IMPLEMENTATION OF GOVERNMENT SCHEMES OF AGRICULTURE IN INDIA

A PROJECT REPORT

Submitted byAMIT PANDEY

in partial fulfillment for the award of the degree

of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad - 211004, INDIA

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CHAPTER1INTRODUCTION

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1.1 History:-Agriculture in India has a long history dating back to ten thousand years. Indian agriculture began by 9000 BC as a result of early cultivation of plants, and domestication of crops and animals. Settled life soon followed with implements and techniques being developed for agriculture. Double monsoons led to two harvests being reaped in one year Indian products soon reached the world via existing trading networks and foreign crops were introduced to India. Plants and animals—considered essential to their survival by the Indians—came to be worshiped and venerated. The middle ages saw irrigation channels reach a new level of sophistication in India and Indian crops affecting the economies of other regions of the world under Islamic patronage. Land and water management systems were developed with an aim of providing uniform growth. Despite some stagnation during the later modern era the independent Republic of India was able to develop a comprehensive agricultural program.

1.1.1 Early history:-

Wheat, barley and jujube were domesticated in the Indian subcontinent by 9000 BCE. Domestication of sheep and goat soon followed. Barley and wheat cultivation—along with the domestication of cattle, primarily sheep and goat—was visible in Mehrgarh by 8000-6000 BCE. Agro pastoralism in India included threshing, planting crops in rows—either of two or of six—and storing grain in granaries. By the 5th millennium BCE agricultural communities became widespread in Kashmir. Cotton was cultivated by the 5th millennium BCE-4th millennium BCE. The Indus cotton industry was well developed and some methods used in cotton spinning and fabrication continued to be practiced till the modern Industrialization of India. The farmers of the Indus Valley grew peas, sesame, and dates. Sugarcane was originally from tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia.

1.1.2 Vedic period (1500 BCE – 200 CE):-

In the later Vedic texts (c. 1000–500 BC), there are repeated references to iron. Cultivation of a wide range of cereals, vegetables, and fruits is described. Meat and milk products were part of the diet; animal husbandry was important. The soil was plowed several times. Seeds were broadcast. Fallowing and a certain sequence of cropping were recommended. Cow dung provided the manure. Irrigation was practiced.

1.1.3 Early Common Era – High Middle Ages (200–1200 CE):-3

Systematic ploughing, manuring, weeding, irrigation and crop protection was practiced for sustained agriculture. Water storage systems were designed during this period. Kallanai (1st-2nd Century CE), a dam built on river Kaveri during this period, is considered the as one of the oldest water-regulation structures in the world still in use.

1.1.4 Late middle Ages – Early Modern Era (1200–1757 CE):-

The construction of water works and aspects of water technology in India is described in Arabic and Persian works. The diffusion of Indian and Persian irrigation technologies gave rise to irrigation systems which bought about economic growth and growth of material culture. Agricultural 'zones' were broadly divided into those producing rice, wheat or millets. Rice production continued to dominate Gujarat and wheat dominated north and central India. Many crops introduced to India during this period of extensive global discourse:

1.1.5 Colonial British Era (1757–1947 CE):-

Few Indian commercial crops—such as Cotton, indigo, opium, and rice—made it to the global market under the British Raj in India. The second half of the 19th century saw some increase in land under cultivation and agricultural production expanded at an average rate of about 1 percent per year by the later 19th century. Due to extensive irrigation by canal networks Punjab, Narmada valley, and Andhra Pradesh became centers of agrarian reforms.

1.1.6 Republic of India (1947 CE onwards):-

Special programs were undertaken to improve food and cash crops supply. The Grow More Food Campaign (1940s) and the Integrated Production Programme (1950s) focused on food and cash crops supply respectively. Five-year plans of India—oriented towards agricultural development—soon followed. Land reclamation, land development, mechanization, electrification, use of chemicals—fertilizers in particular, and development of agriculture oriented 'package approach' of taking a set of actions instead of promoting single aspect soon followed under government supervision. The many 'production revolutions' initiated from 1960s onwards included Green Revolution in India, Yellow Revolution (oilseed: 1986-1990), Operation Flood (dairy: 1970-1996), and Blue Revolution (fishing: 1973-2002) etc. Following

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the economic reforms of 1991, significant growth was registered in the agricultural sector, which was by now benefiting from the earlier reforms and the newer innovations of Agro-processing and Biotechnology.

1.2 Problems faced by farmers:-Slow agricultural growth is a concern for policymakers as some two-thirds of India’s people depend on rural employment for a living. Current agricultural practices are neither economically nor environmentally sustainable and India's yields for many agricultural commodities are low. Poorly maintained irrigation systems and almost universal lack of good extension services are among the factors responsible. Farmers' access to markets is hampered by poor roads, rudimentary market infrastructure, and excessive regulation.—World Bank: "India Country Overview 2008"

The low productivity in India is a result of the following factors:

According to World Bank, Indian Branch: Priorities for Agriculture and Rural Development", India's large agricultural subsidies are hampering productivity-enhancing investment. Overregulation of agriculture has increased costs, price risks and uncertainty. Government intervenes in labor, land, and credit markets. India has inadequate infrastructure and services. World Bank also says that the allocation of water is inefficient, unsustainable and inequitable. The irrigation infrastructure is deteriorating. The overuse of water is currently being covered by over pumping aquifers, but as these are falling by foot of groundwater each year, this is a limited resource.

Illiteracy, general socio-economic backwardness, slow progress in implementing land reforms and inadequate or inefficient finance and marketing services for farm produce.

Inconsistent government policy. Agricultural subsidies and taxes often changed without notice for short term political ends.

The average size of land holdings is very small (less than 20,000 m²) and is subject to fragmentation, due to land ceiling acts and in some cases, family disputes. Such small holdings are often over-manned, resulting in disguised unemployment and low productivity of labor.

Adoption of modern agricultural practices and use of technology is inadequate, hampered by ignorance of such practices, high costs and impracticality in the case of small land holdings.

Irrigation facilities are inadequate, as revealed by the fact that only 52.6% of the land was irrigated in 2003–04, which result in farmers still being dependent on rainfall, specifically the Monsoon season. A good monsoon results in a robust growth for the economy as a whole, while 5

a poor monsoon leads to a sluggish growth. Farm credit is regulated by NABARD, which is the statutory apex agent for rural development in the subcontinent. At the same time over pumping made possible by subsidized electric power is leading to an alarming drop in aquifer levels.

1.3 Motivation:-The required level of investment for the development of marketing, storage and cold storage infrastructure is estimated to be huge. The government has not been able to implement various schemes to raise investment in marketing infrastructure. Among these schemes are Construction of Rural Go downs, Market Research and Information Network, and Development / Strengthening of Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure, Grading and Standardization.

The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), established in 1905, was responsible for the research leading to the "Indian Green Revolution" of the 1970s. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is the apex body in agriculture and related allied fields, including research and education.[7] The Union Minister of Agriculture is the President of the ICAR. The Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute develops new techniques for the design of agricultural experiments, analyses data in agriculture, and specializes in statistical techniques for animal and plant breeding.

Recently Government of India has set up Farmers Commission to completely evaluate the agriculture program... However the recommendations have had a mixed reception.

1. mixed farming

In August 2001 India's Parliament passed the Plant Variety Protection and Farmers' Rights Act, a sui generis legislation. Being a WTO member, India had to comply with TRIPS and include PVP. However, farmers' rights are of particular importance in India and thus the Act also allows for farmers to save, sow and sell seeds as they always have, even if it is of a protected variety. This not only saves the livelihoods of many farmers, it also provides an environment for the continuing development and use of landraces.

1.4 Field of study:-Work in this area may be broadly divided into the following categories:-

Agricultural economic policy and development Food economics and statistics Trade in agriculture

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 Agro-economic research Area, production and yield estimates Statistics of investment, growth, wages, employment, Costs, Prices, trade

and related variables in agriculture. Collection, collation, dissemination and publication of Agricultural

Statistics  National crop forecasting (Crop& Weather Watch Group Meetings and

operationalisation of New Schemes on FASAL and Extended Range Weather Forecast)

 Economic and Statistical work involved in important adhoc assignments like Revision of base of WPI for Agricultural Commodities, Conduct of National/International Conferences, etc. 

1.4.1 Agricultural Economic Policy and Development:-Price policy for agricultural commodities constitutes an important element of overall agricultural economic policy. Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) for important cereals, pulses, oilseeds, and other commercial crops, namely, cotton, jute and sugarcane, are fixed by the Government every year on the basis of the recommendations made by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP).

The most important factor considered by the CACP in making its recommendations on MSPs for different crops is the cost of cultivation/production for which the database is provided by the DES through its plan scheme for study on cost of cultivation. Analysis of various price policy issues in the emerging socio-economic environment requires advance information on the production of different crops, supply-demand scenario, as well as regular monitoring of price movements in both the domestic and international markets.

The effectiveness of price policy in boosting production and productivity of agriculture in tune with domestic as well as external demand cannot be assessed in the absence of regular data on area, production and yield of different crops. Similarly, data on domestic and international prices for various agricultural commodities, trends in procurement, off take and stocks of foodgrains, consumption of different agricultural commodities, their exports and imports, etc. assume immense significance in the emerging external economic environment, which is increasingly influenced by the World Trade Organization. The importance of a sound data/ information base on different facets of agriculture cannot therefore be overemphasized. The Plan Schemes of DES seek to serve this purpose.

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In keeping with the need to adopt a holistic approach to the implementation of individual schemes with inter-related objectives, it has been proposed/decided to merge the on-going plan schemes into three broad umbrella schemes.  The details of these schemes, with special reference to the component schemes, are given below.

1.4.1.1 Studies on Inputs for Agricultural Economic Policy and Development:-

Comprehensive Scheme for Studying the Cost of Cultivation of Principal crops in India:

The Comprehensive Scheme for Studying the Cost of Cultivation of Principal Crops in India is being implemented since 1970-71 as a Central Sector Plan Scheme on the basis of recommendations made by the Standing Technical Committee on Indices of Input Costs.

The main objectives of the scheme are as follows:- Collection and compilation of field data on cost of cultivation and cost of

production in respect of 28 crops; Generation of estimates of cost of cultivation and cost of production of

various crops in different States covered under the scheme; andConstruction of the indices of terms of trade between agriculture and non-

agriculture sectors.

Agro-Economic Research Scheme:-

The Agro-Economic Research Scheme is an old Scheme started in 1954-55 for undertaking research studies on agro economic problems of the country.  The Scheme is being implemented through 12 Agro-Economic Research Centers and 3 Units which are fully funded by the Government through Central Sector plan Scheme.  These Centers have been established to take up problem oriented studies on regional basis with a view to generate the requisite feedback  from the grass-root level, to facilitate effective monitoring of various programmes/schemes implemented in the entire country.  While the Units mainly undertake inter-regional and all India level studies, the Centers conduct studies at the state level.  On an average 40-45 research studies are completed annually by these Centers, which relate to various economic problems in agriculture, animal husbandry, water management and allied areas.

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Planning and Management of Agriculture:-   

In order to facilitate a systematic assessment of the impact of these changes on the farm economy with focus on the state of Indian farmers, a Central Sector Scheme-Planning and Management of Agriculture- was formulated.

The scheme also includes the provision for Millennium Study on the state of Indian Farmers, which provide inputs for policy formulation from a long-term perspective.  With a view to assessing the impact of past policies and programmes on the economic well-being of the farmers, which has generally escaped attention of researchers, a mega study entitled “State of the Indian Farmer – A Millennium Study” was taken up by the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation during the Ninth plan.   Phase – I of this study pertained to a retrospective analysis of the agricultural development experience in the post-independence era.

Strengthening of Agricultural Statistics & Agricultural Policy Formulation:-

This is a Central Sector Plan-Scheme.  The objective of this scheme is to strengthen the system of agricultural statistics and policy formulation by strengthening the research techniques and upgrading of skills of personnel involved in the compilation and analysis of data. Towards this end, a National Workshop is held every year in which a large number of representatives from Ministry of Agriculture, Central Statistical Organization. National Sample Survey Organization, Department of Space, Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, State governments, Research Institutions like Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI) and State Agricultural Universities participate.    

1.4.1.2 Improvement of Agricultural Statistics:-

Agriculture Statistics Improvement (ASI) Division in the DES deals with implementation of Plan scheme viz. “Improvement of Agricultural Statistics”. The basic objective of the Scheme is to collect and improve agricultural statistics of Principal Agricultural Crops and selected Horticultural Crops. The Scheme has four components namely:

Timely Reporting Scheme,

Improvement of Crop Statistics,

Establishment of an Agency for Reporting of Agricultural Statistics (EARAS)

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Crop Estimation Survey on Fruits & Vegetables. The component-wise details of the Scheme are given as under.

Timely Reporting of Estimates of Area and Production of Principal Crops (TRS):-

The objective of this component is to obtain estimates of area of principal crops, in each season, with breakup of area under irrigated/unirrigated and traditional /high yielding varieties of crops on the basis of priority enumeration conducted on the basis of random sample of 20% of villages by a specific date. The States are required to furnish these estimates by 30th

November for Kharif Crops and by 30th April for Rabi crops. These estimates are used for generating advance estimates of production of principal crops. This component is being implemented in 16 land record States and also Union Territories of Delhi and Pondicherry. This component has funding pattern on 50:50 basis between the Central Government and State Governments.

Improvement of Crop Statistics (ICS):-

The objective of this component is to improve the quality of statistics of area and production of crops through supervision and monitoring. Under this component, a sample check of area enumeration and crop cutting experiments of 10,000 villages and approximately 31,000 experiments at harvest stage are undertaken. These samples are equally shared by the Central Agency, i.e. National Sample Survey Organization and the State Agricultural Authorities. These checks specifically relate to (i) Enumeration of crop-wise area covered in the selected villages as recorded by the Patwari. (ii) Total of the area under each crop recorded in Khasra Register of villages and (iii) Supervision of crop cutting experiments at the harvest stage. This component is being implemented in all TRS States and the Union Territory of Pondicherry. The performance of the implementation of this component also is being closely monitored through Quarterly and Seasonal progress Reports.

Establishment of an Agency for Reporting of Agricultural Statistics (EARAS):-

This component is being implemented in the permanently settled States of West Bengal, Kerala, Orissa and North Eastern States of Nagaland, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura. Under this component, an agency has been established in these States for generating estimates of area and production of principal crops and land use statistics, on the basis of complete enumeration of 20% villages in each year. The performance of the

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implementation of the component is being closely monitored through Quarterly and Seasonal Progress Reports. 

1.4.1.3 Forecasting and remote sensing application in crop husbandry:-

1.  Remote sensing application in crop assessment and forecasting: The Central Sector Umbrella Scheme viz. ‘Forecasting and Remote Sensing Applications in Crop Husbandry’ during the Tenth Five Year Plan includes following three components.

         National Crop Forecasting Centre (NCFC)         Crop Acreage and Production Estimates (CAPE)        Special Data Dissemination Standards (SDDS)

National Crop Forecasting Centre (NCFC)

 NCFC was created at the end of the year 1998 and was set up mainly with the following functions:-

Periodic crop forecasting for major cropsCo-ordination and assimilation of various methodologies and technical

advancement relating to crop forecasting. However, over the time, its sphere of activities has been expended to:

  Providing effective unified institutional framework for the entire crop forecasting system in the country involving data flow, assimilation, analysis and dissemination of statistics.

  Periodic crop forecasting for major crops through assimilation of information   generated by the different organizations such as IMD, Medium Range Weather Forecasting of Department of Science & Technology, Department of Space (DOS), Central Statistical Organization (CSO), Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI), Field Operations Division of the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) and the State Agriculture Statistics Authorities (SASAs), State Agriculture Departments etc.

Co-ordination and assimilation of various methodologies and technical advancement relating to crop forecasting.

Central level monitoring of the situation about crop, weather, supply of inputs, pests/diseases and related aspects through the mechanism of Crop & Weather Watch Group in the Department of Agriculture & Cooperation.

Providing a forum for the Standing Technical Committee on Agricultural Statistics to review and monitor the development of the methodologies for

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crop forecasting in particular and Agricultural Statistics in general, which has already been constituted as a follow up of the recommendation No. 8 of the Expert Group.

Coordinating the proposed projects/scheme on “Development and Application of Extended Range Forecast System for Climate Risk management in Agriculture (ERFS)” and “Forecasting of Agriculture output using Space, Agro-meteorology and Land based observations (FASAL)”.

During the Ninth Plan, the professional posts envisaged for NCFC could not be created and NCFC operated by ad-hoc deployment of professionals with a truncated mandate.

Special Data Dissemination Standards (SDDS):-

Under this activity, quarterly estimates of agricultural production are generated for use in the compilation of Quarterly National Accounts by the Central Statistical Organization.  This activity has been undertaken in order to meet the obligations concerning supply of data to the International Monetary Fund.  The estimates of quarterly crop production generated are being furnished to the Central Statistical Organization.  In the absence of direct data, quarterly production is estimated by using the estimates of Kharif and Rabi seasons in conjunction with crop calendar.

In order to improve upon the quality of quarterly estimates by way of refining the estimation procedure and cross validation of results, available data from other sources such as Timely Reporting Scheme, market Intelligence Unit of DES, National Sample Survey Organization etc .are used.  This is a staff oriented activity under the umbrella scheme.

Market Intelligence and Price Analysis:-

The DES also collects and compiles wholesale and retail prices, international prices and market arrivals of essential commodities on weekly/monthly basis for 700 centers (for wholesale prices) and 83 centers (for retail prices) spread all over the country.  Out of these price quotations, about 216 quotations on wholesale prices are being disseminated through E-mail to the Office of Economic Adviser, Ministry of Industry, for construction of Wholesale Price Index Numbers on weekly basis.  The price quotations collected are also disseminated in the form of weekly bulletins and circulated through E-mail to concerned offices.  Besides, daily wholesale prices of some important agricultural products, in respect of Hapur and Delhi are also being supplied to All India Radio for Broadcasting.

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APY (Area production and yield):-

The objective of this component is to obtain estimates of area and production of principal crops, in each season, with a break up of area under irrigated/unirrigated and traditional/high yielding varieties of crops on the basis of priority enumeration conducted in a sample of 20 per cent of villages by a specific date. The States are required to furnish these estimates by 30 th

November for Kharif Crops and by 30th April for Rabi crops. These estimates are used for generating advance estimates of production of principal crops. This component is being implemented in 16 land record States and also Union Territories of Delhi and Pondicherry. The component has funding pattern on 50:50 basis between the Central Government and the State Governments. The estimates of area and production of principal crops for Kharif and Rabi seasons for the agricultural year 2001-02 have been received from all the implementing States/Union Territories under the component. The performance of the component of the main scheme namely Improvement of Agricultural Statistics is also being closely monitored through Quarterly Progress Reports and Seasonal Progress Reports. The Budget Estimates of 2002-03 have provided Rs. 42500 thousand as the share of the Central Government.   

CAPE (Crop Acreage and Production Estimation):-

CAPE is a Central Sector Scheme. It was initiated during the 7th Five Year Plan as one of the components of the scheme named ‘Remote Sensing application mission for agricultural application’ (RSAMAA). The scheme was initially monitored by the crops division, but later on was transferred to DES. The scheme is funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and operated by the Dept. of Space, Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. The scheme aims at the application of space Technology for estimating crop acreage and yield at least a month before the actual harvesting of crops. In this process, the scheme enables development and upgradation of methodologies in consonance with state of art RS technology and sensor capabilities for crop inventory assessment at different geographical units.  As the advance estimates of area and production of crops are required for taking policy decisions on procurement storage and pricing measures, remotely sensed data has an immense potential in the timely monitoring of the crop acreage and production at district/group of districts/regional levels due to its wide area synoptic coverage using the Remotely sensed data at the peak vegetative stage of crops, it is possible to give pre harvest estimates of crop acreage at the right time. 

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CES (Crop Estimation Survey):-

This component before merger with Umbrella scheme was a Centrally Sponsored Plan Scheme of the 9th Five Year Plan. This is being implemented since the Sixth Plan to generate estimates of area and production of fruits, vegetables and minor crops in the country. The component is presently being implemented in 11 States and a total of 14 crops are covered: 7 each of fruits and vegetables. The methodology developed by the Indian Agriculture Statistical Research Institute, is being used for generation of these estimates. Budget Estimates of Rs. 40000 thousand has been provided for the year 2002-03 under this component. 

COC (Cost of Cultivation):-

The Comprehensive Scheme for studying the Cost of Cultivation of Principal Crops in India is being implemented since 1970-71 as a 100% Central Sector Plan Scheme on the basis of recommendations made by the Standing Technical Committee on Indices of Input Costs. The main objectives of the scheme are as follows:- 

    Collection and compilation of field data on cost of cultivation and cost of production in respect of 29 crops.

    Estimation of crop-wise and state-wise costs of cultivation and production.

     Computation of the indices of terms of trade between agriculture and Non-agriculture sectors.

 1.5 Conclusion:- Strengthening of agriculture will help in upliftment of the farmers but also benefit the larger section of the rural poor who are directly engaged in agriculture or indirectly linked with agriculture as consumers. Efficient way of production, stabilized prices, higher income from agriculture would create a more conjugative environment in the country for the development of the economy as a whole and of rural population in particular. One of the most important component of the much needed reforms is not only implementation of the policy in time but also simultaneous review and evaluations of the impact of the policies and taking immediate steps to rectify the negative impacts if caused by any of the policies. Inter sectoral linkages and organization of the agricultural sector needs to be taken up. Sustainability is another key issue. In the present context sustainability with natural resource management has become more relevant. The visible

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institutional changes with new models of marketing and cultivation should be supported by government policies too. Priority investment areas identified need to be worked on without loss of time. Risk management and incentive based system will motivate farmers to efficient agriculture. Empowerment of the small and marginal farmers through education, reforms and development will ensure a better, efficient and strengthened Indian agriculture. Motivation new models in production and marketing along with creating awareness and imparting education to small farmers will help in development of the sector and more importantly improving the economic status of poor farmers. The action plan to strengthen agriculture in India needs to be on domestic reforms through reduction of government intervention in the market economy but playing major role as evaluator and implementation of the policies, increased investment and prioritizing the area to invest, parallel action plans in this direction are needed in research to increase productivity and irrigation and water management.

CHAPTER 2LITERATURE REVIEW

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2.1 Introduction:-2.1.1 Growth in education of agriculture in India:-All of us have time and again said that India is primarily an agrarian society. Even today almost 70% of the population depends on agriculture, but in the last century, the country’s economic and social life revolved around agriculture and peasants. Therefore, organizing the peasantry was essential for getting freedom. However, there was really no serious concern about agriculture. It was only when there was failure of crops due to drought, floods, crop diseases etc. resulting in famine conditions that the Government had to wake up. Therefore, management of famine was the responsibility or the job of the Home Department. There was no Department of Agriculture in British India until1870 when a proposal was made to establish a Department of Agriculture and Commerce. This did not happen because there were droughts or famines which caused thousands of deaths, but because of civil war in America in 1863–64, the supply of cotton to textile mills in Manchester was affected. Therefore, the British Government was exploring the possibility of getting cotton. India had the potential to supply cotton to Britain. Therefore, Lord Mayo the Governor General requested creation of a Department of Agriculture and Commerce. He indeed wanted to help Indian agriculture besides growing cotton. But what were approved in 1871 were the Department of Revenue, Agriculture and Commerce. Earlier, there was the need of veterinarians to look after the health and breeding of horses which were used by the army.The recommendation for establishing a Veterinary College in Bengal stated: ‘In this school the cow should constitute the main or sole subject of attention and the horse and other domestic animals will receive scant notice’. However, a quarterly journal of veterinary science and animal management was started in 1882, thereby clearly showing the need of animal science including breeding, but the main emphasis was the horse. We might now ask if there was any information, research and teaching about such important animals like buffalo, goat, camel and others. The answer is ‘possibly not’. However, it is clear from this that there was no emphasis on agriculture in

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general, and crops in particular. Allan Octavian Hume, who became the first Chief of the Department of Revenue, Agriculture and Commerce in 1879 stated ‘though originally designated the Department of Agriculture, etc. This Department has never, from the first, been so constituted as to permit of its dealings either directly or effectively with agricultural matters’. Thus the creation of the Department of Agriculture, etc. did not necessarily put any emphasis on agriculture and farmers in India. Hume founded the Indian National Congress in 1885, which eventually spearheaded the freedom movement.

2.1.2 Agricultural universities and rural service sector:- One of the major achievements of agriculture management systems was to recognize the need of integration of re-search, education and extension. All agricultural university-ties have separate Departments of Agriculture Extension, which not only teach the principles of extension but in fact practice it also. They have developed various techniques of demonstration and communication. However, in all the states, Departments of Agriculture exist and are responsible for the extension services in the concerned state. Therefore, we might ask the following:1. What is the relationship and interaction between the university departments and the State Agriculture Department?2. Could the success or failure in transfer of technology be attributed to the University Extension Department or the State Department?3. How have the concepts and needs of extension been changing in the last three decades?Let us recount the mechanism of transfer of technologies from the agricultural universities to farmers. We may also ask whether the spread of rice and wheat production technology was the result of scientists–extension nexus or considerably due to farmer-to-farmer communication. The agricultural technology is based on the following biophysical factors:• Understanding of location-specific climate/weather.• Soil characteristics, including its physical, chemical and biological properties.• Appropriate soil treatment.• Assessment of suitability of crops for a crop season.• Knowledge and assessment of different diseases, insect pests, nematodes and weeds and their potential for competition with different crops.• Availability and arrangement of the various inputs, crops varieties with alternative choices, water, fertilizers, pesticides, energy source and labor.• Facility for availability of seed material and its testing or other plant material.• Time management for different operations for the success of agricultural production.

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All the above timely operations are necessary for successful crop production. However, an extension worker can communicate the desirable operations but hardly has mechanism at his/her disposal to implement the recommendation. Most extension workers in the State Departments of Agriculture are not adequately equipped with the desired knowledge. The result could be that an area of high production potential remains a low or poor production region. When we talk of transfer of technology it is not a few farmers or few hectares of land. We indeed have most of the desirable technologies but their dispersal would not occur except in those cases where it is seed-based, and that too of a self-pollinated crop such as wheat and rice. This can happen, and indeed does happen from farmer to farmer. But it requires understanding of seed production and storage.

2.1.3 What is needed now?Agriculture in its broadest sense remains the most important sector of the society even though its contribution to economy might have declined. Agriculture remains and will remain the source of food supply in the world. But agriculture is a part of the rural society and culture. Therefore, improvement of agriculture means the improvement of rural society, environment and quality of life. This includes housing, sanitation, health care, energy, water supply, road and telecommunication, rural industry, literature and arts. If today in India we think of PanchayatRaj institution, there is also a need for the people to know about its management and legal systems. Thus when agriculture is talked in isolation we deprive students of the aspects of social development. Why cannot we think of enhanced agricultural production being taught along with health care and sanitation? The university has to be an institution which offers an opportunity to students to learn and also become capable of earning. Therefore, it is time that we make agriculture as an integral part of university education and broaden the outlook of teachers and students. A person having started as a student of biologyshould has the possibility of growing into a social scientist. The narrow loyalties of disciplines which restrict the vision must give way to broader perceptions but having a strong anchor of a discipline and related areas. C. Subramanian said: ‘The time has come to realize that agricultural sciences cannot function in isolation. It has to interact with other scientific disciplines. Mathematics has its own impact on agricultural sciences; physics has its own and of course so does biology.We have come a long way since the establishment of first University of Agricultural Science and Technology and has made a significant contribution towards crop improvement. However, in the process crop variety has been made so important that it became the central theme of crop production and also synonymous with agriculture and rural development. Then we talk and look for the basis of sustainable agriculture without holistic thinking.

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2.2 Government schemes:-After facing so much problem government starts operating schemes for the welfare of the farmers. In present time there are lot of schemes are operated by the government in which some are as follows:-

2.2.1 National food security mission:-

2.2.1.1 Introduction:-The National Development Council (NDC) in its 53rd meeting held on 29thMay, 2007 adopted a resolution to launch a Food Security Mission comprising rice, wheat and pulses to increase the production of Rice by 10 million tons, Wheat by 8 million tons and Pulses by 2 million tons by the end of the Eleventh Plan (2011-12). Accordingly, a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, ‘National Food Security Mission’ (NFSM), has been launched from 2007-08 to operationalise the above mentioned resolution.The National Food Security Mission will have three components(i) National Food Security Mission – Rice (NFSM-Rice);(ii) National Food Security Mission – Wheat (NFSM-Wheat); and(iii) National Food Security Mission – Pulses (NFSM-Pulses).

2.2.1.2 Mission Objectives:- Increasing production of rice, wheat and pulses through area

expansion and productivity enhancement in a sustainable manner in the identified districts of the country;

Restoring soil fertility and productivity at the individual farm level; Creation of employment opportunities; and Enhancing farm level economy (i.e. farm profits) to restore confidence

amongst the farmers.

2.2.1.3 Strategy:-To achieve the above objectives, the Mission would adopt following strategies:

Implementation in a mission mode approach through active engagement of all the stakeholders at various levels;

Promotion and extension of improved technologies i.e., seed, Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) including micronutrients, soil amendments, and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and resource conservation technologies along with capacity building of the farmers;

Flow of fund would be closely monitored to ensure that interventions reach the target beneficiaries on time;

Various interventions proposed would be integrated with the district plan and targets for each identified district would be fixed; and

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Constant monitoring and concurrent evaluation for assessing the impact of the interventions for a result oriented approach by the implementing agencies.

2.2.1.4 Area of Operation of Food Security Mission:- NFSM – Rice, NFSM – Wheat and NFSM – Pulses will be implemented in

identified districts of different States. The GC, based on the latest available data, is empowered to include or

exclude the districts for implementation of various components of the Mission.

2.2.1.5 Mechanism of Fund Flow:- Funds for implementing the Mission’s programme will be directly

released to the State Level Agency with the approval of the NFSMEC. The State Level Agency would make funds available to the District Level Agency in accordance with approved programme of the district. Funds would be released in installments based on the progress reports and submission of utilization certificates.

The funds for the implementation of the activities of the components will be released by the State/District Level Agency to the nodal departments which will procure the required inputs for the district. The nodal departments will submit the utilization certificate to the State/District level Agency which, will be compiled and a consolidated utilization certificate, duly authenticated by the DFSMEC and SFSMEC will be submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India for further releases.

As far as possible ‘electronic banking’ will be used for transfer of funds to the State Level Agency and to the districts. The State Level Agency will have to maintain a separate budget and prescribed accounting system for the Mission, both at the State and district level.

2.2.1.6 Monitoring:- The National Food Security Mission will have a strong mechanism of

monitoring and evaluation with the involvement of all the implementing agencies and the line departments. At the district level, monitoring will be undertaken by DFSMEC supported by the Project Management Team.

Close monitoring of physical and financial targets of various program interventions would be done by the monitoring teams. Format for monitoring these interventions would be prescribed by NFSMEC.

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The State Department of Economics and Statistics will be involved in adopting the prescribed format for data collection pertaining to different parameters of the Mission for monitoring to suit the local requirements.

At the State level, the activities of the Mission will be monitored by a Committee to be constituted under the Chairmanship of the State Mission Director with members from the line departments, SAUs, lead banks, ICAR institutes and the national crop development directorates nodal for the State.

At the National level, the activities of the Mission will be monitored by a Committee to be constituted under the Chairmanship of the Mission Director with members from Department of Agriculture & Cooperation, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, SAUs, Directorate of Rice, Wheat and Pulses Development, research institutions concerned and officials of State Departments concerned.

Directorate of Rice/Wheat/ Pulses Development will be the convener of the Committees for the identified states, i.e., the Directorate of Wheat Development, Ghaziabad for the northern States; the Directorate of Rice Development, Patna for the eastern States; and the Directorate of Pulses Development, Bhopal for the Central and the southern States.

2.2.1.7 Evaluation:- A baseline survey will be conducted by the State Department of

Economics & Statistics to know the resource endowments of the farmers and the level of productivity.

Concurrent Evaluation will be done every year. The State Statistical Department would be responsible for conducting this evaluation to assess the performance of the Mission commensurate with its objectives.

In the 3rd year of implementation of the NFSM, a mid-term evaluation at the National Level will be undertaken through an independent agency/organization on its performance and shortcomings so as to take the remedial measures / make required changes in the scheme and its method of implementation.

An Impact Evaluation Study at the National Level will also be undertaken through an independent agency after the third year of implementation to assess the impact of the scheme in increasing the productivity of rice, wheat and pulses, crop diversification, and enhancement of farmers’ income.

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Information communication technology will be used for monitoring and evaluation of the Mission. Specialized tool/format/ software for the monitoring and evaluation of the Mission’s activities would be developed.

2.2.2 ATMA scheme:-

2.2.2.1 General Instructions for Implementation of ATMA Programme:-1. The Chief Executive Officers of the Zilla Panchayats, who are the Executive Directors of District Level ATMA Steering Committees, shall guide/facilitate the Line Departments to execute the approved activities strictly as per GOI norms2. The District Joint Directors of Agriculture and Taluka Assistant Directors of Agriculture, who are the Member Sectaries of District and Taluka Level Committees, are requested to ensure proper and successful implementation of the project through effective coordination among the line departments and all the other concerned organizations/institutions.3. Meetings of the District Level ATMA Steering Committees and Taluka Level ATMA Implementation Committees shall be regularly convened and decisions shall be taken there on, for timely implementation of the programme.4. Field Activities shall be carried out in accordance with GOI approval and strictly as per the ceiling limits for the present ongoing activities.5. Acknowledgements for the funds received shall be sent to the SAMETI RC (South) immediately and due action shall be taken to provide the funds to the implementing officers, without any further delay.6. They shall ensure audit of their ATMA accounts by Charted Accounts and furnish the same to the Department, so that the same is submitted to the GOI for further release of grants.7. There shall be perfect coordination among all the Line Departments, duly ensuring proper allocation of funds for carrying out extension activities, as per the identified needs, while preparing SREPs.8. Timely implementation of activities is a must to ensure higher success rate.9. Issues to be observed while utilizing funds:

A minimum of 10 per cent of the allocations shall be utilized through the NGOs, Agri Business and Agri Clinic Entrepreneurs, Input Dealers and others.

Reservation shall be given for SC, ST, OBC, Minorities, Women Farmers as per the norms of the State and Central Governments.

Services of Contractual Staff shall be utilized as per norms of GOI.

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10. Progress Reports shall be sent in prescribed formats within 5th of the succeeding months.2.2.2.2 Concept of farm school and related cost norms/ceilings:-1. The National Commission on Farmers has recommended that Farm Schools may be established in the fields of outstanding farmers. Such Farm Schools will be based on the principals of “learning by doing” as well as ‘seeding and harvesting is believing with focus on farmer-to farmer extension. The Farm School would help in developing a cost effective extension system.2. The key features of the Farm Schools to be promoted under the ATMA programme are given below:a. Farm Schools would be operationalized at Block/Gram Panchayat level.b. These would be set up in the field of outstanding farmers and awareness of nationally recognized awards for farmers. These could also be set up in a Government / Non-Government Institutions.c. “Teachers” in the Farm Schools could be progressive farmers, extension functionaries or experts belonging to Government or Non-Government Sector.d. One of the main activities of Farm Schools would be to operationalise Front Line Demonstrations in one or more crops and/or allied sector activities. These demonstrations would focus on Integrated Crop Management including field preparation, seed treatment, IPM, INM etc.,e. Farm Schools would provide season long technical back stopping/training to target farmers.f. The “students” of Farm Schools would be leaders of Commodity Interest Groups (CIGs) formed in different village and other farmers.g. “Students” would visit Farm Schools as per specified schedule or as may be necessary “Teachers” may also visit students as and when necessary.3. Knowledge and skills of ‘teachers’ would be upgraded on continuous basis through training at district/state/national level institutions and exposure visits, etc.4. In addition to technical support through Farm Schools, knowledge and skill of “students” may also be upgraded though training at district/state level and exposure visits, etc.,5. “Students” would have the responsibility of providing extension support to other farmers in the respective village or neighboring villages.2.2.3 National watershed development scheme:-2.2.3.1 Introduction:-A National Watershed Development Programme for Rain fed Areas (NWDPRA) project was implemented in the period 93-97 in the same micro watershed, but without including the area to the south west of the Cherpulasseri -Pattambi road. The objectives of this project are: stabilization of hill slopes, regeneration of vegetative cover and improvement in productivity of fuel, fodder and crop using low cost innovative techniques, developing awareness of integrated watershed among the community and generation of ample local employment. This project was completed in 1997.

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Since IRTC is having enough benchmark data about this watershed, we thought that we could do a post project assessment of the NWDPRA project implemented at Nellaya.The present study was originally intended to make a comprehensive assessment, both qualitative and quantitative, of the NWDPRA project. However, the objectives were modified due to the winding up of the KRPLLD project and subsequent shortening of the project period. The modified objectives areTo assess the effects of watershed development activities perceived by the watershed community with respect to soil erosion, soil moisture content, soil fertility, crop yield, increase in crop area and increase in milk yield.To assess the awareness on natural resources conservation achieved among the people through the implementation of the project. To study the conflicts aroused if any, due to the over exploitation of ground water and mechanism developed to overcome the conflicts.2.2.3.2 Methodology:-Since a field study to quantify gains requires data collection over a long period of time, it was decided to assess the gains of the NWDPRA project based on the perception among the different stakeholders. The different stake holders of the project are: direct beneficiaries and non beneficiaries living in the project area, the Mitra kisans who played a major role in the implementation of the project, the employees of agriculture and allied departments directly involved in the project implementation, the office bearers of the gram panchayat body and the contractors who were involved in the execution of different construction works related to the project

Random sample survey

For getting the response of the people of the watershed, area a field survey was conducted using an interview schedule among 10% households selected employing the method of random sampling. Starting from the ridge line of the watershed the 1st, 11th, 21st, 31st ---------- houses were selected for detailed survey by counting the houses based on their geographical spread. In fact, this resulted in the selection of proportionate number of households from the ridge, midland and valley portions.

Selected Interviews

The actors who played an important role in the formulation and implementation of the project were interviewed using the technique of open-ended dialogue; officials, Mitra kisans, people’s representatives and some farmers who could achieve good results from project activities were interviewed in this way

Case studies

Case studies were made to find out the problem over exploitation of groundwater in this watershed development project area and the social problems it has created.

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Quantitative assessment of water level improvement

To have a quick estimate of the ground water improvement or depletion, the water levels in the control wells whose benchmark water table data are available, are taken.

Survey of bore wells in the watershed area

The overdraft of deep ground water is taking place in this watershed due to th e proliferation of bore wells. To have an idea of the quantity of water thus extracted, the depth, capacity of pump fitted, duration of pumping every day, the year of installation etc, were taken in most of the bore wells coming in the watershed area.

Collection of secondary data

To find some correlation between rainfall and water availability, rainfall data of the last fifteen years were collected from the nearest rain gauge station at Regional Agriculture Research Station, Pattambi. The different registers regarding the watershed project available at the Krishibhavan, Nellaya, Participatory Resource Maps kept at Grama Panchayat office, Nellaya, milk collection details at Pengattiry milk society etc were scanned to collect relevant details.2.2.3.3 The NWDPRA project: formulation and implementation:-National Watershed Development Programme for Rain- fed Areas was a Government of India project implemented during the 8 th plan period (from 1992 to 1997). The scope of its coverage was both arable and non-arable land. It provided assistance for both conservation and production system. It was implemented in seven broad ecosystems namely plain, plateau, hills, sivaliks, arid, coastal and ravine areas. 25% of the project fund was for basic activities and 75% for field activities as mentioned below:-

I. Project formulation

The available map of the watershed was in the scale 1:50,000; however during the project formulation or implementation phase the transfer of the watershed ridge on a usable 1:5000 scale cadastral map didn’t take place. Because of this, a detailed resource map and the plot wise activity plan could not be produced as part of the project. The interventions were decided on the basis of a transect walk conducted by the agriculture officer Mr., Agriculture Assistant Mr. soil conservation department officials and two or three progressive farmers. One of them Mr.Venu Karthavu eventually became a Mitra kisan. Apart from those farmers, people’s participation was not there in project planning. Moreover, a detailed plot wise intervention plan based on the factors like slope of land, soil depth and present land use pattern neither was neither prepared nor discussed with the watershed community before implementation.

II. Project Implementation

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A multi tier structure was established by the state government for the implementation of this project .At the state level, a committee formed with Additional Soil conservation Director as the convener in lieu of Agriculture Director was responsible for the project implementation. Below that there was a district level committee with District Collector as Chairman, and the Joint Director of Agriculture, Deputy Director of Agriculture, AGM, (NABARD), Agriculture Officers in whose jurisdiction watershed areas come, DD (fisheries), District Planning Officer, ADA(Soil Survey) and Lead Bank Manager as members, which steered the project. This committee met once in every month to review the project progress.Project team consists of officials from the concerned line departments was formed for the effective implementation of the project in every project area. The Agricultural Officer was the team leader. 1st grade overseer, Office of the Soil Conservation office, Ottappalam, Diary Extension Officer, Diary Extension Office, Kulappulli, Veterinary surgeon, Regional Artificial Insemination center, Kulappulli, Surveyor, Office of the Assistant Director, Soil Survey, Palakkad, Research Assistant, Fish seed farm, Malampuzha, Forester, Social Forestry Range Office, Mannarkkad & Post Graduate representative from Agriculture University were the members of the project team at Nellaya watershed. This was done to overcome the watertight compartmentalization of the different developmental departments.III. Mode of implementation

The agricultural officer after conducting discussions at the watershed development committee forwarded the works to be undertaken for the next year to the Joint Director, Agriculture. Allotment was given based on this pl an. On receiving this agriculture officer again conducted discussion on project implementation with watershed committee. The concerned departments implemented the activities coming within its purview. The application from the beneficiaries for a particular activity was collected by the mitra kisan and submitted at the watershed committee for selection and approval. Thereafter the officer of the concerned department would visit the farmer and explain the work execution.During the initial period of the project, meetings of people were conducted at seven regions.2.2.3.4 Effect of Watershed development activities:-As we read above that the effects of watershed interventions implemented at Nellaya were assessed based on the perception of the watershed community. 10% of the households selected randomly were interviewed using structured questionnaire. Among the interviewees, 83.5 % were men and 16.5% were women. Out of them 49.5% were direct beneficiaries who received at least one benefit as part of the project and the remaining 50.5 % were non -beneficiaries who received no benefits. 26% of the respondents reside near to the ridge portion of the micro watershed, 49% in the midland and 25% in the valley portion. Comparatively low population density in the valley is due to the utilization of considerable portion of this area for paddy

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cultivation, low population density in the high lands can be attributed to low water availability.2.2.4 Kisan credit card scheme:-2.2.4.1 Introduction:-

Kisan Credit Cards were started by the Government of India, RBI (Reserve Bank of India), and NABARD (National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development) in 1998-99 to help farmers access timely and adequate credit.

The Kisan Credit Care allows farmers to have cash credit facilities without going through the credit screening processes repeatedly. Repayment can be rescheduled if there is a bad crop season, and extensions are offered for up to 4 years. The card is valid for 3 years and subject to annual renewals. Banks in India that lend for agricultural purposes usually offer the KCC. Withdrawals are made using slips, cards, and a passbook.

Given the enormity of the credit requirements on one hand and the vagaries of the nature on the other, financing agriculture has been a gigantic task for banks in India. Ensuring timeliness and adequacy of credit to farmers have posed the most serious challenges to banks engaged in financing agriculture. Financial sector reforms, ushered in as a part of the liberalization of the Indian economy in the beginning of nineties, has infused a spirit of competitiveness and enterprise among the banks in their endeavor for serving their customers in the best possible manner. NABARD has been playing a proactive and catalytic role in guiding the banks to meet the emerging challenges. Towards this end, several innovative strategies have been evolved by NABARD. The instrument of Kisan Credit Card (KCC) is one of the key products developed to improve the farmer’s accessibility to bank credit, simplify credit delivery mechanism and provide more flexibility in use of credit. Model scheme of Kisan Credit Card formulated by NABARD in 1998-99 is being implemented in all the States and Union territories. About 1.94 crore. Kisan Credit Cards have been issued upto 31 October 2001 by the banks throughout the country. It is envisaged that every eligible agricultural farmer would be provided with a Kisan Credit Card by 31st March, 2004. In accordance with the announcement in the GOI budget 2001-02, Personal Accident Insurance Scheme (PAIS) has been introduced as a ‘add-on benefit’ and all the Kisan Credit Card holders would be insured for Rs. 50,000 at a nominal premium of Rs. 15/- per annum as agreed to by General Insurance (Public Sector) Association.

2.2.4.2 Objectives of the Scheme:-

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To provide insurance coverage and financial support to the farmers in the event of failure of crops as a result of natural calamities, pests and diseases.

To encourage farmers to adopt progressive farming practices, high value inputs and higher technology in agriculture.

To help stabilise farm incomes, particularly in disaster years.

To support and stimulate primarily production of food crops and oilseeds.

Farmers to be covered: All farmers (both loanee and non-loanee irrespective of their size of holdings) including sharecroppers, tenant farmers growing insurable crops covered.

Sum insured: The sum insured extends upto the value of threshold yield of the crop, with an option to cover upto 150% of average yield of the crop on payment of extra premium.

Premium subsidy: 50% subsidy in premium allowed to Small and Marginal Farmers, to be shared equally by the Government of India and State Government/Union Territory. Premium subsidy to be phased out over a period of 5 years.

2.2.4.3 Kisan Credit Card Scheme – Salient features Eligible farmer will be provided a Kisan Credit Card and a Pass Book or

a Card-cum-Passbook. Revolving cash credit facility allowing any number of drawals and

repayments within the limit. Entire production credit needs for full year plus ancillary activities

related to crop production to be considered while fixing limit. In due course, allied activities and non farm short term credit needs may also be covered.

Limit to be fixed on the basis of operational land holding, cropping pattern and scales of finance.

Seasonal sub limits may be fixed at the discretion of banks. Limit of valid for 3 years subject to annual review. Conversion /reschedulement of loans also permissible in case of

damage to crops due to natural calamities. As incentive for good performance, credit limits could be enhanced to

take cares of increase in costs, changing in cropping pattern etc.28

Security, margin and rate of interest as per RBI norms. Operations may be through issuing branch / PACS or through other

designated branches at the discretion of bank. Withdrawals through slips /cheques accompanies by card and

passbook. Personal Accident Insurance of Rs. 50,000 for death and permanent

disability and Rs. 25,000/- for partial disability available to Kisan Credit Card holder at an annual premia of Rs. 15/- per annum.

2.2.4.4 Advantages of the KCC Scheme Full year’s credit requirement of the borrower taken care of. Minimum paper work and simplification of documentation for drawal of

funds from the bank. Access to adequate and timely credit to farmer. Assured availability of credit for 3 years and avoidance of uncertainly

involved in accessing credit on a year to year basis. Annual review of limit and provision for enhancement subject to

satisfactory operations. Flexibility in use of credit and saving in interest burden. Flexibility of drawing cash from a branch other than the issuing branch

at the discretion of the bank. Availability of the life cover/ disability insurance at very low premium in

case the farmers meets with accident.

2.2.4.5 Benefits of the Scheme to the Banks

Reduction in work load for branch staff by avoidance of repeat appraisal and processing of loan papers under Kisan Credit Card Scheme.

Minimum paper work and simplification of documentation for drawal of funds from the bank.

Improvement in recycling of funds and better recovery of loans. Reduction in transaction cost to the banks. Better Banker - Client relationships.

2.2.4.6 Coverage of Crop Loans disbursed under KCC

Under the Reshtriya Krishi Bima Yojna (RKBY) GIC has agreed that the crop loans disbursed for eligible crops under the Crop Insurance Scheme will be covered under the CCIS, now under Rashtriya Krishi Bima Yojna. However, the banks are expected to maintain all back up records relating to

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compliance with "RKBY" and its seasonality discipline, cut-off date for submitting declarations and end use, etc. as in the case of normal crop loans.

2.2.4.5 Budget 2001-02 announcement - Follow up : Hon'ble Union Finance Minister in his Budget Speech for the year 2001-

02 set the future agenda for the Scheme as under :

“The innovation of KCC is proved to be very successful. Since the year of its introduction in 1998-99, almost 110 lakh KC cards have been issued. I am asking our banks to accelerate this programme and cover all eligible agricultural farmers within the next 3 years.

I am also asking the banks to provide a personal insurance package to the KCC holders as is often done with other credit cards to cover them against accidental death or permanent disability, upto maximum amount of Rs.50,000/ and Rs.25,000/- respectively. The premium burden will be shared by the card issuing institutions.

2.2.4.6 Coverage of farmers - Future strategy

Banks, vide our Circular letter dated 10 April 2001, requested to draw up an action plan immediately in consultation with our Regional Office concerned, based on their past performance and experience in implementing the scheme, to ensure the coverage of all the eligible agricultural farmers under the KCC Scheme within the next three years i.e. by 31 March 2004.

Banks to ensure that targets fixed for 2001-02, 2002-03 and 2003-04 include new agricultural farmers likely to become eligible for their KC cards after 31 March 2001 also.

Targets fixed for issue of KC Cards be disaggregated month-wise and branch/PACS-wise to facilitate close monitoring of progress vis-a-vis target and also advised to RO concerned.

In order to ensure achievement of the targets so fixed, banks requested to follow strategies suggested by NABARD from time to time. Towards this end, banks to launch a campaign approach to accelerate pace of implementation of the Scheme. Following specific steps may be taken by the banks :

Conduct of sensitisation/training programmes for the officers of controlling offices of banks, branch managers and field level functionaries as also district level functions for distribution of cards.

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Holding Banker-Farmers' Meets, as part of the Kharif 2001 campaign, in each block to identify the ground level constraints in the smooth implementation of the Scheme and to initiate remedial measures therefor.

Use of VVV Clubs fora for propagation of the scheme. Placement of hoardings/banners etc. at prominent places, such as

branch premises, Panchayat buildings, Mandis, etc. Use of audio-video media, bringing out KCC literature in local language

to create better awareness about KCC Scheme among farmers. Issue of plastic/laminated cards to serve as Identity Cards. Monitoring of progress in implementation of the Scheme in Board

meetings as also through various state/ district and block level fora with the participation of Government functionaries, bankers, farmers etc.

2.2.4.7 Personal Accident Insurance Scheme -Salient features :

Designated insurance company will nominate one office at district level to function as nodal office for coordinating implementation of personal accident insurance scheme for KCC holders in the district.

Nominated office of insurance company to issue a Master Insurance Policy to each DCCB/RRB covering all its KCC holders.

Premium payable Rs.15/- for a one year policy while Rs.45/- for a 3-year policy.

Insurance coverage available under Policy only from date of receipt of premium at insurance company.

Banks to ensure to incorporate name of Nominee in Kisan Credit Card-cum-Pass Book.

Simplified claim settlement procedure evolved under Scheme whereby an Enquiry-cum-Verification Committee comprising Branch Manager of implementing bank, Lead Bank Officer and representative of insurance company to certify nature of accident causing disability/death and recommend settlement of insurance claims.

Scheme covers risk of KCC holders against death or permanent disability resulting from accidents caused by external, violent and visible means, as under:

Death due to accident (within 12 months of the accident) caused by outward, violent and visible means -- Rs.50,000/- Permanent total disability -- Rs.50,000/-

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Loss of two limbs or two eyes or one limb and one eye -- Rs.50,000/- Loss of one limb or one eye -- Rs.25,000/-

2.2.4.7 Major Steps taken by NABARD:

A Brochure on KCC Scheme highlighting the salient features, advantages and other relevant information about the Scheme was brought out by Head Office and ROs were asked to circulate the brochure to State govt. departments, Commercial Banks, Cooperative Banks, RRBs and other concerned agencies/officers so as to generate wider awareness about the Scheme.

Floor limit of Rs.5000/- for issue of KC Cards stands withdrawn. Studies on KCC Scheme have been entrusted to BIRD and NABARD

Staff College to facilitate feed back on the ground level issues/problems so that changes, where necessary, could be considered.

Studies on the implementation of the Scheme undertaken by NABARD periodically.

On the lines of instructions of RBI to Commercial Banks, Cooperative Banks and RRBs have been advised that they may, at their discretion, pay interest at a rate based on their perception and other relevant factors on the minimum credit balances in the cash credit accounts under the Kisan Credit Cards of farmers during the period from 10th to the last day of each calendar month.

Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) were advised to initiate innovative publicity campaign in each area of operation in order to cater all eligible farmers under KCC.

2.2.4.8 Progress in implementation of the Scheme

Since launching in August 1998, around 2.38 crore Kisan Credit Cards issued upto 31 March 2002 by Cooperative Banks, Regional Rural Banks and Commercial Banks put together.

Scheme implemented in all States and Union Territories (except Chandigarh, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli) with all Cooperative Banks, RRBs and Commercial Banks participating.

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Agency-wise/State-wise progress in issue of cards by all banks during 2001-02 and since inception of Scheme.

2.2.5 Beej gramin yojna:-2.2.5.1 Introduction:-Seed Village Programme is implemented in the country to upgrade the quality of farmer saved seed. The programme is implemented through State Departments of Agriculture, State Agricultural Universities and State Seeds Corporations. Following assistance is provided under the programme:i. Distribution of foundation/certified seed at 50% cost for half an acre per farmer.ii. Training of the farmers in seeds production and seed technology. An amount of Rs.15000 for a group of 50-150 farmers is provided.iii. Development of local storage capacity of appropriate quality. Assistance @ 33% subject to a maximum of Rs.3000 for 20 quintals capacity and Rs.2000 for 10 quintals capacity to SC/ST farmers and @25% subject to a maximum of Rs.2000 for 20 quintals capacity and Rs.1500 for 10 quintals capacity for other farmers is provided.

2.2.5.2 Beej gramin yojna-salient features:-

In initial year of Road map (08-09) one village in each block covered under Seed Village Scheme

In 2009-10 two villages in each block being covered From this year 4 villages to be covered in each block Desirous farmers of selected villages are given foundation seed at half

the cost Training imparted at three stages Seed storage bins of 5 qtls capacity given on subsidy. Target is to cover 10% of villages in the last year of Road Map(2012-

13)

2.2.5.3 Seed Production on Govt. Farms

Seed production started in 2006-07. Present status.

Sr. No.

Name of Crop

Coverage (ha.)

Production (qtls.)

1. Paddy 1476 35000

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2. Arhar 125 3093. Wheat 1120 150004. Gram 50 3005. Lentil 100 5006. Pea 12 507. R/M 50 1008. Summer

Moong100 214

Cost of cultivation met by state fund. Strengthening of infrastructure through RKVY. Irrigation facility developed on all farms. Land development of farms using laser land leveler. Mechanized harvesting done to avoid admixture of seed. Farms are to be barbed fenced to check the damage of pulses from

blue bull. Foundation seed production done on these farms. 150 storage go downs are being constructed State controls the entire production and distribution of seed. Seed made available to farmers through Bihar Rajya Beej Nigam under

various schemes.

2.2.5.4Krishi Mela under this scheme proves to be a grand success:- The four-day Krishi Mela held at the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad, from October 2, proved to be a grand success. According to UAS officials, an estimated 7.4lakh people, including farmers, extension workers and students, attended the event. Record sale The stall set up by the UAS and the Karnataka State Seeds Corporation achieved a record sale of 1,000 quintals of seeds worth Rs. 50 lakh. Farmers bought seeds for the rabi season, including rapeseed, wheat, jowar and Bengal gram. The UAS book stalls had witnessed hectic sales of books on the latest farming technology, organic farming, integrated farming and related topics, the officials said.

Another attraction at the event was the demonstration of successful models of farming by the selected progressive farmers and new methods of cultivation for different crops developed by the UAS. Farmers from the neighboring States of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh too queued up for this event. There was an interaction between farmers and experts on the concluding day.

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2.2.6 Soil and water conservation scheme:-

2.2.6.1 Introduction:-

In a predominantly agricultural system, the objective of improving the productivity, profitability and prosperity of the farmers and achieving agricultural development on an ecologically sustainable basis can be attained only when conservation, development and management of the land and water resources are assured. As watersheds support the entire dry land agriculture / horticulture and also remain the catchments for tanks and reservoirs, their health is essential for development. The strength of the watershed development programmes will largely determine the growth in agriculture.

Land and water conservation is the basic responsibility of Agricultural Engineering Department. The Mission mode approach of the Government is to accomplish the goals of saving every drop of rain, providing adequate water for agriculture and conservation of life support system – land and water resources through watershed management and irrigation water management strategies.

While Soil and water conservation programme is implemented by Agricultural Engineering Department, Soil Survey and soil Testing schemes are implemented by Agriculture Department.

2.2.6.2 Soil Survey and Land Use Organization:-

The objective of the Soil Survey and Land Use Organisation is the conduct of soil survey and preparation of soil resources inventory including the nature of soil occurring in the area, their morphological, physical and chemical characteristics through field studies and laboratory analysis, classification according to internationally recognised system of soil classification and mapping their extent on standard topographic base and finally interpreting it for variety of uses. The above survey is being taken up through the four soil survey units functioning at Coimbatore, Thanjavur, Vellore and Thirunelveli. Now this scheme is being implemented through Non-plan funding. An area of 1.14 lakh ha. has been surveyed as against the target of 1.10 lakh ha. for the year 2002-03. An area of 1.10 lakh ha. will be covered during 2003-04.

2.2.6.3 Soil Testing Laboratories and Mobile Soil Testing Laboratories:-

Soil Testing Laboratories are functioning in the State to analyse the soil samples collected from the farmers' fields in order to advise the farmers on specific fertilser recommendations on the basis of native soil fertility. There

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are 19 Soil Testing Laboratories functioning in different districts to analyse 8.42 lakhs samples per annum. Besides these laboratories, 16 Mobile Soil Testing Laboratories are also doing this service at farmers' doorstep, i.e. in villages on a notified date enabling the farmers to get on the spot analysis and advice on their soils. These Soil Testing Laboratories also help farmers in suggesting suitable reclamatory measures like application of soil amendments for the problem soils, preparing village level fertility indices and assessing Soil and Water Conservation quality of irrigation water. The Central Control Laboratory functioning at Kudumianmalai has to supervise and guide the functioning of Soil Testing Laboratories. This laboratory will also analyse and check samples drawn from these laboratories so as to correlate the results and ensure the correctness of the procedures adopted. This serves to strengthen the quality control of fertilizers and also serves as a watchdog on quality parameters.

Now this scheme is being implemented through Non-plan funding. A total number of 6.83 lakh soil samples have been analysed during 2002-03. It is programmed to analyse 8.1 lakh soil samples during 2003-04.

2.2.6.4 Preparation and Distribution of Bio Fertilizer Packets:-

Though fertilizers are readymade artificial manures supplying essential nutrients for boosting crop production, their continuous and indiscriminate use makes the soils sterile and results in degradation of soil potential. Hence use of different types of organic manures bio-fertilizers, etc. plays an important role as a part of Integrated Nutrient Management Package. In view of non-availability of adequate quantity of organic manures, bio-fertilizers using microorganisms to fix atmospheric nitrogen have come in handy as a result of technology development in modern agriculture. Six bio fertilizer production centres functioning at Cuddalore, Ramanathapuram, Salem, Kudumianmalai, Sakkottai and Trichy are producing 1400 tonnes of Bio- fertilizers. The above centers are also provided with automatic mixing and packing units to ensure the quality of the bio fertilizer with a longer shelf life. An amount of Rs. 250.53 lakhs is proposed for 2003-04 for the above scheme.

2.2.6.5 Saline and Alkaline Land Reclamation:-

The Saline And Alkaline Land Reclamation scheme is functioning to reclaim problem soil in Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur, Kancheepuram, Thiruvallur, Vellore, Thiruvannamalai, Salem and Namakkal district in an area of 4000 acres. An amount of Rs.0.12 lakh is proposed for this scheme. Under this scheme Gypsum and Zinc Sulphate are being supplied to the beneficiaries at 50% subsidy and an additional sum of Rs. 1000/- per acre is extended as subsidy for constructing drainage channel. During the year 2002-03, an area

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of 3952 acres was reclaimed. It is programmed to recover 4000 acres during 2003-04.

2.2.6.6 Waste Land Development:-

20 lakhs hectares of cultivable wasteland would be brought under cultivation through a massive "Wasteland Development Programme" to be implemented over the period of 5 years. This programme incorporates a Micro-Watershed Development Approach with focus on soil and water conservation and is being implemented with the cooperation of the private sector through people’s participation. This will pave the way to enrich rural economy in a speedy manner. The programme on "Wasteland Development" has three main components. The first component relates to bringing fallow lands both current and permanent, owned by individual farmers under productive economic activity through agri-clinical approach. This programme 9.4 Soil and Water Conservation will be intensified in the year 2003-04. The second component comprises getting corporate houses and federation of self-help groups to undertake development of wasteland along with an associated rural industry. The third component focuses on promoting agri-based food processing industry with a minimum investment of Rs.1 crore in each of the 385 blocks of the State under the New Anna Marumalarchi Thittam. An amount of Rs.25 crores is provided for the year 2003-04 towards implementation of wasteland programme under participatory approach (Rs.20 crores) and Rs.5 crores for Agri-clinic approach. It has been estimated that 10 lakh rural people would be benefitted by the end of the fifth year of the project. The total cost of the project is estimated at Rs. 1630 crores. In view of the heavy funds requirement, the project will need support from an external agency. The concept paper has been prepared and posed for external agency support of World Bank.

2.2.6.7 Agricultural Engineering Department:-

Land and Water Conservation are the basic and responsibility of Agricultural Engineering Department (AED). The goals for Agricultural Engineering Department have been outlined in the Chief Minister's 15 points programme: Saving every drop of rain, more crop per drop, adequate water for agriculture, conservation of life support systems- Land and Water Resources and Livelihood security through employment generation. The Mission for “Land and Water Conservation” will be actualized through Watershed Management and Irrigation Water Management strategies listed below with appropriate action plans.

Watershed Management

· Prevention of soil erosion and Conservation of soil moisture

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· Promoting Water harvesting techniques to impound runoff water and On Farm Water Harvesting.

· Arresting further expansion of wastelands by protecting lands from erosion hazards and promoting alternate / appropriate land use according to their capability.

· Renovation of Village Ponds, Ooranies, Temple tanks and other traditional Water storage.

· Retarding pollution by controlling sediment carried pollutants

Irrigation Water Management

· Optimizing Water use and ensuring equity in Water distribution and maximizing production

· Creation of farmer’s organization for sustainable Water Management in Command Areas

· Creation of well irrigation facilities and stabilization of existing facilities.

· Conservation of Water under Well Irrigated conditions by Drip and Sprinkler Irrigation systems for promotion of Horticulture crops, Sugarcane and Coconut and bringing more areas under irrigation with increased yields. The above strategies will be converted into action plans to be carried out under State Plan and Centrally Sponsored schemes, besides convergence of programmes like SGSY, SGRY, PMGY and new Anna Marumalarchi Thittam in the respective project areas.

2.2.6.8 Participatory Watershed Development:-

An area of 32.50 lakh hectares is under rain fed agriculture. This area is the production base of crops like millets, pulses, oilseeds and cotton. Soil and Water Conservation works were initiated as part of famine relief operations in 1949 and were continued year after year as a protective measure. During Tenth Plan period, it is proposed to restructure the programme. The restructured programme will attempt to prevent soil erosion, increase soil moisture availability and create rainwater-harvesting facilities in the watersheds predominantly under rainfed agriculture, with total participation of farmers. The new approach is developed based on the experience gained from the DANIDA assisted Comprehensive Watershed Development Project.

Participatory Approach-

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The programme will be organized through the participatory approach, actively involving all sections of the community at every stage (planning, implementation, maintenance, monitoring and benefit sharing). This will facilitate sustainability by creating a feeling of belonging and ownership for resources created with project assistance. Implicit in this approach will be sharing of costs and benefits by beneficiaries. Special attention will be given to ensure the participation of women and other vulnerable groups in project activities. The role of AED will be to provide technical guidance and to facilitate implementation by the community. Hence the staff will work towards capacity building of village level institutions to enable them to manage their resources. The project will adopt low cost and farmer- friendly interventions directed towards in- situ conservation of soil and water and water harvesting. Soil and water loss is the result of improper land use. Hence the project will demonstrate effective land use practices on common and private land. A holistic farming systems approach that suits the farm unit / farming household will be followed. The intention will be to demonstrate how appropriate low cost farming practices (land based and household based, including animal husbandry and horticulture interventions) and soil & moisture conservation techniques can improve the socio economic conditions of the landless, marginal and small farmers under dry land conditions.

Micro Watershed Development Work Plan- The new watershed plan will incorporate measures for soil moisture conservation, soil erosion control, runoff harvesting and on farm rain water harvesting and Individual based farm developments linked with self or institutional funding. Each Micro Watershed plan will take into account the potentialities of the watershed, which is linked Soil and Water Conservation to the land capability, soil type, soil depth, availability of ground water and the preference shown by the farmers. The micro watershed plan will reflect the felt needs of the watershed community, and will have technological inputs from line departments and the regional research stations of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.

Special attention for problem soils- The new approach will pay special attention to saline and alkali soils. Black soils will receive specific attention through focused research and development. Based on the research trials, Micro Watershed work plans for black soil areas will be developed to alleviate the problems of drainage and moisture stress. Special methods of water harvesting like recharge wells, recharge shafts will be employed to facilitate ground water recharge.

2.2.6.9 Soil Conservation Programme:-

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a. Soil and Water Conservation programme

For implementation of soil conservation schemes in plains an amount of Rs.1116.29 lakhs is proposed and it is aimed to cover an area of 50,000 ha.

b. DANIDA assisted Comprehensive Watershed Development project

The Comprehensive Watershed Development project is implemented in the districts of Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi covering an area of 42,500 ha. in 120 villages at a total cost of Rs.4172.44 lakhs with assistance from DANIDA.

The objective of Comprehensive Watershed Development project is

· To demonstrate and popularize sustainable land use systems suitable for degraded lands.

· Enable the land users to practice rainfed agriculture, horticulture and forestry including conservation and judicious use of soil and water resources on a sustainable basis

· Create short and long term employment opportunities thereby increasing the household income in the priority areas. The project was commenced on 5.8.94 and completed by March 2003. An area of 34,901 hectares has been covered at a total cost of Rs. 3682.85 lakhs.

2.2.6.10 National Watershed Development Programme for Rainfed areas:-

The National Watershed Development Project for Rainfed Areas (NWDPRA) is a centrally Sponsored Scheme being implemented in Tamil Nadu since 1990-91, with the main objective of sustaining the production of biomass and restoration of ecological balance in the Watershed areas. A sum of Rs. 77.92 crores has been utilized for treating a total area of 2.26 lakh ha. Watershed Areas Rainfed Agricultural System Approach (WARASA) ‘JANSABHAGITA’ the Restructured NWDPRA for the Tenth Five Year Plan has been taken up as a five-year project starting from 2002-03 to 2006-07. In the new guidelines, planning, implementation, monitoring and maintenance of 9.4 Soil and Water Conservation Watersheds by the village communities themselves have been made mandatory. This scheme is one of the major components of macro management mode in which the GOI’s share is 90% and balance is met by the GOTN. During the Tenth Plan, 763 numbers of micro watersheds (500 ha) have been proposed for treatment to cover 3.82 lakh ha. In 23 identified districts. The per hectare cost norm for watershed

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development is Rs. 4500/ for areas having less than 8% slope and Rs. 6000/ for areas having more than 8% slope. An area of 34,996 ha. Was treated during 2002-03 as against the target of 42,774 ha. The target set for 2003-04 is 38,623 ha.

a) Soil and Water Conservation in Vaigai River Valley Catchments The problem of sedimentation in reservoirs has become alarming, since the silt deposited in the reservoirs or tanks decreases the capacity of the reservoirs and reduces the utility and life. Sedimentation of reservoirs is a serious problem posing threat to the life of the reservoir, storage capacity of the reservoir for irrigation of the command area and generation of power. The studies on the sedimentation problems carried out in 33 reservoirs in Tamil Nadu reveal that there is a loss in capacity of more than 50% in two reservoirs and more than 30% capacity loss in 8 reservoirs. In Krishnagiri reservoir, more than 33% of storage is silted up. Out of the 40 priority micro watersheds of Vaigai catchments, Government of India has approved 26 micro watersheds for implementation of soil and water conservation works. Of this, 23 micro watersheds have been saturated. Government of India’s approval for 11 Micro Watersheds will be obtained during 2002-2003. The works bear a subsidy of 50% and the rest is treated as loan. The loan amount is recovered in ten equal annual installments with interest with a moratorium of two years. During the Tenth Plan period, Government of India will be persuaded to include South Pennaiyar catchment for treatment under River Valley Project. An area of 3057 ha. has been covered at a cost of 494.66 lakhs and the programme in the remaining watershed is to be continued during the year 2003-04 at a cost of Rs. 600 lakhs.

b).Soil Conservation Works in the Catchment area of Kundah and Lower Bhavani River Valley Project With a view to prevent premature siltation of reservoirs, various soil conservation measures are taken up in Kundah and lower Bhavani River Valley Project. Soil conservation works on watershed basis are taken up in the priority watershed identified by the All India Soil and Land Use Survey Organisation. During 1980, the All India Soil and Land use Survey organisation had prioritized the watersheds. Out of 176 watersheds in Kundha and Lower Bhavani Catchments, 58 watersheds were identified by AISLUS as very high and high priority watersheds requiring soil conservation treatments. Soil conservation measures were proposed based on rainfall, nature of erosion, soil texture, slope and topography of the area. The works bear 50% subsidy and the rest treated as loan, which will be recovered in 10 equal annual instalments with interest with a moratorium of two years. An amount of Rs.68.12 lakhs is proposed for this scheme for the year 2003-04.

2.2.6.11 Soil Conservation in Tribal Areas:-

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To improve the economic status of the tribal farmers and to bring them above poverty line, integrated development of the tribal area is taken up with multi sector approach in Kolli hills, Yercaud hills, Kalrayan hills, Aranuthumalai, Pachamalai, Jawadhu hills, and Sitheri hills. Soil and water conservation works are taken up in the lands owned by tribals at Government cost. These programmes provide livelihood security to tribal people by employment generation and crop production. During the year 2001-02, an amount of Rs.92.59 lakhs was spent and the anticipated expenditure during 2002-03 is Rs.92.90 lakhs. An amount of Rs.92.90 lakhs is proposed for the year 2003-04 to cover an area of 621 ha.

2.2.7 Joint lending group scheme:-

2.7.1 Introduction:-

Innovations such as the SHG-Bank linkage programme have proved to be successful in providing financial services from the formal banking sector to asset-less or very poor. This is also in line with RBI's policy of "financial inclusion". In order to develop effective credit products for mid segment clients having access to productive assets, NABARD had piloted the project during 2004-05 in 8 states of the country through 13 RRBs through the mechanism of joint liability approach. These select banks during 2004-05 have promoted 285 JLGs and extended bank finance of Rs 4.48 crores. In the second year of the project i.e. 2005-06, banks have disbursed Rs 6.79 crores to 488 JLGs.

Besides the above pilot project, another pilot programme was launched in Andhra Pradesh during 2004-05 through group based lending programme aimed exclusively at small and marginal farmers. The Government of Andhra Pradesh through its Agriculture Department primarily designed this initiative by promoting Rythu Mithra Groups (RMGs) on the SHG model. During 2005-06, banks have extended finance of Rs.131.78 crore to 12,468 RMGs. RMGs are also expected to serve as a conduit for technology transfer, facilitate access to market information and market, assist in carrying out activities like soil testing, training, health camps, assess input requirements, etc., to its members.

NABARD has played a primary role in preparing the guidelines for credit linking these groups, drafting and sharing the documents to be used by financing institutions. Further, it has undertaken sample studies to identify gaps in the functioning of the RMGs and also designed, funded and also conducted training and capacity building initiatives for different stakeholders in pilot project districts.

The results of the above programmes have demonstrated that the JLG approach can be successfully adopted by banks to reach clients like tenant

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farmers, share croppers, oral lessees, farmers with small land holdings without proper land records etc. The formal banking system has rarely been able to provide credit to tenant farmers on account of their inability to offer collaterals. However, the mechanism of JLG would enable banks to extend credit on the basis of mutual guarantee provided by the members of JLG. It would also reduce transaction costs of both banks and borrowers and help in loan recovery.

Based on the experience gained in implementation of the pilot project, a Scheme for financing JLGs of tenant farmers and oral lessees is evolved for implementation by all the commercial banks including RRBs. The salient features of the Scheme are as under:

2.2.7.2 Objectives:-The scheme aims at the following objectives.

To augment flow of credit to tenant farmers cultivating land either as oral lessees or sharecroppers and small farmers who do not have proper title of their land holding through formation and financing of JLGs.

To extend collateral free loans to target clients through JLG mechanism.

To build mutual trust and confidence between banks and tenant farmers.

2.2.7.3 General features of JLG:-

A Joint Liability Group (JLG) is an informal group comprising preferably of individuals coming together for the purposes of availing bank loan either singly or through the group mechanism against mutual guarantee. The JLG members would offer a joint undertaking to the bank that enables them to avail loans. The JLG members are expected to engage in similar type of economic activities like crop production. The management of the JLG is to be kept simple with little or no financial administration within the group.

Tenant -Any person who holds land under another person's name and pays rent to such other person on account of the use of land is called a tenant i.e. Tenant is a person who has taken the lease and is liable to pay rent for the piece of land. Oral lessees - The term refers to tenancy without legal sanction and permission or without any written agreement. Sharecroppers - Tenants who pay rent to landlords by way of sharing crops grown (in lieu of rent by cash) may be called sharecroppers

2.2.7.4 Criteria for selection of JLG members:-

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JLGs can be formed primarily consisting of tenant farmers and small farmers cultivating land without possessing proper title of their land.

Members should be of similar socio economic status and background carrying out farming activities and who agree to function as a joint liability group.

The groups must be organised by the likeminded farmers and not imposed by the bank or others.

The members should be residing in the same village/ area and should know and trust each other well enough to take up joint liability for group/ individual loans.

The members should be engaged in agricultural activity for a continuous period of not less than 1 year within the area of operations of the bank branch.

The group members should not be a defaulter to any other formal financial institution.

JLG should not be formed with members of the same family and more than one person from the same family should not be included in the JLG.

There is a need for a very active member of the group to ensure leadership role and ensure the activities of the JLG. The selection of a good /able/active leader for the JLG is an essential need which will ultimately benefit all the JLG members. However, care should be taken to ensure that benami loans are not cornered by the group leader.

2.2.7.5 Size of the JLG:-

The group should be formed preferably with 4 to 10 members to enable the group members to offer mutual guarantee. While informal group of upto 20 members could also be considered, such large groups are found to be not effective in fulfilling mutual guarantee obligations in the case of farmers. Therefore, smaller groups of farmers (4-10 members) are recommended for effective functioning of JLG.

2.2.7.6 Formation of JLGs:-

Banks may initially form JLGs by using their own staff wherever feasible. Banks may also engage business facilitators like NGOs and other individual rural volunteers to assist banks in promoting the concept and formation of groups.

On formation of JLGs, the bank officials need to discuss with the JLG members the bank’s regulations, lending procedures, services etc. The

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principles of self-help and group strength need to be emphasized. Group cohesion has to be ensured. Adequate emphasis should be placed on the roles, expectations and functions of the group/members & the benefits of group dynamics.

State Government Departments like Agriculture Department also could form JLGs of tenant farmers and small farmers not having clear land title. The JLGs of such eligible farmers can also serve as a conduit for technology transfer, facilitating common access to market information; for training and technology dissemination in activities like soil testing, training, health camps and assessing input requirements.

2.2.7.7 Savings by JLG:-

The JLG is intended primarily to be a credit group. Therefore, savings by the JLG members is voluntary. All the JLG members may be encouraged to open an individual "no frills” account. However, if the JLG chooses to undertake savings as well as credit operations through the group mechanism, such groups should open a savings account in the name of JLG with atleast two members being authorised to operate the account on behalf of the group.

2.2.7.8 JLG Models:-

Banks can finance JLG by adopting any of the two models.

Model A – Financing Individuals in the Group: The JLG would normally consist of 4 to 10 individuals. The group would be eligible for accessing separate individual loans from the financing bank. All members would jointly execute one inter-se document (making each one jointly and severally liable for repayment of all loans taken by all individuals in the group). The financing bank could assess the credit requirement, depending on the crops to be cultivated, available cultivable land and credit absorption capacity of the individual. However, there has to be mutual agreement and consensus among all members about the amount of individual debt liability that will be created.

Model B – Financing the Group: The JLG would consist preferably of 4 to 10 individuals and function as one borrowing unit. The group would be eligible for accessing one loan, which could be combined credit requirement of all its members. The credit assessment of the group could be based on the available cultivable area by each member of the JLG. All members would jointly execute the document and own the debt liability jointly and severally. JLG is mainly a credit product. But if the members want to save through the group, banks can open saving account in the name of the JLG to be operated by two members of the group as decided through a resolution by the JLG.

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2.2.7.9 Critical factors in JLG approach:-

The success of JLG concept depends on several factors. However, following factors are critical;

The concept depends heavily on mutual trust within the groups and on peer pressure for the repayment of loans.

The quality of group leadership is critically important for the sustainability of the group.

The JLG exists only for the single purpose of expediting certain categories of loans. Generally they are not multifunctional groups.

2.2.7.10 Credit Assessment:-

Model A; The JLG would prepare a credit plan for its individual members and an aggregate of that is submitted to the banks. Banks may evolve simple loan application for this purpose. The individual members of JLG would be eligible for bank loan after the bank verifies the individual members’ credentials.

Model B; JLGs that undertake savings apart from credit are required to maintain books of accounts. They may also be graded by banks on the basis of performance parameters. However, the quantum of credit need not be linked to groups' savings as in the case of SHGs. The credit requirements for the group may be worked out based on combined credit plan needs of individual members.

2.2.7.11 Purposes of credit:-

The finance to JLG is expected to be a flexible credit product addressing the credit requirements of its members including crop production, consumption, marketing and other productive purposes.

2.2.7.12 Type of loan:-

Banks may consider cash credit, short-term loan or term loan depending upon the purpose of loan.

2.2.7.13 Loan limit:-

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Considering that the loan to be granted is against the mutual guarantee offered by the group, maximum amount of loan may be restricted to Rs. 50,000 per individual both under Models A & B.

2.2.7.14 Rate of interest:-

Banks may decide the rate of interest to be charged to JLGs. However, banks may consider providing incentives for prompt repayment to JLGs, as applicable.

2.2.7.15 Margin and Security Norms:-

No collaterals may be insisted upon by the banks against their loans to JLGs. It may however, be ensured that the mutual guarantees offered by the JLG members are kept on record. Margin as per the usual norms may be applied.

2.2.7.16 Documents:-

Model A: The documents to be obtained include Introduction form, application cum appraisal form, mutual guarantee & DPN. Set of specimen forms of each of these is enclosed. Banks may make use of the forms with suitable modifications if necessary.

Model B: Documents as applicable to SHGs may be adopted.

2.2.7.17 Separate window for financing JLGs:-

In pursuance of Union Budget 2006-07 announcements, banks may open a separate window for JLGs of tenant farmers and ensure that a certain proportion of the total credit is extended to them.

2.2.7.18 Credit to JLGs to form normal business activity under Priority Sector:-

As the programme is intended to benefit farmers cultivating lands who may not have adequate collateral to offer to avail of bank loan in their individual capacity, lending to JLGs may be treated as direct agricultural advances under priority sector advances segment. Banks may include lending to JLGs in their corporate plan and also in the training schedule of officers/staff.

2.2.7.19 Personal accident insurance:-

Banks may consider covering individual members of JLG under personal accident insurance.

2.2.7.20 Crop insurance scheme:-47

National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) i.e. Rashtriya Krishi Bima Yojana- of Agriculture Insurance Company of India extends crop insurance cover to all farmers including tenant farmers, sharecroppers growing notified crops in the country. Hence banks may work out the premium payable by the JLG members availing of crop loan and pay the same to the insurance company as per the normal terms & conditions.

2.2.7.21 Monitoring and Review:-

Banks may closely monitor the programme regularly at various levels and at regular intervals. A progress report may be sent to RBI and NABARD in the prescribed format on a half yearly basis as on 30 September and 31 March each year so as to reach within 20 days of the half year to which the report relates.

2.2.8 Integrated nutrient management schemes:-2.2.8.1 Introduction:-

The main objective of Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) Division is to ensure adequate availability of quality fertilizers to farmers through periodical demand assessment and timely supply, promoting integrated nutrient management, which is soil test-based judicious and balanced use of chemical fertilizers in conjunction with organic manures and bio-fertilizers, promotion of organic farming and ensuring quality control of fertilizers through implementation of Fertilizer (Control) Order, 1985.

2.2.8.2 Fertilizer Consumption:-

India is the third largest producer and consumer of fertilizers in the world after China and the USA. Against 21.65 million tonne of fertilizer nutrients (NPK) consumed during 2006-07, the nutrient consumption is 22.57 million tonne during 2007-08. The consumption of major fertilizers namely, Urea, DAP, MOP, SSP and Complexes were 25.96, 7.50, 2.88, 2.29 and 6.57 million tonne during 2007-08. India is by and large self sufficient in respect of Urea and about 90 per cent in case of DAP. The all India average fertilizer consumption is 116.5 kg/ha of NPK nutrients, though there is wide variation from state to state varying from 212.7 kg/ha in Punjab, 208.2 kg/ha in Andhra Pradesh, 190.9 kg/ha in Haryana to less than 5 kg/ha in States like Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland etc. Considering the skewed pattern of fertilizer use, Government of India is promoting balanced and integrated use of fertilizer nutrient through various initiatives. As a result, NPK consumption ration has now improved to 5.5:2.1:1 during 2007-08 from 7.0:2.7:1 during 2000-01.

2.2.8.3 Price of Fertilizers:-48

Presently urea is the only fertilizer which is under Statutory Price Control. To ensure adequate availability of fertilizers to farmers at reasonable rates, subsidy is provided by Government of India. Urea, the most consumed fertilizers, is subsidized under the New Urea Pricing Scheme, whereas P&K fertilizers, which are decontrolled, are covered under the Concession Scheme. The policy for uniform freight subsidy on all fertilizers under the fertilizer subsidy regime is also implemented. There is no change in the prices of major fertilizers since 28.02.2002. However, the prices of complexes grade of fertilizers have been reduced on nutrients based pricing of subsidized fertilizer w.e.f. 18.06.2008.

2.2.8.4 Buffer Stocking of P&K Fertilizers:-

A buffer stock of limited quantity of Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) and Muriate of Potash (MOP) is being maintained at strategic locations to met emergent requirements. These stocks are in the nature of rolling stocks and are replenished when depleted. Besides meeting emergent needs, the Buffer Stock also helps to meet requirements of States which have low demand and hence sometimes find it difficult to induce suppliers to move fertilizers in small quantities.

2.2.8.5 Fertilizer Quality Control:-

Fertilizer is the most critical and costly input for sustaining agricultural production and ensuring food security of the country. The Government ensures the quality of fertilizers through Fertilizer Control Order (FCO), issued under Essential Commodities Act, 1955 to regulate, the trade, price, quality and distribution of fertilizers in the country. The State Governments are the enforcement agencies for implementation of the provisions of FCO, 1985. The Order strictly prohibits the manufacture, import and sale of any fertilizer, which does not meet prescribe standards. The FCO provides for compulsory registration of fertilizer manufacturers, importers and dealers, specifications of all fertilizes manufactured/imported and sold in the country, regulation on manufacture of fertilizer mixtures, packing and marking on the fertilizer bags, appointment of enforcement agencies, setting up of quality control laboratories and prohibition on manufacture/import and sale of non-standard/spurious/adulterated fertilizers. To check the quality of fertilizes sold in the country, there are 71 Fertilizer Quality Control Laboratories at present, which includes 4 Central Government laboratories namely; Central Fertilizer Quality Control & Training Institute, Faridabad and is three Regional Laboratories at Chennai, Navi Mumbai and Kalyani (Near Kolkata). These laboratories have a total annual analyzing capacity of 1.31 lakh samples. The

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analytical capacity and the number of samples analyzed and found non standard during the last 5 years are as follow:

The percentage of non standard samples on all India basis is hovering around 6% samples during last 5 years. However, there is a large variation from state to state.

2.2.8.6 Fertilizer Control Order, 1985:-

Analytical Capacity and the Number of Samples Analysed and found Non Standard during the last 5 Years

Year No. of Labs

Annual Analytical capacity

No. of samples analysed

Percent-age of non standard samples

2004-05 67 120315 124,730 6.02005-06 67 120415 122,488 6.02006-07 68 125480 129,250 6.02007-08 68 124778 129,331 6.22008-09 71 124730 131,565 3.9

In pursuance of Clause 20 A of FCO, 1985, fertilizer companies namely, Chambal fertilizer Ltd., Sri Ram Fertilizer Ltd., Tata Chemicals, National Fertilizers Ltd and KRIBHCO have been permitted to manufacture neem coated urea as provisional fertilizer for commercial trial upto 3rd August, 2009. In order to encourage use of micronutrients, NRK complex fertilizer 15:15:15:9(S) have been included in FCO, 1985. Two new NPK 100% water soluble fertilizers 28:28:0 and 24:24:0 have also been notified under clause 20A provisionally. The specification of triple super phosphate has been revised under clause 20 of FCO, 1985 to enable easy availability of phosphatic fertilizer. 14 new grades of soil specific and crop specific customised fertilizers have been notified so far.

2.2.8.7 Promotion of Integrated Nutrient Management (INM):-

The Government is promoting soil test-based balanced and judicious use of chemical fertilizers, biofertilizers and locally available organic manures like farmyard manure, compost, nadeep compost, vermi compost and green manure to maintain soil health and its productivity. A Centrally Sponsored Scheme, "National Project on Management of Soil Health and Fertility"

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(NPMSF) has been approved during 2008-09 with an outlay of Rs.429.85 crores for the remaining period of XI Plan. The two existing schemes namely: i) centrally sponsored scheme of Balanced and Integrated Use of Fertilizers and ii) Central Sector Scheme "Strengthening of Central Fertilizer and Quality Control & Traiing Institutes and its Regional Labs. have been subsumed in the new scheme w.e.f. 1.4.2009. The components of the new scheme include setting up of 500 new soil testing laboratories, strengthening of the existing 315 soil testing laboratories, setting up of 250 mobile soil testing laboratories, promotion of organic manures, soil amendments and distribution of micro nutrients, setting up of 20 new fertilizers quality control laboratories and strengthening of 63 existing fertilizer quality control laboratories during 11th Plan.

There are 686 Soil Testing Laboratories (2007-08) in India. These include 560 static and 126 mobile Laboratories maintained by State Governments and fertilizer industry with an annual analyzing capacity of about 7 million soil samples. During 2008-09, an amount of Rs.16.63 crore has been released under NPMSF for 42 new Static Soil Testing Laboratories (STLs), 44 Mobile Soil Testing Laboratories (MSTLs), strengthening of 39 existing soil testing laboratories, 2 new fertilizer quality control laboratories and strengthening of 19 existing fertilizers quality control laboratories (FQCLs) in 16 States.

2.2.9 ICDP Rule:-

2.2.9.1 Introduction:-

Integrated Cooperative Development Project (ICDP) Scheme was introduced by NCDC in the year 1985-86 with the following objectives:

Development of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies as multipurpose self-reliant entities;

Development of allied sector cooperatives Development of viable functional linkages among cooperatives.

2.2.9.2 Salient features:-

A Macro Plan is prepared for the whole of selected district keeping in view the local resources and needs.

The Project is implemented by a district level cooperative institution, generally the District Central Cooperative Bank, which is termed as the Project Implementing Agency (PIA).

To assist the DCCB in project implementation, a project implementation team (PIT) is constituted at the district level to prepare Business Development Plan for the societies, assess the society-wise

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infrastructural and other requirements and provide assistance accordingly.

The systems and procedures are streamlined and viable functional linkages are established to make the operations cost-effective.

Gaps in managerial skills are identified and necessary training is provided to personnel in cooperatives. PIT personnel provide training and guidance with the help of experts in the related field where necessary.

The Scheme also has an incentive component for motivating the paid staff of primary cooperatives to perform better and improve the functioning of the cooperatives.

Funding -- NCDC funds the ICD Projects through State Governments. The project funding is under two heads – i) Loan and ii) Subsidy.

Purpose of loan- The loan is for creation of infrastructure facilities – such as godowns, banking counter, transport vehicles, small processing units, etc. and strengthening of share capital / providing margin money for augmenting the business of the societies.

Subsidy is provided for project implementation cost of project preparation, manpower development and training, monitoring and incentives. Subsidy component is restricted to 30% of the total project cost and is shared between the NCDC and the State Government on 50:50 basis.

2.2.9.3 Pattern of funding:- The National Cooperative Development Corporation sanctioned to the

State Govt. in the form of Loan component and Subsidy component which comprises 28% to 30% as Subsidy of the total block cost and the rest 72% as Loan.

The State Govt. in return provides 50% Share Capital contribution to the beneficiaries Cooperative Societies and the remaining 50% as Loan. No Subsidy Component has been provided to the Cooperative Societies.

The Subsidy Component has been provided by the National Cooperative Development Corporation for the Project Implementation Team of the Project which includes the following items:-

i. Manpower Development and Training for beneficiaries.ii. Incentives to Apex/ Primary Cooperative Societies.iii. Management Cost of the Project Implementation Team

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The State Govt. will accord sanction and release of Funds as per Year-Wise Pattern of funding by the National Cooperative Development Corporation and the same will be reimbursed by the National Cooperative Development Corporation.

2.2.10 National horticulture mission:-

2.2.10.1 Introduction:-

National Horticulture Mission (NHM) will be implemented in all the States and Union Territories of India except the North Eastern States, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttaranchal (for which a separate Technology Mission for integrated development of horticulture exists) to promote holistic growth of the horticulture sector covering fruits, vegetables, root & tuber crops, mushroom, spices, flowers, aromatic plants, cashew and cocoa. Programmes for the development of coconut will be implemented by the Coconut Development Board (CDB), independent of the Mission. This will be a Centrally sponsored scheme in which Government of India shall provide 100% assistance to the State Missions during Tenth Plan. During the XI Plan, the Government of India assistance will be 85% with 15% contribution by the State Governments.

2.2.10.2 Mission objectives:-

The main objectives of the Mission are:

To provide holistic growth of the horticulture sector through an area based regionally differentiated strategies which include research, technology promotion, extension, post harvest management, processing and marketing, in consonance with comparative advantage of each State/region and its diverse agro-climatic feature;

To enhance horticulture production, improve nutritional security and income support to farm households;

To establish convergence and synergy among multiple on-going and planned programmes for horticulture development;

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To promote, develop and disseminate technologies, through a seamless blend of traditional wisdom and modern scientific knowledge;

To create opportunities for employment generation for skilled and unskilled persons, especially unemployed youth;

2.2.10.3 Strategy:-

To achieve the above objectives, the mission would adopt the following strategies:

Ensure an end-to-end holistic approach covering production, post harvest management, processing and marketing to assure appropriate returns to growers/producers;

Promote R&D technologies for production, post-harvest management and processing;

Enhance acreage, coverage, and productivity through:(a) Diversification, from traditional crops to plantations, orchards, vineyards, flower and vegetable gardens;(b) Extension of appropriate technology to the farmers for high-tech horticulture cultivation and precision farming.

Assist setting up post harvest facilities such as pack house, ripening chamber, cold storages, Controlled Atmosphere (CA) storages etc, processing units for value addition and marketing infrastructure;

Adopt a coordinated approach and promotion of partnership, convergence and synergy among R&D, processing and marketing agencies in public as well as private sectors, at the National, Regional, State and sub-State levels;

Where appropriate and feasible, promote National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) model of cooperatives to ensure support and adequate returns to farmers;

Promote capacity-building and Human Resource Development at all levels.

2.2.10.4 Procedure for approval and implementation:-

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States will be required to prepare a State Horticulture Mission Document (SHMD) projecting a plan of action for the X Plan and XI Plan periods. The SHMD will form the basis for preparing Annual Action Plans (AAP). The AAP will be area based, on the basis of existing potential for horticulture development, available infrastructure for monitoring and implementation, available unspent balance out of previous release and capacity to absorb the funds in commissioning the project. The Ministry of Agriculture would communicate the tentative outlay for the year by April/May if not earlier to each State which in turn will indicate sector-wise/district-wise allocation. The agencies at the District level will prepare the Annual Action Plan (AAP) keeping in view their priority and potential and submit the plan to the State Horticulture Mission within the allocated sum. The States could engage TSG/Consultancy services for preparing the SHMD and AAP. The State Horticulture Mission in turn will prepare a consolidated proposal for the state as a whole, get it vetted by the State Executive Committee (SEC) and furnish 25 copies of the same to the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) for consideration by the National Executive Committee. The SHM may spend up to 5% of the annual allocation for formulating the SHM and Annual Plans. Attempt would be made in the AAP to address all the issues relating to horticultural development covering production, post-harvest management and marketing.

The SHM will upload the AAP, as communicated to the National level EC indicating approval by SLEC, on the web site exclusively created for the purpose. The same will be replaced after its approval by National level EC. Attempts will be made to display the position regarding approvals of the AAP on line.

2.2.10.5 Position of ongoing schemes:-Presently, horticulture development programmes are being implemented through a number of Schemes viz. National Horticulture Board (NHB) programmes, Coconut development Programmes, Technology Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture North Eastern States (TMNE), Human Resource Development (HRD) in Horticulture, integrated Development of Horticulture in Tribal and Hilly Areas and Horticulture programmes under the Macro Management Scheme. Of these, the schemes on HRD and Tribal Areas and Programmes under Macro Management will be subsumed under National Horticulture Mission (NHM). The Macro Management scheme provides flexibility to the States to allow

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new interventions within 10 per cent of the total allocation for the State; which will be maintained in the NHM. The NHB programmes are entrepreneur-driven and the Board would continue to implement its programmes. The NHB will also provide a launching pad for the Mission, by way of pooling experts and housing the Technical Support Group. Technology Mission in North Eastern States (TMNE) programmes, which are focused for the development of the North Eastern and Himalayan States, will continue as a separate scheme. The Coconut Development Board (CDB), which has been created through an Act of Parliament for overseeing the development of coconut in the country, would continue to independently implement coconut development programmes.2.2.10.6 Mission interventions:-

The Mission will be demand and need based in each segment. Technology will play an important role in different interventions. Technologies such as Information Communication Technology (ICT), Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System will be widely used for planning and monitoring purposes including identification of sites for creating infrastructure facilities for post harvest management, markets and production forecasts.

The interventions envisaged for achieving the desired goals would be varied and regionally differentiated with focus on potential crops to be developed in clusters by deploying modern and hi-tech interventions and duly ensuring backward and forward linkages.

2.3 Research papers/journals:-2.3.1 Entrepreneurship in rural micro agri -linked businesses -Dr. Neetu AndotraRural micro agriculture linked businesses though encountered perennial problems of research crunch, offers immense growth, employment co-efficient & implication for distribution in agrarian economy of district Kathua, J&K State. Their emergence is the result of unremunerative & seasonal character of agriculture, marginalization of small farmers, eviction of tenants and a number of policy measures initiated by the Govt. for promoting self-employment. The paper examines the significance of Background and key motivational factors in sustaining rural micro entrepreneurship using X2, tests of significance and factor analysis. The study suggests adoption of an integrated & multidisciplinary development approach by including training, institutional, financial support as a composite package coupled with improved Technology in agriculture to create `income and output’ affect which in –turn would increase raw material & demand for rurally produced goods.

2.3.2 Measuring Vulnerability and Poverty56

-Raghav Gaiha and Katsushi ImaiThis paper measures the vulnerability of households in rural India, based upon the ICRISAT panel survey. We employ both ex ante and ex post measures of vulnerability.The latter are decomposed into aggregate and idiosyncratic risks and poverty components. Our decomposition shows that idiosyncratic risks account for the largest share, followed by poverty and aggregate risks. Despite some degree of risk-sharing, the landless or small farmers are vulnerable to idiosyncratic risks, forcing them to reduce consumption. Income-augmenting policies therefore must be combined with those that not only reduce aggregate and idiosyncratic risks but also build resilience against them.

2.3.3 Kisan Credit Card -Danish FaruquiProvision of timely and adequate credit has been one of the major challenges for banks in India in dispensation of agricultural and rural credit to the farmers. Constant innovation is required in order to achieve the aim. Agricultural credit cards are not a new concept in the field of agricultural banking in India. The scheme had already been introduced in a number of public sector banks in a few states much earlier. These schemes were niche-marketed and were exclusively preserved for the privileged class of farmers and the small and marginal farmers did not have much access to them. Similarly cash credit facilities were being extended by several public sector banks and cooperative banks to farmers with the view to improving their access to credit. Again this scheme was used only selectively. The KCC scheme was started by the Government of India (GOI) in consultation with the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) andNABARD (National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development) 1998-99 to join the features of both these schemes and to overcome their shortcomings.

2.3.4 THE “TIPPING POINT” IN INDIAN AGRICULTURE(Understanding the Withdrawal of Indian Rural Youth) -Amrita Sharma and Anik BhaduriRecent trends suggest that India might very well be at the "tipping point" of the transition in its agriculture dependent population. A large proportion of youth in the countryside is on their way out of agriculture. Rising disenchantment with the profession pushes them out of agriculture while opportunities in other sectors of the booming economy pull them out of agriculture. This is suggested by this study which attempts to identify the drivers of this process of withdrawal and assess the odds of an average farmers’ move out of agriculture.Undertaken as a part of strategic analysis of India' s river interlinking program under way at IWMI (funded by the Challenge Program for Water and food) it was designed to understand what trajectory Indian agriculture will take in future. Data for the study came from interviews of a large

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number of rural male youth (sample size-1609) across 14 locations spanning 12 states of the country. The interviews focused on their aspirations and plans for shift to other occupations. A binary choice log it model was then developed to identify the important factors which influence a young person’s decision-making. The assumption behind the model was that a farmer (characterized by his age, skill level, education, landholding size, irrigation and location of his farmland) seeks to maximize his welfare by making a choice about remaining in his present agricultural occupation or not.The regression results suggest that youth who possess non-farm skills are 1.4 times more likely to move out of agriculture. Age has a significant role as the odds ratio in favor of shifting out of agriculture is high among farmers below 30 years of age. These results are supported by observations from other countries where occupational mobility was found to be higher among younger farmers and they were found to be more sensitive to income differentials between farm and non-farm occupations farm prices, and interest rates. Further, this study found that availability of irrigation did not have any significant impact on withdrawal behavior. The small and marginal farmers expressed a great desire to quit farming possibly because of the low viability of smallholder agriculture. But, as the land size increased the tendency towards withdrawal gained among the large holder category as well thus suggesting a U-shape relationship between farm size and willingness towards withdrawal Interestingly, all these factors seem to become more dominant and their coefficients improve for villages farther removed from towns. Thus importance of proximity to urban areas for occupation choice seems to be indicated.

The phenomenon deserves attention since it challenges the myth of persistence of overpopulated workforce in agriculture. With the current 8 percent growth rate of the Indian economy the fall in agricultural population is likely to only get steeper. This will have far-reaching implications for the way agriculture is likely to be organized in future. We foresee aging of the farmer population increased feminization of agricultural workforce and mechanization of farms. This will put great demands on the extension agencies, technology providers and the agricultural institutions that will have to wake up and recognize the requirements of the new-age farmer. The demands will be greater on the irrigation institutions which have by far ignored the role of women as farmers and as irrigators. A number of recent occurrences suggest that India might very well be at the “tipping point” of the (de)growth in its agricultural population and with growing urbanization, better literacy standards and greater skill attainment by rural youth it might take a steep turn southwards thus changing the nature of farming in the country drastically.

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2.3.5 Grower heterogeneity and the gains from contract farming: The case of Indian poultry

- Bharat Ramaswami, Pratap Singh Birthal, P.K. Joshi

Purpose:-The purpose of this paper is to offer an empirical analysis of contract farming (CF) for poultry in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh in India.

Design/methodology/approach – Through a probit equation, the factors that matter to their participation in contracting are evaluated. The estimation of income gains is considered within a treatment effects model. The risk benefits from contracting are estimated by simulating the variability of returns if the contract farmers were to be independent growers.

Findings – This paper shows that the poultry integrators in Andhra Pradesh are able to appropriate almost the entire efficiency gains from contracting. Yet, the contract growers are better off with the contract. This outcome is because of grower heterogeneity and the way it is employed in the selection of contract growers. The paper also finds that contract growers do gain substantially in terms of risk reduction.

Research limitations/implications -The CF literature reminds us that these arrangements often fail because of opportunistic behavior. The poultry example shows that contracting is a useful institution when processor interests are closely aligned to that of the grower. This paper describes the circumstances under which this alignment is obtained.

Originality/value- First, it adds to the small and growing body of work that estimates the income gains to contract growers. Second and going beyond existing work on developing countries, this paper also addresses the risk benefits from contracting. Thirdly, this paper estimates the income gains from contracting to the processing firms.

2.3.6 Indian agri-seed industry: understanding the entrepreneurial process

-Sushil Kumar, Jabir Ali

Purpose-The paper aims to discuss and analyse the entrepreneurial process in Indian seed business and factors affecting entrepreneurship in this sector.

Design/methodology/approach -The paper is based on in-depth personal interviews with 40 entrepreneurs involved in 31 seed ventures belonging to five districts covering three states of India – Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Uttarakhand. These firms were selected following the convenient method of

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sampling. All major components of entrepreneurial process – personal traits and background of the entrepreneur, legal and financial environment, and market structure – were studied in detail. Descriptive and relational data-analytic methods were adopted such as frequency distribution, cross tabulation, and correlation analysis.

Findings –Realizing the importance of availability of quality seed to the farming community in adequate quantity in the country, current government policies are geared towards promoting and fostering entrepreneurship in seed industry in India. The paper finds that the firms established during last five to ten years have shown continuous growth indicating attractiveness of the industry. Ability to build entrepreneurial team with complementary skills and knowledge and experience of the lead entrepreneurs are found to be the critical success factors in this industry.

Research limitations/implications -The findings of the paper are based on mainly qualitative data/information collected only from 40 entrepreneurs belonging to 31 seed ventures.

Practical implications -The study findings have implications for policy makers as well as for prospective entrepreneurs. It will help in designing appropriate policy instruments promote and foster entrepreneurship on one hand and provide suggestions for new entrepreneurs for creating sustainable new seed ventures on the other.

Originality/value The paper is original and value loaded in the sense that this provides the practical implications for understanding the entrepreneurial process in a very critical segment of the agriculture sector.

2.3.7 Reforming the agricultural extension system in India: What do we know about what works where and why?

- Raabe, Katharina

"In order to realize agricultural potential and to increase agricultural yields, India's extension system has experienced major conceptual, structural, and institutional changes since the late 1990s. This paper reviews existing reform programs and strategies currently existing in agricultural extension in India. It distinguishes strategies that have been employed to strengthen both the supply and demand sides of service provision in the area of agricultural extension, and it reviews the effects of the demand- and supply-side strategies on the access to and the quality of agricultural extension services. The ultimate objectives are (1) to gain a view on what works where and why in improving the effectiveness of agricultural extension in a decentralized

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environment; (2) to identify measures that strengthen and improve agricultural extension service provision; and (3) to reveal existing knowledge gaps. Although the range of extension reform approaches is wide, this paper shows that an answer to the question of what works where and why is complicated by the absence of sound and comprehensive qualitative and quantitative impact and evaluation assessment studies. Even evidence from the National Agricultural Technology Project and the Diversified Agricultural Support Project of the World Bank, the women empowerment programs of the Danish International Development Agency, the Andhra Pradesh Tribal Development Project, and the e-Choupal program of the Indian Tobacco Company is subject to methodological and identification problems. Conclusions regarding the importance (1) of implementing both decentralized, participatory, adaptive, and pluralistic demand- and supply-side extension approaches; (2) of involving the public, private, and third (civil society) sectors in extension service provision and funding; and (3) of strengthening the capacity of and the collaboration between farmers, researchers, and extension workers are necessarily tentative and require further quantification. The paper seeks to inform policymakers and providers of extension services from all sectors about the need to make performance assessments and impact evaluations inherent components of any extension program so as to increase the effectiveness of extension service reforms." from Author's Abstract

2.3.8 On-farm studies under Rural Agriculture Work Experience (RAWE) Education Programme in India - Some results - R.K. Nanwal and K.P. SinghChaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University started Rural Agricultural Work Experience (RAWE) programme to expose the out-going final year undergraduate students of agriculture discipline. The students are placed in rural areas and attached to farmers’ families to study the crop production technology adopted by the farmer family, its techno-economic survey and extent of agriculture extension in the preparation of technology to the farmers. The students are guided and supervised by a team of specialized teachers and scientists from Regional Research Stations and District Agricultural Science Technology Centers. In this programme during the year 2001-2002 a class of 60 students was offered this programme. These students were placed in 15 villages of six districts of Haryana state. Prior to their placement, the students were given basic training for carrying out survey work in the field. Out of the data collected and submitted by these students to the teacher incharge, compilation and analysis were made on total income from agriculture including milch and draught animals, expenditure, net income from subsidiary occupation. These data were utilized for finding out net income from agriculture, subsidiary income and income per earning family member of the farmer. The size of holding varied

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between 3 acres to 18 acres and, therefore, small, medium and large holding farmers were covered in these studies.

The analysis of data on net income reveal that income from agriculture (crops + livestock) was higher under large size holding, however, per unit net income was more under small and medium size holder. Subsidiary income from subsidiary occupation like sale of vegetable, operating telephone booth, preparation and sale of animal feed, operating of a shop was found to be a good source of income to the farmers’ family. Therefore, income per earning family member per hectare was higher when there was a subsidiary occupation of the family. These on-farm studies indicate that small farm can give good earning provided sufficient resource base is available with the farmer. The combination of agriculture including livestock with a subsidiary occupation may help in the improvement of the economic condition of the farmer. The studies further reveal that a combination of education and on-farm research and extension programme had better exposure of fresh agricultural graduates to the real ground problems at farmers field and acted as a tool of the feed back to research workers for planning their research programmes.2.3.9 Sustainable development of rainfed agriculture in India - Kerr, John M.

India's agricultural growth has been sufficient to move the country from severe food crises of the 1960s to aggregate food surpluses today. Most of the increase in agricultural output over the years has taken place under irrigated conditions. The opportunities for continued expansion of irrigated area are limited; however, so Indian planners increasingly are looking to rainfed, or unirrigated agriculture to help meet the rising demand for food projected over the next several decades. Given that rainfed agriculture should receive greater emphasis in public investments, a key issue is how much investment should be allocated among different types of rainfed agriculture. This paper addresses a wide variety of issues related to rainfed agricultural development in India. It examines the historical record of agricultural productivity growth in different parts of the country under irrigated and rainfed conditions, and it reviews the evidence regarding agricultural technology development and adoption, natural resource management, poverty alleviation, risk management, and policy and institutional reform. It presents background information on all of these topics, offering some preliminary conclusions and recommending areas where further research is needed. The analysis of agricultural productivity growth is based on district level data covering the Indo-Gangetic plains and peninsular India from 1956 to 1990.

2.3.10 Weather-risk hedging by farmers: An empirical study of willingness-to-pay in Rajasthan, India

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- Rajiv Seth,Valeed A. Ansari,Manipadma Datta

Purpose –Small farmers in developing countries have very little means of managing the weather-risk to their agricultural produce. Weather derivatives could provide a solution, but the demand for such instruments and the willingness to invest in them needs to be researched. The purpose of this paper is to assess weather-risk hedging by farmers, focusing on the willingness to pay in Rajasthan, India

Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents results of a contingent valuation study done on the findings of a survey carried out in six villages in the state of Rajasthan. The survey was done on over 500 farmers after explaining the concept of weather derivatives and how they would work to help them hedge their weather-related yield risk. The survey included questions on factors, which could have a bearing on the farmers' willingness to pay, and a bidding game where responses were solicited to premiums in a hypothetical market. Probit and logit models are used to determine probabilities of “Yes” responses to various bids and the mean willingness-to-pay.

Findings –The paper brings out a model, which uses nine independent variables affecting the probability of a farmer saying “Yes” to a price quoted to him for a weather derivative. Using the results from the probit and logit models, the farmers' mean willingness-to-pay is determined to be around 8.8 per cent of the maximum possible payout of weather derivative contract.

Originality/value – With weather derivatives being accepted as a means of risk management for agriculture in developing countries, the willingness-to-pay figures determined in this paper would provide an insight to the structuring and pricing of weather derivatives, especially in developing countries.

2.3.11 Weather derivatives: risk-hedging prospects for agriculture and power sectors in India

- Anil K. Sharma, Ashutosh VashishthaPurpose –This article aims to examine the state of risk management in agriculture and power sector of India, evaluate the effectiveness of weather derivatives as alternative risk management tools and basic framework required to implement them.Design/methodology/approach – Applications of traditional risk-hedging tools and techniques in Indian agricultural and power sectors have proved to be costly, inadequate, and more importantly, a drag on the country's fiscal system. Mostly they offer a hedge against only the price risk. The volume related risk, which is rather more serious and highly weather-dependent, remains practically unhedged. This study has used existing literature and

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empirical evidences for analyzing the various issues related to risk management in agriculture and power sector. Traditional derivative strategies have been used to construct weather derivatives contracts with different underlying weather indices.Findings –The article suggests that how an appropriate weather-based derivative contract system may be a more flexible, economical and sustainable way of managing the volume-related weather risk in an economy, like India, having predominant agricultural and power sectors.Originality/value – The article will be of value to all those who have some stakes in agricultural and power sectors of an economy and would like to mange the volume related risk in these sectors.

2.4 Conclusion:- The study emphasizes the importance of smallholder agriculture development (with institutional support for labour-demanding technical change) in driving growth in poor rural areas, but also the limitations of such growth on its own in driving poverty reduction. In some areas agriculture may not have the potential to drive much growth, and even where such potential exists, widespread and significant poverty reduction will only be achieved when initial agricultural growth stimulates rapid growth in rural non-farm employment. This requires significant economic structural change and depends heavily upon second-round effects and growth multipliers in the local economy. Differentiated microeconomic policies should therefore have direct, first-round effects that will significantly tighten markets into which the poor can supply (for example, unskilled labour markets) and/or significantly loosen markets from which the poor buy (for example, staple food markets). Where policies have adverse impacts on these markets, compensatory measures must be put in place. Necessary conditions for PPAG are improved market access (leading to lower marketing margins and higher farm-gate prices, but requiring improved communications and institutional development, and higher traded volumes); technical change (which must significantly increase land productivity and labour demands, and be accessible to large numbers of producers); and transmission of the benefits of such change to the poor through production and consumption linkages that tighten labour markets. Policies promoting these conditions must stimulate structural change in relations between the farm and non-farm sectors and adapt to encourage different forms of institutional development appropriate to different stages of growth. Careful sequencing, design and implementation of investments is also needed (a) to install critical basic conditions (such as infrastructure, technology, and equitable and secure access to land),

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(b) to ensure that complementary markets, services and conditions develop together, and (c) to prevent policy implementation and benefits being subverted and captured by special interest groups. There appear to be strong complementarities between agricultural growth policies and poverty reduction (in India investments that were ‘good buys’ for agricultural growth were also ‘good buys’ for poverty reduction, while in Malawi measures that reduced poor households’ liquidity problems increased immediate welfare and productivity, and also tightened labour markets, which also eases liquidity problems). But investments in agricultural growth must be on a large scale over long periods if they are to change prices significantly in unskilled labour markets. This involves considerable implementation risks (of being ineffective or even damaging, and of being subverted) as well as high fiscal opportunity costs (in reduced investment in welfare and in other sectors and services) and fiscal risks (of growing out of control and being fiscally damaging and unsustainable). PPAG policies face considerable challenges from the local and global policy conditions facing today’s poor rural areas, as outlined earlier. Establishment of the necessary basic conditions will be slow, difficult and in some cases unattainable. Small countries with permeable land borders face particular difficulties in controlling prices (regional co-ordination is needed here) but globalisation and trade may have reduced local multipliers and weakened critical growth linkages. The design and implementation of targeted, efficient and equitable policy sequences face severe technical, administrative and political difficulties. Past experience of failed agricultural growth strategies serves as a useful warning of the difficulties and dangers with such policies, but it also carries the danger that they are either written off on the basis of past failures, or promoted by venal politicians and bureaucrats wishing to regain lost opportunities for patronage and corruption. In some (marginal) areas the challenges will be too great, agricultural growth will be too slow or will fail to deliver pro-poor growth. In such situations there is still usually a vital ‘livelihood protection and enhancement’ role for agriculture, supporting existing livelihoods and maintaining the natural resource base. This makes smaller but Institutions and Policies for Pro-poor Agricultural Growth 621 still significant demands on agricultural policy and investment, for appropriate technology development, the facilitation of coordinated service provision, and a more secure and favorable environment. The returns to these investments need to be compared with the costs of livelihood and natural resource failure in these poor rural areas, and the human and fiscal costs of the collapse of these rural communities, and their increasing dependence on long-term welfare support and emergency relief. To sum up the policy conclusions more succinctly: • In most poor rural areas both the farm and non-farm sectors are critical for poverty reduction, with different but complementary contributions to pro-poor growth. Both sectors must grow so that the non-farm sector can build

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on, but increasingly take over, smallholder agriculture’s initial dominant influence on real wages and food security. • Critical conditions necessary for the initial stages of PPAG are labour-demanding technical change that delivers significant productivity gains, and access to stable input, output and financial markets supporting such technologies; and transmission to the poor of the benefits from the widespread adoption of technology through a tightening of labour markets and falling grain prices (which must not proceed ahead of and choke growth). • The process of structural change requires policy analysis to differentiate between stages of development in poor rural areas and between different categories of rural people, and needs careful sequencing and targeting of policies. The early stages of growth require an active coordinating role by some central player(s) with larger hierarchical structures. In the past the state has both financed and attempted to deliver such co-ordination, achieving outstanding success in some cases but abject failure in others. Finding new and more effective co-ordination mechanisms with different roles for the state, the private sector and civil society presents major technical, administrative and political challenges in the design and implementation of policy. • Further subsidies may often be necessary to make input purchases for improved technologies both profitable and affordable (provided that basic infrastructure and viable technologies exist, but supporting market systems are weak, with low volumes and high costs and risks). The design and implementation of subsidies for output price stabilisation and credit delivery pose challenges, but if effective such subsidies will often be more efficient than blunter input subsidies. • Investment in PPAG is a major undertaking that will not work everywhere and that requires large-scale and long-term investments. It faces significant challenges, outlined above, in difficult demographic, political and global economic conditions. It is a risky and long-term project, but there are few alternatives other than the unacceptable prospect of increasing rural poverty, desperate rural-urban migration, and indefinite large-scale welfare and safety-net support that ultimately can only aim to sustain people in poverty.

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CHAPTER 3RESEARCH PLAN

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3.1 Introduction:-On the eve of Independence in 1947, Indian agriculture was characterized by feudal land relations and primitive technology, and the resultant low

productivity per hectare. As a consequence, rural India presented a picture of mass poverty and widespread unemployment and under-employment. Therefore, the first task of the Government in the immediate post-Independence period was to initiate growth process in agriculture on modern lines. Modernization of agriculture was required both in terms of technological and institutional changes. The Mid-term Appraisal of the Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-07) drew attention to the loss of dynamism in agriculture and allied sectors after the mid-1990s.

Hence, various research initiatives have been taken in recent years to promote the agricultural sector. There are some institutes doing researches in this field to know the status of farmers and what are their demands some names of such institutes are as follows:-

NATIONAL BUREAU OF GENETIC RESOURCES1. Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources2. Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources3. Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources4. Bureau of Microbial and Fungal Genetic Resources5. Bureau of Insect and Nematode Genetic Resources6. Research Centre-DNA finger printing

CROP INSTITUTES1. Central Rice Research Institute2. Directorate of Rice Research3. Project Directorate of Wheat Research4. Directorate of Maize Research5. Directorate of Sorghum & Millet Research6. Indian Institute of Pulses Research7. Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute

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8. Indian Institute of Sugarcane and Sugarbeat Research9. Sugarcane Breeding Research Institute10. Central Institute of Cotton Research11. Directorate of Oilseeds Research12. Directorate of Research on Non-Traditional Crops13. Central Institute for Research on Jute and Allied Fibres

PLANT PROTECTION1. Directorate of Biological Control2. Directorate of Research on Integrated Post Management

HORTICULTURE, VEGETABLE & FLORICULTURE1. Indian Institute of Horticulture Research2. Central Institute of Sub-Tropical Horticulture3. Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture4. Central Institute of Arid Horticulture5. Indian Institute of Vegetable Research6. Central Potato Research Institute7. Central Tuber Crops Research Institute8. Central Plantation Crops Research Institute9. Indian Institute of Spices Research10. Centre for Research on Orchids

NATIONAL RESOURCE MANAGMENT

1. National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning2. Indian Institute of Soil Science3. Central Soil Salinity Research Institute4. Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training

Institute5. Water Technology Centre for Eastern Region

CROPPING SYSTEMS/FARMING SYSTEMS1. Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture2. Central Arid Zone Research Institute3. Cropping Systems Research Institute4. Vivekanand Parvatiya Anusandhan Shala5. Centre for Research on Weather, Climate and Agriculture6. ICAR Research Centre for Goa

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7. ICAR Research Centre for NEH Region8. ICAR Research Centre for Eastern Region

AGRIUCLTURL ENGINEERING1. Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering2. Centre for Energy Management in Agriculture3. Central Institute for Research on Cotton Technology4. Central Institute for Research on Jute and Allied Fibre Technology

MULTIDISPLINARY INSTITUTEInstitute of Post-Harvest Science and Technology

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS & ECONOMICSIndian Agricultural Statistics Research InstituteNational Centre for Agricultural Economics & Policy Research

AGRIUCLTURAL EXTENSIONInstitute of Agricultural ExtensionResearch Centre for Women in Agriculture

EDUCATIONNational Academy of Agricultural Research ManagementCentral Agricultural University

NATIONAL UNIVERSITIES (RESEARCH & EDUCATION)Indian Agricultural Research InstituteIndian Veterinary Research InstituteNational Dairy Research InstituteIndian Institute of Fisheries Education

The impulses of economic reforms have been relatively less in scope and depth in the agricultural sector. Reforms in this sector were introduced only towards the end of the 1990s. These have included, inter alia, the following: (a) partial decontrol of fertilizer prices, (b) removal of bottlenecks in agricultural marketing, (c) relaxation of restrictions under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 and (d) introduction of forward trading in important commercial crops.

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3.2 Meeting the Objectives:-

1) Investment in agriculture has suffered a decline over the past two decades. Capital formation in agriculture and allied sectors in relation to GDP started declining in the 1980s which has adversely affected irrigation and rural infrastructure development. Therefore, investment in agriculture particularly in irrigation needs to be increased.

2) The present day agricultural crisis can be converted into an opportunity for not only reversing the decline, but for taking the agricultural revolution forward by helping farm families to bridge the gap between potential and actual yields in all major farming systems to mutually reinforcing packages of technologies, services and public policies. Progress in agriculture should be measured by the growth rate in the net income of farm families, if the human dimension is to be added to agricultural policies.

3) Self-sufficiency, maintaining low food price, raising agricultural exports, investments for upgrading production potential in a cost-effective and sustainable mode are over-riding concern in agriculture. In the post-WTO era, both export and import of the country have increased substantially. However, increase in imports of food items is relatively higher than in export. This trend is adversely affecting self-reliance in agriculture which needs to be reversed.

4) Substantial public investment in infrastructure and supportive policies, involving agricultural marketing, production, processing, trade, etc. is needed to create a favourbale environment for the development of agriculture in the country. Increasing population, need to maintain self-sufficiency, national food and nutritional security and raising the income of farmers necessitate substantial increase in the agricultural output.

5) In order to achieve Ever-Green Revolution, emphasis is to be laid on rainfed agriculture so as to make these gray areas green. This is critical for sustainability, improved livelihood and income of resource poor farmers.

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6) Agriculture marketing in the country is going through a phase of major transformation. The marketing reforms permitting setting up of competitive agricultural markets in private and cooperative sector, promote direct marketing and contract farming. This has opened the doors for farmers and for all scales of business to participate in areas such as setting up private agricultural markets, marketing infrastructure, supply chain and logistic, banking, finance and other Agri-marketing services.

Market driven diversification in global perspective has become the new paradigm driving future agriculture growth. Livestock, fisheries, horticulture, specialty enterprises (spices, medicinal, aromatic, organic) and value added products has great potential for export.

7) A new thrust in biotechnology, nanotechnology and information & communication technology (ICT) can contribute technologies to resolve key concerns related to agriculture. The key concerns include the need of energy for use in agriculture, enabling access to information, knowledge and skills through use of ICTs for agricultural communities, enabling food safety and control of animal and plant diseases and their spread, ensuring environmental safety and sustainable use of natural resources.

8) Post-harvest and value addition in agricultural and horticultural crops and livestock products should be given priority so that farmers can get additional employment and income. There is great scope for export of fruits, vegetables, flowers, meat and fish provided international standards with respect to quality and packaging can be ensured.

3.3 Research issues & challenges:-Confederation of Indian Industry points out that Indian agriculture still suffers from:-

Poor productivity. Falling water levels. Expensive credit. A distorted market. Many intermediaries who increase cost but do not add much value. Laws that stifle private investment. Controlled prices.72

Poor infrastructure. Produce that does not meet international standards. Inappropriate research. Tax evasion by unorganized sector leading to the lack of a level

playing field.

It is here the challenge arises considering the implementation of the technology at various levels in the Global community. The need of the hour is not application of the technology but the adoption of appropriate technology, which would suit the particular level of the global community. In India, the farming practices are too haphazard and non-scientific and hence need some forethought before implementing any new technology.

Applications of agricultural inputs at uniform rates across the field without due regard to in-field variations in soil fertility and crop conditions does not yield desirable results in terms of crop yield. The management of in-field variability in soil fertility and crop conditions for improving the crop production and minimizing the environmental impact is the crux of precision farming.

Thus, the information on spatial variability in soil fertility status and crop conditions is a pre-requisite for adoption of precision farming. Space technology including global positioning system (GPS) and GIS holds good promise in deriving information on soil attributes and crop yield, and allows monitoring seasonally- variable soil and crop characteristics, namely soil moisture, crop-phenology, growth, evapotranspiration, nutrient deficiency, crop disease, and weed and insect infestation, which, in turn, help in optimizing inputs and maximizing crop yield and income. Though widely adopted in developed countries, the adoption of precision farming in India is yet to take a firm ground primarily due to its unique pattern of land holdings, poor infrastructure, lack of farmers’ inclination to take risk, socio-economic and demographic conditions.

3.4 Research questions:- Critical issues in Indian agriculture:-

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The critical issues that plague Indian agriculture at present are the knowledge deficit and infrastructure deficit, especially in the rural areas. Problems related to irrigation infrastructure, market infrastructure and transport infrastructure add significant cost to farmers' operations. Another issue is lack of delivery mechanisms. There are a number of schemes aimed towards developing agriculture. We don’t have effective delivery mechanisms that can translate those into effective facilitation at the ground level, in terms of increasing productivity or decreasing cost or increasing price realization. Inadequate government support exacerbates these issues. Government failure is a major concern in agriculture because the high risks involved make help and facilitation necessary. Like any other business enterprise, agriculture is subjected to high risks because of the volatile nature of the factors involved. For instance, weather is often a problem - you have droughts in one year and heavy rains in the next. In both cases, farmers lose out, hence they have to look for a normal period to make money. Government, therefore, has to play a major role in providing support to farmers. This is true all over the world and there is hardly any country where government intervention is not present. There may of course be variations in the extent of intervention; but if you check the situation in most countries or regions, including developed ones like the US, Canada and the European Union, you see substantial intervention by the government. Thus government facilitation is essential for sound agricultural development.

The irrigation infrastructure in India is disparate in its access and reach to various regions in the country. Similar irrigation facilities do not occur across all regions and within the same region not all farmers have equal access. What are the main reasons for this inefficiency? Irrigation in India can be broadly classified into two parts: the surface irrigation part and the ground water part. The issues related to each of these are completely different. As far as surface irrigation is concerned, there are a few major problems. One is the system management itself. We do not effectively manage water bodies, in terms of how much water is stored, how much is being used for irrigation, or what value we can add to this water. This is partly because it is seen more of an engineering kind of work rather than looking holistically that its main purpose is irrigation. We, therefore, do

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not have the mindset to make the best use of water for irrigation purposes. Consequently, water use efficiency is very poor in India and remains a major concern. According to many estimates, the extent of area irrigated compared to the capacity built is very low, averaging about 40%. We have problems like water logging at the head part of the water bodies and deficit at the tail-ends. Big dams have their own problems like rehabilitation of people, ecological concerns and whether they adequately serve their purpose. So these are issues with respect to surface irrigation. If you look at groundwater, the major issue is equity. Those who have better abilities to extract water take away disproportionately from groundwater aquifiers. This gives rise to various problems. One is that if groundwater is closer to the coastal area, groundwater may get mixed with salt which affects everybody and is a negative externality. In many other places, groundwater level goes down drastically and often the wells go dry, making it difficult to get even drinking water. So we have dual problems related to availability of drinking water as well as access of groundwater to the poor.

There have been criticisms of the current policies in managing food scarcity caused by drought and failure of rains. What is your opinion about the current food policy and food security in India? The basic question is that whether the government should be doing so many things i.e. getting into PDS etc. or should it only come in when there is a drought or famine. The current debate is that we need to ensure that there is enough food for people and there is access to food. The issue is that we have a trend that focuses more on wheat & paddy and their growth rate and productivity has not been very high. There are concerns are about whether we can actually feed the growing population or not. Some issues that are emerging are that should we also look at the local food sufficiency or not. Earlier every area would have one or the other food crop but because of the popularization of rice and wheat we may have lost many coarse cereals and therefore the ability to produce these coarse cereals. Though now we do realize that nutritionally they are important so should we have more of a local focus on food security depending on the requirement and ability to produce food grains? Should we see whether the food grain produced in that area is able to meet the requirement of that area and what could be done on say the

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technology front so that these cereals could be produced locally and in difficult areas and thus ensure food security.

At the national level there is repeated talk about interlinking of rivers and small dams. How feasible are these two proposals? One part is that it is considered enormously expensive. We also do not know if we will be able to manage the systems well, given the fact that large systems have not been well-managed in the past. We may also end up creating unintended problems like flooding in certain areas and worsen the existing situation. At some point we have to talk about how to manage better the existing systems, let alone creating new systems. If 40% of the command area is being irrigated, our focus should be about managing them well rather than creating new dams. So those are issues we need to look at and try to streamline current systems than spending enormously on new big projects.

3.5 Motivation:-Every research is based on a motivation because what makes people to undertake research? This is an always a question of fundamental importance. Our motivations behind this project are-

Desire to face the challenge in solving the unsolved problems, i.e., concern over practical problems initiates research

Desire to be of service to society

However, this is not an exhaustive list .Many more factors such as directives of government, curiosity about new things; desire to understand causal relationships, social thinking and awakening are also play an important role to choose this area as our research.

Entrepreneurship motivational and sustainability factors Entrepreneurship originally conceived by Schumpeter (1934) expanded its innovative domain from independent businessperson, an employee or manager of a firm, to development of a new product or service, a new channel of distribution, or the organization of an entire industry (Birkinshaw2000). It is a process presents the dynamics of the individual and the context (Gartner 1985; Scolt & Anderson 1994; Solymossy1997). In agriculture due to fluctuating price and agriculture yield, marginal size of

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landholdings and dependency on wage employment at the time of crises resulting that rural households constructs a diverse portfolio of activities and social support capabilities for survival in order to improve their standard of living (Ellis 2000 & Berry 1980). Further the consequence of widespread poverty associated with low educational levels among a significant part of the population and the absence of social safety nets, a typical rural household diversifying its income by including seasonal migration; drawing upon communal resources-village common lands and forests; drawing upon social relationship –patronage, kinship and informal credit network; drawing upon household stores (of food, fuel, etc.) and adjusting current consumption; and finally drawing upon assets (Franco 1999 &Bina Agarwal 1990).Leibenstein identified two motivational factors `interfirm’ (determined by personality qualities many of which derive idea from McClelland & Hagen) and opportunity set variables. Motivational factors emerged from the empirical researches on entrepreneurs such as desire to start a business, need for autonomy, need for challenges & self –actualization, internal locus of control, prior work experience desire for applause are further conditioned by a variety of forces: job, family needs, debts and obligations and the routine of everyday life also equally applies to rural micro agri.-linked businesses. The bulk of early research on entrepreneurship discussed entrepreneurship as a function of psychological and personality characteristics (McClell 1961 and Brock haws1982). Wilken (1979), Shapero (1984) and Chell (1984) considered Govt. Policy and programmes as influential factors in creating an environment that can hinder or encourage entrepreneurship. Bull and Willard identified four conditions underwhich entrepreneurship occurs. The conditions are (i) task-related motivation, (ii) expertise (present know-how plus confidence to be able to obtain the needed know-how), (iii) expectation of gain for self (economic and /or psychic benefits), and (iv)a supportive environment including institutional new entrepreneurial talents are now being considered to be a viable alternative to many framework. Other entrepreneurial development factors are Systematic training intervention(McClelland & Reddy 2003), innovative curriculum design (Sushil & Tulsi 1990), supportive community framework (Nandy 1973), entrepreneurial information sharing strategy (Kristiansen 2003), expansion of credit through liberal bankfinancing (Samir 2002), participation in trade shows, fairs and exhibitions (Mohanty and Acharya 2003), strengthening collaborative framework between promotions and supporting institutions (Mensah 2002),

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ensuring availability of raw material supply of power and water (Akhtarudin 2000), adequate technical & infrastructural support (Andrease,Peter 1996) etc. Maithai and Jaitly (1998) demonstrated that rural entrepreneurship developed on cooperative basis is more effective, fruitful, and durable and minimizes various risks involved.

3.6 Research Methodology:-1. The research problem: The purpose of this project is to do study of

government schemes which employ constructive active learning pedagogy, teach higher order thinking skills, and that introduce analysing skills to MBA students. We will do the rigorous study of government schemes then go to check the real status of these schemes in the rural areas to check the awareness and find the perception of usefulness for the agriculture Schemes.

2. Extensive literature survey: This is the most important part of any research because it gives us the understanding to do our research in the right direction .So we undertake extensive literature survey connected with the problem. For this purpose, we go to the abstracting and indexing journals and published or unpublished bibliographies. We tapped academic journals, conference proceedings, government reports, books etc.

3. Working hypotheses: Null Hypothesis : There is no relation between awareness and perception of usefulness of government schemes in rural areas and their success.

Alternative Hypothesis : There is relation between awareness and perception of usefulness of government schemes in rural areas and their success.

4. Research design:

For our research we obtain the information from extensive Literature Review and Rural Survey. As the purpose of our research study is that of exploration that why we chose a flexible research design which provides opportunity for considering many different aspects of a problem

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5. Determining sample design: As the total geographical area of interest is big one we chose Area Sampling. Area Sampling is quite close to cluster sampling and is often talked about when the total geographical area of interest happens to be big one. Under area sampling we first divide the total area into a number of smaller non-overlapping areas, generally called geographical clusters, then a number of these smaller areas are randomly selected, and all units in these small areas are included in the sample. Area sampling is especially helpful where we do not have the list of the population concerned. It also makes the field interviewing more efficient since interviewer can do many interviews at each location.

Flow chart of our Research Design:-

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Literature Review

Sort out the problemsDesign Final Questionnaire

Pilot Survey to check the Sample Questionnaire

Design Sample Questionnaire

Choose the most important schemes for our research Project

6. Collecting the data: First to design our questionnaire we collect information from internet, journals, academic report and government offices. After designing questionnaire we go to village for rural survey. Collect raw data from our research. We interviewed villager on 5 different villages to get detail and unbiased information about government schemes.

7. Execution of the project: To execute our project a very important step is research process. Approximately 4 months for our project. We divide our time such a manner that we are able to complete our research within predetermined time.

I. Literature Review one and half monthII. Sampling of questionnaire 15 days

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Show the Findings

Interviewed Rural People

Alternative hypothesis trueNull Hypothesis true

If more awareness and perception of usefulness of government schemes in rural

areas with more success

Find the relation between awareness and perception of usefulness of government schemes in rural areas and their success

Analyze the data

III. Plot survey and design final questionnaire 20 daysIV. Final survey and analysis of data 1 month

8. Analysis of data: After the data have been collected, we turn to the task of analyzing them. For the analysis of data we have done number of closely related operations such as establishment of categories, the application of these categories to raw data through coding, tabulation and then drawing statistical inferences. Thus, we have classified the raw data into some purposeful and usable categories. Coding operation we have done at this stage through which the categories of data are transformed into symbols that may be tabulated and counted.

Editing is the procedure we have done that improves the quality of the data for coding. With coding the stage is ready for tabulation.Tabulation operation we done for the getting data in the form of tables. Analysis work after tabulation is generally based on the computation of various percentages, coefficients, etc., by applying various well defined statistical formulae. The technique of analysis of variance help us in analyzing whether three or more varieties of seeds grown on certain fields yield significantly different results or not. In brief, the we have analyzed the collected data with the help of various statistical measures.

9. Hypothesis-testing: To test our hypothesis we conduct survey in 5 villages and interviewed rural people about the schemes. With the data Analysis we are able to check the validity of our hypothesis.

10. Generalizations and Conclusion: After testing hypothesis we are able to generalize our finding and come to the conclusion that whether there is relation between awareness and perception of usefulness of government schemes in rural areas and their success or not. If yes what is the behavior positive or negative.

3.7 CONCLUSION:-India lives in villages. The villagers depend on agriculture. They are either farmers or workers on the agricultural fields. Ours industries and urban business also depend on agriculture. Thus, an Indian farmer truly represents India. He can be called the son of the soil and also the backbone of India. It is on his sweet and labour that our progress and prosperity depend. We all

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know that our backbone gives us support to our body. If something becomes to our backbone we will suffer many problems. In same way farmers are said to be backbone of India. If something will become to farmer then India will suffer many problems. He supports us by producing all basic food needs like grains, vegetables, milk, etc. It is he who feeds and clothes the people. An Indian farmer is very hard working and very busy throughout the year. For him there is no rest nor weekend holiday. He is engaged in tilling the soil, sowing the seeds, watering the fields, reaping and harvesting the crop and then taking it to the market to sell it. And yet he is very poor. He is being exploited by the money-lenders and the middleman. He is unable to   recover his money spent during the harvesting period. His needs are few and simple and yet they are not met. Their exploitation should be stopped. They should be distributed agricultural land. They should be given cheap loans and other facilities. They should be given better seeds, fertilizers and return for their produce. The irrigation facilities should be improved.

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