column: The myth of abundant farm labour

The extreme recommendations of the Technical Expert Committee (TEC)?appointed by the Supreme Court of India to look into the adoption of biotech enhanced GM crops?have come in for heavy criticism from several farmer organisations, experts and academicians. It is rather disturbing to digest the proposal of a TEC that would suggest a blanket ten-year moratorium on field trials of biotech enhanced seeds and crops, and even more surprising, the ban on field trials of herbicide-tolerant crops (HTCs).

One needs to examine the recommended ban on technology and seeds for weed management a little more closely. HTCs allow farmers to combine the benefits of chemicals to manage weeds while leaving the main crop healthy. Weeds steal nutrients from crops, causing huge losses to productivity.

The vast majority of farmers in India need to employ labour to clear their fields of weeds. It is a common misconception that in recent years this labour is abundant and cheap. Farm labour accounts for about 50% of the total input cost of cultivation.

Of late, migration of labour to urban areas and their engagement in off-farm activities has severely affected their availability for agricultural operations. This phenomenon has been aggravated by the central government?s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. Those who used to travel far to seek farm labour employment don?t do so any more. The acute labour shortage in Punjab and Haryana is a case in point?the hordes of farmer labourers migrating from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to these areas has reduced to a trickle. Aggrieved farmers in Punjab and Haryana, besides offering higher wages, are resorting to all possible tricks to attract and retain migrant labour.

This has resulted in an exponential increase in the cost of farm labour throughout the country. Some findings indicate a 125% increase in the cost of farm labour in the last eight years. Farmers in Punjab are reported to incur a cost of R2,200 for planting an acre of paddy?up from R1,200 just a year ago. Companies that manufacture herbicides for weed management are seeing a rise in sales, as farmers see incentives in using chemicals over bare hands.

All this points to one thing: cheap and abundant labour in the rural Indian hinterland is a great myth. Farm labour in India is neither cheap nor abundant as it is being made out to be. And possibly rightly so. Every Indian deserves the choice of a better income, better job and better life.

Farmers too deserve access to technologies that reduce their excessive reliance on farm labour. Herbicides offer options of better control of weeds at an affordable cost with reduced requirement of labour. The use of herbicides in India is currently low, but it has seen a steady increase over the years.

The TEC has argued that the size of an average farm in India is small, and such technologies are more suited for large acreages?this is totally untrue. Seed-based technologies are scale-neutral.

Similar objections made in the past with respect to seeds with insect-protected Bt-cotton technologies ultimately turned out to be totally unfounded. Several experts have, in the past, issued clarifications on the positive impact of GM crops on biodiversity and food safety considerations, which I agree with. The fear of development of ?super weeds? as a result of the potential risk of flow of pollen from HTCs to close relatives in the wild is not applicable in all cases. For instance, such risks in the cultivation of herbicide-tolerant soybean and maize are not anticipated as they have no close relatives in the wild.

The country prides itself on being a powerhouse of technology. While glass and steel skyscrapers in Indian cities boast of housing the best technological companies of the world, why are we giving farmers and agriculture such regressive treatment? While we talk about economic progress, we must equip our farmers so as to modernise our agriculture.

Weeding is predominantly done by women and children. Many a times, they don?t have the ?luxury? of even squatting in the field, as the fields are wet or full of water as in the case of paddy fields?but our self-appointed crusaders, claiming to be driven by considerations of women welfare and empowerment, vehemently oppose the use of herbicides and biotech-based weed management seed technologies. They opine that these technologies would replace labour and affect the livelihood of the labour force; and amusingly believe that they would affect the nutritional security of rural households by eliminating leafy vegetables for humans and fodder for the animals.

Farmers with hybrid Bt-cotton seeds have shown that biotechnology can herald a paradigm-change in agriculture. From importing cotton, India has become one of the world?s largest producers of cotton within a decade, as well as a major exporter. This should be an eye-opener for our policymakers. One can pray and hope that our ?green lobby? sits up and takes note of what Mark Lynas?one of the strongest former opponents of GM technology?has to say about this issue. He openly and unequivocally apologised to farmers for opposing technology and farmer access to the same.

The government should move full steam ahead, create access and develop biotech products for use by farmers. India?s vast intellectual capital in agriculture, various agricultural universities, vibrant private sector and government agencies should all contribute towards spurring research in biotechnology for farmers.

The TEC recommendations of a ten-year moratorium is a regressive and retrograde step. It is anti-farmer, anti-science and anti-progress and it will turn the clock back on agriculture and processes related to it.

The author is the president of Indian Society of Weed Science. He is the former director of an ICAR institute on Weed Science Research and is currently working at ICRISAT, Hyderabad. Views are personal