Investment in agricultural research has been stagnant at a mere 0.5 per cent of the sector’s gross domestic product (GDP) for long. The Eleventh Plan had targeted raising it to one per cent but this goal has been elusive. The Twelfth Plan document, which was approved by the National Development Council last week, has again envisaged increasing farm research funding to one per cent of the sector’s GDP. However, chances of hitting this level in the Twelfth Plan, too, are slim. For, the document states that it will depend on state governments committing adequate resources for their agricultural universities — which form a significant component of the overall National Agricultural Research System (NARS). Given the past dismal record of the states, this caveat seems unlikely to be met.
The Planning Commission, predictably, puts the blame for inadequate spending on farm research largely on states, though it does not fail to point out that the Centre’s actual expenditure on this research, too, fell 20 per cent short of the originally envisaged outlay for the Eleventh Plan. The poor Budgetary support in most states has made it difficult for agricultural universities to pay salaries and pension to their staff. As a result, most universities are today understaffed and underfunded, adversely affecting their research, education and extension activities.
In the case of the Centre, its overall expenditure on farm research (Plan and non-Plan) is estimated to have surged 68 per cent during the Tenth and the Eleventh Plans. But this amount, notably, includes allocation for the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY) as well, which is essentially a development-, and not research-, oriented scheme. During the same period, the research and development (R&D) funding by states rose merely 22 per cent.
Regardless of this marginal improvement in the resource flow, the Eleventh Plan’s average annual investment on farm research came to only around 0.7 per cent (at 2006-07 prices). At the current prices, this figure seemed even slimmer at just 0.64 per cent of the farm sector’s GDP. Only in one year (2010-11) during this Plan, the total R&D expenditure touched 0.9 per cent, coming close to the one per cent goal.
One way of forcing states to allocate higher amounts for agricultural universities is to link the release of the Central funds for farm development schemes, including those for RKVY, with states’ research spending. Luckily, the Twelfth Plan document covertly hints at resorting to this tactic, though states are unlikely to be comfortable with it. Such a step is essential to reorient the agricultural research, now focused largely on yield enhancement, to face the emerging challenges before the Indian agriculture, including those posed by the climate change.
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research, the apex body that oversees NARS and supplements resources of the state farm universities, has lined up several well-conceived new initiatives for the Twelfth Plan. Significant among them are the National Agricultural Education Project, the National Agricultural Entrepreneurship Project and the farmers-first programme. The mooted agricultural education project will aim broadly at improving the quality of agricultural education in farm universities to produce competent human resource for farm research and extension.
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The agricultural entrepreneurship project, on one hand, will ensure that technologies developed at great financial cost and intellectual input do not remain buried in research journals, and are actually put to gainful use through commercialisation. This project is also expected to help retain rural youth in farming, who are now tending to look for white-collared jobs in urban areas. The farmers-first approach will enhance scientist-farmer interaction through around 630 Krishi Vigyan Kendras already set up throughout the country.
Given that most research priorities and new programmes mooted in the Twelfth Plan document are well-intended, it will be regrettable if these are allowed to suffer on account of resource crunch. The onus of ensuring adequate funding lies with both the Centre and state governments. Any lapse will mean that the coveted goal of four per cent annual growth in agriculture will be unattained.