Contribution of Pt. Nehru to Indian Agriculture
CM Sharma
Today is the 56th death anniversary of Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. Being from agriculture my thoughts went in search of his contribution to the farming sector and the farmers.
India with her history of many millennia, deeply and strongly rooted in her civilization and culture, unfortunately remained a victim of frequent and successive military and political incursions from outside who subjugated her people during the last more than a thousand years resulting in to a severe economic depression which was noticed in agriculture too.
When India became independent in 1947, more than 80% of the population lived in rural areas and was dependent on agriculture for livelihood. The agricultural production was very low (about 50 million tonnes). Farming was mainly rain fed and was being done at a subsistence scale using mainly animate sources of farm power and traditional tools and equipment's. Feudalism and sub-feudalism were prevalent. The times were hard for peasant communities and even harder to arrange food for themselves for the year, though they were the real producers of food. In some cases there were as many as 50 intermediaries between the peasants and the Government. Around 4/5th of the produce was taken from the peasants as taxes, which in turn led to impoverishment of farmers. Focus was not on new ways and bringing the technology in agriculture.
Many farmers lost their lives to famines. The Bengal Famine of 1943 had resulted in at least 3 million deaths and it was in this backdrop that soon after independence Jawahar Lal Nehru said, “everything else can wait, but not agriculture.” When Nehru assumed office, India was reeling under the impact of partition, refugees influx, acute food shortage, mounting inflation and economic hardships.
When Five Year Development Plans were initiated after independence in 1950, agriculture was given priority and as a result agricultural research was also given priority. Although well known for his conviction that “rapid industrialization is essential to relieve the pressure on land to combat poverty and raise standards of living, for defence and a variety of other purposes” (Discovery of India), Nehru while addressing both Houses of Parliament in November 1952 said, “We certainly attach importance to industry; but in the present context we attach far greater importance to agriculture and food and matters pertaining to agriculture. If our agricultural foundation is not strong then the industry we seek to build will not have a strong base either. Apart from that, if our food front cracks up, everything else will crack up too. If our agriculture becomes strongly entrenched as we hope it will, then it will be relatively easy for us to progress more rapidly on the industrial front, whereas if we concentrate only on industrial development and leave agriculture in a weak condition, we shall ultimately be weakening industry.”
During the First Five Year Plan nearly 44.6% of the allocation was kept for agriculture, community development, irrigation and energy since he considered it as the budget for future preparation. Nehru's policies towards agricultural development could be grouped under four major categories.
- Attention to the tillers of the soil;
- Protecting the ecological foundations of development;
3.Development of rural infrastructure and the production and distribution of the inputs needed for higher productivity, and
4. Harnessing science and technology for accelerating the pace of agricultural progress
The first phase of his agricultural policy witnessed tremendous agrarian reforms, institutional changes, development of major irrigation projects and strengthening of cooperative credit institutions. The most important contribution of land reforms was abolition of intermediaries and giving land titles to the actual cultivators. The Community Development Programme, decentralized planning and the Intensive Area Development Programmes were also initiated for regenerating Indian agriculture that had stagnated during the British period.
In order to encourage the farmers to adopt better technology, incentive price policy was adopted in 1964 and the Agricultural Price Commission was set up to advice the Government on the fixation of support prices of agricultural crops.
From the First Five-Year plan the Government of India initiated a programme to establish soil conservation centres at different regions of the country. A good research opportunity was opened up earlier in soil and water engineering with establishment of the 1st River Valley Project, the Damodar Valley Corporation in 1949, to tackle the problems of soil and water conservation in Bihar and West Bengal. Nehru's contribution to irrigation through big irrigation projects like Bhakra Nangal Dam, Hirakud Dam, Nagarjun Sagar Dam helped the farmers and common citizens of the country in a big way.
During the Second and the Third Five-Year Plans, agricultural engineering division was added to the departments of agriculture in the states and at the Centre. They undertook the work of hiring or selling tractors, oil engines, implements, pumps, etc. Several training institutions and workshops were started to train artisans and mechanics, and in every state a research-cum-testing and training centre for agricultural implements was established. B.Sc. Agricultural Engineering Programme were started at Agricultural Engineering Department at IIT, Kharagpur in 1954, and colleges of Agricultural Engineering and Technology at Pantnagar, Ludhiana, Jabalpur, Udaipur, Coimbatore.
During the First Five Year Plan the overall agricultural production had increased by 17 percent. National Extension Services and Community Development Projects (1951) were extended to cover 25 percent of the country's area (1955-56). During the Second Five Year Plan, the overall agricultural production had increased by 16 percent. However, towards the later years of Nehru era, the food grain production declined due to successive failure of monsoons which led to food crisis. Government during this phase remained dependent upon foreign countries for food to feed the rising population.
Situation changed for better during the tenures of Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi as the Prime Ministers. Introduction of improved high yielding variety seeds of wheat, chemical fertilizers and plant protection measures which was coupled with continuous improvement in irrigation and mechanization from the times of Pt. Nehru helped in an increase in food grain production to the level of 108.4 million tones as compared to 55 million tones during the year 1951. Green Revolution began.
Criticism of Nehruvian approach had started during his life time itself, though in a dignified manner. His opponents didn't spare him for the new laws in the name of land reform which imposed limits on the amount of land one could own and gave the government sweeping powers to acquire private, industrial, and agricultural land. It is argued that the resulting fragmentation of land contributed to the destruction of the agriculture industry. He is also criticized by his adversaries for not allowing private sector industries to venture into agriculture.
During the 64th session of All India Congress Committee in Nagpur in January, 1959 Choudhry Charan Singh gave an hour-long hard-hitting speech against cooperative farming as a system ‘wholly unsuited to Indian realities'. He considered Collective or co-operative farming as a Nehruvian dogma of the times to supposedly increase agricultural production. The subsequent death of Cooperative Farming in Soviet Russia and Communist China however was a validation of Charan Singh's foresight and knowledge of the Indian peasant, indeed any peasant.
In any case, measures to improve agriculture were not momentary that could be done all of a sudden in 1947, rather these measures have been brought about throughout the journey of Independent India. Farmers are today being provided benefit of subsidy on inputs through modern e-transactions, Direct Benefit Transfer, financial benefit under PM Kisan and Jan Dhan Yojana, income security through crop insurance, etc. although these are not in substantial quantity. Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises are also being encouraged. Dairy farming, fish farming, poultry, apiculture, mushroom cultivation and aromatic – medicinal plants, etc. are being promoted through technical and financial support. Efforts are on to help the farmers and farm women with small and marginal holdings to form self help groups, farmer societies and producer organizations in arrangement of inputs, finance, production, post harvest management, marketing, and so on.
Different welfare programmes for farmers have been introduced regularly by almost all successive governments till date though there are always some exceptions. All works done with good intentions however deserve appreciation. All people and leaders of the country need to be given due regard and respects despite of differences of opinion on several matters. Normal courtesies join the people.
Covid – 19 pandemic has however shown that there is no end to farmers' vows. Too much urbanization and dependence on heavy industries concentrated in specific areas at faraway places from homes can be unpredictably disastrous at times for the labourers, which are mostly drawn from farming community.
Governments shall have to now focus on and meticulously plan for increased production and productivity of raw materials from agriculture for industrial use, well spread out on-farm enterprises, and nearer to village enterprises for balanced and sustained development of agriculture. It can help in rational distribution of incomes and welfare of farmers.
