It is somewhat of an irony and at the same time of concern to not that although Nagaland is basically an agrarian state, we import around 72% of food grains from outside. This was informed by none other than the Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio while distributing tractors and power-tillers under the Chief Minister’s Corpus Fund to 87 progressive farmers from the State. This being the concern even our Chief Minister has been talking about this wherever he goes within the State. Farmers have been urged to adopt scientific methods of farming to boost food-grain production in the state. There is no doubt that mechanization of farming will help in higher production on the field. The question however remains as to whether we are doing this the right way. There are several problems which have to be properly studied by policy makers before hoping for a turnaround in agriculture production. Firstly the wisdom of subsidizing machineries only to the so called progressive farmer (who can afford it no doubt) is somewhat disconcerting. And who are these progressive farmers by the way? Let us admit that most of them are well off people or at least those who can gain access to resources. Such progressive farmers are contractors, politicians, public leaders i.e. those who are well off in society. And mind you farming is definitely not their daily profession. At best these people do farming as a hobby or as investment in land. It will therefore be a fallacy of the government to expect the progressive farmers to bring about our green revolution. They may be able to display their products during fairs, road shows or agriculture expo. But this is simply not enough to become a producing society as our CM has been reiterating. Let us therefore be realistic. The government’s approach will have to be reworked and hopefully the CM will ensure that this is done if at all we are to reach anywhere near the level of a producing economy.
Here let us come back to the data shared by the Chief Minister. 80% of the state’s population is engaged in farming but it produces only 28% of food production. Right then, if the government is able to arrange funds for giving such machineries to 80% of the core farming community, then we are sure that food production will be more than 28%. The problem as we see it is that progressive farmers will hardly constitute even 5% of the State’s population. And as mentioned this small group can hardly be expected to fulfill the level of production that we are talking about. The other thing that we have to factor in is that till now the 80% is engaged in subsistence farming. Our traditional practice has been to ensure food security within the community and as such level of production is just enough to tide over a period of say one year. Our Naga farmers therefore produce for the family and not for the demands of a market economy. Therefore, government should also educate our farmers to change their mindset and also the manner in which they cultivate. And as rightly mentioned by the CM that no amount of human workforce can achieve surplus production unless machineries are involved, the point for our policy makers is simply this—to empower and assist the 80% of population who are seriously engaged in farming.
