As part of the Cultivating Hope campaign, which aims at highlighting farmer related issues and finding ways to address the severe problem, NDTV spoke to Professor M S Swaminathan, Founder Chairman and Chief Mentor, UNESCO Chair in Ecotechnology, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, about the adversities faced by farmers and how to overcome the challenges by adapting to solutions.
From questions related to Green Revolution to food security to the implications of deteriorating condition of agriculture on the common man, here are the answers provided by Professor M S Swaminathan.
Q 1. How seriously is our food security threatened?
Our food security is seriously threatened by economic, ecological and social factors. Eternal vigilance is essential for safeguarding our food security.
Q 2. What ails our agriculture sector?
Our agriculture sector ails from many difficulties including the loss of prime farm land, loss of biodiversity, lack of interest in farming among the younger generation and inadequate public policy support, particularly in the areas of input-output pricing, export-import and pricing, procurement and public distribution system.
Q 3. What are the implications of deteriorating condition of agriculture on the common man?
The common man is affected by high food prices. Poverty induced under nutrition is already extensive and it can get worse.
Q 4. Why has our agriculture – that was once the largest component of our GDP and still has the largest section of the workforce depending on it – reached this state?
Our agricultural GDP is going down because of the expansion of the other sectors of the economy. We need to create more employment and market driven income earning opportunities in the non- farm sector.
Q 5. Why has India failed to replicate the Green Revolution model?
Green revolution indicates the advance of production through the productivity pathway. This requires synergy between technology and public policy. What we need is not a second green revolution but an ever-green revolution leading to an increase in productivity in perpetuity without ecological harm.
Q 6. What are some of the immediate steps that need to be taken to stem the rot in India’s agriculture?
The immediate steps needed were all given in detail in the reports of the National Commission of Farmers.
Q 7. What is the biggest challenge for India’s farmers today?
The biggest challenge is the economics of the farming on the one hand and inability to attract and retain youth in farming on the other.
Q 8. What role has poor economics played in aggravating the problems in our agriculture sector?
The cost, risk and return structure of farming determines farmers interest in farming. Today these are unfavourable.
Q 9. In the Climate summit in Paris, climate change adaptation is being talked about – how geared up is India to deal with the implications of climate change on its farmers.
Climate change can be a mega catastrophe. The recent agreement in Paris to limit the rise in temperature to 1.5 deg C is welcome, but it will lead to the loss of about 6 million tonnes of wheat in the Punjab-Haryana region. For adapting to the new temperature regime there is need for shifting attention from per crop productivity to per day productivity.
Q 10. If you could reform India’s agriculture sector then what would be your roadmap to deal with the issues of our farmers?
How to reform agriculture is the main thrust of the report in the National Commission on Farmers.
With all due respect to the great man, I think the methods which were used to bring about our first Green Revolution have themselves become the reason for the decline in farm productivity and stagnation in the growth of the agriculture sector. In short, the Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns has kicked in and farmers are losing money for every additional rupee they are investing in inputs of every kind.
It is shocking but less known fact to the public, that this stagnation and decline has actually happened 20 YEARS AGO in the very states that heralded our Green Revolution – Punjab and Haryana. An glance at the crop yields for this period in these states will show this to be true.The growth we are witnessing today is largely fuelled by other states rushing to use the same strategy that has failed in those very states that pioneered its use. It is time to admit that our Green Revolution has failed and a comparison of our yields with other nations resembles our performance in the Olympics. The glint of rare specks of gold, empty promises and the dashed hopes of millions. The only difference being that here is that for our rural populace it is a game of life and death and we all know who is winning.
The other facts stated by Dr Swaminathan in the interview are correct but our scientific community is still groping for answers and have no solutions to offer as a fix to this, which is a cause for alarm. I believe that if we continue along the same path we have followed since the mid 1960’s, India will lose its hard earned food security before 2050.Further, if we do not preserve our soil, our already miserably low yields could plummet further sowing the seeds of chaos in our beloved country.
Indian farm yields for most crops are half those achieved in the leading nations of the world, so a solution to our emerging food shortages exists today, without looking at esoteric solutions such as GM crops that are creating more problems than they are pretending to solve. The ignominious performance of GM cotton in India in 2015 when faced with the onslaught of whiteflies removes the only fig leaf the GM seed industry used to wave whenever confronted with hard facts of the damage this industry has caused to farmer interests, nature and natural varieties all over the world, not to speak of the dangers to our health the use of GM crops engender. What is inexcusable is the Government’s refusal to recognise how the absence of competition is working to our farmers’ disadvantage. India’s accession to the WTO norms have therefore sounded the death knell for our impoverished who are sinking below subsistence levels levels as land gets divided over generations.
Now, more than ever we need a second Green Revolution which can address all these concerns and help farmers raise productivity to world class levels while reducing costs of cultivation. When Indian farmers can be competitive worldwide, this will release immense resources for improving agricultural infrastructure including drip irrigation and postharvest storage facilities to reduce waste. For instance, if we were able to raise farm productivity by even 1 ton of foodgrain per acre, this would enrich rural India by almost Rs 6 trillion (Rs 15,000/ton x 400 million acres, double this for areas that grow two crops a year). The gains from higher value horticultural crops would be much higher. Compare this with the one time loan waiver given of Rs 580 billion or the annual fertiliser and food subsidies of Rs 2000 billion. At one stroke we would be able to eliminate rural poverty, reduce our subsidies and trade deficit and increase the size of our market for a host of goods and services. The total benefits to our country are incalculable.
These are not figments of someone’s imagination but something that is being achieved using simple eco friendly methods which I am popularising over thousands of acres of farmland in Punjab, Haryana and North Rajasthan. I aim to raise the average yields of wheat and rice that are stagnating at 4 tons per hectare to 7 -8 tons in my present area of operation.(These are the yields being achieved in countries like France and Germany for wheat and China for rice). My targets for the increase in yields for horticultural crops will again be to match and ultimately beat world standards. These yields have already been achieved by farmers using our methods in numerous villages and now they are taking ownership of these methods as a quiet revolution takes shape in village after village, bringing joy to our proud farmers who had lost all hope and were being driven to commit suicide.
Please visit my website for more information. If your foundation wishes to pitch in and help it will accelerate the process, if not; I am more than capable of carrying on alone, all it will take is more time. However I realise time is a luxury our poor people cannot afford.
I am not an armchair scientist resting on his laurels, instead I believe I am an agent for change who deal not in mere words but hard deeds, actually cultivating hope by spreading the flame of knowledge to those who need it the most.
Kind regards,
Uday Philar