(Presentation at BELGIAN TECHNICAL COOPERATION [BTC]
Seminar Brussels,16-17 Dec 2009-"Agriculture as a motor of pro-poor growth".)
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The problems in developing countries can be summarized as follows: poor farmers, poor countries and poor policies. This doesn’t mean that poor farmers in Asia and Africa haven’t achieved results. In India there’s enough food, however there’s no equal partnership in relations with big industries and government policies are mainly anti-farmer. To reverse their situation farmers should be organised and empowered in farmers’ organisations to make their voice heard in the policy debate because -as an Indian saying goes- “Small farmers, twined together like straw, can control even an elephant”. The international community, donors and NGOs can play a role in this, on the condition that they really try to understand the situation of the farmers, listen to them and involve them in all of their actions.
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Advantages of Indian agriculture :
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India and its agriculture have many advantages. There’s a diversity of agro climatic conditions that holds opportunities for crop cultivation, animal husbandry and fisheries; This allows producing a diverse range of products, including organic, medicinal and native crops. Through its hard working farmers, huge financial resources, modern technologies, and capable entrepreneurs the farm sector has the capacity to increase its productivity and quality for e.g. rice, wheat, fruits, milk and cotton. Thus, India can fulfil its internal requirements while it can also contribute to the global food basket, including bio fuels.
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Actual situation and problems of the farming sector :
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Since the 1990’s India achieved huge economic growth rates in the service and industrial sector of 7 to 9%. Agriculture’s growth rate however did not exceed 3%. Indian IT experts, doctors and other professionals are globally renowned and sought for. Indian industrialists have become global players and the country disposes of star hotels, mega cities, international standard airports, and others achievements.
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With this given potential and the Indian industry and society so prosperous, why is Indian agriculture lagging behind?
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Small farmers constitute 80% of all farmers and contribute to 40% of farm production with 40 % of all farmland. However only 10% of the total agricultural bank credit goes to small agricultural loans.
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| The majority of economic benefits in India are cornered by a 20% minority in the organised sector, which consists mainly of the industrial and service sectors. The policies, resources and development are manipulated in favour of this organised sector. |
The institutions that are created whether they are governments, employees, research institutions, universities, extension departments, etc. don’t work for the farmers. Nearly Rs 1 lakh crores is spent on government employees, but government support for the farmers like extension, advice, technologies, etc. is a megre Rs 2,006 crore..
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Thus, due to institutional failures, manipulated policies and unfavourable pricing of farm products many farmers can’t make a living out of farming. Moreover, the actual farming sector faces stagnant agriculture growth with poor yields and chronic shortage in production of legumes, edible oils and sugar. Therefore India is marred by a huge rural unemployment and malnutrition, mass migration, suicides and rural social unrest. While in the past farmers were privileged and respected, nowadays they are treated as “untouchables”, and the nearly 40% of the farmers want to get out of agriculture. This whole setting constitutes a breeding place for problems like extremism. |
Changing Scenario – needs for small farm sustainability :
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Fortunately, in recent years awareness is growing about the importance and wellbeing of small farmers. It has dawned on policy makers to initiate steps to make small farming sustainable. The 2008 World Development Report (World Bank, 2007) provides many details for this. There are huge opportunities for Indian agriculture with the challenges of increasing production, increasing agriculture investment and increasing diversification.
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Small farm sustainability has some conditions: Policies and planning have to be agriculture-centred and farmer-based. There’s a need for empowerment and involvement of small farmers. The approach should be bottom-up, and not top-down, as is the case now. This bottom-up approach can be found in the state of Gujarat where every year all government employees are sent to the field to ask the farmers what they want. In doing so Gujarat has consistently achieved 10% economic growth.
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Farmers should have an adequate access to information in order to improve their productivity and competitiveness. Disadvantageous trade restrictions should be removed. There’s a need for increased public and private investments, and there should be an adequate policy framework that institutionalises and legalises farmer organisations that can support and defend these small farmers. Equal partnerships with the private sector have to be developed so as to reach access to marketing, technology and global opportunities.
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Networking of small farmers is key for policy changes :
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Good policies are necessary to reach small farmers’ sustainability and to solve the problems of Indian agriculture. The ones who know best what agriculture needs are the farmers themselves. So they need to be organised in farmers’ organisations in order to let their voices be heard in the policy making process. |
A strong small farmers’ organisation can effectively network farmers to promote the development of accountable institutions and curtail exploitation and anti-farmer lobbying. It can obtain and efficiently manage resources, and establish equal partnerships with industry and private sector, research institutions and governments. Farmers’ organisations have an advantage over NGOs, as the latter have a tendency to be non-democratic, posses limited capacities, and follow their own agenda. |
Networking of small farmers is possible through Commodity Interest Groups (CIGs). These are groups of 10-20 small farmers that join together in partnerships with actors like the industry, retail agents, etc. In this they are empowered, educated, consulted on their needs and provided with timely inputs including access to credit and markets. These CIGs make things work as they have knowledge of the field level problems, and the interest for success is theirs. |
Farmers’ organisations in developing nations nowadays still face some challenges. The organised sectors oppose pro-farmer policies. Moreover there’s an opposition to farmers’ empowerment by the political and vested interests. Politicians rather use farmers and divide them than to empower them. Politicians and administrators also oppose decentralised agricultural planning. These challenges already in themselves imply the need for strong farmers’ organisations. |
| Proposal: CIFA Success Story : |
In India, the Consortium of Indian Farmers Associations (CIFA) is an apex farmers’ organisation that has succeeded in the last 10 years, with support from the agri-agency Agriterra, in initiating networking of 570 million small farmers in India. CIFA is now recognized as India’s National Farmers Apex Organisation. It has strengthened and supported CIGs and enabled small farmers to work with markets. CIFA has succeeded in establishing a strong lobby amongst policy makers and brought about many favourable policies. It has initiated partnership programmes for marketing with the industry, research institutes and governments, and established international programmes with e.g. Agriterra, the World Bank, etc. |
Thus CIFA facilitates empowerment of millions of Indian small farmers who can ensure considerable production growth and food security. Its experiences will benefit greatly the networking and empowering of small farmers in other developing nations. Therefore, a next step would be to create networks with international farmers’ organisations for the benefit of small farmers around the world. |
| Appeal for the donor organisations : |
| There are some points of interest for donors that want to develop agriculture for pro-poor growth: |
- Strengthen small farmers’ organisations and CIGs e.g. by establishing administration, training and dissemination facilities.
- Listen to the farmers when dealing with agriculture in developing nations, and don’t tell them what to do. Agriculture, as well as culture, is completely different in developing and developed nations. Therefore rural development plans should be country-specific and elaborated and executed with involvement of the farmers.
- Send academics of renowned institutions to assess India’s programmes’ implementation and government functioning, since international publications on the institutional failures can contribute to the awareness and recognition of the problems.
- Access to technologies like e.g. biotechnology and pesticides should be free, as with regard to these matters a double set of standards seems to have developed for developed and developing nations.
- Understand that farmers do farming for survival, they want to earn a livelihood.
- Use the WDR 2008 for guidance!
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| Conclusion : |
Farmers from developing nations can change policies to be pro-poor and pro-farmer when they organise themselves and have their voice heard. Governments will have to face the importance of agriculture and wellbeing of small farmers with regard to food security. It is possible to make agriculture sustainable today; the necessary science and technologies exist, sufficient investments are possible, and the markets present great opportunities. What is required is to give dignity and economic stability to the farmers. That will bring about a total change. |
| Consortium of Indian farmers (CIFA): |
World Bank (2007). The World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development. World Bank, Washington DC. 384 pp
(available from http://www.worldbank.org/WDR2008) |
