It’s the Corona Surprise test and we have the failed in
the Agriculture paper!
Vaibhav B
S
The corona virus has announced the
surprise test to the whole world, of how prepared they are and the top
countries have started to shudder and their papers are filled with red marks. For
all the crowns and laurels that India is the emerging super power, it was
provided the paper fairly late and yet it was found wanting for preparation.
India prepared for the healthcare paper but it has been served the Agriculture paper
along with the healthcare paper and in the opening test India has failed the
agriculture paper!
An economy or the social resilience of
a country is tested by how quickly it has been able to respond and support the weakest
link in the chain of its social structure. The war waged by Covid-19 has
exposed India’s preparedness in the agriculture supply chain and value addition.
The lock down has been a lock down of the farms with the perishable produce
also locked inside and the rot is killing the farmers. The most disappointing aspect
has been the silence of the Agri startups and their eco systems especially the
startups who were promising to bring changes in the agri supply chain. Of
course, there have been few startups who have transformed quickly to address
the need to the consumers of urban area but that’s easier of the problems to
address and its impact is just a blip in the cauldron of problem faced by the
real victim of the crisis – the farmers. The hour of crisis should have been
seen as an opportunity by the agri – startups to display their flexibility to manifest
and deploy their resources and solutions but instead the startups have either behaved
just as any big corporate with no flexibility or like an evanescent entity that
go missing during the hour of need.
The surprise test has exposed India’s
priority and planning in the agriculture and horticulture sector during crisis.
During the crisis hour, the District magistrate of each district becomes de-facto
power center to handle the crisis but amongst all the standard operating procedures,
supporting agriculture supply chain seems to be missing. The government
planning should be relooked to make agriculture/ horti sector as top sectors
during crisis. It is to be remembered the end of the German Blitzkrieg in to
Russia during World war 2 was brought about by Russians farmers (who burned
their field and emptied their food storage in the path of the German troops). Every
crisis/ internal strife in the country is linked to the agrarian crisis.
The most effected populace due to
Covid 19 is not the patients – they have been cradled by the government, not
the traders who have the higher negotiating power, not the input suppliers, not
the wholesalers, not the retailers, but the farmers whose crop has come to
harvest but has no market to be taken in to. The worst effected, even amongst
farmers are the farmers of the products with lower shelf life. The private
supply chain has forsaken these farmers and it has left them to the ex – gratia
of the government to help. The government which planned for the patients, municipal
utilities, PDS, essential supplies through its network had forgotten about
these farmers. When news started pouring about the plight of the fruit &
vegetable farmers and how the urban consumer base is getting restless without
these suppliers, the governments started reacting. Even the reaction couldn’t
yield great results for the farmers as the government’s own setup doesn’t have
the infrastructure and planning for addressing the supply chain of the agri
products during the crisis and that too on an immediate basis. Instead of
considering the farmers’ product movement as priority, restrictions have been
placed for people and material movement.
The government with the help of other
stakeholder such as FPOs, farmers, trader associations, food processors, Agri
startups and agri linked industries should be planning the following at the earliest:
Ø
Resource Assessment
and mapping: Mapping of all the agri
and horti related resources including farmers, laborers, land diversity, roads,
agri transport related transport, shandies, local markets, APMC yards,
processing industries, input dealers, government offices, raitha samparka kendras,
government horticultural farms, etc. available in the hobli, taluk and district
levels for planners to have the clear understanding of the resources available.
Ø
Season
wise assessment: Season-wise
mapping the crop wise & village wise agri zones and the likely area productivity
and the total yield. This data can be updated by the revenue authorities (through
RTC data) in consultation with the agriculture, horticulture and agri
-marketing departments. Based on the state level and national level
intelligence the farmers should be advised on the crops to be considered for production.
Ø
Variation
assessment: With the help universities,
ICAR institutes, experts and agri startups the authorities have to be advised on
the likely factors which will be affecting the productivity like disease,
environmental factors, etc. for each season. The collection of data can be made
real time with the available software and hardware of the agri startups. A
prediction model has to be put in place for predicting the likely yields and to
take corrective measures.
Ø Gap assessment: This will be most important aspect to be taken up after
the above factors. After mapping the present resource and likely effect on the
income of the farmers, a gap analysis has to be done in terms of the infrastructure
either to help the farmers to achieve the threshold productivity and the likely
infrastructure required to market and process the product thus produced. After understanding
the gaps either in terms of basic infrastructure, marketing infrastructure,
processing infrastructure etc. government could setup the infrastructure or
incentivize the private sector to develop the infrastructure.
Ø Resource allocation for bridging the gap: The government
budget should be allocated to the bridge the gaps and thus help the best return
of the investment for the government budget allocation.
Ø Minimum Production returns: The farmers’ production activity should be considered
a social activity taken up for the benefit of the society thus a minimum
production fee has to be given to the farmers in case of the price drop due to
the market vagaries or due to vagaries of the weather.
Ø Development Cooperative structure or FPOs: To increase the farmers’ capabilities and negotiating
power the Government has to stay invested in the FPOs (Farmer Producer Organizations)
or cooperative structures. Despite of the many failures there is no alternative
to this as any other alternative may not be inclusive. The following problems of
the FPOs should be addressed through the course of time:
1)
Lack of
expertise and lack of resources to hire expertise.
2)
Lack of
product specific focus and long-term vision and thus no quality and quantity-based
planning.
3)
Lack of
Marketing and supply chain infrastructure nor Government support for larger out
reach
4)
Lack of priority-based
procurement by Government from FPOs
5)
Attrition
of skilled work force
6)
Lack of
financial strength or credit worthiness for establishing large infrastructure
for processing and manufacturing
7)
Land
conversion laws restrain the commercial activity in agriculture lands
8)
Lack of
Government laws to minimize the land related issues
9)
Internal
Politics among board of directors
10)Feudalistic mind set of village level politics
decreases the inclusiveness
The above planning has to be made available for the
disaster management team to address the immediate problems of the farmer. For
example: during the present crisis if the district authorities had the list of
the processors and their capacities, they could have directed the farmers to
take their produce directly to the processors and allowed the processors to
procure at a threshold price. Further, essential supplies could have been
allowed to the regulated markets and also allowed the last mile retailers and
wholesalers to procure. The rest of the produce could have been moved towards storage
and released based on the requirement and expiry. However, no such resource map
was available to the decision makers and thus leaving the authorities to
scamper for helping the farmers.
The Covid 19 exam is still not over and the Agriculture
paper is going to be re- presented, with a whole new set of low shelf products
coming to harvest, the next test will be tough and the failure in the up coming
test will be unforgiving for all the stakeholders including the government.
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