 |
|
| AGRICULTURE TRIBUNE | Monday, May 12, 2003, Chandigarh, India |
Jerky start, but hope is not lost JALANDHAR PATIALA LUDHIANA
|
|
|
Jerky start, but hope is not lost
NOTWITHSTANDING
the strident criticism from various quarters, especially certain politicians, contract farming is gaining popularity in Punjab, which has been facing a crisis on the agricultural front for the past few years because of several factors. Contract farming has been implemented through the Punjab Agro Foodgrains Corporation, a subsidiary of the Punjab Agro Industries Corporation. The primary objective of contract farming is to promote diversification by pursuing farmers to sow commercial crops instead of traditional ones like wheat and
paddy. It is a recognised fact that the wheat-paddy cropping pattern is now getting out of hand. Punjab’s godowns are overflowing. Of late, the Union Government has started dragging its feet on procuring wheat and rice. From the current year, the government has frozen the minimum support price (MSP) for wheat and the same is expected for paddy in October this year. A crisis situation has developed. Diversification is presented as the mantra for this situation. The concept of contract farming has been introduced to achieve this end. The Punjab Agro Foodgrains Corporation has fixed a target of about 3 lakh acres to divert to non-wheat and paddy crops this year in the state. However, it is expected that the target will be exceeded as more and more farmers are showing interest in contract farming. From the traditional paddy crop, farmers are interested in shifting to basmati, which has a ready market and fetches a good price. The system The Punjab Agro Foodgrains Corporation is making no investment in contract farming. It is just playing the role of a facilitator, or an enabling agency, between the farmers and the parties prepared to buy their contracted produce. The corporation helps farmers sign the agreements.
A VIEWPOINT Food politics for clout Food is a major political weapon recognised all over the world. Punjab is a tiny state, so it can’t have much clout in national politics as can Uttar Pradesh or Andhra Pradesh. However, for long Punjab succeeded in maintaining its clout as well as identity at the national level by producing record amounts of foodgrains every year and making the country self sufficient on this front, apart from producing excellent soldiers to protect the country’s borders. However, because of the problem of plenty on the foodgrains front, Punjab has started losing its clout. The Union Government feels that Punjab’s foodgrain production has become a liability. To re-establish the sway it held, it has become a must for the state to frame its agriculture policy in a manner that the dependence of the Centre on it (Punjab) continues. A drastic cut in the area under wheat for a few years can make the Centre refocus on Punjab as, the plenty notwithstanding, it can ill afford to have a drop in the overall foodgrain production.
S.D. The private companies have further engaged organisations that provide quality seeds and guidance with regard to the technical know-how and farming practices (though there are complaints on that front). In fact, these expert agencies are also supposed to do the grading of farmers’ produce and buy the same on behalf of the private companies. In other words, expert agencies are to remain in the picture most of the time. The crops Following interaction with experts, winter and spring maize, basmati, durum wheat, guar, mentha, barley, moong, hyola and sunflower have been selected as crops for contract farming. More can be added to the list in due course. The major response among these is to sunflower, maize, basmati, and hyola (gobi sarson). It is estimated that over 1 lakh acres will be contracted for the transplantation of basmati during the coming paddy season. During the last crop about 1000 acres were covered under barley and about 1500 acres under sunflower. The area under sunflower in last season was is 8236 acres and in the coming sowing season the area under guar is expected to be about 7000 acres. Certain vegetables are also to be brought in the purview of contract farming. Big companies, especially those associated with the agricultural sector by way of manufacturing tractors and other farming machinery, have been entering contract farming. Among these are Mahindra and Mahindra’s Shubh Labh, Escorts’s agri division and the DCM-Sriram group. Ground reality Reports from the fields are neither very discouraging nor very encouraging. There is a mixed bag of results for farmers who entered contract farming last year. Winter maize did not perform on the expected lines because of the prolonged winter. At certain places reports regarding the “not so good quality” of seed were also received. However, in the case of hyola, which was sown on a larger scale for the first time under the contract farming arrangement (798 acres by 3924 farmers), the results are satisfactory almost all over the state, except in certain pockets. The maximum per-acre hyloa yield ranged between 7 and 11 quintals, in Hoshiarpur district. The average price fetched by farmers in that district was Rs 1820 per quintal against the contracted price of Rs 1340. Farmers were allowed to sell hyola in the open market at a higher price, rather than to contracting companies. Mr Kirpa Shankar Saroz, Additional Managing Director of Punjab Agro, who is supervising the contract farming operations, says that such flexibility was kept in the contract to allow farmers sale of their produce in the open market. The average yield of hyola in 14 districts was 8.55 quintals. In certain areas of Mansa, Ludhiana and Hoshiarpur the yield was recorded over 10 quintals. However, overall, the state’s average was 6.44 quintals per acre, with Ludhiana topping. Kapurthala and Ropar are the two districts that remained at the bottom of the hyola yield. Crop economics wise, the average per acre return from hyola varied from Rs 7671 in Ropar district to Rs 14,235 in Ludhiana district, with a state average of Rs 11,872. The return from hyola, at least this year, was better as compared to wheat in almost all parts of the state. The return per acre from wheat this year was around Rs 10,000 per acre because of the poor yield and low MSP. |
|
JALANDHAR AS unprecedented weather conditions led to damage of certain crops, good results of the much-publicised Punjab Government-initiated contract farming proved to be a distant dream for a number of farmers of the Doaba region for various factors. Most of the farmers contacted by The Tribune maintain that apart from frost, fog and below-normal temperature, which prevailed during the later half of January, the biggest factor that has discouraged them is the lower-than-promised yield and failure of the Punjab Agro authorities—with whom they entered into contract—to do a proper follow-up in the post-sowing period, as was promised by them. While the winter maize variety is said to have suffered complete damage, the average yield of hyola, a variant of mustard, has been assessed to be between six to seven quintals per acre in contrast to the promised 12 quintals. Most farmers also blame the delayed supply of seed. The only solace came in the shape of the good market price that hyola commanded. Baljinder Singh of Kot Sadique village in Jalandhar district, who tried the contract system by sowing one acre of hyola, maintains that his experience with the system was not as good as he was made to expect. He claims that he was promised by Punjab Agro officials that the yield potential was above 12 quintals per acre. However, the actual yield was just about six quintals. “First of all, we were supplied the seed in December, even though the recommended sowing time is October. Though I do agree that unfavourable weather conditions contributed to the damage, but the biggest discouraging factor was complete lack of supervision of the crop by officials in the post-sowing period. Nobody advised us. Nobody came to us to enquire about the crop loss we suffered,” says Baljinder Singh. However he sold the crop in the market at a rate of Rs 2000 per quintal. Similarly, Harpreet Singh of Sadhuwal village in Hoshiarpur district says that he too, like a number of farmers of his area, was enthusiastic about the contract farming of hyola, but low yield deflated his hopes to an extent. Harpreet Singh, who had sown about three and a half acres of hyola, claims that he got just about seven quintals from an acre. “The only encouragement was the good price of Rs 1900 per quintal that it fetched in the open market, where I was forced to go as nobody came to pick up the crop as was promised,” says Harpreet Singh, adding that late supply of seed and weather also did the damage. However, he says farmers of his area are still optimistic about the contract system. The experience of Baldev Singh of Fatehpur village in Garshankar subdivision was not much different. His yield of hyola was also about five and a half quintals per acre. He sold his crop in the open market at a rate of Rs 1600 per quintal “for want of marketing facility.” Mr Naresh Gulati, an agriculture expert, maintains that the entire area of about 250 acres under the winter maize crop in Jalandhar district suffered total damage, while 150-200 acres of hyola resulted in an average yield of about six to seven quintals for a number of factors like unfavourable weather and late sowing. |
|
PATIALA FARMERS in this region who entered contracts for farming with the Punjab Government have felt cheated as the first crop reached the market. They say they were promised the moon when the seeds were given to them, but almost all contracted crops have shown low yields and improper buyback arrangements. During the last rabi season farmers were given seeds of hyola mustard (gobi sarson), winter maize and barley, which were planted in 438, 69 and 325 acres, respectively. The results were far from satisfactory. In the case of hyola while the farmers were told of a potential of 14 quintals per acre, they averaged four to five quintals. In the case of barley, as against a projected potential of 22 quintals per acre, farmers could get only 12 to 14 quintals. In winter maize, the results were simply tragic. The crop could not acclimatise to the temperature and there were problems in germination itself. Whatever did come up, withered soon after, leaving farmers without any produce. Planting of all the three crops was coordinated by Punjab Agro, which had tied up with private companies for selling seeds to the farmers. Punjab Agro also distributed seeds for two other crops, pea and durum wheat, to farmers in the district through private companies. In the case of pea, there was a spell of winter rain that caused fungus in the produce. This resulted in large-scale rejection of the crop, forcing farmers to sell in the open market. Sukhpal Singh of Bishenpur Channa in Patiala block claims that only part of his produce was procured, while he had to sell much of it in the open market even though it was of good quality. In the case of durum wheat also farmers complained that the buyback arrangement was not proper. Dayal Singh of Kakrala village in Nabha block complains that he was harassed and had to sell his produce in the grain market. Farmers and agricultural experts, talking to The Tribune, said farmers should be given a “minimum” guarantee while signing contracts. Private firms distributing the seeds or the facilitating organisation should honour this guarantee in case of low yields. This time farmers were told of the maximum yield possible; the problems, whether of climate or otherwise, resulted in disillusionment about the contract farming scheme. Meanwhile, sources disclose another unwelcome step introduced in the contract farming scheme this year: Punjab Agro made it mandatory for the farmers to give a service charge of Rs 150 per acre to the private company supplying the seed as well as a membership fee of Rs 100. The sources said in case 30,000 acres were put under contract farming, the private company in charge of providing the seeds would have netted Rs 45 lakh as service charges besides Rs 5 lakh as membership fee. The sources said even private companies like Pepsi were not taking service charges from farmers for contracted crops. This season, basmati and maize will be contracted. Sources said there was still enthusiasm for contract farming among farmers because of the projected yields. They, however, said the only way diversification could become a reality was if the government provided a minimum support price for crops other than wheat and paddy. “When this is done and farmers are assured profits for other crops similar to or more than wheat and paddy, diversification will have arrived in the state,” say farmers. |
 |
LUDHIANA TO diversify or not to diversify is the dilemma facing the farmers of the state today. Their experiments with high-sounding schemes to break the wheat-paddy monoculture in the past have come a cropper. As such, they are wary of going in for any new venture, government claims notwithstanding. While some farmers, having burnt their fingers, have quietly switched back to the traditional rice and wheat, others have reaped rich dividends by embracing the new order, where multi cropping and allied ventures like piggery and poultry have indeed proved to be viable. A progressive farmer from Urna village, near Macchhiwara, Buta Singh Kular, who joined hands with the PAFC, is a happy man, and he has reason to be so. Taking to intercropping, he has successfully grown winter maize. He claims he has already earned more than Rs 12,000 per acre from selling his pea crop, which was inter-cultivated in the maize fields, and he expects an additional Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 per acre from the standing crop. He also says that he has already transplanted mentha as an inter-crop in the maize field and expects to pocket another Rs 10,000 to Rs 12, 000 per acre, thus fetching Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000 per acre. The best part is that he still would grow basmati in the same field, he declares proudly. Similarly, Rai Singh, another progressive farmer of Hariou village, near Samrala, took to growing hyola and is a beacon to the farmers of his area. He says he earned Rs 3,000 more per acre by growing hyola than he would have earned by sowing wheat on his 10-acre farm. “I had entered into a contract with Punjab Agro and was told that I was free to sell my produce in the open market if the price was higher, but could also sell it back to the company if the price was lower. I sowed the crop on two acres for a minimum support price of Rs 1340. “However, at the time of harvesting the price in the open market was Rs 1,670, so I sold it there. The wheat on other parts of my farm brought me only about 11,500 per acre, as compared to Rs 14,000 per acre from hyola. Earlier, I used to grow sugarcane, but since the government is yet to clear my dues, I have switched over to wheat. But in view of the profits, I will now go in for contract farming on all my land,” he says. Both farmers emphasised that the crops required less water, fertilisers and pesticides and were harvested when labour is easily available. |
Hyola (a mustard variety) fetched better-than- expected price.