Land Reforms, Sustainable Livelihoods – Dilemmas

In the week after we came back from Bharat Darshan, we had classes on Land administration. The class on land reforms and other classes on modernization of land records aroused lots of questions in my mind. Though the government as the sovereign authority has to guarantee security of title to the owners, the present system of land records does provide only a presumptive title and not any conclusive title. The modernization programmes underway are meant to correct these deficiencies through digitization and automatic updation so that the owner can use his legitimate property without legal hassles and avail credit when needed.

More thought provoking was the issue of land reforms. Now, the earlier issue of elimination of intermediaries is almost addressed. However, do we still want redistribution of land so that the ideal situation of ‘land to the tiller’ is attained? Do we still have the strong intent and intensity which were missing even in those good olden Nehruvian socialistic days in implementing land reforms? Or given the dwindling per capita availability of land, is distribution no longer the relevant issue? On delving deeper, some other issues concerning Indian agriculture came to my mind.

On one side, there is tremendous pressure on land to produce more and more to cater to the teeming millions. Conversion and diversion of agricultural land for industry and growing urbanization is imminent and unavoidable. Hence, production and productivity concerns will remain relevant in this context of depleting arable land. The double digit inflation especially in food products is indicative of the supply side constraints that we need to address to cater to growing food demand. Moreover, as the food habits undergo change, there is more demand for protein rich products like milk, meat, eggs etc.

I was shocked to get to know from my cousin running a diary unit in my village that milk prices around Tenali have increased from 28 Rs. per litre to 42 Rs. in the last couple of years. Now, even most of the rural families are not able to maintain buffaloes and instead purchase packet milk in small quantities. All of us also realize that even most of the fruit prices are beyond the reach of middle class families.

On the other side, the depleting resource base i.e. fertility of agricultural land is a cause of concern. While our agricultural production has increased by 4 times in post independence period, the fertilizer and water consumption have increased by more than 100 times during the same period. Whenever I read about excess usage of fertilizers, pesticides etc., I feel as we are heading for an ecological disaster driven by reducing soil fertility and depleting ground water level. Misplaced subsidies on fertilizers led to imbalanced usage of the same. Moreover, the government’s packages are also such that they promoted mono-cropping leading to reduced biodiversity (50 odd nutrient millets, pulses grown in rural India are fast becoming a rarity).

In this conflicting situation of pressure to increase productivity while talking care of ecological concerns, the presentation made by Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group (GEAG) in the class aroused lots of questions in my mind about the way forward. They showed a small film portraying the story of a small woman farmer called Prabhavati in Eastern UP who is adopting sustainable agricultural practices. Though she owns a meager 1.5 acres of land, she adopted a basket of activities like horticulture (she planted orchards in a small plot, also grows vegetables), poultry, diary to sustain her family of 10 members. She does not use chemical fertilizers at all and completely relies on bio-fertilizers like vermicompost, NADEP compost.

http://www.swadeshionline.in/content/small-farmers-big-step

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/UttarPradesh/Meet-Gorakhpur-s-women-of-soil/Article1-516366.aspx

It reminded me of IRMA days where we used to discuss that production systems such as agriculture, animal husbandry, horticulture are interdependent and hence should be seen in a holistic manner. Rural livelihoods should be understood as a composite whole whereby traditionally farmers took up all these activities to reduce the vulnerability and at the same time reap the advantage of complementary nature of them. For example, dung of animals is a natural fertilizer to crops and crop residue is food for animals. There are endless such connections that we can explore like this.

But, I started developing doubts whether all these activities can be taken up now by small & marginal farmers given the technological complexity and the size required to achieve economies of scale. When I relate to PRADAN’ Kesla poultry model (now minimum 500 birds should be reared to get 1000 Rs. per month), dairy unit of our Chilumuru school (now 40 murra buffaloes are there facilitating transportation of milk to Tenali and setting up of small refrigeration and pasteurization unit), Mishrod’s Patidar agricultural farm (where vermicomposting is done to grow organic medicinal plants in at least 100 acres), I have only more questions. Whether all these activities can be taken up by a small farmer alone? He surely requires the support of producer institutions like cooperatives to take care of backward and forward linkages.

I am also reminded of Jain Irrigation System’s unit in Jalgaon where they manufacture drip irrigation equipment and also do research on tissue culture in bananas. My mamaji told me this time when I went to his farm that drip system reduced labor cost to a significant extent and also saves time, water to irrigate. Hence, technology alone can again show the way forward in meeting the complexity of challenges. However, is the modern day technology scale neutral so that small & marginal farmers who constitute almost 85% of our agricultural community can also adopt? Or do we need to shift people out of agriculture so that only the remaining few can take up these activities on a commercial scale?

What is a workable livelihood model for a small farmer is a baffling question for me. Can it be the romantic village scene (now a days, unfortunately movies are also not showing any) where he takes up multiple cropping along with dairy and poultry? Or is that he will cultivate few crops and purchase rest of the products from the market? Given the declining share of agriculture in GDP accompanied by not so proportionate decline in the workforce dependent on agriculture, all of us need to find solutions for the above questions.

Organic agriculture is accepted by everybody as the way forward to save our planet earth. But, is it possible to attain productivity levels that meet our food requirements too? Presently, we do not seem to be unduly bothered about it as our tolerance level for dirt, dust, pesticide residue is much more than western countries. No wonder that most of the chemicals banned in western countries are still used in India. I do not want sound too pessimistic as if all of us are headed for a collective doom. Masanobu Fukuoka’s ‘One Straw Revolution’ comes into mind as a refreshing breather. Both our practices and the philosophy behind them need to change for such wonders to happen. I am very hopeful that we still have the sanity, alertness to invent, innovate and find solutions for all these questions.