Recently after reading this book, At a macro level, I came to know many inexorable and hedonic facts about the state of Indian Agriculture. Here are some of my thoughts and the things which I liked in this book:
Culture commenced with Agriculture. Man remained mad and was a nomad before embarking upon cultivation. Village initiated the era of non-violence. Land was reclaimed and labor acclaimed while learning the secrets of nature. It transformed soil and soul.Woman taught men about nature and then agriculture. As Will Durant said, “Man was the last animal to be domesticated by woman.”
Agriculture in India awaits tremendous development as a means for meeting the food requirements of the country and preventing social calamities like droughts, floods, soil erosion and any severe pandemics. Studies in history and human nutrition show that decline in the quality and quantity of food below a certain minimum requirement per capital does have a serious effect on the vigor and activity of the people. The production of food crops and other edible products has therefore to be increased in India as early as possible to meet the on going local and global demands.Scope for such a development through systematic and scientific agriculture has to muster the farmer communities. Both government and private sector do take a pivotal role for better yields.
Soil and Water Conservation:
Agriculture, worth its name, is intimately connected with water and soil conservation. Soils in India have been left in neglect for centuries. Most people here have been depend on land for their living, participate in endless disputes and litigation over their titles etc..but very little cares for the improvement of the soil. Worse still is the fact that the natural processes of formation and conservation of soils have repeatedly disturbed by the landlords who destroyed most of the forests and ploughed all the grasslands for more and more money. The results of all these have been disastrous to agriculture and climate in many parts of India.Floods and soil erosion are very common issues to many farmers.
Technology in Agriculture:
In spite of traditional unemployment in the country and under-employment among farm workers, there is ample scope for mechanizing and using technology to modernize the agriculture in India. Work in the farms and fields in tropical climates involves inhuman hardship to men and animals, especially when they lack proper infrastructure. Using drones and some of the other Precision Agriculture tools will be more beneficial to farm communities. COVID19 pandemic, brought many farmer communities to use of Facebook, Whatsapp and using other social media platforms to sell the products directly to consumers and using them as knowledge sharing functions. As per a report from NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies), on Indian Agri-tech trends (NASSCOM, 2019) has estimated that 450 agri start ups have been maturing and growing….Start up ecosystem and Specialist Funds such as Sathguru Catalyser Advisors Private Ltd, which has launched Innovation in Food Agriculture (IFA) Fund, and Robobank & Capasian are seeing great potential in Indian Agri-tec space. Farming as a service (FAAS) has become a reality and companies such as EM3 Agri Services, Gold Farm and Trringo are offering a range of farm solutions based on pay-per-user services to farmers. Companies like StellarGene Technologies, which has developed a diagnostic kit for detecting virus attacks on crops much before the infestation manifests itself. ICRISAT, NABARD and Many governments are incubating many start-ups as well..
Use of technology has unleashed entrepreneurial spirits in the Indian agriculture sector, which in turn has the potential to bring about a huge transformation in farmers’s lives, and in the way agriculture is practiced. With the right kind of policy support, these start-up acorns can grow to become mighty oaks….
Use of Manures and Fertilizers:
The practice of sending all waste products of society to the soil is a very old practice and state governments have been encouraging for composting city waste, tree litter, cattle manures to raise the nutrient status and fertility of the soil. Many methods have been devised for making the best use of urine, sewage and other waste products of towns and cities and use of nitrogenous and phosphatic fertilizers has been popularized in the country.The system of Rice Intensification (SRI), The Dapog method, Zero Budget Farming and GroMore methods used in recent times have been helping the farming communities but still farming communities still need a better communication in using some of these proven methods to understand the economic impacts, social impact and environmental impacts….
Better Crop Species, More Acreage, Insecticides , etc:
Successful farming involves proper care of both soil and plant and there is much scope for work of our soil scientists and botanists in this line. In addition to bring more and more acreage under wheat, paddy, maize, potatoes, etc., the quality and treatment of the seeds of all these crops have to improved with the ultimate object of higher yields per acre of better crops. Multiple committees and agencies like The Field Inspection and Scientific Evaluation Committees (FISEC), International Service for the acquistion of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), European commission, and Biology Fortified (biofortified.org) have shown and given various recommendations for using better crop species and insecticides. These recommendations have to wide spread more for Medium and Small Scale Farmers….
Youth, Education and Agriculture:
A weak point about Indian agriculture in my personal view is: the poor contribution of our Universities and men of education in this field. While all the branches of agriculture and farm life are systematically studied in the Universities. But, their collaboration with farming communities is not been adequate enough to make them progressive in giving better yields. Increasing population and its lack of adequate water supply over much of the difficulties pose a challenging to the trained and educated section of India’s young people but they can be overcome by hard work and enthusiasm. MSME (Medium and Small Scale Farmers) & FPO (Farmer Producer Organization) should get more access to University agrarian data via digitization or through focused channels in the rural areas……
Some of the thoughtful articles to me in this book are:
- Water for Life by Parameswaran Iyer (Secretary Dept of Drinking Water and Sanitation in Union Ministry of Jal Shakti)
- Profit trickle in, drip by drip by N Madhavan ( Award Winning Journalist, Associate Editor, Businessline)
- Tech Tools for the modern farm by ML Jat ( Principal Scientist & Systems Agronomist, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) )
- The rich harvest of ‘precision farming’ N Madhavan ( Award Winning Journalist, Associate Editor, Businessline)
- There’s a robot on the farm!! by TV Jayan (Senior Editor Businessline)
- Debate: The ccase for GM crops
- The debt burden of input costs by Dr.Radheshyam Jadhav (Deputy Editor Businessline and a British Chevening Fellow at the London School of Economics)
- A World of opportunities by Sriraj A Chaudhry (MD & CEO National Collacteral Management Services Ltd)
- Zero Budget Natural Farming: A return to the roots by Subhash Palekar (Well known Agriculturist)
- eNAM as a game changer by Rajalakshmi Nirmal (Award winning Journalist)
- Budget 2020 points to the future by Rajalakshmi Nirmal (Award winning Journalist)
- Data pages– Gives you well illustrated views of various macro level data.
Bottomline: Labor on land is a productive exercise par excellence. It converts every drop of sweat into a bead of grain. Toiling, reaping and sharing are three fundamental norms to convert earthly existence into heavenly experience. More than before, Now Indian farmers need better water management strategies, better funding, better access to markets, help in modernizing the agriculture, hand on hand for sustainable agriculture, balanced and tantamount government policies, innate cooperation from private companies in leveraging the technology and products and environmental consciousness!!!
sivaayyala 