The tasks ahead
S. S. Johl

Agriculture Cannot Wait: New Horizons in India Agriculture
Ed. M.S. Swaminathan. Academic Foundation.
Pages 550. Rs 995.

If the rural agricultural economy has to leapfrog on an eco-friendly sustainable growth path to ensure economic well-being and nutritional security of rural families that will dovetail interests of consumers and producers (who are consumers as well), a three-pronged strategy is the real challenge faced by agricultural policy makers and programme administrators in India. It should incorporate the enhancement of productivity and earnings of asset-owning farmers, especially small farmers, and the blending of traditional ecological prudence with frontier technologies; the upgradation of landless agricultural labourers from unskilled to skilled workers and entrepreneurs; and the technological upgradation of village artisans and professions in the secondary and tertiary sectors. This book, Agriculture Cannot Wait, containing 39 agricultural policy papers on diverse subjects issued by the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences over 15 years, sounds as a wake-up call to all stake-holders in the agricultural sector to put agriculture on a higher, socially inclusive, sustainable and eco-friendly growth path.

This is possible if available technologies developed during the last six decades through the National Agricultural Research System in respect of agricultural and horticultural crops, animal husbandry, fisheries, irrigation, agricultural processing, renewable energy, agricultural services, forestry and other related areas are implemented to bridge the gap between the potential and field-level achievements. Comparative crop productivity data for different crops from different countries, adduced as proof of this gap, is not tenable evidence, because productivity gap is region and agro-climate specific and tropical region productivity cannot be compared with subtropical or cold climate productivity.

Six sections of this book categorise agricultural policy issues into sustainable livelihood and nutrition security; soil health enhancement and fertiliser use; water resource management; agricultural biodiversity and biosafety; agricultural research and education; and globalisation and agricultural exports. A wide spectrum of policy issues has been covered, providing answers to almost every problem faced by the agricultural sector. The emphasis on land reforms, with distribution of surplus land to landless farmers, does not fit into the dynamics of the fast-globalising domestic market and the need for cost-effective and internationally competitive production. By providing a fraction of an acre, a poor landless labourer cannot be converted into a viable farmer. The country has over 80 per cent land holdings that are small and marginal. The remedy lies in pulling at least 50 per cent of small and marginal farmers out of farming and enabling the majority of the rest of the farmers to become part-time farmers through providing off-farm gainful employment opportunities at easily accessible distance from their villages. Another aspect that has been mentioned cursorily in the introductory section is global warming and climate change, but no policy stance has been taken.

Although such a book is not easily summarised, because every paper contains a set of relevant policy recommendations that stand out alone and cannot be compromised through summarisation, an end section on crisp policy briefs could have added to the value of the book. Policy makers and programme implementers in India do not normally have the patience or inclination to go through such a comprehensive discourse spread over 537 pages. This book is recommended for serious readers and researchers in the national agricultural research system and for committed policy makers and their advisers. It has enough ammunition that can be used to blow out poverty and deprivation from the rural agricultural sector.

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