Asian nations should join hands for rural revival

PPS Gill

THE problems that beset the rural sector across Asia are similar — absence of governance; loss of governments’ credibility; trust deficit; politics of self-aggrandisement; financial stress; class and caste conflicts; lack of rural infrastructure and agro-based industry; non-existent human resource development programmes; unemployment; drug menace; youth disinterested in farming and ever keen to migrate to green pastures; debt burden; suicides, and much more.

Problems in the farming sector are no different, ranging from fading Green Revolution to distant ‘alternative’ agriculture; pricing to storage, transport and marketing; vagaries of climate change to depleting natural resources. For remunerative agriculture, it is imperative that farmers get adequate exposure to agro-meteorology, bio-technology and bio-diversity; extension education (for farm operations and agronomic practices), information & communication technology, knowledge economy etc.

“Food, security and love,” American food writer MFK Fisher has said, “are so entwined that we cannot think of one without the other”. The same is true of agriculture and rural development. Yet, governments across Asia have ignored this with impunity. For the development of the two in symphony, realistic holistic policies are needed. Also, education is the key to enabling farmers to adopt agricultural innovation systems. Education and healthcare of farmers and farm workers constitute the core of much-needed human resource development in rural Asia.

Making available adequate, affordable and quality education and health services are as imperative as ensuring hygiene, sanitation and potable drinking water; providing the same facilities in rural areas as in the urban ones (infrastructure, information technology and communication) for the intended agricultural and rural transformation and raising the living standards of the people.

Most of the government policies in Asia focus on crop husbandry, minimising losses at the time of harvesting (farm gate), scientific storage, transportation, marketing, agro-processing, and remunerative prices for farm produce and products. This is necessary. So is the need to balance the role of private and public sectors. Agricultural innovation systems aimed at inclusive rural development are as much dependent upon the government policies as on private-public partnership.

Across Asia, ‘alternative’ agriculture or ‘rainbow’ revolution remains a non-starter. Even the much-hyped ‘diversification’ in agriculture in Punjab has not succeeded in the past more than three decades despite its dire need. The reason: Want of policies and political will; absence of attractive, favourable terms and conditions to enable farmers shift to crops low on volume, high on value. Punjab is a live example where progress and promise of sustainable or evergreen revolution is jeopardised by distortions in policy.

For progressive agriculture and inclusive rural development, the role of knowledge economy is important. It is nothing but the use of knowledge to help agriculture develop inclusively and sustainably. This will happen if there is information and education. According to Leonardo A Lanzona Jr., professor (economics) at Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines, “There cannot be inclusive rural development without human resource development.”

Promoting agriculture production and productivity helps to build up food buffer stocks and food security, given the all-pervasive hunger, poverty and malnourishment that stalk a wide section of the world’s population, particularly in Asia.

‘Asia Hunger facts’ reveal that Asian peasantry, which provides nourishment to all, is itself under- or malnourished and lives in poverty. Asia has always had more hungry people and more malnourished children, though Africa is frequently presented, as the centre of ‘world hunger’. This is because Asia has so many more people. For example: 64 per cent of all malnourished children in the world live in Asia; 519.6 million adults/children in Asia consume too few calories; and more than half of all stunted children under five lived in Asia in 2017.

The Centre for Development Economics and Innovation Studies played host to an international conference on ‘Agriculture Innovations in Asia — towards Inclusive Rural Development’ at Punjabi University, Patiala, in July 2015. The proceedings of that conference are now available in a book with the same title, edited by economists Lakhwinder Singh and Anita Gill. In the foreword, Indermit Singh Gill, Professor of Public Policy, Duke University, writes, “There are features of agricultural innovation systems in Asia that are likely to lead to productive, efficient and sustainable farming practices, both in conventional and plantation agriculture… Asian agriculture will not soon get to the levels of productivity and resource efficiency attained by US farmers unless governments (in Asia) address the distorted incentives facing farmers, the deficits in infrastructure investments, and the imbalances between frontier innovations and adaptation. And, the key is to institute arrangements that both reflect the lessons learned from successes and failures of governments around the world, and leverage resources of the private sector….”

Apparently, agriculture and inclusive rural development in Asia has stopped short of its potential. What will it take to realise it? It will require governments, agricultural universities and farm research institutions to collaborate and undertake exchange programmes. Though agriculture is as much country-, region-, agro-climatic zone-specific as it is precision-driven, much can be achieved by tweaking policies to achieve the desired results.

This calls for engaged participation of Asian nations to reconstruct farming, rejuvenate rural development and improve human resource development. Working in isolation may result in Asian countries morphing into problem states in the not-so-distant future. While framing public policies, Asian governments should not confine themselves to bureaucrats, agricultural scientists and economists. They must also have on board sociologists, psychologists, home science experts, the medical fraternity, public health engineers, industrial entrepreneurs, town and country planners.

This book can serve as a guide to help Asia. In it, experts have studied farmers’ awareness, perception and knowledge gaps, looked at innovations in agricultural extension, built a case to harness information communication technologies among farm households through interactive learning and competence building.

While looking at rural Asia’s landscape, one cannot resist seeing how Pakistan Punjab is doing vis-à-vis Indian Punjab. There is much in common between the rural settings of the two neighbours: Inadequate civic amenities; lack of proper healthcare and education facilities etc. In their essay, ‘Pakistan national innovation system for agriculture and rural development — challenges and opportunities’, Umar Farooq (Pakistan Agricultural Research Council) and Usman Mustafa (Pakistan Institute of Development Economics) write: “The rural public is lagging behind the urban and facing poor living standards, education and health. There is lack of real will for development from the establishment, a dearth of grassroots leadership, and a proper monitoring and evaluation system... Agriculture is facing serious issues related to severe water shortages, in combination with the salt-affected soils, soil erosion, low-yielding varieties, and the limited use of modern farming technologies.”

As elsewhere, in Punjab also, the rural youth — semi-literate, unskilled, semi-skilled, unemployed, unemployable — are least interested in pursuing the family profession of farming. They are ever willing to move to urban areas or fly abroad, whatever the costs and risks. In their absence, the rural scenario looks scary.

For rejuvenating agriculture, reconstructing rural development and improving human resource development in Asia, it is time the political executive changed its mindset for the desired changes.

The author is a former Information Commissioner, Punjab