Food security: safeguarding the heartland

THE CHALLENGE of maintaining a balance between human numbers and the capacity to produce food is increasing in our country day by day. The need for maintaining a food security system with imported food has again arisen after nearly 30 years. The highest wheat production of 76.7 million tonnes was in 1999-2000; this year wheat production has been estimated to be less than 70 million tonnes. Had there been pro-small farmer and environmentally sound policies, we would be nearing a production level of about 90 million tonnes of wheat by now. Instead, we find that Punjab, Haryana, and Western Uttar Pradesh, which constitute the heartland of the green revolution, are in a state of economic and ecological distress. Economically, indebtedness is growing among farmers, and ecologically, this region has been mining its soil and ground water resources. In the rice-wheat areas, the water table is going down by 2 to 2.5 feet annually and submersible pumps are fast replacing centrifugal pumps. India will not be able to maintain a stable food security system if the "fertile crescent" (Punjab, Haryana, and Western Uttar Pradesh) is not saved through adequate support for conservation farming and green agriculture. Defending the gains already made in this region is a priority task. In contrast to the situation in the fertile crescent, there is a vast untapped production reservoir available in Bihar, Orissa, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Assam even with the technologies on the shelf. While West Bengal has been making progress in harnessing this potential, thanks to its land reform policies, the other States in eastern India have a large reserve in their "agricultural potential bank." Bihar and Eastern India present uncommon opportunities for becoming another fertile crescent. These States are well endowed with water resources; the major problem is water management not availability. Ground water has been used only marginally; and with perennial rivers and aquifer recharge during the Southwest Monsoon, there is scope for conjunctive use of surface and ground water. The Ganga, which can help to make India a leading agricultural power, is crying for attention. In a country where more than 60 per cent of the population depends on agriculture for a livelihood, becoming an agricultural power is more important in terms of human security than being a nuclear power. 2006-07 is a test year to verify our commitment to sustainable food security and sovereignty with home-grown food. The first advance estimate of production of food grains for kharif 2006-07 has been pegged at 105.2 million tonnes against a target of 115.2 million tonnes, indicating a shortfall of 10 million tonnes. Fortunately in wheat and rabi and boro rice, there is a great opportunity to produce 10 million tonnes more, thereby making good the kharif shortfall. Data from the national demonstrations conducted by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and agricultural universities reveal that if we initiate concerted efforts to bridge the current gap between potential and actual yields, ranging from 1 tonne to 2 tonnes per hectare in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, over 20 million tonnes of additional wheat can be produced. For harnessing this untapped potential, the National Commission on Farmers in its 3rd report presented to Government in December 2005 proposed concurrent attention to soil health enhancement (with particular attention to overcoming the deficiency of micronutrients such as zinc, boron, and sulphur), water harvesting and efficient use, credit and insurance, technology and inputs, and, above all, assured and remunerative marketing through a minimum support price (MSP). The NCF had also proposed the establishment of "gyan chaupals" or village knowledge centres with internet-radio connectivity to provide both generic and dynamic information relevant to eliminating the know-how-do-how gap. In its fifth and final report presented to the Union Agrculture Minister on October 4, the NCF has urged action on saving the fertile crescent and arousing the sleeping giant through conservation farming and green agriculture, on the one hand, and through generating synergy among water, crop, nutrients, and the market, on the other. Conservation farming involves minimum tillage and bed sowing of wheat, balanced fertilization based on soil tests and leaf colour charts, and economic water use by adopting tensiometer-based irrigation scheduling. Where the soils are affected by salinity or alkalinity, appropriate treatments will have to be given. Green agricultural practices involve the adoption of integrated pest management and integrated nutrient supply systems. While in organic farming, the use of mineral fertilizers, chemical pesticides, and genetically modified varieties are avoided, green agriculture involves the minimum essential use of fertilizers, safe pesticides, and the cultivation of the most appropriate variety, whether from Mendelian or molecular breeding. The NCF has recommended separate labelling procedures for organic farming and green agriculture, both of which will help to enhance productivity in perpetuity without ecological harm. In the Punjab, it will be desirable to reduce the area under rice from about 2.6 million hectares to 2 million hectares and adopt a system of water management that will not result in the lowering of the water table. The remaining area can be cultivated with maize, pulses, and oilseeds, for all of which there is a good market demand. Such ecologically desirable restructuring of farming systems and agronomic methodology is essential for ushering in an ever-green revolution in the fertile crescent. In the case of rabi and boro rice, high yielding hybrids with good grain quality are available. If grown with efficient agronomic management, an average yield of 5 tonnes per hectare can be obtained. What is essential is an integrated approach and not isolated huge expenditure in the form of drip irrigation and other technologies involving costly market purchased inputs. To be sustainable, agriculture has to become knowledge intensive. While I have indicated the immediate opportunities available in North and Eastern India to restore a home-grown food security system, the gap between potential and actual yields is high in most farming systems and in most parts of India. In all regions, the principles of conservation farming, particularly with reference to land and water, need to be integrated with farming practices. The first requirement is the conservation of prime farmland for agriculture. The issue of SEZs Ongoing initiatives in the industrial sector such as Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have aroused controversies relating to the acquisition of farmland for non-farm purposes. It is in the national interest that agriculture and industry both prosper in a mutually reinforcing manner. They should not be portrayed as being one against the other. For fostering industry-agriculture harmony, every State should constitute a Land Zonation Team consisting of soil scientists, agronomists, and remote sensing specialists to earmark soils with a low biological potential for farming — such as wastelands, lands with salinity, acidity, etc. — for construction and industrial activities. There is enough data to complete such a task speedily. Dark zones for agriculture can then be converted into economic bright spots through SEZs and technology parks. Such important issues should be dealt with through a national consensus. Food security and national sovereignty are intertwined. Hence, the NCF has proposed the establishment of a National Food Security and Sovereignty Board under the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister. Besides the Minister for Agriculture and Food and other Ministers concerned of the Government of India and the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, the composition of such a Board should include Chief Ministers of food surplus and deficit States and leaders of all national parties. Such a Board should be both a policy making and a monitoring body in relation to food production and imports, operation of minimum support and procurement prices and market intervention, a public distribution system, and the conservation of the ecological foundations essential for sustained advances in food production, such as land, water, and biodiversity. Food and drinking water are the first among the hierarchical needs of a human being. Therefore food and water security deserve to be treated as a common minimum programme of the nation and not just of the Government in power. The NCF has calculated that the introduction of a universal public distribution system will cost about 1 per cent of the GDP. By operating a universal PDS and enacting a Food Guarantee Act, we can make substantial progress in eliminating the widespread under- and mal-nutrition now prevailing in the country. This is the rationale behind the NCF's plea for a National Platform for Partnership among all political parties in working for a food secure and hunger-free India. If such a united commitment emerges as a result of the fast spreading agrarian crisis and the widespread poverty-induced hunger, we would have converted the prevailing concern into an opportunity for renewing our national resolve to achieve food for all and for ever. (The writer is Chairman, National Commission on Farmers.) Source: The Hindu

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