Upload
munish-dogra
View
217
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
8/6/2019 Back to the Roots for Andhra Pradesh Farmers
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/back-to-the-roots-for-andhra-pradesh-farmers 1/8
Back To The Roots For Andhra Pradesh FarmersTraditional practices can revive tired soil and pull small farmers out of debt.Andhra Pradesh shows the way
N ineteen-year-old Meenakshi was sure about the way forward, but she had to convince her husband. She tore a sheet of paper and asked him to sign it. It was an unusual contract. Theywould split the land they had leased for the season ² about one-fourth of an acre. Theywould farm it in their own ways and see who makes more money at the end of the season. If Meenakshi won, her husband would shift to her way of farming.
It was summer of 2004 and Meenakshi, a landless tribal girl from Koduru village in theSrikakulum district of Andhra Pradesh, was convinced that the only way for her to change her debt-ridden life was by changing the way her family practiced agriculture. She was part of awomen¶s self-help group and had seen positive results of a cheaper, more sustainable way of farming that the group had been promoting.
As was the case with many farmers in Andhra Pradesh, Meenakshi¶s family was always indebt. Farming was no longer remunerative and their meagre earnings were spent paying back the interest on the loans taken to purchase chemical pesticides and fertilizers, whichaccounted for over one-third of the total cost.
That summer, under the guidance of her self-help group, she used locally available resourceslike cow dung and traditional knowledge of controlling pests. She reaped a profit of about Rs.15,000 ² Rs. 5,000 more than her husband.
8/6/2019 Back to the Roots for Andhra Pradesh Farmers
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/back-to-the-roots-for-andhra-pradesh-farmers 2/8
A Small Revival Meenakshi¶s stunning success was part of early experiments in a revolutionary approach tofarming in Andhra Pradesh, called Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture (CMSA).
Launched formally in 2005 by the Ministry of Rural Development in Andhra Pradesh, CMSA presents a bold alternative to conventional input-intensive agriculture in a state that has the
highest consumption of pesticides and fertilizers in the country.
8/6/2019 Back to the Roots for Andhra Pradesh Farmers
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/back-to-the-roots-for-andhra-pradesh-farmers 3/8
For example, Meenakshi uses Ghanajivaamrit, a mixture of cow dung, cow urine, jaggery,gram flour and microbes-rich clay. Over a one-acre farm, such a switch could bring downcosts from Rs. 2,200 to just Rs. 200.
The need for such a programme was clear. Over the years, indiscriminate use of pesticides
and fertilizers had degraded soil health. As a result, yields began to stagnate through the1990s. Coupled with high cost of inputs, that spelt doom for small and marginal farmers in
the state. Such farmers own less than 10 acres of land and account for roughly 85 percent of all land holdings. Incidence of farmer indebtedness continued to rise; agricultural woes have
made Andhra Pradesh one of the hotspots for farmer suicides in the country. An estimated1,688 farmers committed suicides between 1997 and 2004.
So far, CMSA¶s results have been heartening. The cost of cultivation has come down by 30 percent to 40 percent. According to one estimate, net incomes on per hectare (or 2.5 acre) basis ranged from $2,520 to $4,032 per annum ² a remarkable increase given the fact thatearning of the landless poor in India is less than $1 per person per day.
Today, CMSA is being followed by over 3 lakh small farmers spread over 3,000 villages in21 of the 23 districts in Andhra Pradesh. It is no surprise then that it has caught the attentionof agriculturists and politicians alike. M.S. Swaminathan, who led India¶s Green Revolutionin the late Sixties, likens the CMSA initiative to an ³Evergreen Revolution´ since it focuseson sustainability of the soil and profitability to the farmers. Buoyed by the possibility of reducing environmental damage, environment minister Jairam Ramesh suggested theagriculture ministry take a close look at CMSA practices. From the Union AgricultureMinistry to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, many are trying tounderstand how CMSA made it happen.
For example, Meenakshi uses Ghanajivaamrit, a mixture of cow dung, cow urine, jaggery,
gram flour and microbes-rich clay. Over a one-acre farm, such a switch could bring downcosts from Rs. 2,200 to just Rs. 200.
The need for such a programme was clear. Over the years, indiscriminate use of pesticides
and fertilizers had degraded soil health. As a result, yields began to stagnate through the
1990s. Coupled with high cost of inputs, that spelt doom for small and marginal farmers in
the state. Such farmers own less than 10 acres of land and account for roughly 85 percent of
all land holdings. Incidence of farmer indebtedness continued to rise; agricultural woes have
made Andhra Pradesh one of the hotspots for farmer suicides in the country. An estimated
1,688 farmers committed suicides between 1997 and 2004.
So far, CMSA¶s results have been heartening. The cost of cultivation has come down by 30
percent to 40 percent. According to one estimate, net incomes on per hectare (or 2.5 acre)
basis ranged from $2,520 to $4,032 per annum ² a remarkable increase given the fact that
earning of the landless poor in India is less than $1 per person per day.
Today, CMSA is being followed by over 3 lakh small farmers spread over 3,000 villages in
21 of the 23 districts in Andhra Pradesh. It is no surprise then that it has caught the attention
8/6/2019 Back to the Roots for Andhra Pradesh Farmers
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/back-to-the-roots-for-andhra-pradesh-farmers 4/8
of agriculturists and politicians alike. M.S. Swaminathan, who led India¶s Green Revolution
in the late Sixties, likens the CMSA initiative to an ³Evergreen Revolution´ since it focuses
on sustainability of the soil and profitability to the farmers. Buoyed by the possibility of
reducing environmental damage, environment minister Jairam Ramesh suggested the
agriculture ministry take a close look at CMSA practices. From the Union Agriculture
Ministry to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, many are trying tounderstand how CMSA made it happen.
How the Model Works
The CMSA model has broken the myth that small farms are not remunerative, says T. Vijay Kumar,
an IAS officer who spearheaded the CMSA initiative as the CEO of the Society for Elimination of Rural
Poverty or SERP, a non-profit entity set up by the state government. When we started out, our key
concern was to make farming remunerative by reducing the input costs without compromising on
the yields, he adds. He has recently joined as joint secretary in the Union Ministry of Rural
Development and hopes to assist scaling up CMSA at the national level through the National Rural
Livelihood Mission.
Rural livelihood programmes under SERP, like CMSA, are financed by the World Bank. CMSA is
additionally financed through community savings and other state and central level programmes like
Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana.
The key to CMSAs success is the community participation. The models approach is ground up; in
any village CMSA starts by the formation of a farmer self-help group (SHG). Here, the existing
women SHGs of SERP come in handy. Each SHG typically has 10 to 15 women. Each member pays a
small registration fee which adds to the overall corpus of CMSA for internal credit purposes.
Once part of the system, farmers receive extensive guidance by more experienced farmers like
Meenakshi. SERP too provides them with knowledge and capacity building services.
We subsidise knowledge instead of fertilizers and pesticides. Teaching Meenakshi and letting her
teach others like her is the best extension service model [which helps extend knowledge to more
and more practitioners], says D.V. Raidu, the state project advisor for CMSA.
Today Meenakshi is one of the 63 state-level Community Resource Persons (CRPs), the highest rung
of extension workers. I teach from my own experience and that is why I can address the doubts and
problems of the farmers, she says in Telugu.
Meenakshis success story best captures the change being brought about by the CMSA initiative. Sixyears on, her husband has stayed true to the contract and together they now lease and farm 2 acres.
The next step is to own a piece of land for which she is saving.
Like Meenakshi, many farmer households have been able to come out of their chronic indebtedness
thanks to CMSA.
According to one survey of five districts, quoted by Om Rupela, a former principal scientist with
8/6/2019 Back to the Roots for Andhra Pradesh Farmers
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/back-to-the-roots-for-andhra-pradesh-farmers 5/8
Indian Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics, 386 out of 467 (83 percent) farmers have
reacquired their mortgaged lands by using the savings after two years of practicing CMSA.
CMSA is not only helping subsistence farmers come out of their debt trap, but is also showing them
the benefits of a market which pays a premium for better quality.
Rajshekar Reddy Seelam, managing director of Sresta, a Hyderabad-based company that sells
organic food products both in India and abroad, is another such believer. By the year-end he is set to
roll out a new brand selling products out of CMSA farms, conforming to international standards.
We believe that in 10-15 years, the market for such products would be around $5 billion just within
the country, he says.
The Bigger Picture
The story in Andhra Pradesh is not too different from what happened to agriculture in the rest of
India, especially areas like Punjab, where Green Revolution was implemented in the largest measure.
By the start of the 1990s, agriculture in the country had started choking on its initial success, giving
rise to two broad sets of problems: Stagnant agricultural yields and increasingly un-remunerative
farming.
Over the 1990s, almost imperceptibly, the whole system became lethargic. The extension services of
the government started to fall apart. The key function of such services is to bring the farmers up to
speed with the new technologies being perfected in the labs and guide them in adopting these.
Meanwhile, farmers, influenced by local moneylenders and pesticide sellers, resorted to
indiscriminate use of chemical inputs. Every passing year, the soil became progressively less
responsive, all the while raising the stakes to a point where even a single crop failure tipped the
farming household into chronic indebtedness.
Today, rural indebtedness in Punjab, one of the best agricultural performers of India, is three times
the national average.
The importance of this issue can be gauged from the fact that the National Policy for Farmers (2007),
the main agricultural policy document in the country, states, There is a need to focus more on the
economic well-being of the farmers, rather than just on production. Socio-economic well-being must
be a prime consideration of agricultural policy, besides production and growth.
On the other hand, the decadal growth rates of yields for the two most widely produced crops havecontinued to fall since 1980s. For example, Wheat yields grew at 3.10 percent during the 1980s, 1.83
percent during the 1990s, and just 0.58 percent during the 2000s. The story is largely the same for
most of the other crops.
Official data shows how these stagnant yields affected Indias increasing population over time. The
net availability of rice has fallen from 81 kg per capita per year in 1991 to 53 kg in 2008 while that of
wheat has fallen from 60 kg to 53 kg per capita per year over the same period.
8/6/2019 Back to the Roots for Andhra Pradesh Farmers
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/back-to-the-roots-for-andhra-pradesh-farmers 6/8
The distinction between the two broad problems is important since the very policies and tools that
were supposed to increase yields were also responsible over time for aggravating farmer
indebtedness. But there is no doubt about which is the bigger problem for those promoting CMSA.
We believe that until agriculture becomes remunerative, even the food security concerns cannot bemet, says Kumar.
Necessary, but not Sufficient
So can the CMSA model ease the agricultural distress in a country where 60 percent of the
population, roughly 700 million, is still involved in largely un-remunerative agriculture?
The short answer is yes.
But there are still some doubts whether CMSA can solve the other riddle of raising yields.
Not even the chemicals company representatives deny the inherent wisdom of the CMSA approach.
However, there are a few qualifications.
S.K. Khosla, advisor, CropLife India and Rajen Sunderesan of the Agrochemicals Policy Group agree
that there has been excessive use of chemical inputs by farmers. However, they blame it on the
failure of the extension services which has allowed a gap of 20 years between the technological
frontiers and the farm. With Indias extension system in tatters, farmers continue to implement
obsolete technology and methods.
Matching yields in the short term is one thing but Will this system allow for higher yields in the
years to come? asks Sunderesan. If it can, only then should it be promoted, he says.
What he means is that more output cannot be achieved without more inputs. At present, there is an
imbalance in the soil that needs to be restored and CMSA is doing just that. However, once this is
done, newer varieties of seeds would need more nutrients to give better yields. The way seeds
technology functions is that every new variety is capable of taking up more nutrients from the soil
and converting it into food. Without any assistance in the form of chemical fertilizers, newer seed
varieties will not be able to produce more from the same piece of land.
Agrees Suresh Babu, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute,
Without increasing inputs, it is not clear whether yields will continue to increase in the longer
term. Swaminathan too feels that once the imbalance in the soil is addressed, it would be best to
make use of chemical inputs.
Babu believes that while CMSA resolves the indebtedness problem, there is no guarantee that the
farmers will not rush back to using pesticides in case of a major pest attack.
Organising people is the key to CMSAs success but that is also the main hurdle in replicating this
initiative in other states, says T. Nand Kumar, a former Indian agriculture secretary and currently
the chairman, Commission on the Optimum Use of Fertilizers.
8/6/2019 Back to the Roots for Andhra Pradesh Farmers
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/back-to-the-roots-for-andhra-pradesh-farmers 7/8
In his budget speech this year, the finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee, announced the extension of
green revolution to the eastern region of the country with the active involvement of Gram
Sabhas and the farming families. Irrespective of whether CMSA can be replicated elsewhere in the
country or not, one thing is certain: It will provide some key markers to ensure that the second green
revolution in India is more sustainable than the first.
A Bugs Life
How an understanding of the life cycle of pests helps protect crops
Its easy enough to spot a CMSA field. As you approach the small handkerchief plot nestled among
swathes of lush fields, you first notice the buzz. As you get closer, you see the source of the buzz:
Dragonflies and birds the little plot is teeming with them.
You also notice that unlike the other farms, the crop lengths here are varied. It almost looks like an
oasis surrounded by regular fields. For instance, in Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh, a typicalCMSA farm has every two or three rows of red gram (tur) interspersed with one row of castor, unlike
a non-CMSA farm which has a mono-crop of red gram. The whole plot has a hedge of corn plants,
and if you look closer, it is only on a CMSA farm that you will find ladybird beetles, cosily ensconced
in the leaves of the corn plants.
The reason for these varied crops is simple: The ladybird beetle feeds on the pests that attack red
gram and castor. Besides, the corn plants provide protection from pesticides used on adjoining
8/6/2019 Back to the Roots for Andhra Pradesh Farmers
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/back-to-the-roots-for-andhra-pradesh-farmers 8/8
farms. Castor attracts the pests that would have otherwise attacked red gram, explains
Meenakshi. So instead of spending a lot of money on repeated sprays of pesticides, farmers just
spend some time every week plucking castor leaves where the pest has laid eggs.
So for crop protection, CMSA relies more on understanding the behaviour and life cycle of the pests
attacking a particular crop.
No mechanisation, no health hazards due to pesticides, no side effects for the soil and the
environment, zero costs for the farmer and a more nutritious yield of red gram. For the same
volume of rice the CMSA produce weighs more. So if a jar full of conventional rice weighs 1 kg, a jar
full of CMSA rice weighs about 50 grams more.
The second important aspect of CMSA consists of a comprehensive strategy to improve soil health.
Plants dont eat chemical fertilizers by spoons. It is an organic process which must be respected
otherwise the soil will stop responding, as indeed it has, says D.V. Raidu, the state project advisor
for CMSA.
But CMSA is not merely the replacement of a few chemical pesticides and fertilizers by cheaper
options. CMSA isnt organic farming either. Essentially, its appeal lies in its practicality in a country
where landholdings get smaller with each passing generation.
Frankly, we do not teach anything that is not already a part of the Integrated Pest Management and
Integrated Nutrient Management techniques accepted by the government. The trouble is, nobody
cares to follow it, adds Raidu.