SECOND GREEN REVOLUTION FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD
SECURITY OF SMALL FARMERS
Dr. N.G. Hegde
BAIF Development Research Foundation, Pune
Development for Sustainable Livelihood
With her journey to the moon through Chandrayaan and joining the club of nuclear
power, India will soon be in the group of developed nations. We have already
established our leadership in information technology and heavy engineering. With
these accomplishments, the new challenge is to sustain our growth and prosperity, and
to ensure economic prosperity in rural areas. Rural development needs priority
because over 65% of the population is still living in the villages and over 85% of the
rural people are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. Most of them being
small and marginal holders, over 75% of their earnings are utilised to ensure food
security. With the growing population and over-exploitation of natural resources, the
pressure on food security and employment generation will continue to mount,
affecting the quality of rural life. Hence, it is necessary to develop a suitable strategy
to improve the economy of the rural sector through agricultural development in India.
For promoting rural prosperity, the development programme should focus on
improving agricultural production while generating gainful self-employment for the
small farmers and weaker sections of the society. With year-round employment, the
poor can earn enough to meet their basic needs. As the growth in the agricultural
sector has been almost stagnant, we need to plan for the Second Green Revolution.
The prerequisites for boosting agricultural development are women empowerment
and environmental protection. Women are the major power in agriculture as about
65-70% of the labour in crop production is contributed by women. So, we need to
empower rural women to improve their efficiency through drudgery reduction,
community health care, hygiene and sanitation, nutritional and educational support for
children, functional literacy and training in various skills to enhance their managerial
capabilities.
Environmental protection is necessary to ensure agricultural productivity because any
neglect in conserving natural resources will affect the crop production. Excessive use
of fossil fuel has been increasing the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,
causing global warming and climate change. Global warming is a serious threat to
our survival which has direct repercussions on agricultural production. It is feared
that we may experience a rise in the atmospheric temperature by 50 C in the next 75100 years. Then the sea level may rise by 1-2 m high and the major part of the
Himalayas may melt down. If it happens, most of the rivers emerging from the
Himalayas may dry up and cause severe shortage of water for irrigation. Agricultural
production may fall by 40%. Therefore, greater awareness needs to be created to
prevent global warming through environmental protection.
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Second Green Revolution
In the 70’s, India was successful in creating a Green Revolution which gave a boost to
the agriculture sector across the country. We need to create a similar revolution in the
near future as we have already started experiencing stagnation in growth in the
agricultural sector. Once again, we need to re-orient ourselves to create another
Green Revolution. While the first Green Revolution was to ensure food security as
there was severe scarcity of food in the country, the second Green Revolution should
aim at creating sustainable livelihood security for the poor and eradication of poverty
by generating gainful self-employment. While the first Green Revolution was aimed
at undertaking mass production, the second Green Revolution should be to promote
production by the masses. This is in line with the Gandhian philosophy of involving
the poor in development for equitable distribution of our prosperity.
The second Green Revolution should focus on generation of employment for the
small and marginal farmers and the landless, while enhancing agricultural production.
As these families mostly own degraded and low fertile lands, deprived of irrigation,
the focus should be on efficient use of such lands. As such lands are not suitable for
intensive cropping of high yielding food and cash crops, priority should be given to
dryland horticulture and agri-silvi pastures. Tree crops have the ability to withstand
the vagaries of nature without causing heavy losses. Tree farming can also provide
year-round employment while protecting the soil from erosion and runoff of rain
water. Promotion of tree farming will also enrich soil fertility and increase the water
table. Therefore, such programmes can improve the quality of life and protect the
environment.
An equally important sector is livestock, which needs good support. A majority of the
small farmers in India who do not have good land for agriculture, depend on livestock
for supplementary income. Therefore, livestock is well distributed among various
sections of the community unlike land holdings. Therefore, promotion of mixed
farming with various species of livestock can generate employment for small farmers
throughout the year. Fortunately, in India we have the largest population of livestock
in the world and the demand for livestock produce is increasing steeply. While the
present milk production is 98 million tons, the demand in the year 2022 is likely to
rise to 180 million tons. This will provide greater opportunity to small farmers to
expand their dairy husbandry programme.
BAIF has already demonstrated the scope for increasing milk production without
increasing the livestock population. Probably, dairy husbandry is the only programme
where poor families are able to build new assets in the form of crossbred cows,
produced every year, each valued at over Rs. 25,000. There are also successful
technologies to improve the supply of superior quality feed and fodder, particularly to
facilitate small farmers and landless to take up economic milk production. Promotion
of forage shrubs and trees, establishment of decentralised complete feed product units,
treatment of agricultural by-products to improve the nutritional qualities should be
popularised by providing technical support. We also need to re-orient our veterinary
health care through mobile services, by establishing a good field network of vets and
paravets to provide preventive and curative health care services to ensure good health,
which has a direct impact on the cost of milk production and the quality of milk.
Livestock being the major source of organic manure, animal husbandry should be an
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integral part of agriculture. With the introduction of modern efficient agricultural
implements, preferably operated by a single animal, the bullock power can become an
ideal farm power for small farmers.
Capacity Building
To ensure agricultural prosperity, involving rural masses particularly those at the
bottom of the pyramid, is necessary to build the capabilities of the participant farmers,
particularly, the women. As they are semi-literate with lack of confidence, it is
necessary to provide mentoring services at their doorsteps by posting well-trained
para extension workers selected within the community.
While we have solutions to address the anticipated technical problems, it is essential
to re-build our infrastructure to launch this programme successfully. Formation of
Self Help Groups of farmers having common interests and user groups should be
encouraged for awareness and motivation of the fellow farmers. Generally, the poor
farmers who have been experiencing failures develop a dependency syndrome and
often lose their initiative. Such families need regular motivation and peer group
pressure to take active part in various development activities. Such motivation can be
provided to each other by the members of user groups. It is also easy and effective to
communicate with the members through the group leaders. These user groups can
also take up backward and forward linkages, which is essential to enhance the
profitability. Presently, the organisations which deal with agricultural extension,
input supply, agricultural credit and marketing at the village level are extremely weak.
We need to strengthen them.
The local community should be empowered to plan their own enterprises. In rural
India, where the poor and illiterate people are passing through a dependency
syndrome, any approach with a “supply push” is not likely to work. We need to
reverse this approach by creating a “demand pull”. The local communities,
particularly those belonging to the weaker sections of the society, who represent over
65-70% of the rural population should demand for the services for their needs instead
of the donors and traders pushing their ideas and products in rural areas. We need to
create awareness among the poor to take active part in the development programmes
and extend a helping hand when they start demanding for various inputs and services.
They need hand holding in the initial stage to ensure their active participation in
technology adoption without any failure. Subsequently, the organisations of local
people - self help groups and federations can take up this responsibility of mentoring
and facilitation to a great extent. The people should own their programme and we
should recognise the positive role of small farmers in the progress of the country.
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