National-level Sopan symposium on farming

                                       K R Suhaman/ Dehradun

The India Foundation for Rural Development Studies (Infords), which brings out Sopan Step monthly magazine, had inter-active session with experts to highlight the possibilities that existed to take advantage of the unique ecosystem particularly in hilly state of Uttarakhand to make farming profitable

Sopan Step a non-government organisation working to improve the lot of rural population organised a national symposium in Dehradun to create awareness among farmers in the surrounding areas the various options available to make farming profitable.

Farming is a risky venture in India as most part of the country dependent on the vagaries of weather. Sometimes standing crop about to be harvested gets destroyed by floods, tornado, cloud burst and the like in on time putting farmers into great difficulty making all his labour, resources go waste. At time poor monsoon results in drought like condition causing another kind of calamity. Sometimes pests attack making farming a losing proposition.

The India Foundation for Rural Development Studies (Infords), which brings out Sopan Step monthly magazine, had inter-active session with experts to highlight the possibilities that existed to take advantage of the unique ecosystem particularly in hilly state of Uttarakhand to make farming profitable. The symposium, the first of its kind to have direct inter-action with farmers, was inaugurated by the state Chief Minister Harish Rawat.

Experts who participated in the symposium highlighted the options available for farmers to earn more money taking advantage of the climate and terrain at the foothills of Himalayas. Presently farmers go in for traditional cultivation of rice and sugarcane, which do not make farming that profitable because of the risks involved in the region. To mitigate the risks, the best solution, the experts said, were to go for aromatic and medicinal plants cultivation in between tradition a crop cultivation by adopting inter-cropping. This will ensure additional income as some of thees plant are weather resistant and do not interfere with main crop. Also these plants fetch more income as they are in great demand and required special ecosystem, which is prevalent in the region. There is also scope using a portion of their farm land to cultivate fruits and vegetables, some of them exotic, as the area is ideally suited for horticulture. As these being cash crops earnings go up substantially making farming a losing venture now into a a profitable one. Dairy is another option that could be looked at along with farming. In this part including western Uttar Pradesh, selling milk by farmers is a taboo. This however needed to be overcome by forming cooperatives as in Gujarat, Southern states and elsewhere in the country to augment their income as pursuing only traditional farming do not provide income stability.

These are some small steps that could be taken but farmers by and large particularly in this part of the country are averse to deviating from tradition and this awareness  campaign served as an eye opener and the alternatives suggested brought about some changes in the thinking of farmers to look at options available to make their farming sustainable and profitable. One issue that cropped up was the Nilghai menace in the region, which destroy standing crops resulting in all their efforts going waste in one go. To overcome this problem chief minister promised to step up fencing of farm land and he announced Rs 100 crore in the state budget this year. This may not be adequate but a beginning has been made. The day long symposium too made a beginning to make some of the farmers rethink their strategy to make it 'Munafe ke kheti from the present Ghate ke Soudha.

Dehradun, 23 July

“There is a need to link tradition and technology to save agriculture,” says CM

A national-level symposium on ‘Making agriculture profitable: Alternatives and solutions’ (Munafe ke kheti: Vikalp or Upay), organized by Sopan Step, a bilingual development magazine being brought out by India Foundation for Rural Development Studies (Infords), was held at Dehradun on 23 July.  Hon’ble Uttarakhand Chief Minister Shri Harish Rawat inaugurated the function, in which Hon’ble Minister for Agriculture , Shri Harak Singh Rawat, Director (Marketing) IFFCO Shri A Roy, Managing Trustee and senior journalist Shri K A Badarinath, senior journalist Shri Harvir Singh Panwar, Expert on Bio economy and agriculture value chain Shri  Vijay Sardana and Shri Vijay Uppal  also participated.

Delivering the key note address, Chief Minister Shri Harish Rawat said despite technological intervention, agriculture has not become a profitable proposition. “Banks have been giving loans at lower rates of 4 to 7%. They may be able to take the loan once. After that they become debt-ridden. The problem is that we have failed to empower farmers,” said Rawat.

The chief minister said technology and tradition should be linked. There is a need to promote traditional agriculture in hilly areas, which will not only protect the ecology but provide income for the farmers. He also talked about encouraging off-seasonal fruits and vegetables.  

Invitation

it's a great effort being made by media professionals and farmers cooperatives to bring more money for the farmers themselves. India Foundation for Rural Development Studies and 'Sopan Step' have taken the lead... Let's see where we go...

India's growth fallacy

                                   K R Sudhaman

        India's growth rate may be faster than China, but it is a fallacy to say we are growing faster

Common sense is nonsense in Statistics as the saying goes. An oft repeated example in this regard is that a group of people including a statistician wanted to cross a river. When the group was vaciliting whether to cross the river or not for fear of getting drowned, the statistician came out with a bright idea. He calculated the average height of the group, which was 5.4 feet and the average depth of the ritver, which was 4.5 feet. He said the river can be easily crossed as the average height of the group was higher than average depth of the river. At one point the river's depth was over 8 feet and all got drowned including the statistician.

The interpretation of GDP growth figures is no different. China, that has adopted export-led growth since 1979 has recorded double-digit GDP growth for three decades. Lately it has slowed down due to difficult global situation at 6.8 per cent this year. India, which had been growing at hindu rate of 3-5 per cent for decades got some push after opening up of the economy in 1991 and the best it achieved was between 2004-08, averaging over 9 per cent. Since then India has slowdown due to domestic and global reasons. This year there is some revival clocking 7.3 per cent in 2014-15. This year it is projected to grow anywhere between 7.5-8 per cent.

India's growth rate looked higher than China this partly due to a new method of calculation adopted this year. This has pushed up India's growth rate higher by 2.2 per cent. The GDP growth, which was earlier calculated based on factor cost, now has been changed to constant prices to take into account gross value addition in goods and services as well as indirect taxes. Also, the base year has been shifted from 2004-05 to 2011-12. One need not quarrel over this as the growth calculation has now been aligned to global norms.

But more importantly what has not been told is that, India's gross domestic product in absolute terms is just about $2 trillion against China's GDP of a little over $10 trillion.

So even if India grew by 10 per cent, the country would be growing only by $20 billion in a year in absolute terms. Whereas China at even 6.5 per cent GDP growth, would be growing by around $70 billion in absolute terms. A marginally higher growth means nothing but a statistical jugglery. India has a lot of catching up to do with China and that is the real growth story.

The absolute numbers are important for calculating per capita income which was around $1500 in India in 2013 as against China's $6800 in 2013. China's per capita is more than four times that of India's.

There are other indicators as well. Consumption is perhaps the largest component in GDP. This indicator clearly show all is not well with the Indian economy. There is rural distress and this is one of the reasons that consumption demand is not picking up for the economy to growth as evident from the sale of two-wheelers, tractors, small commercial vehicles,cars and fast moving consumer goods incuding white goods. This is the reason Reserve Bank of India has flagged the issue in its monetary policy on June 2.

In fact, China is the only country in the world, which has grown rapidly in double digits on a sustained basis for decades. No other country including so called miracle countries like Japan, South Korea and Singapore have grown as rapidly as China on a sustained basis. Even if India grows 10 per cent and China at 6 per cent, it will take 4-5 decades to catch up with Chinese economty, which is not going to be easy considering the kind of democratic polity India has.

(K R Sudhaman, who has over 40 years experience in journalism, has been editor in Press Trust of India, TickerNews & Financial Chronicle)

मुनाफे की खेती, विकल्प और उपाय/ जुलाई 23 और 24, (देहरादून)

किसानों के लिए एक संगोष्ठी.....

सोपान STEP : New Age Farming Productivity Push/ July 23 & 24 2015 at Dehradun

It is play time for floods

                                                 Dinesh Mishra/ Patna

Flood season is approaching fast and it will impact Bihar also sooner or later. The round of negotiations with Nepal will commence and assurances given to the people of Bihar that something is being planned for them and soon the action will be taken. By the end of the year everything will come to a happy ending.

 A Technical Committee appointed by the Government of Bihar (2007) to study the flood problem and suggest remedies for it says explicitly, ‘…The reservoir and the flood damaged area should be close to each other.’ The spot where Barahkshetra Dam is proposed to be built in Nepal is about 55 km from Indo-Nepal border and the confluence of the Kosi below the border is not less than 200 km. If the committee headed by former Engineer-in- Chief of Bihar says that distant dams don’t provide protection against floods, what purpose it is going to serve?

  The distance of Dheng Bridge from the proposed location of the Nunthar Dam is nearly 70 kilometers and the distance between Dheng to Badlaghat is over 250 kilometers. The case of the Kamla is no different either. That strengthens the view that no flood protection would be possible from this dam in its present form. That is the reason, probably, that no flood cushion has been provided in the design of the dam but the politicians nurse a feeling that the dam at Nunthar will help in preventing floods in the basin. A former Central Minister, Hari Kishore Singh, says, ‘…There is no money available to build the dam at Nunthar. When money is not there, what is the point in talking about the project?

 Even if resources are located, the political situation in Nepal is not conducive for taking up any construction work there or even entering into an agreement for it. Atmosphere there is not favorable to India. Nobody would know whether there is a provision for any flood cushion in the designs or not. May be, the ministers know it. A politician always assumes that if a dam is going to be built, it is imperative that there would be arrangements of irrigation, flood control and power production. The engineers must tell the politicians if no such provision has been made.’ Do our engineers refrain from giving correct picture to their political bosses? Do they lack courage to tell the truth? No engineer will ever like to get humiliated after telling the truth, it seems. People know only to chant 'Zindabaad'.

(Dinesh Kumar Mishra (born 1948) is convenor of ‘Barh Mukti Abhiyan’, an NGO which is mounting a grassroots movement that challenges the current, top-heavy flood control policy in India.)