impact assessment of agriculture interventions in tribal areas in

Impact Assessment of Agriculture Interventions in Tribal Areas in MP-Final Report

Catalyst Management Services, Bhopal i

Impact Assessment of Agriculture Interventions in Tribal Areas in Madhya Pradesh

Final Report

July 2009

Catalyst Management Services Pvt Ltd Regional Office: E-2/244, Arera Colony, Bhopal – 462016 Phone: 0755 4202234, Mobile 9893464296 Email: [email protected] Head Office: #19,1st Main, 1st Cross, Ashwathnagar, RMV 2nd Stage, Bangalore – 560094, Ph.: +91 (080) 23419616 Fax: +91 (080) 23417714 Email:[email protected]


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Abbreviations and Acronyms AD Additional Director MP Madhya Pradesh ADO Agriculture Development Officer MSP Minimum Support Price AGMARKNET Agricultural Marketing Information

Network MTEFs Medium Term Expenditure Framework

AGRISNET Agriculture Information system Network

MTFF Medium Term Fiscal Framework

ATMA Agriculture Technologies Management Agency

N:P:K Nitrogen: Phosphorus: Potassium

CAG Comptroller Auditor General NADEP An activity pertaining to organic farmingCAGR Compound Annual Growth Rate NADP National Agriculture Development

Programme CMS Catalyst Management Services NDC National Development Council CSS Centrally Sponsored Schemes NFSM National Food security Mission DDA Deputy Director of Agriculture NGO Non-Government Organizations DFID Department for International

Development NPC National Productivity Council

DPIP District Poverty Initiative Programme NRCS National Research centre for Soybean EKV E- Agriculture Marketing NREG National Rural Employment GuaranteeFFS Farmers Field School NREGS National Rural Employment Guarantee

Schemes FRBMA Fiscal Responsibility and Budget

Management Act NSA Net Sown Area

FW Frame Work PHT Post Harvest Technology FW&AD Farmer’s Welfare & Agriculture

Development PMPSUS Poverty Monitoring and Policy Support

Unit Society GOMP Government of Madhya Pradesh POP Package of Practices GSDP Gross State Domestic Product PPP Public Private Partnerships HYV High Yielding Variety PRI Panchayat Raj Institution ICAR Indian Council of Agricultural

Research PSE Public Sector Enterprise

ICDP Integrated cereal development Programme

QQT Quality, Quantity and Time Bound

ICRISAT The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics

RAEO Rural Agriculture Extension Officer

INM Integrated Nutrients Management REO Research Extension Officer ISOPOM Integrated scheme for Oilseed, Pulses

and Maize SADO Senior Agriculture Development Officer

JLNAU Jawahar Lal Nehru Agriculture University

SCP Special Component Plan

JNKVV Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya

SDAO Senior Divisional Agriculture Officer

KVK Krishi Vigyan Kendras SPMG Strengthening Performance Management in Government

MoAC Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives

SRR Seed Replacement Rate


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Table of Contents

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ...................................................................................................................II TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................................................................... III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................................................V 1 STATUS OF AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURE INTERVENTIONS IN MP ..................................19

1.1 STATUS OF AGRICULTURE:......................................................................................................................19 1.2 AGRICULTURE INTERVENTIONS IN MP: ...................................................................................................22

2 STATUS OF TRIBALS DEVELOPMENT AND TRIBAL AGRICULTURE ............................................26 2.1 TRIBAL DEVELOPMENT: ...........................................................................................................................26 2.2 STATUS OF TRIBAL AGRICULTURE ..........................................................................................................27

3 OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE..........................................................................................................................29 3.1 MAIN OBJECTIVE: ....................................................................................................................................29 3.2 SCOPE OF THE STUDY: ............................................................................................................................29 3.3 IMPACT ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK: ......................................................................................................30 3.4 STUDY LIMITATIONS:................................................................................................................................31

4 METHODOLOGY AND TOOLS ...................................................................................................................32 4.1 THE STUDY METHODS AND TOOLS: ........................................................................................................32 4.2 GUIDING PRINCIPLES: ..............................................................................................................................34 4.3 STUDY UNIVERSE, SAMPLING PROCEDURE:...........................................................................................35 4.4 ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK: .........................................................................................................................37 4.5 THE STUDY PROCESS:.............................................................................................................................39

5 PROFILE OF SAMPLES ...............................................................................................................................40 5.1 SAMPLE PROFILE .....................................................................................................................................40 5.2 SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROFILE OF FARMERS IN TRIBAL AREAS .................................................................41

6 OBJECTIVE 1 - IMPACT AND SUSTAINABILITY OF AGRICULTURAL INTERVENTIONS...........45 6.1 ECONOMIC IMPACT...................................................................................................................................45 6.2 POLITICAL AND INSTITUTIONAL IMPACT ..................................................................................................68 6.3 SOCIO-CULTURAL IMPACT.......................................................................................................................71 6.4 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS ......................................................................................................................77 6.5 CONTRIBUTION OF AGRICULTURE TOWARDS POVERTY REDUCTION .....................................................79 6.6 SUSTAINABILITY .......................................................................................................................................82

7 OBJECTIVE 2 AND 4 – CONTEXT AND RELEVANCE OF AGRICULTURAL INTERVENTIONS .84 8 OBJECTIVE 3 – BEST PRACTICES...........................................................................................................91

8.2 ROLE OF PRIVATE PLAYERS AND NGOS IN AGRICULTURE..................................................................102 8.3 PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMME ......................................................................................104

9 OBJECTIVE 5 – LESSONS AND KEY MESSAGES..............................................................................106 9.1 KEY LESSONS: .......................................................................................................................................106 9.2 AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT IN TRIBAL AREAS: ENABLING AND DISABLING (VULNERABILITY) FACTORS ..............................................................................................................................................................107

10 POLICY POINTERS AND OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS ..................................................................111 10.1 POLICY POINTERS:.................................................................................................................................111 10.2 PROGRAMME INTERVENTIONS: ..............................................................................................................113


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10.3 MANAGEMENT INTERVENTIONS: ............................................................................................................114 ANNEX-1: TERMS OF REFERENCE .................................................................................................................115 ANNEX-2: SOURCES OF SECONDARY INFORMATION .............................................................................118 ANNEX-3: LIST OF INTERVIEWEES.................................................................................................................120 ANNEX-4: POINTERS ON UTILISING THE POTENTIAL OF RKVY............................................................124 ANNEX-5: COMPARATIVE STUDY OF STATUS OF AGRICULTURE IN TWO TRIBAL DISTRICTS ..126 ANNEX-6: DESIGN ANALYSIS OF ANNPURNA AND SURAJDHARA SCHEME....................................128 ANNEX-7: DESIGN ANALYSIS OF MINOR IRRIGATION SCHEME ...........................................................132


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Acknowledgements

The study team from Catalyst Management Services (CMS) sincerely acknowledges the contributions of Poverty Monitoring and Policy Support Unit Society (PMPSUS) of the State Planning Commission in Madhya Pradesh in all stages of the study. The study would not have been possible without great contribution and opinions of the tribal and non-tribal households, members of farmers club, other community organisations and others in the tribal area who shared information on their lives and their agriculture, their livelihoods and cooperated at various levels in making this impact assessment possible and realistic. We thank the staff of Farmers Welfare and Agriculture Development (FW&AD) department, Tribal Welfare Department and other government, semi government agencies and the PRI functionaries in tribal areas who have extended whole hearted cooperation and have kindly shared their opinion about the agriculture interventions. We trust that this report will provide in-depth understanding of the progress and results of agriculture interventions in tribal areas in Madhya Pradesh. We also trust that the learning extracted by this study will provided immense inputs to Policy and planning processes for the agriculture sector in the state. I, on behalf of the study team, thank the one and all who have contributed to this study directly and indirectly. N. Shiv Kumar Director, Catalysts Group (CMS, Vrutti and Swasti) Bangalore, India Email: [email protected] Website: www.catalysts.org


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Impact Assessment of Agriculture Interventions in Tribal Areas in

Madhya Pradesh

Summary

The Government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP) recognises the importance of agricultural sector in terms of its potential to address the key challenges of unemployment and poverty in the state. Very high proportion of the population in the state is dependent on agriculture. Any improvement in this sector has potential to reduce poverty. The state has a high proportion of tribal population (23 percent of total tribal population in the country) which has the lowest human development index (predominantly tribal districts like Jhabua, Barwani, Panna, Khargone, Betul etc. are at the lowest rank of HDI1). This group is highly dependent on agriculture for their food security and income. For a variety of reasons, agricultural development has been constrained in the tribal areas. The GoMP has undertaken a number of initiatives to improve the agricultural and poverty situation. Having implemented many interventions, GoMP wishes to understand and assess the impact of these interventions on the livelihoods of the farmers in tribal areas, identifying specific constraints to realizing their full potential and recommending measures to address the same. The Poverty Monitoring and Policy Support Unit Society (PMPSUS), Madhya Pradesh (MP), anchored under the State Planning Commission has commissioned a study through Catalyst Management Services to study the impact of agricultural interventions in tribal areas of the state. MP is the second largest state in the Country with an estimated population of about 60 million. Agriculture is predominant sector in the state (75% of rural population dependent). The state is characterized by predominance of marginal and small farmers. The net area sown is about 150.74 lakh Ha.2, which is half of the MP’s geographical area. Total irrigation area of the state is 30.5% and about 70% of area is rainfed, cropping intensity of the state is 135%. The most important crops are rice, wheat, soybean, sorghum (jowar), maize, pulses (peas, beans, lentils), and groundnuts. Historically, tribal communities were characterized by a lifestyle distinct from agrarian communities, and their practices in agriculture are distinct. Today, the tribal majority areas, which overlap with the country's major forest areas, are also areas with the highest concentrations of poverty. Agriculture is predominantly rainfed and mono-cropped. Horticulture is marginally developed in the tribal areas with the present area under fruits, vegetables, and spices accounting for only about 2.5% of the cultivated area3. Women participate in all agricultural operations excepting ploughing and sowing of rice seed, contributing between 70 to 80% of the total labour. In spite of favourable resource conditions, tribal regions perform poorly in terms of infrastructure, returns from agriculture and almost all human development indicators. The state has many interventions aimed at improving agriculture. These are from the Department of Farmers Welfare and Agriculture Development (FW&AD), Marketing Federation, national programmes such as NREGA, state anti-poverty programmes and the civil society and private programmes. Specific state level Agriculture Policy does not exist. However there are various guidelines and plans which provide directions to the agriculture interventions in the state. The schemes are grouped under four

1 MP Human Development Report - 2002 2 Compendium of agriculture statistics 2005-06 and department website 3 Overview of Socio-economic situation of the tribal communities and livelihoods in Bihar and MP, FAO Investment Centre



major areas – agriculture production, soil conservation, minor irrigation and micro minor irrigation. The objective of the study is to understand and assess the impact and sustainability of agricultural interventions in the state, their relevance given the vulnerability context, document the best practices and draw lessons and provide recommendations for improving agricultural interventions focussed on tribal areas in the state. The study covered 200 villages in 24 blocks in 12 districts representing eight agro-climatic zones in MP. The study has followed both qualitative and quantitative methods for understanding the impacts. It covered 4,007 households, 50 focus groups discussions, and interviews with key informant in both state and field level. For selection of samples, the study used a multi-stage stratified sampling design. The estimation of findings for the population was done using the multipliers. To keep the focus on tribal population, the block is categorized based on the proportion of tribal population and samples were drawn in each of these categories. The field research was conducted during Dec 2008 to Feb 2009. Analysis of the profile of samples areas and households suggest that the large proportion of villages are inaccessible and are distant from the markets. In the study area, the proportion of tribals and non-tribals is about 50:50. Major proportions of households are either landless or marginal farmers. Close to two-thirds have BPL cards and about half are scheduled tribes. Eight percent of the households are women headed, higher from the non-tribal households. The area and socio economic profile shows that more than half of the households can be categorised into vulnerable groups.

The impacts of the agricultural interventions in the tribal areas are analysed from the four key dimensions – economic, political and institutional, socio-cultural and environmental. There are two level of change measured in the impact assessment study – primary (ultimate impact) and intermediate (outcomes and results). Overall, the study answers 5 primary (ultimate impact) indicators and 13 intermediate impact indicators. The key findings of the study are therefore presented by the dimension of impact and corresponding indicator of change. Key Findings: The story of agriculture development in tribal areas and impact and evidence of impact of agriculture on farmers in the tribal areas is built on five main threads. Based on specific evidence, the study findings are concluded in each thread and emerging policy pointers are highlighted. Thread-1: Tribal areas in the state are highest concentration of poverty (42.67 percent in tribal areas against 26 percent as all India average) and very low educational attainment levels show the very poor status of human development in the tribal areas. Similarly agriculture development indicators show very poor status in tribal areas e.g. Net irrigated area to net sown area is 14.98 percent in tribal area against 33.59 percent (All India). If agriculture is to contribute to poverty reduction objectives and to achievement of MDGs then the tribal areas should vested with equitable investments for positive discrimination for inclusive growth as per the stated objectives of the 11th five year plan. The following evidence further corroborates the poor status of human and agriculture development in tribal areas: 1. Poor socio-economic status of tribals in tribal areas: In tribal areas, 22.3 percent of the

households are landless. Small and marginal farmers among tribal are more (63.9 percent) than small and marginal farmers among non-tribals (55.9 percent). Only about half of men and one fourth of women in tribal areas have gone through formal education. In terms of change in type of



housing over the last five years in the selected regions shows that 3.9% of the households have moved from ‘kutcha’ houses to ‘semi pucca’ (3.8%) and ‘pucca’ houses (0.10%).

2. Agriculture infrastructure have improved marginally: Net cultivable area has increased by

7.8 percent (8.8 percent for tribals and 6.9 percent for non tribals). Gross cultivable area has increased by 8 percent (9 percent for tribals and 7.2 percent for non-tribals) over the last five year period. Increase in the number of crops cultivated over the last five years has been reported by 6 percent of the HHs and decrease by 1 percent. While the remaining have reported no change in the number of crops cultivated. The net irrigated area has increased by 10%. Change in the fully irrigated area over the last five years indicates decline of 10% among the small and marginal farmers, while it remained same for the medium farmers. For large farmers it has increased by 2%. Net irrigated area is highest in Central Narmada Valley (87%) and in Vindhya plateau (63%) and lowest in Jhabua Hills region (7%). The cropping intensity in tribal areas for tribal households is 113 and for non-tribal households it is 127 against 135 for the state.

3. Social and Cultural Practices makes tribal agriculture unique: Tribals practice of preserving

seed genome, their subsistence nature of agriculture, food habits, respectable role of minor millets in their life, generalized type of reciprocal co-operation in agriculture, patriarchal nature of the society, their fairs and festivals linked with agriculture, their practice of mixed cropping, sowing of seeds, storage of crop produce, use of fertilizer and insecticide make tribal agriculture unique. Therefore agriculture policy and programme should carefully consider these for better designing of services for the tribal areas.

Thread-2: Status of Production, Productivity and Input Efficiency in tribal areas shows either marginal improvement, stagnant or declining trend. Agriculture is showing signs of becoming not very viable economic enterprise (beyond subsistence) for vast majority of farmers in tribal areas. The findings below show the evidence of this trend: 4. Some improvements in Cropped Area, Crops and Cropping Pattern; but for small proportion

of people: Overall, comparing with the situation five years before, currently there has been an increase in area of cultivation (about 15 percent), but to very small proportion of households (less than 5 percent). Of the five major crops that account of 88 percent of the total area under cultivation, only in the case of Maize there has been a significant reduction in the area of cultivation, i.e. by 33 percent. In all other major crops, there is an increase in the area of cultivation. In terms of changes in area of cultivation among different profiles, it can be concluded that the positive and negative changes are observed in both tribal and non-tribal and also among different land holding categories.

5. Reducing productivity in major crops; Cotton an exception: In case of productivity of these

crops, in three of the major crops (Paddy, Wheat and Soybean), there is a reduction; with Soybean’s productivity reduced by 12 percent. Cotton is the only crop where both the productivity and production have increased.

6. Increased cost of production on half of major crops: There is an increase in Cost of Production

(Rs/ Acre) for all major crops in the past five years (without adjusting for the inflation). Largest reduction is noticed in the case of Vegetables, Kakdi, and Groundnut. If we correct the costs for inflation (with approx. 5 percent per annum) then the increases are seen in only about 50 percent of the crops sown. Among the major crops, highest proportion of increase in cost of production is noticed in Cotton, followed by Maize and Wheat.



7. Reduced or stagnant marketable surplus on major crops: At the aggregate level, for most of the crops the proportion of marketable surplus has either remained stagnant or reduced. Of the main five crops, only in the case of Cotton, there has been an increase of 13 percent in the marketable surplus from the five years before situation. In case of Paddy the reduction is marginal. But given that the area and production have gone up, the proportion of marketable surplus has gone down. This may be due to the fact that the farmers hold on to Paddy and other food grain crops to ensure that food security.

Thread-3: Reach of Agriculture Interventions in tribal areas is very weak. At best, an agriculture development scheme has reached to 5 to 10 percent of villages or benefitted 10 to 15 percent of farmers’ households in tribal areas. The tribal areas not being the focus of policy and programme planning and implementation is the main reason for this. Improving reach and program efficiency requires addressing the delivery constraints, RAEO work rationalization, Community based institutional mechanism for delivery of agriculture interventions, Capacity building of Tribal Leadership, improving Planning systems (selection, need/evidence based decisions and strategic orientation), establishing Performance and Accountability systems and using different models of Extension (Private, PPP, NGO driven etc.): 8. Limited reach of agriculture interventions and access of agricultural services in tribal areas:

In terms of reach of development programmes, in the villages sampled, Kapil Dhara was reported in half of the villages, followed by NREGA, watersheds programmes, Annapurna and Suraj Dhara in about a third of villages. In these programmes communities reported high satisfaction levels. Large number of other agriculture interventions has reportedly reached to only 5 to 10 percent of the villages. Overall less than one tenth of households have had access to training, exposure visits, kisan mela, kisan credit card, crop insurance, preparation of farm plans and other agriculture input support. Where access to agriculture services is reported, critical or catalytic role is played by FW&AD in about two third of the cases.

9. Low awareness and adoption of Package of Practices: Awareness and adoption of Package of

Practices in tribal areas in MP are at low levels. The relatively higher awareness levels are expressed by the farmers in tribal area on seed replacement (37 percent households), summer ploughing (28 percent), Balanced use of chemical fertilizer (24 percent), Soil priming (22 percent), soil testing and seed sowing techniques (21 percent), and use of organic farming (20 percent). On other POP areas, about one fifth or less than one fifth households are aware about. Only marginal increase in the awareness levels is reported over the last five years. In general, non tribals are marginally more aware than the tribals on different POPs. A gap between awareness to adoption is witnessed in the tribal areas. 2 to 17 percent of the households have not converted their awareness and knowledge about (different) POP area into practice. Fellow farmers, local shopkeepers and Gram Sevak are main source of agriculture information in the tribal areas.

10. Low uptake of agricultural technology: The overall picture of utilisation of technology in tribal

agriculture indicates very low levels of uptake and adoption of technologies such as use of implements, canal irrigation, seeds, fertilizer consumption, low POP awareness, use of post harvest technologies. In terms of practices awareness and timely availability are key concerns. The study results show that the uptake of agriculture technology has taken place predominantly among medium and large farmers (where about one third to half of these households are reporting the ownership of agriculture assets). Vindhayanchal (Raisen, Sehore, Damoh), Northern Hills (Dindori, Mandla, Shadole, Sidhi), Central Narmada (Hoshangabad) and Malwa Plateau (Ratlam, Dhar, Barwani) are agriculturally forward regions in the tribals areas of the state, where relatively higher uptake of agriculture technology has taken place as compared to Jhabua hills, Nimar plains, Satpura



Plateau (Betul and Chindwara), where agriculture development is lacking as is shown by various agriculture technology, POP and production and productivity figures.

11. Community based institutional mechanisms for agriculture development (planning and

implementation) is evidently not utilised in tribal areas. Only 9.7 percent households have reported to be part of some group (farmers club, co-operative society, SHG, Federation, Producer Company). SHGs or other community based forum has not evolved to the desired extent. This makes access to formal banking system very weak in tribal areas for agriculture credit. The study results shows that medium and large farmers are relatively more in proportion as member to one or the other community institutional mechanism than the small, marginal and landless households in the tribal areas. Overall it becomes clear that the community based mechanisms for agriculture development is utilized only to a very small extent in the tribal areas.

12. Strong Linkages between Extension and PRIs, however capacities and closer monitoring is

insufficient: The linkage between the PRIs and extension Department are strong at the district and block levels, especially at the SADO, ADO and RAEO levels, The district level linkages are mainly for planning and monitoring while the block level linkage are for implementing various programmes and schemes. Poor capacities of Panchayats were observed with regard to making use of such linkages and for sustainable planning of natural resource management with the on going schemes like NREGA and SGSY etc.

Thread-4: Tribal areas have seen upward movement of poverty profile i.e. households poverty status has improved from extreme poor to poor /very poor/Better off and from Very poor to poor /Better off. Overall 38.7 percent households have reported overall improvement in well being in the last five years. This is a significant number which is not getting accounted by the agriculture improvements. The findings show that the resource poor farmers have poor status of agriculture in tribal areas. Poor status of agriculture means that poor households’ dependence on other sources of income increases for meeting their food security and survival needs. This point to the need of balancing the policy focus on poor resource farmers in low productive areas (read tribal areas). Though policy objectives can easily be achieved working with high productive areas and high productive population, however inclusive growth requires balancing the policy focus and objectives:

13. Agriculture continues to be the primary source of income for most: Close to half the population

in tribal areas is dependant on agriculture as their primary source of income. This is an increase of one percent households who are reporting agriculture as their primary sources of income now as compared to five years back. Another one fourth of households are dependent on agriculture as their subsidiary sources of income. It is interesting to note that 28 percent of the households (which is a 3 percent reduction from the situation five years ago) in tribal areas are not drawing their income from agriculture.

14. Non-farm labour the most accessed diversified livelihood option: Close to one third (29.7

percent) of the population in tribal areas is dependant on non-farm labour as their primary source of income. This is an increase of 2 percent households who are reporting non farm labour as their primary sources of income now as compared to five years back. Another one third of households (29.8 percent) are dependent on non-farm labour as their subsidiary sources of income. Tribal households are more dependent on non farm labour than non-tribal households as two third (66 percent) of tribal households have reported non farm labour as either primary or subsidiary sources of income while about half (48 percent) of the non-tribals have reported so. All these results clearly shows that with increasing poverty levels, the dependence on non-farm labour as a primary source of income increases.



15. State Govt. outreach of critical services and entitlements have somewhat improved: More

number of households in tribal areas have access to BPL (from 52 to 59 percent), Antodya /Annapurna (from 15 to 26 percent) provision of critical services. However, in tribal areas in the state, 42 percent of villages have no electricity. Another one fourth of the villages have limited or very limited availability of electricity. The electricity situation has improved for 28 percent villages in the last five years. The state level official figure shows that 68.6 percent of villages are electrified (source: State Human Development Report -2007). This shows that tribal areas electrification has happened to a much lower extent than the non-tribal areas. Agriculture input shops are available in 18 percent of the villages in tribal areas. Agro-processing units are available in 1 percent of the villages in tribal areas. Storage facility for major crops is available in 5 percent of the villages in tribal areas. The farm roads are kuccha is 95 percent of the villages in tribal areas. NREGA job cards are reported to be accessed by 91.1 percent households. The status of NREGA implementation shows that 43 percent of the households have obtained 1 to 25 days of employment under the scheme. About one third of the households have obtained 26-50 days of employment. About one tenth of households have obtained 51 to 75 days of employment.

16. Migration exists; marginally increased; higher for tribal dominated villages and landless and

small farmers: The overall migration has increased from 29 percent to 32 percent in the five year period. In tribal dominated villages, migration is higher than the less tribal population villages. Overall, highest proportion of migration is reported in women-headed households, tribal households, and landless and marginal farmers (around 40% in these categories). Migration of households is reported more in the Jhabua Hills (77%), Malwa Plateau (82%) and Satpura Plateau (68%), while in Vindhya Plateau it is lowest with only 6% of the HHs migrate in distress.

Thread-5: Higher quantum and more relevant allocations can improve return on public investments which means that allocation planning should be based on performance and needs. Strengthening institutional /Co-operative delivery of credit in tribal areas with awareness building on the financial discipline can improve the return from agriculture investment in such areas. Additionally policy should push measures (with higher allocations) which serves environmental cause while promoting economic returns:

17. Some improvements in overall poverty status; contribution of agricultural interventions seems

limited overall improvement in poverty profile is due to other sources of income opportunities available in the tribal areas or due to migration earning of the households. The role of agriculture in graduating poor out of poverty is weakening over the years4, given the fact that technology uptake in agriculture in tribal areas is still weak, the institutional delivery system of Govt. agriculture extension is reaching to (at the maximum) only about one sixth of the farmers in tribal areas and therefore role of agriculture will continue to diminish in addressing causes of poverty in tribal areas unless intensive and relevant engagement models are successfully tried out.

18. The public investments in agriculture have been stagnant during the three year period (2005-06

to 2007-08). TSP utilization has remained lower (72 percent) than the overall utilization level (82 percent). The study results shows that integrated anti-poverty programmes in tribal areas are likely to generate the best outcomes /returns on public investments. Clearly the investment needs in tribal areas need to be differently understood and planned. The principle of equality demand higher allocations to TSP as tribal areas and farmers suffer from many disadvantages, which will

4 The FAO study in MP and Bihar indicate a declining role of agriculture in household food security of tribals, which lasts for 2 to 6 months of the year for the majority of farming households.



require disproportionately higher public investments to improve tribal agriculture and economic well being of tribal farmers dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. Agriculture policy and strategies in the state have not fully taken role of women as a farmer and women as a beneficiary into account.

19. Women role in agriculture not recognized fully, even now: Women and men play equal role in

agriculture, NTFP collection and in other means of securing livelihoods. The women help men in agricultural work by performing work of threshing, weeding and harvesting. The state plans include gender budgets. However the discussions with agriculture department functionaries has revealed that department wide awareness and sensitivity on women farmers is low and therefore the policy and interventions are needed to address this as well.

20. Adverse changes in the climatic conditions are having negative impact on the agriculture

production. It is noticed that tribal cultivation is now shifting from organic to chemical fertiliser. Tribal farmers have very less knowledge on organic manure management. Villagers met during the study were of the opinion that it has become increasingly difficult over the years to predict when rain will come. Awareness level on the climate and environment issues is very low. There are no specific schemes of the Government which address environmental vulnerability of the tribal farmers.

21. Informal credit continues to be the main source, with high rate of interest, even though the

cooperatives provide reasonable access: The main source of credit in the tribal areas is moneylenders. The proportion of households dependent on moneylenders for their credit needs have not changed over the last five years (36 percent). The rate of interested is reported to be in the range of 24% per annum to even more than 100%. The next important source of credit in the tribal areas is co-operative societies, contributing credit to 24 percent of households. The tribals (27 percent) dependence on co-operative societies is much more than the non-tribals (18 percent). Access to bank for credit is evidently more for the non-tribals (14 percent of households) than the tribals (7 percent of the households). There is a marked difference in access to institutional sources of credit among tribals and non-tribals.

22. Sustainability concerns remains: Sustainability of benefits is weak when sufficiently large number

of farmers is not aware of technology, when reach and coverage of agriculture extension is up to medium and large farmers. Similarly institutional sustainability is weak as community based mechanisms and other institutional delivery models (PPP, civil society, private sector) are not working at large scale. Environmental sustainability is weak as organic agriculture has taken off in tribal areas at limited scale. Finally programme planning and programme model need to evolve to an extent so as to provide marketable surplus to farmers in tribal areas.

23. Number of best practices and programme model exist to learn from, it is very clear that to

improve the status of tribal agriculture there needs to be multi-pronged strategies and initiatives. Bringing together complementary skills and building synergy through partnerships seems an important area. There is a clear learning that social mobilisation and facilitation are essential for technology adoption and sustenance of practices. There are many models and initiatives within the state which could be scaled up for better outcomes.

Policy Pointers and other Recommendations:

The study findings show that agriculture sector has strong policy intent and planned investments. Translating the intent into outcomes for agriculture development and poverty reduction in tribal areas



require rethinking of the agriculture development paradigm. What works in other areas may not give us the same results in tribal areas.

Suggested framework for improvement in agriculture interventions in tribal areas:

The framework suggested here brings together ideas emerging out of the findings, expert interviews and the review of other models and best practices. The suggestions are given in the following framework:

Policy Pointers: State Policy for Agriculture Development in Tribal Areas: The performance management can improve with fixing of accountability and with clear mandate and outcomes specified. It might serve therefore to bring in an Agriculture Policy for the State specifically for tribal areas. This is more so as poverty reduction is crucially dependent on agriculture and as state progress towards meeting MDGs will remain half achieved if the tribal areas does not become the focus of state agriculture policy. Balancing the policy focus on low productive areas and low productive population is important for promoting inclusive growth objectives of 11th five year plan. Gender differential impacts can be defined in the state agriculture policy. Equitable Investments, positive discrimination for Inclusive Growth: Tribal areas are resource poor areas. Tribal farmers are susceptible to socio-cultural, political, environmental and social factors of vulnerability (as highlighted by the study) thereby probability of a farmers falling back into poverty is much more evident in tribal areas than in non tribal areas of the state. The principle of equality demand higher allocations to TSP as tribal areas and farmers suffer from many disadvantages, which will require disproportionately higher public investments to improve tribal agriculture and economic well being of tribal farmers dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. The plan outlay for 2009-10 are projected at Rs.585.61 crores of which 23 percent is the TSP outlay. The major addition to current fiscal outlay is RKVY which brings in Rs.380 crores of additional public investments in the sector. The allocations on soft components (like agriculture extension) have seen declining trend over the years, more so in the tribal areas whereas the need for more and effective agriculture extension is evident from the impact assessment. The centrally sponsored scheme like RKVY offers flexibility and innovations to address agriculture and poverty link comprehensively, which can address currently skewed planning and budgetary allocations to a certain extent.



Resource Allocation Decisions: The resource allocation decisions need to be based on schemes’ reach and relevance. The decisions based on other considerations may not lead to desirable outcomes as is witnessed and presented by this study. The few resource allocations policy pointers are as presented below: • Micro minor irrigation needs to be promoted on a large scale with adequate allocations and

appropriate targeting, the existing potential to increase cropping intensity can be realised. The overall budgets for these schemes should be based on local soil profile conditions. It is also advised that well recharging schemes are also promoted to maintain the water table.

• Kissan Mitra and Kisan Didi schemes are among the most relevant schemes in tribal areas as they follow the approach of community based extension. However the reach of these schemes is currently very limited which demand a detailed understanding of constraints facing Kisan Mitras and Kisan Didi to improve the implementation processes. Herein investing on RAEOs’ capacity building and redesigning their work portfolio is advisable considering that agriculture department functionaries also felt that RAEO can provide crucial follow up support to Kisan Mitras and Kisan didi, after their training

• There is need of one REAO on 400-6005 families but at present, the Department has only one REAO on 1500 to 2500 families. Furthermore, the tribal areas need more RAEOs for the extension support, than the other areas. The state need to take a policy call on this aspect.

• The study results shows that the Seed Exchange scheme is not working in tribal area as tribals due to their practices do not exchange own seed with seed from other sources. The tribal areas face the problem of availability of seeds at the right time and therefore Seed gram scheme is best suited in tribal area.

• The relevance of crop insurance schemes for tribal farmers can never be overemphasised. Very limited awareness and benefit from crop insurance demand a policy intervention from the state

• Soil and water conservation activities need higher allocation for tribal areas e.g. farm bunding scheme is very useful for the tribal areas with undulated topography requiring soil and water conservation work. Presently NREGS have provided opportunity to the farmers to work on their own land. SWC programme needs still lot of efforts by different implementation agencies in the tribal areas to improve land structure and moisture in the field.

• Tribal agriculture is close to the organic farming and this opportunity need to be leveraged by the state policy. The organic farming practices along with marketing support for organically grown crops will boost the organic practice in tribal areas of the state.

Improving Relevance of Planning (of resources, interventions, strategies): The process of planning should be strengthened in letter and spirit. The decentralization of planning with strong emphasis on robust district planning should become an urgent and critical priority of the department. Necessary push for outcome based budgets: Outcomes are the benefits drawn by the community of farmers and not limited to only delivery of activities. The policy therefore need to strongly review the outcome based budgeting process and attainment of outcomes over a period of time.

Programme Interventions: Integrated Programme Models: The study results shows that integrated anti-poverty programmes in tribal areas are likely to generate the best outcomes /returns on public investments. One of the reasons is that these programmes are most relevantly designed and intensively executed. Soil and water conservation, irrigation infrastructure will also significantly translate public investments in tribal areas

5 HHs numbers based on consultant experience, Interviews with REAO and community meetings



to poverty reduction outcomes. Clearly the investment needs in tribal areas need to be differently understood and planned. Therefore the policy needs to look at agriculture investment in tribal areas differently than agriculture investments in other areas. Poverty reduction is possible in tribal areas but require an approach of agriculture and agri-allied focused livelihoods and watershed development. Such programme models exist within the tribal areas in Madhya Pradesh (see the best practices section of this report). The Govt. agriculture set up in the state need to emulate these models and lead tribal agriculture on the path of sustained growth. Strengthening institutional /co-operative delivery of Agriculture credit: Credit is an essential ingredient of agriculture investment for a farmer household in tribal areas. The credit delivery system is largely informal even today in the tribal areas. Unlike in other states, the Co-operative societies are working for at least one fourth of the households in tribal areas. The model of co-operative societies providing agriculture, other investment and consumption credit can be strengthened though trying out linkages with Nationalised and other banks /MFIs. Banks will get access to large markets through correspondent model with co-operative societies providing the facilitation services as business correspondents. Pushing Measures which serve environmental cause: The agriculture interventions in the state esp. in the tribal areas need to provide the necessary push to measures like soil and water conservation, organic farming etc. which serve environmental cause while providing economic returns to low resource farmers. Designing and Implementing Risk Management System: Agriculture especially tribal agriculture faces many risks. Managing these risks is crucial for a farmer in tribal areas to not fall back into the poverty trap. That continues to happen every alternate year for many tribal families. This can be prevented with a risk management strategy and fund for risk minimization. The options for planning and implementing this fund under RKVY (as an innovation) can also be explored. Building the agriculture interventions on the Social mobilization base: Social mobilization is the pre-requisites for building the sustainable community mechanism that can become vehicle for agriculture development interventions in tribal areas. Extension requires social mobilization (to deal with the issues of information asymmetry6). Investing in Education sector in Tribal Areas: Experiences from other states suggest that improvement in agriculture along with improvement in education attainment levels can lead to faster area development. Hence agriculture development requires investments in education (possibly higher investments and focus) in tribal areas. Tribal societies are changing for the better and getting into the mainstream of development. It may take another two decades to achieve envisaged growth and development in tribal areas. If education levels improve faster, tribal area agriculture and overall development can possibly be achieved in lesser time horizon. Promoting low value crops: Minor millets are most important traditional crop in the tribal area of Madhya Pradesh. This crop is linked with the tribal life and its social, culture and health practices. The State Pro-poor strategy for supporting vulnerable community in the tribal areas can be strengthened with promotion of minor millets. Food grain dependency on other cereals crops will reduce with increased minor millets production as there are large potential for productivity improvement. It is therefore

6 Information reach becoming limited to fortunate few…which is tribal areas context, are medium and large farmers and generally non-tribals



advisable for the state to formulate its policy for the Minor Millets related to MSP, private sector participation for processing and propagating benefits etc. Utilising the potential of RKVY for tribal area development: RKVY have immense potential for tribal area development due to innovation and flexibility that it provides. The study have spoken to agriculture experts on this aspect. Some of the ideas for using RKVY funds in Tribal Areas are: • Establish Integrated farming system models • Agriculture product based value chain development /micro enterprise promotion • Markets facilitation for agriculture commodities • NREGA led agriculture development • Promotion of organic agriculture in tribal areas • Developing markets for organic products • Private extension models up-scaled

Management Interventions: Improving Extension through diverse institutional models: Extension being a basic essential service, can work through different solutions like privatization, PPP, NGO driven, convergence model etc. as these solutions focus on collectivization and leadership development approaches. Tribal leadership, if developed can harness intent skills of tribals for agriculture improvement in tribal areas. Madhya Pradesh is fortunate to have chosen the route of Gram Swaraj for facilitating participatory equitable development processes. For ensuring accountability of departmental investments, agriculture interventions, community based monitoring mechanism working with the Panchayats is the answer. Performance and Accountability System: Improvement by few percentages of accountability in departmental delivery will lead to huge gains for agriculture development in tribal areas as the tribal agriculture has immense scope of improvement to catch up to. The institutional delivery mechanism faces performance issues in the state, more so in relation to tribal areas where both spending and human resources are lower than the other areas of the state. Periodic evaluation of agriculture development in tribal areas may provide the necessary ideas on course corrections and improvement. The accountability will set in when performance is monitored and reflected upon in the spirit of improving agriculture for the cause of tribal development.



Impact Assessment of Agriculture Interventions in Tribal Areas in Madhya Pradesh

Main Report

The World Development Report 2008 (by the World Bank) says that there are “three worlds” if one look at share of agriculture in economic growth. India has graduated from “agriculture based” to “transforming countries” and not yet near to the third world of “urbanised countries”. This is evident from the declining share (46.3 to 19.9 per cent between 1970-71 and 2005-06) of agriculture sector in the gross domestic product (GDP). However, despite this transition, the proportion of workforce depending on agriculture has remained unchanged. Agriculture continues to be the single largest source of livelihood for nearly two-thirds of country’s population and contributes about 15 per cent of the export earnings. State Development Report-2009 in Madhya Pradesh states that “Over the last seventeen years, there has been only a small drop in the importance of agriculture in employment, from 77.4 to 73.6 for entire state, and from 90.1 percent to 86.9 percent for rural Madhya Pradesh. Thus, a decent rate of growth in agriculture is imperative to not only provide adequate food production but also to support non-agricultural growth from the demand side, which enables generation of non-agricultural employment in rural areas. Further, agriculture is also a source of wage goods and raw materials for the industrial sector, necessitating that agriculture growth rate be stepped up. It has been recognised that if the economy has to sustain high growth rates (i.e. above 8 per cent p.a.) agriculture needs to grow at the rate of at least at 4 per cent p.a. during the 11th FYP period (Draft Approach Paper of 11th FYP of the Central Govt.). The population of the tribal communities scheduled in the constitution of India and known as Scheduled Tribes (STs) is 84.3 million as per 2001 census and accounts for 8.2 percent of the total population of the country7. They are scattered over all the States / UTs, except Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and the UTs of Pondicherry and Chandigarh. Madhya Pradesh accounts for 23 percent of the total tribal population in the country. A tribe is defined as “a social group with a definite area, dialects, cultural homogeneity, and unifying social organization. Tribals have specific characteristics which make them a society based upon kinship, where social stratification is absent (Beteille, 1977). In spite of favourable resource conditions, tribal regions perform poorly in terms of infrastructure, returns from agriculture and almost all human development indicators. As compared to other sections of the Indian society, the tribal population has the lowest Human Development Index (HDI). Among the social groups, scheduled tribes (STs) have the highest proportion of the poor (54 percent), followed by scheduled castes (SCs, 50 percent). While the tribal population accounts for only about 8 percent of the total population, it constitutes 40 percent of the displaced population. The literacy rate among STs is only 24 percent, compared to 52 percent in the general population in 1991. Among the rural women of the tribal population, the literacy rate is only 13 percent8. Disaggregated data at sub-state level show highly uneven change in the headcount ratios within the state and a very high incidence of poverty in certain regions which include two southern regions of Madhya Pradesh, where most of the tribal population resides in the state. In

7 National Tribal Policy 8 Overview of Socio-economic situation of the tribal communities and livelihoods in Bihar and MP, FAO Investment Centre



addition, they suffer from geographical exclusion, which are not captured in the HDI e.g. PTG settlements are primarily found in remote, forested and hilly tracts with some villages having only 10 to 15 houses. Lack of irrigation investments in tribal districts add to poverty and deprivation in tribal areas, for instance, while for the country as a whole, more than a third of the net sown area is irrigated, less than 15 percent commands irrigation in tribal central India9.

The Poverty Monitoring and Policy Support Unit Society (PMPSUS), Madhya Pradesh (MP), a registered Society anchored within the MP State Planning Commission (MPSPC), Department of Planning, Economics & Statistics, Government of MP (GoMP) is mandated to support GoMP departments in the design and review of their policy initiatives and programmes and, in line with this mandate, undertake or commission specialized research on issues relating to poverty, inequality, gender and social exclusion. The GoMP recognizes that Agriculture Sector interventions are crucial in the State given the high proportion of population dependent on agriculture and the potential role of such interventions in addressing wide-ranging issues around employment and income generation, nutritional security, balanced regional development and rural poverty alleviation. This is especially significant for Tribal Areas where, for a variety of historical reasons, agricultural development has been constrained. A series of interventions are being undertaken in these areas and the GoMP now considers it opportune to undertake an Impact Assessment of these with a view to assessing their impacts, identifying specific constraints to realizing their full potential and recommending measures to address the same. In line with their mandate to support evidence based planning and policy making in the state, PMPSUS has commissioned Catalyst Management Services to undertake a detailed impact assessment of agriculture interventions in tribal areas in the state. CMS has followed a rigorous process of study design, execution and analysis. The study involved sample survey with 4002 Households, 50 Focus Group Discussions with farmers, community based organisations, 202 village level mapping exercises and numerous in-depth interviews with agriculture experts in the state, opinion leaders, district, block and village level stakeholders. This is the impact assessment report.

9 Rethinking Tribal Development: Water Management Strategies for Revitalizing Tribal Agriculture in central India by International Water Management Institute



1 Status of Agriculture and Agriculture Interventions in MP

1.1 Status of Agriculture: Agriculture Sector in India: Since the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1996 to 2001-02), India has been targeting a growth rate of more than 4 per cent in agriculture, but the actual achievement has been much below the target as shown in the table below:

Table: Annual Average Growth Rates (At 1993-94 prices)

( Per cent ) Five Year Plan GDP (overall) GDP (Agri. &Allied

Sector) 8th (1992-1997) 6.7 4.7 9th (1997-2002) 5.5 2.1 10th (2002-2007) 7.0 1.8*

Source: Economic Survey, 2005-06. Note: *For the period 2002-2006. The Draft Approach Paper for the 11th FYP envisages that under most favourable circumstances the average for the 10th FYP for agriculture and allied sector cannot be more than 1.8 per cent per annum. Agriculture Sector in MP: MP is the second largest state in the Country with an estimated population of about 60 million. Agriculture is predominant sector in the state with 75 percent of rural population largely dependent on it. This results in wide availability of manpower at a reasonable cost. The agriculture sector forms almost one-third of the GSDP and forms the backbone of the MPs economy. Agriculture in MP is characterized among other things, by the problem of wide year-to-year fluctuation in production and hence, in farm incomes. The absence of assured irrigation in most of the areas of the state and lack of appropriate technology for dry land and drought prone areas further compound the problem. The low crop yield and high year-to-year variations continue to be a major problem in the state. Further the variation in fertility status of soils is quite high and so is the vegetative cover across the agro-climatic zones.

Type No. in Lakh Percentage Area Operated (in lakh Ha.)

Percentage

Marginal land holdings 28.38 38.56 13.98 8.54 Small land holdings 19.51 26.51 28.28 17.27 Semi Medium 14.88 20.22 41.22 25.18 Medium 9.17 12.46 54.48 33.28



The state is characterized by pre-dominance of marginal and small farmers. Out of total number of holdings, 65 percent holdings belong to small and marginal farmers occupying 26 percent of cultivable land as per agriculture census 2000-01. Details of number and area of operational holdings are given in table above. These small and marginal farmers do not have capacity to invest in water and land development measures, which is needed to enhance their production base and incomes. Most of the farmers in the state are poor and belong to socially disadvantaged groups like tribals. Out of total operational holdings 73.60 lakhs, 20.44 percent holdings are owned by tribal farmers operating 19.80 percent land.

The state has a geographical area of 307.55 lakh Ha.. Out of this 150.74 lakh Ha. (about 50 percent) was the net area sown11 in 2005-06, 13.38 lakh Ha. (about 4 percent) was under permanent pastures, grazing lands and under miscellaneous tree crops. Another 11.85 lakh Ha. (about 3 percent) was current fallow land. The cultivable waste land was 11.61 lakh Ha. (about 3 percent). The area under notified forests is about 93 lakhs Ha. (about 33 percent). Area is not available for cultivation is 27.5 lakh Ha., which is either barren or uncultivable land, or land put to non-agricultural uses. Gross cropped area is 203.06 lakh ha. Kharif and Rabi crop ratio-

55:45 (110:95), Total irrigation area of the state is 30.5 percent and about 70 percent of area is rainfed, cropping intensity of the state is 135 percent. In all 11 agro climatic zones, there is diversified cropping pattern. The most important crops are rice, soybean, wheat, sorghum (jowar), maize, pulses (peas, beans, lentils), and groundnuts. Rice is grown principally in the east, where there is more rainfall. In Western MP Wheat and maize are more important staples. The state is the largest producer of soybean in India. Other

crops include linseed, sesame, sugarcane, and cotton, as well as small millets which are traditional staple in upland areas.

12Forty-one percent areas come under Cereals crops, where wheat covers 50 percent of total cereal crop area. Total pulse area is 23 percent of which 61 percent area comes under Gram cultivation. Oilseeds crop covers 27 percent area among which soybean is highest with that of 78 percent of total oilseed cropped area. Under commercial crop, cotton and sugarcane covered 3 percent of total gross cropped area, where sugarcane cultivation have only 0.44 lakh ha area which is less then half percent on total gross cropped area. Under other crops (vegetables, fruits, fodder & medicinal crops), 6 percent area is covered.

10 Department of Farmers welfare and Agriculture Development website 11 Compendium of agriculture statistics 2005-06 and department website 12 Compendium of agriculture statistics 2005-06-MP

Large 1.66 2.26 25.76 15.73 Total: 73.60 100.0010 163.72 100.00

MP Gross cropped Area

42%

21%

28%

3% 6%

Cereals Pulses Oilseeds Cash Crops Veg, fruit, fodder, medicinal



The State has 5 crop zones, 11 agro climatic regions and 4 soil types, which add to the biodiversity in the State and acts favorable for the production of various crop types. Madhya Pradesh is the largest producer of pulses and oilseeds in the country. The State also shares a major share of the National agriculture production. About 25 percent of pulses and 40 percent of grams are grown in the state. The State is the largest producer of Soya bean and gram and the second largest producer of jowar and masoor in the Country.

Productivity of majority of the crops is low in the state and has generally remained constant. Table: Average yield of Principal Crops (Data based on department website agriculture statistics & Compendium of agriculture statistics 2005-06-MP):

Year Rice Wheat Jowar Maize Gram Tuar Soybean Cotton Sugarcane 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

2001-02 1005 1691 903 1310 944 818 840 369 3893 2002-03 652 1453 947 1779 21 638 652 350 3962 2003-04 1058 1867 1342 2072 932 825 1132 557 4215 2004-05 818 1821 961 1400 920 775 819 566 4280 2005-06 1045 1710 900 1415 937 744 1050 594 4327

Rice: MP contributes 1 percent of total production of rice in India but the area is 4 percent of total rice grown area in country. Yield of rice in MP is 818 Kg/ hectors which is 40 percent of average country yield. Maize: Productivity of maize has reduced up to 1400 Kg/Ha since 2004-05, which is 25 percent less than national average. Area under Maize production in M.P. is 12 percent of total area in India but production share was only on 9 percent in 2004-05. Jowar: It is grown on 7 percent area of total cropped area under Jowar at national level. Production share is 8 percent that of total national production, which indicates that, its yield is more than national average. In M.P. since 2004-05, there is decline in cultivable area. It has remained 1/3rd (577) in comparison to 1990-91. Small Millets: Most of the tribal communities are still growing small millets with traditional practice and using it for own consumption and some part for selling. Seventeen percent of total cropped area under small millets is in MP but production contribution is only 5 percent in India. Total cultivation area reduced continuously since 1990-91.

Wheat: MP produces 10 percent of wheat on 16 percent of total wheat cropped area of India. Over the years, cultivable area of wheat has remained same (not much difference). Wheat yield of M.P. is 1821 Kg/Ha which is less than national production of 2718 kg/ ha. Gram: MP is producing 45 percent of gram on 41 percent of area at national level. Yield per hectare is 920 Kg which is higher than national average production of 844 Kg/ha. Area and production is same from last many years with equal growth.



Urad (Black Gram): Since 2001-02, area and production increased but slightly declined since 2004-05. MP is producing 10 percent of Urad on 16 percent of area at national level. In MP per Ha. production is 353 Kg. Masoor (Lentil): Since 2002-03 area and production both has shown continuous growth in lentil. MP is producing 23 percent lentil on 34 percent area at national level (2003-04). Per Ha. yield is 510 Kg. Soybean: MP is producing 50 percent of Soybean on 60 percent area at national level .In 2002-03 less production reported in Soybean. In MP yield per hector is fluctuating since 2000-01. As per 2005-06 per Ha. yield is 1058 Kg. Rapeseed & Mustard: MP is producing 8 percent of mustard from 10 percent area at national level. Since 2003-04, production and area both have shown good growth in MP. Mustard per Ha production in MP is 1048 kg. Linseed (Alsi): Production area in MP since 1993-94 declined but yield per Ha. has increased from 2003-04. MP contributes to 21 percent of production on 40 percent land at national level. Cotton: Since 2003-04 record yield seen in cotton production, it has increased 400 times (117 to 578 Kg/Ha). MP is producing 4 percent of cotton from 6 percent area at national level. In 2005-06, cultivable area also increased with production up to highest level in the state.

1.2 Agriculture Interventions in MP:

Agriculture interventions in Madhya Pradesh are through:

• Farmers Welfare and Agriculture Development Department

• Horticulture department • MP Agro and Agriculture Marketing

Federation • National level developmental

Programme like NREGA which contribute towards Agriculture development

• State level developmental Programmes like MPRLP, DPIP, Tejeswini etc. • Civil Society Organisations like NGOs, Private Sector etc.

Specific state level Agriculture Policy does not exist. However there are various guidelines and Plans which provide strategic intent to the agriculture interventions by FW&AD Department in the state. With a view to facilitate execution of various programmes in a coordinated manner, various schemes have been grouped as under.

Department Utilization Trend

02000400060008000

100001200014000160001800020000

Rs.

in L

akh

Plan Outlay 14927.70 16571.55 14621.61 15100.98 15774.49 17775.00Expenditure 10952.69 13470.98 15000.55 11430.85 12526.75 15996.16

2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08

`



• Agriculture production • Soil conservation • Minor irrigation • Micro Minor irrigation

Agriculture Production:

Schemes under agriculture production group mainly aims at increasing production and productivity of food grains (cereals/pulses), oilseeds, cotton and sugarcane and other cash crops through dissemination of latest technology by use of organic farming, increasing the seed replacement, use of balanced dose of fertilizer and increasing the use of irrigation potential to minimize the dependence on monsoon to compete in international market. For this purpose, centrally sponsored schemes like Macro management plan (6 Schemes), ISOPOM (National Pulse Development Programme, Oilseeds Production Programme, Accelerated Maize Dev. Programme), Intensive Cotton Development Programme, ATMA and Central sector schemes like Agrisnet, seed village programme, organic farming, Demonstration of improved agriculture implements. National food security mission and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana are being implemented in this group. Important state sector schemes like Surajdhara and Annapurna scheme, Schemes for Training and Extension, Biogas Development, National Crop Insurance Scheme, Participation of women in agriculture, Special training program of SC/ST farmers for skill development and employment generation, are also included in this group. Soil & Water Conservation: The objective is in-situ moisture and soil conservation; extension of recommended production technologies, scientific management and sustainable use of natural resources and labour oriented development activities for employment generation through agricultural enterprises. Minor Irrigation: With a view to enhance productivity and production of holdings with S.C. and S.T. families, the scheme for Boring of tube wells on cultivator’s field has been continued. For efficient utilization of irrigation water sprinkler sets and drip units are also being subsidized under different centrally sponsored schemes.

Micro Minor Irrigation (Balram Talab): Balram talabs are being constructed under Micro Minor Irrigation Programme.

Annual plan (2009-10) envisage 5 percent annual growth in agriculture output by increasing productivity, by improving seed replacement rate, by promoting adoption of appropriate technology, by balanced used of NPK fertiliser, by increasing cultivated area, and cropping intensity, by crop diversification and cultivation of cash crops etc. The plan further envisages enhancing incomes, standard of living, food and nutrition security of those dependent on agriculture. The plan aims at sustainable agriculture development through efficient management of land and water resources, using farming systems and watershed development approaches. The plan states that the state will make efforts to leverage the current developments in the areas of biotechnology, farm mechanization, and information technology. The plan wish to strengthen the cooperative infrastructure to provide easier access to agricultural credit and inputs and finally plan has the objective of refocusing extension



activities to emerge as a potent conveyance to acquaint farmers with National & International market demand and developments in agricultural practices, and the transfer of appropriate technology.

National level Developmental Programme which contribute towards Agriculture Development Rural employment guarantee scheme (NREGS) in terms of preparation of Job cards reached up the mostly rural households of the MP. Bio fuel mission intends to contribute in tribal economy and MP government has established state level MP Bio Fuel mission. In the Tribal area in the state, Jatropha wild variety is available and large potential exist for community to cultivate this on own farmers land. It is proposed to setup the oil expelling units through Self Help Groups of poor & marginalised so that it serves the dual purpose of wasteland development as well as sustainable livelihood generation for rural poor. Rajiv Gandhi Mission on Watershed Development (started in October, 1994) presently covers 249 micro watersheds under the schemes of EAS, DPAP, IWDP and IJRY. Total of 1, 47,066 Ha. has been taken under integrated watershed development with an estimated project cost of Rs 5277.00 lakhs. State level Development Programmes contributing to Agriculture Development:

Civil Society and PPP Initiatives contributing to Agriculture Development in the State:

Presently 153813 farmers club are working in Madhya Pradesh (supported by the National bank for Agriculture development -NABARD). NABARD largely facilitates the framers clubs in the state with involvement on civil society organizations. Farmers have opportunity to expose

13 Source: NABARD website http://www.nabard.org



themselves with the better Package of practice and technologies. Farmers clubs do periodical meetings, involving the agricultural experts (from the Department and KVK). Self help group have presence in most Panchayats of the state promoted under different programme and agencies. SHGs are good vehicle in to support farmers as timely agriculture credit, inputs and building capacities, information dissemination etc. NGOs are playing a catalyst role in promotion of SHGs and micro finance institutions in the state. Number of NGOs like PRADAN is playing pioneering role in agriculture based livelihoods development especially for the tribal communities in the state.

Private sector is also contributing significantly for agriculture development in the state. Key private players are ITC, Dawat Group and Hariyali etc. The PPP initiatives in the state started in the year 2001 with the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between Director of Agriculture, Madhya Pradesh and chairman, Dhanuka Group to work together in areas like soil testing, training, farmers tour programmes, demonstrations, transfer of technology through cyber dhabas, agriculture fortnights, establishment of markets and providing credit facilities to farmers. Thus Madhya Pradesh became the first state in the country to have a private extension policy and pioneered by implementing. In year 2005-06, ATMA program was launched in the state. The main aim of ATMA is to provide timely extension services. In first two years department implemented ATMA on its own. In third year i.e. in 07-08 through PPP private companies and NGO joined hands with department to implement the programs to better reach its goal. Two partners have joined hands initially – ITC – For demonstrations, training, and farmers’ school – extension services and Krishk Jagat Education Society for publication of monthly news letter ‘ATMA SANDESH’. In 08-09 four more partners were joined hands with agriculture department (NGO – ASA, GVT, PRADAN, ICEF one Corporate – DAWAT group and a DFID funded project MPRLP). The partners in their area used various extension tools like Demonstrations, Training, Exposure, Improved Seed distributions/ trails, Interaction of farmers with scientists. In the year 08-09 Rs 16 crores were spent under this program while partners’ contribution was around 3.72 crores. After the successful results in initial year’s Department is planning to expand the coverage. 12 new partners have been identified for this purpose.



2 Status of Tribals Development and Tribal Agriculture

2.1 Tribal Development:

The National Tribal Policy has provided special plans and institutional arrangements for overcoming the challenges faced in tribal welfare. The Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) as originally conceived had a two-pronged strategy:

• Promotion of developmental activities to raise the living standards of Scheduled Tribes; and • Protection of their interest through legal and administrative support.

The TSP mechanism has, however, become routine and humdrum in most of the States with little awareness of its original objectives14. TSP has become a loose agglomeration of schemes prepared by line departments and driven more by departmental priorities rather than by any broad philosophy or thrust on development of tribals and tribal areas. There is no specific tribal focus in various schemes and it is often restricted to reporting proportionate, often notional, coverage of ST beneficiaries in percentage terms. While several of the States have at least notionally been implementing the TSP, most of the Central Ministries have not been doing even that. Almost no Central Ministry provides population proportionate funds for programmes to benefit tribals. Spending is also ad-hoc and un-coordinated. The general criteria for provision of services and infrastructure, based on population norms, cannot be applied to STs as the sparsely populated ST villages and clusters would never satisfy such criteria. Hence, the criteria would need to be relaxed to ensure that development reaches the STs.

For the Scheduled V areas the Government has passed an Act called “The Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996” (popularly known as PESA Act). The Act is meant to enable tribal society to assume control over their own destiny to preserve and conserve their traditional rights over natural resources. PESA requires the State Governments to change their existing laws, wherever these are inconsistent with the central legislation. In reality, however, in the decade since its passage, very little has happened. Many State Governments have passed laws or amended existing ones, but not fully in conformity with the Central law. The implementation of the law has been severely hampered by the reluctance of most State Governments to make laws and rules that conform to the spirit of the law. The non-empowerment of tribal communities remains one of the most critical factors responsible for the less than desired outcomes in all the interventions, monetary or otherwise meant for their development. In MP, Gram Ganrajya (System under PESA) is implemented even in normal Panchayat as well.

The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution was designed to devolve autonomy of a wide magnitude on the district and regional councils. So much so, that the Schedule has been described as “a Constitution within the Constitution”. A wide range of legislative, judicial,

14 National Tribal Policy draft



executive and financial powers have been conferred on the Autonomous Councils. Although the Sixth Schedule envisages considerable autonomy for its District Councils/Regional Councils and is much more powerful than the administration envisaged for the Fifth Scheduled Areas, a major drawback is that there is no democratic set up below the District level. Presumably this gap was to be filled by traditional heads. However, there is dissonance between the traditional and the formal systems, which is one of the basic reasons for the sub-optimal results of development efforts. Relations between State Governments and Autonomous councils are, also, often not harmonious. Other shortcomings have crept in as well. The functioning of Autonomous Councils especially in the Sixth Scheduled Areas have not been subjected to adequate review and improvements. These aspects need to be seriously studied.

2.2 Status of Tribal Agriculture

Historically, tribal communities were characterized by a lifestyle distinct from agrarian communities. They subsisted on different combinations of shifting cultivation, hunting and gathering of forest products: all activities closely linked with forests. Their cultures celebrated and fostered this close bond with nature while also emphasizing communal ownership and consumption, closely-knit kinship structures, and minimal hierarchies.

Today, the tribal majority areas, which overlap with the country's major forest areas, are also areas with the highest concentrations of poverty. Agriculture is predominantly rainfed and mono-cropped. Horticulture is marginally developed in the tribal areas with the present area under fruits, vegetables, and spices accounting for only about 2.5 percent of the cultivated area15. Vegetable cultivation is picking up very fast. These are preferably grown on Bari land (homestead). Women participate in all agricultural operations excepting ploughing and sowing of rice seed, contributing between 70 to 80 percent of the total labour. In spite of favorable resource conditions, tribal regions perform poorly in terms of infrastructure, returns from agriculture and almost all human development indicators. A publication by IWMI throws up some stark figures:

• Percent Net irrigated area (NIA) to Net sown area (NSA)16 is 14.98 percent in tribal area against 33.59 percent as All India Average

• Percent Net area irrigated by major irrigation systems is 3.66 percent against 9.89 percent as all India average

• Percent Net area irrigated by minor irrigation is 16.83 percent against 42.28 percent as all India average

• Percent Groundwater is 11.32 percent in tribal areas against 24.28 percent as all India average

• Percent Surface lift irrigation is 5.51 percent in tribal areas against 18.00 percent across all India.

• Population below poverty line is 42.67 percent in tribal areas against 26.00 percent as all India average (based on 70 most tribal districts in Central India)

• Value of agricultural output (InRs/ha) is 2697.55 in tribal areas against Rs. 8578 /Ha. As all India average

15 Overview of Socio-economic situation of the tribal communities and livelihoods in Bihar and MP, FAO Investment Centre 16 Based on study in 30 most tribal districts in Central India



The extent to which the tribals are able to meet their food requirements from agriculture is determined by the type of land they own, the size of the holdings and the size of the household. The FAO study in MP and Bihar indicate a declining role of agriculture in household food security of tribals, which lasts for 2 to 6 months of the year for the majority of farming households. It is estimated that average households in upland systems are only able to meet 20 to 40 percent of their food requirements; those in the middle system 30 to 40 percent and those in lowland systems between 50 to 70 percent of their needs. Food insecurity peaks in the post-sowing monsoon period (August-September) and again around March when the kharif harvest has been exhausted. In the past, most tribals were able to cover most of the shortfall with foods gathered from the forests. Forest degradation and curtailed forest access has reduced the availability of natural foods on which they depended compelling the tribals, especially those in the upland and mixed systems, to depend more and more on purchased foods to meet their minimum survival needs. Impoverished villagers have to choose between migrating for wage work or resorting to unsustainable harvesting of firewood for survival income. Many tribals have become caught in a debt trap because of the precariousness of their food security situation17.

17 Overview of Socio-economic situation of the tribal communities and livelihoods in Bihar and MP, FAO Investment Centre



3 Objectives and Scope

3.1 Main Objective:

The broad objectives of the impact assessment are:

a. Ascertain sustainability of impacts (social, cultural, economic, political, environment) of various ongoing agriculture schemes/interventions in the tribal areas of agro-climatic regions of MP, and how individually/collectively these schemes/interventions have impacted in the light of poverty reduction.

b. Investigate how the existing agricultural schemes/interventions are best suited in the social,

economic and cultural context of tribal population.

c. Identify and document best practices with in depth analysis on “why certain interventions succeeded under what conditions while other interventions could not have the intended impacts”

d. Ascertain various vulnerability context, gender-budgeting/auditing, fund

allocation/utilizations, policies, institutions, processes, institutional linkages, technology etc affecting agriculture schemes/interventions ( positively/negatively, intended/non-intended, directly/indirectly ) in the tribal areas of MP

e. Draw appropriate lessons, bottleneck issues, framework and approaches for the improvement

in agriculture schemes/interventions for beneficiaries, planning process, design of the scheme/interventions and implementation cycle.

3.2 Scope of the Study:

The study design was based on definitions of key terms as given below:

Agriculture Interventions means: • All major schemes operationalised by FW&AD esp. during the last five years

• Other Major programmes (e.g. DPIP, MPRLP) and Agencies (e.g. NGOs) interventions for Agriculture Development

• Agriculture interventions by other departments (e.g. RD)

Within this wider gambit, the focus on the impact assessment was on capturing impacts associated with Department of Agriculture Interventions.



Impact means: • Reduction in number of families below the poverty line

• Improvement in food security situation of the families

Intermediate impact (Outcomes and Results) means: • Access and use of extension services

• Adoption of technical knowledge, POP leading to improved production and productivity

• Increase in irrigated area

• Diversified farmers incomes

• Decrease incidence of pest attack

• Empowered community institutions etc.

Please refer to the detailed list of indicators answered by this study in the Analysis Framework described later in this report.

Tribal areas means: • 90+ Tribal blocks notified by the Tribal Welfare Department

The study area has been selected by stratification of blocks based on percentage of tribal population (up to 25 percent, 26-50 percent, 51 to 75 percent, More than 75 percent). The detailed sampling method and process is explained in methodology section of this report.

3.3 Impact Assessment Framework: The impact assessment answers the crucial impact chain of agriculture intervention leading to or contributing towards poverty reduction. The poverty reduction demands that agriculture services by Government, private players and NGOs are delivered well, farmers are able to

adopt successfully the new technology and package of practices, policies are in favour of remunerative agriculture and favourable markets and appropriate linkages are ensured. Therefore the impact assessment has looked at how delivery of agriculture services, adoption by farmers, markets, policies and linkages are

contributing or leading to poverty reduction. The impact assessment was designed to look at the sustainability of change achieved, and whether the interventions were suitable to the social, cultural and economic situations of the tribal people. The best intensions and capabilities may not still result in envisaged impact and poverty reduction if the agro climatic conditions become unfavourable and if institutions, systems and processes of delivery of agriculture interventions are not effective. Hence impact assessment has analysed the contextual and vulnerability



factors which has promoted or inhibited agriculture development in tribal areas in Madhya Pradesh.

3.4 Study Limitations: The study findings are relevant and applicable to tribal areas in the state and hence cannot be generalised as the impact of agriculture interventions for the entire state. The study findings are generalisable for the tribal areas in the state but the caution is advised when looking at study results for state level estimates. Though the study capsules status of development of tribal population in the state, it is not the focus of the study. The focus remains on how agriculture development has taken place in the tribal areas and what role agriculture has played in the overall development and welfare of tribals in the state. The study also compares development of tribals with the non-tribal population in the state. However it does not encapsulate the development from human development perspective and therefore limits itself to look at agriculture development status for both tribals and non-tribals. Even though the study report presents broader and disaggregated analysis, still vast opportunities for further data mining are available. The Planning Commission intends to continue do the analysis, for various purposes, from more than 1000 pages of outputs tables provided to them from this study.



4 Methodology and Tools

4.1 The Study Methods and Tools: The study has followed both qualitative and quantitative methods for understanding the impacts as per the following details:

Coverage – 200 villages in 24 Blocks, 12 districts of 6 regions, representing 8 agro-climatic zones

• Household Survey – 4,007 HHs

• Focus Group Discussions – 50

• Expert Consultations – 10 (state and district levels)

• NGOs and PRI Interviews – 50

The methods and tools used at different levels are described in the following table:

Impact Assessment - Respondents and Methods

Levels Institution Respondents Assessment Issues /Probes Methods /Tools

No. of Exercises

done MP SPC, PMPSUS, Agriculture Deptt

Directors, M&E In-charge and other key officials

- Expectation setting - Impact Assessment framework finalisation - Finalisation of study plan - Support and logistics finalisation

Reflection workshop /meeting

1 State

Agriculture Department /Tribal Welfare Deptt and Expert consultations

Govt. functionaries, Political leaders, Private players, consultants, NGOs

- Context of agriculture interventions in tribal areas - Performance of various schemes - Perception of change ensured and what could have been done better

In-depth interviews

3

District/ Block

Agriculture Department /Tribal Welfare Deptt and expert consultation

Govt. functionaries, Political leaders, Private players, DPC, Corporate, good farmers, NGOs

- Context of agriculture interventions in tribal areas - Performance of various schemes - Perception of change ensured and what could have been done better

In-depth interviews

36



Impact Assessment - Respondents and Methods

Levels Institution Respondents Assessment Issues /Probes Methods /Tools

No. of Exercises

done Households (Farmers & non farmers)

Household women and men members

- Structured Discussions on Impact elements (as per Statement of work) - Reasons for the quantum of change witnessed

HH Survey 4007

PRI members PRI representatives

- Overall implementation of agriculture interventions in the village and perception on impact achieved - Factors influencing attainment of impact

In-depth interviews

50 in 200 villages

NGO members

NGO members working in the village

- Role of NGOs /other development agencies in agriculture interventions - Perception of impact achieved - Factors influencing attainment of impact

In-depth interviews

25 in 200 villages

Village

Farmers groups

Group members (big , good and poor farmers)

- Overall implementation of agriculture interventions in the village and perception on impact achieved - Factors influencing attainment of impact

Focus group discussions

50 in 200 villages

The survey tool, focus groups guides and in-depth interview checklist is given in Annex-2. The study coverage is as explained in the table below:



4.2 Guiding Principles: CMS has adopted the following principles in designing and execution of the impact assessment: • Understanding expectations and use of outputs of the assessment: The first step in the

assessment was to understand expectations of key stakeholders (through an inception workshop with SPC, PMPSUS, and Agriculture Deptt. officials) related to the utility of the outputs of the assessment. This had crucially guided the design and implementation of assessment.

• Qualitative and Quantitative Data were both required for the understanding impacts. Factors responsible for impacts, for instance, were qualitatively understood, whereas analysing the quantum of impact was done through quantitative data. Thus the assessment integrated both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The assessment has employed multi-linear analysis in order to examine the dependence between the agriculture development and poverty reduction.

• Primary and secondary data were used to gain a holistic perspective. The assessment reviewed all the strategic program documents, progress & impact related reports of the various activities initiated under Agriculture Department and by NGOs in the tribal areas.



• Participative processes defined the conduct of the entire assessment. Key PMPSUS, Agriculture Department, Tribal Welfare Department staff were consulted and informed throughout the study and especially at critical stages of the project.

• Replicable methodology for future use: The study was designed so as to allow the Programme to use the methodology in the future to monitor the impact of the programme in longitudinal studies.

• Holistic analysis: Analysis of the information has gone beyond a mere reporting of data. It has included analysis of relationships between, for example, the context of agriculture interventions, the challenges being faced by the department in delivering of services to the communities and the impact on poverty.

• The study has ensured mechanisms to triangulate and verify data to the extent possible. Perceptions of various stakeholders regarding the issues being assessed were captured to provide additional data sets.

4.3 Study Universe, Sampling Procedure: A stratified multi-stage design has been adopted for study. The five stages that have been followed are: First Stage: Estimation of Number of Sample Blocks; Second Stage: Selection of Sample Blocks Third Stage: Estimation of Number of Sample Villages Fourth Stage: Block wise Selection of Sample Villages Fifth Stage: Selection of Sample Households Under each stage stratification based on the ST population is followed to arrive at the required number of sample blocks and sample villages. The detail of estimation carried out under each stage is given below. First Stage – Estimation of Number of Sample Blocks: In the first stage all the 259 sub districts / blocks in the state were arranged in the ascending order of the ST population (2001 census) and stratified in to four categories based on the

concentration of ST population. It is seen that 50 percent of the ST population in the state are concentrated in 47 blocks (18 percent) spread over 17 districts across five regions. These 50 percent of the ST population are in the top two categories. While 82 percent of the blocks (212) comprises of the remaining 50

percent of the ST population spread over all the regions and districts and are in the bottom two categories. The sample blocks are allocated to each of the four category of ST population so that regional, district and all types of villages of tribal population are covered for the study. Accordingly, the distribution of sample blocks arrived is presented in the following table:



Second Stage – Selection of Sample Blocks: In this stage all the blocks under each of the four sub categories were arranged in ascending order of ST Population. The required sample blocks under each sub category were selected using probability sampling. Third Stage – Sample Villages Distribution: In this stage the 200 sample villages were proportionately distributed across the sample blocks selected in second stage. The distribution of number of sample villages in the four categories of ST population is presented below: In each of the sample blocks 8 to 9 sample villages were selected based on the proportionate distribution of ST population. Fourth stage – Selection of Sample Villages: All the villages within the sample blocks identified in Stage 3 were arranged in the ascending order of the ST population and 8 or 9 villages were selected in each of the sample blocks selected using probability sampling. Fifth Stage – Selection of sample households: In this stage, all the households in the sample village were listed and information on the social category and the land holding details were mapped. A sample of 20 households – 15 landholding and 5 landless households – were selected based on the land holding category and the social category so that all the category of households are represented in the sample. In big villages, listing of households was done based on sampling fraction, so that the whole village gets represented in the process. Estimation Procedure The estimation of population based on the sample information was done using multipliers. The following formula is used for calculating the multipliers for estimation the population characteristics.



It is to be note here that the survey listed all the households in a village along with few key parameters such as social caste, land holding status etc. However, at the time of listing, some of the households across different categories were not available. It is also observed that most of the non-listed households belong to non-ST which resulted in under estimation of these non-ST households. Present study is mainly on tribal households. Sample household has been selected randomly from each category of households representing social caste and land holding classes. All ratio estimate given in the report from each category of the households is based on primary data which are reliable and valid.

4.4 Analysis Framework: The impact assessment study has measured the change (direct /indirect, positive /negative, intended /unintended) due to agriculture interventions in tribal areas. The change is measured related to four key dimensions: • Economic • Political and Institutional • Socio-cultural • Environmental



There are two level of change measured in the impact assessment study: • Primary, which means the ultimate impact of agriculture interventions • Intermediate, which means the outcomes and results of agriculture interventions Overall, the study answers 5 primary (ultimate impact) indicators and 13 intermediate impact indicators. The key findings of the study are therefore presented by the dimension of impact and corresponding indicator of change. The study has recognised “stepping stones” to change, without which the change will either not happen or the degree of change will be lower. Therefore the entire analysis is based on how “stepping stones” have been crossed by the agriculture interventions in tribal areas and subsequent to this analysis, the study has looked



into what can be done better in the future to arrive at a set of policy and programmatic recommendations. In terms of analysis tables, there were number of tables and cross-tabs developed. Many more analysis is possible with both the quantitative and qualitative data. For want of better readability and focusing on key points, the report brings-in only important graphs and tables, and highlights the analysis related to this. The databases and output tables are being submitted to the PMPSUS.

4.5 The Study Process: Catalyst Management Services (CMS) was commissioned by Poverty Monitoring and Policy Support Unit Society (PMPSUS), State Planning Commission to analyze the status and impact of agriculture interventions and schemes in tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh. A rigorous process (extensive consultations, field testing, pilot study) of designing the impact assessment study was followed during Nov-Dec.08. The study field work was launched after training to the field team on 8-9 Jan.09. Entire field work (covering 4000 HHs, 50 Focus groups and numerous individual interviews at village and block levels) were completed by 28th Feb 2009. The data checking and validation process were completed by 5th March 09. The data entry work was completed by 15th March 09. The secondary data analysis was completed by 18th March 2009. The consultations with agriculture experts were completed by 20th March 2009. CMS organised an analysis workshop with the field team during 13-14 March 2009. PMPSUS team also participated in the analysis workshop and provided their rich inputs. The analysis and draft report preparation process happened during 11-30 March 2009. CMS team presented the draft analysis to PMPSUS team on 30th March 2009. CMS further refined the analysis and multiplier application during 31 March to 10 April 2009. The draft report to PMPSUS was submitted on 13th April 2009. Based on the feedback, this report has been prepared and being submitted by CMS to PMPSUS.



5 Profile of Samples

In this section, the profile of the sample villages and the socio-economic profile of farmers in the study area (using estimated values) are presented. Not all tables are brought into this section in the main report to ensure readability. Detailed output tables related to profiles are given in the annex.

5.1 Sample Profile

The study was done in 202 villages in 24 blocks of 17 districts. The sampled study villages were spread out within a district which can be gauged from the fact that only 13 percent of the

study villages were less than 25 Km from the district HQ. One third of study villages were 25-50 Km from the district HQ. About one fourth of the study villages were 50-75 Km from district HQ. Similarly about one fourth of study villages were 74-100 Km from the district HQ. This shows that the study team went into large number of very interior villages. Team covered diversified

profile of villages, including those interior ones where no agriculture interventions by the FE&AD has reached. In one of the village in Sidhi, the villagers reported that an external visitor has come to the village, for the first time!

The estimated number of households in the study area is 42.87 lakhs. The distribution of these HHs across the four categories of tribal population are: > 75 percent - 11 percent; 50 percent to

75 percent - 16 percent; 25 percent to 50 percent - 29 percent and < 25 percent - 44 percent. While based on the 2001 census the distribution across these categories indicates 6 percent, 12 percent, 21 percent and 61 percent respectively.

The distribution of the population in terms of agro-climatic zones and the rank of the blocks (in terms of proportion of tribal pop) are given in the graph. Maximum proportion of farmers are from the agro-climatic

zone – Kymore Plateau & Satpura Hills and in terms of rank of the block on tribal population it is <25 percent tribal population blocks. Study sample <25 percent tribal population represent 165 blocks of the state, so this sample represent the general situation of the state agriculture.

Fig 5.1: Proportion of Sampled Villages by Distance from District HQ

> 100 Kms from District HQ

5%

50 - 75 Kms from District HQ

26%


23%

< 25 Kms from District HQ

13%


33%

Fig. 5.2 Distribution of Farmers in the Study Area(estimated number of HH - 42.87 Lakhs)

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

>75%

50-75%

25-50%

<25%

Central Narmada Valley

Jhabua Hills

Kymore Plateau & Satpura Hills

Malwa Plateau

Nimar Plains

Northern Hills Region of CG

Satpura Plateau

Vindhya Plateau

Ran

k of

the

Blo

cks

Agr

o C

limat

ic z

ones



5.2 Socio-economic Profile of Farmers in Tribal Areas

The study was conducted in 24 blocks, selected based on different proportion of tribal population (>75 percent, 50-75 percent, 25-50 percent, <25 percent) as explained in the sampling procedure in the section 4.3.

Fig.5.3 Socio-economic and Land Classification Profile of the Sampled Households

19.6% 24.9% 22.3%

37.6% 34.7% 36.2%26.3% 21.2% 23.7%

16.5% 19.2% 17.8%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

TRIBAL NON-TRIBAL Overall

LAND LESS MARGINAL SMALL MEDIUM & LARGE

The proportion of landless tribal households (19.6 percent) is less than proportion of landless non-tribal households (24.9 percent). Landlessness among tribals has reduced by 2 percent over the last five years (this may due to increased allocation of land patta under Forest Land rights act, implemented in the last two years). However small and marginal farmers among tribal are more (63.9 percent) than small and marginal farmers among non-tribals (55.9 percent). Medium and Large Farmers are more among non-tribals (19.2 percent) than among tribals (16.5 percent). Overall about three fifth of the households are small and marginal farmers. Based on the 2001 agricultural census this distribution is: Marginal – 39 percent; Small – 27 percent; Medium – 20 percent; Large – 2 percent; the all India level distribution of landholding pattern during 2001 has been: Marginal – 69 percent; Small – 19 percent; Medium – 12 percent; Large – 1 percent;

Average land holding size for tribal farmers is 2.8 acres while for non-tribal farmer, it is 3 acres. The cropping intensity in tribal areas for tribal households is 113 and for non-tribal households it is 127 against 135 for the state.

The sampling methodology has ensured that proportion of sampled households to a particular social class (ST /SC/OBC/Gen) is similar to the proportion in the population. The multiplier application has fine-tuned the sampling methodology by providing adjusted weightages so that proportion of samples in a particular class matches that with the proportion in the sampling universe.

The overall samples drawn are 51 percent tribals and 49 percent non-tribals. In blocks with more than 75 percent tribal population, 93.8 percent of the sample drawn are tribals. In blocks with 50 to 75 percent of tribal population, 87.3 percent of the samples drawn are tribals. The details on samples from various social classifications by different land classification are given in the above Fig. 5.3. The graph above (Fig. 5.4) captures the socio-economic profile of the estimated population. The tribal households constitute 51 percent while Non Tribal – 49



percent. The poverty status shows that 59 percent are BPL families and 41 percent APL families. The social stratification shows that 51 percent households belong to ST and 9 percent are SC’s. The OBC and General categories of households comprises of 33 percent and 7

percent respectively. 92 percent are male headed households and 8 percent are female headed households. Overall 24 percent of the Households have received the Annapurna / Anotdya card.

The study has surveyed women headed households as well. Overall 8.3 percent of the households in tribal areas are women headed households. More proportion of women

headed households are found among non-tribals (9.5 percent) than in tribals (7.2 percent). It requires detailed sociological /anthropological explorations for finding the reasons behind this.

The tribal areas have 28.1 percent illiterates among men and 49.3 percent illiterate among women. Another 12.7 percent among men are illiterates but can read and write. Similarly another 13.4 percent among women are illiterates but can read and write. Only about half of men and one fourth of women in tribal areas have gone through formal education. Only 5.4 percent among men and 0.59 percent among women are graduate or above. State level literacy rate18 for Madhya Pradesh is 62.8 percent. Dismal status of education in tribal areas has contributed significantly to that.

In terms of change in type of housing over the last five years in the selected regions shows that 3.9 percent of the households have moved from ‘kutcha’ houses to ‘semi pucca’ (3.8 percent) and ‘pucca’ houses (0.10 percent). The change is seen more in the 25 percent to 50 percent category (7 percent) while 3 percent change is seen in the <25 percent and 50 percent to 75 percent category of tribal population. In the villages with more than 75 percent tribal population the housing type has changed least (1 percent). Overall 80.8 percent households rely upon public source (rest have private sources) of drinking water, which is an improvement of 1.6 percent over the last five years. This is more so in the Tribal dominated area (>75 percent).

The ownership of land has increased by 3.2 percent in tribals areas in last five years (increase is almost same for both tribals and non tribals), one of the reason for increased landholding can be the land ownership “pattas” distributed under tribal forest right act during last two years.

18 As per State Human Development Report -2007

Fig. 5.4: Profile of Farmers in the Study Area(estimated number of HH - 42.87 Lakhs)

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Trib

al

Non

-Trib

al

Land

less

Mar

gina

l

Smal

l

Med

Larg

e

BPL

APL SC ST

OB

C

GEN

ERA

L

Yes

No

Yes

No

WhetherTribal

Farmer Type Poverty Social Category-wise Women-headed

AnnapurnaCard



Leased in land has increased by almost 40 percent which is more so for non tribals (53 percent) than for tribals (22 percent). It is to be noted however that proportion of leased in land is only 3,3 percent of the total owned land and hence the increase in leased in land is on a small base of leased in land against the total land owned in the tribal areas. The relatively more increase in

leased in land for non-tribals as compared to tribals shows that non tribals capacity and resources for agriculture is increasing at much faster pace than of tribals. Leased out land has decreased by 15.6 percent, mainly for the non-tribals, which further corroborate the above statement that non-tribals’ capacity, resources and utilisation of Govt. schemes has increased over the last five years.

Overall fallow lands have increased marginally by 1.3 percent. Fellow land is 4.9 percent of the total owned land now.

Five years ago, it was 5 percent of the total owned land.

Fig. 5.5: Change in Land Holding Status in Tribal Areas in MP, over the Last five years

22.19%

-42.85%

8.80% 8.99%13.80%

53.01%

-28.75%

12.53%

3.22%

-3.04%-2.05%

6.91% 7.57%7.22%3.17%

-31.26%

-50%

-40%

-30%

-20%

-10%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Own Land Leased in Land Leased Out Land Fallow Land Plantation Net CultivableArea

Gross CultivableArea

Net Irrigated Area

TRIBAL NON TRIBAL

This plantation on private lands are generally done by farmers by tree planting in their fields and by growing grass in raining sessions for the fodder purpose. The plantation on private lands has reduced (in last five years) from 8.4 percent of total owned land to 4.6 percent. This is a drastic reduction by 38 percent. The decrease in plantation area on private lands is more in case of tribals (43 percent) than non-tribals (31 percent). The reduction can be explained by the decreasing land holding size due to distribution of land in the family to the new generation.

Net cultivable area (NCA) has increased by 7.8 percent (8.8 percent for tribals and 6.9 percent for non tribals). Gross cultivable area (GCA) has increased by 8 percent (9 percent for tribals and 7.2 percent for non-tribals) over the last five year period. The increase in net cropped area



(22 percent) and gross cropped area (24 percent) is high in villages having 25 to 50 percent tribal population. This area have medium black soil with average 1000-1400 mm annual rainfall which is good for rice, wheat and cotton crops, which explain the relatively more increase in net and cropped area in the blocks with 25 to 50 percent of the tribal population. Across the different agro climatic zones in Nimar Plateau NCA has increased by 17 percent and by 9 percent in Northern Hills Region of CG. In other regions increase in NCA is less than 5 percent.

The net irrigated area has increased by 9.7 percent. 42 percent of the NCA is irrigated during the current period as compared to 41 percent five years ago. The net irrigated area is high (59 percent) in <25 percent category. In Central Narmada Valley region the net irrigated area is 87 percent and in Vindhya plateau it is 63 percent. The lowest is seen in Jhabua Hills region (7 percent). Overall in tribal areas, most popular scheme under the NREGS sub sector “Kapil Dahra” is impacting well on increasing the irrigation area. 34 percent of the area is fully irrigated, while 11 percent is partially irrigated and 55 percent un-irrigated. Change in the fully irrigated area over the last five years indicates decline of 10 percent among the small and marginal farmers, while it remained same for the medium farmers. For large farmers it has increased by 2 percent.

Increase in the number of crops cultivated over the last five years has been reported by 6 percent of the HHs and decrease by 1 percent. While the remaining have reported no change in the number of crops cultivated.

The cropping intensity has remained at 120 percent during the two periods. The cropping intensity is 134 percent in <25 percent tribal population, while it is low (103 percent) in the 25 percent to 50 percent category. Cropping Intensity is highest at 171 percent in Central Narmada Valley region and 122 percent in Northern Hills Region of CG. In other regions it is less than 105 percent. The cropping intensity is 133 percent among the SC and OBC groups, as compared to 113 percent among STs. Cropping intensity is 115 percent among the BPL families and 124 present in APL families. In Hoshangabad (Babai block), most of the farmers are cultivating more than two crops and in Jhabua most of the farmers are dependent on one crop only. Hoshangabad comes under the <25 percent tribal population and agriculture extension programme have good reach in the area with existing agriculture research station and better implementation of ATMA scheme. Jhabua have undulated topography and >90 tribal population less (7%) irrigated area, rainfed farming, low input efficiency resulted less cropping intensity in the area.

In terms of livestock, Cows are the most common livestock held by the households (52 percent of households own currently) followed by Ox (47 percent). Buffalo and Goat are held by 18 percent of the households. The average number of cows held by the households has declined from 2.28 to 1.8, while it is from 2.32 to 2.15 for ox and 2.23 to 1.7 for Buffalo. In case of Goats the average holding has declined from 5.06 to 3.73. The decline in the average holding is due to the increase in the number of households owning livestock. Average ox number in non tribal family reduced from 2.45 to 2.05 and in tribal families, it has marginally reduced from 2.24 to 2.21. This reflects non tribal farmers are now moving towards mechanised farming with tractors and its related implements but in tribals, this occurrence is very limited as of now. The number of poultry per household has also reduced from 5.12 to 3.83 for tribals as well as non



tribals (4.6 to 3.68) in the last five years. This means that in tribal areas, one of the diversified livelihood option (poultry) is losing grip at households level in the present situation.

6 Objective 1 - Impact and Sustainability of Agricultural Interventions

6.1 Economic Impact The study has measured economic impact through: • Reach, access, adoption and benefits from agriculture service by the farmers in tribal areas • Increased Irrigated Area • Diversified Farmers’ Income • Increased production and productivity • Improved technology applications in the tribal areas • Proportion of credit needs met though institutional sources • Proportion of produce being marketed • Beneficial changes in cropping pattern etc. The detailed assessment on above and many other aspects of economic impact is described in this section.

6.1.1 Reach of Agriculture Services Madhya Pradesh agricultures are largely dependent on rain fed farming. During sampled households’ surveys and in general community discussions, it is known that RAEO visits to the village to disseminate information about the new schemes are quite infrequent and some of the village even don’t know any departmental interventions in the village. Farmers seem to be receiving agriculture information from the private agencies, seed and pesticide shopkeepers, agents, big farmers. ATMA scheme have seen presence in some villages with some private company (Dawat & ITC). In remote villages, the reach of the department and private sector interventions seems to be very poor currently. The study has consulted Deputy Director Agriculture, SADOs and RAEOs of the Department of Agriculture and taken their perceptions regarding role of agricultural interventions for tribal area development. The main findings from discussions reveal that due to the overburden, RAEO is unable to focus their time and energies in the villages. Reaching village more than one time in a month or two is almost impossible. Half of RAEO time goes in other-departmental work of Janpad where as other half of the time, RAEO is spending on field visit and reporting, meetings etc., the later still consumes chunk of RAEO’s time. During the discussion, it emerged that the selection of beneficiaries under any scheme is one of the toughest exercise. This is largely due to large demands (applications) in comparison to the allocated targets by the district. Regarding gender budgeting, most of the SADO has no



understanding on the allocations and prioritization of beneficiaries. ATMA is a better scheme due to inbuilt mechanisms of aggressive extension. According to the one of the SADO (met during the study), farmers means the person having evidence of holding land. Therefore, agriculture interventions are only limited to farmers who are holding land. In all the 200 study villages, a detailed meeting was conducted with a group of villagers (total of 11,048 villagers participated, average 55 villagers per meeting) for understanding five key development programmes (related to agriculture) present in the village. The communities were asked to respond in order of their priority19 of the development programme. The responses show the top 5 development programmes in tribal areas are: • Kapil Dhara (NREGA)

scheme has attained 50 percent reach in tribal areas, with communities in 42 percent villages giving it Rank-1 or 2 development programme in their village

• NREGA has reached to 32 percent villages in tribal areas, with communities in 24 percent villages assigning it Rank-1 or 2

• Watershed programmes has reached to 31 percent villages in tribal areas, with communities in 11 percent villages assigning it Rank-1 or 2

• Annapurna has reached 30 percent of the villages in tribal areas, with communities in 9 percent of villages assigning it Rank-1 or 2

• Surajdhara has reached 28 percent of the villages in tribal areas, with communities in 16 percent of villages assigning it Rank-1 or 2

Large number of other agriculture interventions has reportedly reached to only 5 to 10 percent of the villages. The household survey also report similar stark figures of limited reach of agriculture services in the tribal areas. About 9 percent of the households have received training through FW&AD (has played either critical or catalytic roles). About 10 percent of the households have participated in kisan melas wherein about three fourth of them directly supported by the FW&AD.

19 Community Priority (Rank 1 to Rank 5, 1 being highest priority) will reflect utility, relevance and benefit realisation from the scheme

Fig. 6.1: Reach and Visibility of Major Agriculture Related Development Schemes in Tribal Areas - Proportion of Villages (Sample - 200 Villages)

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Kapil D

hara-

NREGA

NREGA

Watersh

ed

Annap

urna

Surajdha

ra

NFSM

Agri Equip

ment

ISOPAM

Sprink

ler

Bio Gas

Sch

emeITDP

MPRLPATMA

NADEP

Beej G

ram Y

ojana

Reach - % of Villages Rank 1 or 2 - % of villages

Pro

porti

on o

f Vill

ages



About 5.9 percent of the farmers have been supported by FW&AD in preparation of their farm plans. About 10 percent of the households have Kisan credit card while about 5 percent have accessed crop insurance facility. About 7 percent of the households are involved in contract farming and also in collective farming. Less than one fourth (23.4 percent) of the households have accessed banks for agricultural credit and received credit facility varying from Rs. 1500 and up to Rs. 3 lakhs. The main purpose of availing credit is for agriculture and related inputs & equipments. 12.5 percent of the households reported that they have received assistance (any one particular service) from the agriculture department in the last five years. Specifically macro management programme related assistance is reported by 14.7 percent of the households followed by soil and water conservation support received by 10.5 percent of the households. Other significant level of assistance is reported on the Micro Minor irrigation (8.8 percent), NFSM (6.3 percent), Crop improvement programme (6 percent), State sector schemes (6.2 percent) and National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (3.9 percent). The reach of other tribal relevant schemes like Surajdhara (5.2 percent households), Participation of women in agriculture (0.5 percent) is very low.



Predominant source of information for the farmers on agriculture in tribal areas are fellow farmers (35 percent), Radio (28 percent), TV (20 percent), NGOs (10 percent) and FW&AD (5 percent).

6.1.2 Level of Awareness and Adoption of Package of Practices Awareness and adoption of Package of Practices in tribal areas in MP are at low levels. The relatively higher awareness levels are expressed by the tribal households on seed replacement (37 percent households), summer ploughing (28 percent), Balanced use of chemical fertilizer (24 percent), Soil priming (22 percent), soil testing and seed sowing techniques (21 percent), and use of organic farming (20 percent). On other POP areas, about one fifth or less than one fifth households are aware about. The least awareness levels are expressed on seed treatment and culture (16 percent). The level of awareness on various POP areas has improved over the last five years but not substantially. Generally seen, 1 to 9 percent more households are aware



(on different POP areas) now than five years ago. A gap between awareness to adoption is witnessed in the tribal areas. 2 to 17 percent of the households have not converted their

awareness and knowledge about (different) POP area into practice. Largest gap (17 percent) between awareness to adoption is in the soil testing POP area. Seed priming and seed replacement (14 percent) and organic farming (13 percent) have also seen large gaps between awareness to adoption. In general, non tribals are

marginally more aware than the tribals on different POPs. However the adoption level among tribals (once aware) is more than the non-tribals in tribal areas of the state. Tribal

farmers have generally no information about Kishan mitra and Kishan didi schemes. The farmers in tribal areas are supported the most by other fellow farmers in increased awareness and adoption of package of practices. This is evident from 20 to 64 percent of households who reported getting support on different POPs from the fellow farmers. Second most important support providers for

the tribal farmers are the local shop keepers. Gram Sevak has also come out as the third most important support provider to the tribal farmers. Department of Agriculture role has been important for 1 to 8 percent of the households in knowing about various POPs. This is further evident from the finding that ever participation in any demonstration trial is reported by 5.5 percent of the farmer household in the tribal area. Radio has also supported 1 to 5 percent of tribal farmers in awareness and adoption of POPs.

6.1.3 Changes in Cropped Area, Crops and Cropping Pattern

In this section, to understand the impact of agricultural interventions, analysis has been done in terms of changes that have happened over a period five years (i.e. difference between the practices currently and five years before), both at aggregate level (i.e. for all the samples put together) and at the household level (i.e. proportion of household showing changes). Therefore, the results are presented first at the aggregate level (overall and season-wise),

Fig. 6.2: Proportion of Households showing Awareness and Application of POP

05

10152025303540

See

dR

epla

cem

ent

Sum

mer

plou

ghin

g

Bal

ance

d us

eof

che

mic

als

fert

ilize

r

Soi

l Tes

ting

See

d So

win

gte

chni

ques

Use

of q

ualit

yin

sect

icid

e,pe

stic

ide

Impr

oved

agric

ultu

reeq

uipm

ents

Judi

cial

use

of w

ater

/irrig

atio

n

Org

anic

farm

ing

See

dtr

eatm

ent,

cultu

re

Inte

r-cu

lture

oper

atio

ns

See

d pr

imin

g

Aware (Men) Now Aware (Men) 5 years backApplied (Regularly) Now Applied (Regularly) 5 years back

Prop

ortio

n of

H

Hs



followed by the household level. Any significant changes observed in any of the profiles or segments are highlighted. For want of better presentation, the data related to very small proportions are NOT presented here (e.g. changes in pattern of crop Arrndi), but available in detailed tables for reference. The results of the study show that at the aggregate level, there is an overall increase of 14.6 percent in the area under cultivation from 5 years before to now. The percentage of increase is marginally higher in Rabi (i.e. 15.13 percent) compared to Kharif (14.28 percent).

Fig. 6.3: Changes in Area under Cultivation for Major Crops

Paddy, 4,945,351 Paddy, 3,693,595

Wheat, 4,606,683

Wheat, 4,021,853

Soybean, 2,241,887

Soybean, 2,041,621

Cotton, 2,093,446

Cotton, 1,713,387

Maize, 994,111

Maize, 1,479,913

Others, 2,076,797

Others, 1,852,080

-

2,000,000

4,000,000

6,000,000

8,000,000

10,000,000

12,000,000

14,000,000

16,000,000

18,000,000

Now 5 Yrs Back

Are

a un

der C

ultiv

atio

n in

Acr

es

Five major crops account for about 88 percent of the total area under cultivation (i.e. Paddy, Wheat, Soybean, Cotton and Maize, in that order), and the trend is similar 5 years before and now. Of these five major crops, only in the case of Maize there has been a significant reduction in the area of cultivation, i.e. by 33 percent. In all other major crops, there is an increase in the area of cultivation, i.e. in Paddy – 34 percent, in Cotton – 22 percent, in Wheat 15 percent, and in Soybean – 10 percent. In terms of other crops, there has been a significant increase in the area under cultivation of Vegetables (by about 540 percent). Arandi has come in as new crops among the sample households and Lakhodi which was reported 5 years before does not find space in the current cropping pattern. The following table captures these changes for all crops:



While the changes are analysed on household basis, the highest proportion of positive changes are observed among the ‘medium and large farmers’ category (about 7.94 percent of farmers reporting increase in area under cultivation), followed by small farmers (about 7.51 percent reporting positive). Highest proportions of negative changes are observed among the medium and large farmers (about 3.22 percent reporting negative changes). In majority of the farmers, i.e. about 93 percent, there has been no change in the area of cultivation.

Tribal Non Tribal Total Tribal Non Tribal Total Tribal Non Tribal TotalLandless 0.19% 0.00% 0.09% 99.81% 100.00% 99.91% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00%Marginal 1.61% 1.71% 1.65% 94.68% 92.84% 93.82% 3.71% 5.45% 4.53%Small 3.06% 1.10% 2.20% 88.80% 92.21% 90.29% 8.15% 6.69% 7.51%Medium & Large 2.20% 4.14% 3.22% 90.38% 87.47% 88.84% 7.42% 8.40% 7.94%Total 1.81% 1.62% 1.72% 93.43% 93.46% 93.44% 4.76% 4.92% 4.84%

Present Land Holding

% of HH showing folliwng changes in the Area Under Cultivationfrom Now and 5 years before

Negetive No Change Positive

In terms of tribal and non-tribal farmers, highest proportion of positive changes are observed among non-tribal farmers (4.92 percent), and the highest proportion of negative changes are with tribal farmers (1.81 percent). Combining these two profiles, it can be concluded that the positive and negative changes are observed in both and tribal-non-tribal and also different land



holding categories. The highest proportion of households reporting positive and negative changes has been in non-tribal medium and large farmers. Similar trend is noticed among the tribal small farmers (i.e. 8.15 percent reporting positive change and 3.06 percent reporting negative change). Key points: Overall, comparing with the situation five years before, currently there has been an increase in area of cultivation (about 15 percent). The increase has been to a very small proportion of the households, i.e. less than 5 percent. Most of the households did not report any change in the area of cultivation. Within the category of households, largest proportion of households reporting increase is in medium and large farmers’ category. Of the five major crops that account of 88 percent of the total area under cultivation, only in the case of Maize there has been a significant reduction in the area of cultivation, i.e. by 33 percent (possible reasons for this are the history of Maize crop failure, maize being replaced by other crops like Soybean and paddy and no supportive Govt. scheme for the crop). In all other major crops, there is an increase in the area of cultivation. In terms of other crops, there has been a significant increase in the area under cultivation of Vegetables. Chilli and Arrndi have come in as new crops among the sample households and Lakhodi which was reported 5 years before does not find space in the current cropping pattern. In terms of changes in area of cultivation among different profiles, it can be concluded that the positive and negative changes are observed in both and tribal-non-tribal and also different land holding categories. However, the highest proportion of households reporting positive and negative changes has been in non-tribal medium and large farmers. Similar trend is noticed among the tribal small farmers.

6.1.4 Changes in Productivity and Production

The results of the study show that at the aggregate level, total production of most of the crops have increased (except for four crops out of 18). Of the main five crops that account for maximum proportion of cultivated area, only in case of Maize the total production is reduced. In case of Soybean, the total production has increased marginally and substantial increase is noticed in Cotton and Paddy. In case of productivity of these crops, in three of the major crops (Paddy, Wheat and Soybean), there is a reduction; with Soybean’s productivity reduced by 12 percent. Cotton is the only crop where both the productivity and production have increased. In case of Paddy, Wheat and Soybean, higher production was possible due to increased area under cultivation. In case of

Fig. 6.4: Changes in Productivity and Production for Major Crops (Current and Five Years Back)

-12%

31%35%

30%

8%2%

60%

-9%-5%-3%

-20%

-10%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Paddy Wheat Soybean Cotton Maize

% Change in Productivity % Change in Production



Maize, the total production was marginally lower by 9 percent due to improved productivity, even though there was substantial reduction in the area under cultivation. The following table captures the change in production and productivity for all crops between current year and five years before:

Comparisons of productivity are further illustrated by the following table and the graph:



6.1.5 Changes in Cost of Production The cost of production for various crops five years before and current year is arrived at based on the data obtained from the respondents on areas, crops and the costs incurred in various seasons in a year. There is an increase in Cost of Production (Rs/ Acre) for all the major crops in the past give years (without adjusting for the inflation). Largest reduction is noticed in the case of Vegetables, Kakdi, and Groundnut. If we

Fig. 6.5: Productivity of Main Crops (Qutl. /Acre) in Tribal Areas in MP (With Comparisons with State and National Figures)

0.0

2.0

4.0

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

Paddy

Whe

at

Cotto

n

Maize

Soyab

ean

Gram

Masoo

r

Arhar

Minor M

illets

Groun

dnet

Bajra

Jowar

Blackg

ram

Musta

rd

Tribals Non-Tribals State National

Fig. 6.6: Changes in Cost of Production for Major Crops (Current and Five Years Back) - (actual prices)

3,298 3,353

1,2511,083

2,6492,823

1,571

869

1,388

3,597

-

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

3,500

4,000

Paddy Wheat Soybean Cotton Maize

Cos

t of P

rodu

ctio

n - R

s. /

Acr

e

Current Year 5 Years Before



correct the costs for inflation (with approx. 5 percent per annum) then the increases are seen in only about 50 percent of the crops sown. Among the major crops, highest proportion of increase in cost of production is noticed in Cotton, followed by Maize and Wheat. The following table captures the cost of production of all the crops (with calculated value for both with inflation correction and without):

Current Five Years Before

Change in Cost of Production (%) - (+ve

means increased cost of production)

Inflation Corrected Cost - now (5% for

five years)

Change in Cost of Production (%) -

after corr for inflation

Arrndi 0 NA NA - NAChilly 7483 150 NA 5,864 NAOnion 4,525 1,750 159% 3,545 103%Cotton 3,353 1,571 113% 2,627 67%Kutki 565 379 49% 443 17%Musterd 408 275 49% 320 17%Blackgram 1,631 1,098 49% 1,278 16%Pea 1,261 857 47% 988 15%Gram 1,484 1,019 46% 1,163 14%Maize 1,251 869 44% 980 13%Bajra 841 605 39% 659 9%Wheat 3,597 2,649 36% 2,818 6%Ramtila 311 239 30% 244 2%Paddy 1,388 1,083 28% 1,088 0%Soyabean 3,298 2,823 17% 2,584 -8%Arhar 1,087 944 15% 851 -10%Kondu 306 268 14% 240 -11%Masoor 787 805 -2% 617 -23%Jowar 545 582 -6% 427 -27%Dangrabadi 31,275 33,881 -8% 24,505 -28%Groundnut 1,190 1,710 -30% 932 -45%Kakdi 11,058 17,811 -38% 8,664 -51%Vegetables 427 2,840 -85% 335 -88%Note: Colour Coding:

- Increase in Cost of Production in the five years- Decrease or Stagnant in Cost of Production over five years- Five major crops that account for 85% of cultivated area

Cost of Production - Rs. / Acre

Crops

6.1.6 Changes in Marketable Surplus The study obtained information on the marketable surplus of various crops, and analysed the changes over the period of five years. At the aggregate level, for most of the crops the proportion of marketable surplus has either remained stagnant or reduced. Of the main five crops, only in the case of Cotton, there has been an increase of 13 percent in the marketable surplus from the five years before situation. In case of Paddy the reduction is marginal. But given that the

Fig. 6.7: Changes in Marketable Surplus for Major Crops (Current and Five Years Back)

78%

20%

68%

85%

22%

33%

62%

35%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

Paddy Wheat Soybean Maize

Current Year 5 Years Before



area and production have gone up, the proportion of marketable surplus has gone down. This may be due to the fact that the farmers hold on to Paddy and other food grain crops to ensure that food security. The data on marketable surplus for other crops are given below:

Present Five Years Before Present Five Years

Before Chilly 4,778 5,181 18% NA NADangrabadi 38,489 4,621 NA NA NACotton 4,039,719 1,905,708 52% 39% 13%Gram 701,828 517,260 46% 35% 11%Bajra 17,799 6,285 11% 4% 7%Blackgram 33,499 20,902 24% 18% 7%Vegetables 7,771 - 1% 0% 1%Masoor 30,639 27,269 6% 6% 0%Musterd 0% 0% 0%Ramtila - - 0% 0% 0%Jowar 163,306 185,020 17% 18% -1%Paddy 6,240,732 5,158,516 33% 35% -2%Maize 779,555 979,611 20% 22% -3%Kondu 5,843 10,834 2% 5% -3%Arhar 116,877 104,629 16% 20% -5%Wheat 26,153,519 26,408,462 62% 68% -6%Soyabean 8,431,632 9,022,805 78% 85% -7%Groundnut 11,147 20,170 18% 31% -13%Pea 77,065 65,009 9% 29% -20%Kutki 3,037 59,572 2% 29% -27%Note: Colour Coding:

- Decrease in Marketable Surplus over five years- Increase in Marketable Surplus over five years- Five major crops that account for 85% of cultivated area

Crop

% of Total Produce Sold Change in Mkt Surplus over

five years

% of Total Produce Sold to Total Production

The comparison of status of tribal and non-tribal households on area sown, productivity, marketable surplus and cost of production is given in the table below, for the five main crops (accounting for 88 percent of area sown in tribal areas):



Mostly the farmers in the tribal areas do not sell their produce and use it for their consumption needs. Wherever farmers are in position to sell, they are selling it to local mahajan (money lender). The villagers are aware that the market can provide better price of their produce though they are not aware about the minimum support price. However in the absence of transportation and other communication infrastructure which can link them to the market (which are around 10-12 Kms away), they are unable to get the benefits. In some areas, Soya choupals have made market access easier. Further there are no storage facilities in the villages. No collective marketing is attempted as yet. Despite great potential due to raw material availability, there are no processing units nearby. RAEO can provide the necessary facilitation to the villagers linking them to the markets, however villagers say that RAEO is mostly seen in the Panchayat’s meeting and goes off without much sharing happening. Contract farming is practiced to a small extent in the tribal areas. Usually the farmers take up the lands of others as per the availability of the water sources. The produce is divided among the land owner & water source owner and the agriculture labourer to whom land is leased.

6.1.7 Changes in Agriculture and Diversified Sources of Income The study tried to understand the primary, subsidiary sources of incomes for the farming and non-farming households in the tribal areas. The study tracked in the changes in sources of income over the last five years as well. The results shows interesting picture, as presented in the tables below:

Box 1: Mandi has no attraction to Marginal Farmer in the Tribal Area Village Pandlaya, District Khandwa: Small and big framers believe that Mandi does not provide right price for their agricultural produce. Whatever rate (Minimum support price) government announces Mandi system underestimate the produce through different reasons. The highest disadvantage the farmers face while weighing of products is the attitude of the hammal. Hammal deliberately falls down the products while it’s weighing and does not include that amount in total weight. According to farmers Hammal falls approximately 5 KG from 5-10 quintal of produce. As soon as weighing is complete Hamaal collects that fallen grain for their use. Farmers appreciated new policy of cash payment against the produce, earlier (5year back) when payment done by the cheque they all faced problem of withdrawing it as it takes 4-5 days on an average. Other benefit from Mandi is some time price of produce change within the six hours and framer get benefit of that. Mostly villagers sell their produce to the village shopkeepers (Seth), though he does not weigh produce accurately. While weighing 1 quintal he use to weigh it in four rounds of 25 KG each with ½ Kg extra per weighing. The main advantage behind this is that farmer is saving transportation cost as well as time. Electronic weighing machine in the Mandi is another problem for the illiterate small and marginal farmers as they are not able to read number on the machines. This is only a benefit to the big and literate farmers. Farmers shared one incident of Khandwa mandi regarding complain on Hamaal issue to the Mandi chairperson, but he totally ignored the problems of the framers. Hammal always demands for Rs.10-20 as a tip for refreshment and if farmers does not provide them then they does not behave properly while weighing of produce. And create problems like less weighing and delay in weighing. Farmers appreciated the correct weighing of ITC Choupal but ITC looks for quality grading of grains/ produce and decides rates accordingly. Farmers have no storage facility and mostly they store in bags and drums.



Let us examine the analysis table above by sources of income, starting from Agriculture: Agriculture: Close to half the population in tribal areas is dependant on agriculture as their primary source of income. This is an increase of one percent households who are reporting agriculture as their primary sources of income now as compared to five years back. Another one fourth of households are dependent on agriculture as their subsidiary sources of income. It is interesting to note that 28 percent of the households (which is a 3 percent reduction from the situation five years ago) in tribal areas are not drawing their income from agriculture. This may also be due to the fact that close to one fourth of households in tribal areas are landless. Tribal households are more dependent on agriculture than non-tribal households as 74 percent of tribal households have reported agriculture as either primary or subsidiary sources of income while 70 percent of the non-tribals have reported so. However for more proportion of non-tribals (52.3 percent), agriculture is the primary source of income than it is for tribals (49.3 percent). Agriculture as a primary source of income is reported in highest proportion from Nimar plains (71.6 percent households) and in lowest proportion from Jhabua Hills (12.2 percent of households). Furthermore BPL (46.5 percent) are less dependent on agriculture as a primary source of income as compared to non-BPL (57 percent households). All these results clearly shows that with increasing poverty levels, the dependence on agriculture as a primary source of income reduces. Non-Farm Labour: Close to one third (29.7 percent) of the population in tribal areas is dependant on non-farm labour as their primary source of income. This is an increase of 2 percent households who are reporting non farm labour as their primary sources of income now as compared to five years back. Another one third of households (29.8 percent) are dependent on non-farm labour as their subsidiary sources of income. It is interesting to note that close to two fifth (40.5 percent) of the



households (which is a 4 percent reduction from the situation five years ago) in tribal areas are not drawing their income from non-farm labour. This may also be due to the fact that close to one fifth of households in tribal areas are medium and large farmers whose dependence on non-farm labour is reported to be very low. Tribal households are more dependent on non farm labour than non-tribal households as two third (66 percent) of tribal households have reported non farm labour as either primary or subsidiary sources of income while only about half (48 percent) of the non-tribals have reported so. However the dependence on non-farm labour for livelihoods have increased over the last five years for both tribals (3 percent households) and non-tribals (5 percent households). Non farm labour as a primary source of income is reported in highest proportion from Jhabua Hills agro-climatic region (78.7 percent households) and in lowest proportion from Nimar plains (7.2 percent of households) agro-climatic region. This is completely a reverse trend of what is available for households’ dependence on agriculture for a primary source of income. This suggest that agriculture in Nimar plains is much more forward than the agriculture in Jhabua hills. The agro-climatic conditions, resource allocations, departmental reach and planning, geographical locations (remoteness) are some of the factors responsible for agriculturally and occupationally different situation across the regions in tribal areas of the state. Furthermore BPL (33.4 percent) are more dependent on non-farm labour as a primary source of income as compared to non-BPL (24.5 percent households). All these results clearly shows that with increasing poverty levels, the dependence on non-farm labour as a primary source of income increases. Farm Labour: Only 6.9 percent of households in tribal areas are dependant on farm labour as their primary source of income. This is a marginal decrease of 0.7 percent households who are reporting farm labour as their primary sources of income now as compared to five years back. Another one third of households are dependent on farm labour as their subsidiary sources of income. It is interesting to note that more than three fifth households (61.3 percent - which is a 1.3 percent reduction from the situation five years ago) in tribal areas are NOT drawing their income from farm labour. This may also be due to the fact that farm labour prevalence is largely seen in landless, small and marginal farmers. Tribal households are more dependent on farm labour than non-tribal households as 44.6 percent of tribal households have reported farm labour as either primary or subsidiary sources of income while 32.6 percent of the non-tribals have reported so. Farm labour as a primary source of income is reported in highest proportion from Northern hills agro-climatic region (19.6 percent households) and in lowest proportion from Jhabua Hills agro-climatic region (2.4 percent of households). Furthermore BPL (8.1 percent) are more dependent on farm labour as a primary source of income as compared to non-BPL (5.3 percent households). All these results clearly shows that with increasing poverty levels, the dependence on farm labour as a primary source of income increases. The other important source of income in tribal areas are livestock even though for close to three quarters of households, this is not a source of income.



The analysis above shows the shift happening in poor farmers resorting to non farm and farm labour for their primary or subsidiary sources of income. The returns from agriculture for small and marginal farmers have seen a reducing trend which justify their looking out for other viable sources of livelihoods, as the study result shows. 21 percent of the households (among those who have undertaken diversified income generation activities) have expressed an increase in income due to engagement in other IG activities in the last five years. Nearly 92 percent of the households have received Job Card under NREGS, with 38 percent of these households reporting non availability of employment under the scheme; while others have received employment varying from 10 days to 90 days. The support by FW&AD in these diversified initiatives (agri-allied) is expressed by 11 percent of the households. NREGA reportedly have contributed to increase in non-farm labour. While analysing this among tribal and non-tribal households, the proportion of households reporting non-farm labour and farm labour is higher in non-tribal households (6 percent compared to -1 percent in tribal). New opportunities related to labour seems to have benefited non-tribals more.

6.1.8 Changes in Migration20 The overall migration has increased from 29 percent to 32 percent in the five year period. In tribal dominated villages, migration is higher than the less tribal population villages. It is

reported that in 53 percent of the HHs in the > 75 percent tribal population villages’ migration is taking place while it is 46 percent in the 50 percent to 75 percent category villages. In the other two categories of villages, migration is reported by 39 percent and 17 percent respectively. There migration has increased over the last five years in all the categories of tribal population except a marginal decline of 1 percent in the 50 percent to 75 percent

category. In terms of agro-climatic zones, migration of households is reported more in the Jhabua Hills (77 percent), Malwa Plateau (82 percent) and Satpura Plateau (68 percent), while in Vindhya Plateau it is lowest with only 6 percent of the HHs migrate in distress. Social category-wise, migration is reported by 38 percent of the tribal households while it is 28 percent among the SC and 24 percent among the other social groups. Migration is higher among the women headed

20 Migration in this document refers to household forced to move out of their native locations for food security for a short period of time (more than a week)

Fig. 6.8: Migration - % of HH Reporting and Change over Five years - Rank of the Block and Agro-climatic zone-wise

0.00%

20.00%

40.00%

60.00%

80.00%

100.00%

> 75

%

50%

-75

%

25%

-50

%

< 25

%

Cen

tral

Nar

mad

aVa

lley

Jhab

uaH

illsKy

mor

ePl

atea

u &

Satp

ura

Mal

wa

Plat

eau

Nim

arPl

ains

Nor

ther

nH

illsR

egio

n of

Satp

ura

Plat

eau

Vind

hya

Plat

eau

Rank of the Block Agro-Climatic Zones

Now Five Yrs Bef



households (42 percent of the HHs) as compared to 31 percent among the male headed HHs. In terms of socio-economic categories, the pattern of distress migration is given in the graph below:

Overall, highest proportion of migration is reported in women-headed households, tribal households, and landless and marginal farmers (around 40 percent in these categories). In terms of economic categories, a marginal difference in distress migration of HHs is seen between BPL (33 percent) and APL (31 percent) households (present status). It is more

among the landless (39 percent HH) and marginal (34 percent HH) & small (33 percent HH) landholding HHs. It is lower in case of medium and large landholding HHs. However, households reporting distress migration has increased among all categories of landholding size with increase varying from 1 percent to 5 percent. In terms of change over years in distress migration, there is an increase of about 3 percent. Higher proportion of increase is seen among the categories – OBC and general in social, in BPL households, non-tribals and in landless and small farmers. There is a marginal reduction seen in STs and tribal households. Within the migrant families, on an average about 2.20 persons per household go for migration, which remains the same five years before. There has been increase in migration of males and females (about 6 percent) and an increase of children migrating (about 35 percent).

6.1.9 Access to Institutional Sources of Credit

In the tribal areas in MP, institutional credit delivery is under-developed as of now. In India, the micro-finance sector has grown form a few self-help groups (SHGs) promoted by NGOs in the mid-1980s to over 29 lakh SHGs at present. Out of this, Madhaya Pradesh account for about than 2 lakhs SHGs. However, in the tribal areas of the state, the SHG movement is suffering due to poor capacities of self help group promoting institutions. Recently, the state has seen emergence of micro finance institutions as well especially in Jhabua and Mandla areas.

The study result shows that presently the main source of credit in the tribal areas is moneylenders with 36 percent of credit delivery taking place from them. The proportion of households dependent on moneylenders for their credit needs have remained the same over the last five years. The rate of interest charged by moneylenders is reported to be in the range of 24 to 100 percent per annum. The non-tribals (39 percent) are more dependent on moneylenders than the tribals (35 percent). The dependence on moneylenders is reported by 26 percent of the women headed households. The dependence on moneylenders is reported highest from Malwa Plaeatue

Fig. 6.9: Migration - % of HH Reporting and Change over Five years - Socio-Economic Category-wise

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

SC ST

OB

C

GE

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Social Class WomenHeaded

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BPL Status Landholding Categories

Now Five Yrs Bef



(99 percent of households) and Jhabua hills (96 percent of households) and lowest in Northern hills agro-climatic region (19 percent of households) and Nimar plains (31 percent of the households). This shows that dependence on moneylenders for credit is evidently more in tribal areas with more proportion of tribal population as more than 75 percent tribal population areas as 67 percent households report dependence on moneylender. The dependence on moneylenders for credit is further reported more by landless, marginal and small farmers (in the range of 26 to 49 percent) than by medium and large farmers (12 to 34 percent).

The next important source of credit in the tribal areas is co-operative societies, contributing credit to 24 percent of households in tribal areas. The role of co-operative society has remained at the same level over the last five years. The tribals (27 percent) dependence on co-operative societies is much more than the non-tribals (18 percent). The dependence of women headed households to this source of credit is reported by 22 percent of households. The reach of co-operative societies is reported highest in Northern Hill region (42 percent households reporting) followed by Vindhyanchal region (16 percent of households). The reach of co-operative societies is reported lowest in Jhabua Hills (1 percent) followed by Kymore Plateau and Satupura hills (5 percent). Tribal dominated areas (with population of tribal more than 50%) have reported relatively higher uptake of credit from co-operative societies (18 to 41 percent). The study results therefore shows that the co-operative society model is reasonably working in predominantly tribal areas, especially for the tribal farmers. The commercial banks reach for credit services has improved by one percent over the last five years (from 8 to 9 percent households). Access to bank for credit is evidently more for the non-tribals (14 percent of households) than the tribals (7 percent of the households). Clearly there is a marked difference in access to institutional sources of credit among tribals and non-tribals. There is therefore a need to study the strength and

weaknesses of co-opertive society and other institutional delivery of credit in the tribal areas to gain an idea about their effectiveness to arrive at policy options of promoting institutional credit in the tribal areas. It is interesting to note that for three fourth of the households, the amount of

credit taken is in between Rs.10001 to 25000. Credit uptake below this limit is higher for tribal households (19 percent households accessing credit of less than Rs.10000) than the non-tribal



households (5 percent non-tribal households accessing credit below this limit). This shows that the general credit requirements in the tribal areas is in the range of Rs.10000 to Rs.25000. The purpose of credit in the tribal areas is largely for agriculture inputs (seeds and fertilizers) as 71 percent of the households has reported this. Relatively more tribal households (73 percent) take credit for agriculture inputs than non tribal households (68 percent). Second most important

reason for credit is for buying agriculture equipment. Herein also more tribal households (16 percent) take credit for agri-equipments than non-tribal households (8

percent). It becomes known that close of one fifth of non-tribal households are accessing credit for livelihoods diversification (other income generation activities) while the credit offtake for the similar purpose among tribal households is minuscule (1 percent). Further while 6 percent of tribal households have reported credit offtake for consumption purposes (house construction, marriage etc.), none among non-tribals have taken credit for this purpose. Once, the credit is taken, how does households in tribal areas pay back?. The study explored this issue as well. The study results shows seasonal repayment is the preferred method in the tribal areas with 55 percent households preferring the method. Another 15 percent households are paying in regular instalments. The credit payment is reported irrgeular in case of 20 percent households in the tribal areas while another 10 percent of households are reported to be defaulters. It is interesting to note that while more tribal households (22 percent) are resorting to irregular payments than the non-tribal households (16 percent), there are less number of tribal households (9 percent) who are defaulters than the non-tribal households (13 percent). The study results therefore shows that credit delivery in tribal areas is not expected to generate high rate of defaulters and the rate of defaulting is expected to be lower among tribals than among non-tribals.

Clearly, the findings shows that the need to strengthen the institutional delivery of credit in tribal areas with awareness building on the financial discipline.

6.1.10 Changes in Agriculture Technology in Tribal Areas

A crucial determinant of productivity is the level of technology available, reflected in irrigation levels and source, quality of seeds, use of nutrients, level of mechanization, implements and tools



used in agricultural production, post production harvesting and marketing etc. The overall picture of utilisation of technology in tribal Agriculture indicates very low levels of uptake and adoption.

Canal irrigation is available to a miniscule number of farmers in the tribal areas. The cost of irrigation from other sources have increased cost of agriculture and contributed to making

agriculture less profitable for the farmers in tribal areas. All farmers do not have the access of irrigation sources. The big farmers are able to get water from the river through pipes. Even though the land of the small & marginal farmers lies in between but they are not able to get water out of river. There is no farmer’s association for the equal distribution of water among the User’s group. The villagers

who don’t have any water lifting device take the diesel pump from other farmers on rent by paying Rs. 50 per hour+ diesel. In some villages, diesel pumps have been provided by agricultural department (through Panchayat) to BPL tribal farmers. There is very limited number of NGOs or corporate working on irrigation and water related issues in tribal areas. As explained in the production and productivity sections above, the seed rate is higher in tribal areas than the overall state average. Seed

replacement rate and fertilizer consumption per acre is much lower in tribal areas than the state average. Adequate and timely availability of seed remains a concern for almost half of the

farmers in tribal area. Adequate and timely availability of fertiliser remains a concern for one third of the farmers in tribal areas. POP awareness and adoption levels are very low for most POPs (except few where POP awareness and application is in about one third of the farmers in tribal areas). Use of post harvest technologies is found at low levels. Most of tribal agriculture is for subsistence and therefore link

to agriculture Mandis is found to be weak.

0

200

400600

800

1000

1200

1400

Diesel Pump Electric Pump Canal

Fig. 6.10: Average Irrigation Cost -Per Acre

Am

ount

in R

s.



Technological improvements are also evident from the ownership of modern agriculture implements by the tribal households. The ownership status of agriculture assets is as given below:

Tractor: About 10 percent of the households own tractors in the tribal areas. Ownership of tractor is more with non-tribals (15.2 percent households) than with tribals (5.5 percent households). The tractor is purchased from borrowed money by close to half of the households who have aquired the asset. The subsidy from FW&AD is reported by only 1 percent among those who have purchased the asset. The ownership of tractor is found highest in Central Narmada valley agro-climatic region (40.4 percent households) followed by Malwa plateau (22.8 percent households). The ownership of tractor is found lowest in Jhabua Hills (0.8 percent households) followed by Nimar plains (2.1 percent). The ownership of tractor is evidently more in medium (21.7 percent households) and large farmers (43.6 percent households) than small (5.5 percent households) and marginal farmers (11.3 percent households).

Seed Drill: 30 percent of the households reported to have seed drills in the tribal areas. Ownership of seed drill is almost in equal proportion (30 percent) among both tribals and non-tribals. The FW&AD has supported 7.5 percent of those households who have acquired this asset. The seed drill is purchased from borrowed money by 43.7 percent of the households who have aquired the asset. The ownership of seed drill is seen highest in Vindhyanchal plateau (69.5 percent households) followed by Northern hill region (68.7 percent households). The ownership of seed drill is seen lowest in Jhabua Hills (0.6 percent) and Satpura plateau (2.9 percent). The ownership of seed drill is evidently more in medium (41.6 percent households) and large farmers (59.2 percent households) than small (35.1 percent households) and marginal farmers (35 percent households).

Spraying Pump: 26 percent of the households reported having this asset in the tribal areas. More than one third of these households have acquired this asset through borrowed money while about one tenth of these households are supported by FW&AD for acquiring the asset. Spraying Pump is available in higher proportions with tribals (29.3 percent) than with non-tribals (23.3 percent). The support from FW&AD is reported by 9.5 percent of those households who own the asset currently. The ownership of spraying pump is seen highest in Vindhyanchal plateau (69 percent households) followed by Northern hill region (58 percent households). The ownership of spraying pump is seen lowest in Kymore Plateau (3.4 percent) and Satpura plateau (6.9 percent). The ownership of Spraying pump is evidently more in medium (39.9 percent households) and large farmers (59.5 percent households) than small (32.2 percent households) and marginal farmers (27 percent households).

Motor Pump: 28 percent of the households own motor pump in the tribal areas. About half of these households have acquired this asset from own money. 7.8 percent of these households are supported by FW&AD in procuring the motor pump. Ownership of motor pump is seen more among the tribal households (33.4 percent) than the non-tribal households (22.4 percent). Among the agro-climatic regions, Vindhyanchal region has the highest motor pump availability (70.9 percent households) followed by Northern Hill region (58.8 percent). Jhabua hills (6.5 percent households) has the lowest availability of motor pump followed by Kymore Plateau region (12.1 percent). The ownership of motor pump is evidently more in medium (39.8 percent households)



and large farmers (70.2 percent households) than small (38 percent households) and marginal farmers (26.9 percent households).

Sprinkler: 17 percent of the households have Sprinkler in the tribal areas. One fifth of these households are supported by FW&AD in getting the asset. More than one third (36.9 percent) households have acquired this asset through borrowed money. Sprinkler is available in higher proportions with tribals (23.2 percent) than with non-tribals (10.8 percent). The ownership of sprinkler is seen highest in Vindhyanchal plateau (69.4 percent households) followed by Northern hill region (57.7 percent households). The ownership of sprinkler is seen lowest in Jhabua hills (0.8 percent households) followed by Kymore Plateau (3.5 percent). The ownership of Sprinkler is evidently more in large farmers (37.5 percent households) than medium (15.6 percent households), small (25.5 percent households) and marginal farmers (18.2 percent households).

HDPE Pipes: 20 percent of the households have HDPE pipes in the tribal areas. 7.9 percent of these households are supported by FW&AD in getting the asset. More than one third (38.3 percent) households have acquired this asset through borrowed money. HDPE pipes is available in higher proportions with tribals (28.6 percent) than with non-tribals (11 percent). The ownership of HDPE pipes is seen highest in Vindhyanchal plateau (68.5 percent households) followed by Northern hill region (60 percent households). The ownership of HDPE pipes is seen lowest in Kymore Plateau (2.7 percent households) followed by Jhabua hills (4.8 percent households).

Small Inter Culture Operation Equipments: More than two third (67.5 percent households) have Small Inter Cultural operation equipment in the tribal areas. Only 1.1 percent of these households are supported by FW&AD in getting the asset. More than 90 percent households have acquired this asset through own money. Small Inter Cultural operation equipment is available in higher proportions with tribals (71.3 percent) than with non-tribals (63.5 percent). The ownership of Small Inter Cultural operation equipment is seen highest in Jhabua hills (98.6 percent) followed by Malwa Plateau (89.2 percent households). The ownership of Small Inter Cultural operation equipment is seen lowest in Nimar plains (52.1 percent households) followed by Central Narmada Valley (63.1 percent).

Drip Irrigation: 15.5 percent of the households have Drip irrigation in the tribal areas. 13.3 percent of these households are supported by FW&AD in getting the asset. More than one third (38.5 percent) households have acquired this asset through borrowed money. Drip irrigation is available in higher proportions with tribals (22.3 percent) than with non-tribals (8.4 percent). The ownership of Drip irrigation is seen highest in Vindhyanchal plateau (61.4 percent households) followed by Northern hill region (60 percent households). The ownership of Drip irrigation is seen lowest in Jhabua hills (2 percent households) followed by Kymore Plateau (3.2 percent).

Tube Well: 17.9 percent of the households have Tube well in the tribal areas. 12.9 percent of these households are supported by FW&AD in getting the asset. About two fifth of these households have acquired this asset through borrowed money. Tube well is available in higher proportions with tribals (24 percent) than with non-tribals (11.4 percent). The ownership of Tube well is seen highest in Vindhyanchal plateau (64.6 percent households) followed by Northern hill



region (60 percent households). The ownership of Tube well is seen lowest in Jhabua hills (0.9 percent households) followed by Satpura Plateau (3.2 percent).

Well: 26.4 percent of the households have well in the tribal areas. Only 3.9 percent of these households are supported by FW&AD in getting the asset. More than half of these households have acquired this asset through borrowed money. Well is available in higher proportions with tribals (34 percent) than with non-tribals (18.6 percent). The ownership of well is seen highest in Vindhyanchal plateau (65.9 percent households) followed by Northern hill region (65.3 percent households). The ownership of well is seen lowest in Jhabua hills (9.2 percent households) followed by Kymore Plateau (10.5 percent).

Storage Facility: More than half of the households have Storage facility in the tribal areas. Oly 1.5 percent of these households are supported by FW&AD in getting the asset. 81.8 percent of these households have acquired this asset through own money. Storage facility is available in higher proportions with tribals (53 percent) than with non-tribals (49 percent). The ownership of storage facility is seen highest in Northern hill region (89.3 percent households) followed by Satupura Plateau region (70.6 percent households). The ownership of storage facility is seen lowest in Jhabua hills (0.6 percent households) followed by Nimar Plains (30.6 percent).

Adequate and Timely Availability of Seed: More than half (52.8 percent) of the households have reported adequate and timely availability of seed in the tribal areas. Only 5.9 percent of these households are supported by FW&AD in this. 74.7 percent households acquire seed through own money. Adequate and timely availability of seed is available in higher proportions with tribals (56.6 percent) than with non-tribals (48.8 percent). The adequate and timely availability of seed is seen highest in Northern Hill region (85.6 percent households) followed by Satpura Plateau (76.8 percent households). The adequate and timely availability of seed is seen lowest in Jhabua hills (0.6 percent households) followed by Malwa Plateau (27.6 percent).

Adequate and Timely Availability of Fertilisers: 35.4 percent of the households have Adequate and timely availability of fertiliser in the tribal areas. Only 5.7 percent of these households are supported by FW&AD in getting this. More than half (56.6 percent) households have acquired this through borrowed money. Adequate and timely availability of fertiliser is available in higher proportions with tribals (39.4 percent) than with non-tribals (31.2 percent). The ownership of adequate and timely availability of fertiliser is seen highest in Northern Hill region (82.4 percent households) followed by Vindhyanchal Plateau (67.1 percent households). The ownership of adequate and timely availability of fertiliser is seen lowest in Jhabua hills (0.6 percent households) followed by Malwa Plateau (4.8 percent). The overall study results show that the uptake of agriculture technology has taken place predominantly among medium and large farmers (where about one third to half of these households are reporting the ownership of agriculture assets). Vindhayanchal (Raisen, Sehore, Damoh), Northern Hills (Dindori, Mandla, Shadole, Sidhi), Central Narmada (Hoshangabad) and Malwa Plateau (Ratlam, Dhar, Barwani) are agriculturally forward regions in the state, where relatively higher uptake of agriculture technology has taken place as compared to Jhabua hills, Nimar plains, Satpura Plateau (Betul and Chindwara), where agriculture development is lacking as is shown by various agriculture technology, POP, production and productivity figures.



6.2 Political and Institutional Impact Change is led as much by political and institutional processes as by social and economic processes. The agriculture induced change may not initiate or sustain without necessary political will and appropriate institutional arrangement. It is necessary therefore to look at this aspect of change as stepping stone towards poverty impact of agriculture interventions. Under this section, the study looked at the level of access to critical services and entitlements which facilitate agriculture development and poverty reduction in the tribal areas. The study also looked at the status of community institutions and leadership in tribal areas that can facilitate agriculture development on sustainable basis.

6.2.1 Level of Access to Critical Services and Entitlements Critical services and entitlements in the context of tribal agriculture are BPL card, Antodaya/Annapurna Card, Electricity, Agriculture input shops, agro-processing units within

the village, Storage facility for major crops in the village, farm roads, crop insurance etc. In tribal areas in Madhya Pradesh, 59.2 percent of the households have received BPL status. This is an increase from 52.2 percent households who had received BPL status five years ago. More number of tribal households (64.7 percent) has received BPL

status than the non-tribal households (53.4 percent). On Antodaya /Annapurna card, 26 percent households have received it now as against 15.5 percent households who had Antodaya /Annapurna card five years ago. This shows that the state Govt. outreach for the provision of BPL services have somewhat increased over the last five years. In tribal areas in the state, 42 percent of villages have no electricity. About one fourth of the villages have limited or very limited availability of electricity. Only one third of villages have reported good availability of electricity. On this front, situation has remained the same in 60 percent of the villages while in 28 percent villages situation has improved for the better over the last five years. The situation has actually worsened over the last five years in 12 percent of the villages. The state level official figure shows that 68.6 percent of villages are electrified (source: State Human Development

Box 1: The front face of Agriculture Extension (i.e. RAEO) faces many constraints Dindori is one of most backward tribal district of MP, with 80 percent population dependent on agriculture. The Sahapura sub-district, consisting of 111 villages, is covered by 12 RAEO circles. Four RAEOs are posted overall in 12 circles and so each RAEO responsible to cover approx. 28 villages. It is estimated that 50 percent of the RAEO time is spent in reporting and other departmental work. So RAEO has about half of his official time for field level extension work. Considering that a RAEO works for 24 days in a month and so about 12 days are available per month for doing field extension. Clearly RAEO at the most can visit a village, only once in a quarter. No wonder that many agriculture schemes and programmes do not reach the tribal households esp. small and marginal farmers and Krishak Didi and Krishak Mitra concepts are not effectively running in the field due to lack of support and close monitoring.

Fig. 6.11: Status of Electricity in Tribal Areas /Villages in MP

Good Availability33%

Limited13%

Very Limited12%

Not Available42%



Report -2007). This shows that tribal areas electrification has happened to a much lower extent than the non-tribal areas. Agriculture input shops are available in 18 percent of the villages in tribal areas. Agro-processing units are available in 1 percent of the villages in tribal areas. Storage facility for major crops is available in 5 percent of the villages in tribal areas. The farm roads are kuccha is 95 percent of the villages in tribal areas. Crop insurance practice is seen in 27 percent of the villages in tribal areas. In about half of the villages where crop insurance practice is available, FW&AD has played a critical or catalytic role in the process.

NREGA job cards are reported to be accessed by 91.1 percent households. The status of NREGA implementation shows that 43 percent of the households have obtained 1 to 25 days of employment under the scheme. About one third of the households have obtained 26-50 days of employment. About one tenth of households have obtained 51 to 75 days of employment.

6.2.2 Status of Community Institutions and Leaders in catalyzing Agriculture development Community based mechanism had proven its success in many field of development endeavour. Therefore it is important to look at the extent to which community based mechanism exist, is functional and contributing to agriculture development in tribal areas. Only 9.7 percent of the households have reported to be part of some groups such as Farmers Club (1.4 percent), Cooperative Society (3.7 percent), SHG (3.6 percent), Federation (1.6 percent), and Producer Company (0.2 percent). The status of tribals (11.5 percent) being part of any group is better than the non-tribals (7.8 percent) e.g. proportionately more tribals (5.8 percent) are part of the co-opertive societies21 than the non-tribals (1.5 percent).

21 The uptake of credit from the co-operative is by 24 percent of households in the tribal areas, which therefore means that these many households are part of the co-operative societies. The figures on co-operative membership projected here are in divergence with the households figures having credit access to co-operatives. It is known that

7%

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Baghelkhand Bundelkhand Mahakaushal Malwa Nimad Vindhyachal State

Fig. 6.12: Status of NREGA in Tribal Areas in MP: Number of HHs Receiving what No. of Days of Employment

0 1 to 25 26-50 51-75



The study results shows that medium and large farmers are relatively more in proportion as member to one or the other community institutional mechanism than the small, marginal and landless households in the tribal areas. Overall it becomes clear that the community based mechanisms for agriculture development is utilized only to a very small extent in the tribal areas. The study team saw glimpses of emerging tribal leadership e.g. in some of the villages, success of Kapildhara scheme showed the strength of Sarpanch and his team to bring the allotted fund into their Panchayat. It is seen that wherever villagers have their approach to local leader above Sarpanch or where a sarpanch is active, good implementation of watershed /development project is carried out. Similarly much better convergence and many best practices are visible in these areas. The tribal people realize that person amongst them can truly work for their development. However the tribal leadership also suffers from the same malaise as is seen in leadership of the other communities. In Nishana village of Betal district for example, the tribal sarpanch was seen as “playing favourite” by the villagers. Political influence is noticed in large number of study villages in decisions on allocation and selection of beneficiaries. Some RAEOs reported that at least 20 percent schemes benefits are influenced by the local political leaders and elected representatives. In Mahakaushal region, number of tribal Sarpanchs is not able to implement NREGA according to norms due to capacity constraints. Clearly, the leadership challenge22 still remains in tribal societies. After 73rd amendment, the district level officers of the line Departments such as agriculture, horticulture, fisheries and animal husbandry are linked to Zila panchayats. The Deputy Director of Agriculture (DDA) works as secretary of the agriculture committee at the Zila Panchayat. Similarly, the SADO would function as secretary of the agriculture committee at the Janpad panchayat level. The RAEOs works under SADO and CEO of the Janpad and SADO carries

households have reported their membership to co-operative understanding its meaning beyond accessing credit services only. 22 Leadership which can work for the benefit of the whole community rather than benefiting few among the community



out daily supervision of their duties. There is no formal linkage between the RAEOs working at the village level and gram panchayat. The linkage between the PRIs and extension Department are strong at the district and block levels, especially at the SADO, ADO and RAEO levels, The district level linkages are mainly for planning and monitoring while the block level linkage are for implementing various programmes and schemes. Poor capacities of Panchayats were observed with regard to making use of such linkages and for sustainable planning of natural resource management with the on going schemes like NREGA and SGSY etc. Since implementation of Gram Swaraj 2001 Agriculture department officials are now participating in the Panchayat meeting and sharing the schemes and progress (e.g. after an hour long discussion in the Bhadera village, community agreed that new variety of wheat and paddy in village were brought by RAEO sahib).

6.3 Socio-Cultural Impact

Madhya Pradesh has the largest population of tribals among all states in India (nearly one fourth of India’s total tribal population). There are as many as 46 different tribal groups in the state among which Gond, Bhils, Oroans, Bhilalas, Kols, Kanwars are prominent. These groups show considerable variation in population size, level of development, accumulation and assimilation. Social and cultural traits, religious believes and norms as well as traditional economic pursuits vary from tribe to tribe as well as from area to area (Saxena and Pandey, 1998). Some of these customs believes and reservations which have implications on agriculture development in tribal areas are captured here (largely based on few focus groups discussions with communities and secondary data review). Social and cultural dynamics need to be understood before designing developmental interventions in tribal areas. The need for same is demonstrated by a case study presented in this section.

In tribal areas, due to the departmental policy and programme to reduce coverage of low value crop (Minor millets) with high value crops (Soyaben, pulses, Wheat etc.), major changes in cropping pattern has been witnessed over the last five years (as highlighted in the economic impact section). Minor millets are most important traditional crop in the tribal area of Madhya

Pradesh. This crop is linked with the tribal life and its social, culture and health practices. The minor millets are very rich in nutrition as can be seen from the accompanying comparison chart. Tribal know the value of minor millets and they still feel this is very important food crop for them to protect and fight against so many diseases. Minor millets have huge nutritional power especially for the women at the time of pregnancy.

The tribal of Jabalpur, Balaghat, Chhindwara, Seoni, Mandla, Dindori, Sidhi, Shahdol, Anuppur, Umariya, Betul districts are the main minor millets producers and belong to the communities of Gond, Bhil, Kol, Bhuria,

Minor Millets Comprative Nutrints Vulue with Whaet and Rice

02468

101214

Finger millet(Ragi)

Kodo millet Proso millet

Foxtail millet Little millet Baranyardmillet

Cereals wheat

Rice

Qun

tity

in G

ram

Proteins (g) Fat (g) Crude fiber (g) Mineral matter (g)



Saharia and Baiga, Minor millet is deeply related to culture and sustainable agricultural practices of tribal communities. The tribal communities use minor millets for both food for themselves and feed for their animals. In the changing climatic conditions and uncertainty of rainfall, minor millets are most suitable and sustainable crop of the tribal area. Minor millets is group of crop like Kodo Millets (Kodo), Foxtail Millets (Kangani), Little Millets (Kutki), Proso Millets (China), Barnyard Millets (Sanwa), Finger Millets (Ragi) are being produced by the tribal communities.

In Mandla and Dindori, the tribal communities are growing minor millets in a significant manner. However they claim that it does not provide them good market price so they don’t sell it but use it for self-consumption. In both the districts, agriculture is rain fed and minor millets require hardly any irrigation however now the tribals and non-tribal farmers in these areas have started growing cash crops to improve their living standard. Because of the poor mentality of the market (driven by the state policy) towards minor millets, there is now a reduction in production and productivity of the crop as is shown by the table below:

Source: Agriculture Compendium 2006-07 In 2005-06 the minor millets cultivation area in the state was 17% of the total minor millet cropping area of India but its production was only 5% of the total production. Causes for low productivity of minor millets in the state are related to undulated topography, Poor Soil depth, Poor soil fertility, high run off, soil erosion, lack of awareness regarding scientific package of practices and adequate input supply, Lack of good quality seeds/ Varieties, lack of state government policy/ schemes to promote minor millets and the fact that the Government has not declared Minimum Support Price (MSP) for Minor Millets etc. The socio-cultural practices of three main tribes of Madhya Pradesh: Baiga, Saharia and Bhils Herein below a case study of socio-cultural profiles of 3 main tribes of MP are presented to analyse the reasons or factors which has affected agriculture development, positively or negatively

Baiga tribes are predominantly resident of Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. The largest number of Baigas are found in Baiga-chuk in Mandla district and Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh. They have sub-castes - Bijhwar, Narotia, Bharotiya, Nahar, Rai Bhaina, and Kadh Bhaina. The Baiga tribes practice shifting cultivation in forest areas. They say they never



ploughed the Earth, because it would be like scratching the breast of their Mother, and how could they possibly ask Mother to produce food from the same patch of earth time and time again – she would have become weakened. That’s why Baigas used to lived a semi-nomadic life, and practiced Bewar cultivation (slash & burn) – out of respect, not aggression. Until fairly recently the Baigas practiced 'dahiya' cultivation, that is, slash and burn. Thousands of square miles of sal forests have been cleanly destroyed by them in the progress of their dahiya cultivation, the ground being afterwards occupied by dense scrub of low sal species springing from the stumps. The Baigas are courageous woodsman and hunter.

The Baiga tribe in Madhya Pradesh is known for its unique culture. They do not interact even with other tribals like the Gonds, believe in a hand-to-mouth existence, and do not try to access education, eat outside their community, or associate with others. After a death in the family, the Baigas just leave the house and build another. They are totally dependent on the jungle, they do not engage in tendu patta collection, which is a major livelihood provider in Madhya Pradesh. The Baigas live for the present, and do not think of the future. Their love for the country liquor called mahua daru is absolute, and they spend their week's earnings on liquor on Fridays and Saturdays.

The baiga takes coarse food and shows no extravagance in this aspect. They eat coarse grain, kodo, and kutki, drink pej, eat little flour and are normally content with what little that they get. One of the prime foods is pej that can be made from grounding maize or from the water left from boiling rice. Local people gave testimony that this food is much better and healthier than many other food that they eat. Also, beyond doubt they eat several items from the forest that includes primarily Chirota Bhaji, Gular leaves such as Chirota, chinch, chakora, sarroota, peepal etc. They also eat BirarKand, Kadukand and other rhizomes. Mushroom is also a delicacy. Numerous fruits such as mango, char, jamun, tendu are also eaten.

During the study in one of the district, it was found that all Baiga families have Job Cards, but they didn’t work under NREGS programme, even though they belong to poorest category. The reason behind this is they need daily work and also payment against that work. According to them panchayat releases payment after 20-25 days of work completion, sometimes even after more than a month for the work done. During household visits, it was found that a Baiga family has very little grain (2-5 Kg.), malnourished children, poor health status. Their main occupation is hunting and selling of Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP), mainly items made out of bamboo. From this they earn daily Rs.10-15 but get payment as per their requirement. The Bhils have a patriarchal type of society. Their family consists of man, wife and children the head of the village is known as the tadvi. The panchayat is a statutory body, which consists of the tadvi, kotwal (mediator between the villagers and officials) mafidar (person who assists the management of the State in some way.) The panchayat is responsible for settling disputes: petty quarrels, petty thefts and breach of tribal rules. The Fair and festivals play an important role in social and cultural life. The Singhasan Mata Ka Mela, Bhagoria Mela, Wavni, Divasa and Nawai are the main festivals. These traditional festivals are celebrated during sowing, growing and harvesting period. At the time of social celebrations and works people cooperate by contribute in the form of crop produce.



Sahariya (Bundelkhand) tribals are largely dependent on NTFP based livelihood (collecting, eating and selling locally). Baiga tribals (Balaghat & Mandla) are mostly dependent on the minor millets and NTFPs harvested from the forest. Bhil tribals (Malwa) have traditional practice of cultivation to produce minor millets (Kondo, Kutki, Ragi etc), maize and low land paddy. All these crops are now witnessing reduced productivity and areas sown in the state due to unfavourable policy environment.

6.3.1 Changes in Customs, Believes and Reservations Beneficial socio-cultural practices (towards agriculture development) which are continued: Tribals’ practice of preserving seed has been beneficial for protecting the seed genome in the tribal areas. Their custom, their festivals support the seed preservation practice e.g. in the Betul district before sowing all the farmers gathers at one place and do worship (bidri puja). During this event, every one brings their seed material. There itself they judge the best seed and other farmers change their seed material with that of the best material by giving additional quantities. By this practice they insure that the best seed is sown in the village. With mixed cropping tribal farmer minimize the risk involved with failure of single crop as well as ensures the variety in their food. For sowing of seed, the tribal farmer prepares the field by two times ploughing in summer season. He does the final and third ploughing and sows the seed in the field by throwing method called as “Chhidka”. For ploughing he uses plough (Hal) of wood. Then he uses cow dunk as fertiliser. No use of any chemical fertiliser and pesticide. When crop ripened, harvesting happens and “Udavani” (process in which first they beat the crop by sticks and through the crop plants from a high place to take seed out of plant) process is used.

Box 3: How a new development scheme coming to a village does not lead to desired outcomes This is the story of Dogargoan village in Pandhana Block, Kandwa District. In 1994, DRDA supported a new irrigation scheme in the village, involving 43 households, who were made part of two samitis of 21 and 22 households. Two irrigation pipelines were laid out. One pipeline from Sumta river, about 5 Kms away and another from a nearby Talav, one Km away. Bank of India financed Rs.29 Lakhs for motor pump and pipeline, which included Rs.14 lakh subsidy. However there were no water use and distribution plans were made, thereby only about 6-7 families used the water. The electricity bills which came for about Rs.10000+ surprised the villagers and they naturally did not deposit the bill amount. Bank loans instalments were also not paid back. Participating households approached Janpad, Zilla panchayat and collector and on enquiry it was found that Bank Manager and Cashier has misled the households and were suspended. The loan default case went up to the High Court but the participating households were clearly not willing to budge from their stand that as they have not used water, why they should repay the loan. Meanwhile, Bank loan interest kept on accumulating. Clearly the scheme failed and created wide spread animosity within the village. Clearly: - The scheme was not demand driven, and was thrust on households who were attracted to the Bank loan subsidy - The scheme was implemented without any due process and planning by the participating households - The vested interest of financing bank manager and other intermediaries involved ensured that the scheme died an unnatural death in the village - There was no facilitating agency or leadership within the village who could channelise and solve problems in constructive way - The scheme could have been targeted and managed better



The villagers use mud pots for storage of crop produce. They use white stone inside the pot to save crop produce from insects. These are fixed on the earth and could not move. The line sowing practice is beneficial to the productivity & micro-environment. The line sowing is the age old practice by the farmers in the area. The practice of cross sowing also is seen in tribal areas e.g. tribal farmers take up Wheat crop using cross sowing method which results into double plant population. The single sowing would result less plant population leading to more productivity. Socio-cultural Practices which makes tribal agriculture still traditional: Tribal cultivation history shows that farming is mostly for own consumptions and not for market purpose. Tribal farmers tend to be less worried about future planning and therefore entire efforts are directed towards ensuring existing livelihood through land and forest. However the practice is seeing some perceptible change in the tribal, more so with the changes in the cropping pattern. However still the marketable surplus available with vast majority of tribal farmers is limited and so is their access to markets. Minor millets are socially respectable crops in tribal culture. Minor millets are integral part of tribal food habits. These are consumed during festivals and marriage times as well. All these crops are now witnessing reduced productivity and areas sown in the state due to unfavourable policy environment. The change in cropping pattern over the last five years (as explained in the earlier sections) has influenced the change in tribal food habits as well. Tribal occupation as agriculture is very simple and technological very poor23. Among the agriculturist tribes, generalised type of reciprocity can clearly be seen at the times of sowing. The kins help each other and at the end of the work are food and drink as hospitability. The Bhils of Madhya Pradesh help each other in sowing and harvesting. They borrow cattle on reciprocal basis for ploughing the field for cultivation. The unbalance use of fertilisers & insecticides is also seen in tribal areas which damage soil health. Traditional farm practices such broadcasting of seeds, use of local seeds etc. reduce farm efficiency.

6.3.2 Changes in Gender and Social Relations Women and men play equal role in agriculture, NTFP collection and in other means of securing livelihoods. The women help men in agricultural work by performing work of threshing, weeding and harvesting. Mostly women don’t work in sowing and ploughing as these are performed by men only.

23 K.N.Dash in his book on Social and Cultural Anthropology



The study results shows that 60 to 83 percent of all decisions related to agriculture are taken by men while 12 to 34 percent of various decisions related to agriculture are jointly taken by men and women. The women role in taking the decision by their own is reported by generally 2 to 4 percent of households except in case of holding of money where about one quarter of households have reported that women takes the decision. Maximum joint decisions are reported on decisions related to selection of crops (34 percent of households), holding of money (36 percent), investments (37 percent), selection of variety (31 percent). Lowest joint decisions are reported on decisions related to use of new technologies and POP (12 percent of households), use of agriculture implements (15 percent of households), purchasing of equipments (15 percent of households). Some of these promising findings show the potential of agriculture extension which focuses on both men and women farmers. However, women reportedly have not received training from the agriculture department. This is due to the socio-cultural conditioning that the men and women go through. Level of education attainment among women is also very poor. However there is some glimmer of hope. The condition of women is improving over the years. Education is making a good dent in this process. There are self help groups of women formed by MPRLP or other NGOs in the area which are helping women come out of their traditionally roles and be more active in social and political arena (As the above case studies demonstrate). The state Govt. scheme of providing bicycle to girl for promoting medium and high school education is found to be popular and effective in tribal areas. With slow but steady changes and integration of tribal societies with the mainstream, it is expected that in 2 to 3 decades, gender and social relations will undergo path breaking changes in the tribal areas. It is important for the policy makers to ponder whether the rate of change can be speeded up to attain positive influence in gender and social relations in tribal societies earlier than this. On social and political issues, role of women is reported low though few NGOs are working towards women empowerment issues in the tribal areas these empowerment initiatives are also focusing on backyard poultry training and other income generation activities. Herein below are some of the observations from the field that capture the situation of women in tribal societies in general and in agriculture development in particular:

A grassroots NGO PGVS formed 2 Self Help groups wherein 24 women are participating since two years. All women have regular saving in group. NGO also provided backyard poultry training. NGO provided general awareness to the women group members on agriculture. Women are now showing signs of empowerment – taking agriculture related decisions, visiting the village market to gain access to agriculture related information etc.

Women are contributing in household economy by 100% of domestic work, 80% of agriculture work and 40 % participation in social functions and meetings. Women shared that given more support they can work at district level as well for livelihoods and



agriculture development - Based on FGD with Women members at village Jhapal, Block Bhimpur, Betul

Women are back bone of agriculture in the village. Women contribute in agriculture related decision making with their men counterpart. Women as part of SHGs share agriculture related information in their group. SHG also meet their agriculture credit requirements. Mostly women are not having land on own name - Based on FGD with women members, village- Sarang, Block – Mahar, District:- Satana “At the village level department should appoint women staff on priority basis and also implementation support for women farmers through club/Group formation” said Smt. Parvathy Durvey, Sarpanch Kotmi Janpad Shahpur “We need to prepare state level women agriculture policy that promotes Village level women farmers’ group formation and involvement of Civil Society Originations for its facilitation.” Said Smt. Rekha Gujare, Secretary, Pradeepan, A Grass root NGO

6.4 Environmental Impacts Adverse changes in the climatic conditions are having negative impact on the agriculture production. It is noticed that tribal cultivation is now shifting from organic to chemical fertiliser. Tribal farmers have very less knowledge on organic manure management. Villagers

met during the study were of the opinion that it has become increasingly difficult over the years to predict when rain will come. Awareness level on the climate and environment issues is very low. There are no specific schemes of the

Government which address environmental vulnerability of the tribal farmers.

6.4.1 Use of environmentally beneficial Practices It is widely accepted fact that the tribal agriculture, supported by Soil and Water Conservation measures can enhance production and productivity of agriculture while at the same time very beneficial for the environment. Status of adoption of various SWC measures in tribal areas shows that: Earthen Bunding

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

EarthenBunding

ContourBunding

Stone Bunding Loose stonecheck dam

Talav Farm Pond Dabra Dabri WellDeepening

Fig.: Number of HHs Reporting Receiving Support from Various Agencies for SWC Measures

DOA NGOs Government supported Project (MPRLP, DPIP, Tejaswani) NREGS Corporate (ITC, Hariyali, Reliance) Forest department Other Department Others



• 13 percent of the households have reported to have benefited from this activity. This activity has been mainly implemented under the FW&AD scheme, NREGS, Govt. supported projects and other departments. Also, NGO’s are reported to have supported this activity.

• Across the different category of tribal population villages, 35 percent of the households in 50 percent to 75 percent have benefited, while about 10 percent households benefited in < 50 percent group. In the> 75 percent group only 3 percent of the households have reported benefited from this activity.

• Across the different ago climatic zones, 56 percent of the households have reported benefited from earthen bunding activity in Northern Hills region of CG, while in Jhabua Hills region none of the households have been benefited from this activity. In other regions beneficiary households reported range from 3 percent in Central Narmada Valley region to 20 percent in Malwa Plateau region.

• Across the different social classes of households, the benefits from earthen bunding is higher among the OBC (15 percent households) as compared to 12 percent each among the ST and General households. SC households benefited is 10 percent.

• About 10 percent of the households have reported varying levels of satisfaction ranging from ‘Some What Satisfied (5 percent households)’ to ‘Fully Satisfied (0.4 percent households)’.

• 9 percent of the households have reported the asset created is functioning. Contour Bund • Only 4 percent of the households have reported to have benefited from contour bunding

activity, which has been implemented under FW&AD and NREGS. About 2 percent of the households reported ‘Some What Satisfied’ level relating to contour bunding.

Stone Bunding • Stone bunding activity has benefited 5 percent of the households with more than 2

percent of the households expressing marginal and partially satisfied level. Loose Stone Check Dam (LSCD) • Only 3 percent of the households reported benefited from this, mostly implemented under

FW&AD and NREGS schemes. Good functional status is reported by over 1 percent of the households.

Balram Pond • Less than 4 percent of the households reported benefited from this activity, which is

mostly implemented under NREGS. The functional status of this asset is reported to be good by over 1 percent of the households.

Farm Pond (Chet Talab Yojana) • 9 percent of the households have reported benefited from this activity implemented by

FW&AD and NREGS. 7 percent of the households have reported good functioning of the asset.

Dabara Dabri



• 6 percent of the households reported benefited from this activity implemented mainly through NREGS.

Well Deepening • 13 percent of the households reported benefited from this activity implemented mainly

through NREGS. Well deepening, earthen bunding and Farm ponds (11 percent) are most visible activities. The rest of the SWC measures are undertaken by 3 to 6 percent of the households. It is interesting to note that the predominantly tribal areas with population of tribals in excess of 75 percent have least SWC activities taking place. This shows that the potential of SWC for improving tribal agriculture has been only marginally utilized. It is known that except Talav (Balram talav – 39.3 percent of which are currently functional), more than two third of all other SWC measures are currently functional. Once the tribal farmers have known and understood the utility of SWC measures, the functionality is duly taken of. FW&AD has supported the tribal households for undertaking loose stone check dams the most as 43.4 percent of those who have undertaken this SWC stated so. NREGS has promoted agriculture infrastructure development in tribal areas as almost half of SWC measures undertaken by the tribal households are supported by NREGS. This is evidenced by the fact that 48.3 percent households have reportedly received assistance from NREGS for Earthen bunding, 74.8 percent households for Farm ponds, 61.4 percent households for Dabra Dabri, 41.5 percent households for stone bunding etc. The role of Forest Department, Govt. supported projects and other departments have been marginal in promoting soil and water conservation in the tribal areas.

6.4.2 Changes in use of Organic Agriculture in Tribal Areas The tribal farmer’s use of FYM is an age old organic practice. Low rate of fertilizer consumption is an opportunity for promoting organic agriculture. The current level of awareness on organic agriculture is reported by 21 percent of the household however the application of organic agriculture is reported by 7 percent of the households (which is a small increase from 6 percent households five years ago).

6.5 Contribution of Agriculture towards Poverty Reduction As of December 2005, the government defined a person with an income of less than Rs 368 (rural) and Rs 559 (urban) per month or consuming less than 2,400 and 2,100 calories per day in rural and urban areas respectively as living below the poverty line. However as per one of private think tank24 in India, “A true and complete definition of poverty should include all the basic needs of human life with a modest modicum of quality.” According to the think-tank, “a person is poor in India if he or she has a monthly per capita expenditure lesser than Rs 840 or does not have access to either drinking water, proper shelter, sanitation, quality secondary education or an

24 Centre for Policy Alterative Society



all-weather road with public transport.” Poverty essentially is deprivation of basic human necessities for survival and decent living. In rural context, poverty in India is generally seen at four levels viz. Extreme Poor, Very Poor, Poor and Better off. The participatory poverty measures (well being ranking) are used generally for the poverty alleviation programmes. The study has also used participatory methods of assessment of the poverty status of the households now and five years back. Well Being Ranking: This is a methodology for identification of different socio- economic category households from the village, in the four categories. This helps in identification of the poor, less poor and the well-off households in the community because with the limited resources available we need to give priority to people who are resource poor and lack an effective ‘voice’. The success of adopting a methodology also needs to be seen in the context of its acceptance by the relevant communities. In the study, we had the opportunity to assess the situation of Household in participatory manner after the intensive discussion with the household member The General criterias used for Well Being Ranking:

WBR Category Assumed social and Economic Status of HHs

Agriculture Status of HHs

Extreme Poor Hand to mouth, Physically week, handicap no natural assets for livelihood, No access in Panchyat and departmental programme , Distress migration, No part of any institution, Kuccha house in poor condition, no livestock, illiterate

No land for agriculture and no capacity to take lease land,

Very Poor Dependent on daily wage, less participation in Gram Panchayt, Know some scheme and programme from of department but note benefited, Kuccha House, Seasonal Migration , Members with Institiution but note benefited or deflator, 1-2 Livestock, Some (2-3)tree in field, functional literacy

Land up to 2 acres, no irrigation facility , Khrif crop only with traditional cultivation practices (No use of package of practice), No produce for sell mostly consuming or repayment to the money land against the loan, 4-5 month grain from field

Poor Have access at Panchyat with little influence, Work as labour if available in village, Able to access and utilise some scheme and programme from different department, Semi pucca house, Memebrs with institutions , 2-4 Livestock, 5-8 tress on field, Sending children’s in school

Up to 5 acre land, Partially irrigated and some irrigated land, Using some POPs at field, minimum one crops takes from the field, Average productivity of crop, 8-9 month grain form on land, Use new seed for some crops like cotton and Maize and Bajra at small land

Better off Have access and influence at Panchayt level, Members of main institutions, Benefiting form all major schemes, Big family size and educated, Social respect in community high, political party leader in village, Other HHs working as agriculture labour on field , Productive animals and having own plantation land with more than 8-10 trees

More than 5 acre land, more 1 acre land irrigated, Using of new techniques of agriculture, and able to demonstrate new technologies to other farmers, Better productivity, Whole year grain from own land and surplus grain and produce sell to the market, good use of agriculture implements, Storage facility available, capacity to take others land on lease

The tribal areas are showing upward movement of poverty profile of households from extreme poor (net 4.3 percent upward movement) to poor /very poor/Better off and from Very poor (net 9.7 percent upward movement) to poor /Better off . As a result, as compared to five years back, there are net 11.4 percent more households in “Poor” category. Similarly net 2.5 percent more households are better off now than five years back. The table alongside presents a clear picture of different category of households, moving in and out of various levels of poverty. 75 percent



of the extreme poor have remained so in the last 5 years. 21 percent of extreme poor have moved to become very poor. Overall 26.2 percent of extreme poor households have moved out

of extreme poverty. 41.8 percent of very poor households have remained very poor over the last five years. 51.4 percent have moved to become poor and 0.6 percent better off so overall 52 percent households have shown upward movement. However 6.2 percent households have slipped back to being very poor from other levels of poverty. The data shows that 8.4 percent of poor households have moved to become better off households in the last five years. Only marginally (3.3 percent)

better offs households have slipped back into lower poverty profiles.

One of the reasons that can be attributed for this upward movement of poverty profile is that there is 14.6 percent more area under cultivation and crop production has improved for all

crops except Maize. However this is true for only 7.94 percent of the households (about 92 percent have shown no increase). Productivity of all major crops has reduced with Soybean productivity down by 12 percent. There is an increase in Cost of Production (Rs/ Acre) for all the major crops in the past five years (without adjusting for the inflation). At the aggregate level, for most of the crops the proportion of marketable surplus has either remained stagnant or reduced. All this shows that contribution of agriculture to movement in poverty profile will be marginal. In fact there is a possibility that due to increased cost of production and reduced productivity, agriculture is contributing negatively to movement of poverty profile of households. The study results shows that 38.7 percent households have reported overall improvement in well being in the last five years. This is a significant number which is not getting accounted by the agriculture improvements (which are able to partially take care of immediate food security of the households) in the tribal areas. There are some significant findings from the study worth revisiting here:

1. It is interesting to note that 28 percent of the households in tribal areas are not drawing their income from agriculture.

2. Close to one third (29.7 percent) of the population in tribal areas is dependant on non-farm labour as their primary source of income. Another one third of households (29.8 percent) are dependent on non-farm labour as their subsidiary sources of income. Tribal households



are more dependent on non farm labour than non-tribal households as two third (66 percent) of tribal households have reported non farm labour as either primary or subsidiary sources of income while only about half (48 percent) of the non-tribals have reported so. All these results clearly show that with increasing poverty levels, the dependence on non-farm labour as a primary source of income increases.

3. 21 percent of the households (among those who have undertaken diversified income generation activities) have expressed an increase in income due to engagement in other IG activities in the last five years.

4. Nearly 92 percent of the households have received Job Card under NREGS, with 38 percent of these households reporting non availability of employment under the scheme; while others have received employment varying from 10 days to 90 days. Programmes like NREGS have addressed transient poverty.

5. Migration is reported by one third of households in tribal areas. More tribals (38.3 percent) are resorting to migration as compared with non-tribals (23.7 percent).

The analysis above shows the shift happening in poor farmers resorting to non farm and farm labour for their primary or subsidiary sources of income. The returns from agriculture for small and marginal farmers and more so for tribal households have seen a reducing trend which justifies their looking out for other viable sources of livelihoods, as the study result shows. So the overall improvement in poverty profile is due to other sources of income opportunities available in the tribal areas or due to migration earning of the households. The role of agriculture in graduating poor out of poverty is weakening over the years, given the fact that technology uptake in agriculture in tribal areas is still weak, the institutional delivery system of Govt. agriculture extension is reaching to (at the maximum) only about one sixth of the farmers in tribal areas and therefore role of agriculture will continue to diminish in addressing causes of poverty in tribal areas unless intensive and relevant engagement models are successfully tried out.

6.6 Sustainability

6.6.1 Sustainability of Benefits:

The agriculture development in tribal areas will sustain when individuals are aware of technology, apply best practices, benefit from them and spread the information around so that many more fellow farmers become aware, adopt and benefit. Sustainability will set on its own when agriculture extension services reach out to maximum number of farmers (including small and marginal farmers). Some of these farmers learn from their own demonstrations and spread their knowledge and thereby agriculture development start happening on its own, wherein even if agriculture department maintains a low profile, the process will take care of itself. However we have not reached that stage yet. The first step of awareness of farmers in tribal areas is very low (not more than one third of farmers are aware of any POP area). There is a gap between awareness to adoption. Though the trend over the last five years is improving, the slow improvements are leading to any significant outcomes for the agriculture development in tribal areas. Reach and coverage of agriculture extension and delivery mechanism is up to medium and large farmers in tribal areas, those too in lower proportions (one sixth). Clearly the momentum of sustainability will not build on its own under these circumstances.



6.6.2 Institutional Sustainability

The agriculture development in tribal areas will sustain if the community based mechanism is in place and working in tandem with the local governance structure. However the community based mechanisms is found to be weak or non-existent in tribal areas for planning and delivery of agriculture services. Hence sustainability concerns will need to address that first. Secondly though under the Gram Swaraj, the MP Govt. has created a mechanism of agriculture department participation in the Panchayats. The link still remains limited to participation in meetings and information dissemination at the best. The real convergence of department thinking and planning with the gram sabha has not happened significantly in the tribal areas.

The agriculture development in tribal areas will sustain when the institutional mechanism for the delivery of agriculture services becomes effective. This requires sensitization and capacity building at all levels of institutional arrangements. This also requires institutional models capable of fulfilling the mandate. Signs of achievements are already visible on this front with the PPP institutional models being tried out under ATMA.

6.6.3 Environmental Sustainability

The agriculture development in tribal areas will sustain when agriculture practices does not lead to harmful effects on the environment. The tribal agriculture follows age old practice of using FYM. The chemical fertilizer consumption level in tribal areas is still much lower than the state average. This offers an opportunity for promoting sustainable organic agriculture in tribal areas. The current level of organic agriculture in tribal areas remains limited.

6.6.4 Sustainability of the Programme Model

The agriculture development in tribal areas will sustain if planning of interventions is need based and becomes relevant. The agriculture planning though is decentralized, but the real process of farm planning and district planning is not fully influencing the overall plans that are made. The interventions need investments in the areas which can address the causes of low agriculture based livelihoods development in the tribal areas. Therefore many programme models related to integrated farming systems, watershed developments, agriculture value chain development etc. need to be adopted and implemented in the tribal areas.

Finally, the agriculture developmental is tribal areas will sustain when agriculture is able to provide marketable surplus for the farm families to take care of their livelihoods largely. If that does not happen, there is a risk that the next generation will move away from agriculture to other options for livelihoods generation, which if it happens will endanger the food security of the country. The agriculture in tribal areas is subsistence and marketable surplus currently in low, showing an increasing trend over the last five years. Potential for increasing the marketable surplus is very high considering that the productivity is one of lowest in tribal areas in the state.



7 Objective 2 and 4 – Context and Relevance of Agricultural Interventions

7.1.1 Reach and Relevance of Agriculture Intervention in Tribal Areas Today, the tribal majority areas, which overlap with the state’s major forest areas, are also areas with the highest concentrations of poverty. Agriculture is predominantly rainfed and mono-cropped. Horticulture is marginally developed in the tribal areas with the present area under fruits, vegetables, and spices accounting for only about 2.5 percent of the cultivated area25. Vegetable cultivation is picking up very fast. These are preferably grown on Bari land (homestead). Women participate in all agricultural operations excepting ploughing and sowing of rice seed, contributing between 70 to 80 percent of the total labour. In spite of favourable resource conditions, tribal regions perform poorly in terms of infrastructure, returns from agriculture and almost all human development indicators (The detailed social, economic and cultural context of tribals is discussed in the earlier chapters). Herein this chapter looks at the extent to which current agriculture interventions in tribal areas are best suited to the context of tribal people and the vulnerability factors affecting them. Relevance or suitability of agriculture interventions is demonstrated when more and more numbers of tribal farmers get the benefit of agriculture programmes and schemes. The detailed design analysis of agriculture programmes and schemes present the following picture: Status of Reach and Relevance of Irrigation Source Developmental Schemes: Micro-minor irrigation schemes are most relevant for the tribal areas, considering undulated

topography and the nature of small holder agriculture. The schemes like Kapildhara, well deepening are relatively working well as shown in the accompanying table. However most of other schemes have reached to very marginal number of households. Balram talab scheme is currently benefiting more non tribal farmers as this is appropriate for medium and large farmers. However the Farm pond scheme (Khet Talab Yojana) and Dabra

Dabri schemes are best suited to the social and cultural milieu of the tribal areas as these helps the farmers to provide life saving irrigation to the Kharif crop during the long gap between two rains and this is also useful for vegetable cultivation and plantation purposes. Tube well

25 Overview of Socio-economic situation of the tribal communities and livelihoods in Bihar and MP, FAO Investment Centre



(Nalkup) scheme may not be beneficial to large numbers of small and medium farmers and also not good for the environmental reasons and hence can be discontinued. Clearly if micro minor irrigation is promoted on a large scale with adequate allocations and appropriate targeting, the existing potential to increase cropping intensity can be realised. The overall budgets for these schemes should be based on local soil profile conditions. It is also advised that well recharging schemes are also promoted to maintain the water table. Status of Reach and Relevance of Agriculture Extension Schemes: Krishi mela and Krishi Seminar are most popular in the tribal community, implemented under the ATMA scheme. 2 percent farmers are aware where 44 percent households among them have benefited from the programme. Women participation is agriculture extension programme is very limited suggesting a strong need to promote extension programmes with women farmers

as tribal women contribute more then men in agriculture. Kissan Mitra and Kisan Didi schemes are among the most relevant schemes in tribal areas as they follow the approach of community based extension. However the reach of these schemes is currently very limited with only 0.2 percent

households aware and getting the benefit from the schemes. During the interactions with the Agriculture department functionaries, it became known that REAO is not able to provide the follow up support to the Kissan Didi and Kissan Mitra after their training, leaving a very well designed scheme to not achieve it potential. The field demonstration benefit is gained more by non-tribals farmers than the tribal farmers in the tribal areas. During focus group discussions, it was observed that one REAO in Kharif or Rabi conducts more than 20 field demonstration and this forces him to go to those farmers where these demonstrations can be easily carried out as if he spread out the demonstration or carries them out with tribal /small and medium farmers then it will require support amounting to at least 100 days of visit in one season to the 20 demonstration, which considering his work profile and resources may not be possible. At below block level REAO is responsible for providing information and coordination of agricultural schemes and technologies. There is need of one REAO on 400-60026 families but at present, the Department has only one REAO on 1500 to 2500 families. Although tribal areas need more RAEOs for the extension support, the reverse is the case. Status of Reach and Relevance of Agriculture Input Schemes: Seed is important input for the agriculture in Madhya Pradesh. Under centrally sponsored scheme Annpurna (for cereals) and Surajdhara (for Oilseeds) seed is provided to the SC & ST farmers under different sub schemes. Annapurna has 7 percent households aware about it with




86 percent of them benefitting. Non-tribals households are relatively more aware as well as drawing more benefits than the tribal households. Seed gram scheme have 4 percent households aware and 96 percent of them have benefited. The seed schemes have shown relatively good results. Presently department have every year target to take 5 village from the each blocks of

the state and this numbers need to increase. 5 percent households are aware and among them 71 percent of households have benefited from the Surajdhara scheme. The study results shows that the Seed Exchange scheme is not working in tribal area as tribals due to their practices do not exchange own seed with seed from other sources.

The tribal areas face the problem of availability of seeds at the right time and therefore Seed gram scheme is best suited in tribal area. If farmers are able to produce seed within the village in supervision of department this will be best situation for farmers. Status of Reach and Relevance of Central Schemes: All central supported schemes have presence in tribal and non tribal areas of the state. National food security Mission (NFSM) is known by the 6 percent of tribal households with 79 percent of the households among them benefitting from the scheme while 22 percent of non tribal

households are aware about NFSM and 28 percent among them have benefitted as well. NFSM scheme have given opportunity to good numbers of farmers to secure benefits in the short term. 2 percent of the tribal households are aware about National Agriculture Development Programme

(RKVY) with 64 percent of them benefitting as well. ISOPAM scheme have achieved coverage in terms of awareness to 4 percent tribal households and among them 79 percent have benefitted, however the scheme benefits have gone to more proportion of non-tribals. Same is the case with National crop Insurance scheme. This reflects tribal farmers have less access to take claim from insurance of crop as well awareness on crop insurance. The Intensive Cotton Development has reached to only 1 percent of tribal farmers in terms of awareness with 75 percent among them getting the benefit from the scheme. It is observed during the field study that cotton crop productivity has increased over the last 5 year due to the BT and hybrid cotton seeds for which the tribal farmers are ready to pay the cost of the seed also. Status of Reach and Relevance of Soil & Water Conservation Scheme:



7 percent of tribal households are on Hariyali scheme under the soil and water conservation programme however only 4 percent households among them have benefited, the situation is similar with non-tribal households as well. Farm bunding scheme have been recognised by the

farmers as having impacted on the field wherein 5 percent tribal farmers are aware and among them 41 percent have benefited. Farm bunding scheme is very useful for the tribal areas with undulated topography requiring soil and water conservation work. Presently NREGS have provided opportunity

to the farmers to work on their own land. SWC programme needs still lot of efforts by different implementation agencies in the tribal areas to improve land structure and moisture in the field. Watershed development programme brings double benefits by providing wage labour opportunity as well as conserving environmental and natural resources which improve crop productivity.

Other Programme:- 1 percent of the tribal households are aware on plant protection, seed treatment and soil testing schemes wherein among them 65 percent, 81 percent and 20 percent have benefitted

respectively. Non-tribals households are marginally more aware and have realised benefits in more proportion than the tribal farmers. Organic farming is most suitable intervention in the tribal areas however current uptake on this is very low with only 3 percent tribal households aware and among them 55

percent realising the benefit. Tribal agriculture is close to the organic farming and this opportunity need to be leveraged by the state policy. The organic farming practices along with marketing support for organically grown crops will boost the organic practice in tribal areas of the state.

The analysis shows how coverage attained for most of the agriculture interventions in tribal areas is very low and therefore the larger issue for the state policy and programming to address is increase the coverage while focusing on relatively more relevant schemes like NREGS, Annapurna, Surajdhara, NFSM, RKVY, Agrisnet, Organic farming, Soil and water conservation, agriculture extension etc.



7.1.2 Adequacy and Relevance of Public Investments in Agriculture Sector in MP The public investments in agriculture have been stagnant during the three year period (2005-06

to 2007-08). The planned outlay in Agriculture Sector in Madhya Pradesh has marginally moved up from Rs.148.63 crores in 2005-06 to Rs.177.75 crores in 2007-08. The proportion of TSP to overall plan outlay has been around 27 percent, over this three years period. But the TSP utilization has remained lower (72 percent) than the overall utilization level (82 percent). The planned outlay for the last

financial year (2008-09) increased significantly to Rs.689.61 crores. The actual expenditure till

November 2008 shows utilization of only Rs.155.98 crores (25 percent of the total plan outlay). The plan outlay for 2009-10 are projected at Rs.585.61 crores of which 23 percent is the TSP outlay. The major addition to current fiscal outlay is RKVY which brings in Rs.380 crores of additional public investments in the sector (of which 23 percent are under TSP). Clearly the public investments in agriculture have almost tripled for the current fiscal against the trends of annual utilization of over the last 5 years. The crucial issue to monitor will be whether the tripling of investments brings in increased reach and coverage of agriculture services, and possibly tripling of agriculture growth in the state, to move up to 5 percent level as envisaged in

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the annual plan for 2009-10. The budgetary analysis throws up following findings and resultant pointers for improved allocation planning: TSP allocations are a pointer towards commitment to improve tribal development. The allocations have followed the principle of budgets proportion to population size, and as tribal land holding constitute around one fifth of all land holdings in the state, thereby the budgetary allocations have stayed around one fifth of total plan outlays. However the principle of equality demand higher allocations to TSP as tribal areas and farmers suffer from many disadvantages, which will require disproportionately higher public investments to improve tribal agriculture and economic well being of tribal farmers dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods.

The trend of proportion of agriculture investments and allocations (over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) shows that TSP allocations have generally followed the overall allocations across various programmes and schemes. There are few exceptions also wherein schemes like Surajdhara, Annapurna have received

higher allocations in tribal areas, which demonstrate the relevant planning as per the requirements of the tribal farmers. There are areas which are possibly more relevant for tribal agriculture development but have received proportionately less allocations e.g. watershed development, Balram Talav, research and education, agriculture extension etc. The entire Research and Education budget under TSP have gone to JNKVV, the benefit from which to tribal agriculture in not much evident. The allocations on soft components (like agriculture extension) have seen declining trend over the years, more so in the tribal areas whereas the need for more and effective agriculture extension is evident from the impact assessment. How do public investments translate into development outcomes?. Analysis by International Food Policy Research Institute shows that investments on Roads achieve first rank in terms of converting public investments into development outcomes27. Agriculture research and development investment occupy second rank in translating public investment into development outcomes. However based on the quantitative and qualitative data from the impact assessment study, it becomes known that anti-poverty programmes in tribal areas makes the best returns on public investments. One of the reasons is that the programmes are most relevantly designed and intensively executed. Soil and water conservation, irrigation occupies second and third rank in translating public investments in tribal areas to poverty reduction outcomes. Clearly the investment needs in tribal areas need to be differently understood and planned.

27 The analysis based on multi-country research by IFPRI ** The analysis is based on review of secondary documents, best practices on tribal agriculture, various program models for tribal area development and combined experience of study team in tribal agriculture improvement



7.1.3 Adequacy and Relevance of Gender Budgeting

Budgets are universally accepted as a powerful tool in achieving development objectives and act as an indicator of commitment to the stated policy of the Government. Gender Budgeting is a dissection of the Government budget to establish its gender-differential impacts and to translate gender commitments into budgetary commitments. The Approach Paper to the Eleventh Five Year Plan mentions "Gender Equity requires adequate provisions to be made in policies and schemes across Ministries and Departments”. It also entails ‘strict adherence to gender budgeting across the board.

As per the guidelines of the Ministry of Women and Child Development on Gender Budgeting, FW&AD in Madhya Pradesh had broadened its understanding and application of gender budgets. This is perceptible from the significantly increasing trend of budget lines for women specific activities in different programmes and schemes. In 2007-08, only 3 percent of total outlay was dedicated to women specific activities. In 2008-09, it had increased to 8 percent. In both these years, large share of women specific activities were allocated to training programme for women. However in 2009-10 women budget lines have increased to 25 percent of the total outlay and it is known that FW&AD has done programme and scheme specific planning for

women participation. As the graph shows, the budget is women is in the range of 20 to 30 percent across major schemes and programmes in the state. Along with positive movements observable on gender budgeting, few exclusions are also evident, wherein no women specific budget lines are cited in the 2009-10 plan outlays, some of which are:

• Agriculture Extension programme (Plan outlay - Rs.54.88 crores) • National Crop Insurance Scheme (Plan outlay – Rs. 16.91 crores) • Rajya Krishak Ayog (Plan Outlay – Rs. 1.5 crores) • Development of Watersheds (Plan outlay – Rs. 6.22 crores) Such exclusion points out that the Agriculture policy and strategies in the state have not fully taken role of women as a farmer and women as a beneficiary into account. Some of the village level PRI members whom this study met were of the opinion that the state should bring out a Women Agriculture Policy to emphasise role of women in agriculture, more so in the tribal areas. The discussions with agriculture department functionaries has revealed that department wide awareness and sensitivity on women farmers is low and therefore the policy and interventions are needed to address this as well.

Fig. Programmes with Signigicant Budget Allocation for Women in 2009-10 Plan Outlay

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8 Objective 3 – Best Practices The five best practices mentioned in this section are selected based on their relevance to agriculture development in tribal areas. The best practices offers proven models (programme as well as institutional) and innovations. The best practices can be adapted and replicated for the benefit of tribal and non-tribal farmers in the tribal areas of the state.

8.1.1 Model of Tribal Agriculture Development: In 2002, the IWMI-Tata Water Policy Program (ITP), Sadguru Foundation and PRADAN led a collaborative initiative called the Central India Initiative (CInI) to evolve, through a coordinated program of applied research, a strategy to use small-scale water-control interventions as the center-pin of tribal agricultural development. The research argues that there is a need to reorient India’s current thinking on tribal affairs. It argues that context specific and innovative small-scale water control interventions can act as a trigger to revitalize tribal livelihoods. The policy on tribal affairs has given inadequate emphasis to livelihood enhancement and improvement of economic status of tribals. There has been no concerted effort at improving the access of the tribal people to improved agricultural practices and water control. During the course of our studies, we found numerous cases where sensible investments in land care and water management have the power to transform tribal agrarian systems. Lifting devices such as low-cost and high-efficiency diesel pumps as well as manually operated treadle pumps need to be encouraged and supported. The region is abundant in streams and rivulets that can be harvested through small-scale lift irrigation projects. At places where wells exist, low cost micro-irrigation systems may be introduced to support women-managed vegetable cultivation on homestead lands. Simultaneously, uplands may be taken up for soil water conservation measures and growing improved grasses, timber, host plants for silkworms/lac and fruit trees. A series of such interventions undertaken together across the local topography [Figure 5] can have a positive impact on tribal livelihoods. Agri-horti-forestry, a concept demonstrated in the Wadi (farm plus residence) development program of BAIF, the development research foundation, is an integrated land and water management initiative. A wadi is typically a one acre plot, in most places with a high slope that is difficult to farm. BAIF has promoted plantations in these plots using local water resources. When no external sources of water appear feasible, recourse is taken to creating harvesting-cum-storage structures that capture rainwater. This is done by digging small pits of 4 cubic metres capacity. The water is used to protect standing plants of fruit crops, the core of the Wadi model. Farmers are encouraged and helped to take inter-crops of marketable vegetables and other cash crops till the shade created by the tree canopy makes plant growth difficult. This way the tribal families derive some income even during the long gestation period of the Wadi, usually between 5 and 7 years. Harnessing locally available water resources also takes the form



of diversion channels or small check-dams which store rainwater for dry-spell irrigation; recharge groundwater and in some cases, also facilitate second crops. However, one of the biggest initiatives of harnessing the potential of local rivers and streams for tribal welfare can be seen in the work of the NM Sadguru foundation in the western tribal homelands. These involve relatively large check dams and lift irrigation schemes which typically irrigate around 200 acres through a lift irrigation scheme which is managed by the tribal farmers’ cooperative. Besides generating substantial economic and livelihood benefits for poor tribal communities, these schemes have significant multiplier effects in the local economy. Since water availability in this part of tribal India is relatively less, building a large number of such check-dams can lead to upstream-downstream conflicts. However, a major strength of Sadguru’s interventions is that they operate at the catchments level and plan each intervention after considering its possible impacts downstream. Other avenues to uplift tribal agrarian economies from the current low-productivity levels include initiatives of community based irrigation management, market led initiatives, watershed and watershed PLUS programs as well as spontaneous community action based on traditional wisdom. While the methods varied across the diverse socio-ecologies, all of them aimed to reverse the trend of distress migration and helping tribal farmers find their feet in settled agriculture through the provision of improved water control. Key learning from this model are:

• Innovative small-scale water control interventions can act as a trigger to revitalize tribal livelihoods.

• Lifting devices such as low-cost and high-efficiency diesel pumps as well as manually operated treadle pumps need to be encouraged and supported in tribal area.

• Community based irrigation management, market led initiatives, watershed and watershed PLUS programs as well as spontaneous community action based on traditional wisdom – these are critical elements of successful initiatives in tribal areas

• Agri-horti-forestry, a concept Wadi (farm plus residence) is effective for small and marginal farmers.

• Social mobilisation is a useful tool for adaptation of technological and market-led initiatives. Community mobilisation through a CSO facilitation process is an effective mechanism to improve the delivery and effectiveness of the development initiative.

8.1.2 System of Rice intensification can improve livelihood profile of small farmers “Small and marginal farmers in rice growing pockets can improve their livelihoods profile by practicing System of Rice Intensification, which can efficiently address food security issue”28 Agriculture is the main source of livelihood in Madhya Pradesh. About 70 percent of total population of state is directly dependent on agriculture for their livelihood and 10 percent

28 Principal Secretary Rural Development Shri. I. S. Dani while addressed a state workshop on System of Rice Intensification organized by Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihoods Project (MPRLP)



families indirectly dependent upon it. So from agriculture these families get 60-75 percent of their household income, but the contribution of agriculture to the state GDP is merely 26 percent, which is highly disproportionate as compared to the number of people involved in it. From studies of agriculture area it is clear that more effort is required to make agriculture a profitable business, and the process has already been initiated. Paddy has more importance among main crops of Madhya Pradesh. And production can be affected by the quality of seed, sowing technique, availability of water, diseases etc. To address all such issues Madagascar or System of Rice Intensification Technique has been developed for the production of paddy which increases its yield and also decreases the usage of seed.

An initiative has been taken in the state to cultivate Paddy by System of Rice Intensification Technique. For this work Farmer Welfare and Agriculture Development, other NGOs, Krishi Vigyan Kendra and Agriculture universities play an active role. Different studies and research show that marginal and small farmers will benefit from this technique. By the System of Rice Intensification paddy cultivation needs very less amount of water. From last three years MPRLP (Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihood Project) has been taking the initiative to motivate farmers to adopt the System of Rice Intensification Technique for paddy cultivation which leads to better results in production. On the basis of last experiences the project will take initiative and adopt SRI technique for paddy cultivation in large scale for upcoming kharif season. Presently it is required to make a strategy for proper implementation of technique in the State. And on this basis a concert work plan should be designed for smooth functioning of this technique and more production. Following are the main factors which affects production of Paddy: • No use of good quality seeds • No change in the old techniques of paddy production • No proper awareness about new and advanced techniques • Increased seed rate • No timely availability of paddy • Dependency on rain • Preparation of land • No timely availability of labour • Sudden change in production per Ha. • To increase production of paddy proper attention is needed upon the above issues, SRI

provides opportunity to work on such issues like seed treatment, Nursery raising, Preparation on land, use of good quality of seeds etc. The State is working on SRI technique from last 5-6 years but the noticeable progress started from 2004 when different Non Government Organisation and government schemes and programs have taken initiative to promote the SRI technique.

Detail of efforts to promote SRI technique in the state: Awareness increases in the state regarding SRI technique, for this there is a great contribution of different organizations. Major roles are played by Farmer Welfare and Agriculture



Development Department as well as different schemes of the state and central government to promote SRI technique in larger areas of state. In this the role of NGOs is also appreciable. These organizations not only promote awareness, but also organize demonstration which leads to better progress. Of these organizations PRADAN has played a very important role. After the positive results in Jharkhand state, in the East region of Madhya Pradesh many demonstrations have been organized in the lands of farmers after which most of the farmers adopted the SRI technique. Action for Social Advancement, Bhopal, Srijan New Delhi, Foundation for Ecological Security, Mandla, Dawat Foods etc have played very important role in the promotion and implementation of the SRI technique in the state. Status of achievement of SRI Technique in the State: 1. Farmers adopted test of seed germination rate which results in to proper growth. 2. 215 farmers adopted Back-up Nursery technique and to reduce cost some farmers associate in group for nursery raising. 3. In most of the places farmers adopted the principal of standard gap between plant to plant and line to line. 4. All farmers irrigate their farms according to the technique and also realize the importance of water management. 5. Now farmers know the importance of time to time weeding and hoeing to remove weeds from farms and also adopted different equipment like Cono weeder. 6. Farmers now understand that huge amount of water is not required in paddy cultivation which also leads to water conservation. Key Learning:

• Involvement of NGOs and Private agencies leads to technologies adoption for small and marginal farmers. Bringing complementary skills through building synergies among different types of organsiations, and providing space for each one to operate – very useful and effective.

• Assured irrigation even if there is less quantum of water is important for SRI technique, therefore, where farmers are dependent on rain-fed paddy, SRI technique was less adopted by the farmers.

• Convergence with NREGS for field levelling and water resource development for promotion of SRI worked through private partnership in district Betul found very useful.

8.1.3 Participatory Varietals Selection and Promotion (PVSP) in DPIP-MP Seed of improved varieties of crop could increase the production levels significantly. The adoption of new varieties is still not a common practice among farmers, especially in interior areas. The number of new varieties grown is small and the most popular varieties are mostly local, and are often cultivated across the entire cultivable land. The age of the most popular variety is over 15-20 years. Widely grown old varieties are not only low yielding, but also vulnerable to pests and diseases. The crop improvements is partly governed by the Seed Act



and regulatory system made to dovetail the efforts of the researchers and extension agencies. Tripps (1995) notes29, “regulatory framework is the product of the political debate in which resource-poor farmer have usually not had adequate voice”. The interest of the farmers, consumers, processors and plant breeders in the regulation all differs, and the voice of the small farmers has to be made stronger if they are to be applied in a neutral fashion. Limitations in the conventional agriculture research and extension system:

• Researchers decide the research agenda without consulting farmers and appreciating their needs; farmer is seldom involved in the entire process of research;

• It aims at selecting a few widely adaptable varieties, differences in physical and socio-economic environments within areas are not considered.

• The research environment seldom represents the actual field situation on account of agro-ecology, input use and management practices generally followed by the farmers especially small and marginal class in the resource poor areas;

• The extension process is supply driven instead of demand driven; • The research and extension agencies dictate the recommendations onto the community,

hence, the change of seeds or varieties are not informed decision by the farmer; • Due to uniform and generic recommendation domain the monoculture of one prominent

variety on a large area increases the chances of pest outbreak and diminishes the on-farm bio-diversity.

This has led to:

• Poor adoption rates of new varieties due to lack of farmer preferred traits. For instance, country has developed over 650 new rice varieties in last 55 years but hardly 5 percent of them are in general cultivation on a sizeable area;

• There is huge gap between the potential of the new varieties claimed by the research system and actual yield realized by the farmers.

• The gross annual losses due to unavailability of the potential variety are estimated at about Rs. 25 crores per annum for paddy, wheat and maize in the four districts of central west India where ASA is working. This is only a theoretical calculation giving an idea of the magnitude of losses.

• It takes about 8-10 years in Govt. system from development to release of any variety. A variety released for a state needs another 4-5 years at least for it to be released for another state. Formal extension involves huge subsidies for popularization of varieties. Since the ownership of decision for change of varieties is not taken fully by the farmers hence they expect state to bear the burden of subsidies, or in other words it is fully supply driven;

Participatory Varietals Selection and Promotion - some successful initiatives

To overcome these shortcomings several researchers and development agencies world over initiated the Participatory Varietals Selection and Promotion (PVSP) initiatives – a method intended to understand the felt and perceived needs of the farmers for suitable crop varieties

29 Seeds of Choice, by Virk and Witcombe, Oxford-IBH, 1998.



and allowing them to test, identify, and adopt/spread the suitable “farmer preferred” varieties from a “basket of choices” provided to them. The PVSP process follows four distinct stages:

• Identifying farmers’ needs in varieties by using participatory methods – the range of attributes upon which farmers prefer a variety are many and mostly qualitative.

• Search for suitable varieties having attributes closer to farmers’ preferences within the existing released varieties of Agriculture Research system.

• Experimentation on new varieties by farmers under their own management and assessment of their acceptability by farmers; and

• Natural spread and promotion of farmers’ preferred varieties across villages within similar agro-ecology and socio-economy.

Many studies have confirmed substantial benefits of PVSP. The benefits are realized in terms of (i) yield increment up to 30-40 percent by adopting new varieties against local variety, (ii) reduction in cost of components like fertilizer, irrigation, pesticides, (iii) mitigating calamity of drought to certain extent, (iv) increasing varietals diversity in the area. There are some interesting findings like, (i) the adoption rate of improved varieties among poor category farmers are higher, (ii) farmer to farmer spread of seed of improved varieties has been found very effective in wider dissemination of varieties – seeds of the improved varieties have been traced up to a radius of 80-100 kms. from the project villages, (iii) at times the varieties accepted by the farmers are the not the ones which have been officially released by the respective states, this confirms that farmers require a larger basket of choices than the limited ones recommended for their state only.

PVSP in DPIP-MP - ASA experience30

Action for Social Advancement (ASA)31 is associated with MPDPIP since June 2003 with the objective of providing capacity-building support to MPDPIP for establishing Participatory Varietals Selection Programme (PVSP) for increasing unit productivity of major crops under farmer’s own management domain. The program initiated June’03 in two districts (Rajgarh & Guna) on pilot basis and later expanded to three districts adding Vidisha during Rabi (2003-04). After two cropping seasons (Kharif’03 and Rabi’03-04), it was emerging that PVSP programme can immensely add value to the crop productivity of the farmers especially of those who have been supported by MPDPIP for land and water development. Taking into consideration the success of last two previous seasons in terms of crop productivity and early-ness advantages from the introduced new varieties, MPDPIP top management decided to replicate and institutionalize it, in all 14 districts. Overall in MP DPIP more then 70 new varieties of 11 crops were tested through more than 50,000 thousand participatory varietals trials. Some of varieties have now become ruling varieties like Raj 3077 of wheat in DPIP villages of Guna district.

30 This part of the note taken from ASA- MPDPIP market initiative “Market Up-Linking Of Small Farmers”

31 ASA is a non-profit, social development organisation working for livelihood enhancement of poor & rural people



PVSP opened the new avenues of seed enterprise in MPDPIP. The program not only benefited farmers in terms of yield increment, increased self-confidence through conducting successful PVSP trials but also raised awareness on seed and other agri-business issues, which prepared a basis for market-oriented initiative. Key learning:

• For better adoption of new varieties, small and marginal farmers from remote areas need to be involved in PVSP trials

• PVSP gives” basket of choices” to the farmers to select crop variety with local condition and input efficiency of farmers.

• PVSP needs higher facilitation at field level and for better success need involvement of private agencies for wider dissemination in the state.

• Through project mode this kind of activity easy to spread in larger farmers’ community and resolve the problems of quality seed production and supply.

8.1.4 Bio-Technology in Agriculture: Factors leading to success of interventions During this study we found mix results of extension services made available through either Government departments or NGOs working in the area. Through our interactions and observation it became clear that farmers are willing to adopt good or appropriate technologies. However, if their requirements are different to technologies being offered, they will oppose it This news piece from the Hindustan Times is an example of how farmers are keen to use genetically modified seeds, but only those that suit their needs. MP farmers stage protests, Seek one variety of Bt cotton- Stories BHOPAL, MAY 14: Farmers in Madhya Pradesh’s cotton belt have given a new dimension to the debate over genetically modified crops by staging street protests demanding supply of Bt cotton seeds of only one variety.

As many as 30 varieties of BT cotton seeds sold by 13 companies are available in the state but farmers in Khargone and Dhar districts have shown an unusual preference for the RCH-2 variety. So much so that it has become a major law and order problem, forcing the administration to intervene and ration supplies.

Serpentine queues following arrival of fresh stocks and eventual lathicharge have become common features over the last few days in Khargone. Hoarding by some dealers have only made matters worse. Thousands of farmers have taken to the streets for the variety which apparently gives better yield and flowers early.

“We have been promoting other varieties, telling farmers that benefits are almost the same, but they are not ready to listen,” Khargone additional district magistrate B L Kulmi told The Indian Express on Monday. Three other varieties sold by the same company have found few takers.



At two lakh Ha., cotton is cultivated over more than half the cultivable land in Khargone, the biggest production centre in the state.

Meanwhile, against the estimated demand of 1.5 lakh packets of RCH-2 variety, the company has been able to supply only 37,000 packets so far. Whenever new stocks arrive, farmers queue up, forcing the administration to intervene. Now the seeds are distributed at the local mandi instead of the distributor outlets.

The seed company is finding it difficult to cope with the sudden demand. “Our seeds have performed well in the last three years as the yield potential is very high,” the company’s regional business manager Pankaj Bhatnagar said.

The company sold 1.46 lakh packets last year in the entire state and in anticipation increased its supply to 1.66 packets this year. “Even 4 lakh packets would not be sufficient,” Bhatnagar said. According to him, several farmers who were using illegal seeds have turned to legal varieties. But what seems to have fuelled the demand is the reduction in prices brought about by court and Government intervention.

Sunil, an anti-genetically modified crop activist, said he was surprised by the protests. “Maybe they are sponsored or maybe farmers hassled by failures of other crops are looking for miracles”. These protests were because farmers wanted a good variety of Bt cotton. But in another instance they rejected new varieties of maize seeds. During FGD’s with farmers in Mandla, Anuppur, Dhindori and Sidhi districts, farmers narrated an instance when they had received maize seeds. The seeds, which were in the mini kits, were not compatible to their conditions. They had tried these varieties previously in their fields and found that results were not satisfactory in comparisons to the local Desi macca seeds that they traditionally used. But in subsequent years the distribution of mini kits were still continued. “Phir hum log ya to us beej ki pej banakar pee jate the ya use phir apni sabse bekar jameen me bote the” (then we would either brew the seeds and drink it off, or we would sown them in our worst piece of land), said by a farmer during the discussion. If we analyze these two situations we find that the FW&AD’s role is very important in both cases. If a particular variety clicks at one place then the FW&AD has to ensure sufficient availability of that variety in subsequent years. But if one variety is not suitable over the local variety in some condition they must change extension programme in that area next year and not push the unsuitable variety. Key learning:

• FW&AD’s role is very important in making these initiatives succeed. If a particular variety clicks at one place then the FW&AD has to ensure sufficient availability of that variety in subsequent years. But if one variety is not suitable over the local variety in some condition they must change extension programme in that area next year and not push the unsuitable variety.



• Farmers if informed by any sources on issue of high profitability with the intervention they easy to ready to adopt and even ready for fight.

• Extension programme or massage should have triggering capacity to the community. Than successes and adoption of information/ technique will more than 100 percent. But we have to strengthen our agriculture extension programme. Why local input supplier is more popular compare to the some time REAO in villages?

• Need to develop effective IEC material for agriculture extension programme with involving the local input shop keepers.

8.1.5 Moving with the Market (Basmati rice Cultivation under the ATMA)

When we talk about changes we consider positive and negative aspects. And when the change that occurs with the community participation is positive, the ranking of this change is very high. This is the kind of positive change we saw in Betul district where a better variety of paddy was adopted. An assured market, good extension work and positive implementation together changed the economics for the farmer in positive way. In Betul district the major Kharif crop is soybean which covers the maximum area under cultivation. The average productivity has been going down year by year and farmers were looking for alternate options. At this time the Farmers Welfare and Agriculture Development Department initiated an ambitious public private partnership project i.e. ‘ATMA’. Through this project, the Dawat group promoted paddy cultivation in the region. The ATMA project was launched in village Badora in February 2008, 3 kms away from district Headquarters. It established a ‘Krishi Salah Up Kendra’, 35 Farm Schools and more then 75 demonstrations of paddy crop. Mr Rupendra Patel (in-charge Dawat Foods - ATMA project) explained that through this project Dawat seeks to promote three varieties of Basmati rice namely Pusa-1, Pusa- 1121 and CSR – 30 in the area. The process has been participatory and this has contributed to its success. It started with detailed discussion with the groups of farmers from village to village. In these discussions the economics of present variety (mostly desi) & the varieties to be promoted were discussed and compared. After the discussions innovative/interested farmers visited the ‘Krishi Salah Up Kendra’ regularly. Exposure visits were organized in which a group of 25 to 30 farmers went to Jabalpur to meet the paddy growers of the area. After that in ‘Krishi Salah Up Kendra’ detailed step by step technical training on package of practices of Paddy crop was given to them. The varieties of paddy were made available by Dawat at Rs. 55 to 60 per kg. The seed rate of these varieties is 8 to 10 kg per acre. In 2008 102 qtl of rice seed were made available to farmers. Some of Rice growers includes Mr Manohar Choure (village Chirma tekri), Mr Dhanraj and Mr Narhari Prasad ( village Bhiya badi), Mr Ramji Lilatia (village Sohagpur Dhana) Shahpur block of Betul district. Mr Manohar Chore said, “We were highly motivated when we meet the



farmers of Jabalpur where Dawat is working from last few year”. He added that they discussed in detail about the POP and economics of paddy cultivation under the guidance of Dawat group and realized the gains to be made using the Dawat promoted seeds. Apart from this they have an assured market at Mandeedeep where the plant of Dawat group is located. This year despite the low rains farmer managed to produce 18 – 20 qlt Paddy/ acre which is quite encouraging to both the farmers and Dawat as well. The detail of the changed economics of paddy is as follows:

Activity Earlier (Per Acre)

With Dawat (Per Acre)

Variety Desi Rice Pusa-1, Pusa- 1121 and CSR – 30

POP Traditional Scientific Seed Rate 32-35 10 DAP 16 Kg 30Kg Urea 50 Kg 50 Kg Potash -- 25 Kg Zink Phosphate -- 10 Kg Production cost Approx. (A) – Rs. 2,600 8,000 Produce in Qlt 6 20 By product in Qlt 3 10 Cost of main produce in Rs. 6,000 48,500 By product in Rs. 600 2,000 Total Earning in Rs. (B) – Rs. 6,600 50,500 Net Earnings in Rs. ( B- A) – Rs. 4,000 42,500

Key learning:

• Promotion of Bansmati rice under ATMA worked because of selection of right farmers needy farmers.

• Strategic involvement of Private Company Dawat for promotion of own brand rice with technically poor framers highly appreciable.

• Involvement of Private players those have own strong commitment and agenda fruitful for better productivity and production

• Adoption by other farmers of best practice is easy if results are quick and leads to higher benefits.

8.1.6 Micro Nutrient Initiatives -

India was dependent on external food supplies in the early 1960s. To meet the growing demand for food, fiber and fuel, high yielding cultivars were introduced. These high yielding crop cultivars were highly responsive to fertilizers. Thus, slowly the soils were exhausted of their nutrients. Application of major nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) became common, therefore the crops started responding to micronutrient fertilizers. At present about 48.1% of Indian soils are deficient in diethy lenetriaminepentaacetate (DTPA) extractable zinc,



11.2% in iron, 7% in copper and 5.1% in manganese. Apart from the deficiency of these micronutrients, deficiencies of boron and molybdenum have also been reported in some areas. Areas with multi-micronutrient deficiencies are limited, thus simple fertilizers are sufficient to exploit the potential of crops and cropping systems. Based on the extent of deficiency, cultivated area, and crop removal, the micronutrient fertilizer demand in 2025 is projected using sufficiency and maintenance approaches.32

BYPASS Sansthan have started working with 5 villages each of Raisen and Sagar. BYPASS Sansthan conducted assessment of micronutrient status with the help of ICRISAT (International Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics). Deficiency in micronutrient is one major cause for low productivity and production in under informed rainfed agrarian community. According to the field assessment report BYPASS supported farmers through zinc, boron, gypsum. This science led initiative has yielded very positive results. In district Raisen, block Silwani & Begumgunj were selected under productivity enhancement activities. In summer 2008 Soil samples were collected and got tested at ICRISAT Hyderabad for Macro/ Micro Nutrients. Afterwards training sessions were organized for 3 days on Agriculture techniques to the farmers. During Rabi season 2008-09. 32 farmers were participated in the trials with coverage of 32 ha land under Chickpea crop. Foundation seeds were distributed to all farmers with variety

ICCCV 37. JG16. JAK 9218 & JKG1. Before sowing the Micronutrient (Zinc, Boron & Gypsum) were applied in the plot (Treated plot). Also farmers were told to take their ongoing practices in rest area with their own seeds (Control plot). Every farmer got 2 to 3 Quintals more yield of Chickpea in treated plot as compare to control plot. The average yield with different

varieties is as shown in the above graph. This was very first year with these farmers from next season with application of Organic fertilizers and Micro nutrients yield will enhance definitely. All support under the programme is on 50-50% cost sharing basis and nothing is free of cost. Farmer Ram Kumar Lodhi from Pahariya village told that “we apply only DAP & urea and think that this is enough to increase yield. We were never heard about other elements rather

32 Anand P Gupta 2005 Department of Soil Science, CCS HAU, Hisar, India -Micronutrient status and fertilizer use scenario in India

17.03

15.95

15.12

13.49

14.54

13.62

12.77

12.38

JAKI 9218

ICCCV 37

JKG 1

JG 16

Average Yield in Control Plot with local variety (Qt/Ha)Average Yield in Treated Plot (Qt/Ha)



than NPK and no information on seed change and very small quantity of nutrient could make a big difference”. Learning: • Micronutrients (Zn and B) and secondary nutrients (S) are needed in small quantities by

crops and are as important as N, P, and K for plant growth and yield. • Generally farmers understand the value of major nutrients in increasing production and

productivity however due to excessive use of NPK, the soil becomes imbalanced in nutrients especially the micro nutrients. Even if only subsistence farming is practiced in rain-fed areas, over time, soils are depleted not only of macro but also micro-nutrients.

• Therefore there is a need to sensitise farmers about micro nutrients. Micro and secondary nutrients are equally important to agricultural productivity as are macro-nutrients.

• Currently farmers understanding on micro nutrients is very low, more so in tribal areas. Most agriculture demonstrations and trials are not focussing on explaining the use of micro nutrients therefore the farmers understanding on this subject has generally remained weak.

• The initiative by BYPASS and ICRISET address these gaps in understanding of the use of micro nutrients through practical demonstrations and therefore it is a best practice for other agriculture interventions to learn from.

Based on analysis of best practices in the state, it is very clear that to improve the status of tribal agriculture there needs to be multi-pronged strategies and initiatives. Bringing together complementary skills and building synergy through partnerships seems an important area. There is a clear learning that social mobilisation and facilitation are essential for technology adoption and sustenance of practices. There are many models and initiatives within the state which could be scaled up for better outcomes.

8.2 Role of Private players and NGOs in Agriculture ITC: In MP ITC have strong presence in all good productive areas. ITC introduced farmers to e-Choupal, earlier farmers were restricted to selling produce in the local mandi. Farmers had to go through middlemen and prices were low. ITC trained farmers to manage the Internet kiosk and I became the e-Choupal Sanchalak in village. Now community of e-farmers with access to daily prices of a variety of crops in India and abroad – this helps to get the best price. Farmers can also find out about many other important things – weather forecasts, the latest farming techniques, crop insurance, etc. e-Choupal has not only changed the quality of lives, but entire outlook. Hariyali: Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar’s 24 operational centres have a presence across belts in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana, with additional plans to rapidly scale-up presence in the next few years. The Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar’s model seeks to



empower the Indian farmer by setting-up retail centres and providing all encompassing retail solutions from utilities to banking, under one roof. Through the tie-up with Motorola, it fulfils the burgeoning rural demand for handsets as well

Dawat Group: LT Overseas (DAAWAT) is primarily in the business of milling, processing and marketing of branded and non-branded basmati rice and manufacturing of rice food products in the domestic and overseas market. Incorporated as a private limited company on Oct. 16, 1990 and the company was converted into a public limited company on May 3,1994. The company`s operations include contract farming, procurement, storage, processing, packaging and distribution. It has R&D facilities to develop better aroma, better head grains yield, reduce stickiness and develop value-added rice. Product portfolio includes basmati, brown, white, steamed, parboiled, organic, quick-cooking, value-added and flavored rice in the ready to cook segment. Popular brand names are Dawaat and Heritage. The manufacturing facility in Bahalgarh, Haryana has processing capacity of 27 TPH of paddy and 3.5 TPH is processed in leased facilities. The company has ISO 9000:2001, HACCP and the SQF certification. Satake Corporation, Japan develops and design rice processing machines for the company. It has contract farming agreements for basmati paddy with Tata Chemicals; strategic alliance with Phoenix Agri Silica Corporation for development of a silica plant which converts husk ash into silica; and MoU with Madhya Pradesh State Industrial Corporation to set up a Rs 600 million rice milling and rice food processing project. NGOs:- Pradan and ASA ASA:- Development of Farmers' Producers Company

Whilst production technologies may significantly increase production, the ultimate objective of augmented farm income may not be realized. The absence of appropriate and viable marketing facilities may restrict small and marginal farmers from availing the benefits of agriculture development. Small marketable surpluses, lack of market preferred quality, poor negotiation capacity resulting in low and un-remunerative prices further vitiates the situation. To integrate farmers with the value chain and market the best form of institutional model available today is the Farmers' Producers' Company (FPC) under the Indian Company Act (Amendment 2002). The farmers or the producers' are the equity holders of the company thus provide the best framework for ownership. The basic purpose of this FPCs is to collectivise small farmers for – (a) backward linkage for inputs like seeds, fertilisers, credit, insurance and knowledge and extension services and

(b) forward linkages such as collective marketing, processing, market led agriculture production, etc. At the heart of this effort is to gain collective bargaining power for the small farmers.

Pradan:-



Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood in the regions where PRADAN works. With current low levels of productivity in agriculture, PRADAN extends assistance in finding opportunities to enhance livelihoods. Over half of PRADAN’s livelihood programmes are focused on agriculture, its improvement – and the overall management of natural resources – remains key in the battle against endemic poverty in the rural areas. Enhancing productivity and diversification are the core strategies of PRADAN’s agriculture programmes. Specific activities are increasing the productivity of the main cereal crops to improve food security, and diversification into cash crops such as pulses, oil seeds, and vegetables.

Whichever programme is undertaken, PRADAN seeks to ensure its sustainability. In order to achieve this, the organisation trains and deploys a large number of agriculture extension entrepreneurs to the field. Producers’ institutions around agriculture are formed and strengthened as well.

8.3 Public Private Partnership programme (Situation – Agriculture Extension reform) (Based on department presentation in National conference on agriculture for Rabi campaign September 2008 ) ATMA:-

Project value

PPP Partners No of dist./blk

Partner contribution %

(Rs. Lakhs) ITC Limited 22/83 50 663.7 K.J. Education Society

48/313 50 48

Dawat Foods 8/25 50.4 301.8 ISAP 6/34 20 375.53 GVT 7/19 20 214.58 ASA 8/15 15 94.53 PRADAN 7/31 10 75.57 MPRLP 7/31 10 623.12 Grand Total: 2406.83 BAYPASS: Working on agriculture research with ICRISAT on micro nutrients and organic farming. Bypass has its operation area 11 districts of Madhya Pradesh. SAMAJ PRAGATI SAHYAOG:



This is Bagli Dewas based organization headed by Mr. Mihir Shah, one of the members of planning commission government of India. Working on watershed, Agriclutre and livestock issues and have contribution in its policy related issues. Samavesh, Society For Development and Governance:- Samavesh developing Krishi MItra with intensive training to the youth farmers in remote tribal area for use of better package of practice and organic farming, work area is Harada and Devash districts of Madhya Pradesh. AKRSP: Aga Khan Rural Support Programme working is Khandwa and Khargon district of Madhya Pradesh on integrated livelihood development approach where utilizing the NREGS fund as well for watershed development.



9 Objective 5 – Lessons and Key Messages

9.1 Key Lessons: Agriculture development has seen limited growth in tribal areas in MP, lower than the overall agriculture growth in the state. Production and productivity figures are improving but not to the extent of creating marketable surplus for the farmers in tribal areas. Thereby agriculture role remain limited to meeting the food security needs of the households in tribal area. Low value crops (minor millets) are being increasing displaced with high value crops like oilseeds and pulses which are as per the strategic orientation on Agriculture in the state. Minor millets play an important role in food and nutrition security of a tribal family. The implications of the change in cropping pattern are evidently not so positive for the economy of a tribal household as return from agriculture has reduced due to high input costs and as small and marginal tribal farmer is unable to get easy and low interest agriculture credit. Poverty reduction has happened in the last five years in tribal areas in MP, but attributability to agriculture has become weak. There are two discernible trends as data gathered by the impact study shows. The tribal agriculture has become riskier proposition over the last five years with return from agriculture declining sharply due to increased cost of irrigation, electricity and other inputs. There is a possibility that completely agriculture dependent families have fallen back into extreme poverty leading them to go for distress migration. The second trend observable from the data is the increasing contribution of non-farm labour (on migration and in nearby towns) in the livelihoods of the tribal farmers. Further, the development programmes like NREGS have increased wage labour opportunities for the tribal communities. The trend clearly indicates that poverty linked to food security has reduced marginally in tribal areas but the attributability of agriculture to that reduction is weak. Livelihoods diversification is happening in tribal areas. The reach of agriculture services and adoption of technology and POP has happened at best among one sixth of the tribal households. Department of Agriculture as source of information and extension support is available currently to less than 10 percent of the households in tribal areas. Uptake of credit is still dominated by informal sources for about three fifths of the households in tribal areas. Agriculture extension is reaching to not more than 10 percent of tribal farmers. RAEO is overburdened generally. The number of villages, a RAEO is responsible for in tribal areas is higher than the number of villages, a RAEO is responsible for in non-tribal areas. Extension vehicle is the local shop keeper, who is not currently part of agriculture department extension network. Clearly, agriculture extension delivery system is unable to meet its fuller mandate in the tribal areas due to variety of reasons. The public investments in agriculture have declined in the state, over the last five years (inflation adjusted actual expenditure). The utilization of planned budgets is 72 percent under TSP which is lower than the utilization of 82 percent under normal plan.



Surplus based, production oriented agriculture development may not reach or benefit the tribals. As is seen, the majority of investments in agriculture in the state go in crop husbandry. The need of tribal agriculture demand investments in soft components, integrated farming systems, watershed development and agriculture based livelihoods development interventions. The planning not being decentralized in spirit, poses obvious challenges to provide differential regional allocations as per needs emerging from the field. The tribal agriculture contributing to livelihoods of poor tribal farmers require improved and relevant planning and allocations. The centrally sponsored scheme like RKVY offers flexibility and innovations to address agriculture and poverty link comprehensively, which can address currently skewed planning and budgetary allocations to a certain extent. Targeting remains a key concern in the FW&AD programmes and schemes. The percolation to the village level in tribal areas covers 1 to 15 percent of the households, which is not sufficient to bring in changes at a scale. The coverage achieved has generally addressed medium and large farmers and bypassed the small and marginal farmers. Policy intent at central level (11th plan) and at state level is very strong. The growth objectives (4 to 5 percent), the pathways towards achieving the objectives, the commitment of investments for the purpose are all there, stated very clearly. The translation of the policy intent, however in operational realities have been an under achieved area. Areas which require attention are decentralized planning and budgeting, making delivery system efficient and effective and improving performance management paradigm. Community based institutional mechanisms for agriculture development (planning and implementation) is evidently not utilised in tribal areas. Less than 5 percent of households in tribal areas are part of farmers club, SHGs or other community based forum has not evolved to the desired extent. This makes access to formal banking system very weak in tribal areas for agriculture credit. Diverse experiences in livelihoods promotion of tribals shows that what works is the integrated farming system approach. Agricultural research is under-funded but lack of resources is not the only problem. Available resources also have not been optimally utilized because of lack of a clearly stated strategy that assigns definite responsibilities, prioritizes the research agenda rationally, and recognizes that the research mode is not always best suited for product development and delivery ICAR institutes should mainly undertake basic, strategic, and anticipatory research in line with national priorities, while SAUs do applied and adaptive research addressing location-specific problems, with complementarities also found between the public and private sectors in product development.

9.2 Agriculture Development in Tribal Areas: Enabling and Disabling (Vulnerability) Factors

The synthesis of primary survey, secondary information suggest a summary picture of enabling and disabling factors affecting agriculture development in tribal areas. The top 10 factors which



are promoting and factors which are impeding the agriculture development and its impact in tribal areas are summarised in the diagram below:

Enabling Factors: The study shows that Agriculture development in tribal areas is amply supported by the Policy intent of the earlier five years plans (both state and central). The current 11th five year plan is well articulated and positioned to guide the agriculture development process in tribal areas. Clearly policy intent, if implemented fully is the biggest enabling factor for agriculture development in tribal areas. The integrated development programmes like MPRLP, Tejaswini and large schemes like NREGA are pushing the agenda of agriculture development in tribal areas very strongly. Leveraging and convergence with these programme has the potential to speed up the agriculture development in tribal areas, more so as these programmes are innovative and flexible in design and implementation. Increasing trend of production in cereals and pulses is the reasons for not worsening of the food security situation in tribal areas. With clearly evident reduction in production and productivity of minor millets (traditional food crops for tribals), cereals and pulses are providing the cushion of food security to poor households in tribal areas. Increased allocations in the Annual plan for 2009-10 are expected to reap increased dividends for agriculture development in tribal areas. Various soil and watershed conservations measures are also contributing to agriculture development in a significant way.



Increasing outreach of state Govt. provision of BPL, antodaya and other entitlements are contributing towards addressing basic and immediate need to very poor households in tribal areas. The institutional model like PPP are being successful tried out (refer ATMA best practice). The trend of increasing educational attainment of this generation of tribal families is expected to continue and help address main vulnerability issue of information asymmetry (access to information and use of information for livelihoods development). Low uptake of chemical fertiliser provides an opportunity in tribal areas to promote and deepen organic agriculture. Outcome based budgeting for TSP and women components are a catalyst for quality delivery of agriculture services in tribal areas. Disabling or Vulnerability Factors: The most important factor which makes tribal agriculture most vulnerable (besides the natural factors) is the reach of the State in the tribal areas. The institutional delivery mechanism and the extension services are currently ineffective to address the cause of agriculture development in tribal areas. Agriculture planning exists along with a clear scope for improvement. Field based, farm based planning need to happen practically. The relevance of agriculture interventions can improve many folds with improved effectiveness of agriculture planning in tribal areas. Targeting remains a key concern in the FW&AD programmes and schemes. The percolation to the village level in tribal areas covers 1 to 15 percent of the households, which is not sufficient to bring in changes at a scale. The coverage achieved has generally addressed medium and large farmers and bypassed the small and marginal farmers. As the study result shows small and marginal farmers are getting least proportion of benefits of schemes and programmes. Furthermore, relevant solutions for small and marginal farmers are not being implemented. Surplus based, production oriented agriculture development may not reach or benefit the tribals. As is seen, the majority of investments in agriculture in the state go in crop husbandry. The need of tribal agriculture demand investments in soft components, integrated farming systems, watershed development and agriculture based livelihoods development interventions. The public investments in agriculture have declined in the state, over the last five years (inflation adjusted actual expenditure). The utilization of planned budgets is 72 percent under TSP which is lower than the utilization of 82 percent under normal plan. Community based institutional mechanisms for agriculture development (planning and implementation) is evidently not utilised in tribal areas. Less than 5 percent of households in tribal areas are part of farmers club, SHGs or other community based forum has not evolved to



the desired extent. This makes access to formal banking system very weak in tribal areas for agriculture credit. Agriculture especially tribal agriculture faces many risks. Managing these risks is crucial for a farmer in tribal areas to not fall back into the poverty trap. That continues to happen every alternate year for many tribal families. This can be prevented with a risk management strategy and fund for risk minimization. The options for planning and implementing this fund under RKVY (as an innovation) can also be explored.



10 Policy Pointers and other Recommendations

The study findings show that agriculture sector has strong policy intent and planned investments. Translating the intent into outcomes for agriculture development and poverty reduction in tribal areas require rethinking of the agriculture development paradigm. What works in other areas may not give us the same results in tribal areas.

Suggested framework for improvement in agriculture interventions in tribal areas:

The framework suggested here brings together ideas emerging out of the findings, expert interviews and the review of other models and best practices. The suggestions are given in the following framework:

10.1 Policy Pointers: State Policy for Agriculture Development in Tribal Areas: The performance management can improve with fixing of accountability and with clear mandate and outcomes specified. It might serve therefore to bring in an Agriculture Policy for the State specifically for tribal areas. This is more so as poverty reduction is crucially dependent on agriculture and as state progress towards meeting MDGs will remain half achieved if the tribal areas does not become the focus of state agriculture policy. Balancing the policy focus on low productive areas and low productive population is important for promoting inclusive growth objectives of 11th five year plan. Gender differential impacts can be defined in the state agriculture policy. Equitable Investments, positive discrimination for Inclusive Growth: Tribal areas are resource poor areas. Tribal farmers are susceptible to socio-cultural, political, environmental and social factors of vulnerability (as highlighted by the study) thereby probability of a farmers falling back into poverty is much more evident in tribal areas than in non tribal areas of the state. The principle of equality demand higher allocations to TSP as tribal areas and farmers suffer from many disadvantages, which will require disproportionately higher public investments to improve tribal agriculture and economic well being of tribal farmers dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. The plan outlay for 2009-10 are projected at Rs.585.61 crores of which 23 percent is the TSP outlay. The major addition to



current fiscal outlay is RKVY which brings in Rs.380 crores of additional public investments in the sector. The allocations on soft components (like agriculture extension) have seen declining trend over the years, more so in the tribal areas whereas the need for more and effective agriculture extension is evident from the impact assessment. The centrally sponsored scheme like RKVY offers flexibility and innovations to address agriculture and poverty link comprehensively, which can address currently skewed planning and budgetary allocations to a certain extent. Resource Allocation Decisions: The resource allocation decisions need to be based on schemes’ reach and relevance. The decisions based on other considerations may not lead to desirable outcomes as is witnessed and presented by this study. The few resource allocations policy pointers are as presented below: • Micro minor irrigation needs to be promoted on a large scale with adequate allocations and

appropriate targeting, the existing potential to increase cropping intensity can be realised. The overall budgets for these schemes should be based on local soil profile conditions. It is also advised that well recharging schemes are also promoted to maintain the water table.

• Kissan Mitra and Kisan Didi schemes are among the most relevant schemes in tribal areas as they follow the approach of community based extension. However the reach of these schemes is currently very limited which demand a detailed understanding of constraints facing Kisan Mitras and Kisan Didi to improve the implementation processes. Herein investing on RAEOs’ capacity building and redesigning their work portfolio is advisable considering that agriculture department functionaries also felt that RAEO can provide crucial follow up support to Kisan Mitras and Kisan didi, after their training

• There is need of one REAO on 400-60033 families but at present, the Department has only one REAO on 1500 to 2500 families. Furthermore, the tribal areas need more RAEOs for the extension support, than the other areas. The state need to take a policy call on this aspect.

• The study results shows that the Seed Exchange scheme is not working in tribal area as tribals due to their practices do not exchange own seed with seed from other sources. The tribal areas face the problem of availability of seeds at the right time and therefore Seed gram scheme is best suited in tribal area.

• The relevance of crop insurance schemes for tribal farmers can never be overemphasised. Very limited awareness and benefit from crop insurance demand a policy intervention from the state

• Soil and water conservation activities need higher allocation for tribal areas e.g. farm bunding scheme is very useful for the tribal areas with undulated topography requiring soil and water conservation work. Presently NREGS have provided opportunity to the farmers to work on their own land. SWC programme needs still lot of efforts by different implementation agencies in the tribal areas to improve land structure and moisture in the field.

• Tribal agriculture is close to the organic farming and this opportunity need to be leveraged by the state policy. The organic farming practices along with marketing support for organically grown crops will boost the organic practice in tribal areas of the state.

Improving Relevance of Planning (of resources, interventions, strategies): The process of planning should be strengthened in letter and spirit. The decentralization of planning with strong emphasis on robust district planning should become an urgent and critical priority of the department. Necessary push for outcome based budgets: Outcomes are the benefits drawn by the community of farmers and not limited to only delivery of activities. The policy therefore need to strongly review the outcome based budgeting process and attainment of outcomes over a period of time.




10.2 Programme Interventions: Integrated Programme Models: The study results shows that integrated anti-poverty programmes in tribal areas are likely to generate the best outcomes /returns on public investments. One of the reasons is that these programmes are most relevantly designed and intensively executed. Soil and water conservation, irrigation infrastructure will also significantly translate public investments in tribal areas to poverty reduction outcomes. Clearly the investment needs in tribal areas need to be differently understood and planned. Therefore the policy needs to look at agriculture investment in tribal areas differently than agriculture investments in other areas. Poverty reduction is possible in tribal areas but require an approach of agriculture and agri-allied focused livelihoods and watershed development. Such programme models exist within the tribal areas in Madhya Pradesh (see the best practices section of this report). The Govt. agriculture set up in the state need to emulate these models and lead tribal agriculture on the path of sustained growth. Strengthening institutional /co-operative delivery of Agriculture credit: Credit is an essential ingredient of agriculture investment for a farmer household in tribal areas. The credit delivery system is largely informal even today in the tribal areas. Unlike in other states, the Co-operative societies are working for at least one fourth of the households in tribal areas. The model of co-operative societies providing agriculture, other investment and consumption credit can be strengthened though trying out linkages with Nationalised and other banks /MFIs. Banks will get access to large markets through correspondent model with co-operative societies providing the facilitation services as business correspondents. Pushing Measures which serve environmental cause: The agriculture interventions in the state esp. in the tribal areas need to provide the necessary push to measures like soil and water conservation, organic farming etc. which serve environmental cause while providing economic returns to low resource farmers. Designing and Implementing Risk Management System: Agriculture especially tribal agriculture faces many risks. Managing these risks is crucial for a farmer in tribal areas to not fall back into the poverty trap. That continues to happen every alternate year for many tribal families. This can be prevented with a risk management strategy and fund for risk minimization. The options for planning and implementing this fund under RKVY (as an innovation) can also be explored. Building the agriculture interventions on the Social mobilization base: Social mobilization is the pre-requisites for building the sustainable community mechanism that can become vehicle for agriculture development interventions in tribal areas. Extension requires social mobilization (to deal with the issues of information asymmetry34). Investing in Education sector in Tribal Areas: Experiences from other states suggest that improvement in agriculture along with improvement in education attainment levels can lead to faster area development. Hence agriculture development requires investments in education (possibly higher investments and focus) in tribal areas. Tribal societies are changing for the better and getting into the mainstream of development. It may take another two decades to achieve envisaged growth and development in tribal areas. If education levels improve faster, tribal area agriculture and overall development can possibly be achieved in lesser time horizon.

34 Information reach becoming limited to fortunate few…which is tribal areas context, are medium and large farmers and generally non-tribals



Promoting low value crops: Minor millets are most important traditional crop in the tribal area of Madhya Pradesh. This crop is linked with the tribal life and its social, culture and health practices. The State Pro-poor strategy for supporting vulnerable community in the tribal areas can be strengthened with promotion of minor millets. Food grain dependency on other cereals crops will reduce with increased minor millets production as there are large potential for productivity improvement. It is therefore advisable for the state to formulate its policy for the Minor Millets related to MSP, private sector participation for processing and propagating benefits etc. Utilising the potential of RKVY for tribal area development: RKVY have immense potential for tribal area development due to innovation and flexibility that it provides. The study have spoken to agriculture experts on this aspect. Some of the ideas for using RKVY funds in Tribal Areas are: • Establish Integrated farming system models • Agriculture product based value chain development /micro enterprise promotion • Markets facilitation for agriculture commodities • NREGA led agriculture development • Promotion of organic agriculture in tribal areas • Developing markets for organic products • Private extension models up-scaled

10.3 Management Interventions: Improving Extension through diverse institutional models: Extension being a basic essential service, can work through different solutions like privatization, PPP, NGO driven, convergence model etc. as these solutions focus on collectivization and leadership development approaches. Tribal leadership, if developed can harness intent skills of tribals for agriculture improvement in tribal areas. Madhya Pradesh is fortunate to have chosen the route of Gram Swaraj for facilitating participatory equitable development processes. For ensuring accountability of departmental investments, agriculture interventions, community based monitoring mechanism working with the Panchayats is the answer. Performance and Accountability System: Improvement by few percentages of accountability in departmental delivery will lead to huge gains for agriculture development in tribal areas as the tribal agriculture has immense scope of improvement to catch up to. The institutional delivery mechanism faces performance issues in the state, more so in relation to tribal areas where both spending and human resources are lower than the other areas of the state. Periodic evaluation of agriculture development in tribal areas may provide the necessary ideas on course corrections and improvement. The accountability will set in when performance is monitored and reflected upon in the spirit of improving agriculture for the cause of tribal development.



Annex-1: Terms of Reference

1. Brief Background

The Poverty Monitoring and Policy Support Unit Society (PMPSUS), Madhya Pradesh (MP), a registered Society anchored within the MP State Planning Commission (MPSPC), Department of Planning, Economics & Statistics, Government of MP (GoMP) is mandated to support GoMP departments in the design and review of their policy initiatives and programmes and, in line with this mandate, undertake or commission specialized research on issues relating to poverty, inequality, gender and social exclusion. The GoMP recognizes that Agriculture Sector interventions are crucial in the State given the high proportion of population dependent on agriculture and the potential role of such interventions in addressing wide-ranging issues around employment and income generation, nutritional security, balanced regional development and rural poverty alleviation. This is especially significant for Tribal Areas where, for a variety of historical reasons, agricultural development has been constrained. A series of interventions are being undertaken in these areas and the GoMP now considers it opportune to undertake an Impact Assessment of these with a view to assessing their impacts, identifying specific constraints to realizing their full potential and recommending measures to address the same.

2. Objectives of the Study:

The GoMP now proposes to undertake an impact assessment of agricultural interventions in tribal areas in Madhya Pradesh. Expected Output is to come out with a report detailing below-

f. Ascertain sustainability of impacts (social, cultural, economic, political, environment) of various ongoing agriculture schemes/interventions in the tribal areas of agro-climatic regions of MP, and how individually/collectively these schemes/interventions have impacted in the light of poverty reduction.

g. Investigate how the existing agricultural schemes/interventions are best suited in the

social, economic and cultural context of tribal population.

h. Identify and document best practices with in depth analysis on “why certain interventions succeeded under what conditions while other interventions could not have the intended impacts”

i. Ascertain various vulnerability context, gender-budgeting/auditing, fund

allocation/utilizations, policies, institutions, processes, institutional linkages, technology etc affecting agriculture schemes/interventions ( positively/negatively, intended/non-intended, directly/indirectly ) in the tribal areas of MP



j. Draw appropriate lessons, bottleneck issues, framework and approaches for the improvement in agriculture schemes/interventions for site selection, planning process, design of the scheme/interventions and implementation cycle.

3. Scope of the Work:

• Assess the progress and status of Agriculture Department interventions ongoing in Tribal Areas (more details of ongoing Agriculture Department interventions are available at http://mpkrishi.org/) and delineate criteria against which impacts of various interventions will be assessed

• Identify specific agricultural schemes/interventions by giving rationale which will be

studied in-depth for the Impact Assessment and develop a statistically robust Sampling Plan that identifies specific districts and details the number of households and locations to be covered within these

• Undertake primary research to ascertain the impact of the agricultural

schemes/interventions as per the agreed Sampling Plan and impact assessment criteria; also, investigate the gaps constraining the realization of the full potential of the agricultural interventions and recommend measures to address the same (the gaps and recommendations are to be discussed not only with primary stakeholders but also State, district and village-level stakeholders, including Agricultural Department personnel, civil society organizations and PRI representatives)

• Ascertain whether agricultural interventions helped in increasing the crop productivity and whether there have been any changes in the cropping pattern.

• Categorize all impacts (direct /indirect; intended/unintended etc) and investigate the

outreach/degree of impacts at Household level, village level, Panchayat level, block level , district level and State level.

• By commenting on the design of agricultural schemes/interventions, ascertain

whether existing interventions are best suited in the social, economic and cultural context of tribal population and also any impact on status of women, agricultural practices etc.

• Study the process mapping of identified interventions to understand efficacy,

efficiency and sustainability of impacts

• Identify the roles played by private players in promoting agriculture and providing them with technical and financial assistance to increase the production and its marketing. Also determine efforts made towards realization of credit requirement by various agencies.

• Documentation of at least six best practices (location specific) with in depth analysis

on “why certain interventions succeeded under what conditions while other



interventions could not have the intended impacts”. It should include innovations, best practices at group level, community level

• Recommend appropriate lessons, bottleneck issues, framework and approach for

the improvement in agriculture schemes/interventions for site selection, planning process, design, and result frameworks.

• While undertaking the tasks, the Consultants are expected to maintain close contact

with the PMPSUS and provide regular updates on progress and emergent findings.

4. Team Composition: The team should have the following experts in the team for conducting this study:

• Team Leader & Agriculture Expert • Agricultural Expert • Evaluation Expert • Social Development Expert • Statistical Expert

The experts should meet the following criteria: • Experience and proven track record of evaluating the impacts of large

programmes particularly in the agriculture sector (essential) • Experience of evaluating impacts of large government/ donor funded

programmes, particularly programs with social sector focus and community development (essential)

• Experience of working in India (essential) • Experience of working in Madhya Pradesh (desirable)

5. Timeline and Deliverables

1) Inception Report – Within 30 days i.e. one month of Contract

2) Progress Report 1 – Within 45 days of inception report

3) Progress Report 2 – Within 90 days of inception report

4) Draft Final Report with Presentation – Within 20 days of Progress Report 2

5) Final Report – Within 10 days of Draft Final Report

The consultants are however at liberty to propose a lesser calendar time frame for implementation of all the tasks under this consultancy.

6. Reporting

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist. The consultant will report to Nodal Officer, PMPSUS for contract related issues.



Annex-2: Sources of Secondary Information

S. No.

Name of Document

1. Government of Madhya Pradesh Farmer’s Welfare and Agriculture Development Department Website:- www.mpkrishi.org

2. Government of MP Compendium of Agricultural Statistics, 2005-06 MP

3. MP Agriculture vision 2020 & A strategic action plan for Agriculture development 4. Medium Term Expenditure Framework for Farmers Welfare and Agriculture Development 2007-

08 under SPMG project with GoMP 5. Draft Eleven Five Year Plan 2007-12 and Annual Plan 2007-08 6. National Conference on Agriculture for Rabi Campaign 2008 MP PS (Agriculture) Presentation 7. MP Krishi yojana Pustaka 8. MPRLP Website:- www.mprlp.in 9. DPIP website: http://www.dpipmp.mp.gov.in/english/main.htm 10. MP forest Department:- www.forest.mp.gov.in 11. MP Mahial & Vitt Vilash Nigam :- http://www.mpmvvn.org/ 12. JVKVV Website: www.jnkvv.nic.in 13. Website Material search of selected private sector Agencies:- ITC, Reliance, Hariyali, Dawat 14. Websites of selected NGOs working in MP:- Pradan, ASA, GVT, CARD, NCHCE etc. 15. Website - National Center for Agriculture policy and Economic Research:

http://www.ncap.res.in/ 16. Crops with Attitude, Mac Margolis, Newsweek Dated March 22, 2009

17. The Hindu Report - New Agriculture Strategy for the Tribals

18. Website of Ministry of Women and Child Development on Gender Budgeting

19. Report on National Seminar on Private Extension held at MANAGE, Hyderabad - July 2000

20. Agricultural Innovations and their Impact on Agricultural Development in Madhya Pradesh by S. K. Sharma, Published in “The Deccan Geographer”, Vol. 41 No.2, December 2003. pp 49-64.

21. Adoption and Impact of New Agricultural Technology on Tribal Agriculture/B.B. Pawde, V.B. Bhise and S.R. Takle. New Delhi, Serials Pub., 2008, viii, 124 p., tables, ISBN 81-8387-139-6.

22. World Development Report -2008 by World Bank, Excerpts on Agriculture for Development, options for India

23 11th Five Year Plan - Agriculture Sector, Planning Commission

24 Business and Economic Development - Agriculture Sector Report - December 2004 by AccountAbility and Business for Social Responsibility

25 Assessing Household Poverty and Well Being - A Manual with Examples from Kutai Barat, Indonesia

26 MP Human Development Report - 2007

27 National Policy for Farmers - Plan of Action -2007

28 A critique of the Draft Tribal Policy

29 Guidelines for Strengthening of the National Agriculture Extension System

30 National Tribal Policy

31 State Development Report 2009 - Agriculture in Madhya Pradesh



S. No.

Name of Document

32 Annual plan 2008-09

33 Annual plan 2009-10 and Physical and Financial Progress Made

34 Comprehensive District Agriculture Plan (C-DAP), A Manual by Planning Commission, March 2008

35 Guidelines for National Agriculture Development Programme (RKVY), Ministry of Agriculture, August 2007

36 National Seminar on Agricultural Extension (NSAE) on February 27-28’ 2009 by Department of Agriculture & Cooperation, MoA

37 Approach Paper to 11th Five year plan - Agriculture and Allied sectors

38 Tribal Agriculture and Modernisation By Sujit Kumar Paul. Delhi: Daya Publishing House

39 Rethinking Tribal Development: Water Management Strategies for Revitalizing Tribal Agriculture in central India by International Water Management Institute

40 Various publications from International Food Policy Research Institute

41 Reducing Poverty and Hunger in India: The Role of Agriculture IFPRI 2004-2005 Annual Report Essay Montek S. Ahluwalia 2005



Annex-3: List of Interviewees

List of Government officials met during the Assignment S. No.

Name of Person Post Agency/ Department

1. Mr. Mangesh Tyagi Nodal office/ Advisor –PMPUS

Planning Commission- MP

2. Mr. Chitrangan Tyagi Team Leader-PMPUS Planning Commission- MP 3. Mr Upaddhyay Add. Director Planning Tribal Welfare Dept 4. Mr. Parte Add. Director Monitoring Tribal Welfare Dept 5. Mr. Hurmade Deputy Commissioner Tribal Welfare Dept 6. Mr. Batra Statistical Specialist-

PMPUS Planning Commission-MP

7. Mr. Deepak Dey Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist-PMPUS

Planning Commission-MP

8. Mr. Yogesh Mahor Social Development Specialist- PMPUS

Planning Commission-MP

9. Mr. Shivendra Pandya State Coordinator M&E MPRLP 10. Mr. Sandeep Khanwilkar State Coordinator Agriculture MPRLP 11. Dr. Hariom Sharma HOD-Agriculture Economics JNKVV- Jabalpur 12. Dr. K.K. Saxena HOD- Extension Education JNKVV- Jabalpur 13 Mr. O.P.Malviya, SADO FWAD, Babai,

Hoshangabad 14. Mr. Agrawal CEO, Janpad Panchayat Shahpur, Betul 15. Mr.S. D. Dubey Member Secretary Rajya Krishak Ayog,

Bhopal 16. Mr. Alok Asthana Programme Associate PMPSUS-Madhya Pradesh

List of Agriculture Department person met during the study:

S.No. Name of the person Post Name of District Place/Block Name

1 Mr. SK Bhatnagar

Additional Director Agriculture (Planning)

Agriculture Directorate

Vindhyachal, Bhopal

2 Mr DL Kori JDA Agriculture Directorate

Vindhyachal, Bhopal

3 Mr Kamal Jain ADA- Agrisnet

Agriculture Directorate

Vindhyachal, Bhopal

4 Mr. Suresh Rao SADO Betul Bhensadehi



S.No. Name of the person Post Name of District Place/Block Name

5 Mr.VK Thoke SADO Betul Shahpur 6 Mr.B.C. Bargale SADO Hoshangabad Babai 7 Mr. AK Nema SADO Mandla Mandla 8 Mr.KP Saiyaam SADO Mandla Bichhiya 9 Mrs. Parvati Parte REAO Mandla Bichhiya 10 Mr. S.Khan REAO Mandla Bichhiya 11 Mr.Dehariya SADO Dindhori Shahpura(Dhirwanmal)12 Mr.C.K.Jain RAEO Damoh Jabera(Devtara) 13 Mr.RK Pandey SADO Damoh Jabera 14 Mr.R.K.Yadav RAEO Damoh Jabera(Majhgaon) 15 Mr.U.S.Thakur RAEO Damoh Jabera(Jamuniya)) 16 Mr. S.K.Rai RAEO Damoh Jabera(Sagra) 17 Mr.K.L.Chaurasia RAEO Damoh Jabera(Dewari) 18 Mr.Sumo Markam SADO Katni Rithi 19 Mr.Ashok Uike SADO Anuppur Pusprajgarh 20 Mr.Avinash

Prihar DDA Khargone Khargon

21 Mr.RS Chouhan SADO Khargone Bageshwar 22 Mr. D.R. Situle ADO Barwani Neydeli 23 Mr. Farooq Sekh REAO Barwani Neyedi 24 Mr. HL bhargaw REAO Barwani Neyadi 25 Mr. Baghel SADO Barwani Pansemal 26 Mr.BS Rajpoot SADO Barwani Pansemal

List of NGO, Corporate persons met during the Assignment S. No.


1. Dr. Arun Joshi Head, NLRI Ratlam National Livelihood Resource Center- GVT Ratlam

2. Mr. KL Rao MTEF Expert PwC, SPMG Project 3. Mr. Amod Khanna Director TAAL, Bhopal 4. Dr. Vivek Sharma Executive Director CARD, Bhopal 5. Dr. Kaushal Ex. Director -

FW&AD Bhopal

6. Mr. Vinod Singh Head Maa vaijanthi Shiksha Samiti , Nagod



S. No.


7. Mr. Abhishek Parsai Executive Director Uday Vikas Sangh, Jabalpur 8. Mr. Pramod Naik Head Pragati Gramin Vikas Sansthan ,

Betul 9. Mr. Sandhu Regional Manager GVT, Bhopal 10. Mr.Rajesh Bhadoria Team leader Samavesh , Bhopal 11. Mr. Anil Bhusari Head Gramin Vikas Sansthan, Chicholi 12. Mr. Sunil Gangrade Editor Krishk Jagat Bhopal 13. Mr. Rakesh Gaur Team leader Dawat, Mandideep

List of PRI members met during the study:

S.No Name of PRI Member Designation District Block Village

1 Mr.Harak Chand Panch Khandwa Pandhana Balwada 2 Mr Raghuraj Panch Khandwa Pandhana Balwada

3 Mr Ramchandra Sarpanch Khandwa Pandhana Gandhwa

4 Mr Raisingh Ranawat

President WDC

Khandwa Pandhana Deshgaon

5 Mr Radhe SyamYadav

Up-Sarpanch Khandwa Pandhana FW&ADngargaon

6 Mr Hamid Baig Secretary, Gram

Panchyat

Burhanpur Nepanagar Amba

7 Mr Harilal Rathore Sarpanch Burhanpur Nepanagar Amba

8 Mr Nandram Bamaniya

Sarpanch Burhanpur Nepanagar Amba

9 Mr Tukaram Korkhu

Sarpanch Burhanpur Nepanagar Amba

10 Mr Ramkaran Up-Sarpanch Burhanpur Nepanagar Amba

11 Mr Julat Basawe Sarpanch Badwani Pansemal Deodhar 12 Mr Ratan Basawe Secretary,

Gram Panchyat

Badwani Pansemal Deodhar

13 Mr Sayaja Bai Sarpanch Badwani Pansemal Mankuye 14 Mr Pandrinath

Patil Secretary,

Gram Panchyat

Badwani Pansemal Mankuye



S.No Name of PRI Member Designation District Block Village

15 Mr Gyansingh Secretary, Gram

Panchyat

Badwani Pansemal Bandhara Khurd

16 Mr Kewajiya Sarpanch Badwani Pansemal Bandhara Khurd

17 Mr Bhaiyalal Sarpanch Sidhi Gopadbanas Sendura 18 Mrs Bhuri Bai Sarpanch Satna Mahir Lohi 19 Mr Lalua Kole Sarpanch Satna Mahir Madanpur 20 Mr Gopal Singh Sarpanch Annuppur Pusparajghar Jilan 21 Mr Rameshwar Sarpanch Annuppur Pusparajghar Patna

22 Mr Vinod Sonwani

Secretary, Gram

Panchyat

Annuppur Pusparajghar Patna



Annex-4: Pointers on Utilising the Potential of RKVY Silent feature of RKVY that can be utilize for agriculture development for tribal area. The main objectives of the scheme are to incentivise the states so as to increase public investment in Agriculture and allied sectors:

Pointer - The study results show that infrastructure development in tribal area needs acceleration. Allocation of fund through various sources is not sufficient. Success of scheme like Kapil dhara shows the importance and means of infrastructure development. Balram talab scheme is also very popular but again the allotted district budget is not sufficient even for a block. Through RKVY FW&AD can meet these challenges.

RKVY intend to provide flexibility and autonomy to states in the process of planning and executing Agriculture and allied sector schemes:

Pointer - Requirements of tribal and non tribal , Irrigated and rain fed , hilly and rocky area Vs plane and fertile area are always differs. Through RKVY FW&AD can actually plan specific area development plan for tribal area with proper backward and forward linkages

RKVY plan to ensure the preparation of agriculture plans for the districts and the states based on agro-climatic conditions, availability of technology and natural resources.

Pointer - As we mentioned above there is a need of specific area development plan. Plan at micro level as well keeping local resources in mind

RKVY plan to ensure that the local needs/crops/priorities are better reflected in the agricultural plans of the states:

Pointer - Farmers of Nimar region needs timely availability of sufficient and input support from FW&AD where as farmers of districts like Sidhi, Dhindhori needs infrastructure support or training and subsidy support to go for organic certification. These are two different conditions for FW&AD. Through RKVY these can be addressed properly.

RKVY want to achieve the goal of reducing the yield gaps in important crops, through focused interventions:

Pointer - This is again related to difference in availability of basic infrastructure in tribal and non tribal area. This is one of the major reasons behind the yield gaps. Availability of market for tribal produce is also an area which can be achieved through RKVY. Who can think that in urban areas people can have food like Ragi & Kodo in their morning breakfast. As theses crops area not having proper markets they have not proper rates. But through RKVY we even think of value addition in these food crops too.



RKVY aim to maximize returns to the farmers in Agriculture and allied sectors:

Pointer - Tribal farmers are not at all getting even lower mandi rate for their produce as they have to sell their produce either in village it self or at nearby local market. Tribal already uses very less quantity of chemical. There produce is almost organic still they are unable to get right prize !!! Through RKVY FW&AD can work for organic market for them.

RKVY want to bring about quantifiable changes in the production and productivity of various components of Agriculture and allied sectors by addressing them in a holistic manner:

Pointer - This is the most important area in which FW&AD can work. In present situation FW&AD has to depend on several other line departments for agriculture development. But through RKVY he can demonstrate the end to end solution to farmers, including market based value chain development and agriculture based enterprise promotion.



Annex-5: Comparative Study of Status of Agriculture in Two Tribal Districts

During our field visits for data collection, we had discussions on certain aspects related to agriculture in the concerned area with various groups of tribal farmers, and government officials. Based on these discussions we are comparing the Shahpur block of Betul and Babai block of Hoshangabad districts. Issue Betul (Shahpur) Hoshangabad (Babai) Availability of Field staff Insufficient Sufficient Average village per RAEO

25 to 30 7 to 10

Work load on field staff Time to time engaged in other department’s work

More involved in agriculture work

Transport facilities Poor Sufficient availability Reach of farmer to Agriculture Farms & training centers

Poor / less Good

Irrigation facility Poor mostly un irrigated Largely Irrigated Zayad crops No Yes Topography Undulated , Hilly area Plain Agriculture practices More traditional Open to new & innovative

agriculture Availability of agriculture inputs

Good Very Good

Education status Poor Take interest in education Economic status Poor Relatively better The discussions were put into the context of the agro climatic and average rain fall:

The agro-climatic and rain fall conditions in Shahpur block are relatively poorer than the Babai block in terms of rainfall and soil type. Study sampling rank 2 for Betul district means that tribal population in this district is between 50 to 75 percent. In Hoshngabad the 4 rank means tribal population is lesser then the 25 percent. There is need of agriculture department to give



specific attention for improvement of agriculture production and productivity. Special programme should be design for the naturally poor conditions of the region.



Annex-6: Design Analysis of Annpurna and Surajdhara Scheme Tribals are dependent on old traditional seeds and do not generally make a difference between grain and seeds. Farmer welfare and Agriculture development department is implementing two centrally sponsored schemes for high yielding varieties of seeds under Annapurna and Surajdhara.

Design of Annapurna and Surajdhara Scheme:

The objective of the SURAJDHARA and ANNAPURNA scheme is to provide seeds of improved and high yielding varieties for cereals, oilseeds and pulse crops, through replacement of old varieties. It shall cover small and marginal farmers of ST and SC categories. In order to get these seeds the farmers will have to give the non certified seed which is 25% of the received certified seed. Both Annapurna and Surajdhara schemes has these 3 components viz. Seed Exchange, Seed Self Reliance, Seed Production.

Under these schemes there are various crops to be covered in Kharif and the Rabi Season, these crops are as follows:

1. Kharif • Pulses: Arhar, Moong, Urad. • Oilseeds: Soyabean, Til, Ramtil (niger), Castor, Groundnut, Sunflower. • Cereals: Rice, Maize, Jowar, Kodo - Kutki.

2. Rabi • Pulses: Gram, Pea, Lentil, Teora, Moong, Urad. • Oilseeds: Safflower, Mustard, Toria, Rapeseed, Linseed, Castor, Sunflower, Ramtil

(Niger), Groundnut. • Cereals: Wheat, Gram.

Status of Implementation of Annapurna and Surajdhara in Tribal Areas The study collected feedback from 4000 households on the status of implementation of various schemes of the FW&AD in the state. The study results on the Annapurna and Surjadhara scheme are:

• 15 percent of tribal farmers (ST) and 18 percent of SC farmers are aware about the Annpurana scheme while 10 percent of tribal farmers and 4 percent of SC farmers are aware about the Surajdhara scheme.

• Among those who are aware, 91 percent of tribal farmers and 74 percent of SC farmer have benefitted from Annapurna scheme

• Among those who are aware, 46 percent of ST farmers and 81 percent of SC farmers have benefitted from Surajdhara scheme.

• Among those who are aware, 36 percent of ST farmers and 26 percent of SC farmers have worked with RAEO and SADO for the Annapurna scheme implementation



• Among those who are aware, 29 percent of ST farmers and 3 percent of SC farmers have worked with RAEO and SADO for the Surajdhara scheme implementation

The tables below describe the status of farmers’ involvement in planning, implementation and monitoring of Annapurna and Surajdhara schemes in the tribal areas, for both ST and SC farmers.

The study results clearly show that the status of implementation of Annapurna and Surajdhara schemes in tribal areas is very weak. The study team explored the reason for poor reach and awareness in tribal and SC farmers about the most relevant schemes meant for them. The discussions were carried out with the farmers, SADO, RAEO and other departmental functionaries as well as with agriculture experts on this aspect. Following is the summary of reasons for the current status of poor reach and targeting of schemes meant for tribal areas:

i. Week Extension Programme due to the burden REAOs: The discussions revealed that due to overburdened nature of work of RAEO, the time available for extension is very



limited. RAEO are unable to focus their time and energies on the field level activities of scheme implementation. Reaching a village more than one time in a month or two is almost impossible. Half of RAEO time goes in other-departmental work of Janpad where as other half of the time, RAEO is spending on field visit and reporting, meetings etc. Clearly rationalization of work at this key unit of implementation is necessary for the department to expect better reach and quality of implementation

ii. Selection of Beneficiaries toughest exercise: (If REAO want to support poorest farmers)

During the discussion, it emerged that the selection of beneficiaries under any scheme is one of the toughest exercise. This is largely due to large demands in comparison to the allocated targets. The department’s way of allotting benefits on first come, first serve basis work to the advantage of large and medium farmers. The reach of schemes to small and marginal farmers remains a huge area of concern.

iii. Local Political Influence: Various pulls and pressures were expressed by

SADO/RAEO/Panchyat functionaries in allotment of benefits of schemes. Clearly the Gram sabha is unable to facilitate the limited benefits of schemes to most deserving and appropriate farmers. Few RAEOs reported that at least 20% schemes benefits are influenced by the local political leaders and elected representatives. Framers and community awareness level are low to understand the distributional pattern of scheme benefits and then do something about it.

iv. Poor capacities of Panchayats and Agriculture Committees: This was observed with

regard to making integrated planning individual Households with convergence with on going schemes like NREG and SGSY etc. Ruling party leaders decide the beneficiaries for any training and exposure programmes from any department. Since implementation of Gram Swaraj 2001 Agriculture department officials are now participating in the Panchayat meeting and sharing the schemes and progress (e.g. after an hour long discussion in the Bhadera village, community agreed that new variety of wheat and paddy in village were brought by RAEO sahib).Tribal farmers have generally no information about Kishan mitra and Kishan didi schemes.

v. Seed Exchange Programme: This programme is not working well in both schemes,

largely due to the fact that except large farmers, other farmers do not have their own seed during the sowing time. The seed is purchased by them from money lender/ shop keeper on credit. So large numbers of farmers are unable to participate in the seed exchange programme. Seed Exchange programme need high level of awareness and timely availability of seeds on the farmer’s field.

vi. Seed Production/Seed Village Programme: The seed village programme has achieved a good success and therefore need to be continued for the seed bank in every village. The technical support like proper seed treatment, seed selection & pre-cultivation preparation has changed the yield of the crops. The intercropping also helped the farmers to get good result from the same land. This programme has only five villages per block in per year. This need to extend and will reach to the maximum villages in the state.



vii. Comments on Scheme Design (Surajdhara and Annpurana)

Achievements: The agriculture department demonstrated the new technologies of farming through the new varieties of seed, although this is till limited with the large and medium farmers. Suggested design changes and implementation improvement Plan: REAO’s support for farm based planning is important for the small and marginal farmers under both the schemes. REAO can prepare plan in advance and do awareness building of small and marginal farmers on new variety and its adoption benefits. FW&AD should increase the resources on these schemes and increase the allocation targets for the tribal areas. The seed reliance scheme should be promoted within the village through seed production and seed bank in tribal area. Department should promote more oilseed and pulses crops with tribal farmers in Rabi and Kharif period. Department should monitor the allocation process of benefit distribution so that targeted farmers are able to get the benefit in maximum numbers. The monitoring of these schemes can be done involving NGOs, private agencies etc.



Annex-7: Design Analysis of Minor Irrigation Scheme To increase in irrigation area of state and to enhance productivity and production of holdings with Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe families, the scheme for Boring of tube wells on cultivator’s field has been continued. For efficient utilization of irrigation water sprinkler sets and drip units are also being subsidized under different centrally sponsored schemes.

Status of Implementation of Micro Irrigation schemes in the tribal areas:

It is a dream for every farmer to own a water source like tube well. The FW&AD department is implementing tube well and micro irrigation related schemes. The study findings on the reach, access and benefit of these schemes to ST and SC families suggest:

• 4 percent of households are aware about tubewell or irrigation schemes. • Among those who are aware, 31 percent have accessed and benefitted from the tube well

scheme and 92 percent have benefitted from irrigation scheme. • Among those who are aware, 23 percent have participated in the planning of the tube well

scheme with SADO/RAEO level while 51 percent have participated in planning of the irrigation scheme.

• Among those who are aware, a minuscule percent of households have participated in the implementation or monitoring of the schemes.

Design Analysis and Improvement Plan:

Both the micro irrigation schemes have good popularity among the farmers esp. medium and large farmers. The reported benefits drawn by small and marginal farmers from these schemes are very low. Due to the selection criteria of the beneficiaries, and due to working methodology of first come and first serve, small and marginal farmers find themselves in no position to even have the necessary token money in time for taking benefits of the schemes. Under both schemes, implementation and selection of beneficiaries is strongly influenced by local politicians.



Need to include recharging of tube wells under this scheme and special provision for small and marginal farmers from the tribal community with intensive support from farm based participatory micro planning. Target of scheme should be increased so that large number of deserving farmers can get the benefit of these very relevant schemes.

impact assessment of agriculture interventions in tribal areas in

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