small islands, where there is high exposure of population and infrastructure to projected climate change impacts; and d. Asian and African megadeltas, due to large populations and high exposure to sea level rise, storm surges and river flooding (IPCC, 2007) 35 . Although there is need for environmental clearances on projects initiated by both the private and public sector, very often pressures are exerted by the industrial lobby so that environment impact assessments (EIAs) do not become a hurdle towards growth. One can recall here the Principle 17 of the Rio declaration, which states–“EIA as a national instrument shall be undertaken for the proposed activities that are likely to have significant adverse impact on the environment and are subject to a decision of a competent national authority” . Neglect of EIAs has given rise to a situation where industrial wastage is dumped in rivers and lakes, without thinking about the adverse consequences on human health and environment. Redundant technologies are adopted for pursuing short-term gains. Combating industrial and vehicular pollution has become a major issue before India. Contamination of water resources due to unregulated dumping of untreated industrial wastage has become a challenge. Technology transfers seldom happen in the case of smaller firms so that industrial pollution can be tackled unless there are proper regulations and incentives. Building of large dams in the past and a recent drive to create special economic zones (SEZs) for speedy industrialization by many of the state governments has turned out to be controversial since that led to massive dislocation of locals without adequate compensation. States like West Bengal, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh could see evictions (which are violent in nature) of tribals and farmers owing to development related projects and establishment of special economic zones 36 .
35 IPCC (2007): Climate Change: Synthesis Report, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/syr/ar4_syr.pdf 36 Note: More information on recent incidents of dislocations could be accessed from the Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food: Summary of communications sent and replies received from Governments and other actors, A/HRC/7/5/Add.1, 29 February 2008, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/7session/A-HRC-7-5-Add1.pdf
20 Women depend a lot on availability of and accessibility to natural resources like water, medicinal herbs, fodder etc., and hence are exposed to severe vulnerabilities due to ecological imbalances. Most of the times such imbalances are a result of over- exploitation of nature by the human beings. Today, one could watch rising sea levels, melting glaciers, violent storms and life-taking floods as a result of climate change. The release of the IPCC report (2007) has made the world leaders to rethink about the growth path, which was being followed blindly, even by the Third World countries. Green technology has become a fad in the West but countries from the South still depend a lot on technology transfer and aid. It is difficult for the global South to invent cheaper, environmentally friendly technologies without adequately investing in R&D. Cleaner technologies are required to be labour absorbing so that livelihood opportunities can be created via their adoption. h. Recent policy measures According to the loan waiver proposed in Budget 2008-09, all agricultural loans disbursed by scheduled commercial banks, regional rural banks and cooperative credit institutions up to March 31, 2007 and overdue as on December 31, 2007 would be written off in the case of small and marginal farmers. For all other farmers, there will be a one- time settlement for the outstanding debt, whereby 25 per cent will be written off if the farmer repays 75 per cent. It excludes from full benefits all the farmers on dry land and poor quality land who hold more than 2 hectares, even though studies show that they are among the worst affected from the agrarian crisis. This package excludes the majority of farmers who have taken debt from private sources. The Government of Kerala has established a Debt Relief Commission, to identify the pockets and categories of severe agrarian distress and provide relief accordingly. The draft policy of the National Commission on Farmers has called for developing and introducing a Livelihood Security Package for farmers by providing them technology choice according to agro-ecological conditions and market demand; soil health enhancement and water conservation; quality and affordability of inputs; credit and insurance and market tie-up, besides necessary health care facilities linked with the National Rural Health Mission. The 2008-09 Budget of the Union Government (Rediff, 2008) 37 came up with a slew of measures for the ailing agricultural sector, which included:
• Complete waiver of loans for marginal farmers owning land up to one hectare and small farmers owning land up to 1 and 2 hectares. • Agricultural loans given by scheduled commericial banks, regional rural banks and cooperative credit institutions up to March 31, 2007 and due for December 31 that year will be covered under the waiver scheme to address the problem of indebtedness. • One time settlement of loans for other farmers. • Agriculture loans restructured and rescheduled by banks from 2004-06 and other loans normally rescheduled under RBI guidelines will also be eligible under the waiver scheme. • Implementation of debt waiver and debt relief will be completed by June 30, 2008. • Loan waiver scheme to involve loans liability of Rs 60,000 crore and to benefit four crore farmers. • The corpus of rural infrastructure development fund to be raised to Rs 14,000 crore.
37 Rediff (2008): Highlights of Union Budget 2008-09, 29 February, http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/feb/29budget5.htm
21 • The loan waiver scheme will benefit three crore small and medium farmers and cover loans totalling Rs 50,000 crore. • One crore other farmers will benefit to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore in the waiver. • Rs 500 crore for corpus fund to subsidise all women Self Helf Groups for LIC cover for permanent disability. • A target of Rs 2.80 lakh crore for agriculture credit set for the coming year. • Rs 20,000 crore for irrigation projects under AIPB, showing an increase of Rs 9,000 crore over 2007-08. • National Horticulture Mission to be given Rs 1,100 crore in 2008-09 with special focus on coconut cultivation. • Rs 75 crore to be given to Agriculture Ministry for providing mobile soil testing laboratories in 250 districts. • Rs 644 crore for National Agriculture Insurance Scheme • National Plant Protection Training Institute at Hyderabad to be made autonomous body and Rs.29 crore will be allocated to it. • NREGA scheme to be rolled out in all the 596 rural districts in the country in 2008-09.
In a bid to boost procurement of grains and provide competitive prices to farmers, the minimum support price (MSP) for rabi crop for the 2008-09 season has been raised in January, 2009. The MSP of wheat, which earlier was Rs.1,000 per quintal for the 2008- 09 marketing season, has been raised by Rs.80 to Rs.1,080 per quintal. The minimum support price (MSP) for the common variety of paddy was raised to Rs. 850 a quintal from Rs. 745 and for Grade A to Rs. 875 from Rs. 775 as an “ad hoc measure.” i. Rural livelihoods and social audits Prof. Jean Dreze (who was erstwhile with the Delhi School of Economics) and many others have worked relentlessly amidst civil society organisations for the enactment of the National Rural Employment Guaranty Act (NREGA). NREGA opened the doors for right to employment so as to ensure livelihood security of the poor manual labourers by allowing for payments of unemployment compensation to the applicants in case the local panchayats fail to offer employment. NREGA also guarantees equal payment of minimum wages to men and women. The murder of Lalit K Mehta, who was a social activist from Palamau district, Jharkhand, in May, 2008 once again proved the existing nefarious nexus among bureaucracy, contractors and politicians. He was a close aide of Prof. Jean Dreze and was working for conducting social audits at the sites of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). According to the sympathisers, his murder was pre- planned since he exposed corruption in the NREGS that was running in Palamau (EPW, 2009) 38 . Democratic governments fulfill civil liberties and respect rights such as the freedom of information, freedom of association and the right to peaceful assembly by providing space for civil society to act in both the human rights and anti-corruption arenas. Corruption prevents non-discrimination and promotes inequality by perpetuating marginalisation and exclusion. Social auditing in Andhra Pradesh has proved to be fruitful in order to ensure transparency and accountability in the NREGS. Public participation in social auditing and scrutiny has been considered to be empowering. The
38 EPW (2009): A Different Route to Justice: The Lalit Mehta Murder Case , March 21-27, Vol. XLIV No. 12, Economic and Political Weekly.
22 Right to Information (RTI) Bill and the Lokpal Bill have provided the citizens right to hold the government accountable. Enactment of the RTI Act has empowered the citizens. This law was passed by the Indian Parliament on 15 June, 2005 and came fully into force on 13 October, 2005. Information disclosure in India was hitherto restricted by the Official Secrets Act 1923 and various other special laws, which the new RTI Act now relaxes. The doomed Freedom of Information Bill 2000 gave way for the draft Right to Information Bill that was tabled in the Parliament on 22 December, 2004. The Supreme Court of India earlier held that the fundamental right to freedom of speech guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution was based on the foundation of the freedom of right to know and all citizens have the right to know about the activities of the State. j. Agricultural R&D Support coming from the Government of India and many of the multilateral and bilateral donor agencies has produced an institutionally diverse agricultural research system in India that has achieved many successes, most notably the Green Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s. Many studies have pointed out the impressive performance of the system, with annual rates of return to investment in research ranging between 35 and 155 percent. The first organized effort to promote agricultural development, including R&E (research and education), in India began in the last quarter of the 19 th century with the establishment of the Department of Revenue, Agriculture, and Commerce along with a bacteriological laboratory and five veterinary colleges. During 1905, the Imperial (now Indian) Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) was established, along with six agricultural colleges. The Imperial (now Indian) Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) was established in 1929, as a semi-autonomous body to promote, guide and coordinate agricultural research nationally. Based on the recommendation of two joint Indian– American review teams (in 1955 and 1960), state agricultural universities (SAUs) were established, following the land-grant pattern of the United States. The Rockefeller Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have played an active role in the establishment of the SAUs and the training of staff through partnerships with US land-grant universities. There are presently 31 SAUs in India with faculties that include agriculture, veterinary science, engineering, and home science. The World Bank too has provided considerable resources to agricultural research since 1980 (Pal and Byerlee, 2006) 39 . The ICAR has established 261 krishi vigyan kendras (agricultural science centers, or KVKs) at the district level that are responsible for the transfer of new technologies and for training farmers. The agricultural R&D situation has changed during the 1980s with the growing availability of trained scientists, rapid expansion of markets for agricultural inputs and processed foods, and liberalized policies to support private-sector development. Presently, the private sector supplies half of all certified seed, half of all fertilizer, and most of the pesticide and farm machinery. Many have discussed about the increasing role of markets, growing participation of the private sector in research, rapid advances in science, and strengthening of
39 Pal, Suresh and Byerlee, Derek (2006): Chapter 7: India: The Funding and Organization of Agricultural R&D—Evolution and Emerging Policy Issues , in Philip G. Pardey, Julian M. Alston, and Roley R. Piggott (ed.) Agricultural R&D in the Developing World: Too Little, Too Late? , http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/books/oc51/oc51ch07.pdf
23 intellectual property rights that have a significant impact on the organization and management of agricultural research. Studies have shown that the main sources of agricultural growth were irrigation, land reform, infrastructural development, and technical change. Growth in total factor productivity (TFP) has been attributed to investment in agricultural research, which provided high payoffs. Private sector investment currently plays a pivotal role in research that focuses on hybrid seed, biotechnology, pesticides, fertilizer, machinery, animal health, poultry, and food processing. The new seed policy in 1988, which allowed the importation of seed materials, as well as majority ownership of seed companies by foreign companies, created more room for the private sector. The Indian government approved the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Act (2001) so as to provide intellectual property protection to plant breeders. The act emphasizes farmers’ rights to save, exchange, and sell unbranded seed of a protected variety, unlike the policies adopted under the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV). India has also amended the Patent Act (1970) to make it compatible with WTO agreements. The amendments enshrined in the Patents (Amendment) Act (2005) grants process and product patents in all fields of technology, which are likely to stimulate research in the biotechnology and plant and animal health sectors. However, there are doubts that such a move would result in increased monopoly rights over invention, thus, affecting price structure. Bhalla (1995) 40 thinks that patenting of research is expected to encourage private research in agriculture, though it is likely to raise the cost of adopting new technology, and the diffusion of new technology through public research and extension to the smaller farmers is likely to become more difficult and costlier. k. Right to development The right to food campaign came into existence when the Supreme Court of India, in the year 2002, ordered for extension of assistance to those at risk of starvation after the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Rajasthan filed a writ petition following the paradox of starvation deaths amidst overflowing foodstocks in 2000. A rights-based approach to development is a conceptual framework for the process of human development that is normatively based on international human rights standards and operationally directed to promoting and protecting human rights. A rights-based approach integrates the norms, standards and principles of the international human rights system into the plans, policies and processes of development. A rights-based approach to development includes the elements: a. express linkage to rights; b. accountability; c. empowerment; d. participation; and f. non-discrimination and attention to vulnerable groups (UN, 2006) 41 . A rights-based approach would, thus, provide a basis in law from which claimants could seek administrative and or legal recourse. A rights- based approach views governments’ promotion of food security as an obligation, hence not as a form of benevolence.
40 Bhalla, GS (1995): Globalisation and Agricultural Policy in India , Presidential Address, 54 th Annual Conference of the Indian Society of Agricultutural Economics, Shivaji University, Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 50, No. 1, January-March. 41 UN (2006): Frequently Asked Questions on a Human Rights-based Approach to Development Cooperation , Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, New York and Geneva.
24 According to Stephen Marks (2004) 42 , during the decades of 1970s and 1980s, the right to development (RTD) was introduced by the NAM (non-aligned movement) countries as one of several rights that belonged to a third “generation” of human rights. According to this view, the first generation consisted of civil and political rights conceived as freedom from state abuse. The second generation comprised of economic, social, and cultural rights, claims made against exploiters and oppressors. The third generation consisted of solidarity rights belonging to peoples and covering global concerns like development, environment, humanitarian assistance, peace, communication, and common heritage. The UN General Assembly proclaimed development as a human right in its 1986 Declaration on the Right to Development (RTD). The NAM countries stressed the impact of international trade, access to technology, debt burden, and the like on the enjoyment of the RTD. The interests of many of the developing countries including Algeria, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Vietnam have been to utilise the RTD to reduce inequities of international trade, the negative impacts of globalization, differential access to technology, the crushing debt burden, and similar factors, which has been seen by them as detrimental to the enjoyment of human rights and development. It must be noted that the United States was not in favour of the RTD since its inception. The U.S. government, under the Reagan Administration, made it clear during its heydays that the RTD Declaration should not be used as a means of restoring the New International Economic Order (NIEO). Hence, the US was not in favour of allowing the Declaration to create any entitlement to a transfer of resources. The U.S. felt that development occurs due to economic liberties and private enterprise rather than a claimed right to development. On April 22, 1998, the UN Commission on Human Rights, adopted by consensus a resolution on the RTD, recommended to the Economic and Social Council the establishment of a follow-up mechanism consisting of an open-ended working group (OEWG) and an Independent Expert. The Independent Expert was to “present to the working group at each of its sessions a study on the current state of progress in the implementation of the right to development as a basis for a focused discussion, taking into account, inter alia, the deliberations and suggestions of the working group.” Dr. Arjun Sengupta has been appointed Independent Expert and by 2004 had produced eight reports. The Independent Expert has selected the rights to health, adequate food, and education for his studies. Neither he nor any of the agencies that have expressed themselves on the RTD have claimed that the concern for economic, social and cultural rights should be at the cost of civil and political rights. However, the U.S. position as a reaction to NAM countries that economic, social, and cultural rights are considered as merely aspirational and, therefore, the RTD loses importance, confuses the significance of the RTD with the legal nature of economic, social, and cultural rights (Marks, 2004) 43 . The politics behind making right to food, as an obligatory fundamental right of a State can be understood from the stand the United States took. During the 1996 World Food Summit, the US refused to sign the final declaration based on the logic that such a
42 Marks, Stephen (2004): The Human Right to Development: Between Rhetoric and Reality , Harvard Human Rights Journal, Vol. 17, http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hrj/iss17/marks.pdf . 43 Marks, Stephen (2004): The Human Right to Development: Between Rhetoric and Reality , Harvard Human Rights Journal, Vol. 17, http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hrj/iss17/marks.pdf
25 step would make “welfare reform illegal under international law” . While some countries like the G-77 and some European countries were pushing for a clearer and a stronger language regarding the enforcement of right to food, the US opposed the inclusion of any language whatsoever. After a compromise was struck, the World Food Summit 1996 was followed by the establishment of General Comment 12 which was adopted by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1999. The General Comment 12 outlined the duties and obligations of states with respect to implementation of the right to food. In the year 2000, the United Nations appointed a Special Rapporteur on the right to food. During the World Food Summit 2002, which was held in Rome, Italy, from June 10-13, the US Administration wanted to support a much narrower world-hunger agenda, which focused on a greater role for the private sector, including the interests of biotechnology firms. Since the US could no longer demand for the exclusion of language, they were asking for alterations in language—pushing for the right to access to food, rather than for the right to adequate food. In fact, the US preferred the UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) and the non-ratified ICESCR (International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) formulation of right to food, which is vague and non-binding. (President Jimmy signed the ICESCR, which has still not been ratified by the US). During the World Food Summit 2002, the United States expressed this idea by arguing that “..…the attainment of the right to an adequate standard of living is a goal or aspiration to be realized progressively that does not give rise to any international obligation or any domestic legal entitlement and it does not diminish the responsibilities of national governments towards their citizens” . The US, therefore, did not understand the right of access to food as a guaranteed entitlement. Thus, we find the United States among few of the nations, which has not ratified the ICESCR. Expecting to halve world hunger by the year 2015 is now a distant dream particularly for most of the countries of South as there is lack of political will to take steps vis-à-vis right to food. [Rosset (2002) 44 ; Sheff (2002) 45 ]. Despite the international summits such as the Vienna Declaration, 1993 adopted at World Conference on Human Rights affirming that ‘ extreme poverty and social exclusion constitutes a violation of human dignity’ and the Rome Declaration (1996) made during the World Food Summit stating that ‘food security is achieved when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active life’, it is difficult to transform these into the fundamental rights of the Indian Constitution. Although the right to food comes under the Directive Principles, it is difficult to convert it into a fundamental right. While the Article 37 explicitly states that the Directive Principles ‘shall not be enforced by any court’ , it goes on to stress (i) that these principles are nevertheless ‘fundamental to the governance of the country’ ; and (ii) that ‘it shall be the duty of the state to apply these principles in making laws’ . However, the manner in which right to free and compulsory education to every child has been made into a fundamental right through pressures coming from the civil society organizations and international agencies like the UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), gives one some hope about pursuing the State to make right to food as a fundamental right. But this does not mean by
44 Rosset, Peter (2002): US Opposes Right to Food at World Summit, accessed from www.foodfirst.org . 45 Sheff, Jonathan (2002): ‘The Right to Food and The World Food Summit: Five Years Later’ , Summer Report 2002
26 making right to food as a fundamental right will automatically ensure food security for all at all the times. There may still be problems in enforcing and implementing such rules. l. PDS, poverty and hunger in India According to the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2008, which has been prepared by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), hunger is closely related to poverty, and countries with high levels of hunger are overwhelmingly low- or low-middle-income countries. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are the regions, which have shown the highest GHI scores and the highest poverty rates. In the nearly two decades since 1990, some regions—South and Southeast Asia, the Near East and North Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean—have made significant headway in improving food security. However, the GHI remains high in South Asia. In the context of higher food prices, prospects for improving food and nutrition security appear grim, given that at least 800 million people were food insecure even before the advent of food price crisis that hit during the year 2008. A recent analysis of domestic food prices for 58 developing countries shows that latest prices are higher than a year earlier in 78 percent of the cases, and in 43 percent of the cases are higher than 3 months earlier. Mostly affected are sub-Saharan African countries. Food prices remain at high levels in other regions as well, particularly in Asia for rice and in Central and South America for maize and wheat. Worst affected are the urban poor and food-deficit farmers who are dependent on the market to access food. Moreover, the global economic recession is drying up remittances from family members working abroad that often sustain the food consumption levels of vulnerable households (FAO, 2009) 46 . The public distribution system (PDS) is a rationing mechanism that entitles households to specified quantities of selected commodities at subsidized prices. The PDS came into being in 1939 as a wartime rationing measure. The British government introduced it in Bombay and later extended it to six other cities and a few other regions. The drought and food shortages of the mid-sixties asked the need for strengthening and continuing with a system of food distribution, and the PDS was made a universal scheme during the 1970s. The objectives of the PDS have been: (i) maintaining price stability; (ii) increasing the welfare facilities for the poor; (iii) rationing during situations of scarcity; and (iv) keeping a check on private trade. In 1997, the Government of India introduced the Targeted PDS (TPDS) in order to curtail the food subsidy. Due to the introduction of the TPDS, the entire population was divided into below-poverty-line (BPL) and above-poverty-line (APL) categories, based on the poverty line defined by the Planning Commission, GoI. The TPDS now has dual central issue prices: prices for BPL consumers and prices for APL consumers. A third price, introduced in 2001, is for beneficiaries of the Antyodaya Scheme (a scheme for the ‘poorest of the poor’, in which food grain is distributed with an additional subsidy). Targeting was introduced so that subsidies on food did not go waste in the form of inefficient expenditure. Its aim was to subsidise only the poor, and not the entire population in general. However, there are two types of errors that usually occur in any targeted welfare programme like PDS, due to imperfect measurements. An error of wrong exclusion (Type I errors) is referred to as the
46 FAO (2009): Crop Prospects and Food Situation , No. 2, April, http://www.fao.org/docrep/011/ai481e/ai481e00.htm
27 exclusion of genuinely poor or deserving households from a programme. An error of wrong inclusion (Type II errors) is referred to as the inclusion of non-eligible persons or households in a programme. The government also operates a large number of Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS), some of which involve payment or transfer ‘in kind’, e.g. in the form of food for work or midday school meals. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) operates the government’s foodgrain policy, procuring, storing and distributing foodgrains for the TPDS and for CSS, and maintaining buffer stocks to dampen price swings (Swaminathan, 2009) 47 . The Foodgrain Inquiry Committee of 1957 suggested maintenance of food buffer stocks and amongst other measures recommended setting up of a foodgrains stabilization organization to undertake purchase and sale operations of foodgrains. In order to tackle mass discontent on account of food scarcity, the government entered into the PL-480 (Public Law 480) agreement with the USA for the import of 31 lakh tonnes of rice in April 1956. Imports under PL-480 became a regular feature for a long period that did not help the government to build up sufficient buffer stock. India’s concern for food security led the policy makers to adopt measures for food availability—both physical and economic. For increasing the physical availability of foodgrain, India had to resort for the adoption of new technology. India adopted the high yielding varieties programmes during the mid-sixties. The government introduced an intensive development programme in 7 districts selected from 7 states in 1960 and this programme was named Intensive Area Development Programme. This programme was later extended to the remaining states by selecting one district from each state for intensive development. In October 1965, the net was extended and 114 districts out of 325 were selected for intensive development and the programme was labeled as Intensive Agricultural Areas Programme. In the face of skyrocketing food prices from the early 1960s the Congress government started a system of public procurement and distribution of foodgrains from 1965 aka Public Distribution System (PDS), and at the same time it pushed the HYV fertilizer technology in irrigated areas. The main agency providing foodgrains to the PDS has been the Food Corporation of India (FCI), which was set up in 1965. The essential commodities supplied through the PDS are rice, wheat, sugar, edible oils, kerosene and coal (soft coke). A small quantity of coarse cereals and cloth is also distributed in some states. The objectives of PDS have changed from time to time. During the period 1945-1970s, the main objective of PDS was to protect the urban consumer, ensure food availability through rationing in major urban centres, and thereby, to prevent speculation and undue rise in prices.
47 Swaminathan, Madhura (2009): Neo-Liberal Policy and Food Security in India: Impact on the Public Distribution System , paper presented in International conference on ''The Crisis of Neo-liberalism in India: Challenges and Alternatives'' organised by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai and International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs), 13 -15, March 2009, http://www.networkideas.org/ideasact/jan09/PDF/Madhura.pdf .
28 Graph 5: Minimum support prices (Rs. per quintal) crop-year wise Paddy Wheat 1200
1000 1000
800 750
650 630 640 645 600 610 620 620 580 570 580 550 550 560 530 530 510 510 475 490 440
Rs. per quintal per Rs. 415 400 380 380 350 360 360 330 340 310 280 270 225 230 200 205
0 1990-91 1991-92 1992-93 1993-94 1994-95 1995-96 1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 Y ears
Source: Handbook of Statistics on Indian Economy, RBI
The minimum support price (MSP) for wheat has increased sharply vis-à-vis rice during the recent years, as could be seen from the graph 5. However, MSPs for both rice and wheat have increased overtime, generally. MSP offered to the peasantry could not rise pari passu with input prices, thus, affecting profitability, as some have alleged.
29 Graph 6: Procurement and offtake from PDS (in million tones)
60.00 Procurement (wheat + Rice) Offtake (wheat + Rice)
50.00 49.84 49.33
42.25 41.75 .48 40.00 401.8437 41 38.03 37.3493 36.58 36.77 35.29 35.53
30.00 30.76 31.30
26.40 24.99 25.63 23.99 24.35 23.84 24.20 Million tonnes 23.05 22.16 .74 .73 20.00 20 20.04 20 19.10 19.44 18.96 17.95 18.60 18.21 .16 16.49 17
10.00
0.00
Years 1990-91 1991-92 1992-93 1993-94 1994-95 1995-96 1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08
Source: Handbook of Statistics on Indian Economy, RBI
Procurement and offtake of both wheat and rice have declined since 2003-04, as could be deciphered from the graph 6. The quality of foodgrains supplied in the open market is better as compared to what is available from the ration shops, which can be one reason behind such a decline in falling offtake from the PDS. ActionAid reported that more than 240 workers died from starvation and suicide between March 2002 and February 2003 in just four tea gardens in West Bengal. Deaths due to starvation occurred in Baran (Rajasthan) and Kashipur (Orissa) during 2002. There was appearance of media and NGO reports on starvation deaths happening in Badwani (Madhya Pradesh) during 2003 and Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) and Jalangi , Murshidabad (West Bengal) during 2005. Earlier, cases of starvation deaths were reported from the tribal communities such as sahariyas , musahars , kols and bhuiyas . Some of the states, which performed poorly in ensuring food security, were Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chattisgarh. Cases of starvation deaths were also reported from the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. The poorer regions, which suffered hugely, were: Palamau in Jharkhand, Sarguja in Chattisgarh, Kalahandi in Orissa. Cases of starvation deaths were reported from the tribal communities such as sahariyas , musahars , kols and bhuiyas . Consumption of ghas ki roti made from sama (a forest grass) took the lives of sahariyas in Rajasthan. Tribals in Bolangir district of Orissa were found to mortgage not only their land but also their rations cards for a paltry sum of Rs. 50. The
30 moneylenders also lent back the cards at higher prices [Mander (2003) 48 ; Dreze (2003) 49 ]. Poverty ratio has declined to 21.8 per cent in 2004-05 from 26.1 per cent in 1999- 2000, as per the Planning Commission, Government of India (March, 2007). In absolute terms, the number of those still living in poverty is 238.5 million, out of which 170.3 million are in the rural areas and 68.2 million in the urban areas. The Planning Commission figures are based on the report of the 61 st Round of the National Sample Survey (NSS). The decline in poverty is sharper in the rural areas where the percentage of those living below the poverty line (BPL) has come down to 21.8 per cent in 2004-05 from 27.1 per cent in the year 1999-2000. The poverty estimates are based on the Mixed Recall Period (MRP)—consumption distribution data. The Mixed Recall Period method involves estimating consumer-expenditure data using 365-day recall period (reference period) for five infrequently purchased non-food items such as clothing, footwear, durable goods, education and institutional medical expenses, and a 30-day recall period for the remaining items. One must recall that poverty rate was 36.0 percent in the year 1993-94. Based on the MRP consumption data, Orissa is the poorest State with 39.9 per cent of people living below the poverty line, to be followed by Jharkhand (34.8 per cent), Bihar (32.5 per cent) and Madhya Pradesh (32.4 per cent). In absolute terms, the number of people living below the poverty line is 45.8 million in U.P, to be followed by Bihar (29 million) and Maharashtra (26 million).
48 Mander, Harsh (2003): ‘Tales of Deprivation’ , Vol. 20-Issue 04, February 15-28, 2003, Frontline. 49 Dreze, Jean (2003): ‘Praying for Food Security’ , The Hindu, Monday, October 27.
31 Box 1: Summary of recent incidents (case studies) related to right to food and livelihood a. Several families in Alhadapur village, Amedkar Nagar district, Uttar Pradesh, face acute food shortages due to the failure of the local administration to provide the necessary food and other social support as stipulated by law. According to these allegations, Juli, the 5-year-old daughter of Mr. Laxmi Chandra Jaiswal suffers from grade IV malnourishment and weighs only 7 kilogram. Similarly it was alleged that Mr. Shri Ram Lakhan Kanauja who is 65 years old and does not have a job, is severely malnourished. b. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has not been implemented in at least 22 districts of Uttar Pradesh (Lakhim pur Kheri, Sitapur, Hardoi, Barabanki, Unnao, Raebareily, Jalaon, Fatehpur, Hamirpur, Mahoba, Lalitpur, Pratapgarh, Banda, Kaushambi, Chitrakoot, Kushinagar, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Chandauli, Mirzapur, Sonbhadra) where some of the residents would be eligible to be included under the NREGA scheme. According to these allegations, the rural poor, who ought to be the beneficiaries of the NREGA programme, still do not have access to work, which could contribute to provide them with a source of income and means to procure sufficient and adequate food. c. Approximately 1,00,000 weavers in Bajardiha, Varanasi city in Uttar Pradesh, live in dire conditions where their children and families are faced with starvation, malnutrition and related illnesses. According to these allegations, Bajardiha is one of the most densely populated areas in Varanasi where most of the population are weavers. It was reported that due to depression in weaving industry, many of these weavers have abandoned weaving but have found it difficult to find alternative jobs. d. Misappropriation of funds and assets available under various Government welfare schemes, which aim at improving poor families’ access to sufficient and adequate food, have taken place in other States including Madya Pradesh and Orissa. Further allegations claimed that the 18-month-old Alina Shain, of Mahmoodpur area, Lohta Panchayath of Kashi Vidhya Peed Block, Varanasi district, Uttar Pradesh, died from malnutrition and related health consequences on 13 September 2007. At least five children living in the Raitara Musahar area, Varanasi district, Uttar Pradesh, have been suffering from malnutrition and related health consequences. Their lives are currently at risk.
---Excerpts taken from Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food: Summary of communications sent and replies received from Governments and other actors, A/HRC/7/5/Add.1, 29 February 2008, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/7session/A-HRC-7-5-Add1.pdf
According to the Nutritional Intake in India: 2004-2005, NSS 61 st Round, July 2004-June 2005:
Ø The consumer expenditure survey shows that the percentage share of food expenditure in total expenditure by Indian population was 55.0% in the rural areas and 42.5% in the urban areas. Relative to the comparable survey results for 1993-94, the share of food expenditure has dropped by 8.2 and 12.2 percentage points in rural and urban areas, respectively. Ø Average daily intake of calories by rural population has dropped by 106 kcal (4.9 percent) from 2153 kcal to 2047 Kcal from 1993-94 to 2004-05 and by 51 Kcal (2.5 percent) from 2071 to 2020 Kcal in the urban area. Ø Population reporting a calorie intake level of “less than 100%” of the norm of 2700 kcal, formed 66 percent of the total in rural areas and 70 percent of the total in urban areas. Ø Some states at the higher end of the average intake of calorie per consumer unit per diem were Punjab (2763), Uttar Pradesh (2743) and Rajasthan (2714) in the rural areas and Jharkhand (3013), Bihar (2683) and Punjab (2614) in the urban areas. On the other hand, Karnataka (2276) and Tamil Nadu (2294) in the rural areas and Maharashtra (2261), Karnataka (2385) and Tamil Nadu (2394) in the urban areas were found to have much lower intake of calorie than the Indian average.
32 In terms of per capita calorie intake, Assam, Bihar, Haryana, Punjub, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh were higher than the national average of 2047 Kcal. Ø In the rural areas, the people of Orissa (79%), Chhatisgarh (78%) and Jharkhand (75%) reportedly derived around 75% of actual intake of calorie from cereals. On the other hand, people of Punjab (50%), Haryana (54%) and Kerala (54%) reported a smaller percentage of calorie intake from cereals Ø Average daily intake of protein by the Indian population has decreased from 60.2 to 57 grams in the rural area between 1993-94 and 2004-05 and remained stable around 57 grams in the urban area during the same period. Ø While the intake of calorie was observed to be lower, the level of protein and fat consumption was considerably higher than the standard minimum requirement per diem per consumer unit in both the sectors. A higher intake of calorie and protein was observed in rural India (2540 kcal and 70.8 gms.) as compared to urban India (2475 kcal & 69.9 gms.) whereas, the consumption of fat was relatively much lower in rural areas (44.0 gms.) compared to that in urban areas (58.2 gms.).
India lags behind many of its South Asian neighbours in terms of providing basic nutrition to women and children. Nutritional security, which is an alternative measure of poverty, helps one to understand whether access to food is leading to better health and nutritional outcomes. The percentages of children (below 3 years of age) who are underweight, wasted and stunted at the national level are 46%, 19% and 38%, respectively, according to the National Family Health Survey III (NFHS III), which was conducted in 2005-06. Infant mortality rate (IMR) i.e. the number of infant deaths per 1000 live births, is higher in rural (62) as compared to the urban areas (42). The NFHS III has also found out that at the national level, percentage of pregnant women in the 15-49 years age group who are anaemic is 57.9 percent. Gender biasness is responsible for low nutritional status of women. Despite the increase in domestic production of foodgrains, the incidence of hunger hovers over the entire country. The Aanganwadi Centres (AWC), created by the Government of India, are aimed at providing services like: health check- ups, immunization, referral services, supplementary feeding, preschool education, and health and nutrition education. Similarly, the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) is aimed at providing supplementary nutrition to children below 6 years of age, lactating mothers and pregnant women. There are several problems, which are associated with such state-sponsored schemes that include corruption, mismanagement, inefficiency etc. There is a growing consensus among economists and social scientists to widen the connotation of food security by including the concept of nutritional security at the household level. Some have argued that the calorie based definition of food security be replaced by nutrition based definition of food security at the household level (Vyas, 2000) 50 . Compared to the other regions of the world, prevalence of anemia (among non- pregnant women aged between 15-49 years) and underweightedness (among preschool children) is highest in South Asia. Iron deficiency, which is generally associated with anemia, has also led to maternal mortality. According to UNICEF’s Progress for Children 2007 Report , the proportion of underweight children, an indicator of malnutrition, was 28 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa and 42 per cent in India. Anaemia has also risen among children aged 6 to 36 months: 74 per cent in this age group were anaemic in 1998-99 (NFHS-II) and 79 per cent were anaemic in 2005-06 (NFHS-III).
50 Vyas, VS (2000): ‘Ensuring Food Security’ , Notes, in Economic and Political Weekly, December 9.
33 According to the National Human Development Report (2001), which has been prepared by the Planning Commission (GoI), Kerala (0.638) topped the ranking in terms of the Human Development Index (HDI), to be followed by Punjab (0.537), Tamil Nadu (0.531), Maharastra (0.523) and Haryana (0.509), during 2001. The worst performer in terms of HDI was Bihar (0.367) to be followed by Assam (0.386), Uttar Pradesh (0.388) and Madhya Pradesh (0.394). The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-III) conducted in 2005-06 show:
• Percentage of children (under 3 years) who are stunted declined from 45.5 during NFHS-II to 38.4 during NFHS-III at the national level. The prevalence of stuntedness (during NFHS-III) among children below 3 years was highest in Uttar Pradesh (46.0%), to be followed by Chattisgarh (45.4%) and Gujarat (42.4%). • Percentage of children (under 3 years) who are wasted increased from 15.5 during NFHS-II to 19.1 during NFHS-III at the national level. The prevalence of wastedness (during NFHS-III) among children below 3 years was highest in Madhya Pradesh (33.3%), to be followed by Jharkhand (31.1%), Meghalaya (28.2%) and Bihar (27.7%). • Percentage of children (under 3 years) who are underweight declined marginally from 47.0 during NFHS-II to 45.9 during NFHS-III at the national level. The prevalence of underweightedness (during NFHS-III) among children below 3 years was highest in Madhya Pradesh (60.3%), to be followed by Jharkhand (59.2%), Bihar (58.4%), Gujarat (47.4%) and Uttar Pradesh (47.3%).
Conclusion The present study shows that backwardness faced by Indian agriculture during the colonial days could be overcome to a large extent after Independence. The situation has improved a lot since Independence because of State intervention, which led to the rise in agricultural production and productivity. Investment by the government in R&D and technology has helped India to increase its agricultural output. Many have, however, criticised the recent spate of measures to allow private initiatives in agricultural R&D. A contradiction between productive technology and eco-friendly technology has made its appearance in the case of Indian agriculture. Agriculture, today, stands at a crossroads, which demands for rational policy formulation and implementation, especially in favour of the small and marginal farmers, and the landless labourers. Creation of off-farm employment through schemes like NREGS might help to ensure livelihood security during the times of extreme poverty and distress. The importance of public accountability in government-sponsored schemes cannot be overlooked. There exists gender and regional disparities in nutrition related outcomes, which demands for attention of the policy-makers. The PDS has undergone structural changes and its outreach to the poor has not been up to the mark. After liberalization of the Indian economy, agricultural sector suffered due to neglect and apathy. Indian peasantry had to compete internationally in the absence of social security and safety nets. The minimum support prices (MSP) offered to the farmers could not rise pari passu with input prices, thus, affecting profitability. Paying more attention to fiscal austerity in the name of efficiency gained momentum during the 1990s. The government could not realize the scope and magnitude of the agrarian crisis until it took the shape when cases of suicides being committed by the farmers made headlines. Striking a ‘just’ balance between industry and agriculture might help India to attain its objective of ‘inclusive’ development, which has been promised during the Eleventh Five Year Plan.
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