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The National Rain-fed Area Authority (NRAA) was established on 3rd November 2006 to give focused attention to the problems of rainfed area of the country. With as much as 85 million hectares of arable land being almost wholly rain-dependent for crop production, the vulnerability of the Indian agriculture to the vagaries of the monsoon remains significantly high. Nearly half of the total acreage of over 90 million hectares under rice, and the bulk of the area under coarse cereals, pulses and oilseeds are unirrigated and hence rain-reliant. The key to the stability in farm production, therefore, lies largely in stabilising crop output in the rainfed areas. But, unfortunately, most of the developmental effort in agriculture has remained concentrated in irrigated areas, which offered scope for quick results. The average crop productivity in the rainfed areas has, consequently, remained woefully low at about 1 tonne a hectare, less than half of that in the irrigated areas. |
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Rainfed areas, moreover, become the worst victims of droughts, which are quite common in the country. Their frequency varies in different parts of the country from once in every 2.5 years in Rajasthan to once in 15 years in Assam. It was to tackle this menace that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced the setting up of a National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA) in his address to the nation on Independence Day in 2005. However, this authority not only took more than a year to come into being (in November 2006) but has not been allowed to function properly even till today due largely to the inter-ministerial wrangling over gaining control over it. |
A Group of Ministers finally settled the row by putting the authority under the administrative control of the agriculture ministry and making agriculture minister the chairman of the NRAA with the rural development minister as co-chairman. However, the NRAA’s CEO, a technical subject-matter expert, was given the pay scale and rank of the secretary to the government of India but not full-fledge status and powers that go with the job — the NRAA has been rendered a powerless appendage of the agriculture ministry. Of its sanctioned staff strength of 53, only 8 posts have been filled and those too by redeploying employees from other departments. |
The objective behind creating the NRAA was to ensure convergence, as also to harness synergies, between the rainfed agriculture-related activities being carried out now by as many as five ministries like agriculture, rural development, water resources, panchayati raj and environment and forests. But this hasn’t happened, as the other ministries do not feel obliged to listen to its sane advice. |
It is, therefore, imperative that the NRAA is empowered to enforce its say in all the 5 concerned ministries and that can be ensured only by making it independent and equidistant from all these ministries. To do so, the NRAA should be converted into an autonomous constitutional body. If that is not possible for any reasons, the other option could be to place this authority in the Planning Commission or, better still, in the Prime Minster’s office so that its writ runs across the ministries.
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Revitalisation and needful empowerment of the NRAA has now assumed all the more urgency in view of the proposed move to make it legally binding for the government to provide 25 kg of highly subsidised foodgrains to the poor. This would require annually anywhere between 40 million tonnes and 60 million tonnes of foodgrains depending on how much of the below poverty line (BPL) population the government decides to cover under this path-breaking social welfare programme. |
Ensuring availability of such huge quantity of grains may not be possible without improving the productivity of the country’s vast rainfed tracks. Therefore, it may be worthwhile for the Prime Minister himself, whose brainchild the NRAA is, to devote personal attention to this matter and make the authority truly functional to deliver results. Surinder Sud -June 30, 2009, BS |
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A drought is the time to accelerate water conservation, development and delivery programmes. Watershed projects, deepening water bodies, declogging existing canals and repairing wells are all sensible and doable. Also this is a year to emphasise the value and price of water. Not all projects give benefits in the period of the poor weather cycle, but popular participation will be more and the programmes more effective, if planned well.
This is the year to highlight the technology and incentive systems for dryland crops. Oilseeds, pulses and fodder crops need profitability and technological support. Now that RBI has also pointed out that agriculture does not cause inflation but food prices rise as a consequence of bad policies, let us at least take up some model projects and with agricultural research and institutional systems, cooperatives and corporates. Supply planning for food crops is not a major problem for cereals, given the stock position. For other crops, imports will need to be organised within variable tariff bounds so that the rainfed regions don’t lose out on short to medium growth prospects. All this and more are possible. But we need coordination between agriculture, rural development, water development and macro policymakers. But coordinating agencies must pull their weight. FE 070809 |
2. Pulses deficit :
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Over the last three decades, the pulses production has been languishing. Stagnant acreage (22 million hectares), low yields (600 kg a hectare) and sluggish output growth characterise the cultivation of the legume. |
Lack of breakthrough in seed technology, rain-fed cultivation, low level of input usage and susceptibility to pest and disease attack are some of the factors affecting pulses production. This has had serious implications for output and consumption. Per capita availability of this nutritious food ingredient in our country has gradually declined in the last fifty years – from 71.8 grams a day in 1957 to a mere 35.5 grams a day in 2007. It is reported that an estimated 3.7 lakh tonnes of yellow peas are currently lying at various ports and at port-towns resulting in tur dal rulingat Rs 100 per kg. BL030809
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3. Area under foodgrains shows declining trend :
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The gross cropped area under foodgrains in 2008-09, at 123.8 million hectares, is about five lakh hectares lower than the acreage in 1970-71. In the case of cereals, the gross cropped area has fallen by nearly three million hectares since 1990-91, to thecurrent level of 100.8 million hectares. In a year alone, or between 2007-08 and 2008-09, the gross cropped area under foodgrains fell by three hectares. While the area under rice increased by 1.7 million hectares, that under wheat fell by three lakh hectares. In the case of pulses, the drop in acreage was still more pronounced, at six lakh hectares. Gross acreage under oilseeds increased by a million hectares. BL030809 |
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4. Pertinent Points by JP in AP Assembly : |
Lift irrigation needs 6000 MW power. Power subsidy bill will rise from Rs 6000 crore to Rs 15000 crore to meet lift irrigation power costs. It costs Rs40,000 to Rs 50,00 to lift irrigate an acre of cropped land. Does it make any economic sense? Loans waived Rs13,000 crore but agri growth minus Animal Husbandry is only 0.2%. not even 2.2% . Why huge amounts waived not resulting in growth of Agri? What happened to the money? 050809
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5. Labour Problem forces shift from Cotton Farming in TN : |
Due to labour problem, cotton farmers were shifting to tapioca in Salem district and Maize in other districts, Domestic and Export Market Intelligence Cell (DEMIC) of the T.N.A.University said. Since CCI has not made any procurement during 2008-09 season, the farmers here were deprived of getting MSP for cotton and forced to sell at a reduced rate of Rs 100-300 per quintal, DEMIC said. TH050809
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TNAU to set up market intelligence centres : |
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) will establish market intelligence centres in state agricultural universities in India, under a project of the ICAR.The project will cover 10 states, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttarkhand and Tamil Nadu with 11 state agricultural universities to make price forecasts and give market intelligence for rice, wheat, maize, coarse grains, groundnut, sunflower, gingelly, coconut/copra, red chillies, turmeric, pepper, cardamom and major vegetables. TH260609
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