Agriculture, in a real sense, has been the life-line for Madhya Pradesh. Some years ago when college students wrote an essay on the state they began with the sentence ‘ Madhya Pradesh is an agricultural state. Three-fourth of the population here is dependent on agriculture or agro related activities for its livelihood and it is this uniformity that keeps society threaded together. But that initial line will certainly not be a true representation of the state’s status in the present condition.

Today agriculture is no more a simple means of livelihood anymore, but has become a task full of challenge and risk. A survey by the National Sample Survey Organisation on the indebtedness of farmers shows that of the 64 lac farmers in Madhya Pradesh 32 lacs are in debt. On an average each farmer in M.P. is under a debt of Rs.14,128. And because of the bank formalities and the inhuman recovery processes his trust in the government’s financial institutions has gone down. It is worth noting that even today 40 % of the loans in this ‘agricultural state’ are taken by farmers from non-governmental sources. 

To discuss the past is like being reminded of a golden age. We find that at present since the government has accepted a policy of economic liberalisation, instead of considering agriculture in a sensitive manner it is being treated as another element of the open market. The farmer himself is now a consumer in the market instead of a producer. We can consider for our reference the budget speech of the finance minister of Madhya Pradesh for the year 2006-2007, in which he said that “ the importance of expensive inputs for increasing production has gone up in the sector of agriculture, but unstability of outputs is also increasing due to the vagaries of the climate. Due to globalization of the economy, where on the one hand new possibilities of development have opened up, we are also faced with new challenges.”

We can observe some important points from studying the development process in post-independence India. One of them is that in our country the potential and sources of development have not been distributed evenly. Some states have gained more and others have gained much less. As an example let us consider the fact that in this state in the year 2000-01 (at the then going rates) the gross house-hold product per person was Rs.10803, whereas it was Rs.25,048 for Punjab during the same period, which is more than double the amount for M.P. Madhya Pradesh has never been backward in its potential for natural resources and in the agricultural sector, but it has continuously been losing out in actualizing this potential.

And today the situation is such that our dependence on agriculture has not been reduced, but its contribution in the socio-economic status has certainly come down. What is the contribution of agriculture in out state in the gross state house-hold product? And what is the population that is dependent upon agriculture?  Analysis of these two questions makes the situation more clear-

The table above shows that in 1960-61 the contribution of agriculture in the state’s gross household product was 59.9 percent, and at that point 79.3 percent of the population was dependent upon agriculture. We find that whereas by 2001 the contribution of agriculture to the gross house-hold product has come down to 25.8 percent (that is a decrease by 32 percent), even now
72.9 percent of the population is dependent upon it. That is a decrease by only 8.6 percent. In M.P. between 1960 and 1980 the rate of growth in agriculture remained at 1 percent, whereas the average growth rate of agriculture in the country was 2 percent, which was twice that of the state.

Problems facing agriculture in the State: A natural conclusion from the above analysis is that both by society and the state have not made the necessary intensive efforts to develop agriculture. Instead of innovating itself, the state adopted a policy of importing techniques and production methods. On the other hand society has not been able to put pressure on the state to fulfill its need. The tenth plan period is on and it is the state’s target to increase the food production to 178.50 lac tons per year during this period. In 2003-04 the production level was 158.72 lac tons. Similarly, the government had set a target of increase of 139.54 lac tons in the production of coarse grain, and a target of 38.96 lac tons in the production of pulses. However, when we analyse the policies on a practical plane we come to two conclusions. The first is that the government is not really promoting food production. It actually wants that farmers take up cash crops such as cotton and soyabean along with jatropa for meeting middle class needs of diesel. This will be economically profitable for the government. At the same time, at a policy level, the government is agreeing to contract farming (anubandh kheti) in the production of food, vegetables and fruits. Private companies are considering entry into the farming sector. The two issues are linked to each other. The farmer should earn money and then go to the market to buy grains. But perhaps it will be a catastrophe to forget the truth that we are trying to break down food security and the production cycle to increase the flow of money in the market. 

Increase in the state’s population has been accompanied by an increase in the need for food, but the food production is going down. The situation during 1960-61 and 2002-03 can be clearly seen as follows:

In the last forty years the food production in Madhya Pradesh is constantly falling within the total production. Whereas the food production in 1960-61 was 63.6 % of the total farm produce, it has come down to 48.4 % at present. During the same period non-food products have gone up from 14.3% to 27.9%. Within grains there has been a big fall in the production of wheat and maize (bajra). And the production of soya bean that was zero percent in 1960-61 has gone up to 17.6 % of the food crop in 2002-03. The production of cotton has also got reduced.

The production cost of grains, vegetables and fruits has gone up due to the modernization of agriculture in the state. In Madhya Pradesh single cropping has been the norm on a large scale. In the last 30 years soyabean has been imported and adopted from he US and due to this the area under traditional food crops such as Jawar, corn, cotton, traditional oil seeds such as ‘til’, peanuts, aarandi or pulses such as ‘moong’, ‘urhad’, ‘arhar’ etc has gone on dwindling. It is because of this that multiple cropping patterns such as cotton with Jawar, cotton with Arhar, Jawar with Arhar have died out. Cotton production has been reduced from a coverage of 4.2 % of cropped area in M.P. to 2.3 %. This is not just a matter of decreasing production of cotton. It also means that the looms weaving cotton cloth all over the state are coming to a standstill.

The Challenge of Soyabean: The people of Madhya Pradesh are usually considered undernourished and weak. In this sitiution Madhya Pradesh was considered a suitable region for the production of soyabean. This contains 18 % oil and 40 % protein. Industrialists made quite a bit of profit through the export of soyabean and the government has also earned foreign exchange. It also brought some immediate profits to the farmers. But since it has been used with a single cropping pattern it has had a very negative effect on the farmers. Because of sowing the same crop year after year the soil has developed harmful ‘phaphoond’ such as risoctonia, sclerocium, feuzarium etc. Now new varieties of insects are attacking the crops. The Blue-beetle associated with cabbage is now the main attacker of soyabean. Application of chemicals, fertilizers and insecticides is growing continuously because of which the net profits made by farmers are going down. It is assumed that soyabean gives higher production and better profits in comparison to other crops. However, this is not true as can be seen from the table below.

The Status of Agriculture: In the year 2004-05 altogether 203 lac hectare land has been used for agriculture purposes. Of this 24.4 percent land, that is around 50 lac hectares was irrigated. The proportion of irrigated land in Madhya Pradesh is as follows:

To convert farming into a profitable source of livelihood in Madhya Pradesh it was most important to increase irrigation. Therefore it is surprising that in the last 40 years the proportion of irrigated land has been increased from 5 % to just 24 %.
The Madhya Pradesh government has started giving importance to irrigation in its 10th five year plan. The new budget states that in the context of the extreme dependence of our agricultural economy on the monsoons the importance of developing irrigation is clear. In the 10th five year plan under a variety of projects the irrigation capacity is being increased by 5.80 lac hectares. In the 9th five year plan the irrigated land area had been inceased by 96000 hectares, whereas now the government is fixing a target of 7 lac hectares of additional land to be irrigated. In Madhya Pradesh now 98% of wheat is irrigated, but only 20 % of pulses and 22 % of rice is irrigated. 

Size of Land Holdings: A challenge – The total number of land holdings in Madhya Pradesh is
66.37 lacs. And on an average one farmer has 2.5 hectares of farm land. Because of the small size of land holdings the land has not been developed and there is lack of uniformity in the agricultural practices followed. In the last four decades the average size of land-holding has also shrunk as shown by the table below:

In 1961-62 farmers in M.P. had an average farm size of 4.1 hectares, which came down to 3.4 hectares in 1981-82 and got reduced further to 2.3 hectares in 1995-96. At the same time 40 % of the farmers had an average farm size of 0.40 hectares. This shows directly that the number of marginal farmers with very small farm sizes is increasing. Results of the seventh round of Rural Labour Survey show that the number of farm laborers with land in 1987 was 49 % and this went up to 57 % in 1999-2000. Analysis shows that because of low production farmers with very small land-holdings are being forced to become laborers. 

Farm Land and Production

Of the total fallow land in the country, 19 % lies in Madhya Pradesh. The time period of one crop production in the state varies from 150 to 180 days and at present only 24 % of the farm land is irrigated. Under this circumstances there is a big need to treat the fallow land in the state, since without such treatment we shall only be able to irrigate only 55 % of the land using both the surface and sub-surface water sources. We can also use the principle of community farming for this purpose. One hectare of farm land in Madhya Pradesh produces 1058 kgs of rice, whereas the average rice production per hectare in the country is 2051 kgs. And in the case of wheat the state is 840 kg below the national average.

Sources of Irrigation

In the last two decades the state and society has been faced with different forms of water crisis. On the one hand the resources and potential for irrigation have become a matter of existence for farmers. At the same time, looking at the means of irrigation that have been developed, it seems that farmers are giving up surface irrigation. In M.P. in 1960-61 canal irrigation accounted for 48 % and surface irrigation for 61 % of the irrigation. This came down to 29 % and 31 % respectively in 2002-2003 respectively. During the same period the use of ground water for farming went up from 39 % to 69 %. Under these new circumstances, to safeguard the Rabi and Kharif crops the Madhya Pradesh has initiated a scheme to make farm tanks. The government wants more use of surface water for agriculture, so that the fast depleting ground water that has already gone below the danger mark can be replenished.

Efforts by the Government

To promote organic farming vermin-compost pits are being made under the ISOPAM scheme. Because of increase in use of chemical fertilizers the cost of farming has also gone up. And since there is uncertainty over the use of  large areas of forest land, around 3.5 lac cattle are at risk. In these circumstances to promote organic farming major changes in our policies are required.

Industrialisation of Agriculture and Contract Farming

During the ninth five year plan 5.63 % of the budget was allocated for farming and 13.56 % for irrigation and flood control. In the 10th plan the budget for agriculture was increased marginally to 6.28 %, but that for irrigation and flood control was increased to 19.10 %. The state seems to be preparing to hand over farm land to the provate sectors. The India Tobacco Company (ITC) has established E-chaupals (alternative grain markets) in M.P. and technology is beginning to be used for controlling the markets. Crop rates are flashed from minute to minute via internet at the E-chaupals, where ITC is buying off good quality grains from farmers. Better purchase and payment systems have been established at the E-chaupals so that farmers don’t visit the government grain markets. Although at the moment farmers feel that they are being freed of government exploitation, as their trust in government markets is lost the private companies will increase their area of operations. Finally, when the government alternative support is gone then the private companies will reign supreme.

Now the state will not provide compensation to farmers in case of crop disease or natural calamities. Farmers’ Insurance schemes have been initiated for this purpose. In practice, this scheme is not able to help the farmers. Farmers are being compensated for only about 20 % of their losses.

In the last few years since the government has handed over seeds, pesticides, fertilizers and agricultrural goods to the open market, farmers have been forced to suffer the risks of poor quality seeds and fertilizers. It is estimated that thousands of kilos of poor quality seeds have been sold to farmers in M.P. in the last 3 years, but only 15 cases have been registered against the culprits till date.

Influence of Policy Issues Even the green revolution has not been able to create conditions of equitable progress although maximum use has been made of modern techniques to increase agricultural production. The use of tractors and threshers in early phases of the green revolution made farm labour easier and helped production to increase. However, our policy makers forgot that one thresher takes away the livelihood options of upto 100 labourers. The use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers also started showing negative effects on long term crop production. When we look at the context of M.P. then the low potential of farm irrigation and small farm size becomes relevant. Under the new agriculture policy loans are being provided under subsidy for purchase of tractors but the fact is being neglected that such loans have no relevance for small and medium farmers. In spite of this farmers who ae purchasing tractors are not able to increase crop production in the absence of sufficient irrigation facilities. This has increase their economic burden. After 1999 there were draught conditions for 3 years during which farmers could not even produce enough to meet their basic needs. In such conditions it was impossible to pay back the bank installments. During the last 5 years electricity costs have gone up 5 times and pesticide costs twice as much, because of which the cost of agriculture has also doubled but the support price provided by the government has only been increased by 60 rupees.

Henceforth, multinational companies will get farmers to prodice for the market according to the new agricultural policy. Potatoes are not being produced now as vegetables only. There use as chips is far more profitable. Growth in this market will not benefit the farmer, but the company producing chips, packaging them attractively and coloring them in bright colours. The farmers just manage to get back their imput costs and their daily bread. The danger under this new policy is that while the companies will enjoy legal security, the farmers will remain neglected.

Today the government accepts that growth rates in agriculture need to be taken up to 4 %. To achieve this however, along with increase in support prices we will require some extra efforts to meet the needs of better roads, electricity and irrigation. Instead of providing capital for agriculture we need to provide greater value to human labour and land reform programs should be implemented on a priority basis. The character of our society should be the main basis of our agriculture policy. The way in which the state is implementing the agriculture policy, while keeping the market in focus, may put both livelihood and food security at risk. 
What Needs to be Done

• Under the present circumstances, it becomes necessary to reestablish state support for agriculture, which has been getting depleted.
• The negative effects of indebtedness are becoming a question of life and death for farmers. It is important to wipe out the past loans on a rational basis, and ensure that in future the interest rates for agriculture do not exceed 3 to 4 %.
• Agriculture costs have also gone up with increase in electricity charges, where as crop prices have remained constant. It is obvious that electricity charges will need to be stabilized to convert the losses into profits.
• Without land reforms int is impossible to ensure full use of our resources and speed up progress. The government is handing over fallow land to the private sector. Instead of this policy, land should be distributed amongst the landless and small farmers, who should be provided support for land development.
  

Some Facts about Agriculture in Madhya Pradesh

Means of Irrigation in Madhya Pradesh (numbers) Wells Tube-wells Pump-sets Sources of Irrigation in Madhya Pradesh ( percentage )

• Canals
• Tanks
• Surface water
• Wells
• Tube-wells and others
• Sub-surface water

Sources of the data used– All the data used in this paper has been taken from the Government of Madhya Pradesh reports, such as Economic Survey (different years), Statistics or Madhya Pradesh 2004, Budget Speech – year 2004, 2005 and 2006, Madhya Pradesh Human Development Report – 2002.

Sachin Jain