IE has been pointing to the decline in the contribution of agriculture to the gross state domestic product (from 25 per cent in 1993-94 to 13.3 per cent in 2005-06), to the poor growth rate of agriculture in the state (less than the national average through the last decade) and to the rapid urbanization of the state that has been contributing to the migration of farm labour from rural areas resulting in a shortage of farm hands and to high costs. I was, therefore, happy over the Southern India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI) organizing jointly with the department of agriculture, government of Tamil Nadu, a two day Agri Summit on revitalization of agriculture in Tamil Nadu.

The summit had eight technical sessions addressed by experts from domestic companies and MNCs and the Tamil Nadu Agriculturel University.

A Vellayan, chairman - Agri Summit organizing committee and vice president - SICCI, referred to the state aiming an annual growth of four per cent in agriculture and eight per cent in horticulture that will contribute to the generation of employment, alleviation of poverty and strengthening of food security.

Low productivity…

Vellayan referred to the productivity differences between China and Tamil Nadu for a few crops: rice (6341 kg/ha in China and 2541 kg/ha in Tamil Nadu); groundnut (2793 kg/ha and 1775 kg/ha) cotton (4209 kg/ha and 260 kg/ha) and pulses (3571 kg/ha and 337 kg/ha). He attributed the reasons for the higher productivity in China to much higher levels of investment in bio-technology R&D, development of 5000 high yielding varieties in 40 crops, focus on hybrid seeds and higher consumption of fertilizers.

Vellayan also referred to the extensive pressure on land due to urbanization, shrinking areas under cultivation, fragmentation of land holding, decline in average size of land- holding, depletion of ground water due to over exploitation, degradation of land and declining nutrient status of soil and soil health.

SICCI suggested policy directions that would encourage contract farming, increased investment in crop breeding and biotechnology, effective usage of fertilizers, soil testing and correction through appropriate micro nutrients, farm mechanization and micro-irrigation.

S Kosalaraman, director of agriculture, government of Tamil Nadu referred to the steps taken by the government to increase productivity through intensive cultivation, focus on seeds, micro-irrigation, optimising use of fertilizers and mechanisations.

In the exhibition organized along with the summit, leading fertilizer companies like Coromandel Fertilisers, Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilisers, SPIC and EID Parry, other MNCs like Monsanto and PepsiCo, leading farm equipment manufacturers like Mahindra & Mahindra displayed their products and services.

In the well-thought technical sessions, experts and specialists referred to the current developments in the use of seeds, pesticides, micro irrigation, fertilizers, mechanization, food processing... Other facets of mitigating risk and use of technology and management were discussed.

Farm mechanisation - urgent need

An aspect that received good attention related to the need for simple farm tools and equipment that would reduce drudgery and improve farm productivity. In the session on farm mechanisation, TNAU, TN Agri Engineering and Mahindra & Mahindra pointed to the several farm equipment that are today available. Surprisingly, through these 60 years of continued focus on agriculture through the Centre and state governments, especially, the Indian Council of Agriculture Research and the large number of agriculture universities and the advent of a number of tractor and farm equipment manufacturers, little progress has been made in this area. The several products referred to were equipment imported from Japan, South Korea, China… These are pretty expensive and cannot be afforded by an average farmer owning a couple of acres of land. Unfortunately, there is also the absence of governmental and private organizations that would make available such equipment on hire at affordable costs.

Today Tamil Nadu faces the problem of acute shortage of farm labour; these are not available in required numbers, at the needed time and at costs that are affordable. Look at the dis-economies: the cost of cutting a tonne of sugarcane was around Rs. 50 in the 1980s. Today it has shot up to Rs. 400. The successive and steep increases in cane prices are mostly spent on this steep increase in cane cutting charges. The alternative of mechanisation is unaffordable - the sophisticated cane harvester costs over a crore of rupees! And these are not adapted to the small sized Indian farms.

There is urgent need to step up research and development efforts on designing and mass-producing simple farm equipment. Surprisingly the IIT, the Anna University and the 250 plus engineering colleges are involved in pursuit of exotic R&D projects in robotics and similar areas that do not have immediate relevance or application to the needs of the average Indian farmer. Despite dozens of fertilizer companies operating profitably for decades, there is no focus on soil testing and correction and on the optimum use of fertilizers. Vellayan, heading Coromandel Fertilisers, referred to the enormous wastages involved in this. The state machinery and the agri university, once known for their passionate and effective extension work, today appear listless and ineffective. We see on the one hand massive step up of outlays on agriculture but, as P Chidambaram often used to lament, there is no relation between outlays and outcomes.

Busloads of farmers…

A welcome feature of the summit was the effort taken by the organizers to bring busloads of a couple of hundred farmers from distant districts and provided them the opportunity to interact with experts. Simultaneous translation of the speeches from English to Tamil was a big help. Several speakers endeavoured to speak in Tamil (like Mahindra & Mahindra's Anthony Cherukara) despite hailing from other states. Only, as in most other such summits, the programme did not leave much time for interaction with the farmers; especially with several academics liberally over-shooting time, the organizers were concerned more with allotting time to the listed speakers than for interactions. SICCI and TNAU can model organizing such fairs on the lines of the farmers' fair of the Punjab Agriculture University that draws farmers in their thousands; the farmers get to know the latest developments in agriculture research and also advise on emerging trends in agri practices, quality seeds and other inputs, farm equipment and methods to increase yields. The limitation of organizing the fair at a five star hotel was evident from the inability of the exhibitors to sell some of their products (eg: fertilizers and other inputs from Coromandel Fertilisers) to those interested.

Vellayan and his CFL / EID Parry were the sprit behind organizing this summit. SPIC, the fertilizer giant, though displayed its products and services, is presently through serious difficulties. Other leaders like TAFE and Madras Fertilisers were absent reflecting the listlessness of the farm leadership of the state to work together for a common purpose.

On the sidelines of the subject, Vellayan referred to an interesting initiative of CFL, Mana Gromor, to assist farmers get the inputs they require as well as credit in a single shop, farm inputs and technical advice without any hassles; it presently focuses on Andhra Pradesh. "There will be 400 such centres by March 2009; each catering to around 5000 farmers; these will benefit around 2 lakh farmers. Alongside there is also provision for other mass rural marketers like Airtel to sell their wares and services.” Vellayan referred to plans to extend such services to other marketing areas of his company like Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

This initiative is welcome and needs to be scaled up to pull Tamil Nadu out of the stagnation and decay in which the state's agriculture has fallen.