Redefining the farm economy

INTERVIEW; M P VASIMALAI

One of South India’s biggest non-governmental organisations, Dhan (Development of Humane Action Foundation), has done pioneering work in natural resource management. It has trained professionals who work with the poor in villages and urban slums. One of its biggest achievements has been the regeneration of thousands of traditional tanks in the Deccan plateau with active community participation. The organisation is also involved in community banking programmes and IT in rural areas. In an interview with S S Jeevan, Dhan’s executive director, M P Vasimalai, spoke on some of the issues that confront the developing world.

Do you feel the on-going efforts to privatise water and the increasing role of multinationals in the water business poses a serious threat to poor people’s access to water in the long run?
There is no need of multinationals in the water business in our country. The multiple experiences across the country could reveal the fact that decentralised management at local level alone would provide better performance of the water resources apart from reducing the burden on the government. The better performance could be achieved through effective supply and demand management. This could be done only by the local people and not by the distant bureaucracy. It is quite true that there exists a need to restore a balance between the role of the state and that of communities. Encouragingly, in recent years, the government efforts are aimed towards participatory management of water resources combined with decentralised maintenance and management plans. More than a decade of our experience in Tank rehabilitation across South India reveals that local management of tanks and ponds is very much successful provided enabling environment is set for democratic practices for water sharing, and conflict resolution at the grassroots.

The appropriate use of water in conflicting situations can be tackled at the community level rather than through a centralised bureaucracy. Private participation in the conservation of tanks and ponds need to be encouraged, provided the management rests with the local communities and civil society organisations. Privatisation may not be the only solution for increasing the efficiency of the system. Our communities have been very successful in managing these tanks and ponds for several centuries. Fixing of water rates is a politically sensitive issue and therefore the responsibility of the collection of water charges will have to remain with the local bodies.

In this context, how would you analyse the controversy surrounding the Coke bottling plants in Kerala and the role of panchayats in rural India?
Any exploitative venture that disharmonizes the peace and ecology of the land needs to be strongly condemned. We are seeing the issue of Coke bottling plant in this way. The problem is now emerging out in our state also. The land is already suffering by the man made disasters like indiscriminate exploitation of ground water. From the very beginning we have been advocating for enacting and implementing stringent laws against encroachments in water ways, water bodies and ‘preserving’ water resources with new ‘water preservation Act’ as that of forest protection Act; even we are insisting on banning use of water bodies for any development purposes of state for buildings by deforming and destroying the water source. Our stand is same for any such threatening act, whether it is by a private or government.

We are now telling that these water bodies, monuments of our civilisation and indigenous wisdom need to be preserved like endangered wild species of the forest. Panchayats have a great role to play in this regard. Panchayat Government should be a focal point for future partnership of water conservation. Corporates and NGOs with panchayats may show a new way of Public - Private Partnership at grassroots level. The corporate should do this as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility. The local institutions should be empowered to implement such projects; the corporates should not make profit out of it. Because of small size and constitutional autonomy, there is a social, economic and development space for Public-Private partnership, more so for conservation and development of small-scale water bodies like tanks, ponds, streams and springs.

How do you think urban India, especially a city like Chennai, can tackle the severe water shortage?
We need to derive lessons from the recent floods at Mumbai. The small-scale water bodies are not only the source of irrigation and drinking but also they function as flood moderators. Urbanisation is a phenomenon affecting the tank ecosystem in the fringes of the towns and upcoming towns. The expansion of human settlement poses a big threat to the common properties like tanks and they fall prey to the process. The tanks are taken over by various departments for construction of government offices, housing colonies, bus depots and other common utilities. The agriculture lands are converted into urban settlements. It is a common scenario in towns that most of the major bus stands, government buildings including courts and major dumping yards are located on tanks. This process kills the tank ecosystem and in the long run affects the groundwater of the entire area. It has been found beyond doubt that the cities like Chennai have faced major groundwater drought due to the total elimination of water bodies which existed in the middle of urban settlements. In one of our studies it is revealed that there are about 250 water bodies still alive in the corporation limit. But they are completely dysfunctional due to collapse of the catchments.

Also flash floods and severe drainage problems have become a common feature in the cities like Madurai due to the death and decay of tanks in the urban areas. The tanks in urban areas play a crucial role even if they cease to exist as irrigation sources. As the tanks are located in chains spread across a geographical boundary maintaining their hydrological linkages is necessary. Therefore the tanks in urban areas have to be preserved and used for alternative uses such as groundwater recharge mechanisms, recreational facilities and drinking water storage. The tanks adjoining the major cities such as Chennai, Madurai, Trichy, Coimbatore, Salem and other major district towns should be preserved as sources of drinking water storage, groundwater recharge and recreational facilities.

Do you think centralised thinking like the project to link India’s rivers will throw up more problems, or do you see it as a part of the larger solution to water shortages?
Small-scale systems that are truly community managed are in existence for centuries in many parts of Asia. Among those surviving systems, tanks are one of the largest in terms of numbers. An estimated number of around 40,000 small and big structures had originally served close to a million hectares of paddy in Tamil Nadu. The changes brought in the recent past, had a crippling effect on the structures and communities which they served. The centralised administration introduced by the British colonial rule had almost wiped out the role of the community in conserving and developing them. Even in free and independent India it is continued to be even more retrogressive in keeping people and locals away in matters related to the tanks.

The fantasy of linking Indian rivers is being debated widely by different sections of the society for its pros and cons. This is another example for centralised thinking. We strongly believe in the concept of ‘Catch the water where it falls’. Efficiency of the minor irrigation structures like tanks and ponds is higher than the Major irrigation structures. Any foreign solution to the local problem without considering the economic, social and ecological consequences will lead to a great disaster. We have to learn from the wisdom of our forefathers in finding local solutions to the local problem.

Tell us about the Kalanjiam Community Banking Programme?
We have initiated the Kalanjiam Community Banking Programme in 1990. Over the last one and a half decade these efforts resulted in developing an ‘enabling model’ of micro-finance with emphasis on member ownership, self help and mutuality. The primary purpose of this model is to empower the women and address poverty by going beyond ‘micro-finance’. Promotion of nested institutions (groups, clusters and federations) is the core aspect of this model with greater emphasis on sustainability through establishing linkage with the mainstream and covering the costs of operations. The Kalanjiam community banking programme is able reach to about 2.60 lakhs families and spread its operations to more than 5000 villages of 25 backward and drought prone districts of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Pondicherry.

What were Dhan’s experiences in the tsunami relief initiatives?
There was a spontaneous response from the members and leaders of federations of ‘Kalanjiams’ and ‘Vayalagams’ promoted by Dhan Foundation. They mobilised truck loads of relief materials containing rice, grocery items, clothes, bedding items etc. Dhan Foundation ensured the involvement of the community in the process of identification of beneficiaries, their needs and in the distribution of relief materials.

Do you think Indian agriculture is facing its worst ever crisis?
Our farmers have always been the victims of the economic reforms. They are vulnerable for not only the natural calamities but also for the man made disasters. There is a huge impact on the farmers due to globalization and macro economic change in the country. Profitability is a major issue in farming. While the costs of inputs are increasing rapidly there is no much impact on the price available to the farmers. We need to redefine the farm economy. Trade margin should be included in the farm economy, even the processing to be included in it. The present agrarian market is most favourable for the middlemen and traders, not for the farmers. Debt is a serious issue in the rural areas. Large scale migration is also a major concern for everyone.

The younger generation shows least interest towards agriculture. The growing inequalities between rural and urban areas attract them towards cities and aggravate the problem further. China’s experiences show that for poverty levels to come down significantly the economy has to be on a high growth path that too based on good growth rate in Agriculture and Industry. In such a scenario the poverty gaps as between regions, between rural and urban areas, between ethnic groups, genders, etc.. also come down. However in the early nineties when the growth rates continued at a high level, but were led by exports, poverty scenario worsened considerably.

Do you feel the present paradigm of development in India will give rise to more inequities?
According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation, the number of hungry people in India is increased by 19 million between 1997 and 2001. Nearly half of our children remain chronically malnourished. India has the highest percentage of anaemic pregnant women in the world. Reports of starvation deaths and suicides by farmers abound the media. If these were the outcomes of the present paradigm of the development in our country, we need to look closely to the impacts that it has created on the millions of the poor households. We should note that although growth rates accelerated in the eighties and nineties, the biggest spurt came from services, rather than agriculture or industry.

This is contrary to the development experience of most countries where a predominantly agricultural economy has first changed to a predominantly industrial economy and then to a predominantly services sector based economy. In India however, the services sector overtook not only the agricultural sector but also industry in a rather early stage of development. Now, while certain sections of the services sector like information technology, biotechnology, telecommunication and financial services may continue to grow very rapidly for some time, they would eventually all be subject to the law of diminishing marginal returns. Thus, in the long run there has to be some sort of balanced growth between the commodity and service producing sectors.

Do you think the institution-driven knowledge is losing out to corporate-driven knowledge?
The recent trend shows that the private source knowledge (Corporate driven knowledge) is taking over the open source knowledge. Everything cannot become private source knowledge in the name of patenting. The government has to play a major role to balance this. The private source knowledge can be applicable only in certain areas, where it is not available but imperative for advancement and the places wherever the quality is poor.

(New Indian Express, August 14, 2005)