Fragmentation crisis in Indian agriculture
by Vipesh Garg on 01 Aug 2017 9 Comments

Agriculture has always being viewed as an integrated activity, including crop production, resource conservation, and livestock, in one seamless whole. The present scenario in Indian agricultural academia has witnessed fragmentation and division over the years. The rising trend of inter-disciplinary specialisation and compartmentalisation of related disciplines as subsidiary occupations calls for immediate attention to save the integrity of agriculture.

 

The loss of integration within the agricultural system as a whole tends to invite another agrarian crisis across India, the evidence of which can be felt with the lack of sustainability in farming, leading to over-exploitation of valuable natural resources and increasing cases of farmer suicides.

 

The State Agricultural Universities, created on the pattern of the land grant system of education in the United States, has been acclaimed worldwide for ushering in the a “Green revolution” in India in the mid-1960’s. The introduction of high yielding cultivars and improved crop production practices led to monoculture with the aim of filling the buffer stock and increase foreign exchange. The prosperity thus brought by the green revolution resulted in the sacrifice of natural resources, with no thought given to sustainable farming and resource conservation practices. Over time, crop production has come to be viewed as a primary occupation and the once integrated disciplines are being viewed as subsidiary occupations.

 

This dramatic shift has led to compartmentalisation of integrated disciplines with emphasis on specialization of individual enterprises (dairy, fishery, piggery, mushroom, resource conservation et al) leaving to the neglect of the age-old integrated natural concept of farming as proposed by Masanabu Fukuoka, a Japanese farmer and pioneer of natural farming.

 

Presently, the administrative and academic agricultural setup decides upon a specific discipline for bestowing grants to undertake rigorous research and popularize a technology or ‘improved’ practice among state farmers without much analysis of socio-economics factors and long term benefits. Certainly, advancements in science and technology have brought some relief to state farmers, but these are short term and temporary gains.

 

The rising crises for resource conservation and replenishing sick soils are now evident, and can only be attributed due to discretionary practices and lack of interdisciplinary approach in farming systems. Lack of integration and compartmentalization also shift blame on each other in times of crisis, as agriculture as a whole is impacted by many uncalculated factors.

 

The current crisis in agriculture calls for immediate attention of policy makers, administrators, university academicians and farmers, to analyze the grim situation and put forth concrete steps to safeguard the ailing economic backbone of our country. There is need to review the present system of budgetary allocations in agriculture, specifically in the interest of replenishing sick soils. A segment of the grants should be devoted to motivate individual farmers practicing in-situ resource conservation strategies.

 

In recent decades, agriculture and veterinary science were separated, and two separate universities for these studies have been established without much inter-operability. State agricultural universities (SAUs) are now being further bifurcated into agriculture and horticulture universities. In the states of Haryana and Punjab, efforts are being made to allocate a special grant to carve out a separate horticultural university from the mother agricultural university; this will divert energy and resources in research of specialised compartments and further destroy the integrity of agriculture as a holistic enterprise.

 

Presently, most agricultural and animal science subjects are taught separately. To be more specific, separate departments have been carved out to conduct research, teach and do extension work independently, regardless of the emphasis given to the inter-dependence of these subjects as observed in natural ecosystems. With the availability of more grants, various departments have been separated to undertake their teaching, research and extension activities independently without paying much heed to inter-operability of natural agricultural systems as a whole.

 

As a result of this segregation, a student undertaking research on crop production, emphasises only narrowly laid objectives, without taking into consideration the several factors that are imperative to the net yield of a given crop. This fixed pattern and design restricts inter-operability and inter-linking as observed in natural agri-ecosystems. This is one of the crucial factors that is responsible for our inability to solve the emerging crisis in agriculture.

 

Acquisition and merging (A&M), consolidation and integration are becoming a new trend in every sector of the economy in order to compete and survive market forces. Several agricultural seed and chemical companies such as Bayer, Monsanto, Syngenta, ChemChina, DuPont and Dew, and several public sector banks; telecom companies, oil companies and so one are merging and integrating together. Even the Government keeps harping upon minimum government, maximum governance through consolidation and centralised systems; so why is there fragmentation in the agriculture sector?

 

We need to stop splitting universities as this will breed excessive bureaucracy, corruption, and friction. We need to focus upon the performance and footprints of exiting universities at the farmer or field level, rather creating more universities. Agriculture should not be viewed as a venture invented by man, rather it should be perceived as a wonderful gift of Mother Nature to satisfy the needs of man. 

User Comments Post a Comment
A very interesting analysis
Vijay
August 01, 2017
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Many lies were imported in the 60s from Oxford & Washington, DC, on "subsistence farming" and caloric poverty and malnourishment, female and infant mortality, morbidity, etc., which made for great expert careers on agriculture, "development" etc., in places like NY, Geneva or Bangkok. The greatest invention of course, in India at least, was the "poverty line", which sustained great ideologies in subsequent decades, and the buzz was all about the coming Revolution, esp as preached by a little red book imported via Oxford. Later, of course, revolution arrived in rainbow stripes of green, pink, and even white! Not to forget important blue and the much-maligned saffron hues. And now, what these experts publish, is not worth the trash that goes to making printing paper.
Fatima Fonseca
August 01, 2017
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Agriculture is truly in a crisis. Warm regards

Ajai
August 01, 2017
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The fragmentation that you have written about is the programme of
specialisation which has overtaken agriculture. A small plot can comfortably feed a family and a few of their neighbours - provided the crop 'scientists', planners and administrators are kept far away (see Fatima Fonseca's comment). This is the only agricultural economics we should need. If you appeal to planners and policy makers to help fix the problem - they are the ones who created it to keep themselves employed!
Rahul Goswami
August 01, 2017
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@Rahul Goswami
You have hit the nail on the head. The whole CRISIS of Indian agriculture is that the Small farmer fed himself and his family and local community, and did not come to the Market for anything - was not a consumer.

This reality was first broken in the west by pushing farm communities into cities as factory workers and urban slum dwellers, with health issues that triggered the growth of Big Pharma.

Now the attempt is to drive farmers out of the villages so that the land can be grabbed by Corporates in the name of improving efficiency.

This is a vicious cycle that must be broken. The cities have nothing to give the farmers. Their health is the first casualty.
Sandhya Jain
August 01, 2017
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Fragmentation of University studies and research in the name of specialization on top of fragmentation of arable land surely will lead to unsustainable production from land. Independent India missed the bus in avoiding mindless urban conglomeration by not building small towns and cities for decentralized habitation and enterprise for the rapidly growing population. This Article is timely warning to public policy makers not to miss the bus in land utilization in a sustainable manner. Education and research must be re-designed with this purpose.
R.Venkatanarayanan
R.Venkatanarayanan
August 01, 2017
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I fully agree and endorse the views expressed by Sri vijay Garg on the subject. No doubt it is indeed a vast ocean but is totally integrated.Some joker may ask for bifurcation of Sericulture to morrow to take away a slice of the cake available.
We have a very receptive P.M whose only object is to restore Our motherland to her Pristine glory.If he could listen to a child on corruption at Rajghat and take remedial steps including installation of CCTV cameras, i am sure he will also listen to educated people from across the spectrum to make agriculture,animal science,horticulture and allied sciences an integrated unit to help our motherland prosper.
I am a mechanical engineer nearing my eighth decade of life but still am prepared to help in any capacity,without any obligation.

doraiswmyganesh
August 01, 2017
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Very good article.. i request you to cover the land fragmentation also, as one of the main factors affecting agriculture.

Irrigated agriculture done only in river belts. Rest of india dependant on monsoon rains.

Till colonial rule, village as a whole is a well designed entity. A typical bharathiya Grama was designed based on terrain, and waterflow. The borders of the village was fixed in such a way that the rain water in that village will flow to inner regions of village where the lake or pond is built for collecting such water.

At larger level, there are water ways that interconnect these villages and finally end up in river.

There was a design pattern of settlements in all villages. The traditional village panchayat looked after these local resources.

These villages as a whole unit is administered by the village head. "Pattam" is given to these village head to look after this village enterprise (called village republics).

The first son of the family of village head will take over administrative role and will get the "Pattam". The other sons will get a part of the land within this village setup, as allocated by the panchayat.

So essentially, the village setup is a collective commune setup ..

But during Colonial rule, this commune setup was dis-regarded, and land was considered as private property and the property holder can do anything in their land. The inheritance was twisted to suit this private land holding, where the village property was divided equally among all sons, and each was given "patta" over the land they inherited.

Thus the original meaningful "Pattam" system given only to village head, was corrupted in to individual patta.given indiscriminately to any one.

So how does this affected agriculture?

the disregard of traditional village republic system has stripped the right of local people over the resources of their village. They were denied the right to protect their waterways, local ponds, and self-organise. Any alien industrialists from urban setup can buy any piece of land in the village, and indian govt promptly gave patta to that industrialists, even if the land he bought was a lake or waterway.

When the farmers could not maintain the water resources, how can they do agriculture in their area? For those in river banks, water is not a problem. But for those numerous villages, which depends on monsoon for water, face the worst situation.

This is exactly the reason why there was so many farmer deaths in vidharba, the inland area of maharashtra which depends on monsoon alone.


The entire indian setup, including its constitution, beurocracy are all alien, and hostile to our native system. They are designed to destroy every native setup and enforce a anarchist, capitalistic system on us.

The colonial india has to be dismantled, and has to be re-organised in to bharath which encompasses and recognises all these native systems.

But If i mention this, the Hindu intellectuals respond by saying "We have to change according to time". The destruction of our native institutions, destruction of living hood, destruction of our water bodies, and destructon of communities and their life style are just seen as Mere Change..

senthil
August 02, 2017
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@senthil
Yes land fragmentation is worrisome problem in agriculture. Yes, earlier land was village or public property like in many tribes exiting till now. Colonial govts made the land pvt properties and broke the earlier sustainable concept.

senthil, this article was written to show how the administration of agriculture academia, policy making and R&D is done in compartments without much inter-operability. When every sector of economy and institutions are consolidating or colluding, why to divide agriculture into sub-occupations? .
vipesh
August 02, 2017
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