Indian Economy, 5th edition (37 page)

(ii)
in place of chemical pesticides using bio-pesticides;

(iii)
conserving water, balanced cropping pattern, proper crop combinations, etc;

s
uch agricultural practices are popular in developed economies as
organic farming.
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Second Green Revolution in India

The Second Green Revolution in India is
a concept
as well as the name of
a programme.
It was suggested as an idea of sustainable agriculture in mid-1990s by the agro-scientists as the ongoing GR was not based on sustainable agricultural practices. When the Indian President, Dr. Kalam suggested for the same he attached much wider meaning to it. For him it consisted, crop management, cost reduction, value addition, processing and marketing other than the green farming.

In January 2004, the Government of India announced a major agricultural programme named as the Second Green Revolution with an initial fund allocation of ‘50,000 crore. This programme was so exhaustive that it had hardly left any problem area of Indian agriculture untouched and had every potential of solving all long-standing problems. In a sense it was a complete agricultural policy based on the concept of sustainable development and well-equipped to fight the challenges posed by the WTO and capable enough to make Indian agriculture to emerge as a winner in the globalising economy. As there was a government change at the centre, the complete details of the programme were not made available. The present government at the centre has not been referring to this programme but in practice it looks like promoting the same causes more vigorously. In the meantime the President has been quoting the need for a second green revolution time and again.

Summing up the Second Green Revolution

If we add up the
different announcements
by the governments time to time and the
propositions of experts
we may sum up the idea of the second green revolution in India with the help of its three broad coordinates:

1.
Increasing Agricultural Production:
It includes four major things—

(a)
Unlike the Green Revolution which was limited to only five foodgrains (wheat, rice, jowar, bajra, maize), the Second Green Revolution includes all agricultural products—cereals, cash crops, animal husbandry (dairy, goatry , piggery, poultry, etc.), fisheries, sericulture, etc. It is rightly called the
Rainbow Revolution
, Naturally, it is the most ambitious idea in agriculture sector of India ever formalised.

(b)
It deals with suitable kinds of cropping pattern, crop diversification, crop management, plant protection, checking per-harvest losses of agriculture products as well as post-harvest, integrated pest management, soil conservation, etc.

(c)
Initiation of sustainable practices in agriculture are all instrumental factors of sustainable agriculture to be utilised.

(d)
One very important point should be noted here that India cannot afford to go for only green farming or organic farming in the name of sustainable agricultural development. As the replacement of chemical inputs by the organic ones has every chance of reducing production and with use of costlier inputs, the produce of such a farming will not be economically accessible by the vast poor population of India (already due to costlier outputs, of the GR masses lack the required purchasing capacity). That is why
‘cost cut’
is an integral part of this revolution. And that is why agro-scientists have suggested to base our agriculture on
biotechnology
. Use of biotechnology in agriculture does not only open new dimensions for it but it has every potential to cut costs of the agricultural products by doing miraculous and unthinkable kind of research and development. India is very much aware of this reality that without an active support of biotechnology, sustainable agricultural development will have only elitist value and nothing else.
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2.
Value Addition:
Indian agriculture has been lacking the aspect of value addition. In Indian agriculture sector right from farmers to the traders there has been a tendency of deposing agricultural goods in its primary form. That is why the real potential of Indian agriculture to create gainful employment has never been tapped. This green revolution tries to go for it in a big way. In this direction there will be an increased emphasis upon agro-processing, beverages and drinks industries.

3.
Strengthening the Infrastructural/Institutional Aspects:
The last coordinate of the Second Green Revolution is related to the aspects of timely and adequate infrastructural/institutional support without which it cannot happen:

(a)
We need to strenghen the
credit delivery
aspects for the agriculture sector—both at micro level and at macro level (for corporate farming).

(b)
The
storage facilities
for agricultural products in India is among the weakest in the world. India does not have adequate capacity of dry godowns and cold storage. In the area of refrigerated storage, much needs to be done. A beginning has been made recently by the Railways with the initiation of the refrigerated station wagons. Basically, private sector participation is considered very vital for the growth of this segment.

(c)
The country lacks a suitable kind of
transport connectivity
for which super-highways and rural connectivity programmes are today the high priority areas for the government. The private sector is also being encouraged though at present it too seems to have a limited role in this area especially in urban areas and at micro level only.

(d)
The development of
telecommunication
with all modern means are necessary pre-conditions for the timely development of agriculture sector and for the empowerment of the farmer.

(e)
The
irrigation preparedness
of India needs grassroot level approach (already part of the Bharat Nirman) and needs a foolproof systemic approach. It becomes specially important once the climate has started showing its vagaries more and more in recent times.

(f)
Everything done till date in the area of developing an adequate kind of
marketing network
for agricultural products has not been capable of delivering the same. And that is why the profession of agriculture has been failing to emerge as an economic and profitable area for the farmers.
w
e need to restructure and strengthen it right from the grassroot level to the national level. Only then can we internationalise (
globalise
) our agriculture sector.

(g)
If there has been any one area which has failed to have the proper care and support of the insurance it has been the agriculture sector. Even after covering all agricultural activities and products under the agricultural insurance scheme (The
National Agricultural Insurance Scheme
, 1999) it has very low penetration basically due to lack of awareness among the farmers/beneficiaries. Now the government is trying hard to do the same which also depends upon suitable level of insurance sector reforms, state governments, care to the sector and awareness among the beneficiaries. At present India has insurance coverage for the crops, seeds. Now there is a proposal to cover even the marketing risk, too.

If we make some
statements
about the SGR, there must not seem any exaggeration in it:

•
“The SGR is capable of solving the whole gamut of problems related to Indian food philosophy.”

•
“The SGR will give agriculture & rural development the due it deserves.”

•
“The SGR will make Indian agriculture face the challenges of the WTO and emerge as a net gainer in the process of globalisation.”

•
“The SGR is the best route to make economic reforms reach the masses and benefit those who consider it anti-poor, anti-agriculture and anti-rural areas.”

•
“The SGR is the best way to let people feel that economic reform has a
human face
and very much essential for rich and poor, alike.”

•
“The SGR is, undoubtedly the best and the ultimate as well as a complete agriculture policy of India.”

In recent times, the governmental approach has gone for a complete change in favour of agriculture sector and the SGR. It is clearly visible from the streamlining of the New Agricultural Policy (2000), the Union Budget, Foreign Trade Policy, the Credit and Monetary Policy what would be the future requirements of the SGR.

Impact of Second Green Revolution

The Second Green Revolution has every prospect of revolutionising the agriculture sector of India with multi-dimensional positive impact on agriculture in particular and the economy, in general:

1.
As agricultural production will increase, India will be safe from
food security
concern. This will provide India
physical access
to food.

2.
Every Indian will have
economic access
to food because of increase in production and cost cut due to genetically modified foods (GMFs) will make food cheaper.

3.
As this is a sustainable kind of agriculture revolution, India will also be able to make its agriculture sector ecologically safe—the achievement of
ecological access
will become possible.

4.
The surplus agricultural produce will enter the world market and agriculture sector will be able to tap the
benefits of globalisation
thus, farmers, rural areas and agri-business will be able to feel the benefits of economic reforms and globalisation.

5.
It will create
gainful employment
sources in the agriculture sector on which more than 58 per cent of the population depends for its livelihood. It will serve the purposes of poverty alleviation, bridging economic inequality, boosting rural development, solving the curse of unemployment, etc.

6.
It will eliminate hunger and malnutrition from India.

7.
India won’t be an example of
‘
market failure
’
—its market will succeed by increasing the purchasing capacity of the population.

8.
Living standard of the population will improve and development has to show up. Thus India’s rank on the human development index (HDI) will improve for sure.

Other than the above-given points, there will be numerous related positive effects on the economy as a whole and on the agriculture sector in particular.

Second Green Revolution Strategy Adopted in Eleventh Plan
59

The urgent need for taking agriculture to a higher trajectory of four per cent annual growth can be met only with improvement in the scale as well as quality of agricultural reforms undertaken by the various States and agencies at the various levels. These reforms must aim at efficient use of resources and conservation of soil, water and ecology on a sustainable basis, and in a holistic framework. Such a holistic framework must incorporate financing of rural infrastructure such as water, roads and power.

The approach paper to the Eleventh Five Year plan has highlighted such a holistic framework and suggested the following strategies to raise agricultural output:

(a)
Doubling the rate of growth of irrigated area;

(b)
Improving water management, rain water harvesting and watershed development;

(c)
Reclaiming degraded land and focusing on soil quality;

(d)
Bridging the knowledge gap through effective extension;

(e)
Diversifying into high value outputs, fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs and spices, medicinal plants, bamboo, bio-diesel, but with adequate measures to ensure food security;

(f)
Promoting animal husbandry and fishery;

(g)
Providing easy access to credit at affordable rates;

(h)
Improving the incentive structure and functioning of markets; and

(i)
Refocusing on land reforms issues.

National Commission on Farmers has already laid the foundation for such a framework.
60
Programme formulation as well as their implementation in the States must be based on unique regional contexts incorporating agro-climatic conditions; and availability of appropriate research and development (R&D) backed by timely and adequate extension and finance.

Second Push to Agriculture

The post-Green Revolution programme launched by the Government of Punjab in 2004, includes introduction of new technology in agriculture (green farming techniques, use of biotechnology, etc. encompassing the idea of
sustainable development
) besides crop diversification, promotion dairy and bee-keeping, floriculture, horticulture, modernising agriculture markets and value addition.
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WTO and the Indian Agriculture:
Prospects and Challenges

With the operationalisation of the provisions of the World Trade
o
rganisation (WTO), the process of globalisation commenced in the major parts of the world—the non-member countries, in the coming few years, also started negotiating for entry into the club. There has always been an air of confusion among the members and the non-members of the WTO in assessing the pros and cons of globalisation on the health of their economies. The sector which has created the highest number of deliberations in the WTO as well as views and counterviews has been agriculture—an area of utmost concern for the developed and the developing worlds alike. India is no exception to it better say it has been among few countries in the world spear-heading the campaign against the biased provisions of the WTO concerning agriculture.