The Hindu Business Line : Sowing success on farm

How did agriculture in India, once the most advanced in the world, degenerate to its present state, asks, pointing out that if left to grow without interference, the sector will flourish.

One of the many bright spots in the gloomy farm scene, the Peermed Development Society, in Kerala’s Idukki district, successfully exports spices and tea.

All discussions on agriculture, particularly the interactions with the media, finally end with the question: “What do you think should be done to resuscitate Indian agriculture?” The bland reply I generally give, and one that does not satisfy anybody, is, “Just stop harming agriculture and it will germinate and blossom on its own.” The seed germinates if the environment is not unfriendly. A tree grows more aggressively after being chopped, unless it is chopped and chopped again and again.

Indeed the more relevant question is: How did agriculture in India, once the most advanced in the world, degenerate to its present state?

Agriculture is multiplication of the seed using the cosmic energy stored for millennia in the Sun, air, Earth and water. The farmer who brings together these elements brings about a physiocratic multiplication to produce food — something unknown to any other species of animals and birds. This food, and its surplus, can be used for leisure, for producing other consumption goods or capital goods and all varieties of goods and services. Yet, how come the source of all wealth has become impoverished to a point where it finds itself insupportable?

It is not my intention to repeat, for the n-th time, why and how the rest of the world manages to rob agriculture to the benefit of the secondary and tertiary sectors. I only wish to bring to light certain instances where agriculture has done well in our own land of farmer suicides.

FLOURISHING POCKETS

The present Bishop of Kanjirapalli, Father Arackal, started out as a priest in the Kuttanad region of Kerala in 1977. He was moved by the condition of the tribal people in the area and started teaching them how to do agriculture by procuring seeds and other inputs for them.

To find a market for their produce, he set up a small unit that has now developed into a full-fledged NGO – Peermade Development Society (PDS).

Father Arackal has put together a team of professionals and inspired them to continue the good work. The Peermade Society has succeeded in converting the tribals to organic farming, not only for ideological reasons, but also because organic spices command a better market, particularly in Europe and the US.

The professional team led by Sunil Joseph has brought the whole organisation to a point where the organic spices and tea have obtained the most stringent certificates. The Peermade Society now exports spices and tea.

Madhavrao More, a farm leader and pioneer of the wine revolution in Maharashtra’s Nashik district, started a ‘bubbly’ factory under the brand name “Pimpagne”. Even according to the French connoisseurs that was the best bubbly produced anywhere in the world. French Champagne producers were worried about competition from Maharashtra. “A tiger is rising in Maharashtra. The region enjoys advantages of terrain, climate and labour. Let the French wine producers beware!,” was the caption of a story in a prominent wine journal.

Madhavrao had built up enough stocks to launch a full-scale invasion of the Continent when the European Union made use of an innovative non-trade barrier to stop imports.

The Government of India, rather than coming to the help of the enterprising Madhavrao, compounded his misery by refusing to relax the conditions under which the factory was licensed — that all the produce would be sold exclusively outside India. The factory had to be closed down.

A significant example of a successful experiment in agriculture is provided by Bhanwarlal Jain of Jalgaon district, also in Maharashtra. Bhanwarlal made a beginning with a small landholding.

Initially, he even took some land on rental. He combined his agricultural operations with the manufacture of drip systems of irrigation, production of organic manure and processing of fruit and vegetables. Some of his initial foraysin processing onion suffered reverses. Undaunted, he persevered.

Today, Bhanwarlal presides over a large hilly and drought prone area, developed into aesthetically laid out food gardens and fields. His enthusiasm is contagious. He claims he can solve the problem of the shortage of edible oils in India if the Government would give him 5,000 hectares of fallow land. Bhanwarlal’s establishment can serve as a model for agricultural development. The Government is yet to recognise his contribution.

LACK OF SUPPORT

Sardar Bhupender Singh Mann, India’s tallest farm leader today, and a few of his associates promoted Kisan Dudh Udyog Ltd. (KDUL) in 1992 to process milk and milk products with an installed capacity of 1.2 lakh litres a day.

The Udyog associated with the Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation Ltd (PSIDC) themselves and obtained finances from various financial institutions. The project suffered time and cost overruns and is on the threshold of being wound up today.

One of the reasons for the tragedy, according to Mann, is the indiscriminate sanctioning of licences to competing projects proposed by those with political pull.

Another reason is the depression in milk prices engineered by the free import of butter oil and milk powder. Mann is now running from pillarto post to get his project resurrected with a One-Time-Settlement Plan.

Ironically, the Government is shouting from rooftops about the ease of credit extension.

A brilliant example of making a success of agriculture is provided by Sanjeevani Health Research Centre at Gohana, in Sonepat district of Haryana. Viz owns about 104 acres. He carries out agriculture on 70 acres to produce a large variety of fruits and vegetables as also foodgrains. The agricultural operations employ about 40 workers apart from casual labour. Viz, a philanthropist, runs educational institutions for girls as also a research institute to solve problems of health and medicine.

The Sanjeevani Kaya Samsodhan Sansthan, a nature cure health clinic, can take up to a hundred patients. Nature cure uses large quantities of vegetables and fruit, and all that is sourced from Viz’s farm.

One lesson to be drawn from all these stories is that the success has hardly been a concomitant of governmental help/intervention; in fact, quite the contrary.

In the present crisis situation of Indian agriculture, the Government would do well to stop announcing packages worth thousands of crores of rupees and, alternatively, cease all its interventions in farming that are counterproductive in any case.

(The author, a member of the Rajya Sabha, is Founder of the Shetkari Sanghatana. He can be contacted at sharad.mah@nic.in)

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