SEEDS OF A GREEN EVOLUTION
Compared to the dismal agricultural scenario in the rest of the country, Madhya Pradesh has been presenting a different picture for the past few years. According to advance estimates, growth in the sector would be 29.1 per cent in 2016- 17, and with the economic survey projecting a 4.1 per cent growth in agriculture at the national level, up from 1.1 per cent in the previous year, the central Indian state has no doubt fuelled some part of the national growth in agriculture.
In MP, the sector has been recording 20 per cent- plus growth successively for the past five years. Agricultural production increased from 214 lakh tonnes in 2004- 05 to 450.6 lakh tonnes in 2014- 15. Contrast this with the (-) 4.7 per cent dip in 2004- 05 and the MP story definitely merits examination, if not emulation.
So what has brought about this turnaround? Nearly 26 per cent of the state’s 72.6 million population ( 2011 census) are cultivators while another 21 per cent are agricultural labourers. This gives the sector adequate political heft in the state, which the political execu- tive cannot ignore.
While growth in the sector can be said to be the direct result of the state government’s policy interventions, a lot of it is also people driven. Large tracts of land in central MP, about 4 lakh hectares, along the Narmada have been brought under basmati cultivation by farmers who found an alternative to soybean— a crop that had ceased to give good returns in the past few years. Similarly, for wheat, farmers grew seed varieties developed in other states such as the GW 322 and GW 366, making MP the country’s second largest producer.
At the policy level, availability of power, expansion of the canal network, availability of agricultural credit, enhanced mechanisation, better seed replacement ratio, increased fertiliser usage have all played a crucial role in securing the growth figures.
“To double incomes, the MP roadmap inc ludes paring input cost, diversification of crops, compen sation of losses and linking agriculture to dairy and food processing.” SHIVRAJ SINGH CHOUHAN Chief Minister, Madhya Pradesh
Many of these interventions may not have been formalised as schemes but have nonetheless been thrust areas.
Power availability for the sector, for instance, increased from 6.7 billion units in 2009- 10 to 16.1 billion in 2015- 16. In 2012- 13, the interest rate on agricultural credit by state cooperative banks was brought down to zero. Fertiliser consumption has gone up from 52.5 kg per hectare in 2004- 05 to 82.4 kg per ha in 2014- 15 while certified seed availability was 31 lakh quintals in 2014- 15 from 14.5 lakh quintals in 2004- 05, attained through the Surajdhara and Annapurna schemes. Some 200 villages have been selected as Yantradoot villages for adopting mechanisation; tractor sales have gone up from 28,528 units in 2004- 05 to 87,143 units in 2014- 15. Some 7 million kisan credit cards have been given out and total credit extended to farmers from state government- run banks and nationalised banks is about Rs 45,000 crore. The government is also ensuring remunerative prices for farm produce and compensation of losses. The earlier bonus of Rs 150 per quintal on wheat massively encouraged its cultivation and the recently introduced Bhavantar or price difference scheme, though too recent to produce results, has a similar aim. All these measures should hopefully keep farmer agitations at bay— something that singed the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in mid- 2017.