Even a decade ago, it seemed that West Bengal had a problem of plenty?it had too much water. But with the monsoon playing truant, for the second year in a row, this primarily agricultural state has to do some quick thinking to save its crops. It grows at least 14 key crops from paddy, wheat, maize, lentils, pulses, mustard to peas and oilseeds. Of its 19 districts, 18 are agricultural; gross cropped area is 98 lakh hectares and the cropping intensity is 184%; in 2008-09, the state produced 162.97 lakh mt of foodgrains. But the largest rice producer and the second largest potato producer in the country was already fighting declining productivity and soil quality when the monsoon decided to play tricks. The lack of water will also take some getting used to.
West Bengal districts have been put on the drought list after 15 years. The situation is worse in two neighbouring states, with both Bihar and Jharkhand saying their entire states were under the drought cloud. This week, when the Left Front government declared that 11 districts were drought-hit, it also included the rice-bowl of the state, Burdwan, on the list. Burdwan annually produces 150 million tonnes of rice.
Together, the districts, mostly in alluvial south Bengal, had got 30% less monsoon rain, thus severely impacting the sowing of kharif rice. Of the 4.4 million hectares targeted for paddy, there has been a shortage of sowing in 1.1 million hectares already. And though it has been pouring (particularly in north Bengal, creating havoc with the tea crop) ever since the drought announcement and state agriculture minister Naren De welcomed the rain, it?s unlikely that West Bengal will have a good kharif season. De, on various forums, has been advocating the need to encourage alternative crops like maize, oilseeds, wheat and sesame in large quantities for both the kharif and rabi seasons. With elections slated for next year, the seeds are most likely to be distributed free.
But short-term measures apart, West Bengal, which is crucial to the country?s second Green Revolution dream, will have to do much more to fight declining productivity and soil quality, errant monsoons and so forth. It has to do a quick rethink on the crops it grows, the cropping pattern, seeds, adoption of mechanised farm equipment and devise new modes of irrigation. The Left Front government, which has been dragging its feet on issues of governance ever since the drubbing at the Lok Sabha elections last year, cannot afford to be slothful on this issue. To the government?s credit, some measures have been undertaken like introducing paddy that requires less water, mapping the soil, creating awareness about hybrid rice and setting up a seed bank.
But there?s plenty left to do in all departments, not least irrigation. When the state government was announcing drought relief measures, it said it will allocate Rs 50 crore to help farmers find alternative means of watering their land, either through repairing tube-wells or by digging new ones; start from the basics, that is. Now, a number of schemes under NREG are being undertaken to renovate traditional water bodies.
Another great cause for concern is the falling yield rate of different crops. While the annual growth rate of yield of rice was 1.8% in 2007-08, it was 3.935% in 2008-09, and the target marginally higher at 3.943% in 2009-10 (the actual figures are not yet in). The fall has been dramatic in the case of potato (from 36.51% in 2007-08 to 7.4% in 2009-10) and oilseeds (10.3% in 2007-08 to 4.3% in 2009-10).
When the Union Budget allocated an additional Rs 400 crore?West Bengal got the biggest share of Rs 102 crore?under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana to extend the Green Revolution to the eastern states, the states drew up a roadmap and decided to initiate a host of measures, including adoption of sustainable crop sequence by discouraging growth of rice after rice in the region. According to the ministry of agriculture, some of the suggested sequences could be rice-groundnut-green gram or rice-green gram-black gram.
West Bengal should perhaps go back to its hey days of agriculture in the 1980s, soon after the land reforms were initiated after the Left first came to power in 1977, when the state registered the highest rate of growth in agricultural produce in the country. Cropping patterns changed, multiple crops were introduced and so forth. But the 1990s and thereafter saw a steady decline for a variety of reasons. The Left, in power for an uninterrupted three decades, will have to take a large part of the blame for this decline too. Correctives are being taken now, but it remains to be seen how open the Bengal village is to change. Unless, of course, the monsoon forces its hand.