GRSV Blog No. 6,
Released on 20/09/2020,
C L Laxmipathi Gowda, V Ramanatha Rao, SV Raghuram Shetty and MJ Vasudeva Rao
Co-Founders, GRSV Consulting Services, Bengaluru, India
Over the last few years, there has been considerable discussion in India on doubling farmers’ income. The current Central Government has launched a program for “Doubling Farmers’ Income” to be achieved by 2022, and it has set up a Task Force headed by a senior IAS officer. Farmers’ income can be increased, theoretically speaking, by either (i) doubling the yield, or (ii) doubling the market price for the farm produce. In addition, other measures would be needed to attain this goal, which would include resource-use efficiency and reduced cost of production, intensive farming, use of Internet of Things (IoT), crop diversification, the “real” price received by farmers, etc. In this context, ‘Secondary Agriculture’ and allied activities can help to enhance farmers’ incomes. The time set for achieving the target, 2022, appears to be a stiff one, especially in the rainfed and other dry land areas, as only two years remain.
Doubling the Yields and Doubling Incomes
Since the yield gap is large, doubling the yield of most crops (yield per unit area) seems feasible. Yield gap is the difference between potential yield and actual yields obtained by the farmers. For example, the average yield of soybean is 1040 kg/ha, and the yield gap varies between 850 to 1320 kg/ha across the states. However, the adoption of proper agronomic practices and committed policy support is needed to bridge the yield gap. This is feasible in the long run, but it will take time beyond 2022.
Secondary Agriculture
Secondary Agriculture could be the game changer in this context. For those uninitiated, secondary agriculture (in the current Indian context) refers to post-production activities, which would include: (i) cleaning and grading of the produce to get a higher market price; (ii) proper storage to ensure that the produce does not spoil or get infested by pests and diseases; and (iii) value-addition by various food processing activities and proper packaging. It is reported that most farmers are fully engaged only for about 180 days in a year. Therefore, they need to be gainfully engaged in other on-farm and off-farm activities to improve their incomes. Secondary agriculture would be the major avenue to engage the farmers for economic ventures, including allied activities such as bee keeping, bamboo cultivation, agro-tourism, mushroom cultivation, etc., which can be grouped under Secondary Agriculture.
Agriculture is not just about food systems; it should also support the industry and energy sectors, a newer role than is accorded to traditional “agriculture”. Linking agriculture to the industry and energy sectors, by producing raw materials for the manufacturing sectors, is also a part of the Bio-economy. The “Doubling Farmers’ Income” vision should expect a significant contribution from the so-called “Bio-economy”.
Smallholder Farmers
In India, smallholder farmers (< 2 ha land) constitute 86% of the total number of farmers, but they own only 33% of cultivated land. Women make up more than a third of India’s agriculture workforce, yet only about 13% of farmland is owned by women. Nonetheless, they produce 51.2% of the country’s food grains (Gopi Sankar and Gopal Naik, 2020. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. LV, No. 35). We do not expect many of these smallholder farmers to take the initiative for organizing activities related to secondary agriculture, as they have entry barriers, poor resource endowment, limited influence in the decision making, and very little bargaining power.
Overcoming Major Constraints
Considering the bottlenecks faced by smallholders and the importance of women farmers, NGOs and/or private sector players need to act as catalysts for involving and guiding the smallholder farmers for activities related to secondary agriculture, along with policy and financial support from the government that is gender sensitive. It requires considerable effort to re-engineer the food supply chain in the country. Both central and state governments should fast-track the creation of necessary rural infrastructure (roads, warehouses, cold storage, electricity, credit, internet connectivity, etc.) for enabling secondary agriculture activities to succeed. The budding entrepreneurial attitude of a few farmers, evident during the COVID 19 pandemic (e.g., direct sales and producing sundried tomato; see https://www.deccanherald.com/state/top-karnataka-stories/tomato-finds-new-use-in-times-of-lockdown-828247.html) should be actively nurtured.
Synergy between Central and State Governments
We need to realize that the supporting secondary agriculture is a different ballgame, and a majority of the farmers are not attuned to it. There is also a missing link between the central government’s wish and farmers’ capability. In the past, there was incomplete success in the implementation of many Central Government Schemes, as there were gaps between the goals of State and Central Governments and agriculture is a State subject. The state governments should take the initiative and responsibility for implementing the activities related to secondary agriculture. However, the central government should provide necessary guidelines and create an enabling environment, with necessary rural infrastructure and resources to the states for implementation. A clearly defined stakeholder analysis is required and one has to involve the farming community directly; the top-down approach needs to be avoided diligently.
As experience has shown, many well-meaning government programmes fail during the implementation phase. In view of the fact that the government machinery already has enough on its hand currently, NGOs and private sector agencies should play an important role, both as a catalyst and as an honest broker between the government and the farming community. Public-private partnerships (PPP), with a consortium of stakeholders (including farmers), will be needed at different levels of implementation, starting from pre-production and production, including contract farming, storage, processing, and marketing of the products to ensure that the farmers get their due share in the whole process. The personnel involved in PPP would require training to carry out the work at local levels; the teams should promote equity at all levels, from farmer participation to decision making.
Role of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)
The main role of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) is to enhance the income of farmers. At the same time, they play a role in enhancing farmers’ capability to cooperate with different players and empower him/her to make decisions and regain the self-respect and confidence that has been eroded over the years. The FPOs can also play a major role in harnessing the synergies of the public and private sector partnerships. For this to happen, we will need trained human resources to work with the FPOs, with skills in developing business plans, networking, and participatory methods. This calls for the involvement of agriculture graduates. But the current curriculum for graduate courses is inadequate for preparing the graduates for secondary agriculture activities. Women agriculture graduates, and those with physical disabilities, may be especially suited to work with the FPOs. Women Self-help groups (SHG), which are already in vogue, will also have significant role.
Capacity Building of Farmers
The key to success in any programme for improving Indian agriculture is enhancing the ‘capability’ of farmers, especially smallholder farmers. A smallholder farmer may be able to manage an agribusiness, but he/she may not exhibit qualities that are usually associated with a successful entrepreneur. The ‘capacity’ of farmers to form farmers’ organizations needs to be strengthened, as very few farmers have the capability to organize themselves and have the abilities needed to be successful entrepreneurs. Farmers need enhanced capability not only to produce more for the market, but also for visualizing opportunities to improve and expand their business and be able to accept and withstand a certain level of risk. This would require training beyond crops and crop production, and needs for strengthening capability have to be identified to fit the context; the concept of one size fits all should be avoided. It is essential to think out of the box for many of these initiatives to be implemented and come to fruition, and a gender-responsive strategy is required to go further on this path. The private sector and NGOs need to play a major role in building the capability of farmers.
Short- and long-term Perspectives
As a short-term measure, institutions such as NAARM and MANAGE can start Diploma courses to train the new agriculture graduates on (i) secondary agriculture, (ii) entrepreneurship, and (iii) managing FPOs and PPPs. In the longer term, the curriculum for agriculture graduates needs a complete overhaul towards more practical training to address the future scenarios of agricultural production and marketing, and of secondary agriculture. The private sector is also establishing agriculture colleges for training graduates and postgraduates. While the private sector may have its own agenda, the government should ensure that these private colleges maintain a good standard for basic agriculture education and practical training by proper accreditation standards.
Conclusions
Overall, Secondary Agriculture can become the game changer in doubling farmers’ income, provided the program is implemented systematically and with sincerity in a mission mode. Both Central and State Government bureaucracy should be working synergistically to achieve the goal, along with providing the necessary rural infrastructure, appropriate policy support, and creating an enabling environment and the needed ecosystem for effective implementation. Farmers need enhanced capability not only to produce more for the market but also for visualizing opportunities to improve and expand their business. Implementation on the ground is very critical. The “Green revolution” succeeded in the 1960s and 1970s because of a coordinated and symbiotic partnership between central and state governments. In addition, strong collaboration between different sectors (Agriculture, Energy, Industry, Commerce, etc.) is called for. Good leadership at both the central and state level, guided through science-based thinking, with on-the-ground support from a consortium of active public-private partnerships, backed up by the political will of the governments, with the full and active participation of farmers, is very much needed.