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Transcript

Hello friends. In our last class we studied a group of programs which led to the Green Revolution in our country. In the entire effort of the range of programs, we could observe that the needs of the large farmers were taken care of largely in those programs. May it be IADP or HYVP or IAAP, whatever it is. So it was felt by the government that what about satisfaction of the needs of the small and marginal farmers, who are majority in the farming community. The statistics reveal that even today that about 80% of the farmers are coming under small and marginal. And they are having access to about around 20-25% of the land resources in the country. Under such circumstances working for the programs, specially for the purpose of small farmers becomes the priority of the established governments. For which they established some institutions which we’ll be studying today.

The institutions like Small Farmers Development Agency, Marginal Farmers Agricultural Laborers Development Agency, Drought Prone Area Program and Technology Mission on Oilseeds. So these are the programs that will be taken up for discussion in today’s class. To begin with the Small Farmer Development Agency. The Reserve Bank of India appointed an All-India Rural Credit Review Committee in 1969. The chairman of which was B. Venkatappiah. So this committee recommended the establishment of Small Farmer Development Agency. And this is the genesis of the exclusive institution to support the small farmers in the country. So this agency had three objectives. The first was to investigate and identify the problems of small farmers and ensure that various services reach to them. Because the problems of the large farmers are totally different from the small farmers. So how to delineate between these two, that was the assignment that was given to this particular agency.

The second objective was to ensure that the farmers secure loans from the cooperative bank. Access to the finance was one of the major issue as far as the small farmers are considered, because of their limited land resources. And in earlier days so there used to be the concept of security, collateral security and all these things as far as the financial institutions are considered. Over a period of time there are good number of changes that we can see. Now up to certain limit we don’t need even any collateral host or any guarantor to get the farm loans. And there are good number of changes that we can observe. Kisan credit cards are there and farmers are having the access to the loans to the maximum possible extent as on date. But in those days, way back in 1970’s, 60’s,so that was not the situation.

How to overcome these problems was the target that was assigned to these institutions. Then the third objective was to ensure that farmers have access to other assistances such as the cooperative banks, the improved seeds, the fertilizers and other agricultural inputs. So without the support of these institutions or the inputs, the farmers were not in a position to get the higher amounts of yields. So that is why to ensure all these support services to the farmers, the government established the Small Farmer Development Agency which in 1980’s, it was part of the, it was merged with the Integrated Rural Development Program. That we will be discussing at length in our subsequent classes.

So in addition to the small farmer there is another group, who are coming under the marginal farmers, who are having still lesser land than the small farmers and the agricultural laborers. The Marginal Farmers and Agricultural Laborers Development Agency was also established along with the SFDA in the same year to assist the marginal farmers and agricultural laborers in maximum productive use of their small holdings, and skills undertaking animal husbandry and horticulture etc etc, wherein they can maximize their income levels. Because they are not having any other option other than going for the animal husbandry aspects, wherein with minimum involvement of the land resources, you can get the maximum amounts of profit. Because animal’s milk and the products that you can sell out of these and you can harvest the better profits. So that was the basic idea of Marginal Farmers and Agricultural Laborers Program. Initially this program was launched in 40 districts with the farmers having less than 1 hectare of land.And the farmers were given subsidies so that that becomes a boosting factor for them to take up the messages that are being provided by the institutions and the extension professionals. Apart from that they were also given the training as well as the skills were imparted to them so that they can develop as the professionals related to their areas of interest, based on the needs and interest of the farmers. So these were the activities that were taken up by Marginal Farmers and Agricultural Laborers Development Agency.

Coming to another important program launched in the same year that is 1970-71. That is Drought Prone Area Program. So occurrence of droughts is a routine matter in Indian context in different parts of the country. As we have seen so between 1875 to 1901, so in this span of around 26 years, there were, 18 years were spent under severe drought.That was the severity of the problem, the gravity of the problem that we can see in the Indian context. Even today in different parts of the country, so occurrence of drought is one of the natural phenomena. So to take up the some developmental activities in these drought prone areas the program of Drought Prone Area Program was launched in 1970-71, wherein the basic activities that were taken up were. Insitu moisture conservation by taking up the watershed activities. When we talk of these watershed activities, again the concept of group approach comes into the picture. Because in watershed activities without involvement of all the stakeholders, all those beneficiaries of that delineated watershed, we cannot achieve the success. So that is how in situ moisture conservation is one of the major challenge for the farmers who are coming under these drought prone areas in different parts of the country.

Then the management and development of the irrigation resources. So this is part of the infrastructure development of the governmental initiatives, wherein efforts are being done but without the participation of the local communities. Such project is also not going to be a reality, that we have already seen in case of the Community Development Program. Then in addition to that, because under such difficult situations animal husbandry is one of the promising area, wherein we can see the changes, and accordingly the livestock development and modifying agronomic practices, afforestation etc were taken up. So to begin with they started with the livestock development activities, so that farmers can realize the income on immediate basis, because the product that we are going to generate, so that is going to ensure and assure the regular and continuous income on a daily basis. So that was the basic idea behind the Drought Prone Area Program.

Now coming to another important program of enhancing the agricultural production, specially in oilseeds sector. The Technology Mission on Oilseeds was launched in 1986. So even today we observe the lack of availability of oilseeds in Indian context. As per the statistics about 4 million tons of oilseeds are being imported every year. Even after the fact that India is one of the largest producer of oilseeds. So to meet out the domestic demand, without import we cannot meet out the local demands. To meet out this particular situation, to come out of this particular situation, government launched this technology mission on oilseeds to enhance the yield levels of oilseeds. The objectives of this program included, improvement in production technology by introduction of the high yielding varieties, as we have seen in case of the green revolution. The high yielding varieties of cereals were introduced. Similarly the pulses as well as the oilseeds were also developed as high yielding varieties and introduced as a part of Technology Mission on Oilseeds. Then the for motivating the oilseed growers, credit facilities were extended to the farmers who are interested in cultivating the oilseeds. Then improvement in the post-harvest technology. Development of technologies like the small scale oil expellers. Then motivating the farmers to establish the oil extraction unit in their local or regional level, so that the locally produced oilseed can be processed. And oil can be extracted and that can be marketed, so that they can fetch the better prices. So such efforts were done under Technology Mission on Oilseeds.

Apart from the primary product the edible oil industry was given support for adoption of post-harvest technology, so that they can establish the processing units in the rural areas and motivate the farmers to take up the oilseed production in that particular area. So that you can enhance the oilseed production as well as the edible oil requirement of the country can be met out. The process facilitated establishment of a industry as well as an opportunity for the farmers to sell their produce to the nearest possible outlet.

So these were some of things that achieved under Technology Mission on Oilseeds.

Then the programs that we discussed so far. Starting with the Small Farmers Development Agency which was the neglected community. Then the more neglected community was the marginal farmers and agricultural laborers. Even today that constitutes the considerable number in Indian context, Indian agricultural community. So they were also having a separate agency to take care of their needs. Then the Drought Prone Area Program, the disadvantaged sections of the society was taken care of. And last but not the least that is the Technology Mission on Oilseeds. So these programs, when we look into these programs, the needs of the people were taken care of. And launching of the programs based on the needs of the people was achieved. Then development of institutions for satisfying the needs of the specific target community was achieved by launching these programs. And the multiple institutions had some advantages as well as some disadvantages, because of too much administrative structure and pluralism in providing the extension services. And overlapping of the services by different agencies. So these are some of the drawbacks of these programs. With all that the disadvantaged sections of the society were taken care of by establishing these institutions.

So this is in a nutshell about the programs that were launched and implemented and evaluated for the benefit of the neglected section of the country, specially the small and marginal farmers. So with this we are coming to the end of today’s class. In the next class we will be discussing about important programs that is known as the Training and Visit system of extension or the reorganized extension system.

Thank You.