Essay on Cropping Pattern in India:- 1. Meaning of Cropping Pattern 2. Factors of Cropping Pattern 3. Policy to Induce Improvements.
Meaning of Cropping Pattern:
In the words of Prof. Schultz, “By cropping pattern is meant the proportion of area at a point of time. A change in cropping pattern implies a change in the proportion of area under different crops.”
At one time, many believed that cropping patterns in an under developed country could not be changed. Prof. S.N. Sinha, for instance gave expression to such an opinion when he wrote: “In a tradition-ridden country with a very low level of knowledge, the peasants are unwilling to make experiments.
They accept everything with a spirit of resignation and a sense of fatalism. “For them, agriculture is a way of life rather than a commercial proposition. In an agricultural community where the members- are illiterate and, tradition ridden, there is hardly any possibility of crop shifts,” This opinion has been challenged.
It is widely agreed that the crop pattern of an underdeveloped country can be changed and should be changed. It is, therefore, necessary to find out the factors on which the cropping pattern of a country or region depends.
Factors Affecting Cropping Pattern:
I. Physical and Technical Factors:
Crop pattern of any area depends upon physical characteristics as the soil, climate, rainfall, etc. In a dry area where the rainfall is scanty and where there is high uncertainty of rainfall, there will be a greater dependence on jawar and bajra, as these crops can be managed with scanty rainfall.
This is so in most parts of the country. But then it is possible that, technologically, rotation of crops can be altered. But physical compulsion may become decisive in certain circumstances. Water-logging in certain parts of Ludhiana and Sangrur districts in the Punjab have led to an increase in area under rice; because rice can stand the extra water better than other crops. In the newly reclaimed lands of M.P. millets are grown for a few years before they are shifted to rice.
Besides soil and climatic conditions, the crop pattern of an area depends on the nature and availability of irrigation facilities. Whereas water is available, not only can a different crop be grown, but even a double or treble crop will be possible.
When new irrigation facilities are provided, the whole method of cultivation also may alter. As superior crop can be grown; a new rotation of crops, where there was none or a better rotation over what prevailed may be possible.
One of the important factors responsible for increase in the cultivation of sugarcane tobacco etc., is the extension of irrigation facilities. Similarly, in a place where there is no scarcity of labour, a crop that needs a large number of workers might be grown, whereas in a region where labour is limited there will be a different kind of crop.
Again it is possible that because of lack of capital, lack of agricultural prerequisites, lack of better implements, improved seeds and lack of finance for getting fertilisers, it might not have been the right crop that was being grown; but given these facilities the crop pattern may undergo a change.
II. Economic Factors:
Economic motivations are the most important in deciding upon the crop pattern, whatever may have been the position in our country in the past, there are very clear indications that our farmers are being clearly influenced by economic factors now. Among economic factors, the following are important.
(1) Prices and Income Maximisation:
Many statistical studies have brought out clearly the relation between price movements and crop pattern. Dr. Majumdar has demonstrated clearly the “close correspondence between movements in the price parity ratio and the changes in the all-India sugarcane acreage and between the average under jute/rice and the relative prices of these commodities.”
A study of Inter-crop price parities undertaken by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture shows how price variations influence acreage shifts: “It seems that prices exert influence on the acreage under the crops in two ways. One is that the variations in the inter-crop price parities lead to shifts in acreage as between the crops. Another is that the maintenance of a stable level of prices for a crop provides a better incentive to the producer to increase the output that what a very higher level of price does, if there is no uncertainty of this level being maintain over a number of years. ”
According to some experts income maximisation mainly influences in altering the crop pattern i.e., the farmer would choose that combination of crops which would give him maximum of income. Dr. Raj Krishna argues that relative profitability per acre is the main consideration which influences the crop pattern. In any case the farmer is influenced in the choice of his crops by such considerations of price parities between different products or maximisation of income or relative profitability per acre.
(2) Insurance against Risk:
The need to minimise the risk of crop failures rot only explains diversification but also some specific features of crop patterns. For example, the persistence of millets in many areas which puzzles many authorities can be understood mainly as insurance against bad seasons in dry areas.
(3) Farm Size:
There is a friendship between farm size and the crop pattern. Small farmers devote a smaller relative acreage to cash crops than large farmers. This may be because the small farmers are first interested in producing food grains for their needs. They would produce cash crops only after they have met their needs of food grains.
This point is brought out in many empirical studies. But a recent study of Deoria district of U.P. brings out clearly the fact that almost all farmers try to grow some cash crops; in fact, in recent years, the small farmers have been increasing their sugarcane area more than large farms.
It is a fact that the need for subsistence has traditionally dominated the crop pattern of the small farmers. But his marginal requirement for money income cannot be less than that of the large farmer. And, as the economy grows, we should expect the small farmer to make very significant marginal adjustments in his crop pattern in order to maximise his income.
(4) Availability of Inputs:
Crop pattern depends on the availability of such inputs as fertilisers, seed, water, storage and marketing, transport, etc. On the additional facilities, the most rewarding would be irrigation. The NCAER estimated that, if additional irrigation facilities were provided in the Punjab, the crop pattern on as much as 3.4 million acres could be altered of which, nearly 1.6 million acres now under gram could be put to more paying crops.
The availability of groundnut seed was one of the important factors which induced many farmers to increase the area under this crop in M.P. Another reason why farmers prefer groundnut to cotton is that the groundnut is quick-yielding, while cotton is on the field for a long time, and does not easily satisfy the need for quick cash.
(5) Tenure:
Under the crop sharing system, the landlord has a dominant voice in the choice of the crops pattern; and this assists in the adoption of income-maximising crop adjustments.
III. Govt. Action:
Government can exert influence on crop pattern through legislative and administrative measures. Steps may be taken by the State to subsidies the supplies of the farm inputs and knowledge. The State may attach the provision of some service or facility with a particular crop pattern.
The provision of irrigational facilities or the supply of seed and fertilisers, etc., may be related to the adoption of a given crop pattern by the farmers. Food crops Acts, Land-use Acts, intensive schemes for paddy, for cotton, for oilseeds, etc., the use of excise duties, export duties etc., all these bring sharply into focus the possibility that while each individual measure may push the crop pattern in the direction intended in that measure the overall effect of all the measures taken together on the entire crop pattern may not be in accordance with national needs.
Besides the personal prejudices and inadequate financial and other resources of the farmers, there may be factors like recurrent droughts or pest infestation that prevent them from opting for a more remunerative set of crops.
In these situations if more of irrigation, fertilisers or pesticides are made available, it would be possible for them to change the crop, structure and so earn larger returns from their land.
To the extent it is not possible for a farmer to get all these by himself, the Government could come to his help and procure these for him. Yet other possibilities of helping the farmer to improve the crop pattern are building of new roads which will improve the flow of goods to markets where they will fetch better prices and help to establish industries nearer to their land.
Policy to Induce Improvements in the Cropping Pattern:
If plan targets show a pattern different from the one which the farmers may desire to have, then the Govt. must enforce some type of control of acreage, but such control in an economy like India where there are millions of farmers may be difficult.
Naturally, the Govt. may have to rely on the main, on the manipulation of product prices and input prices, discrimination in the supplies of controlled inputs like seeds, water, fertilisers, etc. In certain cases, the use of taxes and subsidies may be called for.
For implementing the, necessary programmes for a better crop pattern the NCAER has made the following suggestions:
(1) The present way of haphazard allocation of area to different crops by individual farmers is not in the best interests of the farmers or of the country. It is also a fact that the crop plans drawn out for the different irrigation projects in the country are not strictly adhered to because individual farmers may not like to change their existing crop pattern either due to inertia or to inorganic, resulting in wastage of scarce resources like land, irrigation, etc.
As persuasion is a slow remedy and often not so effective, the NCAER would like legislative compulsion to bring about a desired cropping pattern in different areas. There are many countries like, the U.S.A., Egypt, etc., where legislation prescribes the extent to which different crops can be grown in particular regions.
(2) District Planning Officers may be appointed who could plan the crop of each season according to changes in the seasonal and other factors, like prices, yield, etc., the farmers should work in close cooptation with departments of agriculture, irrigation, etc., so that the chalked out programmes may be implemented.
(3) An Agriculture Mechanisation Corporation may be set up for States like M. P. where the size of holding is too large and where the average farmer is unable to manage with hired labour; the Corporation should advance the farmers the requisite machinery, preferable on loans and the value repayable in easy installments.
(4) The Govt. should give the greatest importance to the promotion of transport and marketing facilities and consolidation of holdings.
To say that crop pattern is given and cannot be altered is not correct. It is possible to alter it. The most important consideration affecting crop pattern is the economic consideration. Even in a country like India which is dominated by farmers steeped in poverty and conservatism and where farmers hold tiny bits of land, cropping patterns can be altered through appropriate change in economic motives.
Experience in recent years has been that the farmer does accept the logic for a change wherever he is shown a better crop pattern. The real difficulty in adopting a better cropping pattern is that the farmer may not have the requisite capital to invest now or possess the know-how that may be necessary for changing the crops. It is here that the State may come forward to his help.