Globalisation and land use in maduari distict-Tamilnadu S.Krishnan

GLOBALISATION AND CHANGES IN LAND UTILISATION AND CROPPING PATTERN – A MICRO LEVEL STUDY IN MADURAI DISTRICT-TAMILNADU

S.KRISHNAN* (Copy of the Paper presented in the seminar held at Gandhigram Rural University on Feb.2011)      

Introduction :-

                        The liberalization was adopted by India in 1991.   Due to severe economic crisis, India has approached IMF for a loan and the IMF granted the loan with certain conditions, which made India to have a structural change in the economy.  These changes are taken place in the form of liberalization, which sought to gradually phaseout government control of the market (liberalization), privatize public sector organizations (privatization), and to reduce export subsidies and import barriers to enable free trade (globalization).  However, reforms in the agricultural sector in particular come under severe criticism in the late 1990's.  when formers in the South Indian state of Andra Pradesh committed suicide.  The trend was noticed in several other states. and the figure today according to a leading journalist and activist P.Sainath, stands at 1,49,244 across the country (Sainath 2007).  The Annual Compound Growth Rate (ACGR) for all suicides in India from 1997 to 2005 was 2.18 percent, but for farm suicides it is much higher at nearly 3 (2.91) percent for the same period.  Coupled with this was a sharp drop in agricultural growth from 4.69 percent in 1991 to 2.06 percent in 1997 and to 1.1 percent in 2003 (Agricultural Statistics at a Glance, 2006).

INDIAN AGRICULTURE TODAY : A Snapshot

                        India is a country of about one billion people.  More than 70 percent of the population lives in rural areas where the main occupation is agriculture.  Agriculture employs 60 percent of the Indian population today, yet it contributes only 20.6 percent to the GDP.  Agricultural production fell by 12.6 percent in 2003. One of the sharpest drop in Independent India's history.  The growth rate of agriculture comes down to 1.1 percent from 4.69.  This slow down was in contrast to the 6 percent growth rate of Indian Economy for almost the whole of past decade.  The average farm size is only 1.57 hectares.  Around 93 percent of farmers have land holdings smaller than 4 hectare and they cultivate nearly 55 percent of arable land.  On the other hand only 1.6 of the farmers has operational land holdings above 10 ha and they utilize 17.4 percent of the total cultivated land.  Agricultural wages even today are $1.5 - $2.0 a day.  This is of the lowest wage rate in the world.

                

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Role of Liberalisation :-

                        The Diminishing public investment in agriculture, reduction in protection to agriculture in the wake of the new global trade regime without providing a level playing field for the domestic farmers and overall neglect of agriculture in policy planning made the cost of cultivation as risky.  A (non-organic) farmer in 1991 could cultivate an acre of cotton in vidharbha to Rs.2500/-.  Today that would cost him Rs.13,000/- or more (Sainath 2008).  Forcing the farmers into a debt trap are soaring input costs the plummeting price of produce and a lack of proper credit facilities, which makes farmers turn to private money lenders who charge exorbitant rates of interest.

                        The findings of the 59^th round (2003) of NSSO Survey revealed that 40 percent of the farmers wished to quit farming, if they had a choice to do so.  About 27 percent farmers deemed farming as unprofitable occupation and 8 percent found it risky.     The survey further reports that only 4 percent of the farmers had ever insured their crops as many as 57 percent did not even know that they could insure their crops.  Only 18 of farmers knew about bio-fertilizers and only 8 percent of the farmers had heard of the world trade organization (WTO).  Notably, only 30 percent farmers understood that minimum support price meant to them.

Cropping Pattern and Land use :-

                        Cropping pattern simply means the proportion of area under different crops at a point of time, where us change in cropping pattern refers to the change in proportion of area under different crops at two different points of time.  The structural changes have been observed in the land-use pattern for raising different crops due to Globalization.  But fragmented small land holding and poverty among the farmers severely limit the cultivation of crops for the market.  The infrastructures for storage, transport, processing, grading and rating Quality Standards are under developed.  Farmers are ignorant of the sophistication of global markets as their experience is limited to primitive operations.  The demand for most of the Indian farm product is very low on account of poor quality.  Therefore with the poor prospects the exporters face difficulties both in the domestic and foreign markets.  For instance Indian tea is high cost product.  When cheaper tea comes in to market, the country's high cost tea producers lose out.

Review of Literature :-

                        Kalaivani et.al (2010) in their study on selected cereal crops in Tamilnadu recorded decline in area evident from negative rate of growth per annum.  The largest decline in area has been recorded by ragi at the rate of -42.45 percent per annum followed by cumbu, cholam and paddy.  They also reported that maize has recorded the positive and highest growth rate of 36.45 percent per annum, which was evidently contributed by the high profitability from maize in Tamilnadu.  Baskaran et.al (2010) study reveals that the area under paddy decreased from 82.2 percent to 74.6 percent during 1995-96 to 2008-09.

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The pulses area increased from 4.1 percent to 12.9 percent during the same period.  Meenakshi and Gayathri (2006) confirm that change in the interaction between change in mean area and yield variance was an important contributor to the cereals production instability in Tamilnadu, it also suggested that efforts should be made to stabilize cereals production in the state.  The study also indicates that there is a need for further research on the cereals crops in the state of Tamilnadu.  The study of Gyan Prakash et.al(2006) reflects that there was in fact, some deceleration from Pre-Green Revolution  period to Green Revolution period in the production of food grains, but further it has deteriorated more in the post-Economic Reforms period and the area shrinks four times from pre-green revolution period to the Green Revolution period.

Area Coverage

Table-1. Land Utilization / Cropping intensity in Tamilnadu (lakhs hectare.)

Sl. No.	Item	1990-91	2000-01	2008-09
1.	Total Area	130.19	129.91	130.26
2.	Cultivable waste	2.90	3.52	3.33
3.	Current follow	12.49	11.34	10.13
4.	Other follow	10.44	12.28	14.97
5.	Net Area Sown	55.78	53.42	50.42
6.	Cultivable Area (2+3+4+5)	81.61	80.17	78.85
7.	Area sown more than once	10.53	10.34	7.81
8.	Gross Cropped Area (5+7)	66.32	63.28	58.23
9.	Cropping intensity	118.9	119.5	115.4
10.	Ratio of net sown area to available area	68.34	66.15	63.94
11.	Land put to non-agriculture use	18.35	19.12	21.72

Source: The season and crop report 1990-91 – 2008-09

                        The net sown area declined from 55.78 to 50.42 lakhs hectare.  The cultivable area also declined from over 81.50 lakhs hectares to 78.85 hectares, the gross cropped area also declined from 66 lakhs hectare to 58.23 lakhs hectare during this period.  The total area used for agriculture is decreased from 86.34 percent to 75.85 percent to the geographical area in the year 1990-91 to 2008-09.  At the same time the land put to non-agricultural use (i.e. Building, roads, etc) was increased from 18.35 lakhs hectare to 21.72 hectare.

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Methodology

                        In the present study, compound Annual Growth rate (CAGR) of area, production and yield for the selected major crops in Madurai District of Tamilnadu State were estimated for each period to study the changes in land use, the growth in area, production and yield of these crops.  The objective of the study is  (i) to analyse the existing cropping pattern and the changes, (ii) to analyse the changes in land use pattern after globalization, (iii) to find out the reason for the changes in the cropping pattern.  The present study is restricted for period of 10 years.  The data was comprised for the period 1998-99 to 2008-09.  The necessary data for the selected crops was purely based on secondary sources and it was collected from various issues of Statistical Hand book of Madurai District, Department of Economics and Statistics.

Study Area

                        The study area of Madurai district has 25,62,279 population (2001)with 12,95,124 male and 12,67,155 female.   There are 1,25,892 cultivators and 3,32,249 agricultural laborers are depending  on agriculture for their livelihood, and they constitute  18 percent of the total population.  The district has 3741.73 sq km of area, among which gross cropped area in 2001 was 1628.19 sq km and it constitutes 44 percent to the total Geographical area.  The main crop of the District is paddy.  68131 hectare (2001) which constitute 46 percent to the total area sown (2001).

Empirical Results and Discussions

                        The present study Examines the land use pattern, the area of cultivation, production and yield of selected crops in Madurai District.  The Table 2 represents the land use pattern and the changes in its usage from 1998-99 to 2008-09.  It reveals that the net sown area has decreased from 1,64,389 hectare to 1,39,146 hectare during 1998-99 to 2008-09.  The area available for cultivation also decreased from 2,42,596 to 2,34,051 hectares during the same period.

                        The area available per 1000 population decreased from 101.08 hectares to 90.78 hectares during the same period.  It reveals that the rainfall has not made any structural changes in the cropping pattern as well as in land use.  The increased rainfall has not increased the area of cultivation, because the farmers who left their land as follow in one season were not returned back again for farming due to the high cost of cultivation and lack of stability in the prices of agricultural products.  The cropping intensity has slightly increased from 107.68 to 108.17 during the period of study.  The land put to non-agricultural usage (i.e. land under buildings, roads, etc) has increased from 63,999 hectares to 75,290 hectares.  The increase constitutes 17.64 percent to the base year.  It also increased from 17.10 percent to 20.12 percent to the tot geographical area during the period of study.

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Table 2 - LAND UTILISATION AND CROPPING INTENSITY IN MADURAI DISTRICT

(Area in hectares)

Sl. No.		1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
1.	Forest	50452	50452	50452	50452	50452	48473	48473	48473	48473	48473	48473
2.	Barran and uncultivable waste.	15783	15799	15799	13201	13201	13201	13200	13154	13154	13160	13031
3.	Land put to non-agricultural uses	63999	64831	65606	69245	69258	69479	69524	74417	74920	75211	75290
4.	Cultivable waste	5275	5387	-5335	5695	5695	5695	5683	7127	6854	6498	6100
5.	Permanent pastures and other Grazing land	210	230	230	232	232	232	232	233	233	233	233
6.	Land under miscellaneous trees and groves.	1133	1219	1255	2103	2027	4174	4296	4014	4101	3033	3095
7.	Current follows	49810	55079	49547	12954	17009	19466	1519	7356	10338	20573	20304
8.	Other follow land	23122	28384	37905	83291	94400	106562	92686	66317	71741	65167	68501
9.	Net area sown	164389	152792	148047	137000	121897	106891	138560	153082	144359	141825	139146
10.	Gross cropped area	177019	165211	162819	150704	123929	108434	147499	160808	153519	150983	150524
11.	Geographical area	374173	374173	374173	374173	374173	374133	374173	374173	374173	374173	374173
12.	Area sown more than once	12630	12419	14772	13704	2032	1543	8939	7726	9160	9158	11378
13.	Cropping intensity	107.68	108.12	109.61	110.02	101.66	100.30	106.45	105.04	106.34	106.45	108.17
14.	Area available for cultivation	242596	241642	240831	238948	239001	238614	238448	233882	233292	234063	234051
15.	Area available for cultivation for ('000) population	101.08	100.68	100.34	92.68	92.70	92.55	92.49	90.72	90.49	90.79	90.78
16.	Rainfall	-	-	638.5	766.50	789.90	736.7	1010.70	1177.8	668.0	988.0	880.1

Source : Statistical Handbook of Madurai District – 1998-99 to 2008-09, Department of Economics and Statistics

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Table-3 AREA UNDER MAJOR CROPS IN MADURAI DISTRICT DURING 1998-99 TO 2008-09

(Area in Hectares)

CROPS	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
PADDY	87230	82325	76905	68131	43959	23934	60368	70996	67231	61864	66699
CHOLAM	9937	8584	13043	10986	9390	11319	10605	12078	10166	9780	12589
CUMBU	1197	1808	1943	2031	2986	3338	5201	5703	5110	4875	5674
RAGI	203	148	197	134	209	178	122	237	164	145	63
VARAGU	990	415	336	278	169	182	295	230	262	255	142
SAMAI	79	27	83	92	84	38	38	7	8	0	1
MAIZE	311	763	393	246	614	794	826	1437	2015	4358	4608
REDGRAM	1863	1472	1785	1855	1160	1420	1025	1117	1158	1954	1345
BENGALGRAM	21	29	25	33	148	82	106	106	64	91	66
GREENGRAM	5913	5443	6538	5231	4596	4644	3955	3943	4298	4190	2939
BLACKGRAM	1177	1331	1458	1469	1798	1391	1563	1873	1575	2071	965
GROUNDNUT	11003	8485	7451	7145	4638	5742	5943	7441	5342	4687	4578
GINGELLY	2642	1728	1886	1747	1048	1666	1004	1267	884	725	905
COTTON	11367	10159	10087	11094	9505	10651	12035	10432	9368	7478	7207
SUGARCANE	10377	7836	6506	6043	5639	4276	3545	4537	6007	5427	5199
BANANA	2065	2036	1780	1933	2136	2436	2733	2831	2766	2792	2680

Source: Statistical Handbook of Madurai District-1998-99 to 2008-09

              Dept. of Economics and Statistics

                        The Table 3 reports the area under major crops for the period of 1998-99 to 2008-09.   It reveals that 87230 hectares of land was under paddy cultivation in 1998-99 followed by 9937 hectare under cholam, 1197 hectare under cumbu, 11003 hectare under Groundnut, 11367 hectare under cotton. The table represents that the area under all the selected crops are in declining trend, except cumbu, maize and banana.  In case of maize, the table shows the considerable positive trend among other crops over the study period.  This has also reflected in cumbu and banana also.  The reason for the increased area of cultivation of maize and cumbu is due to the stability of prices of there crops by poultry industry.  They encourage the cultivators by giving advance for cultivation and make MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with farmers to purchase the products during harvest.  The area under small millets which has high nutritional values are in declining trend.  There is a need to analyse and to take efforts to increase the area under small millets.  This happens because the consumption of small millets are completely replaced by fast food and the changes in food consumption at village levels.  The table also elicits that the area of cultivation of commercial crops like oil seeds and sugarcane are also declining which is to be analysed.  The high cost of cultivation and unstable prices are the reasons for these happenings.

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Table 4- PRODUCTION OF MAJOR CROPS IN MADURAI DISTRICT DURING 1998-99 TO 2008-09

(In Tons)

CROPS	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
PADDY	409870	365050	340996	302097	112171	80586	196583	234492	267518	214880	267228
CHOLAM	9360	8030	12208	10282	9890	13662	10754	13022	10257	10295	5874
CUMBU	1570	2540	2726	2849	4390	5331	6376	6790	6606	6589	9662
RAGI	530	340	445	303	312	381	187	330	229	269	135
VARAGU	1384	580	469	388	129	214	361	360	285	278	210
SAMAI	57	20	61	67	61	32	31	5	8	0	1
MAIZE	624	1531	788	493	1233	1593	1657	1681	5653	11557	15014
REDGRAM	1200	980	1190	1237	633	9145	684	708	547	869	934
BENGALGRAM	10	20	15	20	86	49	65	63	38	55	40
GREENGRAM	3260	1620	1959	1553	1843	2015	1690	2813	1439	581	655
BLACKGRAM	610	520	606	610	1469	700	263	1230	323	539	304
GROUNDNUT	19490	14180	12458	11946	241	9032	10812	11900	11391	8769	9071
GINGELLY	978	639	698	646	140	820	335	387	227	109	355
COTTON	2830	1533	1735	1675	6153	2141	6820	13734	14095	11450	13369
SUGARCANE	1442403	1089204	891322	818585	60107	552	404518	407209	656204	567905	592186
BANANA	123782	122044	106698	115870	76779	129968	116090	139015	148214	133292	134413

Source: Statistical Handbook of Madurai District-1998-99 to 2008-09

              Dept. of Economics and Statistics

                        Table 4 - Reports the total production of selected crops in Madurai district for the years 1998-99 to 2008-09.  The result reveals that maize is found have consistent positive trend over the study period.  In case of the main crop paddy, the production trend seems to be declined.  From 1990 onwards, rice yields remains stagnant and even started declining in Tamilnadu it also reflected in the study area.  The cholam and banana production looks upswing and downswings.  The production of cumbu seems to be positive.  The other small millets Ragi, Varagu, Samai seem to be in negative trend.

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Table 5 - YIELD OF MAJOR CROPS IN MADURAI DISTRICT DURING 1998-99 TO 2008-09 (Kg / Hectare)

CROPS	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
PADDY	4699	4434	4434	4434	2552	3367	3258	3303	4369	3473	4007
CHOLAM	942	935	936	936	1053	1207	1014	1078	1009	1053	467
CUMBU	1312	1405	1402	1403	1470	1597	1226	1191	1293	1352	1703
RAGI	2611	2297	2259	2261	1493	2140	1532	1392	1396	1855	2143
VARAGU	1398	1398	1396	1396	763	1176	1224	1565	1088	1090	1479
SAMAI	722	741	735	728	726	842	816	714	1000	0	1000
MAIZE	2006	2007	2005	2004	2008	2006	2006	1170	2805	2652	3258
REDGRAM	644	666	667	667	546	644	667	634	472	445	694
BENGALGRAM	476	690	600	606	581	598	613	594	594	604	606
GREENGRAM	551	298	297	297	401	434	427	713	335	139	223
BLACKGRAM	518	391	416	415	817	503	168	657	205	260	315
GROUNDNUT	1771	1671	1672	1672	52	1573	1819	1599	2132	1871	1981
GINGELLY	370	370	370	370	134	492	334	305	257	150	392
COTTON	249	151	172	151	647	201	567	1317	1506	1531	1855
SUGARCANE	139000	139000	137000	135460	10659	129	114109	89753	109240	97461	113904
BANANA	59943	59943	59943	59943	35945	53353	42477	49105	53584	47741	50154

Source: Statistical Handbook of Madurai District-1998-99 to 2008-09

              Dept. of Economics and Statistics

                        Table 5 - Reports the yield of selected crops in Madurai district for the years 1998-99 to 2008-09.  It reveals that the yield of cumbu per hectare is in increased trend.  The yield of Red gram and Bengal gram are looks upswings and downswing during the period of study.  The yield of maize during the period of study is in positive trend.  The cultivation of maize and cumbu are profitable in the study area.

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Table-6 – Compound Annual Growth rates of Area, Yield and Production of Selected Crops in Madurai District (1998-99 to 2008-09) (Percent)

Crops	Area	Production	Yield
Paddy	-2.65	-4.178	-1.58
Cholam	+2.39	-4.55	-6.77
Cumbu	+16.84	+19.90	+2.64
Ragi	-11.00	-12.78	-1.95
Varagu	+17.65	-17.19	+0.56
Samai	-35.39	-33.25	-3.31
Maize	+32.05	+37.44	+4.96
Redgram	-32.10	-2.47	+0.75
Bengalgram	+12.13	+14.87	+2.44
Greengram	-6.75	-14.82	-8.64
Blackgram	-1.96	-6.72	-4.85
Groundnut	-8.39	-7.36	+1.12
Gingelly	-10.16	-9.63	+0.59
Cotton	-4.45	+16.79	+22.21
Sugarcane	-6.67	-8.51	-1.97
Banana	+2.64	+0.82	-1.76

Source : Based on authors own estimation.

                        Table 6 - Reveals that in case of paddy, cholam, ragi, samai crops the evidence provide negative growth rate.  An interesting point note that, the CAGR for the area of cultivation of cotton is negative, but, at  the same time the production (+16.79) and productivity (+22.21) is in positive trend, the increased productivity of cotton has not reflected in the area of cultivation.  It also reveals that the cumbu, maize and bengalgram were recorded positive and highest growth rate per annum in terms of area, production and yield in Madurai district.

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Conclusion

                        The present study examined the performance of area, production and yield of selected crops in Madurai district.  Using the data from 1998-99 to 2008-09, the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of area, production and yield for the selected crops in Madurai District.  In Madurai district paddy holds major area of cultivation among other crops.  But the CAGR reveals that the cumbu and maize was found to be positive and records a higher growth rate among other cereal crops in terms of area of cultivation, production and yield.  Despite the fact that maize and cumbu were found to acquire highest in terms of growth performance of area of cultivation production and yield among other crops, it cannot serve the purpose of livelihood for majority of the people in Madurai District.  Hence, the importance had given to the paddy cultivation.  Besides the study suggests that the farmers can also cultivate maize and cumbu for the money making purpose in Tamilnadu state that suits for the climatic conditions of the District and State as well.

                        The existing traditional cropping pattern may not be viable in the coming years because of continuous ground water depletion, the deterioration in Soil health, change in rainfall pattern, high cost of cultivation, implications of WTO etc., hence, it is the time to save the farmers from the increasing cultivation cost.  Cold storage facilities to the farmers to store the agricultural produce are very much needed.  The need of the hour is to encourage the farmers, the cultivation practice by means of uninterrupted power supply, credit facility and stable price, to there produce.  The minimum support price should be fixed on the basis of cost of cultivation.   The increased productivity of cotton has not reflected in the area of cultivation is to be analysed in detail.

(The copy of the paper presented by me in the Seminar on Globalization and its impact on Agriculture  held at GRI on 17,18 feb 2011 is sent for  reference and comments)

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References :

1)         Dr.Saravanadurai.A and Kalaivani .M (2010) "Growth Actions and Selected  Cereals Crops in Tamilnadu State" IJABPT volume I, Issue-3, Nov-Dec 2010 PP 778-785.

2)         Sainath P. "Farm Sucides rising, most intense in 4 States" The Hidu, 12.11.07 and  17.6.2008.

3)         Anil, "Impact of Globalisation and Indian Agriculture". (www.documentsandsettings/Administrator/Globalisationandagriculture/Im)

4)         Punithavathi .J and Baskaran .R (2010) "Changes in the cropping pattern, crop concentration, Agricultural Efficiency in Papanasam Taluk, Thanjavur District, Tamilnadu, India"-Recent research in science and technology 2(5):01-07.

5)         Meenakshi. R and Gayathri .J (2006) "Instability in cereals production: and Analysis of Tamilnadu" Agricultural Situation in India Vol.LXIII, No.7, PP 431-434

6)         Gyan Prakash, Ram Kumar. J and Sharma R.C (2006) "Estimating Growth rates and Decomposition Analysis of food grains production in India" The ICFAI Journal of Agricultural Economics Vol.III, No.1, PP 40-51

7)         Surinder Sud " Farmers Suicide Cases : Emerging Issues" (2006) MARGIN Vol.38, No:1, P 1-8.

8)         Hazra. C.R " Crop Diversification in India" www.fao.org P 1-13

9)         Rao V.M (2008) "Sustain ability of Indian Agriculture : Towards an Assessment" Working paper 193 ISAEC Bangalore, PP 1-27.

10)       Sri Subramaniam, Gurusamy and Sairavi, Subramaniam (2009) "Does India attain Self Sufficiency in Food Production" MPRA Paper No:16866, PP 1-24 (www.mpra.ub.uni.mucnchen.de/16866/)

11)       Statistical Handbook of Madurai District. (1998-99 to 2008-09), Dept. of Economics and Statistics, Madurai.