Deshantar

Sowing Prosperity : Boosting Agricultural Productivity

• Agriculture is principle means of livelihood for the major Indian population. About 60% of Indian population is dependent on agriculture and allied activities .

'Path for Indian economic development goes via Indian agricultural development.' • Population of our country is growing at a rapid rate, according to the UN report India

would surpass china by 2045. Land availability for agriculture is also decreasing due to industrialization and urbanization. To meet the increasing demand of vast population innovative practice should be followed as we know the fact'Land is finite resources and there is a competition and conflicting demand for this.‘

• Parliament of Indian enacted Food Security Bill which covers 75% of rural and 50% of urban population. The total estimated annual food grain requirement is 612.3 lakh tons.In order to cope with the increasing pressure an

'Insight for agricultural deveopment is need of the hour.'• Agriculture provides raw material to various industries.

'Industrialization and Agricultural Development need to be Parallel'• Most of the poor rural people are dependent on agriculture and marginal farmers.

Statistics suggests that states with lower agricultural growth have higher population under poverty line.

‘Poverty and Agricultural Failures are on same side of carpet'

• Small and fragmented land holdings

• Marketing and food processing

• Warehousing and storage

• Disguised unemployment

• Inadequate irrigation facilities

• Less research and development

• Unavailability of easy loans

• Pest and drought

• Uncertainty in crop success

• Overdependence on monsoon

• Less technological aided agriculture

• Depletion of soil

• Inadequate use of fertilizers

• Policy Implementation Paralysis

• Communication gap between institutions and farmers

• A Cooperative is a social enterprise that concentrates on satisfying its members needs and pursuing profit and sustainability

• A cooperative is an association of women and men who come together to form a jointly owned, democratically controlled enterprise where generating a profit is only part of the story. Cooperatives put people before profit.They also help their members achieve their shared social, cultural and economic aspirations.

• One of the necessary steps to achieve food security is to support and invest in cooperatives, producer organizations and other rural institutions

• While small farmers acting alone are not able to benefit from higher food prices, those acting collectively in cooperatives are better able to take advantage of market opportunities

• Rural institutions like producer organizations and cooperatives contribute to food security by helping small farmers, fisher folk,livestock keepers, forest holders and other producers to access the information, tools and services they need.

Despite all the benefits offered by co ops, agriculture in our country is still deprived of a proper framework for such organizations

• No proper mechanism to safeguard the rights of marginal farmers

• Poor communication between board members and farmers

• Dishonesty by staff and representatives and deceitful businessmen

• Conflicts and non skilled board members

• A number of people with coinciding goals and needs come together and organize themselves into a group. They Pool their land, they pool their capital and they work collectively to achieve common objectives.

• In order to make the existing system more efficient we are adding certain key aspects to cooperative culture pre-existent in our country.

• All the members of a cooperative are to elect their representatives. Number of representative will depend on size of co-operative

• All the co operatives are brought under the banner of Block Co operative Association (BCA).• Board members of BCA are elected by representatives of all the cooperatives among themselves.

DCA_1• BCA_1

• BCA_2

DCA_2• BCA_3

• BCA_4

DCA_3• BCA_5

• BCA_6

SCA

• This is a Three Tier System consisting of• Block Cooperative Association• District Cooperative Association• State Co operative Association

• BCA is responsible for co ordination between different cooperatives

• BCA provides data to DCA regarding current agricultural condition and information of their respective block

• DCA will raise questions to SCA so that SCA will contact to various organizations and government at both state and national level in order to get the solutions to the grass root level problems

• SCA will lobby central government for implementation of effective pricing policy

• SCA in collaboration with Government and all DCAs will set up rules, regulations and other guideline for the functioning of various tiers of this system

• SCA is also responsible for the co ordination with other SCAs in order to bring out new initiatives and farming cultures in the state and also resolve disputes

• Co operative is the basic unit of this structure for agricultural development

• Various agricultural institutions like KVKs, IFFCO, NABARD etc will provide Technical advise and Guidance for cropping patterns

• Various Financial Institutions both government and private sector will provide monetary help

• Co operatives will also co ordinate with other co operatives in order to meet mutual needs

• BCA provides a platform for exchange of ideas and development strategies for various co operatives at block level

• It has the responsibility of implementing of government policies of agriculture and rural development

• BCA safeguards rights of individual and ensures that all the co operatives abide to the rules and regulations set up in the Co operative Law

• BCA with the help of agriculture institutions also promote the use of RnD and extension services

• DCA will directly contact with private players in order to fulfill their demand and thus provide a healthy market for their produce.

• DCA will provide platform for discussion of various agriculture related problems

• DCA will ensures proper coordination of government universities, meteorological department and other agriculture organizations with the producers

• Rules and regulations to govern cooperatives

• Each individual to be provided with equal opportunities, rights and a judicial framework

• Representatives of cooperatives to be elected democratically and same will follow for block and district cooperatives association.

• Provision for Mass Audit. Every member of cooperative is provided Right To Question to the representatives to look into the functioning process of the cooperatives.

• Proper Grievance Redressal mechanism at the block level

• Online portal consisting records of cooperatives under this model

• Technical Workshop to be conducted by local agriculture scientists and agriculture universities.

• Proper distribution of work among all members in order to account for disguised unemployment

• Renewal of membership every year

• Property ownership lies with individual and not to the cooperatives

• Mobile-SMS based monthly crop information will be given to cooperatives.

• Government provides favorable policies, transparent laws and regulations that are based on consultation with the producers. They can also provide the right business environent, and environment for development

• Through practices like group purchasing and marketing, farmers gain market power and get better prices on agricultural inputs and other necessities

• Cooperatives provide variety of services ranging from access to natural resources, information, communication, input and output markets, technologies and training. They also facilitate their participation in decision making-process

• This model will provide a ready market via Private players. They produce according to what is asked to produce. This would ensure a better pricing model to produce.

• Collective storage warehousing would solve the problem of storage to a large extent and will minimize the wastage of food grains.

• Co ops will solve the problem for credit to a large extent. As loan is now given to a group of people with high security, more amount of money can be credited and more resources can be afforded.

• Also Private companies would provide an advance credit for production which would further add to motivation to produce

• Co ops encourage providing technical help to masses thereby solving problems occurring due to lack of guidance

• Cooperatives will directly work with private player to provide them food grains, fruits, raw material for industrial production. This will enhance the supply chain and remove the dependency on middle man.

• The new voluntary guidelines will allow national governments to pass laws and set up policies on access and ownership rights for land, fisheries and forest resources. While benefiting from these services, small producers can secure their livelihoods and play a greater role in meeting the growing demand for food on local, national and international markets. Therefore, they contribute to poverty alleviation, food security, and the eradication of hunger

• BCA and DCA to collaborate with policies like MNREGA by providing labour as extra members in the co ops. This would contribute to enhancement of irrigation facilities and other development projects.

• Proper storage and management of food grains at Block level and directing these food grains to implementation of PDS system would help in filling the loopholes in present day grain management system by government

Mahatma Gandhi once said

“Organized people can get rid of any unorganized problem”.

This is quite evident from various freedom struggle movements led by him. This aspect was not given much importance after independence. But after 45 years of governance at last the introduction of Panchayati Raj clearly signifies that development starts from the grass root level. Taking care of small bits, larger ones will automatically take care of themselves.

“Best government is the one which governs the least.”

It is the people who have the real power to change their fortune and to improve their stature and perspective towards development.

Cooperatives and producer organizations are central in building small producers’ skills. Cooperative members can benefit from training and skills development. This development is not only limited to technical areas such as sustainable agriculture production techniques and technologies. Cooperative members and managers (women and men) also need to build their “soft” skills in areas like leadership and entrepreneurship, negotiation and self confidence, business development, policy development and advocacy.

• http://yojana.gov.in/CMS/%28S%28y4dqrc55g1m1qhnd4soqih45%29%29/pdf/Kurukshetra%5CEnglish%5C2010/July.pdf

• http://yojana.gov.in/cms/%28S%28m2mzef55ipvmrc45ehppdef4%29%29/pdf/Kurukshetra%5CEnglish%5C2012/February.pdf

• http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/archive/01404/National_Food_Secu_1404268a.pdf

• http://www.sabmiller.com/files/pdf/new_models_for_action_report.pdf

• http://www.un.org/esa/population/pubsarchive/india/ind1bil.htm

• http://www.pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=95441