Wheat Package - For Whose Benefit ?

Wheat package: for whose benefit ? - Bhaskar Goswami

The Hindu, 8 Oct 2006 - http://www.hindu.com/op/2006/10/08/stories/2006100800371400.htm

It is designed to camouflage government's flawed policies that led to imports this year.

Does the following sound familiar?
Wheat productivity has declined in the past decade and the Ministry of Agriculture has therefore unveiled a "fresh" plan to enhance it. Across 138 districts which have assured irrigation, a subsidy package for replacing existing seeds, sprinkler and drip irrigation, diesel for irrigation, fertilizers, and extension services geared to promote improved package of practices will help increase productivity.

The Centre will meet half the cost of Rs. 2,480 crore while the States and farmers will have to share the balance. Like many other Centrally sponsored schemes, this too is designed to aid unprofitable agriculture input - producers of the government and the private sector.

The detachment of the mandarins at the Ministry from reality is obvious from what this package offers. Terming the seed saved by farmers as unproductive, the government wants to increase the seed replacement rate (SRR).

While advocating this they ignore the fact that being a self pollinated crop, wheat seed need not be replaced every year. Careful selection of seed from the previous year's harvest can well serve the purpose, which most farmers have been doing for ages.
That seed replacement has little to do with increasing the productivity of wheat can be seen from the case of Punjab which produces more than 42 quintals a hectare with an SRR of less than 5 per cent, while States such as Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh with much higher SRR of 18 and 15 per cent produce much less. Yet, Rs. 160 crore has been allocated for seed replacement which will certainly bring joy to the State seed corporations that are running at a loss.

Not fully effective :

Similarly, a Rs. 200 crore subsidy has been earmarked for micro-nutrients. Micro nutrients play an important role in maintaining productivity and it is now well known that deficiency of zinc in soil is principally responsible for the declining wheat yield.
However, chemical fertilizers cannot fully compensate for micro-nutrient deficiency as seen in Punjab where zinc supplements have failed to increase the yield. Organic manures, on the other hand, contain a range of trace elements that can tackle this problem.

However, no subsidy is made available to promote their application. As in the past, this subsidy will not benefit farmers but indeed help a few fertilizer companies to stay afloat. Another Rs. 150 crore allocated for diesel subsidy will rapidly deplete the aquifers while the pump manufacturers will laugh their way to the bank.

Subsidised sprinkler sets for drip irrigation is another intervention proposed. Sprinklers do have the potential to increase irrigation efficiency by providing water to match crop requirements. However, it has been seen that in irrigated areas sprinklers are not very popular as cropping pattern on such land is generally water-intensive.

While the Green Revolution contributed to India's food security, it seems the lessons learnt from the trail of devastation that this intervention has caused have been forgotten.
Thousands of hectares that earlier supported soil nourishing legumes were put under high yielding varieties of wheat and paddy and have now turned into wasteland. These water guzzling crops fed on chemical fertilizers have rendered the underground aquifers dry and the once productive soil completely barren.

Instead of enhancing productivity of wheat, the present package will further erode the natural resource base.
This package is designed to camouflage the government's flawed policies that led to wheat imports this year.