Issue for October - December 2011 - National Institute of Rural ...

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Local Government and Market Intervention under Decentralisation ... 439such as banana, tapioca (tapioca cultivation hasbeen shifted from dryland to wetland) andvegetables. Wetland leasing is ratherprominent in the village as marginal and smallfarmers, who do not possess sufficient familylabour to employ in the field, lease out toerstwhile agricultural labourers and peasantswho have sufficient family labour to employfor the cultivation of the crops such as banana,vegetables and other annuals for the market.Moreover, it is always profitable for marginaland small farmers to lease out land as theyderive their main source of living from nonfarmactivity. Further, they do not want tocultivate the wetland as the prevailing groundrent for wetland ranges between ` 1,200 to` 2,000 per para (14 cents or 0.056 of ahectare of land) for a crop year and leasingout is, therefore, more profitable for landowners than engage in direct cultivation. Themarket for banana is rather prominent as theproduce is widely used for preparing bananachip, which has also carved out a good exportmarket in gulf countries. Unlike other parts 2 ofIndia, about 10 varieties of plantain arecultivated in southern part of Keralanotwithstanding the fact that banana(nentravazha) is the most widely croppedplantain variety in wetland, prompted by itsdemand, shorter crop cycle (12 months) andabove all least prone to plant diseases. Farmersusually cultivate other varieties of plantain indryland or in own wetland.Table 4 : Landholding Structure in Vellanad Block PanchayatSize of holdingsAs percentage of the total(in hectare) Holdings AreaMarginal< 0.5 92.87 58.250.5 to 1.00 5.16 21.27Small1 to 2 1.58 12.33Semi Medium2 to 3 0.27 3.603 to 4 0.05 1.104 to 5 0.03 0.64Medium5 to 7.5 0.01 0.317.5 to 10 0.00 0.00Large>10 0.03 2.5Total 100.00 100.00Source : Government of Kerala (2006): Panchayat Level Statistics- Thiruvananthapuram District(Thiruvananthapuram: Department of Economics and Statistics).Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 30, No. 4, October - December : 2011
440 S.Mohanakumar, R.VipinkumarFormation and Development of AgricultureProduce Trading Centre (APTC)Plan Fund Devolution to LSGIs : The planfund devolution to LSGIs under the new KeralaPanchayati Raj and Nagarapalika Act, wascommenced by the Left Front Government(LDF) in 1996-97. The LDF governmentassumed office in 1996 and devolved ` 1025crore plan fund to LSGIs in1997-98, which hasbeen hiked to ` 2050 crore in the fourth yearof the Eleventh Five Year Plan (Government ofKerala 2010). As per the norms employed todevolve State plan fund to local bodies atdifferent levels, VGP received a total plan fundof ` 107.11 lakh, which included ` 79.67 lakhfor general sector, ` 22.80 lakh for SpecialComponent Plan (SCP) 3 and ` 4.64 lakh forTribal Sub Plan (TSP) 4 for the year 2010-11(Government of Kerala 2010).Background of the Formation of APTC :Major crops cultivated in VGP are coconut,natural rubber and fruit trees in dryland andplantain, vegetables, paddy (on a very limitedscale) and tapioca in wetland. As part of theglobal commodity price fall for primarycommodities and the subsequent crisis in theagrarian front since the late 1990s, price ofthe major dryland crops, viz., coconut andrubber have fallen markedly. In order to findthe means of survival, agricultural labourers,marginal and small farmers diversified tobanana cultivation in wetland (often leased inon rent), as their counterpart did in other partsof the State. But the market for plantain andcoconut in VGP were controlled by a fewtraders, whose agents-turned middlemenoperated and made direct purchases fromfarmers at the cheapest rate possibleparticularly during harvesting season and soldto traders at a higher price in the city markets(VGP is not an exceptional case in this regard).During the price fall driven agrarian crisis,especially in the harvesting season, themiddlemen had a hey day because farmerswith one or two bunch of banana or 20 or 30coconuts could not transport to the city marketof about 22 km away from the village mainlyfor three reasons : (i) cost of transportation tocity markets for a small quantity of produce isunaffordable to small producers; (ii) agriculturelabour and peasant have to forego wage for aday to travel to the city market, which is againnot worth with a small quantity of produce;(iii) city markets are often unfriendly to smallproducers as big traders and middlemendominate such big markets.The unscrupulous exploitation by themiddlemen turned coconut and plantainvendors in connivance with the localmerchants became one of the mostfrequently debated and discussed agenda inGram Sabhas and in VGP committee. Eventhough the VGP was fully aware of andconcerned about the deplorable and haplessplight of the farming community in the village,VGP committee had little idea about thefeasible mode of interventions. The mostfamiliar, and often demanded by farmers, wayout to the impasse was procurement of farmproduce by VGP, which was apparently beyondits functional purview. Moreover, hugeworking capital required for the procurementof banana and other varieties of plantaincompounded further by its managerialproblems, which is rather common to any typeof a perishable crop like banana, added to itstrepidation and agony. However, as farmers’woe mounted up, VGP was left with no otheralternative but intervene by any means.Keeping the objective in mind, on 14 October2004, VGP convened a meeting of farmers atthe GP hall, but dissolved without any majorbreakthrough in the deliberation. Again, theVGP committee asked the farmers to convenein the next month, after a series of informalconsultations with various stakeholdersincluding farmer’s unions. Accordingly, thesecond meeting of the stakeholder committeewas held in November 2004 and the thirdmeeting was held in the month followed. TheJournal of Rural Development, Vol. 30, No. 4, October - December : 2011
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502 Book ReviewsRole of Micro Finan
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504 Book ReviewsSardar Sarovar Proj
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