It was interesting to see Indian agriculture from two very different viewpoints at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Agricultural Summit. At the inaugural session, all the bigwigs — from Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to the Chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, Ashok Gulati — with the honourable exception of Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal, urged farmers to go in for diversified and high-value farming.
Later, at the technical sessions and seminars, the much maligned agricultural scientists — maligned for not engaging enough with farmers — urged farmers to go in for upgraded farming techniques, modern processes such as high density plantations, usage of plastics in horticulture, mulching (an appropriate layer on the soil to prevent moisture loss, conserve nutrients, etc) and precision farming to improve yields.
But several interactions with farmers from across India — from 532 districts in 29 States — showed how different, and tough, circumstances at the ground level are. Yet, many farmers among the 4,000 gathered had displayed exemplary risk-taking ability and innovation powers to beat expectations and emerge winners.
In his talk, Gulati said that though we had now become more than self-sufficient in foodgrain production, producing 260 million tonnes last year and exporting 22 million tonnes, the fact remained that “… the farmer is not happy, and getting him a direct linkage to the market remains a challenge”.
If Indian agriculture is to grow at 4-5 per cent, it cannot do that on the back of foodgrains production alone; high-value, diversified farming was the answer. Also, water will become the greatest challenge in the coming years. The depleting water table in Punjab remains a major worry and in the coming years farmers will have to produce much more for every 1,000 litres of water used, he said.
Modi refuted the perception that the Indian farmer was not willing to innovate or take risks. He had got the idea of hosting such a farmers’ meet in Gujarat after seeing that “several Indian farmers had spent lakhs of rupees to travel to Israel” to attend a similar event. Lamenting the neglect of Indian agriculture, he said pulses continued to be a key source of protein, especially for vegetarians, yet “in the last 60 years no new research has been done on how to increase not only the production but also the protein content in pulses.”
On the other side of such bleak statistics as 2,500 people leaving farming every day, were farmers with success stories to tell. Such as Goswami Devyog of Jammu, who has seven acres, of which 2.5 acres is cultivable and on which he grows rice and vegetables. But his main profit — “around Rs 25 lakh a year” — comes from the 4.5 acre wasteland that he uses for apiculture (bee-keeping). “I started with just one box but now have over 1,000”. Each box gives him 40 kg of honey, so his total production is 40 tonnes. A chunk of his produce goes in bulk at Rs 110 a kg to Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali, and is packaged, marked up and marketed under the Patanjali brand. Dabur takes a sizable quantity too. “But I have realised that if I package and market the honey myself, I get a much better price,” says Devyog.
He has three sons and at first they were reluctant to join agriculture. “But seeing the badhiya (great) income in bee-keeping, they have now joined the business.” And a part of his produce is packed and marketed by the family under the J&K Honey brand.