The challenge is to make ‘farming’ the ‘preferred occupation’

It is so sad that farmers see no point in continuing with their lives. We have to reverse that trend.

By Bimal Prasad Pandia

Sometimes in the early 1990s, I was among the few farmers chosen to undergo a training on hybrid paddy cultivation. Prior to that, I had already started demonstration cultivation of hybrid paddy. Then my district, Sonepur, was geographically divided into two distinct parts by the Mahanadi River. There was no bridge then. I was selected as the representative farmer of my block. The training was scheduled towards the end of July at the DAO office in Sonepur. The river was in spate. Boats were not making ferries. Being a young and enthusiastic farmer, I somehow managed to persuade few boatmen, who were known to me, to ferry us across. We (the farmers) were present at the venue by the stipulated time. But the scientists (who were to train us) or the officers (who were to manage us) were nowhere in sight. They reached at about 12 noon. The meeting started more than 2 hours behind the schedule. As soon as the meeting formally started, I stood up and raised my protest for the delayed start. The Chairman found an excuse in inclement weather for their delay in arriving. When I pointed out that the weather was no different to us and in addition we had to cross a violent Mahanadi river and still made up to the venue in time, the officer told me “that’s why we are paying you 25 rupees for attending the meeting.” I lost my sense of decency and immediately turned the big table on the people sitting on the dais, which included the officer. After they regained their posture, I told them, “Officer, look at my pant and shirt pockets. I can put many officers like you in each of those pockets. And you show me 25 rupees? And if at all you expect me to be present in time just because you are paying me 25 rupees, then my government is paying you in hundreds to do the same thing. Why aren’t you then reaching in time?” It was a different matter that in spite of being a ‘big farmer’, my earning was only a fraction of what the officer earned and thus my thundering that I keep officers like him in my pocket had no truthfulness.

But the reaction was the outcome of an aggrieved and avid farmer whose self esteem was badly hurt by an arrogant officer. In that case the officer beg apology and I accepted that. But the broad point here is that farmers in Orissa are treated that way most often. I mean they are treated with disdain in every sphere. That was not the only instance when I had to face such situation and such approach. I had to assert myself to restore my dignity each time I was faced with similar situation. My personal experience is that very few farmers are treated well by the officers and the authority. And most often than naught, such lucky farmers are engaged in other professions, like legal, polity, teaching etc. And whatever respects that they get accrue from the non-farming profession.

Ironically, the level of respect for a farmer is declining with each passing time. This is an outcome of linking respect with money and not with nobleness of the profession. The general perception is that those who do not find engagement anywhere find engagement in farming. Since, respect is being weighted in terms of money, even a mere gutkha shop owner commands more respect than a farmer. It is an irony that producers of the most necessary item for human survival get less respect than those whose services are not required or less required for survival or existence.

Since, CAPITAL has become ‘the word’ in every social and commercial dealings; farmer is getting more and more stressed as CAPITAL is eluding the farmer even with a lot of energy and expenditure. When even a peon has the ability to give good schooling to his wards, a farmer – how so ever big he may be - struggles. And that is not very easy to cope with these days.

The farmer has also tried to grow with new ideas and technologies. But the laws of economics and engineering innovations, that so well bolster other sectors, fail to apply that way in case of agriculture. The demand-supply mechanism is quite complex in agriculture. Even if you can somehow assess the demand, it is very difficult to get an idea of supply – considering numerous pulls in the production and supply chain and the gross unorganized nature of the sector. Unlike other sectors, utilization of new technology does not reduce the cost of agriculture production. But the farmer is forced to adopt those these days. Climatic factors and reduction in soil nutrient has made things more difficult. While the expenditure has gone up in one upward direction, the income has not only failed to correspond to expenditure but also has become more unstable. While purchasing power of everybody else has gone up, the farmers have been left lurching. In such circumstances, the stress on the farmer is becoming suffocating.

A close look at the profile of the farmers who have killed themselves clearly reveals this aspect. Most farmers were ‘farmers only’. Not like me who earns part from agriculture and part from elsewhere. They did not have a pan-shop, they did not collect and sell firewood, they did not work in unskilled job opportunities like the NREGS. They only toiled and more toiled in their agriculture fields. And they lost there. They did not have a supplementary or substitute options elsewhere. They did not want compassion. They wanted respect for their profession. But that element stayed wanting.

What the government is doing is nothing. At best it can be termed as a humiliating compassion. What else will you term the government’s declaration to compensate Rs 800 for a hectare of lost kharif crop? What is the value of Rs 800? Seed alone costs at least 125 percent more than that.

Our government takes pride in having a comprehensive agriculture policy? A new policy has replaced the earlier one. But the fate of agriculture has only deteriorated further. This will continue to happen as long as agriculture is seen merely as the sector giving employment to more than 70 percent of the workforce. Agriculture has to be seen differently. Agriculture has to be seen as social service. Those who render such service have to be considered as first class citizen. And if CAPITAL determines class of a citizen, then such environment has to be created where the farmer becomes a capitalist.

I believe that when farming will again become the preferred profession, we will have less farmer suicides. And that can happen only when a farmer’s purchasing power increases at par with other occupations. It will be great if we decide on ways to restore the pride of the farmer, not be compassionate on him.

Bimal Prasad Pandia
Email: bimalpandia@gmail.com
Cell: +91-9438488563 / 9937888566

Hirakud... Another instance of Subterfuge

Power gerneration curbed to mislead people about surplus-ability of Hirakud reservoir.

On Thursday the mega Hirakud dam project with installed capacity of 347.5 megawatt (MW) produced an average of only 2.83 MW. This was the lowest energy produced among all major hydro-power units in the state. When the state is reeling under acute power scarcity, the dam authorities are in no mood to open the gates for power generation. This is not new and water release for power generation from the dam has been severely curtailed soon after the monsoon. In a matter of couple weeks in the month of October 2008, power generation from Burla and Chipilima units fell steeply from 270 MW to less than 50. 
Not many will evince interest whether Hirakud is producing energy or not as long as they get energy. The government is riding on this assumption to play a clever ploy to hide facts relating to capacity of Hirakud reservoir in meeting various demands. The dam management is under pressure to prove that there is enough water in the reservoir even after industrial consumption. In that pursuit, the dam authorities are trying their best to ensure that water level of the dam does not reach anywhere near the dead level. 

Is the mighty reservoir empty or is the government trying to prove (or hide) something in stealth? 
As on Thursday, the reservoir was still having 11.2 percent of its utilizable water left in it. Other dams with even less water were producing more energy. The Rengali dam was left with barely 1 percent of utilizable water but used more than twice as much of Hirakud for energy generation. Similarly, the Balimela reservoir - almost half the size of Hirakud - is left with mere 1 percent of utilizable water, but is using nearly as much as Hirakud.  

The Hirakud reservoir is clearly shunning one of its priority objectives to prove some false claims by the government that there is enough water in the reservoir for every user even if industries are allowed water. By trying to end the summer season with more than dead level water, the government wants to achieve two things. The first is to soothe the agitating farmers by showing that industrialisation does not dry the reservoir as is being feared and therefore farmers need not worry. The second is to allay water shortage fears of industrial houses – who are having second thoughts on entering Orissa now. The Hirakud reservoir has been the single most dominant source of industrial water allocation and any indication of water shortage in the reservoir is bound to affect the Government’s allurement. 

There is another angle on why the dam authorities are reluctant to release water even during the fag end of the summer season. The net storage of water is still calculated on an old assessment that the net utilisable storage of the reservoir is 3.9 Million Acre Feet. But this assessment has no value as net utilisable storage has come down to 3.7 MAF which has been mentioned in the high level technical committee report constituted two years ago. Three years ago even when the reservoir level was 10 ft higher than the dead level – the level beyond which water release is not possible – water could not be released to the second largest canal in the Hirakud system. Now the government fears that even if water level stays quite above the dead level, water may still not be released into the canals and intake wells of the industries may also go dry. 

That may be the reason of why the government is in no mood to take risk which may expose its claim of surplus water in the Hirakud because it knows very well that all its arguments will be null and void even if scarcity comes to light even for few hours. If that happen, the farmers will get fresh ammunition in their arm to raise their pitch further and industries will lose their interest in Orissa. Surely, the government wants neither to happen and hence the all out effort to keep water in the reservoir till the monsoon arrives in few days.

Whatever be the predicament, the government is playing to fool the people, especially the farmers and the industries. It is also blatantly violating the State Water Policy 2007 which gives higher priority to energy generation than industrial use. Thus, the government must come clean on this. The circumstances demand nothing less than a WHITE PAPER on Hirakud considering its great role in providing water for irrigation, energy production and industrialisation and also being the only source to control flood in the Mahanadi River system. Otherwise history will never forget one of the most unfortunate and unfair practice played by a government to hoodwink people into a belief that Hirakud has enough water. 

N.B.: This article was published in editorial page of Odia daily 'Dharitri'.

Supreme Court's Heat on Government's Cool

As Supreme Court finds government cool to its ‘recommendations’, a rigorous ‘direction’ follows to make water available to people. But the Court's over reliance on science mars what could have otherwise been termed as historic judgement.

On Feb 19 this year, the Apex Court had ‘recommended’ immediate constitution of a committee to look for scientific solution to water scarcity. On April 26, it ‘ordered’ the government to do that and came out clear targets and time-frames while deciding a different case. Apex court gets louder and tougher as water crisis management fails to its expectations.

The ‘recommendation’ had come while a two judge division Bench was deciding on a writ petition filed by Government of Orissa that sought Court’s directive to the Central Government to constitute a ‘Water Dispute Tribunal’ to try disputes between Orissa and Andhra Pradesh over Vansadhara River water. The Court allowed the petition and ordered the Central Government to constitute a Tribunal ‘within six months’. But in addition to that the Court also held that water scarcity has become so immense that a Tribunal or a Court of Law cannot permanently find a solution to that. In that back drop, Justice Markandeya Katju in a separate concurrent judgment held that the Government is duty-bound to provide water to people. “The right to get water is a part of the right to life guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution,” opined Justice Katju. He was scathing as people everywhere in India are facing a lot of hardship for shortage of water. We don’t have problem of water. Its situation like ‘water water everywhere but not a drop to drink’, had said the Court. We have huge glaciers in the north, majestic oceans on the rest of three sides and numerous big and small rivers all across. Even then we are facing acute water shortage. This is a problem that Science can and should solve, thought the Court. “India has a strong heritage of science… The way out therefore for our nation is to once again turn to the scientific path shown by our ancestors - the path of Aryabhatta and Brahmagupta, Sushrut and Charak, Ramanujan and Raman,” advised the Court. The Court said that our scientists have the capacities. “There is no dearth of eminent scientists in the field who can solve this problem, but they have not been organized and brought together and not been requested by the Central and State Governments to do their patriotic and sacred duty to solve this problem, nor given the facilities for this,” opined the Court.

In that context the Supreme Court had ‘suggest’ constitution of a committee to look into ‘scientific solution’ to water problems on a ‘war-footing’. It had also advised the Central and State governments to give the committee all kinds of support, including financial, material and administrative support. On that count the Court had passed a detailed order, on March 26, ‘relating to the problem of water shortage in our country and we had issued notice to the Secretary, Ministry of Science & Technology asking him to file a counter affidavit within four weeks stating what measures have been taken to solve the water problem in the country and for implementing the recommendations’ given by the Court.

On April 26, the Supreme Court found the counter affidavits spineless and directed “the Central government to forthwith constitute a Committee to address the problems referred to in our order dated 26th March, 2009 which shall do scientific research on a war footing for solving the water shortage”. The Court was very categorical and pointed in its intention this time. “The Central Government is directed to form this Committee to address the water shortage problem at the earliest, latest within two months from today. This Committee shall have the Secretary, Union Ministry of Science & Technology as its Chairman. Amongst the members of the Committee will be the Secretary, Union Ministry of Water Management. The other members of the Committee will be scientists specialized in the field of solving water shortage problems nominated by the Chairman of the Committee and they are requested to take help from foreign scientists specialized in this field,” ordered the Court.

In order to ensure that the government does not take this lightly, the Court proposed to monitor the progress of the committee regularly. “This matter will be listed on the second Tuesday possibly of every alternative month. List again on the 11th August, 2009, on which date a progress report will be submitted before us by the Chairman of the Committee who is requested to be personally present before us. Thereafter the case will be listed on the 20th October, 2009 and so on,” said the Court.

It’s all fine… but is the Court totally right in reposing faith only in Science to deal with water crisis?

There is no second opinion on the Court’s observation on water shortage and deprivation faced by large number of people or on its ruling that right to water is enshrined in the Constitution of the country. But there can be a level of discomfort when the judgment became a little more obsessed with use and capacities of ‘science’. “It is science alone which can solve this problem,” opined the Court. Definitely, there will be a lot less concurrence of opinion on this.

The Court observed that science had taken ancient India to great heights. But then it attributes the causes of decay of water resources to neglect of science. “However, we subsequently took to the unscientific path of superstitions and empty rituals, which has led us to disaster,” observed the Court.

We cannot say that this was a very sound observation by the Court. The Court did not mention what it means by ‘rituals’ or ‘superstitions’. But if referring to ‘River’ as mother is termed as ‘superstition’ or doing something in good stead like taking bath in ‘holy’ water, or cremating besides a river is considered as ‘empty rituals’ then a lot of eye-brows are sure to rise. On the contrary, science has deteriorated water quality and quantity to great extent whether by polluting the sources or causing changes in climate which has a direct bearing on water or emptying ground water sources or tempering with natural flows of water. Thus, your lordship, please pardon us as we differ with you with the believe that not ‘empty rituals’ or ‘superstitions’ but artificial use of science and technology for use of water has led to its abuse and the present decay of water sources.

Truly, answer lies in our tradition – But which is more simpler, cost-effective and proven

Science does not possess a magic wound – at least not yet - to heal all ailments related to water shortages within a timeframe as the Court expects. The Court hopes that scientific activities - like (a) converting saline water into fresh water; and (b) Scientific research to find out methods of harnessing and managing monsoon rain water and also to manage the flood waters and also to do research in rain water harvesting, and treatment of waste water so that it may be recycled and available as potable water - if done in a war footing will solve water problems. That is quite true. But for that to succeed, we must first have to put seize on the factors that cause direct degradation of water and of the environment that impacts water.
If India was very rich in science, it was no less rich in harnessing its natural resources – including water. Every village and every town in India had its own tradition of water harvesting and use. Modern science has treated such tradition and knowledge with disdain and we are paying the price of that.

So your honour, why go for complex and costlier science when we have simpler, cost-effective and proven technology - in traditional design, knowledge and practice with us?? We thank you for the urgency that you have instilled. We hope that the government too picks that sentiments and start urgently. But for all’s shake - honuorable lordship – please do not think that ‘only science can solve this problem’. Most certainly we have better options available in our tradition to harness our water sources with respect and reap benefits.