The farmer in the marketplace

Rural Ahmedabad is at an interesting environmental tripod. To its south is the central and south Gujarat plains: fertile, alluvial and bl...

Rural Ahmedabad is at an interesting environmental tripod. To its south is the central and south Gujarat plains: fertile, alluvial and black soils created by the deposits of the Sabarmati, Mahi, Narmada and Tapti. Mahi irrigation starts 30 km below Ahmedabad. We thirstily wait for Narmada waters and get paranoid when its enemies gang up of course, always outside Gujarat. To the north are ascending orders of aridity, through the great rural cultures as reflected in the temples of Bouchraji, Modhera, Patan, Visnagar, the Jain temples of Taranga Hills and Ambadi getting close to Rajasthan. To the northwest is the depression of the Bahl, connecting Gujarat’ with Saurashtra. Monsoon waters drain into the area and on the retained moisture are grown the great durham wheats, the daudkhani without which no self-respecting Gujarati family would make their rotis. My life’s savings are in a small house in rural Ahmedabad and when I get a headache I pick up my van and drive through the Bahl to Lothal and wonder on mygreat people who four thousands years ago built a jetty to trade with the Babylonians. Also I see again the beautiful six-inch figurine, the Lady of Lothal and in my imagination there is the same model in the architecture through Modhera and Taranga Hills.

The people are sturdy. The Patels, the Bharwads, the Kolis, the Thakores, Rawals, Waghelas and the Adivasis, minority communities and others were living in homogenous communities, but in the last three decades, there has been migration. Three decades ago I decided to plant 5,000 neem trees on the barren hillocks the government had given for the research institute where I hold the only permanent job I have held. The area was outside Ahmedabad and we didn’t have money for fencing, but in return for drinking water, free access to our land for morning ablutions, the villagers protected my trees. Today it is a 50-acre neem jungle in the middle of the fashionable drive-in area of the metropolis, but the villagers no longer can protect the trees. So we spentmillions on a fencing, three years ago.

Agriculture in the villages around Ahmedabad three decades ago was simple. It was paddy in the kharif and either an oilseed or wheat in the winter. In the rabi, land was also left fallow. Modern seeds varieties were used although yields were not very high on account of low irrigation levels. The cooperative credit movement provided finance according to the crop loan manual. Costs were high since yields were low and the farmer would complain that procurement prices were only for the north. But in those days central surpluses were not very high and transport costs were reasonable. The real problem was the bad rainfall year. Then it was difficult to repay the loans and with some hesitation the state would step in. Debts would be rescheduled; there was some relief and the farmer would live for the next rain.

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In the eighties, when we walked the area again for laying out the Narmada canals, there was the beginning of obvious change. The Abad and Sagar dairies meant moreand better cattle and also cultivated green fodders. Camel milk, for example, almost disappeared from Ahme-dabad’s tea supplies. The cropping pattern was also otherwise diversifying. Paddy and wheat became less attractive. The price of land went through the window and the kisans sold a fraction of their land to the builders. In some cases the fraction was high. Most of the kisans invested the money, although there are memories of the bapus who sold their plot and spent their money on a grand party for the entire village and lived unhappily everafter. The droughts of the late eighties were particularly severe on Saurashtra and north and central Gujarat. The problem of overdues started then, but the cooperative finance structure in rural areas got its big blows with the agricultural debt relief legislation. As effective channels, the PACS (primary societies) were no more.

I walk the area again. The organisation of agriculture has completely chan-ged. The money now comes from rich farmers, the village tradersand city-based traders and moneylenders. In this kharif the usual loan was around Rs. 1500 per bigha. The produce is purchased just before harvesting at the going market prices. When the crops are good, the farmer makes around eight to ten thousand rupees per hectare. But now, if he is in trouble, it is bad. Bad crops and low prices drive him to the wall. The ranks of those looking for a job are increasing.

The chief minister, according to the Gujarati press, has asked his officers to solve the real problems of the rural areas. He is himself a farmer. We can only wish him success. The present system is a strange mixture of a distorted market and feudalism. The interest rate around Ahmedabad last kharif was 40 percent. Hardly anybody was financing agricultural operations from the banks. Maybe the cooperatives can be revived with a restructuring roposal. But it is in marketing and technology that a lot can be done.

Somehow the notion is that agriculture can only develop incrementally. But once you startdiversifying, big leaps are possible. A young farmer came to me and suggested I help them in getting the Japanese to give them a contract to grow the Japonica variety of rice in more than 20,000 hectares of land. If the market is there, he says, we will find the technology and I will get the others to agree. I believe him.