By Prof. Dr. P. K. Jena, Bhubaneswar, December 24, 2015 : India has achieved significant agricultural, industrial and socio-economic development after its independence in 1947. But, considering the resources and opportunities available, the development could have been much more to achieve the status of a developed nation. India is rich in natural resources including minerals, soil, water, marine, forest and human resources. In the country, 55% of the total working population is engaged in agricultural sector.

While about 14% of the total work force in developed countries are engaged in Agro Industrial Sectors, in India only about 3% of the work force find employment in this vital sector. In recent years, due to weak monsoon and shortage of water, the crop production in India has been very much affected, bringing a lot of hardship to the farmers. A large number of farmers have committed suicide in recent years because of crop failure and heavy financial burdens.

India is the largest producer of pulses 18.5 million tons (MT) and milk (90 MT), second largest producer of wheat (93.4 MT), rice (99 MT), sugarcane (361 MT), tea (966.7 Tons), fruits (50 MT) and vegetables (10 MT). And yet, about one-third of our population is living below poverty level and about 25 to 30 percent of people are unemployed. These are mainly due to the fact that, about 30 to 40% of the agricultural products are lost because of want of proper storage facilities and proper distribution system. Further, the fruits of the economic growth of the country have not reached our farmers in due proportion.

In view of these startling facts, it is essential to bring further development particularly in agriculture, fisheries, storage of agro products and agro industry sector, thereby providing self employment opportunity to nearly most of the rural people in the country. It is widely realized that, poverty alleviation providing employment opportunities and effecting economic development in rural areas are possible through provision of sufficient water for irrigation, organic compost and pesticides for increasing crop production, extensive use of solar energy and biogas, adopting better post harvest technology, creating storage facilities to avoid loss of agro products and development of Agro Industries.

Development of Wetlands with Rain Water Harvesting

India like most parts of the world with increasing population, agricultural and industrial activities as well as with rapid urbanization, is experiencing fresh water scarcity. As a result, per capita water availability is fast declining in recent years. At present, nearly 1/3rd of the population in the country, do not get sufficient water for agriculture, drinking and other domestic purposes. Industrial developments and increasing urbanization are consuming a significant portion of the fresh water in recent decades which used to be earmarked earlier for agriculture and domestic purposes.

Unless appropriate measures are taken to increase fresh water resources, utilize water in judicious manner and resist the pollution of the rivers and water bodies, the country will move towards a disastrous situation. In this respect, development and management of wetlands with rain water harvesting will play a very significant role. In this regard, in rural areas all the wetlands and old tanks and ponds should be developed into suitable surface water storage facilities through rain water harvesting. These water bodies will help the farmers immensely for irrigation and also enhancing ground water resource for providing sufficient water for drinking and other domestic purposes.

Production of Compost and Fuel gas from Organic wastes

The agricultural, garden and domestic wastes are mostly organic in nature. These are mainly generated in agricultural fields during harvesting and processing the products and similarly in the gardening and preparing food in the house. Instead of throwing these wastes here and there or burning it out and polluting the environment, the farmers should systemically collect, store and then treat these wastes to produce compost and biogas through anaerobic digestion (in absence of air).

The compost can be produced in two different ways namely aerobic process and anaerobic process. In aerobic process, all the organic matters are dumped in the pits in presence of air where aerobic bacteria act on the complex organic matters and break these down into nutrients. In case of anaerobic process generally the organic matter with water in slurry form is placed in a closed container with necessary provision for collecting the solid compost and the gas. The waste slurry in absence of air is biodegraded to produce the organic compost and the fuel gas (containing about 53% of methane).

These biogas units should be provided to all farmers may be on a subsidized rate. They should be trained to produce compost and biogas from the agricultural, garden and domestic organic wastes. The organic compost obtained from this will be sufficient to a great extent for using in the agricultural field as manure and the biogas for cooking purposes. Generally 1 ton of dry organic waste produces 400 kg of organic manure and 800 m3 of biogas.

Extensive use of Solar Energy

In the rural areas most of the time wood, dry leaves, cow dung etc., are used in open fire places for cooking food. In this process, a lot of fuel value is lost and at the same time smoke, carbon dust etc., are created causing a lot of harm to the people living in the house and the environment in general. The farmers should be motivated to use solar cookers for cooking their food and keep solar cells in the top of their house to utilize that energy for lighting the house.

As a matter of fact, in India out of all the renewable energy, solar energy is the most abundant one. The main attractive feature of the solar energy is that, it produces no green house gases; further, once the solar equipment is installed, there is no expenditure towards raw materials, unlike fossile fuel energy sources. In the present day with frequent power cut in rural areas, with the individual solar cell system, the farmers can get the light in their house at any time they like. Solar cell unit can very conveniently be used (portable solar cell) for lifting water from ponds, tanks and other wet lands for irrigation purpose.

Post Harvest Technology

It has been reported that, in many cases like rice, wheat, sugarcane, milk, the production in the country in recent years, has been quite satisfactory. However, on account of poor post harvest management, the loss in agricultural produce in India is very high. These losses are caused during storage, handling and transportation etc. The extent of losses can be brought down to less than 50% of the existing level by adopting agro processing technology and proper transfer system. The rest 50% can be saved by developing infrastructural facilities like proper grain storage structures, cold stores and processing systems. In view of this, the government should provide various processing and storing facilities in the block level for the farmers with reasonable payment. The farmers should receive proper training in the area of post harvest technology.

Development of Agro Industries

In India, agro industries should be developed in a big way involving mostly the youths in rural areas and providing necessary training facilities. In order to facilitate the development of agro industries, conducive atmosphere with respect to financial assistance, supply of proper raw materials, development of infrastructures, appropriate technology, skilled manpower, prompt transportation and marketing of finished goods are essential. In village or panchayat level, the unemployed persons should be identified and trained, to be employed in the proposed agro industries which are to be developed in the area. The government should take active part in developing a transparent mechanism to facilitate the development of these industries keeping in view the existing problems of the agro industry.

For each specific agro industry unit, “Package Deal” at a single door delivery by the government may go a long way in promoting these industries in a successful manner. The ‘Package Deal’ should comprise necessary permission for land, infrastructural facilities, finance, water, electricity, provisions for timely supply of raw materials, appropriate technology for production of finished goods and their prompt marketing. This would help considerably the small entrepreneurs to be encouraged to start the industry in a minimum period. Besides providing market facilities to these industries both in India and abroad, the government should provide the most recent technology in respective areas and extend quality control facilities.

It is suggested that, in all the rural areas these five facilities should be developed and provided to the farmers’ family with proper training. In this integrated programme, proper implementation, monitoring and evaluation by the experts should be carried out. The degree of success of the programme is going to be a measure of the living standard of the farmers.