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| Why grow rice? | | Switch over to other crops | |
by K.S. Pannu
CROP diversification in Punjab is generally wrongly understood. Any programme of substituting a few lakh acres of rice-wheat in general and rice in particular to more paying alternatives, is construed as if it is going to place the food security of the country in jeopardy. This is not true. Punjab has some 34-35 lakh hectares under wheat and some 25-26 lakh hectares under rice.
With infrastructure support and political back up, its natural resources and competitive environment will support, in the long run, about 30 lakh hectares of wheat and some 17-18 lakh hectares of rice. The strategy should be to develop specialised levels of high-income alternatives that would also secure high growth for the farmers in their otherwise stagnant incomes. This will benefit the farmers, the state and the country.
Productivity of wheat increased 5 times in the last 5 decades, from less than a ton per hectares to more than 4.5 ton per hectares now. In contrast, the story of rice in Punjab is one of rising from almost ‘zero to hero’ in one decade, the 1970s, and then of hero-cum-villain for the two decades till now. It is the phenomenal increase in rice area, replacing maize, groundnut and even cotton and almost anything else in areas where irrigation water was available, which has come to be beyond the capacity of natural resources of soil and water.
The farmers’ foremost objective is profit maximisation on a continuing basis. Some economists wrongly argue that the choice open to commercialised Punjab farmers is limited to specialisation in wheat and rice cultivation versus specialisation in some other crop rotation combination, cultivated on an equally large scale. Large scale yes; equally large scale, it can never be, and the scale of rice and wheat, as argued in the beginning, will still remain very large.
They feel that no feasible and near alternative crop rotation combination seems to exist that can replace wheat-rice rotation. The consequence of this policy would be that the farmers will continue to be stuck with same incomes, with little growth, if any. Rather, the policy message should be to change the parameters and conditions.
This is exactly the line Punjab needs to adopt and is adopting. The present parameters are being changed and constraints are being removed for enhancing the farmers’ incomes. It is not diversification for the sake of diversification. Consider, for instance, fruits and vegetable production for export and niche domestic markets, which have been constrained in the past on account of a poor market clearing system arising from inadequate infrastructure and institutional support. Likewise, efforts are afoot to facilitate large scale export of potato to cold weather countries after getting phytosanitary certification, and encouraging a production system which is based on EUREGAP standards. This will help to handle the glut and smoothen the cyclical fluctuation for potato farmers. Similarly, commercial dairy farming is a sound alternative to rice-wheat system and offers better income and employment opportunities in rural areas.
The point that the Punjab farmers and farm labourers have become experts in wheat-rice cultivation culture and it will be very difficult for them to acquire the same expertise in other crop cultures is a myth. It is known that the Punjab farmers produced a glut of many other crops in the past and the markets failed to handle these, frustrating the farmers. The glut cannot be produced without mastering the expertise in the crop cultures. Grapes at one time, kinnows in many years, potatoes in some years, even sunflower once, and sugarcane, continue to be mired in a cyclical trap. This or that vegetable, here or there, is always in glut in Punjab.
The system has developed into a cyclical pattern of over-production, market failure farmers receding back, production falling, prices shooting, up farmers responding and again being led into over-production, with lower incomes. These are the parameters and the constraints which a positive policy framework should honestly address to bring the farm economy again on a high-growth in farm income scenario rather than keeping them entrapped in the existing level of incomes from rice and wheat alone. This is exactly what the policy makers and development administrators in Punjab are attempting.
The myth that the double cropping on almost the entire cultivated area is possible only with wheat-rice rotation is being falsely spread. The fact of the matter is that at the State level, only half of the cultivated area is under rice-wheat rotation. Rice is followed by some other crops on some areas, and wheat follows other crops, and there are crop rotations with neither rice nor wheat.
Thus the other half of the cultivated area, which is not under rice-wheat rotation, is also double cropped. Crop combinations involving vegetables, short duration pulses and oilseeds offer more than that. Secondly, seeking economy in land preparation and harvesting, another myth being falsely advocated in favour of rice-wheat rotation, is not the objective; other alternatives and getting higher returns is the objective, with changed parameters through improved infrastructure and investments. Infact, if rice-wheat rotation, which is the main plank, were so cost-friendly, the Punjab farmers would not have been under stressful indebtedness of Rs 24,000 crores.
All limits are crossed when someone says rice-wheat rotation is not responsible for the fall in water table, which will be the same with any other crop rotation. Wheat is not the culrpit; the farmers irrigate wheat very judiciously, being always afraid of a little excess irrigation to wheat doing more damage than good. But rice is the only crop, which requires standing water, and that too in the hottest days and months of the year. The enormity of water requirements of paddy is reflected by the fact that an electric motor of 6+ HP, on the average, is being used for about 300 hrs per hectare for rice and only about 40 to 50 hrs per hectare for groundnut/soyabean and for most of the other kharif crops.
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