1. Agrarian Crisis and Way Forward
Ramanjaneyulu
@ infosys campus on 21st March, 2013
The evolution of agricultural technology was from labour intensive to capital
intensive and should move on to knowledge and thought intensive
Richard Lewontin and Richard Levins in 'Biology under Influence'

2. Input Intensive Agriculture
• Economic Crisis
– Increasing costs of cultivation and decreasing returns
– Reducing public support and increasing indebtedness
• Ecological Crisis
– is highly LINEAR, whereas traditionally agriculture was highly CYCLICAL.
– is based on maximizing the output of a narrow range of species leading to
monoculture of crops and varieties
– is based on capital depletion and massive additions of external inputs (e.g.
energy, water, chemicals)
– views the farm as a factory with “inputs” (such as pesticides, feed, fertilizer,
and fuel) and “outputs” (grain, cotton, chicken, and so forth)
– never cared about the externalities
• Socio-political crisis
– Increasing tenancy, land use shift
– Increasing farmers suicides, 270,940 in 17 years
– Huge migration

3. Farmers suicides in India
20000
18000
16000
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
5
9
1
6
9
1
7
9
1
8
9
1
9
1
0
2
1
0
2
0
2
3
0
2
4
0
2
5
0
2
6
0
2
7
0
2
8
0
2
9
0
2
1
0
2
1
0
2
No. of suicides
Total 270,940 in 17 years
Source: NCRB 1995-2010

4. State Farmer Suicides Difference (2nd Avg-1st Avg)
1995-2002 2003-2010
Andhra Pradesh 1590 2301 +711
Assam 155 291 +135
MP+Chhattisgarh 2304 2829 +525
Maharashtra 2508 3802 +1294
The table only includes States whose annual averages have risen by over 100 farmer suicides
between the two periods. It also treats Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh as one unit for
data purposes.
Source: NCRB Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India Reports 1995-2010

5. Smaller holdings
• Between 1960-61 and 2003, the total number of
operational holdings increased from 50.77 million
to 101.27 million.
• During the same period, the total operated area
declined from 133.46 million hectares to 107.65
million hectares.
• Thus average operated area declined from 2.63
hectares to 1.06 hectares.
(NSSO 59th Round, Some Aspects of Operational
Land Holdings in India, various issues)

6. Income and Expenditure of farmers
Land Category Total Expenditure Percent of
holding Income (Rs/month) farmers
(Rs/month)
<0.01 Landless 1380 2297 36 %
0.01-0.4 Sub marginal 1633 2390
0.4-1.0 Marginal 1809 2672 31 %
1.0-2.0 Small 2493 3148 17 %
2.0-4.0 Semi-medium 3589 3685 10 %
4.0-10.0 Medium 5681 4626 6%
>10.0 Large 9667 6418
Total 2115 2770 All
farmers
Source: Report “On Conditions Of Work And Promotion Of Livelihoods In The Unorganised Sector” Arjun Sen
Gupta Committee, 2007

7. Farm Incomes: Continuing problem
• Incomes of farmers have stagnated or declined; while living
costs have increased enormously
• Disparity between agricultural incomes and other sectors has
widened
• Recent studies also show farm incomes have fallen
e.g. From the decade of 1981-82 to the decade of 2001-02.
• Income per ha in Karnataka from Rs.8809 to Rs.5671
• Income per ha in Maharashtra from Rs.4194 to Rs.3047
Where do the farmers go? To other sectors?

8. Poor employment in other sectors

9. Poor employment in other sectors

10. Where are the jobs?
• From 2004-05 to 2009-10, only 2 million additional employment
was generated but 55 million were added to working age
population!
• 25.1 million people lost their self-employment
• Increase in the number of casual workers by 21.9 million, while
growth in the number of regular workers nearly halved between
2004-05 and 2009-10, compared with the previous 5 year period.
Sector-wise unemployment (millions)
Sector 2004-05 2009-10 Difference
Agriculture 258.93 243.21 -15.71
Manufacturing 55.77 48.54 -7.23
Services 112.81 112.33 -0.48
Non-Manufacturing 29.96 56.10 26.14
(construction)
TOTAL 457.46 460.18 2.72

11. 66th NSSO survey: deep urban-rural divide
• Per capita expenditure of urban India was 88% higher than rural India
• Average MPCE in 2009-10 to be Rs. 1054 and Rs. 1984 in rural India and
urban India respectively
• Top 10% of India’s rural population having an average MPCE (Rs. 2517)
5.6 times that of the poorest 10% (Rs. 453)
• Top 10% of urban population having a 9.8 times higher average MPCE
(Rs. 5863) compared that of the bottom 10% (Rs. 599)
• Considering the average rural MPCE value of Rs. 1054 in isolation
would be partially misleading. The rural MPCE median of Rs. 895 (about
Rs. 30 per day) implies that half the rural population had MPCE below
this level.
• 40% of the rural population had MPCE below Rs. 800 while 60% had
MPCE below Rs. 1000
• Compared to the rural median MPCE (Rs. 895), the urban median MPCE
level was 1.68 times higher at Rs. 1502 with 30% of the urban
population having MPCE above Rs. 2100 and 20% having MPCE above
Rs. 2600.

12. FARM HARVEST PRICES AND MINIMUM SUPPORT PRICES OF PADDY IN AP
Farm Harvest Price Minimum Support
Price
YEAR Kharif Rabi Average Grade-A Common
1998-99 510.53 426.17 486.35 470 440
1999-00 559.42 524.44 538.66 520 490
2000-01 507.93 478.58 499.61 540 510
2001-02 565.77 529.40 550.16 560 530
2002-03 623.29 578.08 609.27 560 530
2003-04 569.37 572.27 570.38 560 530
2004-05 605.49 604.07 605.02 580 550
2005-06 648.21 579.59 616.95 600 570
2006-07 670.19 622.22 650.30 610 580
2007-08 777.76 767.17 773.66 675 645
2008-09 1035.75 892.28 963.56 921 950
2009-10 1100.67 955.76 1072.66 1030 1000
2010-11 880.65 850.76 865.70 1080 1030
2011-12 1680.00 1220.00 1450 1110 1080
Source: DES, AP Govt

13. Prices recommended by AP government for 2012-13
Crops Cost of Rec. Support MSP in 2012-13
Cultivation Price Rs Rs/Quintal
Rs /acre /Quintal
Paddy (Fine var) 28,784 2,135 1280
Paddy (Common) 27,140 2,102 1250
Groundnut 13,456 5,543 3700
Jowar 6,321 1,953 1520
Maize 20,890 1,844 1175
Redgram 9,819 6,066 3850
Blackgram 8,974 5,544 4300
Greengram 7,677 5,691 4300
Soyabean 13,316 3,086
Cotton 25,731 6,359 3300
Sugarcane 67,458 312 139.12
Ragi 8,994 2,381 1500
Sunflower 11,998 5,559 3700
Sesame 5,008 6,890 4200

14. State governments irresponsible
MSPs recommended for 2013-14 (Rs/q)
Crop Announced MSP Announced MSP Recommended MSP
(Rs/q) 2011-12 (Rs/q) 2012-13 (Rs/q) 2013-14
Paddy 1110 1280 2811
Blackgram 3300 4300 7295
Soybean 1650 2200 4382
Groundnut 2700 3700 8019
Sunflower 2800 3700 7412
Sesame 3400 4200 7847
Ragi 1050 1500 2925
Maize 980 1175 2100
Jowar 1000 1520 2862
Redgram 3850 7277
Greengram 4300 7287
Government of Andhra Pradesh

15. Prices to Farmers
during 2010-11 and 2011-12
Crop 2010-11 Rs/Quintal 2011-12 Rs/Quintal
Cotton 6500 3600
Turmeric 14000 4000
Chillies 12000 5500
Redgram 5000 3500
Blackgram 5200 3500
Bajra 4000 2000
Jowar 2500 1800
Onion 16000 2500
Sweet Orange 75000 60000

16. Reducing institutional credit
• The share of agricultural credit in total bank lending nearly doubled
from around 10% in the mid-1970s to about 18% in the late 1980s.
• The share of agricultural credit in total bank lending declined from
the peak of 18% in the late 1980s to about 11% in 2005, the decline
has continued since then.
• Rural branches of commercial banks has declined from 51.2% in
March 1996 to 45.7% in March 2005.
• Data also shows that the share of agricultural credit cornered by
farm sizes of more than 5 acres has increased
• Tenancy is informal and tenant farmers do not get access to credit
(GOI, 2007).

17. Indirect finance
• Till 1993 only direct finance was considered as
part of (18%) priority sector lending
• Indirect finance growing at an astonishing rate
of 32.9% compared to 17% of direct finance
from 2000 onwards
• Indirect finance definition changed after 1993

18. Share of agriculture credit from different bank branches
1990-2008 (in %)
Year Rural + semi- Only rural Urban+ Only All branches
urban branches metropolitan metropolitan
• Not adequate
branches branches branches
All India
•1990 accessible-
Not 85.1 55.5 14.9 4.0 100.0
crops, region,
1994 83.4 54.6 16.6 5.6 100.0
tenant farmers
1995 83.7 52.7 16.3 7.3 100.0
2005 69.3 43.0 30.7 19.0 100.0
•2006
Interest 62.4 37.1 37.6 23.8 100.0
subvention who
2008 66.0 38.4 34.0 20.0 100.0
benefits?
Maharashtra
1990 82.4 59.7 17.6 - 100.0
•1994
How to increase
76.8 52.9 23.2 - 100.0
coverage?
1995 70.5 46.5 29.5 - 100.0
2005 41.8 26.1 58.2 48.5 100.0
2006 31.6 18.4 68.4 61.3 100.0
2008 42.4 25.7 57.6 48.3 100.0

20. Irrigation and fertilizer based production
Source: Government of India, 2009; RBI, 2009.

21. Fertilizer issues
• NPK use is 14.78:1.56:1 where as ideally it is 4:2:1
• The higher and imbalance use of chemical fertilizers threatened the
soil health
• Fertilizer use efficiency less than 50%
• Factor productivity of fertilizer coming down
• Fertilizer production largely dependent on Petroleum products and
prices fluctuate with them
• Phosphotic and Potash reserves coming down
•
Nutrient response drastically declined
Period Response (kg/kg NPK)
V FYP 15.0
Now 6.5
•
During 1961-2006 globally 8 fold increase in use of
agrochemicals, but increase in grain yield only 1.5 times

23. 2008
2012
(‘000 crore)

24. Soil Organic matter

The soil organic matter has declined from about 1.43 and 1.21 % in
red and black soils in the 1950’s to about 0.80 to 0.86 percent
respectively at present.

Soil organic matter performs Hydrological, Biological and Nutrient
related functions, which are both interrelated and distinct.

The OM helps tide over dry spells and in reducing runoff. Soil
moisture and organic matter is essential even for improving the
efficiency of biofertilisers and chemical nutrients.

25. Pesticides poisoning past, present and future
• Acute poisoning effects
• Agriculture workers killed
• Chronic poisoning effects
• Children growth effected
• Effect on reproductive health
• Pesticides increased costs of cultivations
• Rs. 1000 to 15000/acre
• Ecological Disturbances
• Beneficials killed, pest shifts
• Pest resistances, pest resurgences
• Poisoning of resources
• Soils
• Water
• Milk
• Food (NIN study found18 pesticides
found in Vegetables in Hyderabad, 2012)

26. Loosing Seed Sovereignty
• Increasing dependency on seeds over industry
• Increasing costs of seed (>500% in the last 5 yrs)
• Vegetable seeds costs upto 70,000/kg
• No regulation..seed bill pending from 2004
• Increased monoculture-few crops, few varieties and
now few genes

27. Before Bt Cotton
70% increase
Data for % area under BT for 2010-11 and 2011-12 are estimates and for 2005-06 is interpolated

28. GM crops and foods
• Key issues
• Relevance of GM crops
• Biosafety issues
• IPRs and Market monopoly
• Conflicts of interests and scandals
• Documentary evidences on Violations of regulations
in field trials,
• Newer pests and diseases like Bronze wilt, Tobacco
Streak Virus, Mealybug
• Studies on Environmental Risk Assessment and Socio
Economic Impacts
• Contamination organic cotton and Bt Bikeneri Narma
• What does reports say
– Public Consultation during Bt Brinjal Approval
– Parliamentary Standing Committee
– Technical Expert Committee
• Liability and Redress Mechanism

29. Life in queues 2011

30. Life in queues 2012

32. Water foot print of crops
Water foot print (Lit/kg)
Blue Green Grey Total
Milled Rice 1062 2967 460 4489
Wheat 906 236 414 1556
Maize 201 2192 251 2644
Millets 62 4290 301 4653
Sugarcane 126 91 18 234
Sugar 1305 537 122 1964
Chickpea 1278 659 346 2283
Pigeonpea 140 6059 327 6527
Soybean 25 3646 216 3888
Mustard 2814 700 865 4379
Cotton 2080 8047 1595 11722

33. Water Foot Prints
Each ha of paddy yields @ 30 bags/acre and 75 5625 kg/ha grain
kg/bag
In terms of rice 70 % milling 3938 kg/ha
Water requirement 2000 mm (2 m) crop water 20000 cu m water
requirement x10000 sq m. Which is equal to 5.078
cu.m/kg rice (5078 litres/kg
rice)
Each family consuming monthly 30 152340 Litres of water per
kg rice month per family
This is equivalent to
Each family consumes water @ 300 litres/day and for 30 9000 litres
directly at around days
Water consumption by way of 16.93 times higher than the
rice is water we consume directly

34. Depleting natural resources
• Increasing dark zones due
to groundwater depletion
• 30 % of soils are reported
to be saline by the recent
study by ministry of
environment

36. Lift Irrigation Schemes in AP
• 31 projects under lift irrigation
• It needs about 206 million units electricity/day needs
12,682 Megawatt power/annum (currently we use
160.80 million units a day or 10,000 mega watt/yr)
• 47 lakh ha would be brought under irrigation
• Seven and half horse power motor will be used for every
10 acres and five lakh such motors have to be installed
• Needs 37.5 lakh HP electricity (2775 mega watt)
• Major lift irrigation schemes needs 6407 mega watt
• Minor lift irrigation schemes needs 500 mega watt
• to produce and supply one mega watt power
• Rs. 4 cr to create infrastructure to produce
• Rs. 4.5 cr for transmission and distribution
Today 3,000 mega watts power is supplied freely to agriculture for 29 lakh pump sets

37. Farmer
•Shifting to better and sustainable practices
•Getting organised to deal with the markets and policies
Policy Support Market Support
•Supporting sustainable •Farmers moving up the
models value chain
•Regulating unsustainable •Direct marketing
practices •Forward and backward
•Invest more in agriculture linkages
•Income security to farmers •Better prices

38. Ecological farming practices
• Holistic understanding of the ecological and
biological processes (Gestalt approach)
• Harnessing the synergy of biodiversity,
ecological balance, high energy efficiency,
• Need a new science to under stand
technologies and not a new technology with old
science

39. Crop productivity vs land productivity
• Productivity is narrowly understood as crop
productivity in a monoculture situation, and
• Often compared with western developed
countries which have
– advantage of long day light,
– higher diurnal variation of temperature
– monoculture to suit mechanisation due to labor
shortage
– limited by only one crop season
• cannot be compared with tropical climate which
is rich in diversity and three crop seasons.

40. What is needed….
• Integrated farming systems integrating
livestock, trees etc
• Building soil organic matter
• Conserving moisture
• Rainwater harvesting
• Locally adopted crops and varieties
• Contingence planning
• Moving away from agro-chemical use

41. Community Managed Sustainable
Agriculture in Andhra Pradesh
Basic Principles
 Regenerative, ecologically sound practices
 Organized communities planning,
implementing and managing the program
 Govt/ngos playing facilitating agency role
2004-05 started with 225 acres in one dist and
reached 7 lakh acres in 2007-08 in 18 dist. World
Bank says this is a good tool for poverty
eradication and now promoted as part of NRLM
With 50 % development expenditure one can
double the incomes of the farmers
A national program called Mahila Krishi
Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP) is launched
based on this experiencce
2009

42. Farmers and area covered under CMSA
4000
3800
3500 3500
3000
2800
2500 2500
2000 2135 1997 2000 2000
1500 1394 1541 1381 1500
1300
1000 1000
700 600 1015
500 200
0.225 25 300
0 80
0.1 15
Acerage ('000 acres) Farmers ('000) Pesticide use (MT Active Ingradient)

43. Status of pesticide utilization in different states**
States/UTs 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-072007-08 2008-09 2009-10 kg/ha kg/ha
2000-01 2009-10
Punjab 7005 7200 7200 6780 6900 5610 5975 6080 5760 5810 0.98 0.82
Haryana 5025 5020 5012 47330 4520 4560 4600 4390 4288 4070 0.84 0.68
Andhra
Pradesh 4000 3850 3706 2034 2135 1997 1394 1541 1381 1015 0.34 0.09
Tamil Nadu 1668 1576 3346 1434 2466 2211 3940 2048 2317 2335 0.32 0.45
Gujarat 2822 4100 4500 4000 2900 2700 2670 2660 2650 2750 0.30 0.29
Kerala 754 1345 902 326 360 571 545 780 272.69 631 0.31 0.26
Karnataka 2020 2500 2700 1692 2200 1638 1362 1588 1675 1647 0.17 0.14
Orissa 1006 1018 1134 682 692 963 778 N/A 1155.75 1588 0.16 0.26
**Source: http://ppqs.gov.in/IpmPesticides.htm MT of active ingredient

44. Average Reduction in costs and net
additional income for different crops
Crops Reduction in cost Reduction in costs due to use Net additional
due to NPM (Rs) of organic fertilisers/manures income (Rs)
(Rs)
Paddy 940 1450 5590
Maize 1319 2357 5676
Cotton 1733 1968 5676
Chillies 1733 1968 7701
Groundnut 1021 3462 10483
Vegetables 1400 390 3790
3rd Party Evaluation of Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) : Community Managed
Organic Farming implemented by SERP
Evaluation Team
Prof. R. Ratnakar, Director, Dr. M. Surya Mani, Professor, EXTENSION EDUCATION
INSTITUTE, (Southern Region), Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India

45. Who benefits from your purchase
• Farmer gets Rs 15 for each kg of rice you
purchase at Rs 35
• Farmer gets Rs 30 for each Kg of Toor Dal you
purchase at Rs 80
• In case of other foods the farmer’s share is
similar or lesser.
• In processed foods farmers share is less than
10% and the rest goes to the Industry,
advertising and sales.
• Your purchases in retail chains go towards
energy-hogging facilities like air-conditioned
stores, cold storages and transportation all of
which have a huge ecological cost.

46. Sahaja Aharam
Organic Store
Processing units
Farmer Group A Seed market
Producer Co-op-1
Farmer Group B Producer Co-op-2
Farmer Group C
Other farmers and
farmers groups
Sahaja Aharam
Market place
Marketing Agency
Direct to
•Capacity building
resellers
•Institutional building Direct to Home
Whole sale to •Value Chain Fund Consumer Co-op
traders •Brand building
•Healthy food Mobile Store
•Qualtiy Management
Bulk buyers •Affordable Price
•Fair Trade
•Max share to farmers Organic Store
Yet to estiblish

47. Way forward
• Moving from high external input agriculture to high internal input agriculture
• Information based to knowledge based extension
• Reducing the risks with uncertain weather conditions and degraded and
limited natural resources, by adopting agroecologically suitable cropping
patterns and production practices
• Diversifying the assets and income sources to sustain the livelihoods by
integrating livestock and horticulture into agriculture and promoting on-farm
and off-farm employment opportunities,
• Conserving and efficiently use the available natural resources like soil and
water, and promote biomass generation,
• Organizing farmers into institutions which can help them to have better
planning, greater control over their production, help to access resources and
support, improve food security and move up in the value chain,
• Recasting subsidies to support farmers own resources and labor
• Building livelihood security systems to withstand the natural disasters like
drought, floods and other climate uncertainties.

48. My Home Garden

49. www.csa-india.org
www.krishi.tv
www.agrariancrisis.in
Facebook: ramoo.agripage
Twitter: ramanjaneyuluGV
Email: ramoo.csa@gmail.com
Phone: 040-27017735, 09000699702