Surinder Sud: Killer crop

FARM VIEW

While the proportion of those engaged in agriculture has hardly changed, farm wages continue to stagnate.

The reasons for the plight of the farmers have, by now, been discussed thread-bare. But, what has escaped attention is the fact that while agriculture has failed to raise the income of those depending solely on it for their subsistence, the high-growing non-agriculture sector, too, has been unable to absorb more people from rural areas to help them supplement their earnings.

Consequently, while the income levels of farm workers (farmers included) have tended to stagnate, that of the urban workers has risen appreciably. This has not only widened the gaping schism between urban and rural incomes, it has also bred discontent among the rural youth and elders alike.

Indeed, the growth of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the agriculture sector is known to have lagged far behind that in the non-agriculture sector. The share of agriculture in the overall GDP has, consequently, declined from over 38 per cent in 1980-81 to less than 20 per cent now. This, indeed, may be a welcome development. But, what is not so welcome is that, despite this, there has hardly been any perceptible shift of workforce from agriculture to non-agriculture sectors. Between 1980 and 2000, the proportion of the workforce engaged in agriculture has declined only marginally from 60.5 per cent to 58.4 per cent. What is worse, the income of workforce in agriculture has remained virtually flat for even a longer period.

This aspect has been brought out quite lucidly in a report presented to the Planning Commission early this year by its sub-group on 'adoption and generation of relevant technologies and their dissemination to the farmers'.

The report reveals that while the increase in per-worker income in the non-agriculture sector in the 1980s and 1990s exceeded 200 per cent, that of agriculture workers rose merely by less than 12 per cent. This trend accentuated further between 1999 and 2004. The latest estimate given in the report puts the average income of a worker in the agriculture sector at just Rs 19,546 (at current prices), against Rs 87,364 in the non-agriculture sector. The picture is the same at constant (1993-94) prices.

This should, indeed, be a cause for concern. Of course, one cannot argue for an en masse migration of population from rural to urban areas. But, considering the fast diminishing size of average land holdings, some reduction in agriculture-dependent population is surely called for to improve the economic status of rural people.

The official numbers indicate that the proportion of marginal land holdings (less than one hectare) have risen from 61.6 per cent in 1995-96 to 63 per cent in 2000-01. Besides, about 18.9 per cent other holdings fall in the small farms category, measuring between one and two hectares. Thus, the small and marginal holdings together constitute whopping 82 per cent of the total land holdings. These farms, obviously, are too small for the households to subsist on them without supplementing the incomes from non-agriculture sectors.

This aside, deceleration in technology generation has also been blamed for the farm sector's woes. But this is often viewed in isolation from the public investment in agricultural research which has remained virtually static at less than 0.8 per cent of the GDP for nearly a decade and half. Consequently, the country's vast farm research network has faced a grave resource crunch, telling upon its output. The number of scientists working for the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and, more so, in the state agriculture universities, has fallen significantly. New recruitments have largely been banned, or kept to the bare minimum. Besides, the vital research infrastructure has also not been upgraded to enable it keep pace with the changing requirement.

surinder.sud@bsmail.in