Introduction:
During Rabi season harvest period in the year 2020 there was a strange situation where farmers in the Hirakud Command area faced a shortage of labourer. It went on until the Kharif harvest time till now. Before Covid, farmers used to bring in labor mass from farther areas who were available with cheaper wages . Due to Covid, the transportation was hampered as well as the local labor were not willing to show up to work because of the fear of the novel corona virus. The harvester machines available had to take turns to cover all the fields which was time taking and they stayed unharvested for a prolonged time with ripened rice gains.
The same problem again arises this year. Farmers were learning from their mistakes and making advance arrangements to overcome it. In the mean time , rain comes unexpectedly to wipe out their hopes. Unavailability of labors and harvesting machines has again put the ripened crop to germinate in the field. Now the problems with the token system and mills not accepting low quality crop has added on to farmers’ problems.
This situation can be studied to prepare for how to take the rice production in the area to the next level . Bargarh being called the rice bowl of Odisha has a high productivity rate still there are various constraints that pull them back from enhancing the production exponentially in a sustainable way. I believe these problems does occur in other parts of India as well.One of the various such constraints includes peasant farming(the individual farmer is the owner, manager and organizer of the whole farm).Now this can be overcome by cooperative farming. This is not the end to various existing problems but definitely a strong solution.
Farmers in Remunda area of Bargarh have already adopted it. Maharastra is the pioneer state in India which is taking advantages of various government acts associated with it. If there was cooperative farming in the previous situation the farmers might not have to wait with so much of uncertainty for harvesting or crop loss of any amount. In addition to that, the in-discussion system of farming has various advantages which would attract small and marginal farmers.
Let’s have a look, HOW!!!
COOPERATIVE FARMING
Cooperative farming is when various small or marginal farmers farm collectively and when the crop is harvested the revenue is distributed among the farmers according to the area of their personal land holdings. This was started by the first Jewish agricultural cooperative,”Kvutzat Degania” in the year 1909 in Palestine. The land holdings, livestock, labor and other such resources are pooled and used collectively. It helps in use of those resources in the best way possible while making collective purchase of inputs that decreases the overall input cost. The management decisions are taken by a managing committee elected by them. Members join voluntarily. It runs with one man one vote principle. In Cooperative farming farmers retain the right to their land .
It helps majorities having economic backwardness achieve a common economic aim. With increase in debt seen among Indian farmers the Government of India started working on various problems in Indian agriculture and cooperative movement is one of them , which is still under debate and researches are going on starting from Cooperative Planning Committee(1946) to Vyas Committee (2001/2004). It is said to “have immense potential to deliver goods and services in areas where the government and private sector failed to reach.”
IMPORTANT VARIANTS OF COOPERATIVE FARMING
Looking at the diversity in farming system in India, cooperative farming also has its categories. According to All India Cooperative planning committee (1955) ;
i) Cooperative Better Farming Society
ii)Cooperative Joint Farming Society
iii)Cooperative Tenant Farming Society
iv) Cooperative Collective Farming Society
They have difference in terms of ownership and operatorship of farming only. Both ownership and operatorship is individual in case of cooperative better and cooperative collective . In cooperative joint, ownership is individual and operatorship is collective where as in cooperative tenant is the exact opposite in this perspective.
PERKS OF COOPERATIVE FARMING
Economies of Scale:
Various problems that arise with various practices during cultivation even with application of government policies due to micro fragmentation of Indian lands can be solved by Cooperative farming. Investments that’s are not feasible for scattered plot can be undertaken on such lands for example for farm mechanization mostly heavy equipment like harvesters . Irrigation schemes are useless on fragmented plots because all others quality of irrigation water would go waste where the water can be properly utilized through enlargement of the area of operation.
Many critics suggest that yield per hectare would be increased with the help of collective farming. Looking at per man hour yield per worker can be raised. To be precise economies of scale is positively associated with pooling of land of numerals farmers.
Reducing agricultural labor force(more employment in non agricultural fields):
Higher productivity per worker in agriculture is required for faster economic progress.
As Prof. D. Bhattacharya has rightly commented: “It helps to release workers for non-agricultural work whose scope greatly expands with economic progress. At the same time supply of agricultural products can be maintained to meet the requirements of workers working outside agriculture. The process of industrialization in India depends to a very large extent on the increased productivity of the workers in agriculture.”
Having more to offer:
Having more to market because of the huge hoard of strobe outcome the farmers would have increased quantum of marketable surplus rather than an individual farmer. It is said, “the quantum of marketable surplus generated from the agricultural sector is an important determinant of a country’s material progress.” But policies and plans have failed in India in this case since ages.
Ease for the administrator:
This farming is advantageous to the government .The smaller the number of agricultural farms the easier it is for the government to collect taxes, distribute subsidies and, generally, introduce better agricultural practices and mechanization.
More money to invest(more credit):
Although there has been visible change in micro financing large forms always attract financing institutions more than smaller ones. Without sufficient credit it is not possible to derive advantages of farming in a commercial way.
CHALLENGES IN COOPERATIVE FARMING IN INDIA
Some member-farmers seem to work less vigorously because they’ll get the same amount of profit in proportion of the land owned anyway.
Farmers with political agendas and caste affiliations and other such personal interest seeking personnel don’t allow the cooperation smoothly.
Farmers are afraid of record making .
Taxation is another fear for farmers.
Most of the farmers still use traditional methods of farming.
Lack of ambition among farmers resist them from equipping with modern technology or earning more .
The grant from the state government cannot be accessed as a collective because the government officials are reluctant to release such a huge amount of money in favor of farmers. If at all, the government decided to give farmers of the state a nominal sum of subsidy, the officials involved from the government indulge in corruption for smooth channelization of funds from the government treasury to the farmer’s beneficiary account.
Even though they get a huge load of production , market availability and transportation would emerge as a basic problem.
Older farmers are resistant to change while youngsters are not interested in farming these days.
CONCLUSION
Prof. D. Bhattacharya comments: “The chances of genuine co-operation among India’s peasantry, however, are so small at present that large-scale expansion of co-operative farming is unlikely to take place in the near future.”
When we come to the bare ground we see that there is a need of proper training to farmers in cooperative methods. This method is likely to be accepted by the targeted farmers (small and marginal) only if it penetrates into the system in a systematic way with proper plans, policies ,financing, subsidies or so. The indications that we get from the market preferences or the mind set of farmers now a days in the current situation cooperative system of farming among the Indian people is very unlikely to be adopted.
A proper plan with proper implementation while taking various factors in mind, utilising various tools of agricultural extension, educating rural people and clearly demonstrating the superiority of cooperative farming over the present small-scale peasant farming practices might change the scene.
References:
•Agricultural Economics by Subba Reddy,P Raghuram , T.V.N. Sastry, I. Bhawani Devi
•An Introduction to Social Sciences by Subhash Chandra, Suresh Kumar , K.C. Bairwa
•http://agricoop.nic.in | Department of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers Welfare
Author Details:
Pratyush Kumari Rath
M.Sc (Agriculture Economics)
SHUATS, Prayagraj, India.
mob: 8328959452
email@pratyushkumarirathwishy@gmail.com