Famines
were frequent in colonial India and some estimates indicate that 30 to 40
million died out of starvation in Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Bengal during the later
half of the 19th century. This led to the formulation of elaborate Famine Codes
by the then colonial government, indicating the relief measures that should be
put in place when crops fail.
The
Bengal Famine attracted much attention both among the media and the public,
since it occurred soon after Mahatma Gandhi’s “Quit India” call to the British
in 1942. Agricultural stagnation and famines were regarded among the major
adverse consequences of colonial rule. I wish to narrate the impact of the twin
developments, namely, Bengal Famine on the one hand, and the “Quit India”
movement on the other, on the minds of students like me. I was studying at the
University College, Thiruvananthapuram, during 1940-44, when gruesome pictures
of starving children, women and men on the streets of Kolkata and in other
parts of Bengal appeared in The Hindu, the Statesman and other
newspapers. The goal of my University education was to get into a medical
college and equip myself to run a hospital in Kumbakonam left behind by my
father, M.K. Sambasivan, who died at a young age in 1936.
Role
models
Unlike
today, when students have to search hard for role models, those of my time had
many leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose
whom we worshipped. A few of my college mates and I used to meet to discuss the
role we could play when the British quit India. During my B.Sc biology course,
I fell in love with the science of genetics. Therefore, in a meeting of
students where the topic of discussion was our role in independent India, I
announced that I had decided to shift my interest from medicine to agriculture,
so that I could contribute to Gandhiji’s goal of making famine and hunger
problems of the past. Though there was disappointment in my family that I would
not be following my father’s footsteps and managing the hospital, it fully
supported my decision to join the Coimbatore Agricultural College to do a B.Sc.
degree in agriculture before proceeding for post-graduate studies in
agricultural genetics and crop improvement.
Three
factor
I am
narrating this event in a crucial stage in my life only to point out the
life-changing impact the Bengal Famine and Gandhiji’s vision of a hunger free
India had on young minds. Looking back, I am glad I made this change and also
that I am living today when a historic transition from the Bengal Famine to
Right to Food with home grown food is taking place. On the occasion of the 70th
anniversary of the Bengal Famine, Parliament is likely to pass the National
Food Security Bill which will be the world’s largest social protection measure
against hunger. How did this transition come about? I would like to pick up
three factors which played a significant role in changing our agricultural
destiny from the “ship to mouth” situation which prevailed during 1950-70, to
the “right to food” commitment of 2013.
First,
the Nehru era marked the development of the scientific infrastructure essential
for improving farm productivity, such as major and minor irrigation projects,
fertilizer factories, agricultural universities, farm extension services and
marketing facilities. To get the benefit from the investment in these areas, an
Intensive Agricultural District Programme (IADP) was started in 1960-61. By
1963-64, IADP covered 15 districts. Unfortunately, the impact of IADP on yield
improvement was not up to expectation. My analysis showed that the package of
practices missed one important ingredient, namely a genetic strain which can
respond to the rest of the package, particularly irrigation water and
fertilizer.
It is
this missing ingredient that I helped to provide by undertaking a search for
genes for non-lodging plant habit. This search led to our getting seeds of
semi-dwarf wheat germplasm from Dr. Orville Vogel of the U.S. and Dr. Norman
Borlaug of Mexico, and semi-dwarf rice strains from Taiwan and the
International Rice Research Institute, the Philippines. The new plant
architecture helped to convert nutrients and water more efficiently into
grains. Consequently, they came to be referred to as high-yielding varieties.
In 1962-63, it became clear that food self-sufficiency was an idea whose time
had come. I prepared a plan early in 1963 titled “Five Years of Dwarf Wheats”,
outlining a road map for achieving a substantial rise in production by 1968. An
important component of this Plan was launching a large Lab to Land programme in
the form of national demonstrations in the fields of small and marginal farmers.
Agriculture is a risky profession and predictions are difficult. However, the
strong public policy support extended by C. Subramaniam, supported by Prime
Ministers Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi, led to the fulfilment of our
expectation that 1968 would mark a new beginning in our agricultural history.
Indira Gandhi released a special stamp titled “the Wheat Revolution” in July
1968 to mark this event.
The
second transformational factor was procurement of food grains from farmers at a
minimum support price fixed on the basis of the advice of the Agricultural
Prices Commission. A small government programme titled “High Yielding Varieties
Programme” became a mass movement owing to the enthusiasm generated among farm
families both by the yield revolution and the opportunities for assured and
remunerative marketing. Wheat production has continued to rise since 1968 and
has now reached a level of 92 million tonnes. A third important factor was the
synergy brought about among scientific know-how, political do-how and farmers’
toil, often referred to as the “green-revolution symphony”. While we can be
legitimately proud of our progress in the production of wheat and rice and
other cereals and millets leading to the commitment of government of over 60
million tonnes of foodgrains for implementing the provisions of the Food
Security Bill, there is no time to relax since dark clouds are gathering on the
horizon.
I would
like to touch upon three threats to the future of food production and our
sustained capacity to implement the provisions of the Food Security Bill.
First, prime farmland is going out of agriculture for non-farm purposes such as
real estate and biofuels. Globally, the impact of biofuels on food security has
become an increasing concern. A High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security
and Nutrition (HLPE) of the World Commission on Food Security (CFS), which I
chair, will be submitting a report shortly on Biofuels and Food Security. In
this report, we are pointing out that if 10 per cent of all transport fuels
were to be achieved through biofuels in the world, this would absorb 26 per
cent of all crop production and 85 per cent of the world’s fresh water resources.
Therefore, it will be prudent for all countries to accord food security the
pride of place in the national land use policy.
Adverse
changes in temperature
The
second threat comes from global warming and climate change. It is now clear
that the mean temperature may rise by at least 2 degrees centigrade during the
next few decades. Adverse changes in temperature, precipitation and sea level
are all causes for concern. Both anticipatory research to checkmate the adverse
consequences of climate change, and participatory research with farming
families for developing adaptation and mitigation measures will be important. A
third threat comes from the proposal to provide cash instead of grain to those
needing protection against hunger. Such a shift may lead to a loss of interest
in procurement and storage by public agencies like the Food Corporation of
India. Most of our farm families have small holdings and have very little
holding capacity. They want to sell as soon as their crop is harvested. If
procurement goes down, there will be distress sales and production will go
down. We should remember that the green revolution has been sustained only by
assured and remunerative marketing opportunities. The Public Distribution
System will suffer if procurement by public agencies goes down. National and
global price volatility will increase, adding to the misery of the poor. The
government, therefore, should always remain at the commanding height of the
food security system.
On
the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Bengal Famine, we should derive
strength from the fact that we have so far proved the prophets of doom wrong.
At the same time, we need to redouble our efforts to help our farmers to
produce more and more food and other commodities under conditions of
diminishing per capita availability of arable land and irrigation water. This
will be possible if the production techniques of the evergreen revolution
approach are followed and farmers are assisted with appropriate public policies
to keep agriculture an economically viable occupation. This is also essential
to attract and retain youth in farming. If agriculture goes wrong, nothing else
will have a chance to go right.
(M.S.
Swaminathan is Agricultural Scientist and Member, Rajya Sabha)
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