Among the most profound changes brought about in the Amrit Mahotsav 75 years, is the Green Revolution.
We have depicted in the graphics the spectacular growth in the production of some of the food and commercial agri crops.
From the state of net importer of several of these commodities, today India is a sizeable exporter of most of these, notably, wheat, rice and sugar. And relate this to a more than four-fold increase in the number of mouths to feed.
The trigger came in the mid-1960s. Two successive years of drought resulted in a steep decline in food production by a fifth, a drop of 17 million tonnes. There was the threat of famine and available food grains were rationed. There was also the problem of logistics in transferring the produce from the farms. Ten million tonnes of wheat were imported from the USA in two successive years. B Sivaraman, then secretary, Food & Agriculture, described it as ship-to-mouth years.
CS triggers green revolution…
C Subramaniam, then Minister of Food and Agriculture had a yen for research and development. He brought together the scientists at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Agriculture Universities and the civil service. He got in touch with Norman Borlaug, considered the Father of the Global Green Revolution and requested for his dwarf varieties of wheat. He persuaded thousand progressive farmers to switch to these new varieties of wheat and supported their efforts by a team of agricultural scientists like R S Paroda, M S Swaminathan… He raised these in his own large house in Lutyens Delhi. He carefully monitored the progress. The dwarf varieties limited the wheat stalks to a height of 2 ft; this helped in preventing loss of grain as happened in the use of taller stalks by high velocity winds.
In just about four months the thousand plots witnessed a bumper harvest. The yield was three times! From the conventional one tonne per acre, yield jumped to three.
Sections of farmers who resisted the switch earlier, blockaded Punjab Agricultural University and demanded the new seeds. CS arranged with Borlaug import of 18,000 tonnes of this exotic variety. In describing these, CS jocularly referred to an unexpected impediment: customs officials quarantined and detained the seeds! CS with the help of Prime Minister Shastri, ensured their release.
In a matter of two seasons production stabilised with a high yield of 3 tonnes per acre. Simultaneously CS looked at increasing rice production. He found large tracts of fertile land in which wheat was raised as a rabi (winter) crop remaining under-utilised or left fallow during summer. He pointed to the abundance of sunlight and copious availability of water thanks to the Bhakra-Nangal dam just completed. Both were such great boons for raising rice.
| Who says farming is not profitable?
S Balasubramanian of Vikatan Group was passionate about scientific farming. He had intense knowledge of nurturing, pricking and transplantation and relentlessly worked on vegetable cultivation. Working closely with Dr Lux Lakshmanan of California, he harvested 25 tonnes of capsicum getting a revenue of Rs 6.25 lakh/acre and 40 tonnes of tomato earning around Rs 4 lakh/acre. Exotic varieties of vegetables were produced profusely at his farm. He made use of simple techniques to increase agri productivity. To ensure the reach of water and fertilizers to the roots, he adopted a simple technique of creating ridges and furrows and planted on the ridges and applied water and fertilizers to the furrows.
It’s not rocket science. A demonstration at the Gemini Farms. It brought over 40 leaders including M S Ahluwalia and F C Kohli to witness simple techniques for improving agri productivity and led to the formation of Agriculture Consultancy Management Foundation. He developed the Gemini Farms on scientific lines. Taking the assistance of Dr Lakshmanan, an eminent farm specialist in Davis, California, SB was perhaps the first in this part of the country to pursue scientific agriculture through e-farming. He used to send soil samples regularly for testing in sophisticated labs in the US, getting advice on enriching these to the crops to be raised and getting continuous inputs and advice on course corrections from Lux. Over 15 years SB emerged as the most progressive farmer of vegetables in the south. Average production of hybrid tomatoes shot up to over 40 tonnes/acre; of capsicum, including coloured varieties, to 25 tonnes. SB built concrete platforms on which he sterilised the soil with steam bath and with appropriate fertilizers and raised healthy seedlings. Look at the dramatic change: in the normal practice of raising seedlings, only 45 out of 100 survived. In SB’s method it shot up to 96 out of 100! |
Advent of FCI…
However, there was the problem of consumption: a sardarji doesn’t eat rice and thus cropped the problem of marketing. The genius of CS helped in conceiving a brilliant solution: setting up the Food Corporation of India [FCI] under the chairmanship of another brilliant administrator, T A Pai, to procure whatever quantity of rice and wheat offered at fair prices.
The green revolution made a dramatic change. The farmer, earlier getting a tonne of food grain per acre, was able to raise 5 tonnes a year. This revolutionised food production in the entire northern belt from Rajasthan right up to Bihar. In a matter of five years India’s production of foodgrains crossed 100 million tonnes in the early 1970s. The country never looked back.
Attention to other crops…
The momentum continued with ICAR succeeding in achieving sizeable jumps in the production of a variety of food and agricultural crops. Similar attention was paid to pulses and oilseeds in the late 1980s under the direction of Sam Pitroda.
Still progress was slow. Liberalisation post 1991 diluted the efforts. Happily, renewed efforts over the last decade and more have resulted in pulses production increasing. Notable progress has been made by states like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. In the 2000s Gujarat also excelled in the production of cotton and groundnut. In recent years the Hindi belt has excelled in the production of sugarcane by its emphasis on much higher yields and recovery. Average production of sugarcane in UP jumped from a low 22 tonnes to nearly 35 tonnes per acre. With a high recovery of 11 per cent, sugar production zoomed. India has emerged as the largest producer of sugar with sizeable surplus for exports. Last year nearly a million tonnes of sugar were exported.
Jump in production of horti crops…
A welcome development of the past decade is the production of horticulture crops exceeding that of food crops. An immediate requirement is to process these that will help sizeable addition to value. Several developing countries in south east Asia like Malaysia and Thailand have been successful in this. India should look at opportunities for processing its vast production of agricultural products. This will help in addressing the issue of wastage of these perishable commodities and gain precious value.
True, there has been considerable growth in the exports of agricultural commodities; but the stress so far has been on self-sufficiency. Disappointingly, the potential of India to emerge as the supplier of a wide range of agri products to the globe, has not been appreciated. Long after achieving the target of self-sufficiency in foodgrains by the early 1970s, for five decades India has not striven to establish herself as a major exporter of foodgrains.
The same is also true in regard to other agri products like sugar, cotton and milk in which the country has emerged strong. The stop-go-stop approach has not helped build a reputation for India as a reliable supplier of agri products for which there has been sustained, huge demand from across the globe.
Fear of managing surpluses…
Administrators long accustomed and trained to manage shortages have not been ready to handle surpluses and opted to play safe. A major reason for this is the fear of shortages and their political impact. Agriculture is on the concurrent list with both the Centre and the states involved in this. With the states ruled by parties different from the Centre and with varying concerns, the country has failed to evolve cogent, rational agri production and trade policies. A few agriculturally strong states have the power to call the shots and are not much involved in building sustained exports.
This contributed to certain unconcern and even indifference to think and implement healthy trade policies. I remember discussions with an Agriculture Member of the Planning Commission who firmly held the imperative for maintaining a modest 3 per cent rate of growth. He appeared terrified at the prospect of a higher rate of growth leading to unmanageable stocks. “What to do with the surplus grains?” was his repeated refrain.
The commitment to procure whatever quantities of grains were offered at minimum support prices and continuous bumper production, especially of wheat and rice, were resulting in the FCI godowns bursting at their seams. There was the problem of saving these from rotting or eaten by rodents. Stocks peaked in excess of 60 million tonnes, nearly three times the norm for buffer stocks. The deluge continued despite the high cost involved. Large agri-producing states, the principal beneficiaries like Punjab, Haryana and UP, were not concerned with the problems of the bulging stocks and the costs.
Simultaneously the Centre failed to look at the enormous opportunities for building exports of commodities in demand like wheat, rice, sugar, milk… on a sustained basis. In a visit to China and a few countries in south east Asia, I noticed their importing these commodities at much higher costs from far-off countries and pointed to the lack of interest of India.
Look at the opportunities for taking average production to much higher levels. Except in certain pockets of excellence, average productivity of most agri commodities is still abysmally low. There are vast differences in productivity levels among states and even among districts in a state. Outdated laws come in the way of rationalising these.
I point a couple of instances of the potential:
- Tomato production in California (with rainfall 10 inches p.a.) averages 80 tonnes/acre. In India, with much higher average rainfall (around 34 inches in Tamil Nadu) average yields are around 5 tonnes/acre.
- In the midwest USA corn production averages 10,000 kg/acre. In India it is just around 800 kg/acre.
Surely, it is not rocket science to boost productivity. Little of science and technology is applied by Indian farmers. This despite the proliferation of agriculture universities and ICAR units spread across the states. Sadly, most of these function as the departments of government with modest efforts in productivity and farmer connect. Most universities, with a surfeit of PhDs, have been proliferating academic research with little yen for application.
| When rational reforms were stalled…
The reasons for the farmers of Punjab and Haryana vigorously opposing the new farm bills are not far to seek: these states are large producers and suppliers of wheat and rice, for which they do not have a local market. The farmers are heavily dependent on government procurement at remunerative prices. They have not established profitable mechanism for sale outside the mandis. The governments also benefit by the revenues derived by the old APMC system. Punjab, for example, charges a mandi tax of 6 per cent plus a 2.5 per cent fee for handing Central procurement. The state is estimated to get a revenue of around Rs 3500 crore. It is easy for the farmers to sell their produce at the local mandis. The grains procured, mostly wheat and rice, are paid at the MSP. The two states account for a sizeable portion of the procurement of rice and wheat by the Central agencies. Foodgrains procured through the mandis, which are active only in a few states like Punjab, Haryana and Western UP, account for just 6 per cent of total grains procured. There are states like Bihar that have dispensed with the APMC system years ago. They are also not very active in states like Tamil Nadu where the contribution to the Central pool is not significant. These reform measures will permit corporates and even multinationals and other institutions to deal directly with the farmer, commit firm purchases at predetermined prices. The new act provides for a dispute resolution mechanism at the rural level and also with time limits. There would also be better bargaining power on the part of the farmers who come together through the Farmer Producer Organisations. They are also more knowledgeable today through such cooperative efforts. Therefore, the issue of the vulnerability of the farmer in dealing with large corporates is addressed. Over the last couple of decades, retail trade has been moving to large organised business houses. These have assiduously built good relations with farmers. And there have not been many complaints of exploitation of the farmers by such retail chains. Sadly, the reforms through the three Farm Acts had to be dropped by the farmers agitation last year. The Supreme Court could have saved the reforms. |
Little of applied research…
Agriculture universities of Punjab and Tamil Nadu display hundreds of prototypes of gadgets and agri machinery invented by their engineers and scientists. These had rich promise of improved productivity but just stopped short as museum exhibits. There was a vital missing link: proving their economic value through production. There is lack of connection with industry convincing the latter of economic benefits.
There is a large market for simple agricultural tools that would reduce drudgery, improve productivity and save on costs. A simple gadget to trim plants and small trees in the US is priced $30. There are hundreds of such products in the US. The engineering departments of the agricultural universities can develop these in dozens. Sadly, the scholars stop with earning a degree or present a research paper for publication!
I refer to the scope for achieving Hanuman jumps in productivity. This is predicated upon improvements at the small farm level. With unrelenting fragmentation of land holdings due to family successions average farm sizes are uneconomically small. In Tamil Nadu, it is less than two acres. I came across farmers owning half acre and quarter acre in Jharkhand. There is an urgent need to agglomerate these to viable sizes that would lend for the application of science, technology and management.
The Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) is a welcome concept of bringing together farmers to form a company. But the process is slow and may take years to become fruitful. With minimum size of 10 acres there will be better prospects for achieving big jumps in productivity by application of science, technology and management and also get better trade terms with buyers. This will help appropriate mechanisation and improve rural skills and employment with higher wages.
There is also the imperative for states to concentrate on crops suited to their agro-climatic conditions. In the midwest US, states focus on the production of corn and soybean. These are aided by ideal climatic conditions without need for building elaborate irrigation systems. California focuses on almonds, grapes, tomatoes… Atlanta (Georgia) on oranges. Similarly, Indian states can select crops suited to their agro-climatic conditions and focus on these.
Modi as the Chief Minister of Gujarat adopted such a strategy and focussed on cotton and groundnut to great effect. Tamil Nadu likewise, can move away from the water intensive crops of rice and sugarcane. The state has been focusing on fruit crops like banana and mango to great advantage. It can focus more on corn, groundnut… and leave sugarcane to UP and Bihar better endowed with water.
A couple of decades ago China adopted the agricultural practices of the US to great advantage, established these across the country and recorded spectacular increases in productivity of potato, tomato… In the 1990s soon after liberalisation, Pepsico spread such techniques in collaboration with the Punjab Agro Industries Corporation and helped achieve quantum jumps in the productivity of potatoes and tomatoes. The American genius for marketing helped in adding value – potatoes were procured from farmers at Rs 2 per kg; through packaging and marketing, they were converted into Lays chip and sold at Rs 200/kg!
Disappointingly, such a good start over three decades ago has not been built further through such value addition across commodities and the country. eg. Kerala and Tamil Nadu are large producers of coconut. But unlike Malaysia, has not emerged selling packaged coconut water. Scale is all important in marketing. Agri producers should build such scale and tap the potential for emerging global players. Then only the Green Revolution triggered in the 1960s would have blossomed into India emerging a large supplier of food to the world. (With inputs from V Durga and Dr K Narayanan)
