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Organic Farming in North-East Hill Region in India

Nilabja Ghosh
Institute of Economic Growth
University Enclave
Delhi 110007
India
e-mail: nilabjag@yahoo.com
(Paper submitted for INSEE’s 3rd Biennial Conference on “Biodiversity and
Quality of Life” to be held on 18-20 December, 2003 at Calcutta

Use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture enhances yields but also undermines the
quality of life through possible contamination of soil, water and air and even the final
products that retain their residues. Such activities in hilly regions can have external
effects on other regions as well. An analysis of NSSO survey data on cultivation
practices shows that the north-east hill states have retained traditional practices and
show an inclination towards organic agriculture that can be harnessed for the
development of the region with ecological benefits. The paper investigates if organic
farming is exclusive to or focused on (a) any particular groups of crops, (b) to any
particular sections of farmers and (c) whether organic farming is also practiced
without other chemical inputs. Identifying the factors that can be associated with
farming with manures only, the paper reflects if a suitable strategy for development
could be to promote the technology and its linkage s in the hilly states for the well-
being and quality life of the people on hills as well as plains.

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Organic Farming in North-East Hill Region in India

The fertilizer based technology of the green revolution and the much promoted
growth oriented strategy pursued in agriculture has so far proved to be inappropriate
for several agricultural systems in the developing world. In many of these systems
based on the ground realities of the agro-ecology, farmers opted to retain traditional
practices and emphasise their objectives towards stability, resilience and long-term
sustainability rather than emulating other neighbouring systems that operate towards
attainment of high productivity. The centralised process which guides the agricultural
growth strate gy in India is now giving way to a more sustainable road-map to
development backed by indigenous knowledge and participation through regional
planning (Alagh,1991). The key to such a plan can be provided by the regional
strengths and weaknesses and the eme rging market potentials. Such a strategy can
draw on the observed responses evinced by the concerned agro-ecosystems to the
incentives and limitations imposed by the mainstream development process. More
attention is deserved by the fragile systems that also have ecological interactions with
other regions and have not been adequately heeded by the policy so far. The
regionally differentiated approach can accompany an effort to bring down dependence
on fossil fuel based and environmentally damaging chemicals. Such dependence
would also face the impact of liberalisation and globalisation in times to come. With
changes taking place in the domestic and international economies, agricultural
strategy in India can have a re-look at the north-east hill economies, learn from their
failure to respond to the green revolution and focus on an acceptable path to
development of the region.

Analysing household level data 1 collected by the National Sample Survey


Organisation (NSSO), the paper seeks to understand how the practices in these states
stand apart from others in India even after decades of subsidy-backed policy and what
factors drive the decisions pertaining to these practices. The unit of investigation is
the crop enterprise as each enterprise is itself a decision center with relevance

1
For Nagaland, the villages located within 5 kms. of a bus route constitute the sampling frame.

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regardless of the area it covers. The paper is presented as follows. A background to
the study is provided in section 2 that describes the socio-agro-economic features of
the concerned states. Sections 3 through 7 study the practices in the region by cross-
tabulation and econometric analysis of data. Concluding remarks are provided in
section 8.

2 The North-East Hills: A socio-economic profile


The seven states chosen for study, belonging to the north-eastern hill region
(Sravekshana, 2002) are Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram,
Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. Constituting more than 5 % of India’s geographical
expanse and a little more than 1% of population they are some of the most
underdeveloped states in the country. Because of their remoteness and relative
inaccessibility the socio-economic systems have retained the traditional character to a
large degree. Even compared to other hilly regions including Jammu and Kashnmir
which has its own and different problems and Himachal Pradesh which is greatly
advanced in a conventional scale, the states stand out in need of policy attention. The
north-eastern states share greater nearness to foreign neighbours and suffer limited
physical link to the national neighbourhood, greater physical distance from the central
policy headquarters and relative internal proximity only to eastern Indian states that
themselves cry for development and attention.

Like most hill eco-systems (Chand, 1997), the north-eastern region is characterised by
several peculiar features that constitute its limitations and strengths and that have
important bearing on the adjoining plains too. These ecological relations tend to
drastically limit the choices available to the hill systems in terms of technology and
products and this may be looked essentially as a form of service rendered or a cost
borne by the hill people. The region has remarkable advantages of fertile and
organically rich soils, ample rainfall and water resources, river valleys, swamps and
streams and great climatic diversity supporting diverse cropping possibilities. On the
other hand the slopes and heavy rain make soil matters unstable and acidic and the
slope and conditions favourable to rapid vegetative proliferation make agriculture and
land ma nagement tedious and highly labour intensive process. A large part of the
region is forested contributing significantly to the 22% coverage at the national level
and the importance of conservation to the country at large cannot be underestimated.

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This combined with labour scarcity leave a meagre share of land for cultivation
(Table 1).

The development needs of the north-eastern states are well understood and the five
year plans since the Sixth plan have consistently allocated extra resources for the
development of the region with emphasis on agriculture and small rural industries.
The Seventh plan provided for Special Central Assistance and a large component as
grants with a thrust on hill area development programmes. Scientific land use,
conservation of forest resources and choice of high value and light cash crops were
emphasised. The Ninth and Tenth plans emphasise regionally differentiated strategy
based on agro-climatic conditions and natural resources and sustainable development.
However the progress has been slow.

Population pressure is not the problem in this region with the population density far
less than national average in all states. A large part of the population in Mizoram,
Nagaland and Megahalaya is tribal. Among the tribal practices in agric ulture, jhuming
is prevalent, covering about 90% of agricultural land (Saleh, 1988, Borah, 1999)in
Mizoram and Nagaland. This traditional practice evolved through the pressure to
generate food under difficult circumstances has deleterious effect on forest and soil
fertility and has been discouraged greatly by the government. However the lack of
infrastructural development, failure of government to meet the basic needs of the
people by other means like distribution and the failure of the green revolution in
settled farming effect the continual of the old method.

The literacy rate is reasonably high (Saleh,1989). Female labor participation is found
to be high in Meghalaya and Nagaland and in general females enjoy an elevated
position in society. Industrialisation has been very limited with handicrafts being a
traditional strength. Industries based on forest products like paper and small
enterprises catering to service sector are common non-agricultural involvements
though agriculture remains the mainstay of the population. The tribal people depend
on animal products to a large extent for nutrition and women are said to have a
dominating role in rearing and caring for animals. Poverty remains widespread despite
development plans and income level is low by national standards.

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TABLE 1 : SOME AGRO-ECONOMIC INDICATORS OF NORTH-EASTERN STATES
Cropping Pattern
Crop Popu percentage of gross cropped area
Average area Fertilizer lation Forest/ NSA/ Pulse
farm irrig Intensity Density Repo. Geog. /oilse Vege
size ated NPK Area Area Rice Maize eds Fruits tables
Per sq.
States hectare % (Kg/ha) km.% % % % % % %
Arunachal P 3.7 14.4 2.9 13.0 93.9 2.2 48.0 13.6 12.4 7.2 9.6
Manipur 2.2 34.7 105.0 107.0 27.2 6.3 76.3 1.4 4.3 3.9 14.0
Meghalaya 1.8 20.8 17.2 103.0 41.6 9.2 41.8 6.8 4.8 8.8 27.9
Mizoram 1.4 9.0 13.7 42.0 75.8 5.2 60.2 7.1 10.6 9.7 10.6
Nagaland 6.8 25.5 2.2 120.0 55.3 15.1 55.8 11.5 17.3 3.5 6.5
Sikkim 2.1 12.6 9.5 76.0 36.2 13.4 11.3 28.2 12.0 4.2 25.3
Tripura 0.9 13.5 34.0 304.0 57.8 26.4 56.6 0.4 6.1 13.4 10.9
India 1.5 39.2 90.1 324.0 22.6 43.2 22.8 3.4 24.6 1.7 3.9
Note: Farm size is for 1990-91, land use for 1997-98.
Source: Fertilizer Statistics,2003 Agricultural Statistics at a glance,2002, Land Use Statistics at a Glance 1996-98

Agricultural indicators suggest that the hill states both differ and concur with rest of
India in different aspects. The smallness of farm size is not as much a problem as at
the national level and the average farm falls in the range of medium holding in four of
the states and small in two with only Tripura falling below the national average of
1.56 hectares. Figure 1 indicates that while the smallest size class claims the largest
share of farm enterprises in terms of the number, it is the third and medium size class
that holds the major share of area. The communal land holding system of most tribal
custom, lack of clear-cut ownership laws, relatively free access to land for cultivation
prevent land in physical terms from being any serious constraining factor in
agriculture. Given the extensity of geographical area relative to population, the
forested and sloppy terrains and the land rights, the farm size could even incorporate
an element of choice. Irrigation intensity is low as the mountain terrain has somehow
made it difficult to exploit the ground water potential and in most states sources other
than canals and wells supply most of all the irrigation water. Fertilizer intensity marks
a minimal penetration of modern technology in the region as compared to the nation
as a whole. The cropping pattern however suggests the known tendency to
concentrate in foodgrains, rice in this case, mainly driven by the urge for subsistence.
Crops like wheat and sugarcane are grown where conditions are suitable but the
region stands out in its emphasis on fruits and vegetable.

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Figure 1: Percentage distribution of Number and Area of Crop enterprises
into Farm size classes

80%
60%
Enterprises
%

40% Area
20%

0%
1 2 3 4
Farm size Class

3 Diversity of Fertilizer use Practices

NSSO data clearly brings out diversity of fertilizer practices and prevalence of
organic methods in the fertilizer use practices. Categorised into three regimens,
namely, F: Use of Fertilizer, M: Use of Manure with no use of fertilizer, N: Use of
neither fertilizer nor manure, for analytical convenience, regimens N and M constitute
traditional techniques where N represents the purely traditional natural practice with
no external input for restoring soil fertility. Part of this choice may be accounted for
by the prevalence of primitive agriculture like jhuming associated also with lack of
resources and amenities but partly, the organic richness of the forest soils make
applications redundant. Regimen M stands for organic farming as denoted in this
study with reference to non-use of chemicals as fertilizer only (pesticide is not
considered). Regime F is the most modern method that involves either solitary
fertilizer use or its conjunctive use with manure. The histograms in Figure 2 based on
sample data shows that fertilizer use has become widespread in India spanning 70%
of the enterprises but the pattern of practices is quite different in the north-east where
farming with no external fertilizing input still dominates and fertilizer use is the least
adopted of the practices. Table 2 further gives a glimpse of the practices in various
regions.

The largest section of enterprises use fert ilizer in all regions combined and for each
region separately, the north-eastern region being the lone exception. In fact regimen N
that constitutes the smallest part of the total number of enterprises for all regions
combined is the largest for the north-east covering nearly half of all the enterprises.
The view from the area share angle is no different though the figures differ.

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Figure 2: Frequency distribution of Sample
Crop enterprises into Fertilizer use Categories
North-east Hill region
7000
Number of Crop enterprises

3500

0
0 1 2

Fertilizer use Category

All regions in India


100000
Number of Crop enterprises

50000

0
0 1 2

Fertilizer use Categories

Note: 0=Manure use only (M), 1= No use of fertilizer or manure (N), 2=Fertilizer use (F)

Interestingly, the other hilly region in the Northern-Himalayas share practices with
other regions and show signs of the acceptance of fertilizer -based technology with a
minimal share of external-input less farming. The north-east however retains its
traditional character to a large degree but the prevalence of organic practice draws
attention to the possibilities of the region.

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TABLE 2: DISTRIBUTION INTO FERTILIZER US E CATEGORIES BY REGIONS
Percentage of Crop
Enterprises Percentage of Area

Category M N F M N F
Total 15.4 9.5 75.1 11.8 7.2 81.0

South 13.2 8.5 78.3 8.6 4.8 86.5


North-east hills 27.5 45.4 27.1 26.7 45.5 27.7

East 15. 0 11.8 73.2 11.9 9.1 79.0


North 13.6 5.7 80.7 4.2 3.0 92.8

West-central 18.40 11.4 70.2 17.2 9.2 73.6


Northern-hill 17.0 1.6 81.5 15.5 0. 8 83.7
Note: Farmsize classes are 1=Marginal, 2=Small, 3=Medium,4=Large.

4 Cross-sectional view of the practices


The farm holding size found in Table 1 and Figure 1 and the major land holding
customs of the region do not particularly indicate any la nd constraint (labour
TABLE 3: DISTRBUTION OF FARM SIZE CLASS ES INTO FERTILIZER U SE PRACTICES IN
NORTH-EAST-HILL REGION

% of Crop Enterprises % of Area


CLASS M N F All M N F All
1 26.5 40.8 32.7 100.0 21.5 36.5 42.0 100.0

2 26.9 50.2 22.9 100.0 22.6 46.9 30.5 100.0


3 30.4 53.8 15.8 100.0 32.8 51.6 15.6 100.0

4 49.0 44.1 6.9 100.0 54.6 40.4 4.0 100.0


TOTAL 27.5 45.4 27.1 100.0 26.8 45.3 27.9 100.0

Notes: See notes in Table2.

constraint may be more important) in the region. Table 3 suggests that traditional
practices are not exclusive to any farm class defined by land operated2 though

2
Farm classes are as follows : Marginal (upto1 hectare), Small (1.01 hectare to 2 hectare), Medium
(2.01 hectare to 10 hectare) and Large (greater than 10 hectare).

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fertilizer use is found more among smaller farmers and is quite low among the large
size classes. The share of area allocated to fertilizer-based agriculture exceeds that of
crop enterprises meaning that relatively larger plots of land are devoted to such use by
small classes. The largest size class also has largest share of enterprises and area
under organic manure based agriculture with no use of chemical fertilizer. However
even the small classes allot about 26% of enterprises and a little more than 20% of
area to this kind of farming but the largest share is appropriated by the purely
traditional practice. The hill region emerges as a typically low external input system
by this measurement.

TABLE 4 : PERCENTAGE OF PRACTICE CAREGOR IES OWNING ASSETS

Assets M N F
% crop Enterprises under M, N. F
Landed 24.3 25.0 12.5

Irrigated 12.6 7.9 43.3


Livestock 71.8 63.3 54.6

CPR-livestock 6.7 13.7 6.4


CPR-Manure 0.7 0.7 0.3

Farm assets 1.5 1.4 4.3

Note : As in Table2. Farm assets are tractors/harvesting machine.

Land holding is a standard measure of farm class in India but it is by no means the
only yardstick for affluence and ownership of or access to other kinds of assets also
defines a farmer’s earning and productive potential and access to borrowed resources.
Taking account of other indicators of wealth one can look for a relationship between
fertilizer use practice and wealth. Land ownership as opposed to operational holding
that includes leased land is an important wealth indicator and asset class LANDED is
defined to comprise of those who own land above 2 hectares. Similarly, common
property is a significant source of access in hilly and tribal economies. Only common
properties used for fodder and manure collection are considered (CPR-livestock,
CPR-Manure) as they may be relevant for the choice of the fertilizer practice. Table 4
indicates that the farmers owning less than 2 hectares land (small and marginal)
comprise a larger portion of fertilizer based enterprises, as the landed group constitute

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only 12.5% of the category as against nearly 25% in the other two categories.
However, significantly larger portion of this practice category than others is found to
be irrigated. The machinery-owning group is very small for all categories but is
largest for the fertilizer-using category. Organic enterprises are largest possessors of
livestock as could be expected but are mostly enterprises characterised by lack of
irrigation and farm assets. Use of commons for fodder is found among larger share of
purely traditional enterprises than others. Curiously this group matches the organic
based enterprises in respect of farm assets and in collection of manure from CPR. In
the latter case manure may be actually collected for sale to other households, which is
not uncommon (Chopra and Dasgupta, 2003).

5 Fertilizer practices and other improved Methods

How far the hill agriculture has retained its traditionality and even remained primitive
can be assessed by the available information on use of external inputs other than
chemical fertilizers. The cultivation practices as presented in Table 5 supports the
notion that larger proportions of fertilizer users go for improved seed, mechanisation,
and insecticides than other groups. However traditionality is a multi-dimensional
TABLE 5 : PERCENTAGE OF PRACTICE CATEGOR IES USING SPECIFIC
MODERN TECHNOLOGY ALSO
% of Crop Enterprises % of Area

Technology M N F M N F
Improved seeds 25.4 35.2 63.6 20.4 32.6 71.43

Machines 6.5 3.2 33.4 9.3 3.7 42.86


Insecticide 17.0 11.7 66.4 32.7 19.8 75.00

Soiltest 3.6 3.9 4.9 4.4 4.8 5.7

Note : Insecticide includes weedicides etc.


Machines include mechanized sowing, h arvesting, irrigation. See Notes in Table2.

aspect and these improved practices also accompany the traditional fertilizer
practices. Even non-users of chemical and organic soil nutritioners apply improved
seeds, machines and chemical pesticides. Cultivation based on organic manure is
accompanied to a significant extent with use of improved seeds (25.4%) and also with
chemical pesticide (17) that has same if not greater ecological costs entailed. The soil

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testing practice is low in general but is marginally less for traditional practices than
the fertilizer-using category.

In Table 6 a further break-down is attempted size class wise to find the tendency for
complete organic farming in which organic manure is used with no use of pesticide in
the region. No definite direction of tendency is elicited here too except that the
smallest and largest size classes have higher share of enterprises under organic
farming with no chemicals pesticide. The tendency to use insecticide with organic
method increases with farm size class but the same in the category using no fertilizer
or manure is very low except in the medium size class. Use of chemicals for both
purposes is found to become less common as farm size increases.
TABLE 6: DISTRIBUTION OF SIZECLASSES INTO ORGANIC AND NON-
ORGANIC PRACTICES
% of Crop Enterprises under farm classes

CLASS M- no M- F-no F- N-n o N-


insecticide insecticide insecticide insecticide insecticide insecticide

1 23.8 2.7 11.6 21.1 37.1 3.7


2 22.1 4.8 7.0 15.9 45.7 4.5

3 20.6 9.8 4.4 11.4 42.8 11.0


4 23.7 25.3 4.2 2.7 42.7 1.4
All 22.8 4.7 9.1 18.0 40.1 5.3

Notes: See Notes in Table 2.

6 Crops and fertilizer practices

To find out which crops lend themselves to practices of not using chemical fertilizer,
six crop groups are considered. Cereal crop rice is important in the uplands as
subsistence or for local market and this is considered by itself as crop 1. The less
demanding fodder and coarse cereals are taken as a group in crop 2. Pulses, oilseeds
and mixed crops constituting a minor group are crop 3. Vegetables and fruits are
considered in crops 4 and 5 respectively. Wheat is a commercial crop and so is sugar
cane and both are grown to a limited extent only where conditions permit and are
therefore combined with other cash crops are treated as crop 6.

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The largest share in each of crop groups excepting vegetables falls in the more
traditional category and about 27% of the enterprises and area fall under manure
based farming. Among crops rice has the largest share of enterprises unde r fertilizer
based cultivation with the share in area being somewhat less, indicating that these are
small sized parcels. Coarse cereal and fodder and vegetables allocate relatively large

TABLE 7: DISTRBUTION OF CROP-WISE ENTERPRISES INTO FERTILIZER USE PRACTICES


% of Crop Enterprises % of Area
CROP M N F T M N F T
1 18.6 41.1 40.3 100.0 20.6 45.6 33.8 100.0
2 40.2 45.9 13.9 100.0 40.5 41.9 17.6 100.0
3 19.5 68.9 11.6 100.0 19.0 70.2 10.8 100.0
4 38.5 36.1 25.4 100.0 48.8 29.0 22.2 100.0
5 10.8 80.6 8.6 100.0 16.4 73.7 9.9 100.0
6 30.1 44.3 25.6 100.0 32.7 41.5 25.8 100.0
TOTAL 27.5 45.4 27.1 100.0 26.8 45.3 27.9 100.0
Note: Crops are 1= paddy 2=other cereals and fodder 3= pulse, oilseeds, mixed crops,
4=vegetables 5= fruits and nuts 6= wheat sugarcane cash crops. See notes in Table 4.

shares in enterprises and area under organic practice. However in both cases the
shares under non- use category are comparatively large. Within the organic practice
category, vegetables account for the largest share among the crop groups (Figure 3).
Vegetable is followed by rice and coarse cereals/fodder combine to claim organic area
in terms of fertilizer practice.

Figure 3: Crop-wise distribution of Organic farms

5 6
1

4
2

Note: See Table 7 for crop group identification.

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Pesticides also constitute chemical use in agriculture, and when organic agriculture is
redefined to take into account the use of pesticide also, vegetables fall behind the
coarse cereal group(Table 8). Each of these two crop groups has a high share
(exceeding 30%) of enterprises in the category using organic manure with no use of
chemical pesticide compared to others. It is interesting to note that both these group,
benefit from wastes via manure and also serve the waste generation process through
animal feed and vegetal wastes. For each crop group a relatively small share is
allocated to the practice of using organic manure along with chemical pesticide.
Similarly the shares going to purely traditional fertilizer practice with pesticide use
and that to fertilizer use but with no pesticide are relatively low suggesting that the
practices of pesticide use may be associated with use of fertilize use.
TABLE 8: DISTRIBUTION BY CROP INTO ORGANIC AND NON -ORGANIC
PRACTICES

% of Crop Enterprises

Crop M- no M- F-no F- N- N-n o


insecticide insecticide insecticide insecticide insecticide insecticide

1 13.9 4.7 9.3 31.1 8.0 33.0


2 38.8 1.3 9.8 4.2 5.4 40.5

3 16.6 2.9 3.1 8.5 6.4 62.5


4 32.2 6.3 12.0 13.5 2.5 33.5

5 6.6 4.1 6.0 2.7 3.2 77.4


6 24.0 6.1 6.8 18.8 3.2 41.1
Total 22.8 4.7 9.1 18.0 5.3 40.1

Notes : See notes in Tables 5 and 6.

7 Explaining the Fertilizer use practices


A multinomial logit model attempts to understand the decisions of farmers with
regard to the choice of organic and other fertilizer use regimes. The exercise draws on
literature on human choice behaviour when the alternatives are qualitative or ‘lumpy’
(Mc Fadden, 1974). The farmer is here viewed as facing 3 alternative fertilizer
regimes which form an exhaustive set of fertilizer use practices F= {F1 , F2, F3} and
conducting a cost benefit analysis, unobserved to the researcher, and opts for the
regime that maximises his expected benefit B from cultivating a hectare land.

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Max Bi (Fi/A) ……1

Where Fi is any fertilizer regime belonging to a set F (Fi å F) given a set of measurable
attributes A=[x1 , x2, ..xt] that characterise the farmer. Variable B is latent and depends
on intrinsic agronomic factors and market conditions as well as the farmer’s own
perceptions about cost and responses. Because of the subjective elements involved,
the model follows a process analogous to McFadden’s random utility function (1974)
in that the expected returns have a non stochastic component Vi where Vi =â’i x (âi is
t X 1 vector of parameters) and an idiosyncratic random component å i which are iid. It
follows that

Pi = P(Fi/A,F) = P[åj < åi + Vi – Vj for all j not equal to i] …..(2)


represents the probability that a farmer drawn at random from the population will
choose fertilizer regime Fi , given the measured attributes in A and choice set F.
Defining an observable variable Yi such that for the k-th farmer

Y ki = 1 when Bki > Bkj , for all j not equal to i and


=0 otherwise,

we have Prob (Yki=1) = Pki which gives the probability that the k-th farmer will
choose the i-th fertilizer use regime to maximise the perceived benefit. Equation (2)
generates a cumulative distribution function that can be assumed to be logistic .

βx
1
k
e i

P = 3
ik
β
1

1+ ∑ e x n i k

i =2

Equation (3) represents the multinomial logit model when the first category is
considered as base assuming â1 =0. To interprete the parameters (â), equation 3 is
transformed by (a) dividing Pi k by base category probability P1k and (b) taking the log
transformation on both sides. The resulting expression is the ‘logit’ which is logged
odds of drawing the i-th category as against the base obtained as a linear expression in
â and statistically signifies the expected number of draws of the i-th category for each
draw of the base category. The parameter â is therefore the cha nge in the logged odds

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due to unit change in the independent variable and is comparable across different
categories by magnitude. However since the variable giving logged odds has no clear
interpretation the exponent of â is usually presented as the effect on the actual odds.
Thus a value of Exp(â) exceeding 1 implies that the odds are increased and vice versa
while a unit value of â would indicate that the odds are unaffected. Since the data in
the present case records the choice set of three fertilizer practices namely F, M and N,
the actual choice and several measured attributes of the crop enterprise, units it is
possible to estimate a multinomial logit model by defining a set of dummies created
for the choices made with F as the base category.

The likelihood of choosing any fertilizer practice is expected to depend on the nature
of crop and the agro-climatic conditions (including soil) of the region. The season of
the enterprise kharif or rabi carries its own implications of weather, risk and
agronomic connotations. In particular the competing use of the same materials for fuel
instead of manure in the drier season and the household customary practices of
manure making and manure use provide a seasonal dimension to the choice of this
practice. Availability of irrigation is known to be an important variable affecting the
response potentials of fertilizer and manure. The cost of accessing fertilizer or manure
would be influenced by farmers’ access to resources, borrowed or owned and the
regional character. The farmers’ resource position is in the usual way judged by land
possessed that is reflected by the farm size class to which the household belongs.
However, in context of this region the variable has some relevance of scale and for
labour adequacy (household sizes are unknown) considering that access to land could
be relatively easy in this region but cultivating the same may not. Ownership of farm
assets by the enterprise is an additional variable for resource position and possession
of livestock and use of CPR are other indicators of access that are relevant in this
particular problem. Interaction-effects among related variables such as livestock
possession and use of CPR for fodder are considered.

The base category in the model is use of fertilizer and the direction of impacts of the
explanatory variables shown by the coefficients can only be assessed with respect to
this base category. The strength of impacts can be judged by comparing the
magnitudes of parameters. The positive significant effects of farm size class on the
two practice regimes suggest that smaller farm classes are more inclined towards

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fertilizer use than the organic or purely traditional regimes and the size bias is more
for organic farming. Both categories, and especially the purely traditional practice,
have reduced chances of being chosen if irrigation is available in which case fertilizer
use is most preferred but the likelihood of organic farming is enhanced in kharif
season and more so by livestock ownership. The exaggeration of fertilizer leaching
and the seasonality of manure production may have some role in this apathy to
fertilizer use in particular and the urge to utilize manure in the monsoon season. The
use of CPR for manure collection has a positive effect on the

TABLE 9: FACTORS AFFECTING FERTILIZER USE PRACTICES OF FARMERS


IN NORTH-EAST -HILL REGION
(Coefficients from MNL Model)

Base category is Fertilizer use Manure use only No use of Fertilizer or Manure

Variables B Exp(B) B Exp(B)


CLASS 0.37 1.44 0.34 1.40
IRRIGATION -1.38 0.25 -1.99 0.14
FARM ASSET -0.59 0.56 -0.58 0.56

KHARIF 0.24 1.27 0.31 1.36

LIVESTOCK 0.79 2.21 0.22 1.24


CPR-MANU 0.36 1.43 -0.26 1.29

LVST*CLASS -0.05 0.96 0.03 1.04


LVST*CPR-LVST -0.16 0.85 0.30 1.35

LVST*CPR-LVST*LVST -0.25 0.78 0.23 1.25

CROPS Base= Crop 6

1 -0.53 0.59 -0.15 0.86


2 0.79 2.20 0.43 1.53

3 0.34 1.40 1.07 2.91


4 0.45 1.57 -0.13 0.88

5 0.30 1.35 1.77 5.88

INTERCEPT -0.49 0.28


Pseudo R-square 0.27
(Nagelkerke)
Note: Coefficients at .1%. B is the coefficient of regression and Exp(B) is
The factor by which the odds of belonging to the category change. See Note in Table 7.

choice of organic farming but discourages pure traditional method so that manure
resources from commons tend to be utilised. Although livestock ownership

16
encourages organic manure use over others, the interaction with CPR suggests that the
livestock owner’s use of the CPR for fodder does not help this choice. On the other
hand the odds of not using fertilizer or manure increases when livestock depends on
the commons to any extent. Livestock ownership appears to be associated though less
strongly with use of both traditional methods but its interaction with use of CPR based
fodder is different between organic and purely traditional practices. This might be an
indication of the importance of stall-feeding of livestock for organic farmers.
Although both size class of farm and its ownership of livestock positively impact on
the odds of choosing organic farming as against fertilizer use, their mutual interaction
is negative suggesting that the favourable effect of livestock ownership on this
decision is more for small holdings than larger ones. On the contrary, the odds of
having a purely traditional practice are more than the most modern one when larger
farms also own livestock. The interaction between the three variables on livestock,
size class and CPR use is also suggesting that livestock ownership accompanied by
use of CPR has greater positive effect for organic practice in case of smaller size
classes than bigger ones. Since in most parts of the north-east hills, land possession is
more an indicator of perceived prestige and scale diseconomies rather than wealth, the
ownership of farm assets may say more of resource neutrality or bias of the practices.
The negative signs show that farm asset is associated more with fertilizer use than the
other practices as could be anticipated and the adverse effect is similar with the two
traditional practices.

The intercepts are negative implying that fertilizer use is a likely for the base crop
group that includes wheat, sugar cane and cash crops. Among the crops, excepting
rice the odds of opting for the two traditional practices increases over use of fertilizers
as against the base crop group and, except for vegetables, and all these crops appear to
be similarly inclined towards the two traditional practices. Only rice has a lowering
effect on the choice of organic manure as against fertilizer use compared to base crop
group and vegetables have less tendency to have a purely traditional practice. In other
words, the preference is for fertilizer-based cultivation of rice followed by the purely
traditional method rather than organic farming. Judging by the relative magnitudes of
the effects coarse cereal/fodder and vegetables are more inclined to organic farming.
Both groups 3 and 5 , that is pulses/ oilseeds/ mixed crops group and fruits have a

17
lower tendency in this direction and are most likely candidates for purely traditional
method but fertilizer use is the last choice.

8 Concluding Remarks

The north-east hill sates in India, characterised by predominantly rural and agriculture
based economies, have remained relatively backwards in economic development. The
fertilizer-based technology associated with the green revolution in agriculture has not
penetrated this threshold due to inherent constraints and even if it had it would face a
severe challenge in the wake of the liberalisation process. The agro-ecology and the
social customs of this region differ from the rest of the country and land scarcity does
not appear to be the binding constraint in agriculture so much as the ability to make
gainful use of available land. There is a need for careful planning out alternative and
suitable strategies for the development of the region that takes full view of the
strengths and limitations of agro-ecology, the market potentials of the emerging era
and above all take account of the crucial interactions amounting to externalities of the
hill activities with the ecology of the country.

The largest share of crop enterprises and that of the crop area too is devoted to purely
traditional method based on non-use of external soil fertilization followed by another
traditional method of organic farming with manure. Use of fertilizer is the least
prevalent of practices adopted more commonly by the smallest size class of farmers.
However the practice accompanies greater ownership of farm assets and access to
irrigation, which is itself a scarce resour ce in hill agriculture. The fertilizer using
enterprises also constitute those using other modern technology including chemical
pesticides. Organic farming is however positively associated with ownership of
livestock, and the effect of this resource increases for smaller farm size classes.
Coarse cereals and fodder and vegetable are preferred crops for the organic practice
while oilseeds, pulses, mixed crops and fruits are preferred for the purely traditional
method. Wheat, rice and sugarcane are crops likely for use of fertilizer.

Considering the hill ecology, the possible adverse effects of most modern methods in
industry and agriculture on the plains, its abundance of difficult yet fertile tracts of
land, its tribal customs of land tenure, its economic strength in terms of livestock

18
ownership and limitations of terrain and irrigation, organic farming seems as a
promising avenue to development. The naturally evolved technology practice can be
guided to follow a more organised course for greater benefit in national and
international markets. The positive class bias of the practice in terms of land
possession enhances the scope of extending and improving the practice in view of the
large share of land in the medium size category and the higher average farm size of
the region. Empirical analysis also reveals the relative potentials of vegetables and
fodder in this line. The advantages that these crops also have in recycling wastes
directly into crop bio-mass or indirectly through animals suggest a synergic re lation
that can be tapped. The practice being preferred against the modern method by the
classes less endowed in scarce resources such as farm assets and irrigation makes the
strategy a powerful instrument to combat poverty. At the same time livestock and
vegetable products promote value addition through processing activities and
promotion of systematic organic farming and food processing can help in drawing
investment which will enable meaningful participation of the labour force with gender
equity and integration of the region with outside economy while retaining indigenous
characters that deserve conservation.

The strengths of the hilly region lie in its serenity, naturalness and traditions and
translate to external benefits to people on the plains through lesser ecologically
adverse spill-overs and the existence of natural beauty, placidity and prosperity in the
neighbourhood. This in essence in a service rendered by the hilly region to the nation
where varied modern technology may be used for economic development. The hill
regions demand resources and policy attention to attain development in ecologically
compatible way and calls for careful planning in harnessing the potential of the region
and market

Appendix: NSSO Data


The analysis here is based on National Sample Survey Organisation’s (NSSO) 54 th round survey on
Cultivation Practices conducted over 78990 households with agricultural year 1997-98 as the reference
period. The unit of observation is a single crop enterprise adding up to a total of 12 829 cases in the
selected states, each of which belongs to a set of the five most important field crops (FFC) raised by an
individual household from among the following 12 crop season combinations: paddy-kharif, paddy-
rabi, wheat, other cereals, pulses, oil seeds, mixed crops, sugar cane, vegetables, fodder, fruits and nuts,
other cash crops and others. The survey provides categorical information on input use by responses to

19
queries such as whether the units applied fertilizer and manure (partly, entirely or not). Fertilizer refers
to factory made chemical fertilizer nutrients and manure is constituted of farmyard manure, compost
and biogas slurry.

The survey also provides information on access to common property resources (CPR). Common
property resources are defined as ‘resources accessible to and collectively owned/held/managed by an
identifiable community and on which no individual has exclusive property rights’. In this study CPR is
considered in a de facto sense where the property has been actually used. NSSO reports on various uses
of CPR but there are two ways CPR use can be meaningful for fertilizer use practice; (a) use of CPR
for livestock feeding, i.e., either by grazing or collection of fodder and (b) use of CPR directly for
collecting manure.

Reference

Institute of Applied Manpower Research, Manpower Profile: India Yearbook 2001, Gyan
Publishing House, New Delhi.

Government of India, 15th Indian Livestock Census 1992, Ministry of Agriculture, New Delhi.

Government of India, Land Use Statistics at a Glance 1996-97, Ministry of Agriculture, New
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Saleh, Swabera Islam (1989), Nagaland’s Economy in Transition since 1964, Omson
Publications.

Borah, K.C. (1999) “Land Utilisation and Cropping Pattern in Mizoram” in Kainth,
Gursharan Singh (ed) Developing Hill Agriculture, Regency Publications, New Delhi.

Sain, K. (1999) “Development of Hill Areas under Plans” in Kainth, Gursharan Singh (ed)
Developing Hill Agriculture, Regency Publications, New Delhi.

Alagh Yoginder K, (1991) Indian Development Planning and Policy, Vikas, New Delhi.

Chand, Ramesh (1997) Agricultural Diversification and Development of Mountain Regions,


M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.

Chopra Kanchan and Purnamita Dasgupta ( 2003) The Nature of Household dependence on
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Economic Growth, India.

Timmer Peter C., Walter P. Falcon, Scott R. Pearson (1983) Food Policy Analysis . The Johns
Hopkins University Press.

Mc Fadden Daniel (1974) “Conditional Logit Analysis of Qualitative choice behaviour” in


Paul Zarembka (ed) frontiers in Econometrics, Academic Press, New York.

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