Relevance of family farming in addressing the problems of poverty and chronic hunger

Family Farming (FF)

For achieving required food production to meet the demands of ever growing population in the country, it is not enough if only few individual farmers work hard, but a group of farmers, preferably within family circles get involved more in farm operations. Already India has the age old tradition of family farming though not recognized to the desired extent. There used to be perfect division of labor among the family to allocate work of overall cultivation right from land preparation to sowing, planting, weeding, fertilizer application, water management, plant protection, harvesting of yield. The role of women in some areas used to be predominant while men used to get involved in hard work like land preparation, irrigation, transport of produce. In later years, with slow migration of men folk to the towns in search of remunerative jobs, family farming concept showed declining trend. Now, the time has come to revive the concept to fully exploit the potential of FF with strategies that would assure not only high farm yield but be more remunerative to sustain the interest of the small farmers in farming. In this context, the declaration by the UN, the year 2014 as IYFF, is most appropriate and laudable. This would pave the way to plan steps for alleviating poverty and eradication of hunger across the world.

Sensitization

The traditional farmers need to be sensitized on modern agriculture technologies which can be linked to farmers’ own traditional knowledge to reap the benefits of farming. The country is known for indigenous technical knowledge (ITK) among the elder farmers who could achieve great success in farm production even in adverse situations by employing local methods suitable to the crop and given situation like pests and diseases. Now what is required is synergy between ITK and latest methods of cultivation and expose farm families to handle the situation in the right direction. The country already has well established set up in ICAR Institutes and State Agriculture Universities with Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) to train the farm families on crop diversity and allied fields. Multi cropping system combining and balancing the staple food crops with nutritious vegetable or fruit crops relevant to the area would go a long way to involve farm families in a meaningful exercise.

Hunger Index:

The India scenario on hunger index is 55th rank (As on Dec 14) out of 73 countries, with the average as ‘serious hunger’ category. Although the country showed improvement from ‘alarming hunger’ category, it is still only marginal when we consider the population under nourished. The serious problems are acute malnutrition of children and health insecurity of women, reflecting on child mortality and maternal mortality. The hidden hunger among rural/tribal women caused by deficiency in essential micronutrients is a major problem. The present agriculture system does not fully satisfy the nutritional requirements of the affected population, whose poverty and hunger exist in large proportion. To overcome the situation, it is time to focus on FF in a big way with a road map that includes all the necessary components in a holistic way. The strategy suggested is that each ICAR Institute and SAU may identify and promote FF with division of labor concept. Modification of existing cropping pattern, increase in input efficiency and sustainable growth with opportunities to increase socio economic situation of the whole farming communities are some of the essential steps that need immediate attention. Appropriate incentives to FF are bound to enhance confidence level to work hard to achieve the objectives on poverty and hunger.

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Crop Model

In view of varied hunger index in Indian States, with States like Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Chhattisgarh with high index caused by deplorable child malnutrition, extra efforts are needed to plan carefully area based crop models, incorporating both staple food crops and nutrition rich crops, eggs and fishes. Since the KVKs already have expertise in dealing with the rural farmers, it may be appropriate to strengthen ‘Area Based Crop Model Development’ (ABCMD) to suit the local level of poverty and hunger. Since there is large diversity of crops grown in the country with constraints on inputs, it may be appropriate to adopt natural farming concept which ensures organically grown nutritionally rich crops like vegetables and fruits that are popular in a given area even within the State. The old system of cultivating a single crop in large area needs to be modified to accommodate other companion/ compatible crops with appropriate technologies which would go a long way to develop ABCMD. This requires integration of farm families in the villages to pool the talent/skills in growing different crops like cereals/pulses vegetables, fruits, besides poultry, fisheries. Thus, several models must emerge inthe next few years to provide the required health and nutrition security to the most needy hungry population in the area.

The FF concept has immense potential to revitalize agriculture in India to achieve ‘Zero Hunger’ by 2025. It is a daunting task, may be difficult but not impossible, with available manpower and expertise in ICAR and SAUs. The Central and State Governments may have to revisit the agriculture projects to incorporate FF concept, with adequate funds in the ensuing budget on agriculture for infrastructure development and other logistics. Thus, FF must emerge as a viable and vibrant agriculture system in the country to usher in a new era that alleviates poverty and eradicates hunger among Indian citizens.

source:http://agriculturetoday.in