The next big leap in the fields

Travelling down from Chittorgarh to Ahmedabad a few months ago we saw the agriculture regime in eastern Gujarat changing with the farmer res...

Travelling down from Chittorgarh to Ahmedabad a few months ago we saw the agriculture regime in eastern Gujarat changing with the farmer responding to markets and making money by growing less bajra and cotton. I only hope peace returns to this state early. Markets and finance, which to an extent was in the hands of small traders from the minority, are oiling the rabi harvest and the preparation for kharif sowing, which in Gujarat is early.

Costs in rabi are high because tubewell water is expensive and this is a water scarce region, so if prices fall or costs go up, there will be problems. But was diversification in the dry regions of Gujarat a fluke, or is it happening elsewhere? This time we go around 300 km west of Mumbai. Actually places like Nashik, Jalgaon and Ahmednagar are a continuation of the tribal belt, with the Sahyadris taking over from the hills in Gujarat and it is only our city mindsets that measures the distance from Ahmedabad and Mumbai, for you can go from the Panchmahals to Nashik via Rajpipla and Dhule.

This is solid Maratha farming territory and the farmer knows his beans. Farmers here have stopped growing inferior cereals a long time ago and discovered more than a decade back that there was not enough water to expand the area under cane. They grow some cane for the karkhana, for it has other benefits, but that is about all and there is hardly any bajra and jowar. So it is soya, onions, tur and then channa, among vegetables, potatoes are quite common and there is a lot of tree crops and horticulture. They give importance to fodder and feed, for milk and poultry is ready cash. Lucerne, maize and jowar are grown more for cattle and poultry, than for traditional uses. They are not happy. I push them. 8216;8216;You are lucky,8217;8217; I tell them. They admit that they will give the importer of agriculture a fight for his money, because they will outprice him. They are unhappy about WTO but not despondent. They will lose money but not give up and their chances will be better if they get help. They know they can push the politicos, but it takes time.

The real problem lies elsewhere. The farmer in India is still not very rich, even in the better areas. He needs growth of income, for the young man in the house has to go to college and the young lady has to be married. More income comes from a new crop or new technology, resulting in yields going up or costs going down. Now the technology here is fairly good, but there is nothing new about it. There are no new sources of growth and they know that state support is going down, because the Mantralaya went broke many years and parties ago. Soya was the last big frontier, but almost a decade ago they were growing more than a tonne a hectare, so what8217;s new, big brother?

I have been Arthashastri Alagh to a cooperative in Nagar taluka for almost three decades but they are disappointed in there being no new answers. The last time something good happened was demand for soya as seed. When the market price of soya was eight to nine rupees a kilo here, they got eleven and a half rupees and a rupee bonus for quality.

This in turn means they are at the mercy of the market. Here there are the usual horror stories. Grape prices were fifteen to sixteen rupees a kilo. They are now eight to ten rupees. When will the markets in Gujarat open up, for that is where the big market is? They know by experience what I wrote in this column a month ago. Gujarat is 5 per cent of the population, but 20 per cent of the additional market and prices are made at the margin. Is it true that the Americans will flood India with California grapes? We decide we can take care of that. Why are onion prices down to one rupee eighty paise a kilo? I tell them the new law allows us to get our co-op to sign up with a private insurance company and get real crop cover. They promise to follow up on this and tell me about their experiences the next time I come. Why are the companies fleecing us for pesticide prices? I tell them again, why don8217;t our boys buy wholesale and in bulk and then retail their produce? They are sceptical but promise to try it out. Meanwhile we decide it is wise to keep up the political pressure anyway.

Shall we get the scientists from the ICAR local centres, the bankers, the kisans, the export houses and the sahibs in this region together and decide how to converge on the next big push in the Deccan? Or shall all our plans remain on paper only? The last time we did it ten years ago and it worked. But time does not wait.