Given the failure of the rural development strategies followed so far in India to solve the problems of rural poverty and unemployment, there is need for us to design strategies that will allow us to move from the present, often unsustainable processes of growth and development, on to sustainable development paths. This will require policy changes in all countries, with respect to their own development and to their impacts on other nations’ development possibilities. Generally speaking, the following are some of the important elements of a pragmatic strategy for sustainable development (Singh 1999).
Sustainable Agriculture, Food Security and Ecological Security
Food security, which depends on sustainable agriculture, is a prerequisite for sustainable livelihoods, which, in turn, constitutes an integral element of sustainable development.
Food security at the national level may be defi ned as the secured access of all individuals and households in a country to adequate quantity of food for an active and healthy life on a long-term basis. Now the concept of food security has been broadened and is used to connote livelihood security, that is, secured physical and economic access to balanced diet, safe drinking water, environmental sanitation, primary education and basic health care (Swaminathan 1996: 66). The three components of food security, namely, physical availability, economic access and sustainability, are essential for maintaining peace and social harmony, both nationally and internationally. Therefore, it would be logically correct to say that food security is a sine qua non of peaceful sustainable development.
To attain food security, top priority must be given to promoting sustainable agricul- tural production systems. Increasing agricultural production at the cost of degraded soil, and depleted and polluted water bodies is an antithesis of sustainable agriculture.
Land use in agriculture should be based on a scientifi c assessment of the land capability.
Furthermore, annual depletion of top soil, fi sh stock or forest resource must not exceed the rate of natural regeneration. Future increase in productivity, in both developed and developing countries, should be based on a better controlled application of water and agro chemicals, as well as on more extensive use of organic manures and non- chemical means of pest control.
Judicious Management of Natural Resources and Natural Disasters
The natural resources of land, water, plants, animals, forests, fi sheries and environment, constitute the basic support systems of life on Earth. Sustainable development depends on how wisely such natural resources are used. In India, most of the natural resources, especially those held and/or used in common, that is, common pool resources (CPRs) and OAR are highly degraded and their productivity is very low. Most of the CPRs and all OAR suffer from what Hardin (1968) calls ‘the tragedy of the commons’. It is estimated that nearly 100 mha of land in India is common pool land, and about 30 mha of forests, and the bulk of water and fi sheries resources also belong to the category of CPRs and OAR (Singh 1994: vii). The restoration and wise management of CPRs and OAR is crucial to the well-being and livelihoods of millions of the rural poor who depend on them.
If the process of degradation of natural resources including environment is not reversed, it will not be possible to attain the goal of sustainable development. Fortunately, being biological systems, the CPRs of land, water, forests and fi sheries are dynamic and sub- jects to management interventions that can provide sustainable benefi t fl ows in the form of food, fodder, fuel wood, fi bre, timber and various environmental amenities.
The management of CPRs on a sustained yield basis depends upon a careful orches- tration of policies and management practices. Agricultural economists, especially those specialising in natural resource economics, have special advantage over other technical and social scientists in developing socially optimum strategies for using and managing CPRs. There are several alternative property regimes or management systems under which natural resources are—and could be—managed. They include private, cooperative/
collective, corporate and public property regimes (Singh 1994: 49–70). Creating and enforcing appropriate property rights in OAR could be an instrument of averting their
‘tragedy’ and improve their productivity (Singh 1997: 136–50). In many cases, cooperative management has been found to be a promising alternative for sustaining CPRs (Singh and Ballabh 1996: 16–18). India’s experience with various watershed development projects shows that the watershed approach could ensure the sustainable use of renewable CPRs (Singh 1995). There is a need for us to determine which resource is likely to be judiciously used and managed under what property regime and under what conditions, and how the watershed approach could be more widely adopted in India, especially in the rain- fed areas.
Natural disasters have been a bane of India’s economy since time immemorial. In ancient Indian literature, there are references to natural disasters, such as prolonged droughts, fl ash fl oods, hail storms, land slides, cyclones and forest fi res. About 60 per cent of the landmass in India is vulnerable to earthquakes, over 40 mha is prone to fl oods,4 about 8 per cent of the total area is prone to cyclones and about 68 per cent of the total area is susceptible to droughts. An 8,000 km long coastline is prone to severe cyclonic formations. About 55 per cent of the total area lies in seismic zones III and V, and is vulnerable to earthquakes. Sub-Himalayan regions and Western Ghats are vulnerable to land slides (Kanwar 2001: 7; GoI 2004a: 32).
Economic development is unsustainable if it increases the vulnerability of people to natural and manmade crises. A drought may force the farmers to sell their animals or
other productive assets needed for sustaining production in future years. A pestilence may damage a crop wholly and leave the crop-growers bankrupt. Similarly, a drop in prices of farm produce may reduce farm incomes and, thereby, cause the farmers to over-exploit the natural resources. According to Pursell and Gulati (1993), liberalisation of domestic and external trade in agricultural commodities may aggravate the food insecurity problem of the India’s poor through higher cereal prices. To guard against the adverse effects, the public distribution system (PDS) will need to be better targeted and made more effective as a safety net for the poor.
To conclude, we could say that a development path that combines growth with reduced vulnerability is more sustainable than one that does not.
Optimal Development and Utilisation of Human Resources
Human development is both a means and an end of overall societal development. The focus of the development policies and programmes should be people and their well-being.
People should be provided freedom and opportunities to develop their capabilities and should be educated, empowered and motivated to contribute to achieving sustainable and equitable development. Human resource development is a crucial requirement not only to build up technical knowledge and capabilities, but also to create new values to help individuals and nations cope with the rapidly changing social, environmental and developmental realities. Knowledge, shared globally, would assure greater mutual understanding and greater willingness to share global resources equitably. Providing more and better education, health care and other related social services is an essential element of any strategy of sustainable development. Current priorities need to be changed to commit more public funds for providing basic services and amenities to all, particularly the poor. According to a recent study, developing countries could usefully redirect much of their current spending—over 2 per cent of their GDP—towards human development. Efforts to reduce military expenditure, halt capital fl ight, combat corruption and to privatise loss-making public enterprises could make large amounts of money available to support human development (UNDP 1991: 5).
The sustainability of development is also intimately linked to the dynamics of popu- lation growth. Projections of India’s population to the year 2150 have been made based on several alternative scenarios. Of all the scenarios, the medium fertility scenario seems most probable. Under this scenario, fertility is assumed to stabilise at replacement levels of slightly above two children per woman. Under this scenario, India’s population is projected to grow from 929 million in 1995 to 1,533 million in 2050, 1,617 million in 2100 and 1,669 million in 2150 (UN 1998: 187).
Urgent steps are needed to limit the present (high) rate of India’s population growth.
Choices made now will infl uence the level at which the population stabilises, around 1.25 billion people. But this is not just a demographic issue; providing people with education, incentives and facilities that allow them to choose the size of their families is a way of assuring, especially for women, the basic human right of self-determination.
Inculcating values and habits—that are congenial to sustainable development among the people—from the very childhood days is the key requirement for sustaining livelihoods in perpetuity. India’s Vedic system of livelihood was sustainable in the sense that it emphasised, among other things, frugality and harmony with—and conservation of—natural resources and environment. There are hymns in The Rig Veda, in praise of Prithavi devata (the Earth), Indra devata (the rain god), Surya devata (the sun: the source of inexhaustible solar energy), Vayu devata (the air), and so on. Gandhiji also commended those values and lifestyle. There are also Vedic prayers seeking bounties from the devatas in the form of food, livestock, health and wealth. This means that the attitude of people in Vedic era was to respect nature and accept with gratitude whatever it gives to them. But, sadly, the attitude today of most of the people is to exploit nature for self- aggrandisement, degrading its productivity. Most of the Indians, particularly the urban elite, now ape Western values and lifestyles and indulge in ostentatious consumption, which is not sustainable. Perhaps, they would accept the Vedic way of living if someone from the west commends it to them.
Alleviation of Poverty and Inequality through Higher Economic Growth
Even after more than 55 years of development planning, the incidence of poverty in India is still high. It was 27.5 per cent in 2004–05 (see Chapter 10 for details). Development, that is sustainable, has to address the problems of a large number of people, who live in absolute poverty, that is, who are unable to satisfy even the most basic needs. Food, clothes and shelter are the basic needs of people everywhere. Meeting these basic needs is the primary function of all economic systems. The pace and pattern of economic development has to generate sustainable work opportunities at a level of productivity that would enable the poor to meet their minimum consumption standards. Increased food production should not be based on ecologically unsound production policies and compromise long-term prospects for food security.
Poverty reduces the people’s capacity to use resources in a sustainable manner; it intensifi es the pressure on the environment. A necessary but not a suffi cient condition for elimination of absolute poverty is a relatively rapid rise in per capita incomes. Given the current population growth rate, this would require overall national income growth of around 10 per cent per year in India; in 2005–06, the growth rate of national income (Net National Product [NNP]) was 8.6 per cent at 1999–2000 prices.
Income distribution is an important element of sustainable development. In India, there is a wide gap in the mean per capita incomes of the richest 20 per cent of its popu- lation and the poorest 20 per cent, and this gap has not narrowed down over the years;
in fact it may have increased. A rapid growth combined with deteriorating income dis- tribution may be worse than slower growth combined with redistribution in favour of the poor. If India focusses its efforts upon elimination of poverty and satisfying essential human needs, then domestic demands will increase for both agricultural products and manufactured goods and services. Hence, the very logic of sustainable development implies an internal stimulus to economic growth.
Reorienting Technology and Reducing Risk
The promotion of sustainable development will require an organised effort to develop and diffuse new technologies, such as for agricultural production, renewable energy systems and pollution controls. Much of this effort will be based on the international exchange of technology through trade in improved equipment, technology transfer agree- ments, provision of experts, research collaboration, and so on. Hence, the procedure and policies that infl uence these exchanges must stimulate innovation, and ensure ready and widespread access to environmentally sound technologies.
The fulfi lment of all these tasks will require a reorientation of technology, which is the key link between human beings and nature. First, the capacity for technological innovations needs to be greatly enhanced, so that we, as a nation, can respond more effectively to the challenges of sustainable development. Second, the orientation of technology development must be changed to pay greater attention to environmental factors.
The technologies of industrial countries are not always suited or easily adaptable to the socio economic and environmental conditions of developing countries. To compound the problem, the bulk of world research and development addresses few of the pressing issues facing these countries, such as arid land agriculture or the control of tropical pests and diseases. Not enough is being done to adapt recent innovations in material tech- nology, energy conservation, information technology and biotechnology to the needs of India and other developing countries. These gaps must be covered by enhancing public investment in research, design, development and extension capabilities.
The processes of generating alternative technologies, upgrading traditional ones and selecting and adapting imported technologies should be informed by environmental resource concerns. Most technological research by commercial organisations is devoted to product and process innovations that have market value. Technologies are needed that produce ‘social goods’, such as improved air quality or increased product life, or that resolve problems normally outside the cost calculus of individual enterprises, such as external cost of pollution or waste disposal.
Optimal Use and Management of Energy Resources
Energy plays an important role in promoting and sustaining agricultural development.
Research studies conducted in India and other countries have shown that energy use per hectare is positively correlated with crop yields per hectare. The same conclusion holds in the case of livestock production as well. The present level of energy use in agriculture in India is very low and this explains, to a large extent, the low total factor productivity in Indian agriculture.
A safe and sustainable energy pathway is crucial to sustainable agricultural devel- opment; we have not yet found it. Bringing the present level of energy use in Indian agriculture up to the levels in industrialised countries by the year 2025 would require increasing present energy use by many times. The planetary ecosystem cannot stand this, especially if the increased use is to be based on non-renewable fossil fuels. Threats
of global warming and acidifi cation of the environment most probably rule out even a doubling of energy use, based on present mixes of primary sources.
Pattern and changes of energy use today are already dictating the patterns well into the next decade. We approach this question from the stand point of sustainability. The key elements of sustainability that have to be reconciled are
1. sufficient growth of energy supplies to meet the growing needs of Indian agriculture;
2. energy effi ciency and conservation measures such that waste of primary resources is minimised; and
3. protection of the biosphere and prevention of more localised forms of pollution.
The energy specialists and agricultural economists will need to address these and other similar issues and help resolve them.
Removing Market Imperfections and Getting the Prices Right
In a well-functioning market, the price of a good or service refl ects both its marginal value to the consumer and its marginal cost to the producer. So long as there is no divergence between the private and the social values and costs of these goods and services, the market system is likely to bring about the most effi cient allocation of economic resources. However, it is true that in many situations, prices may be distorted and that a market economy may fail to allocate resource effi ciently. Potential sources of market failure are (a) externalities; (b) incomplete or asymmetric information; (c) public or collective goods; and (d) imperfect competition. When market failures occur, appropriate government interventions are needed to improve upon the market performance and enhance the overall economic well-being. Economists can provide important insights into the circumstances in which government can intervene to improve upon the market performance, how it can do so in a cost-effective manner, and how the costs and benefi ts of such interventions are likely to be distributed.
Given the wide year-to-year and place-to-place fl uctuations in agricultural production and given the inelastic demand for staple food grains, free market forces cannot be depended upon to safeguard the interests of farmers, and to attain and sustain food security in India. Therefore, government intervention in agricultural markets and marketing has been accepted as fully legitimate all over the world.
To enable Indian farmers to derive full benefi ts from the new liberalised world trade regime, it is necessary to remove various constraints and defi ciencies in the existing domestic markets and marketing practices. The policy instruments that were developed and used to regulate markets and marketing in a food scarcity era need to be carefully reviewed and then scrapped if they are no longer necessary, or if they create unnecessary obstacles in the way of effi cient marketing. Such instruments include administered prices, procurement of rice and sugar from millers/processors as levy, maintenance of buffer stocks, restrictions on inter-state trade/movement of food grains, purchase/sales taxes, rural development cess, monopoly procurement by the government, and so on.
Farmers’ organisations, especially the Anand pattern producers’ cooperatives, could play an important role in protecting the farmers from adverse effects of the new world trade regime and in enabling them to derive full benefi ts from it. With appropriate farmers’
(cooperative) organisations at the secondary level for processing and marketing of agricultural produce, including high value export-oriented commodities, preponderance of small size of land holdings in India would not be a handicap (Vyas 1998: 14). The role of the State Agricultural Marketing Boards, Commodity Boards, Food Corporation of India (FCI) and State and National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federations also need to be re-examined in the light of new policy of privatisation, deregulation and globalisation.
In developing countries like India, most of the natural resources and their products are highly undervalued, and that has led to the over-exploitation of those resources and ecological degradation. Realistic pricing of natural resources and their products, and the recognition of the value of environmental amenities would promote more sustainable development.
Mainstreaming Gender in Development Strategy
Despite the fact that development cannot be sustained unless it is a joint responsibility shared by women and men, there has been a glaring lack of gender perspective in development strategies in both developed and developing countries of the world, including India. A gender perspective emphasises the relations between men and women, and the relationships that both men and women have with their social and natural environment. It recognises that the success of projects to foster sustainable de- velopment largely depends on the extent to which both women and men participate in project design, planning, implementation and monitoring. There are many ways of institutionalising a gender sensitive approach to sustainable development. The fi rst and foremost requirement is the policy of equal development of both men and women in development projects. Next, women should be assigned specifi c roles, responsibilities and rights in making various decisions, rather than simply attending project meetings.
Besides, the development project team, as a whole, has to be sensitised to gender issues if gender awareness is to be encouraged. The team also has to be trained and made responsible for the implementation of the gender sensitive approach. Finally, it is also important to clearly defi ne the objectives to be achieved, measures to be employed to achieve each of the objectives and develop quality and process-oriented indicators in order to monitor the progress of the projects in achieving the intended objectives.
Creating a Congenial International Economic and Political Environment
Economic, political and ecological links between nations have grown rapidly. This has increased the vulnerability of the developing countries to the adverse consequences of