Dr N Khumdemo Ezung
The term institutional support refers to the part of economic environment of industry and business. It consist of authorities and institutions whose decisions and active support in form of laws, regulation, financial and non-financial help brings a lot of changes in the functioning of any business.
Institutions could be government owned, statutory, semi-autonomous or autonomous. It is the government or government supported institutions authorized to take up certain activities – financing, marketing, project preparation, training to promote industrial/farming activities in the state.
There are three stages of promotion – inception stage, operational stage and expansion or diversification stage. The Government through its plans and policies assisted the business houses in facilitating in the above stages through various specialised institutions set up as per the law. An entrepreneur who needs to set up a business unit/Agripreneurship of his own or with his friends and relatives is supposed to know the various institutions or organizations working as per the law for the purpose. Dissemination of information in this regard can only help them in achieving the very dream of becoming a successful entrepreneur.
The fact that growth in small farm agriculture critically depends on the performance of the supportive institutions has been repeatedly emphasized. In this section, reforms in the institutions responsible for agricultural research, extension, credit and marketing are suggested, in order to enable them to perform their expected roles and contribute to the growth of the income and welfare of the farming community.
AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH
Future growth in agriculture will be largely based on the development of improved technologies and their widespread dissemination among the producers. Agricultural research and transfer of technology has to be a prime growth provider for ensuring sustainable growth in the future. A systematic growth of knowledge is a very important pre-requisite for the economic development. This process is called scientific temper. Agricultural scientists are responsible for the research and their prime responsibility is to serve agriculture. This must be the conscious and explicit objectives of all researches.
Planning of agricultural research should start from diagnosis of the present situation, including the need for an institution, administrative, and financial reorganization and anticipa¬tion of political coordination of agricultural research with overall efforts towards advancement of science and technology.
Initiative for reorganizing agricultural research arises from the importance attached to the modernization of agriculture in overall process of development. Agricultural research will have to make a huge effort with a view to creating new technology.
As a result of research new technologies developed generate increases in agricultural production that continue for many years. Thus, research is the foundation for increased agricultural production.
EXTENSION
There are three main public players for the dissemination of agricultural technology. These institutions include Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), government departments and Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA). Krishi Vigyan Kendras (Farm Science Centre), an innovative science based institutions, were thus established mainly to impart vocational training to the farmers and field level extension workers. Concept of vocational training in agriculture through KVK grew substantially due to greater demand for improved agricultural technology by the farmers. They not only required knowledge and understanding of the intricacy of technologies, but also progressively more and more skills in various complex agricultural operations for adoption on their farms. Effectiveness of the KVK was further enhanced by adding activities related to On-farm testing and Front-Line Demonstration on major agricultural technologies in order to make the training of farmer’s location specific, need based and resource-oriented. KVK’s should be further strengthened with strong financial support since at present the fund provided to KVK is not sufficient to meet the requirement. There is a shortage of technically trained personnel in the government departments. Existing officials are engaged either in non-technical work or in the implementation of various programmes/schemes. Following measures should be taken to improve the performance of KVKs and Government departments.
• Appointment of technical and non-technical personnel on a priority basis for a fixed and reasonable time period
• Creation of infrastructure in KVKs and block offices
• Conduction of refresher courses for the existing personnel
• Proper planning and regular monitoring of their activities by a high level committee
CREDIT
Institutional credit is a pre-requisite for increasing agricultural production and its value addition. But the institutional agricultural credit flow has been inadequate and farmers depend more on non-institutional sources for meeting their credit requirements. Marginal and small farmers, who have no collateral to offer for mortgage, and tenant farmers who have no title to land, and are incapable of following the required procedural formalities to access formal sources, prefer to approach the easily accessible non-institutional sources such as moneylenders and traders, who charge high interest rate.
Micro Finance
Self-help Groups (SHGs), Joint Liability Groups and Farmers’ Clubs facilitate the disbursement of trouble-free loans to the weaker sections of society. These organizations are gaining ground in other parts of the country. Andhra Pradesh accounts for about 50 per cent of the SHGs organized in the country but Bihar’s share is less than 2 per cent. In 2007-08, about 5.5 lakh SHGs were organized in India. During the year, loans worth Rs. 4.2 thousand crore were sanctioned through SHGs in the country. These organizations should be promoted for the benefit of tenants and small-marginal farmers, who constitute substantial proportions. In order to make credit a powerful aid for agricultural development, the following goals need to be reached:
• Credit disbursal for agriculture has to increase at the rate of 30 per cent per year for the nextten years. This target was already surpassed in the country as a whole during the last three years.
• Inclusive banking targets given by the RBI have to be fulfilled in all the districts of the state by the next five years. Leading banks have to play a major role in reaching this goal.
• Revised form of the KCCs, providing for both production and consumption loans, should be made available to all eligible farmers.
• At least half the cultivators should be members of reformed cooperatives or bank-linked SHGs.
Co-operatives
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned enterprise".
Cooperatives are democratically owned by their members, with each member having one vote in electing the board of directors. Cooperatives may include:
• Businesses owned and managed by the people who use their services (a consumer cooperative).
• Organizations managed by the people who work there (worker cooperatives).
• Multi-stakeholder or hybrid cooperatives that share ownership between different stakeholder groups. For example, care cooperatives where ownership is shared between both care-givers and receivers. Stakeholders might also include non-profits or investors.
• Second- and third-tier cooperatives whose members are other cooperatives.
• Platform cooperatives that use a cooperatively owned and governed website, mobile app or a protocol to facilitate the sale of goods and services.
Co-operatives are still considered as the most suitable organizations for providing credit to farmers. States with strong co-operative institutions are still excelling in providing agricultural credit to farmers.
Conclusion:
Since Independence India has undertaken a lot of institutional and technological reforms in agriculture. From land reforms to financial reforms, India has come a long way. Still, there is a long road to go. Decreasing landholding size, unreliable monsoons, and climate change are posing newer threats. These will require more innovative reforms for our farmers to thrive and the food security of India is ensured. Technological solutions like biotechnology and bioengineering, along with institutional reforms viz. research, extension and financial institutions through government policies will play a very important role in securing the future of agriculture in India.
The writer is Senior Scientist and Head(i/c), Krishi Vigyan Kendra Kiphire, ICAR for NEH Region, Nagaland
