Towards addressing dying agriculture in Manipur

Mohendro Nandeibam
The culture of agriculture is freedom of thought, operational autonomy and fearless social interaction. Nature is his best friend while environment his intimate partner. The conventional character of cordiality is unique foundation for rural transformation and vanguard against any onslaught of undue eventuality. To them social stability is part of their life and humble simplicity their article of unity. The farmer waits for the arrival of monsoon. He is master of seasonal behavior. He needs two things-Land and Rain. In fact, rain is father of all living beings and land is mother. Any regressive intervention against this culture of agriculture is counterproductive and paves way to destabilization and deceleration. Remember a happy worker is a productive worker.
Substantiated by the dismal performance of unabated gap between demand and supply of paddy (30%), one thing is increasingly clear that the natural resources are dwindling and that the past and present strategy adopted by the State Government is too weak to manage farm sector to produce 6 lac metric tons of food grains to meet domestic requirement a year. This implies the urgency for changing both guard and gear.
Problems
Right now, the agricultural sector of Manipur is in the deep clutch of mounting disabilities of (1) size-handicap, (2) lack of sufficient irrigation, (3) climate change challenge, (4) rising externalization, (5) virtual absence of agricultural capital formation, (6) transfer of land for non-agricultural purposes, (7) highly underdeveloped marketing infrastructures, (8) virtual neglect of Long-Term Agricultural Policy and (9) lack of responsive Institutional Parenting. It is not a surprise that there is a gap of 30% of demand of food grains even after 70 years of planning in the country
About 60% of agricultural households and 64% of non-agricultural households are indebted. The average outstanding debt per indebted agricultural household was Rs. 56,596 (2015-16). Under such circumstances it is not a surprise that the borrowings from non-institutional sources accounted for 74% as against 26% from institutional sources. High rate of interest in the unorganized sources is discounted against crushing burden of mounting debt. The whole farm sector, it appears is crying in the cradle of stagnation and stalemate demanding a fresh milk of new life. The social loss is high. Because of loss of faith and credibility, the farming community, it appears, is reluctant to listen. They are operating in their own way when the whole country is talking about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IOT) in farm management. What we see today in rural Manipur is Suppressed Suffering in Silence with dismal future in all manifestations.
Solution
First of all, we have to redefine and accept the National commitment that Manipur, by any means, should achieve Food Self-Sufficiency by 2025 for which the agricultural profession should be made productive, profitable and sustainable and overall guiding principle should be Agriculture for Development-not for mere survival. As such what we need in Manipur is Productivity Revolution of 89% of small and marginal farmers by not going by the beaten track. Almost all problems of disabilities can be absorbed by accelerating crop-yield improvement. For this we have to invest huge amount in irrigation and better water management.
The general framework of a new Agricultural Policy of Manipur should have three key areas of intervention such as (a) Productivity Revolution, (b) Tackling Cost Disabilities of Externalization and (c) Diversification towards Value-added-Production.
Land scarcity is a reality in Manipur. Only 10% of Total Geographical Area can be utilized for agricultural engagement of which net sown area is about 2 lac hectares. With 4 lac farmers, the man-land-ratio is only 0.50 ha; - which means negligible marketable surplus after home consumption. As such the only option open to us is highly intensive cultivation possibly with cropping intensity of 150%. We have to increase Total Factor Productivity by adopting Scientific Climate Smart Agricultural Method. The State needs a status report of Land Use and Soil Health to identify suitable crop rotation. There is a need for moving from green to gene technology.
Secondly the issue of increasing externalization of internal capabilities of farmers is on the rise in Manipur in the absence of clear-cut road map. The rising cost of time and money incurred by farmers on seeds, manure and even on managing water and handicaps in marketing of agricultural produce after harvest have rendered farming community to be dependent on external factors which are beyond their control. Remember, Manipur has most underdeveloped marketing infrastructures. We are running with 119 Rural Periodical Markets with 4824 farmers per market without a single wholesale market as against 533 Rural Periodical Markets and 21 Wholesale markets in Tripura. Even Arunachal Pradesh has 13 wholesale markets.
Third, monocropping largely of paddy accounting for 98% is a challenge.We can think of a new revolution of TOP (Tomato, Onion and Potato) as a step towards diversification and value-added production. The concept of ‘third’ crop may inspire the farming community for more productive engagement. This strategy is significant from two perspectives, (1) Import substitution and (2) Increasing farmers income. For this we have to launch three-pronged program consisting of (1) Area Development, (2) Product Development and (3) Target Development.
Last but not the least we have to ensure meaningful Institutional Parenting which involves lifelong strong commitment. The farming community in Manipur needs the type of parenting as friend, philosopher and guide. Creation of State Agricultural Board which can act as Parent, visiting and meeting regularly, may be rewarding. All schemes have to be designed to be door-step delivery.
In fact, Government is expected to play as facilitator and promoter-not as direct dealer. Creation of healthy atmosphere and enabling environment is basic responsibility of the Government. Because a happy farmer is the best producer.
For creation of healthy atmosphere, one has to go beyond technical boundaries of agricultural sector to be connected with the performance of Rural Development. Rural Development is not possible without agricultural development and in the same fashion agricultural development is not possible without Rural Development. Hence Rural Development and agricultural development should always go together. Inter departmental and inter sectoral co-ordination is the need of the hour. At least the three departments; - agriculture, irrigation and land resource should sit together to work out a joint strategy.
Dr. Singh, the writer was a member of State Planning Board and associated with DONER Govt of India