The Indo-Gangetic plain is known as the cradle of the Green Revolution. But this is true only of the region’s north-western part. Its eastern part remained unaffected for a long time despite being better endowed with basic natural resources for crop growth, such as fertile land, water and sunshine. The north-western part is largely semi-arid.
There are many reasons for the farm sector’s below-par performance in the eastern region of the Indo-Gangetic plain. The significant ones among them are the pattern of demographic changes, discrimination in the allocation of central developmental resources and poor market support.
A publication by the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) titled “State of Indian Agriculture — The Indo-Gangetic Plain” provides a detailed analysis of factors related to agriculture in this key food bowl. It reveals that in Punjab and Haryana, high agricultural growth was accompanied by an increase in the pace of urbanisation and reduction in population pressure on agricultural land, but this was not the case in Bihar and West Bengal. The share of urban population increased by 10 per cent in Punjab and 11 per cent in Haryana in the first three decades after the Green Revolution. In Bihar and West Bengal, on the other hand, the urbanisation rate has been almost static.
The migration of some farming population from agriculture caused the average farm size in Punjab to increase from 2.89 hectares in 1971 to 4.03 hectares by 2001. The number of farm holdings below 2 hectares fell appreciably. But in Bihar and West Bengal, the lack of migration from the farm sector caused the average farm size to shrink from 1.5 hectares in 1971 to 0.58 hectares in 2001 in Bihar and from 1.2 hectares to 0.8 hectares in West Bengal. Besides, the proportion of small holdings of less than 2 hectares was as high as over 93 per cent in Bihar and more than 95 per cent in West Bengal.
The NAAS report also details the allocation of central plan funds to the states right from the start of the planning era to bring out the bias against the eastern states. In the first Five-Year Plan, the per capita central plan expenditure was only Rs 27 in Bihar and Rs 58 in West Bengal, against the national average of Rs 109. The trend is no different in the 11th Plan — the per capita average plan expenditure in Bihar is Rs 6,575 and Rs 7,405 in West Bengal. This is much lower than the national average of Rs 13,187.
The government’s intervention in agricultural marketing to provide price support through official procurement also seems to discriminate against the eastern region. More than 80 to 90 per cent of total market arrivals of wheat in Punjab and Haryana were picked up by government agencies at minimum support prices. However, hardly any wheat was procured from Bihar till recently. Similarly, in the case of rice, Punjab accounted for an official procurement of over 80 per cent and Haryana more than 50 per cent. But there was no such procurement in Bihar. “This shows a strong regional concentration of government intervention in selected few states, and the farmers of Bihar were denied the support they deserved,” the report points out. The justification offered for this lack of adequate marketable surplus does not hold ground. The truth is that Bihar has experienced a sharp increase in marketable surplus of rice and wheat after 1982. Market arrivals have increased from 16 per cent of total output in 1982-83 to 24.5 per cent in 1999-2000 in the case of rice. In the case of wheat, the surpluses have increased from 13.8 per cent to over 17 per cent. This apart, the north-western region had a better and more extensive network of irrigation compared to the eastern region. The farmers in the north-western region owned relatively large number of better-quality livestock than their eastern counterparts. “I earnestly believe there is utter neglect of agriculture in the region and many of our priorities are misplaced,” observes NAAS President Mangala Rai, who has co-authored this report.
His voice needs to be heard.
