The 4 % magic

Sarkar gets a little real on farming. Full reality means looking even at food crop differently

That the government has finally started abandoning the notion that classically defined farming can grow at four per cent is a relief. Krishi Bhavan, as reported in this newspaper, will be setting crop and sector targets at the state level, with a recognition that horticulture and animal husbandry can be growth drivers. But setting uniform strategies suggests insufficient homework. Milk is an example. In eastern and central India and in the Northeast, milk is still marketed by the unorganised sector. Amul, in contrast, is at the stage of marketing probiotic ice creams and sugarless chocolates.

At a broader level, diversification away from crops

is possible only if yields rise in the crop sector and land is released for higher income yielding activity. Indian farm productivity levels are ridiculously low. Even if we catch up with China’s levels of farm productivity, the most paranoid food security theorist will be satisfied that food production can jump with much less land under cultivation. Therefore, part of the diversification strategy is tied up with modernising food production. The official strategy seems to be to push states where large investments have been made in irrigation. This will restrict results.

It is equally important that food production itself be viewed differently. Diversification is not only relevant here, it is already happening and farmers come to much grief when government policies don’t recognise this. As has been argued on these pages, to think of wheat as an undifferentiated commodity is one of the mistakes the government makes when deciding on procurement and pricing policies. Efficient, market-savvy farmers are not a rarity on the ground. They just don’t find much representation in policy papers. Neither do facts like the need for consolidation — a majority of farm landholdings in India are, bluntly put, economically unviable production bases. Krishi Bhavan will take time to acknowledge such truths. But let us acknowledge that at least someone in the sarkar is not breezily demanding traditional farming magically grow at 4 per cent.