Soften the harsh realities of farming

Satvinder Kaur Mann

Since more than two decades now, farmers have been committing suicides in India, a fact that reflects the harsh realities of farming. Most of these farmers were traditional family farmers, leading a lifestyle based on traditions and beliefs. The intensive commercial commodity-based agriculture being practiced since last many decades, has been nursed with inputs procured on credit and the amount of  credit taken had been escalating. Losses during bad weather or price crash could easily disrupt their calculations for repayments, resulting in terrifying consequences for the family, creating a disheartening scenario. 

Introspection needed

The suicides initially started in the agriculturally prosperous states, reflecting that agricultural policies were in urgent need of introspection. Then, agriculture was a mosaic of annual, perennial crops and locally adapted sturdy animals that helped buffer and sustained the farmer's way of life. But it was transformed towards the “annual-crop-mono- cultures” that have been dotting the countryside of Punjab, for more than six decades and subsequently spread to the whole of north-western India. 

This new format of agriculture was more remunerative at the initial stages, but soon became highly “input-intensive”, which led to an increased borrowing for fertilizer, weedicide, pesticides and even for seeds subsequently.  With mechanisation, larger farms appeared on the horizon. Farmers owning more acreage and the ones who could manage more land on lease, under favourable weather conditions were sustaining abundance of production. Losses in this type of agriculture can be colossal, irrespective of  the farm size, as was seen this year, with untimely rain or detrimental weather conditions such as rise in temperature or floods. The buffer capacity of farming was deflated.

Escalation of cost

The lush green fields that have been sustaining the foodgrain security of an increasing population,  actually reflect a virtual prosperity of the farming community. The number and quantity of inputs needed have increased, their cost has escalated, global climate changes now manifest more frequently and the price of foodgrain commodities, in actual value have been declining for the last many years. This has led to accumulating of the farmers’ debt. Agriculture is a biological system and efficiency of the productive seeds and technologies will depend upon the richness of the natural resources in the ecosystem. But if the biological system, (like intensive irrigated monocultures of rice-wheat on a large acreage), deviates from ecological principles, then it cannot be sustained for long.  

The natural cycle of energy is disturbed and climate resilience is compromised with reduced biodiversity.  In addition, these   irrigated monocultures are the breeding grounds for pest and pathogen populations that have an inherent ability to adapt and evolve. This requires  increasing or multiple doses of new pesticides, adding to the cost of sustainability as well as impairing the environment. This implies that the  input-output  approach  towards agriculture on the industrial pattern  is not sustainable. However, a similar approach in agriculture is being adopted in the states that were left behind in the initial phase and are filling the yield gaps in production with inputs. In addition, higher foodgrain production targets are continued to be allocated where production is not remunerative any more. 

The wheat crop this year was being damaged by rains for more than three months. Prior to harvesting, the government remained worried about the net production that would be available, but the concern for losses that the farmers were going to face was missing.  Then on arrival of the harvest, while the rain was still adding to the farmer's misery, instead of quickening the pace for procurement, quality concerns came into being. The human element surfaced only when farmers’ suicides started making news.

Disheartening signals

Computational abilities available could have made the predictive analysis of the crop season, weather conditions and the impact on production and quality. These could have been used as guidelines to preempt the suicides. Initial statements of the ruling elite and officials alike, were that the  affected produce will not be procured, sending very disheartening signals. Small and marginal farmers live a precarious existence. Also, the overall  annual input investment on farming in general is with the borrowed money. 

In fact, presently it is not only the farmers, but the sustainability of input-intensive agriculture itself that is in crisis because of natural resource degradation and the weather elements becoming more erratic with the climate change.

Preventive measures

Only ad hoc measures of compensation are being rolled out after the farmers’ suicides make media headlines and street protests take place. The situation could have been prevented from evolving into a crisis if the economic cost of food security had included the “cost of human and natural resource depreciation, that has been occurring  in a geometric progression” in the states that were able to respond to the national policies for foodgrain security.  But the absence of proactive measures towards agricultural sustainability has resulted in the agrarian crisis in the country. Therefore, it has further added to the  tough ground realities of  farming. 

Under these myriad constraints, even the best of agricultural technology will only have a limited lifespan. In order to sustain production, it has to be reinvented and replaced on a continuous basis. But when the impact of these efforts also stagnates, as is the situation with Punjab, then “agriculture has to be transformed”. Originally, flood-prone fertile alluvial soils in the region have been cultivated for generations. The rivers having been tamed through the dams, the threat of floods was minimised, the network of canals and tube-wells ensured irrigation. This made it  possible to grow two to four crops per year, creating intensive crop ecology in the state. The natural resource potential of the rich alluvial topsoil has been depleted over the years. That is the reason as to why growing rice-wheat has become input intensive and unsustainable for a large number of farmers.

The industrial model for agricultural, implying  scale-increase, further intensification and reshuffling of commodities was at odds with nature and is a not a way forward. According to the official data, 16, 6304 farmer committed suicides in India from 1997-2006, and the number of farmers have declined by 9 million from 2001 to 2011. This is the first absolute decline of the agrarian population since 1971. It is this population that had formed the backbone of Indian economy. Over 2 lakh peasants (mostly marginal and small farmers) had left farming from 1991 to 2005 in Punjab. They numbered around 5 lakh in 1991, reduced to around 3 lakh in 2005 and the number was further declining fast. The community is at an increased risk of disappearing in the state. With the opening up of the economy, exports  were visualised as a solution to address the economic crisis of  farming in Punjab. 

There has been some success with other crops, but it is on record, how the durum wheat production  from Punjab was marginalised  on quality basis and found uneconomical for exports because of the transport costs to the distant seaports as trade movement through the northwestern border has yet to become “a sustained” reality. In addition, there have been frequent quality concerns that have plagued the grain produce in Punjab during procurement for the central pool too. But repeated efforts on crop diversification, much-needed farmgate  primary processing,  grading,  packing and branding practices were not taking root. The farmers were continuing to hold on to the unremunerative  agriculture in Punjab. This was because agriculture cannot  wait nor can it thrive without assistance. Even in the highly developed countries like the US, more than $ 2billion  was paid as crop payout for 2011-13, nearly triple than in the past decade, for not planting because of  the excessive wetness in the northern farm belt.

Year of Family Farming

To undo the damage that industrial agriculture was inflicting on the agrarian economy, the UN had declared the year 2014, as the year of Family Farming (which is not about the size of the farm), to position them as central pillars for food security and sustainability of agriculture and environment.  

In addition, the nutrients in the top soils of the intensively cultivated arable lands have been degraded making agriculture unsustainable. To highlight the issue, the UN declared 2015, as the Year of the Soil to remind its importance to mankind. The idea of mega food processing plants deserves appreciation but sustainability of the environment should also get prioritised.  

Transformative approaches to agriculture are the need of the hour. These will help to impart climate resilience, rehabilitate the degraded natural resources and economically stressed farming communities of the agriculturally developed regions of the country. Farmers should be rehabilitated on their farms and given incentives to protect the environment. They must get honourable exit points so as to wean them away from the path of suicides. 

Agricultural research has long been emphasising the cropping system and site-specific solutions to develop ecological agriculture, a farm and landscape-based approach, where traditional farmers’ knowledge matters for sustenance.Rural development should be able to improve the farmers’ lot and help them move away from producing surplus foodgrains. Fast-tracking only commercial agriculture will further add to the problems. 

What is the way ahead for Punjab

Business as usual in agriculture is not a solution for Punjab any longer. The state should aim at ameliorating the degraded natural resources.  These should be rejuvenated by transforming annual foodgrain- based agricultural enterprise into integrated perennial agriculture. Reorganise agricultural subsidies  and payments for lands left fallow for a season, for not polluting, for cultivating legumes and other deep- root forming crops that add to soil health, soil structure, enhances water recharge and quality of water that percolates down as well as for developing pastures  and adopting cell or rotational grazing of animals. 

Punjab should focus on the regional foodgrain security and cultivation of quality and product-specific varieties, that can be processed and other niche-area crops. It will reduce the foodgrain miles, induce crop diversification, promote consumption of locally produced fruits and vegetables. It will improve human health, local economy and benefit small and marginal growers. Value addition through primary processing at the farmgate and help to develop a supply chain directed towards adjoining cities will improve the farmer's income. Inculcating a culture of  value addition to the farmer’s psyche will help innovation.

The writer is former Dean Postgraduate Studies, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana