Critical Analysis of PM Modi’s promises – Part 4: Quality of Life in villages and cities

in #india • 5 years ago

Critical Analysis of PM Modi’s promises – Part 4: Quality of Life in villages and cities


Article authored by @AJain and @Rgov - Astute political observers

This is the fourth article in the series where we are presenting an unbiased analysis of the elections promises that were made by Mr. Modi government during the 2014 election and the performance to-date against the promises.
A copy of the full manifesto can be downloaded here at the link given below: http://www.bjp.org/images/pdf_2014/full_manifesto_english_07.04.2014.pdf

In this article, we will take up the next two pledges, namely, “Quality life in Villages and Cities” and “Flourishing Agriculture”.

Villages are the backbone of India and about 80% of the population resides in villages. Yet, this sector was largely ignored by all the previous governments. Agriculture sector also remains largely fragmented due to historical ownership of land and modernization at small scale is far more difficult than modernization at a large scale.

It is needless to say that flourishing agriculture directly results in improving the quality of life in villages. There are other factors that favorably impact the quality of life and we will dwell in those areas as well in this blog.

Right after getting sworn as the Prime Minister, Mr. Modi started implementing the scientific way of increasing the productivity of farmlands. Here are a few initiatives that were taken:

Land consolidation related measures

Land ownership has traditionally been fragmented. As a result, farmers were not able to fully leverage the benefits of government schemes. Adding to the loss of farmland was the migration of labor forces from villages to cities as small pieces of land were not able to provide sustenance to farmers family. Government educated and encouraged the farmers to consolidate the land and operate as co-operative. Once the land had a critical area in terms of the square of hectares, modern farming techniques such as soil analysis, irrigation etc. could be deployed.

Soil-related measures

For higher productivity and yield the first step was to perform the soil analysis to understand which nutrients are required for the soil. This allowed farmers to fertilize the land more cost-effectively as it was targeted fertilization as opposed to blanket fertilization which not only saved money but improved yield. Additionally, Urea, arguably the most important fertilizer was not made available to the farmers and was siphoned off for industrial usage as Urea had a dual purpose. The Modi government started coating Urea with Neem – a natural insecticide, thus rendering it useless for industrial purposes. This eliminated the shortage of fertilizer and also reduced the prices of fertilizer.

Crop yield-related measures

Through education at individual farmer/co-operative level extensive education was provided on the benefits of crop rotation and planting of the crops based on the national requirements. This allowed the farmers to have a higher return on their investments. Crop planting also took into account the soil data and monsoon data to have an optimum combination. This combined with Neem coated Urea allowed yield to increase and sustained the prices.
Additionally, through “Bhoojal yojna” (groundwater management scheme) excess water during the “Monsoon” season was pumped underground to be pumped out during a drought season thus removing the dependence on external factors to a large extent. This eliminated the risk of crop failures to a large extent.

Crop failure related measures

Crop failures are not an uncommon situation. One failure could devastate the farmers. The Modi government provided insurance against crop failure at a very nominal cost and further allowed farmers to take out loans at a discounted rate.

Crop surpluses related measures

Crop surplus could be as bad for farmers as crop failure since the selling prices fall dramatically when there are crop surpluses. To ensure a good return to the farmers, the Modi government first established a floor price for all crop. Through eNAM technology of crop auctions, farmers were able to sell the crop across local boundaries and often getting a higher price despite the surplus. This is being achieved through a visionary initiative (a common practice in developed nations) where food processing units are being established close to farmlands which consume the crop and create a higher value-added product. For example, tomatoes were converted into Puree’ and canning of tomatoes. Consumers of these products were willing to pay a higher price due to convenience and all year-round availability of the product. This resulted in side benefit of job creation, isolation of farmers from price fluctuations and elimination of waste. It is estimated that approximately 30% of the crop was wasted due to surpluses.

All of the above when combined with other steps that have been implemented, not only improved the quality of life for villages but also empowered them. Some of the measures are:

  • Provide direct financial assistance in the procurement of seeds and through insurance protect the farmers from the devastation of crop failures. Financial assistance is provided through DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer), totaling eliminating middlemen as the funds are directly deposited under a farmer’s bank account.
  • Constructs roads to ensure that fruits and vegetables don’t get damaged during transportation (over 134,000 KM of new roads have already been constructed).
  • Electrify the villages (all villages have now been electrified) so that irrigation and underground water management is possible.
  • Construct toilets for every house, under the “Swatch Bharat” scheme, to avoid crop diseases such as E.coli.
  • Provide clean drinking water to all.

All the measures described above not only made for a “flourishing agriculture” but transformed the villages from a pure agriculture-based economy to hybrid agriculture and industrial based economy. Cottage industries are given a boost through “Mudra Yojna” scheme and the products are getting integrated with mainstream e-commerce marketing channels.

So, the readers might ask, what are the measures through which you can judge the effectiveness of the initiatives that have been undertaken. There are quite a few.

  1. Improvement in Human Development Index (HDI) from 134 in February 2013 to 130 in September 2018 (data from 2017). The improvement may seem small but please note that HDI moves very slowly and the impact of the initiatives will be felt more aggressively in the coming years.
  2. An estimated 20%+ increase in crop output
  3. Decline in rural unemployment rate from 9.5% (2016) to 4.8% (2017) (source: https://www.ibef.org/industry/indian-rural-market.aspx)
  4. CAGR of 6.2% for GDP of rural India (source: https://www.ibef.org/industry/indian-rural-market.aspx)
  5. An increase of 17.1% in Fast Moving Consumer Goods (source: https://www.ibef.org/industry/indian-rural-market.aspx)
  6. A study by Grant Thornton following statistics for the FY ‘17 pertaining to the rural sector (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=2ahUKEwiAxrDvgdPgAhUr54MKHXu2AeQQFjAAegQIBRAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgtw3.grantthornton.in%2Fassets%2FImpact-of-rural-markets-on-automotive-sector.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0z-eCvTINezGXGSoRF5V41)
  • 14.2% increase in passenger car sales
  • 11.9% increase in light commercial vehicle
  • 14% increase in sales of two-wheelers

So far, we have talked about Flourishing Agriculture and Quality of life in villages. The manifesto also of the quality of life in the urban area. We have written several articles about the development of urban India and instead of repeating the same, I encourage the readers to please check our blogs on India Success Story and for details review the nine-part series on FT Rebuttal.

With all these data points would you say that the manifesto promises have been fully met? We certainly think so. If you disagree or have an alternate viewpoint please leave a comment.

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5 years ago in #india by
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     5 years ago  

    Very nice. There seems to be a decline in rural labor migration due to skill India initiative.

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