Agricultural Production Clusters

Well-developed mutual aid and support groups of poor people can be the building blocks of large-scale social mobilization, leading to a change in the selfbelief and identity of an entire community of people.

Well-developed mutual aid and support groups of poor people can be the building blocks of large-scale social mobilization, leading to a change in the selfbelief and identity of an entire community of people.

Background and Rationale

S ince the country’s independence in 1947, India has made great strides in agricultural development. Cereal production has more than quadrupled and the country has attained self-sufficiency in food grains production. These gains, however, have not been uniform across the country. Whereas irrigated plains and deltas have developed, the largely rain-fed, undulating, hilly and mountainous regions have lagged far behind. Farm productivity in these regions remains very low and farming a highly uncertain enterprise. In the rain-fed regions of central India, almost three-fourths of the population derives its livelihood from the farm sector. Not surprisingly, these regions face extreme poverty and have become hot spots for civic strife, led largely by violent leftist movements. Rapid agricultural development is thus imperative to remove mass poverty, spread the fruit of development equitably, reduce social strife, spur sustained economic growth and secure ecological stability.

Fortuitously, investments to develop these rain-fed regions have high economic returns because these areas have had little prior investment and there has been little or no capital formation; many, indeed, would argue that overall there has been capital erosion. The interventions required to develop rain-fed regions are highly labour intensive and, therefore, will also provide much-needed employment on a large scale and in the short run.

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