No alternative to agricultural modernisation

In many developing economies, governments change quite fast but the state of agriculture changes at a snail's pace. India is no exception. The 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-2017) is midway with a mixed performance. The major grey area, as usual, has been the farm sector, where the uncoordinated efforts still continue to exist in spite of the GDP (gross domestic production) drum beating. The purpose here is not to belittle the results achieved, but to flash the point that much better could have been achieved. For example, Reaching a target of 250 million tonnes+ of food grains output (up from 51 million tonnes in 1951 when the first Five-Year Plan was taken up) does not necessarily allow one to be complacent!
The point here is that had we, the developing zone, have been one of the grain bowls (the scope is still there), by now we could have reaped large benefits from the rising international prices of the agri-commodities. The most important factor on this score is that demand for such commodities - especially the food grains - would never come down rather it is all set to go up over time. Population upsurge coupled with growing demand from industrial sectors, could keep the demand factor at reasonably high level.
So the question of complacency is not at all there rather the time is ripe for looking at the inhibiting factors. It is very difficult to understand why the pulses (main protein source for the vegetarians) output hovers in India around 12-17 million tonnes since 1960's!
Clearly, if the current trends are of any indication, the food and agricultural policy system itself is in disarray. The symptoms of such a disarray  are not difficult to locate: incoherent/inadequate response to exploding food prices; slowdown in agricultural  productivity growth; water problems; a disorderly response to continuously disturbing energy prices; rapid concentration in multinational agri-business corporations without adequate institutional innovation aiming at properly guiding them; lack of progress in addressing scarcity; widespread nutritional problems (hunger/obesity/chronic diseases) plus agriculture-related health hazards like avian influenza, etc.) and adverse impacts on climatic fluctuations.
Underinvestment in areas related to food, nutrition/agriculture (research/infrastructure/ rural institutions) invite spill-over effect/global impacts, among others. It is high time that sincere collaborative programmes were resumed among the countries in order to adequately address opportunities and challenges.  
Positive points do exist. Ongoing trend is steadily moving in terms of registering quicker growth in agricultural productivity. Modern farm practices and inclusive technologies are being implemented   in order to foster the rural growth process. It is also a fact that cellular technologies, wireless communication networks as well as geographic information system (GIS)-based agro-software technologies are reaching rural India to disseminate vital information and updates on weather, farming technologies, fertilisers, livestock, commodity prices as well as stock markets. Still, a huge number of villages do not have access to advanced farming technologies and interactive communication networks, not to speak of the pace of rural electrification and  clean drinking water availability The vital aspects are: re-identifying policy dimensions and initiatives; capacity building through PPP (public-private partnership), individual initiatives and joint ventures; boosting agri-business and agri-marketing; GIS mapping  and harvesting trends; mitigating climatic change hazards; precision farming: optimum utilisation of resources; leaning heavily on the most modern agri-practises; micro-finance and micro credit and attaching top importance to food security. The responsibilities are to be shouldered not only by banks, but also government departments, NGOs, commodity exchanges, agri-marketing and state marketing boards and the extension departments. Time is ripe for a more well-knitted coordinated actions so as to: initiate inter-sectoral-linkages; progressive decision making, information sharing and performance improvement; capacity building; creating more opportunities for partnership building, development reorganization and capacity enhancement for the rural stakeholders.
In fact the problems are so vast that every aspect requires individual care. Fortunately India is blessed with a number of good agricultural universities, personnel having the necessary knowledge backed by government encouragement plus skilled farmers. But where is the harm to learn more from the rich experiences in the West? Water management is something that India has to learn from them, among others, for example.
There is no alternative to agricultural modernisation has no alternatives. Area under cultivation cannot be raised continuously even if the fallow land is brought within cultivation (that too not more than 10 per cent in a year) cannot brought under cultivation as such. The question is regarding availability of quality seeds, bio fertilisers' applications, and finally technological consolidation of holdings. Best water use process is another area that deserves attention. Here also scientific planning regarding exploration of ground water holds the key as indiscriminate use gives rise to other problems. Surface water utilisation has also not been optimally done.
The urgent need is there to go for overall farm development efforts. For that matter, the infrastructure holds the key. The loss incurred during the entire production process inclusive of the damage done in the unscientific threshing, rat menace, field loss, can be minimised. Without proper training imparted to the farmers as regards post-harvest technology not much can be expected on this score. Connectivity between the producing zone and the selling zones calls for immediate reinforcing. Buy-back arrangement is obviously a good process provided the actual producer receives the legitimate benefit in due course.
The specific point here is that whichever country had not attached enough of importance on this score had to bear the brunt. Overnight success is not more than a wishful thinking. Systematic planning is the only way out. And for that matter the tools of regional planning can be readily made use of. Regional peculiarities must be the starting-point of any realistic decision-making on this score. Economic factors alone cannot give a full-fledged guidance as the strength of non-economic factors count for no less. There is always the slip between the cup and the lip. Initiating change has never been an easy matter and change resisting factors count for.
In India's planning this is nothing uncommon - set the high targets and ultimately become a laggard!  Most of the plans lack the realistic touch in as much as sectoral target fixing cannot ignore the spatial dimensions, regional peculiarities and related other sociological factors. More than often the politics pushes back the economic positives. Rather economics is used for achieving the political purposes.  Not only is this the reality in India but in the entire developing world. Either the projects are not taken up or even when the same is taken up the rate of progress remains at a palpably low level. Thus cost escalation is rewarded! Projects completed are not subsequently followed up and supervised adequately as a result of which the same assignment is to be repeated within a short span of time involving more expenses.
The potentialities still remain high. How many countries are there in the world that can produce grapes twice in a year! The quality of many horticultural crops enables countries like India, Bangladesh and Vietnam to remain largely unbeatable in the global market. In spite of competition becoming intense - hotter and hotter - we are able to retain the markets for many agri-commodities. The flip side - we have to remain contended with insignificant share in global trade in agri-commodies. Strong cooperation among the developing and developed world is a must, as hunger cannot go on waiting ad infinitum. Let there be a good inter-regional cooperation in a more practical way.
For example, an economy like India still is counted to be largest reservoir of poverty in the world, with 300 million of people, as per the national poverty line definition, and well above 800 million people just surviving on less than $2.0 per day. Southeast Asia requires immediate pep up on this score. Neglecting agriculture results in heavy immediate and future loss. The huge upcoming population in the workable category, in turn,   is one of the rare assets that could give rich dividends exactly by the same route as China gained in the previous years.
Whatever is, the lead is to come from the two giants - India and China. As a matter of fact, the world would heavily depend on these two regions in the days to come. China has, of late, also has been stressing hard on this sector, clearly realising that those big industries alone or an export-led growth ultimately hinges heavily on how the food factor extends support.
For India, fortunately that severe negligence has not been there - the missing factor remained at not properly exploring the resources at a quicker pace. A lot depends on formulating realistic policies and then regular practical follow-up and supervision.

Dr BK Mukhopadhyay, a Management Economist, is attached to the West Bengal State University, India.
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