Impact Assessment of Agriculture Interventions in Tribal Areas in Madhya Pradesh PDF

Impact Assessment of Agriculture Interventions in Tribal Areas in MP-Final Report
Impact Assessment of Agriculture Interventions in

Tribal Areas in Madhya Pradesh
Final Report
July 2009
Catalyst Management Services Pvt Ltd

Regional Office: E-2/244, Arera Colony, Bhopal – 462016
Phone: 0755 4202234, Mobile 9893464296 Email: pramel@cms-india.org
Head Office: #19,1st Main, 1st Cross, Ashwathnagar, RMV 2nd Stage, Bangalore – 560094,
Ph.: +91 (080) 23419616 Fax: +91 (080) 23417714 Email:raghu@cms-india.org
Catalyst Management Services, Bhopal

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Abbreviations and Acronyms

AD Additional Director MP Madhya Pradesh
ADO Agriculture Development Officer MSP Minimum Support Price
AGMARKNET Agricultural Marketing Information MTEFs Medium Term Expenditure Framework
Network
AGRISNET Agriculture Information system MTFF Medium Term Fiscal Framework
Network
ATMA Agriculture Technologies Management N:P:K Nitrogen: Phosphorus: Potassium
Agency
CAG Comptroller Auditor General NADEP An activity pertaining to organic farming
CAGR Compound Annual Growth Rate NADP National Agriculture Development
Programme
CMS Catalyst Management Services NDC National Development Council
CSS Centrally Sponsored Schemes NFSM National Food security Mission
DDA Deputy Director of Agriculture NGO Non-Government Organizations
DFID Department for International NPC National Productivity Council
Development
DPIP District Poverty Initiative Programme NRCS National Research centre for Soybean
EKV E- Agriculture Marketing NREG National Rural Employment Guarantee
FFS Farmers Field School NREGS National Rural Employment Guarantee
Schemes
FRBMA Fiscal Responsibility and Budget NSA Net Sown Area
Management Act
FW Frame Work PHT Post Harvest Technology
FW&AD Farmer’s Welfare & Agriculture PMPSUS Poverty Monitoring and Policy Support
Development Unit Society
GOMP Government of Madhya Pradesh POP Package of Practices
GSDP Gross State Domestic Product PPP Public Private Partnerships
HYV High Yielding Variety PRI Panchayat Raj Institution
ICAR Indian Council of Agricultural PSE Public Sector Enterprise
Research
ICDP Integrated cereal development QQT Quality, Quantity and Time Bound
Programme
ICRISAT The International Crops Research RAEO Rural Agriculture Extension Officer
Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics
INM Integrated Nutrients Management REO Research Extension Officer
ISOPOM Integrated scheme for Oilseed, Pulses SADO Senior Agriculture Development Officer
and Maize
JLNAU Jawahar Lal Nehru Agriculture SCP Special Component Plan
University
JNKVV Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa SDAO Senior Divisional Agriculture Officer
Vidyalaya
KVK Krishi Vigyan Kendras SPMG Strengthening Performance
Management in Government
MoAC Ministry of Agriculture and SRR Seed Replacement Rate
Cooperatives

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Table of Contents
ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ...................................................................................................................II

TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................................................................... III
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................................................V
1 STATUS OF AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURE INTERVENTIONS IN MP..................................19
1.1 STATUS OF AGRICULTURE:......................................................................................................................19
1.2 AGRICULTURE INTERVENTIONS IN MP: ...................................................................................................22
2 STATUS OF TRIBALS DEVELOPMENT AND TRIBAL AGRICULTURE ............................................26
2.1 TRIBAL DEVELOPMENT:...........................................................................................................................26
2.2 STATUS OF TRIBAL AGRICULTURE ..........................................................................................................27
3 OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE..........................................................................................................................29
3.1 MAIN OBJECTIVE: ....................................................................................................................................29
3.2 SCOPE OF THE STUDY: ............................................................................................................................29
3.3 IMPACT ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK: ......................................................................................................30
3.4 STUDY LIMITATIONS:................................................................................................................................31
4 METHODOLOGY AND TOOLS ...................................................................................................................32
4.1 THE STUDY METHODS AND TOOLS: ........................................................................................................32
4.2 GUIDING PRINCIPLES: ..............................................................................................................................34
4.3 STUDY UNIVERSE, SAMPLING PROCEDURE:...........................................................................................35
4.4 ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK: .........................................................................................................................37
4.5 THE STUDY PROCESS:.............................................................................................................................39
5 PROFILE OF SAMPLES ...............................................................................................................................40
5.1 SAMPLE PROFILE .....................................................................................................................................40
5.2 SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROFILE OF FARMERS IN TRIBAL AREAS .................................................................41
6 OBJECTIVE 1 - IMPACT AND SUSTAINABILITY OF AGRICULTURAL INTERVENTIONS...........45
6.1 ECONOMIC IMPACT ...................................................................................................................................45
6.2 POLITICAL AND INSTITUTIONAL IMPACT ..................................................................................................68
6.3 SOCIO-CULTURAL IMPACT .......................................................................................................................71
6.4 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS ......................................................................................................................77
6.5 CONTRIBUTION OF AGRICULTURE TOWARDS POVERTY REDUCTION .....................................................79
6.6 SUSTAINABILITY .......................................................................................................................................82
7 OBJECTIVE 2 AND 4 – CONTEXT AND RELEVANCE OF AGRICULTURAL INTERVENTIONS .84
8 OBJECTIVE 3 – BEST PRACTICES...........................................................................................................91
8.2 ROLE OF PRIVATE PLAYERS AND NGOS IN AGRICULTURE ..................................................................102
8.3 PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMME ......................................................................................104
9 OBJECTIVE 5 – LESSONS AND KEY MESSAGES..............................................................................106
9.1 KEY LESSONS: .......................................................................................................................................106
9.2 AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT IN TRIBAL AREAS: ENABLING AND DISABLING (VULNERABILITY)
FACTORS ..............................................................................................................................................................107
10 POLICY POINTERS AND OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS ..................................................................111
10.1 POLICY POINTERS:.................................................................................................................................111
10.2 PROGRAMME INTERVENTIONS:..............................................................................................................113

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10.3 MANAGEMENT INTERVENTIONS: ............................................................................................................114

ANNEX-1: TERMS OF REFERENCE .................................................................................................................115
ANNEX-2: SOURCES OF SECONDARY INFORMATION .............................................................................118
ANNEX-3: LIST OF INTERVIEWEES.................................................................................................................120
ANNEX-4: POINTERS ON UTILISING THE POTENTIAL OF RKVY............................................................124
ANNEX-5: COMPARATIVE STUDY OF STATUS OF AGRICULTURE IN TWO TRIBAL DISTRICTS ..126
ANNEX-6: DESIGN ANALYSIS OF ANNPURNA AND SURAJDHARA SCHEME....................................128
ANNEX-7: DESIGN ANALYSIS OF MINOR IRRIGATION SCHEME ...........................................................132

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Acknowledgements
The study team from Catalyst Management Services (CMS) sincerely acknowledges the
contributions of Poverty Monitoring and Policy Support Unit Society (PMPSUS) of the State
Planning Commission in Madhya Pradesh in all stages of the study.
The study would not have been possible without great contribution and opinions of the
tribal and non-tribal households, members of farmers club, other community organisations
and others in the tribal area who shared information on their lives and their agriculture,
their livelihoods and cooperated at various levels in making this impact assessment possible
and realistic.
We thank the staff of Farmers Welfare and Agriculture Development (FW&AD)

department, Tribal Welfare Department and other government, semi government agencies
and the PRI functionaries in tribal areas who have extended whole hearted cooperation
and have kindly shared their opinion about the agriculture interventions.
We trust that this report will provide in-depth understanding of the progress and results of
agriculture interventions in tribal areas in Madhya Pradesh. We also trust that the learning
extracted by this study will provided immense inputs to Policy and planning processes for
the agriculture sector in the state.
I, on behalf of the study team, thank the one and all who have contributed to this study
directly and indirectly.
N. Shiv Kumar
Director, Catalysts Group (CMS, Vrutti and Swasti)
Bangalore, India
Email: shiv@cms-india.org
Website: www.catalysts.org

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Impact Assessment of Agriculture Interventions in Tribal Areas in

Madhya Pradesh
Summary
The Government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP) recognises the importance of agricultural sector in terms
of its potential to address the key challenges of unemployment and poverty in the state. Very high
proportion of the population in the state is dependent on agriculture. Any improvement in this sector
has potential to reduce poverty. The state has a high proportion of tribal population (23 percent of total
tribal population in the country) which has the lowest human development index (predominantly tribal
districts like Jhabua, Barwani, Panna, Khargone, Betul etc. are at the lowest rank of HDI1). This group
is highly dependent on agriculture for their food security and income. For a variety of reasons,
agricultural development has been constrained in the tribal areas. The GoMP has undertaken a number
of initiatives to improve the agricultural and poverty situation. Having implemented many
interventions, GoMP wishes to understand and assess the impact of these interventions on the
livelihoods of the farmers in tribal areas, identifying specific constraints to realizing their full
potential and recommending measures to address the same. The Poverty Monitoring and Policy
Support Unit Society (PMPSUS), Madhya Pradesh (MP), anchored under the State Planning
Commission has commissioned a study through Catalyst Management Services to study the impact of
agricultural interventions in tribal areas of the state.
MP is the second largest state in the Country with an estimated population of about 60 million.
Agriculture is predominant sector in the state (75% of rural population dependent). The state is
characterized by predominance of marginal and small farmers. The net area sown is about 150.74
lakh Ha.2, which is half of the MP’s geographical area. Total irrigation area of the state is 30.5% and
about 70% of area is rainfed, cropping intensity of the state is 135%. The most important crops are
rice, wheat, soybean, sorghum (jowar), maize, pulses (peas, beans, lentils), and groundnuts.
Historically, tribal communities were characterized by a lifestyle distinct from agrarian communities,
and their practices in agriculture are distinct. Today, the tribal majority areas, which overlap with the
country's major forest areas, are also areas with the highest concentrations of poverty. Agriculture is
predominantly rainfed and mono-cropped. Horticulture is marginally developed in the tribal areas with
the present area under fruits, vegetables, and spices accounting for only about 2.5% of the cultivated
area3. Women participate in all agricultural operations excepting ploughing and sowing of rice seed,
contributing between 70 to 80% of the total labour. In spite of favourable resource conditions, tribal
regions perform poorly in terms of infrastructure, returns from agriculture and almost all human
development indicators.
The state has many interventions aimed at improving agriculture. These are from the Department of
Farmers Welfare and Agriculture Development (FW&AD), Marketing Federation, national programmes
such as NREGA, state anti-poverty programmes and the civil society and private programmes. Specific
state level Agriculture Policy does not exist. However there are various guidelines and plans which
provide directions to the agriculture interventions in the state. The schemes are grouped under four
1
MP Human Development Report - 2002
2
Compendium of agriculture statistics 2005-06 and department website
3
Overview of Socio-economic situation of the tribal communities and livelihoods in Bihar and MP, FAO Investment Centre

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major areas – agriculture production, soil conservation, minor irrigation and micro minor
irrigation.
The objective of the study is to understand and assess the impact and sustainability of agricultural
interventions in the state, their relevance given the vulnerability context, document the best practices
and draw lessons and provide recommendations for improving agricultural interventions focussed on
tribal areas in the state.
The study covered 200 villages in 24 blocks in 12 districts representing eight agro-climatic zones in
MP. The study has followed both qualitative and quantitative methods for understanding the impacts. It
covered 4,007 households, 50 focus groups discussions, and interviews with key informant in both state
and field level. For selection of samples, the study used a multi-stage stratified sampling design. The
estimation of findings for the population was done using the multipliers. To keep the focus on tribal
population, the block is categorized based on the proportion of tribal population and samples were
drawn in each of these categories. The field research was conducted during Dec 2008 to Feb 2009.
Analysis of the profile of samples areas and households suggest that the large proportion of villages are
inaccessible and are distant from the markets. In the study area, the proportion of tribals and non-
tribals is about 50:50. Major proportions of households are either landless or marginal farmers.
Close to two-thirds have BPL cards and about half are scheduled tribes. Eight percent of the households
are women headed, higher from the non-tribal households. The area and socio economic profile shows
that more than half of the households can be categorised into vulnerable groups.
The impacts of the agricultural interventions in the tribal areas are analysed from the four key
dimensions – economic, political and institutional, socio-cultural and environmental. There are two
level of change measured in the impact assessment study – primary (ultimate impact) and intermediate
(outcomes and results). Overall, the study answers 5 primary (ultimate impact) indicators and 13
intermediate impact indicators. The key findings of the study are therefore presented by the dimension
of impact and corresponding indicator of change.
Key Findings:
The story of agriculture development in tribal areas and impact and evidence of impact of agriculture
on farmers in the tribal areas is built on five main threads. Based on specific evidence, the study
findings are concluded in each thread and emerging policy pointers are highlighted.
Thread-1: Tribal areas in the state are highest concentration of poverty (42.67 percent in tribal
areas against 26 percent as all India average) and very low educational attainment levels
show the very poor status of human development in the tribal areas. Similarly agriculture
development indicators show very poor status in tribal areas e.g. Net irrigated area to net sown
area is 14.98 percent in tribal area against 33.59 percent (All India). If agriculture is to
contribute to poverty reduction objectives and to achievement of MDGs then the tribal areas
should vested with equitable investments for positive discrimination for inclusive growth as per
the stated objectives of the 11th five year plan. The following evidence further corroborates the
poor status of human and agriculture development in tribal areas:
1. Poor socio-economic status of tribals in tribal areas: In tribal areas, 22.3 percent of the
households are landless. Small and marginal farmers among tribal are more (63.9 percent) than
small and marginal farmers among non-tribals (55.9 percent). Only about half of men and one
fourth of women in tribal areas have gone through formal education. In terms of change in type of

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housing over the last five years in the selected regions shows that 3.9% of the households have
moved from ‘kutcha’ houses to ‘semi pucca’ (3.8%) and ‘pucca’ houses (0.10%).
2. Agriculture infrastructure have improved marginally: Net cultivable area has increased by
7.8 percent (8.8 percent for tribals and 6.9 percent for non tribals). Gross cultivable area has
increased by 8 percent (9 percent for tribals and 7.2 percent for non-tribals) over the last five year
period. Increase in the number of crops cultivated over the last five years has been reported by 6
percent of the HHs and decrease by 1 percent. While the remaining have reported no change in the
number of crops cultivated. The net irrigated area has increased by 10%. Change in the fully
irrigated area over the last five years indicates decline of 10% among the small and marginal
farmers, while it remained same for the medium farmers. For large farmers it has increased by 2%.
Net irrigated area is highest in Central Narmada Valley (87%) and in Vindhya plateau (63%) and
lowest in Jhabua Hills region (7%). The cropping intensity in tribal areas for tribal households is
113 and for non-tribal households it is 127 against 135 for the state.
3. Social and Cultural Practices makes tribal agriculture unique: Tribals practice of preserving
seed genome, their subsistence nature of agriculture, food habits, respectable role of minor millets in
their life, generalized type of reciprocal co-operation in agriculture, patriarchal nature of the society,
their fairs and festivals linked with agriculture, their practice of mixed cropping, sowing of seeds,
storage of crop produce, use of fertilizer and insecticide make tribal agriculture unique. Therefore
agriculture policy and programme should carefully consider these for better designing of services
for the tribal areas.
Thread-2: Status of Production, Productivity and Input Efficiency in tribal areas shows either
marginal improvement, stagnant or declining trend. Agriculture is showing signs of becoming
not very viable economic enterprise (beyond subsistence) for vast majority of farmers in tribal
areas. The findings below show the evidence of this trend:
4. Some improvements in Cropped Area, Crops and Cropping Pattern; but for small proportion
of people: Overall, comparing with the situation five years before, currently there has been an
increase in area of cultivation (about 15 percent), but to very small proportion of households (less
than 5 percent). Of the five major crops that account of 88 percent of the total area under
cultivation, only in the case of Maize there has been a significant reduction in the area of
cultivation, i.e. by 33 percent. In all other major crops, there is an increase in the area of cultivation.
In terms of changes in area of cultivation among different profiles, it can be concluded that the
positive and negative changes are observed in both tribal and non-tribal and also among different
land holding categories.
5. Reducing productivity in major crops; Cotton an exception: In case of productivity of these

crops, in three of the major crops (Paddy, Wheat and Soybean), there is a reduction; with Soybean’s
productivity reduced by 12 percent. Cotton is the only crop where both the productivity and
production have increased.
6. Increased cost of production on half of major crops: There is an increase in Cost of Production
(Rs/ Acre) for all major crops in the past five years (without adjusting for the inflation). Largest
reduction is noticed in the case of Vegetables, Kakdi, and Groundnut. If we correct the costs for
inflation (with approx. 5 percent per annum) then the increases are seen in only about 50 percent of
the crops sown. Among the major crops, highest proportion of increase in cost of production is
noticed in Cotton, followed by Maize and Wheat.

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7. Reduced or stagnant marketable surplus on major crops: At the aggregate level, for most of the
crops the proportion of marketable surplus has either remained stagnant or reduced. Of the main
five crops, only in the case of Cotton, there has been an increase of 13 percent in the marketable
surplus from the five years before situation. In case of Paddy the reduction is marginal. But given
that the area and production have gone up, the proportion of marketable surplus has gone down.
This may be due to the fact that the farmers hold on to Paddy and other food grain crops to ensure
that food security.
Thread-3: Reach of Agriculture Interventions in tribal areas is very weak. At best, an agriculture
development scheme has reached to 5 to 10 percent of villages or benefitted 10 to 15 percent
of farmers’ households in tribal areas. The tribal areas not being the focus of policy and
programme planning and implementation is the main reason for this. Improving reach and
program efficiency requires addressing the delivery constraints, RAEO work rationalization,
Community based institutional mechanism for delivery of agriculture interventions, Capacity
building of Tribal Leadership, improving Planning systems (selection, need/evidence based
decisions and strategic orientation), establishing Performance and Accountability systems and
using different models of Extension (Private, PPP, NGO driven etc.):
8. Limited reach of agriculture interventions and access of agricultural services in tribal areas:
In terms of reach of development programmes, in the villages sampled, Kapil Dhara was reported in
half of the villages, followed by NREGA, watersheds programmes, Annapurna and Suraj Dhara in
about a third of villages. In these programmes communities reported high satisfaction levels. Large
number of other agriculture interventions has reportedly reached to only 5 to 10 percent of the
villages. Overall less than one tenth of households have had access to training, exposure visits, kisan
mela, kisan credit card, crop insurance, preparation of farm plans and other agriculture input
support. Where access to agriculture services is reported, critical or catalytic role is played by
FW&AD in about two third of the cases.
9. Low awareness and adoption of Package of Practices: Awareness and adoption of Package of
Practices in tribal areas in MP are at low levels. The relatively higher awareness levels are
expressed by the farmers in tribal area on seed replacement (37 percent households), summer
ploughing (28 percent), Balanced use of chemical fertilizer (24 percent), Soil priming (22 percent),
soil testing and seed sowing techniques (21 percent), and use of organic farming (20 percent). On
other POP areas, about one fifth or less than one fifth households are aware about. Only marginal
increase in the awareness levels is reported over the last five years. In general, non tribals are
marginally more aware than the tribals on different POPs. A gap between awareness to adoption is
witnessed in the tribal areas. 2 to 17 percent of the households have not converted their awareness
and knowledge about (different) POP area into practice. Fellow farmers, local shopkeepers and
Gram Sevak are main source of agriculture information in the tribal areas.
10. Low uptake of agricultural technology: The overall picture of utilisation of technology in tribal
agriculture indicates very low levels of uptake and adoption of technologies such as use of
implements, canal irrigation, seeds, fertilizer consumption, low POP awareness, use of post harvest
technologies. In terms of practices awareness and timely availability are key concerns. The study
results show that the uptake of agriculture technology has taken place predominantly among
medium and large farmers (where about one third to half of these households are reporting the
ownership of agriculture assets). Vindhayanchal (Raisen, Sehore, Damoh), Northern Hills (Dindori,
Mandla, Shadole, Sidhi), Central Narmada (Hoshangabad) and Malwa Plateau (Ratlam, Dhar,
Barwani) are agriculturally forward regions in the tribals areas of the state, where relatively higher
uptake of agriculture technology has taken place as compared to Jhabua hills, Nimar plains, Satpura

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Plateau (Betul and Chindwara), where agriculture development is lacking as is shown by various
agriculture technology, POP and production and productivity figures.
11. Community based institutional mechanisms for agriculture development (planning and
implementation) is evidently not utilised in tribal areas. Only 9.7 percent households have
reported to be part of some group (farmers club, co-operative society, SHG, Federation, Producer
Company). SHGs or other community based forum has not evolved to the desired extent. This
makes access to formal banking system very weak in tribal areas for agriculture credit. The study
results shows that medium and large farmers are relatively more in proportion as member to one or
the other community institutional mechanism than the small, marginal and landless households in
the tribal areas. Overall it becomes clear that the community based mechanisms for agriculture
development is utilized only to a very small extent in the tribal areas.
12. Strong Linkages between Extension and PRIs, however capacities and closer monitoring is
insufficient: The linkage between the PRIs and extension Department are strong at the district and
block levels, especially at the SADO, ADO and RAEO levels, The district level linkages are mainly
for planning and monitoring while the block level linkage are for implementing various programmes
and schemes. Poor capacities of Panchayats were observed with regard to making use of such
linkages and for sustainable planning of natural resource management with the on going schemes
like NREGA and SGSY etc.
Thread-4: Tribal areas have seen upward movement of poverty profile i.e. households poverty
status has improved from extreme poor to poor /very poor/Better off and from Very poor to
poor /Better off. Overall 38.7 percent households have reported overall improvement in well
being in the last five years. This is a significant number which is not getting accounted by the
agriculture improvements. The findings show that the resource poor farmers have poor status of
agriculture in tribal areas. Poor status of agriculture means that poor households’ dependence
on other sources of income increases for meeting their food security and survival needs. This
point to the need of balancing the policy focus on poor resource farmers in low productive
areas (read tribal areas). Though policy objectives can easily be achieved working with high
productive areas and high productive population, however inclusive growth requires
balancing the policy focus and objectives:
13. Agriculture continues to be the primary source of income for most: Close to half the population
in tribal areas is dependant on agriculture as their primary source of income. This is an increase of
one percent households who are reporting agriculture as their primary sources of income now as
compared to five years back. Another one fourth of households are dependent on agriculture as their
subsidiary sources of income. It is interesting to note that 28 percent of the households (which is a 3
percent reduction from the situation five years ago) in tribal areas are not drawing their income from
agriculture.
14. Non-farm labour the most accessed diversified livelihood option: Close to one third (29.7
percent) of the population in tribal areas is dependant on non-farm labour as their primary source of
income. This is an increase of 2 percent households who are reporting non farm labour as their
primary sources of income now as compared to five years back. Another one third of households
(29.8 percent) are dependent on non-farm labour as their subsidiary sources of income. Tribal
households are more dependent on non farm labour than non-tribal households as two third (66
percent) of tribal households have reported non farm labour as either primary or subsidiary sources
of income while about half (48 percent) of the non-tribals have reported so. All these results clearly
shows that with increasing poverty levels, the dependence on non-farm labour as a primary source
of income increases.

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15. State Govt. outreach of critical services and entitlements have somewhat improved: More
number of households in tribal areas have access to BPL (from 52 to 59 percent), Antodya
/Annapurna (from 15 to 26 percent) provision of critical services. However, in tribal areas in the
state, 42 percent of villages have no electricity. Another one fourth of the villages have limited or
very limited availability of electricity. The electricity situation has improved for 28 percent villages
in the last five years. The state level official figure shows that 68.6 percent of villages are electrified
(source: State Human Development Report -2007). This shows that tribal areas electrification has
happened to a much lower extent than the non-tribal areas. Agriculture input shops are available in
18 percent of the villages in tribal areas. Agro-processing units are available in 1 percent of the
villages in tribal areas. Storage facility for major crops is available in 5 percent of the villages in
tribal areas. The farm roads are kuccha is 95 percent of the villages in tribal areas. NREGA job
cards are reported to be accessed by 91.1 percent households. The status of NREGA implementation
shows that 43 percent of the households have obtained 1 to 25 days of employment under the
scheme. About one third of the households have obtained 26-50 days of employment. About one
tenth of households have obtained 51 to 75 days of employment.
16. Migration exists; marginally increased; higher for tribal dominated villages and landless and
small farmers: The overall migration has increased from 29 percent to 32 percent in the five year
period. In tribal dominated villages, migration is higher than the less tribal population villages.
Overall, highest proportion of migration is reported in women-headed households, tribal
households, and landless and marginal farmers (around 40% in these categories). Migration of
households is reported more in the Jhabua Hills (77%), Malwa Plateau (82%) and Satpura Plateau
(68%), while in Vindhya Plateau it is lowest with only 6% of the HHs migrate in distress.
Thread-5: Higher quantum and more relevant allocations can improve return on public
investments which means that allocation planning should be based on performance and
needs. Strengthening institutional /Co-operative delivery of credit in tribal areas with awareness
building on the financial discipline can improve the return from agriculture investment in such
areas. Additionally policy should push measures (with higher allocations) which serves
environmental cause while promoting economic returns:
17. Some improvements in overall poverty status; contribution of agricultural interventions seems
limited overall improvement in poverty profile is due to other sources of income opportunities
available in the tribal areas or due to migration earning of the households. The role of agriculture in
graduating poor out of poverty is weakening over the years4, given the fact that technology uptake
in agriculture in tribal areas is still weak, the institutional delivery system of Govt. agriculture
extension is reaching to (at the maximum) only about one sixth of the farmers in tribal areas and
therefore role of agriculture will continue to diminish in addressing causes of poverty in tribal areas
unless intensive and relevant engagement models are successfully tried out.
18. The public investments in agriculture have been stagnant during the three year period (2005-06
to 2007-08). TSP utilization has remained lower (72 percent) than the overall utilization level (82
percent). The study results shows that integrated anti-poverty programmes in tribal areas are likely
to generate the best outcomes /returns on public investments. Clearly the investment needs in
tribal areas need to be differently understood and planned. The principle of equality demand
higher allocations to TSP as tribal areas and farmers suffer from many disadvantages, which will
4
The FAO study in MP and Bihar indicate a declining role of agriculture in household food security of tribals, which lasts for 2 to 6 months of
the year for the majority of farming households.

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require disproportionately higher public investments to improve tribal agriculture and economic
well being of tribal farmers dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. Agriculture policy and
strategies in the state have not fully taken role of women as a farmer and women as a
beneficiary into account.
19. Women role in agriculture not recognized fully, even now: Women and men play equal role in
agriculture, NTFP collection and in other means of securing livelihoods. The women help men in
agricultural work by performing work of threshing, weeding and harvesting. The state plans include
gender budgets. However the discussions with agriculture department functionaries has revealed
that department wide awareness and sensitivity on women farmers is low and therefore the policy
and interventions are needed to address this as well.
20. Adverse changes in the climatic conditions are having negative impact on the agriculture
production. It is noticed that tribal cultivation is now shifting from organic to chemical fertiliser.
Tribal farmers have very less knowledge on organic manure management. Villagers met during the
study were of the opinion that it has become increasingly difficult over the years to predict when
rain will come. Awareness level on the climate and environment issues is very low. There are no
specific schemes of the Government which address environmental vulnerability of the tribal
farmers.
21. Informal credit continues to be the main source, with high rate of interest, even though the
cooperatives provide reasonable access: The main source of credit in the tribal areas is
moneylenders. The proportion of households dependent on moneylenders for their credit needs have
not changed over the last five years (36 percent). The rate of interested is reported to be in the range
of 24% per annum to even more than 100%. The next important source of credit in the tribal areas is
co-operative societies, contributing credit to 24 percent of households. The tribals (27 percent)
dependence on co-operative societies is much more than the non-tribals (18 percent). Access to
bank for credit is evidently more for the non-tribals (14 percent of households) than the tribals (7
percent of the households). There is a marked difference in access to institutional sources of credit
among tribals and non-tribals.
22. Sustainability concerns remains: Sustainability of benefits is weak when sufficiently large number
of farmers is not aware of technology, when reach and coverage of agriculture extension is up to
medium and large farmers. Similarly institutional sustainability is weak as community based
mechanisms and other institutional delivery models (PPP, civil society, private sector) are not
working at large scale. Environmental sustainability is weak as organic agriculture has taken off in
tribal areas at limited scale. Finally programme planning and programme model need to evolve to
an extent so as to provide marketable surplus to farmers in tribal areas.
23. Number of best practices and programme model exist to learn from, it is very clear that to
improve the status of tribal agriculture there needs to be multi-pronged strategies and initiatives.
Bringing together complementary skills and building synergy through partnerships seems an
important area. There is a clear learning that social mobilisation and facilitation are essential for
technology adoption and sustenance of practices. There are many models and initiatives within
the state which could be scaled up for better outcomes.
Policy Pointers and other Recommendations:
The study findings show that agriculture sector has strong policy intent and planned investments.
Translating the intent into outcomes for agriculture development and poverty reduction in tribal areas

12
require rethinking of the agriculture development paradigm. What works in other areas may not give us
the same results in tribal areas.
Suggested framework for improvement in agriculture interventions in tribal areas:
The framework suggested here brings together ideas emerging out of the findings, expert interviews and
the review of other models and best practices. The suggestions are given in the following framework:
Policy Pointers:
State Policy for Agriculture Development in Tribal Areas: The performance management can
improve with fixing of accountability and with clear mandate and outcomes specified. It might serve
therefore to bring in an Agriculture Policy for the State specifically for tribal areas. This is more so as
poverty reduction is crucially dependent on agriculture and as state progress towards meeting MDGs
will remain half achieved if the tribal areas does not become the focus of state agriculture policy.
Balancing the policy focus on low productive areas and low productive population is important for
promoting inclusive growth objectives of 11th five year plan. Gender differential impacts can be defined
in the state agriculture policy.
Equitable Investments, positive discrimination for Inclusive Growth: Tribal areas are resource poor
areas. Tribal farmers are susceptible to socio-cultural, political, environmental and social factors of
vulnerability (as highlighted by the study) thereby probability of a farmers falling back into poverty is
much more evident in tribal areas than in non tribal areas of the state. The principle of equality
demand higher allocations to TSP as tribal areas and farmers suffer from many disadvantages,
which will require disproportionately higher public investments to improve tribal agriculture and
economic well being of tribal farmers dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. The plan outlay for
2009-10 are projected at Rs.585.61 crores of which 23 percent is the TSP outlay. The major addition to
current fiscal outlay is RKVY which brings in Rs.380 crores of additional public investments in the
sector. The allocations on soft components (like agriculture extension) have seen declining trend over
the years, more so in the tribal areas whereas the need for more and effective agriculture extension is
evident from the impact assessment. The centrally sponsored scheme like RKVY offers flexibility and
innovations to address agriculture and poverty link comprehensively, which can address currently
skewed planning and budgetary allocations to a certain extent.

13
Resource Allocation Decisions: The resource allocation decisions need to be based on schemes’ reach
and relevance. The decisions based on other considerations may not lead to desirable outcomes as is
witnessed and presented by this study. The few resource allocations policy pointers are as presented
below:
• Micro minor irrigation needs to be promoted on a large scale with adequate allocations and
appropriate targeting, the existing potential to increase cropping intensity can be realised. The
overall budgets for these schemes should be based on local soil profile conditions. It is also advised
that well recharging schemes are also promoted to maintain the water table.
• Kissan Mitra and Kisan Didi schemes are among the most relevant schemes in tribal areas as they
follow the approach of community based extension. However the reach of these schemes is
currently very limited which demand a detailed understanding of constraints facing Kisan Mitras
and Kisan Didi to improve the implementation processes. Herein investing on RAEOs’ capacity
building and redesigning their work portfolio is advisable considering that agriculture
department functionaries also felt that RAEO can provide crucial follow up support to Kisan Mitras
and Kisan didi, after their training
• There is need of one REAO on 400-6005 families but at present, the Department has only one
REAO on 1500 to 2500 families. Furthermore, the tribal areas need more RAEOs for the extension
support, than the other areas. The state need to take a policy call on this aspect.
• The study results shows that the Seed Exchange scheme is not working in tribal area as tribals due
to their practices do not exchange own seed with seed from other sources. The tribal areas face the
problem of availability of seeds at the right time and therefore Seed gram scheme is best suited in
tribal area.
• The relevance of crop insurance schemes for tribal farmers can never be overemphasised. Very
limited awareness and benefit from crop insurance demand a policy intervention from the state
• Soil and water conservation activities need higher allocation for tribal areas e.g. farm bunding
scheme is very useful for the tribal areas with undulated topography requiring soil and water
conservation work. Presently NREGS have provided opportunity to the farmers to work on their
own land. SWC programme needs still lot of efforts by different implementation agencies in the
tribal areas to improve land structure and moisture in the field.
• Tribal agriculture is close to the organic farming and this opportunity need to be leveraged by the
state policy. The organic farming practices along with marketing support for organically grown
crops will boost the organic practice in tribal areas of the state.
Improving Relevance of Planning (of resources, interventions, strategies): The process of planning
should be strengthened in letter and spirit. The decentralization of planning with strong emphasis on
robust district planning should become an urgent and critical priority of the department.
Necessary push for outcome based budgets: Outcomes are the benefits drawn by the community of
farmers and not limited to only delivery of activities. The policy therefore need to strongly review the
outcome based budgeting process and attainment of outcomes over a period of time.
Programme Interventions:
Integrated Programme Models: The study results shows that integrated anti-poverty programmes in
tribal areas are likely to generate the best outcomes /returns on public investments. One of the reasons is
that these programmes are most relevantly designed and intensively executed. Soil and water
conservation, irrigation infrastructure will also significantly translate public investments in tribal areas
5
HHs numbers based on consultant experience, Interviews with REAO and community meetings

14
to poverty reduction outcomes. Clearly the investment needs in tribal areas need to be differently
understood and planned. Therefore the policy needs to look at agriculture investment in tribal areas
differently than agriculture investments in other areas. Poverty reduction is possible in tribal areas but
require an approach of agriculture and agri-allied focused livelihoods and watershed development. Such
programme models exist within the tribal areas in Madhya Pradesh (see the best practices section of this
report). The Govt. agriculture set up in the state need to emulate these models and lead tribal agriculture
on the path of sustained growth.
Strengthening institutional /co-operative delivery of Agriculture credit: Credit is an essential

ingredient of agriculture investment for a farmer household in tribal areas. The credit delivery system is
largely informal even today in the tribal areas. Unlike in other states, the Co-operative societies are
working for at least one fourth of the households in tribal areas. The model of co-operative societies
providing agriculture, other investment and consumption credit can be strengthened though trying out
linkages with Nationalised and other banks /MFIs. Banks will get access to large markets through
correspondent model with co-operative societies providing the facilitation services as business
correspondents.
Pushing Measures which serve environmental cause: The agriculture interventions in the state esp. in
the tribal areas need to provide the necessary push to measures like soil and water conservation, organic
farming etc. which serve environmental cause while providing economic returns to low resource
farmers.
Designing and Implementing Risk Management System: Agriculture especially tribal agriculture
faces many risks. Managing these risks is crucial for a farmer in tribal areas to not fall back into the
poverty trap. That continues to happen every alternate year for many tribal families. This can be
prevented with a risk management strategy and fund for risk minimization. The options for planning and
implementing this fund under RKVY (as an innovation) can also be explored.
Building the agriculture interventions on the Social mobilization base: Social mobilization is the
pre-requisites for building the sustainable community mechanism that can become vehicle for
agriculture development interventions in tribal areas. Extension requires social mobilization (to deal
with the issues of information asymmetry6).
Investing in Education sector in Tribal Areas: Experiences from other states suggest that
improvement in agriculture along with improvement in education attainment levels can lead to faster
area development. Hence agriculture development requires investments in education (possibly higher
investments and focus) in tribal areas. Tribal societies are changing for the better and getting into the
mainstream of development. It may take another two decades to achieve envisaged growth and
development in tribal areas. If education levels improve faster, tribal area agriculture and overall
development can possibly be achieved in lesser time horizon.
Promoting low value crops: Minor millets are most important traditional crop in the tribal area of
Madhya Pradesh. This crop is linked with the tribal life and its social, culture and health practices. The
State Pro-poor strategy for supporting vulnerable community in the tribal areas can be strengthened with
promotion of minor millets. Food grain dependency on other cereals crops will reduce with increased
minor millets production as there are large potential for productivity improvement. It is therefore
6
Information reach becoming limited to fortunate few…which is tribal areas context, are medium and large farmers
and generally non-tribals

15
advisable for the state to formulate its policy for the Minor Millets related to MSP, private sector
participation for processing and propagating benefits etc.
Utilising the potential of RKVY for tribal area development: RKVY have immense potential for
tribal area development due to innovation and flexibility that it provides. The study have spoken to
agriculture experts on this aspect. Some of the ideas for using RKVY funds in Tribal Areas are:
• Establish Integrated farming system models
• Agriculture product based value chain development /micro enterprise promotion
• Markets facilitation for agriculture commodities
• NREGA led agriculture development
• Promotion of organic agriculture in tribal areas
• Developing markets for organic products
• Private extension models up-scaled
Management Interventions:
Improving Extension through diverse institutional models: Extension being a basic essential service,
can work through different solutions like privatization, PPP, NGO driven, convergence model etc. as
these solutions focus on collectivization and leadership development approaches. Tribal leadership, if
developed can harness intent skills of tribals for agriculture improvement in tribal areas.
Madhya Pradesh is fortunate to have chosen the route of Gram Swaraj for facilitating participatory
equitable development processes. For ensuring accountability of departmental investments, agriculture
interventions, community based monitoring mechanism working with the Panchayats is the answer.
Performance and Accountability System: Improvement by few percentages of accountability in

departmental delivery will lead to huge gains for agriculture development in tribal areas as the tribal
agriculture has immense scope of improvement to catch up to. The institutional delivery mechanism
faces performance issues in the state, more so in relation to tribal areas where both spending and human
resources are lower than the other areas of the state.
Periodic evaluation of agriculture development in tribal areas may provide the necessary ideas on course
corrections and improvement. The accountability will set in when performance is monitored and
reflected upon in the spirit of improving agriculture for the cause of tribal development.

16
Impact Assessment of Agriculture Interventions in Tribal Areas in

Madhya Pradesh
Main Report
The World Development Report 2008 (by the World Bank) says that there are “three worlds” if
one look at share of agriculture in economic growth. India has graduated from “agriculture
based” to “transforming countries” and not yet near to the third world of “urbanised countries”.
This is evident from the declining share (46.3 to 19.9 per cent between 1970-71 and 2005-06)
of agriculture sector in the gross domestic product (GDP). However, despite this transition, the
proportion of workforce depending on agriculture has remained unchanged. Agriculture
continues to be the single largest source of livelihood for nearly two-thirds of country’s
population and contributes about 15 per cent of the export earnings. State Development Report-
2009 in Madhya Pradesh states that “Over the last seventeen years, there has been only a small
drop in the importance of agriculture in employment, from 77.4 to 73.6 for entire state, and
from 90.1 percent to 86.9 percent for rural Madhya Pradesh. Thus, a decent rate of growth in
agriculture is imperative to not only provide adequate food production but also to
support non-agricultural growth from the demand side, which enables generation of non-
agricultural employment in rural areas. Further, agriculture is also a source of wage goods and
raw materials for the industrial sector, necessitating that agriculture growth rate be stepped up.
It has been recognised that if the economy has to sustain high growth rates (i.e. above 8 per
cent p.a.) agriculture needs to grow at the rate of at least at 4 per cent p.a. during the 11th FYP
period (Draft Approach Paper of 11th FYP of the Central Govt.).
The population of the tribal communities scheduled in the constitution of India and known as
Scheduled Tribes (STs) is 84.3 million as per 2001 census and accounts for 8.2 percent of the
total population of the country7. They are scattered over all the States / UTs, except Punjab,
Haryana, Delhi and the UTs of Pondicherry and Chandigarh. Madhya Pradesh accounts for
23 percent of the total tribal population in the country. A tribe is defined as “a social group
with a definite area, dialects, cultural homogeneity, and unifying social organization. Tribals
have specific characteristics which make them a society based upon kinship, where social
stratification is absent (Beteille, 1977). In spite of favourable resource conditions, tribal regions
perform poorly in terms of infrastructure, returns from agriculture and almost all human
development indicators. As compared to other sections of the Indian society, the tribal
population has the lowest Human Development Index (HDI). Among the social groups,
scheduled tribes (STs) have the highest proportion of the poor (54 percent), followed by
scheduled castes (SCs, 50 percent). While the tribal population accounts for only about 8
percent of the total population, it constitutes 40 percent of the displaced population. The
literacy rate among STs is only 24 percent, compared to 52 percent in the general population in
1991. Among the rural women of the tribal population, the literacy rate is only 13 percent8.
Disaggregated data at sub-state level show highly uneven change in the headcount ratios within
the state and a very high incidence of poverty in certain regions which include two southern
regions of Madhya Pradesh, where most of the tribal population resides in the state. In
7
National Tribal Policy
8

17
addition, they suffer from geographical exclusion, which are not captured in the HDI e.g. PTG
settlements are primarily found in remote, forested and hilly tracts with some villages having
only 10 to 15 houses. Lack of irrigation investments in tribal districts add to poverty and
deprivation in tribal areas, for instance, while for the country as a whole, more than a third
of the net sown area is irrigated, less than 15 percent commands irrigation in tribal
central India9.
The Poverty Monitoring and Policy Support Unit Society (PMPSUS), Madhya Pradesh (MP), a
registered Society anchored within the MP State Planning Commission (MPSPC), Department
of Planning, Economics & Statistics, Government of MP (GoMP) is mandated to support
GoMP departments in the design and review of their policy initiatives and programmes and, in
line with this mandate, undertake or commission specialized research on issues relating to
poverty, inequality, gender and social exclusion. The GoMP recognizes that Agriculture Sector
interventions are crucial in the State given the high proportion of population dependent on
agriculture and the potential role of such interventions in addressing wide-ranging issues
around employment and income generation, nutritional security, balanced regional
development and rural poverty alleviation. This is especially significant for Tribal Areas where,
for a variety of historical reasons, agricultural development has been constrained. A series of
interventions are being undertaken in these areas and the GoMP now considers it opportune to
undertake an Impact Assessment of these with a view to assessing their impacts, identifying
specific constraints to realizing their full potential and recommending measures to address the
same.
In line with their mandate to support evidence based planning and policy making in the state,
PMPSUS has commissioned Catalyst Management Services to undertake a detailed impact
assessment of agriculture interventions in tribal areas in the state. CMS has followed a rigorous
process of study design, execution and analysis. The study involved sample survey with 4002
Households, 50 Focus Group Discussions with farmers, community based organisations, 202
village level mapping exercises and numerous in-depth interviews with agriculture experts in
the state, opinion leaders, district, block and village level stakeholders. This is the impact
assessment report.
9
Rethinking Tribal Development: Water Management Strategies for Revitalizing Tribal Agriculture in central India by
International Water Management Institute

18
1 Status of Agriculture and Agriculture Interventions in MP
1.1 Status of Agriculture:
Agriculture Sector in India:
Since the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1996 to 2001-02), India has been targeting a growth rate of
more than 4 per cent in agriculture, but the actual achievement has been much below the target
as shown in the table below:
Table: Annual Average Growth Rates (At 1993-94 prices)

( Per cent )
Five Year Plan GDP (overall) GDP (Agri. &Allied
Sector)
8th (1992-1997) 6.7 4.7
th
9 (1997-2002) 5.5 2.1
10th (2002-2007) 7.0 1.8*
Source: Economic Survey, 2005-06.
Note: *For the period 2002-2006. The Draft Approach Paper for the 11th FYP envisages that under most
favourable circumstances the average for the 10th FYP for agriculture and allied sector cannot be more than 1.8
per cent per annum.
Agriculture Sector in MP:
MP is the second largest state in the Country with an estimated population of about 60 million.
Agriculture is predominant sector in the state with 75 percent of rural population largely
dependent on it. This results in wide availability of manpower at a reasonable cost. The
agriculture sector forms almost one-third of the GSDP and forms the backbone of the MPs
economy. Agriculture in MP is characterized among other things, by the problem of wide year-
to-year fluctuation in production and hence, in farm incomes. The absence of assured irrigation
in most of the areas of the state and lack of appropriate technology for dry land and drought
prone areas further compound the problem. The low crop yield and high year-to-year variations
continue to be a major problem in the state. Further the variation in fertility status of soils is
quite high and so is the vegetative cover across the agro-climatic zones.
Type No. in Lakh Percentage Area Operated (in Percentage

lakh Ha.)
Marginal land holdings 28.38 38.56 13.98 8.54
Small land holdings 19.51 26.51 28.28 17.27
Semi Medium 14.88 20.22 41.22 25.18
Medium 9.17 12.46 54.48 33.28

19
Large 1.66 2.26 25.76 15.73

Total: 73.60 100.0010 163.72 100.00
The state is characterized by pre-dominance of marginal and small farmers. Out of total
number of holdings, 65 percent holdings belong to small and marginal farmers occupying
26 percent of cultivable land as per agriculture census 2000-01. Details of number and area
of operational holdings are given in table above. These small and marginal farmers do not have
capacity to invest in water and land development measures, which is needed to enhance their
production base and incomes. Most of the farmers in the state are poor and belong to socially
disadvantaged groups like tribals. Out of total operational holdings 73.60 lakhs, 20.44 percent
holdings are owned by tribal farmers operating 19.80 percent land.
The state has a geographical area of 307.55 lakh Ha.. Out of this 150.74 lakh Ha. (about 50
percent) was the net area sown11 in 2005-06, 13.38 lakh Ha. (about 4 percent) was under
permanent pastures, grazing lands and under miscellaneous tree crops. Another 11.85 lakh Ha.
(about 3 percent) was current fallow land. The cultivable waste land was 11.61 lakh Ha. (about
3 percent). The area under notified forests is about 93 lakhs Ha. (about 33 percent). Area is not
available for cultivation is 27.5 lakh Ha., which is either barren or uncultivable land, or land
put to non-agricultural uses. Gross cropped area is 203.06 lakh ha. Kharif and Rabi crop ratio-
MP Gross cropped Area 55:45 (110:95), Total irrigation area of
the state is 30.5 percent and about 70
percent of area is rainfed, cropping
3% 6%
intensity of the state is 135 percent. In all
11 agro climatic zones, there is diversified
28%
42% cropping pattern. The most important
crops are rice, soybean, wheat, sorghum
(jowar), maize, pulses (peas, beans,
lentils), and groundnuts. Rice is grown
21% principally in the east, where there is more
rainfall. In Western MP Wheat and maize
Cereals Pulses Oilseeds Cash Crops Veg, fruit, fodder, medicinal are more important staples. The state is the
largest producer of soybean in India. Other
crops include linseed, sesame, sugarcane, and cotton, as well as small millets which are
traditional staple in upland areas.
12
Forty-one percent areas come under Cereals crops, where wheat covers 50 percent of total
cereal crop area. Total pulse area is 23 percent of which 61 percent area comes under Gram
cultivation. Oilseeds crop covers 27 percent area among which soybean is highest with that of
78 percent of total oilseed cropped area. Under commercial crop, cotton and sugarcane covered
3 percent of total gross cropped area, where sugarcane cultivation have only 0.44 lakh ha area
which is less then half percent on total gross cropped area. Under other crops (vegetables,
fruits, fodder & medicinal crops), 6 percent area is covered.
10
Department of Farmers welfare and Agriculture Development website
11
Compendium of agriculture statistics 2005-06 and department website
12
Compendium of agriculture statistics 2005-06-MP

20
The State has 5 crop zones, 11 agro climatic regions and 4 soil types, which add to the
biodiversity in the State and acts favorable for the production of various crop types. Madhya
Pradesh is the largest producer of pulses and oilseeds in the country. The State also shares a
major share of the National agriculture production. About 25 percent of pulses and 40 percent
of grams are grown in the state. The State is the largest producer of Soya bean and gram and
the second largest producer of jowar and masoor in the Country.
Productivity of majority of the crops is low in the state and has generally remained constant.
Table: Average yield of Principal Crops (Data based on department website agriculture
statistics & Compendium of agriculture statistics 2005-06-MP):
Year Rice Wheat Jowar Maize Gram Tuar Soybean Cotton Sugarcane
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2001-02 1005 1691 903 1310 944 818 840 369 3893
2002-03 652 1453 947 1779 21 638 652 350 3962
2003-04 1058 1867 1342 2072 932 825 1132 557 4215
2004-05 818 1821 961 1400 920 775 819 566 4280
2005-06 1045 1710 900 1415 937 744 1050 594 4327
Rice: MP contributes 1 percent of total production of rice in India but the area is 4 percent of
total rice grown area in country. Yield of rice in MP is 818 Kg/ hectors which is 40 percent of
average country yield.
Maize: Productivity of maize has reduced up to 1400 Kg/Ha since 2004-05, which is 25
percent less than national average. Area under Maize production in M.P. is 12 percent of total
area in India but production share was only on 9 percent in 2004-05.
Jowar: It is grown on 7 percent area of total cropped area under Jowar at national level.
Production share is 8 percent that of total national production, which indicates that, its yield is
more than national average. In M.P. since 2004-05, there is decline in cultivable area. It has
remained 1/3rd (577) in comparison to 1990-91.
Small Millets: Most of the tribal communities are still growing small millets with traditional
practice and using it for own consumption and some part for selling. Seventeen percent of total
cropped area under small millets is in MP but production contribution is only 5 percent in
India. Total cultivation area reduced continuously since 1990-91.
Wheat: MP produces 10 percent of wheat on 16 percent of total wheat cropped area of India.
Over the years, cultivable area of wheat has remained same (not much difference). Wheat yield
of M.P. is 1821 Kg/Ha which is less than national production of 2718 kg/ ha.
Gram: MP is producing 45 percent of gram on 41 percent of area at national level. Yield per
hectare is 920 Kg which is higher than national average production of 844 Kg/ha. Area and
production is same from last many years with equal growth.

21
Urad (Black Gram): Since 2001-02, area and production increased but slightly declined since
2004-05. MP is producing 10 percent of Urad on 16 percent of area at national level. In MP per
Ha. production is 353 Kg.
Masoor (Lentil): Since 2002-03 area and production both has shown continuous growth in
lentil. MP is producing 23 percent lentil on 34 percent area at national level (2003-04). Per Ha.
yield is 510 Kg.
Soybean: MP is producing 50 percent of Soybean on 60 percent area at national level .In

2002-03 less production reported in Soybean. In MP yield per hector is fluctuating since 2000-
01. As per 2005-06 per Ha. yield is 1058 Kg.
Rapeseed & Mustard: MP is producing 8 percent of mustard from 10 percent area at national
level. Since 2003-04, production and area both have shown good growth in MP. Mustard per
Ha production in MP is 1048 kg.
Linseed (Alsi): Production area in MP since 1993-94 declined but yield per Ha. has increased
from 2003-04. MP contributes to 21 percent of production on 40 percent land at national level.
Cotton: Since 2003-04 record yield seen in cotton production, it has increased 400 times (117
to 578 Kg/Ha). MP is producing 4 percent of cotton from 6 percent area at national level. In
2005-06, cultivable area also increased with production up to highest level in the state.
1.2 Agriculture Interventions in MP:
Agriculture interventions in Madhya

Department Utilization Trend
Pradesh are through:
20000
•
18000
16000 Farmers Welfare and Agriculture
14000 Development Department
R s . in L a k h
•
12000
10000 Horticulture department
8000 `
• MP Agro and Agriculture Marketing
6000
4000 Federation
2000 • National level developmental
0
2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 Programme like NREGA which
Plan Outlay 14927.70 16571.55 14621.61 15100.98 15774.49 17775.00
Expenditure 10952.69 13470.98 15000.55 11430.85 12526.75 15996.16
contribute towards Agriculture
development
• State level developmental Programmes like MPRLP, DPIP, Tejeswini etc.
• Civil Society Organisations like NGOs, Private Sector etc.
Specific state level Agriculture Policy does not exist. However there are various guidelines and
Plans which provide strategic intent to the agriculture interventions by FW&AD Department in
the state. With a view to facilitate execution of various programmes in a coordinated manner,
various schemes have been grouped as under.

22
• Agriculture production
• Soil conservation
• Minor irrigation
• Micro Minor irrigation
Agriculture Production:
Schemes under agriculture production group mainly aims at increasing production and
productivity of food grains (cereals/pulses), oilseeds, cotton and sugarcane and other cash crops
through dissemination of latest technology by use of organic farming, increasing the seed
replacement, use of balanced dose of fertilizer and increasing the use of irrigation potential to
minimize the dependence on monsoon to compete in international market. For this purpose,
centrally sponsored schemes like Macro management plan (6 Schemes), ISOPOM (National
Pulse Development Programme, Oilseeds Production Programme, Accelerated Maize Dev.
Programme), Intensive Cotton Development Programme, ATMA and Central sector schemes
like Agrisnet, seed village programme, organic farming, Demonstration of improved
agriculture implements. National food security mission and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana are
being implemented in this group. Important state sector schemes like Surajdhara and
Annapurna scheme, Schemes for Training and Extension, Biogas Development, National Crop
Insurance Scheme, Participation of women in agriculture, Special training program of SC/ST
farmers for skill development and employment generation, are also included in this group.
Soil & Water Conservation:

The objective is in-situ moisture and soil conservation; extension of recommended production
technologies, scientific management and sustainable use of natural resources and labour
oriented development activities for employment generation through agricultural enterprises.
Minor Irrigation:
With a view to enhance productivity and production of holdings with S.C. and S.T. families,
the scheme for Boring of tube wells on cultivator’s field has been continued. For efficient
utilization of irrigation water sprinkler sets and drip units are also being subsidized under
different centrally sponsored schemes.
Micro Minor Irrigation (Balram Talab):

Balram talabs are being constructed under Micro Minor Irrigation Programme.
Annual plan (2009-10) envisage 5 percent annual growth in agriculture output by increasing
productivity, by improving seed replacement rate, by promoting adoption of appropriate
technology, by balanced used of NPK fertiliser, by increasing cultivated area, and cropping
intensity, by crop diversification and cultivation of cash crops etc. The plan further envisages
enhancing incomes, standard of living, food and nutrition security of those dependent on
agriculture. The plan aims at sustainable agriculture development through efficient
management of land and water resources, using farming systems and watershed development
approaches. The plan states that the state will make efforts to leverage the current
developments in the areas of biotechnology, farm mechanization, and information technology.
The plan wish to strengthen the cooperative infrastructure to provide easier access to
agricultural credit and inputs and finally plan has the objective of refocusing extension

23
activities to emerge as a potent conveyance to acquaint farmers with National & International
market demand and developments in agricultural practices, and the transfer of appropriate
technology.
National level Developmental Programme which contribute towards Agriculture

Development
Rural employment guarantee scheme (NREGS) in terms of preparation of Job cards reached up
the mostly rural households of the MP. Bio fuel mission intends to contribute in tribal economy
and MP government has established state level MP Bio Fuel mission. In the Tribal area in the
state, Jatropha wild variety is available and large potential exist for community to cultivate this
on own farmers land. It is proposed to setup the oil expelling units through Self Help Groups of
poor & marginalised so that it serves the dual purpose of wasteland development as well as
sustainable livelihood generation for rural poor.
Rajiv Gandhi Mission on Watershed Development (started in October, 1994) presently covers
249 micro watersheds under the schemes of EAS, DPAP, IWDP and IJRY. Total of 1, 47,066
Ha. has been taken under integrated watershed development with an estimated project cost of
Rs 5277.00 lakhs.
State level Development Programmes contributing to Agriculture Development:
Civil Society and PPP Initiatives contributing to Agriculture Development in the State:
Presently 153813 farmers club are working in Madhya Pradesh (supported by the National bank
for Agriculture development -NABARD). NABARD largely facilitates the framers clubs in the
state with involvement on civil society organizations. Farmers have opportunity to expose
13
Source: NABARD website http://www.nabard.org

24
themselves with the better Package of practice and technologies. Farmers clubs do periodical
meetings, involving the agricultural experts (from the Department and KVK).
Self help group have presence in most Panchayats of the state promoted under different
programme and agencies. SHGs are good vehicle in to support farmers as timely agriculture
credit, inputs and building capacities, information dissemination etc. NGOs are playing a
catalyst role in promotion of SHGs and micro finance institutions in the state.
Number of NGOs like PRADAN is playing pioneering role in agriculture based livelihoods
development especially for the tribal communities in the state.
Private sector is also contributing significantly for agriculture development in the state. Key
private players are ITC, Dawat Group and Hariyali etc. The PPP initiatives in the state started
in the year 2001 with the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between Director of
Agriculture, Madhya Pradesh and chairman, Dhanuka Group to work together in areas like soil
testing, training, farmers tour programmes, demonstrations, transfer of technology through
cyber dhabas, agriculture fortnights, establishment of markets and providing credit facilities to
farmers. Thus Madhya Pradesh became the first state in the country to have a private extension
policy and pioneered by implementing. In year 2005-06, ATMA program was launched in the
state. The main aim of ATMA is to provide timely extension services. In first two years
department implemented ATMA on its own. In third year i.e. in 07-08 through PPP private
companies and NGO joined hands with department to implement the programs to better reach
its goal. Two partners have joined hands initially – ITC – For demonstrations, training, and
farmers’ school – extension services and Krishk Jagat Education Society for publication of
monthly news letter ‘ATMA SANDESH’. In 08-09 four more partners were joined hands with
agriculture department (NGO – ASA, GVT, PRADAN, ICEF one Corporate – DAWAT group
and a DFID funded project MPRLP). The partners in their area used various extension tools
like Demonstrations, Training, Exposure, Improved Seed distributions/ trails, Interaction of
farmers with scientists. In the year 08-09 Rs 16 crores were spent under this program while
partners’ contribution was around 3.72 crores. After the successful results in initial year’s
Department is planning to expand the coverage. 12 new partners have been identified for this
purpose.

25
2 Status of Tribals Development and Tribal Agriculture
2.1 Tribal Development:
The National Tribal Policy has provided special plans and institutional arrangements for
overcoming the challenges faced in tribal welfare. The Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) as originally
conceived had a two-pronged strategy:
• Promotion of developmental activities to raise the living standards of Scheduled Tribes; and
• Protection of their interest through legal and administrative support.
The TSP mechanism has, however, become routine and humdrum in most of the States with
little awareness of its original objectives14. TSP has become a loose agglomeration of schemes
prepared by line departments and driven more by departmental priorities rather than by any
broad philosophy or thrust on development of tribals and tribal areas. There is no specific tribal
focus in various schemes and it is often restricted to reporting proportionate, often notional,
coverage of ST beneficiaries in percentage terms. While several of the States have at least
notionally been implementing the TSP, most of the Central Ministries have not been doing
even that. Almost no Central Ministry provides population proportionate funds for programmes
to benefit tribals. Spending is also ad-hoc and un-coordinated. The general criteria for provision
of services and infrastructure, based on population norms, cannot be applied to STs as the
sparsely populated ST villages and clusters would never satisfy such criteria. Hence, the criteria
would need to be relaxed to ensure that development reaches the STs.
For the Scheduled V areas the Government has passed an Act called “The Provisions of the
Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996” (popularly known as PESA Act).
The Act is meant to enable tribal society to assume control over their own destiny to preserve
and conserve their traditional rights over natural resources. PESA requires the State
Governments to change their existing laws, wherever these are inconsistent with the central
legislation. In reality, however, in the decade since its passage, very little has happened. Many
State Governments have passed laws or amended existing ones, but not fully in conformity
with the Central law. The implementation of the law has been severely hampered by the
reluctance of most State Governments to make laws and rules that conform to the spirit of the
law. The non-empowerment of tribal communities remains one of the most critical factors
responsible for the less than desired outcomes in all the interventions, monetary or otherwise
meant for their development. In MP, Gram Ganrajya (System under PESA) is implemented
even in normal Panchayat as well.
The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution was designed to devolve autonomy of a wide
magnitude on the district and regional councils. So much so, that the Schedule has been
described as “a Constitution within the Constitution”. A wide range of legislative, judicial,
14
National Tribal Policy draft

26
executive and financial powers have been conferred on the Autonomous Councils. Although
the Sixth Schedule envisages considerable autonomy for its District Councils/Regional
Councils and is much more powerful than the administration envisaged for the Fifth Scheduled
Areas, a major drawback is that there is no democratic set up below the District level.
Presumably this gap was to be filled by traditional heads. However, there is dissonance
between the traditional and the formal systems, which is one of the basic reasons for the sub-
optimal results of development efforts. Relations between State Governments and Autonomous
councils are, also, often not harmonious. Other shortcomings have crept in as well. The
functioning of Autonomous Councils especially in the Sixth Scheduled Areas have not been
subjected to adequate review and improvements. These aspects need to be seriously studied.
2.2 Status of Tribal Agriculture
Historically, tribal communities were characterized by a lifestyle distinct from agrarian

communities. They subsisted on different combinations of shifting cultivation, hunting and
gathering of forest products: all activities closely linked with forests. Their cultures celebrated
and fostered this close bond with nature while also emphasizing communal ownership and
consumption, closely-knit kinship structures, and minimal hierarchies.
Today, the tribal majority areas, which overlap with the country's major forest areas, are also
areas with the highest concentrations of poverty. Agriculture is predominantly rainfed and mono-
cropped. Horticulture is marginally developed in the tribal areas with the present area under
fruits, vegetables, and spices accounting for only about 2.5 percent of the cultivated area15.
Vegetable cultivation is picking up very fast. These are preferably grown on Bari land
(homestead). Women participate in all agricultural operations excepting ploughing and sowing of
rice seed, contributing between 70 to 80 percent of the total labour. In spite of favorable resource
conditions, tribal regions perform poorly in terms of infrastructure, returns from agriculture and
almost all human development indicators. A publication by IWMI throws up some stark figures:
• Percent Net irrigated area (NIA) to Net sown area (NSA)16 is 14.98 percent in tribal area
against 33.59 percent as All India Average
• Percent Net area irrigated by major irrigation systems is 3.66 percent against 9.89 percent
as all India average
• Percent Net area irrigated by minor irrigation is 16.83 percent against 42.28 percent as all
India average
• Percent Groundwater is 11.32 percent in tribal areas against 24.28 percent as all India
average
• Percent Surface lift irrigation is 5.51 percent in tribal areas against 18.00 percent across all
India.
• Population below poverty line is 42.67 percent in tribal areas against 26.00 percent as all
India average (based on 70 most tribal districts in Central India)
• Value of agricultural output (InRs/ha) is 2697.55 in tribal areas against Rs. 8578 /Ha. As all
India average
15
16
Based on study in 30 most tribal districts in Central India

27
The extent to which the tribals are able to meet their food requirements from agriculture is
determined by the type of land they own, the size of the holdings and the size of the household.
The FAO study in MP and Bihar indicate a declining role of agriculture in household food
security of tribals, which lasts for 2 to 6 months of the year for the majority of farming
households. It is estimated that average households in upland systems are only able to meet 20
to 40 percent of their food requirements; those in the middle system 30 to 40 percent and those in
lowland systems between 50 to 70 percent of their needs. Food insecurity peaks in the post-
sowing monsoon period (August-September) and again around March when the kharif harvest
has been exhausted. In the past, most tribals were able to cover most of the shortfall with foods
gathered from the forests. Forest degradation and curtailed forest access has reduced the
availability of natural foods on which they depended compelling the tribals, especially those in
the upland and mixed systems, to depend more and more on purchased foods to meet their
minimum survival needs. Impoverished villagers have to choose between migrating for wage
work or resorting to unsustainable harvesting of firewood for survival income. Many tribals have
become caught in a debt trap because of the precariousness of their food security situation17.
17

28
3 Objectives and Scope
3.1 Main Objective:
The broad objectives of the impact assessment are:
a. Ascertain sustainability of impacts (social, cultural, economic, political, environment) of

various ongoing agriculture schemes/interventions in the tribal areas of agro-climatic regions
of MP, and how individually/collectively these schemes/interventions have impacted in the
light of poverty reduction.
b. Investigate how the existing agricultural schemes/interventions are best suited in the social,
economic and cultural context of tribal population.
c. Identify and document best practices with in depth analysis on “why certain interventions
succeeded under what conditions while other interventions could not have the intended
impacts”
d. Ascertain various vulnerability context, gender-budgeting/auditing, fund
allocation/utilizations, policies, institutions, processes, institutional linkages, technology etc
affecting agriculture schemes/interventions ( positively/negatively, intended/non-intended,
directly/indirectly ) in the tribal areas of MP
e. Draw appropriate lessons, bottleneck issues, framework and approaches for the improvement
in agriculture schemes/interventions for beneficiaries, planning process, design of the
scheme/interventions and implementation cycle.
3.2 Scope of the Study:
The study design was based on definitions of key terms as given below:
Agriculture Interventions means:
• All major schemes operationalised by FW&AD esp. during the last five years
• Other Major programmes (e.g. DPIP, MPRLP) and Agencies (e.g. NGOs) interventions for
Agriculture Development
• Agriculture interventions by other departments (e.g. RD)
Within this wider gambit, the focus on the impact assessment was on capturing impacts
associated with Department of Agriculture Interventions.

29
Impact means:
• Reduction in number of families below the poverty line

• Improvement in food security situation of the families
Intermediate impact (Outcomes and Results) means:
• Access and use of extension services

• Adoption of technical knowledge, POP leading to improved production and productivity
• Increase in irrigated area
• Diversified farmers incomes
• Decrease incidence of pest attack
• Empowered community institutions etc.
Please refer to the detailed list of indicators answered by this study in the Analysis Framework
described later in this report.
Tribal areas means:
• 90+ Tribal blocks notified by the Tribal Welfare Department
The study area has been selected by stratification of blocks based on percentage of tribal
population (up to 25 percent, 26-50 percent, 51 to 75 percent, More than 75 percent). The
detailed sampling method and process is explained in methodology section of this report.
3.3 Impact Assessment Framework:
The impact assessment answers the crucial impact chain of agriculture intervention leading to
or contributing towards poverty reduction. The poverty reduction demands that agriculture
services by Government, private players and NGOs are delivered well, farmers are able to
adopt successfully the new
technology and package of
practices, policies are in favour of
remunerative agriculture and
favourable markets and appropriate
linkages are ensured. Therefore the
impact assessment has looked at
how delivery of agriculture
services, adoption by farmers,
markets, policies and linkages are
contributing or leading to poverty reduction. The impact assessment was designed to look at the
sustainability of change achieved, and whether the interventions were suitable to the social,
cultural and economic situations of the tribal people. The best intensions and capabilities may
not still result in envisaged impact and poverty reduction if the agro climatic conditions become
unfavourable and if institutions, systems and processes of delivery of agriculture interventions
are not effective. Hence impact assessment has analysed the contextual and vulnerability

30
factors which has promoted or inhibited agriculture development in tribal areas in Madhya
Pradesh.
3.4 Study Limitations:
The study findings are relevant and applicable to tribal areas in the state and hence cannot be
generalised as the impact of agriculture interventions for the entire state.
The study findings are generalisable for the tribal areas in the state but the caution is advised
when looking at study results for state level estimates.
Though the study capsules status of development of tribal population in the state, it is not the
focus of the study. The focus remains on how agriculture development has taken place in the
tribal areas and what role agriculture has played in the overall development and welfare of
tribals in the state.
The study also compares development of tribals with the non-tribal population in the state.
However it does not encapsulate the development from human development perspective and
therefore limits itself to look at agriculture development status for both tribals and non-tribals.
Even though the study report presents broader and disaggregated analysis, still vast
opportunities for further data mining are available. The Planning Commission intends to
continue do the analysis, for various purposes, from more than 1000 pages of outputs tables
provided to them from this study.

31
4 Methodology and Tools
4.1 The Study Methods and Tools:
The study has followed both qualitative and quantitative methods for understanding the
impacts as per the following details:
Coverage – 200 villages in 24 Blocks, 12 districts of 6 regions, representing 8 agro-climatic

zones
• Household Survey – 4,007 HHs
• Focus Group Discussions – 50
• Expert Consultations – 10 (state and district levels)
• NGOs and PRI Interviews – 50
The methods and tools used at different levels are described in the following table:
Impact Assessment - Respondents and Methods

Levels Institution Respondents Assessment Issues /Probes Methods No. of
/Tools Exercises
done
State MP SPC, Directors, M&E - Expectation setting Reflection 1
PMPSUS, In-charge and - Impact Assessment framework workshop
Agriculture other key finalisation /meeting
Deptt officials - Finalisation of study plan
- Support and logistics
finalisation
Agriculture Govt. - Context of agriculture In-depth 3

Department functionaries, interventions in tribal areas interviews
/Tribal Political leaders, - Performance of various
Welfare Deptt Private players, schemes
and Expert consultants, - Perception of change ensured
consultations NGOs and what could have been done
better
District/ Agriculture Govt. - Context of agriculture In-depth 36
Block Department functionaries, interventions in tribal areas interviews
/Tribal Political leaders, - Performance of various
Welfare Deptt Private players, schemes
and expert DPC, Corporate, - Perception of change ensured
consultation good farmers, and what could have been done
NGOs better

32
Impact Assessment - Respondents and Methods

Levels Institution Respondents Assessment Issues /Probes Methods No. of
/Tools Exercises
done
Village Households Household - Structured Discussions on HH Survey 4007
(Farmers & women and men Impact elements (as per
non farmers) members Statement of work)
- Reasons for the quantum of
change witnessed
PRI members PRI - Overall implementation of In-depth 50 in 200
representatives agriculture interventions in the interviews villages
village and perception on impact
achieved
- Factors influencing attainment
of impact
NGO NGO members - Role of NGOs /other In-depth 25 in 200
members working in the development agencies in interviews villages
village agriculture interventions
- Perception of impact achieved
of impact
Farmers Group members - Overall implementation of Focus 50 in 200
groups (big , good and agriculture interventions in the group villages
poor farmers) village and perception on impact discussions
achieved
of impact
The survey tool, focus groups guides and in-depth interview checklist is given in Annex-2. The
study coverage is as explained in the table below:

33
4.2 Guiding Principles:
CMS has adopted the following principles in designing and execution of the impact
assessment:
• Understanding expectations and use of outputs of the assessment: The first step in the
assessment was to understand expectations of key stakeholders (through an inception
workshop with SPC, PMPSUS, and Agriculture Deptt. officials) related to the utility of the
outputs of the assessment. This had crucially guided the design and implementation of
assessment.
• Qualitative and Quantitative Data were both required for the understanding impacts.
Factors responsible for impacts, for instance, were qualitatively understood, whereas
analysing the quantum of impact was done through quantitative data. Thus the assessment
integrated both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The assessment has employed
multi-linear analysis in order to examine the dependence between the agriculture
development and poverty reduction.
• Primary and secondary data were used to gain a holistic perspective. The assessment
reviewed all the strategic program documents, progress & impact related reports of the
various activities initiated under Agriculture Department and by NGOs in the tribal areas.

34
• Participative processes defined the conduct of the entire assessment. Key PMPSUS,
Agriculture Department, Tribal Welfare Department staff were consulted and informed
throughout the study and especially at critical stages of the project.
• Replicable methodology for future use: The study was designed so as to allow the
Programme to use the methodology in the future to monitor the impact of the programme
in longitudinal studies.
• Holistic analysis: Analysis of the information has gone beyond a mere reporting of data.
It has included analysis of relationships between, for example, the context of agriculture
interventions, the challenges being faced by the department in delivering of services to the
communities and the impact on poverty.
• The study has ensured mechanisms to triangulate and verify data to the extent possible.
Perceptions of various stakeholders regarding the issues being assessed were captured to
provide additional data sets.
4.3 Study Universe, Sampling Procedure:
A stratified multi-stage design has been adopted for study. The five stages that have been
followed are:
First Stage: Estimation of Number of Sample Blocks;

Second Stage: Selection of Sample Blocks
Third Stage: Estimation of Number of Sample Villages
Fourth Stage: Block wise Selection of Sample Villages
Fifth Stage: Selection of Sample Households
Under each stage stratification based on the ST population is followed to arrive at the required
number of sample blocks and sample villages. The detail of estimation carried out under each
stage is given below.
First Stage – Estimation of Number of Sample Blocks:

In the first stage all the 259 sub districts / blocks in the state were arranged in the ascending
order of the ST population (2001 census) and stratified in to four categories based on the
concentration of ST population.
It is seen that 50 percent of the ST population in

the state are concentrated in 47 blocks (18
percent) spread over 17 districts across five
regions. These 50 percent of the ST population
are in the top two categories. While 82 percent of
the blocks (212) comprises of the remaining 50
percent of the ST population spread over all the regions and districts and are in the bottom two
categories.
The sample blocks are allocated to each of the four category of ST population so that regional, district
and all types of villages of tribal population are covered for the study. Accordingly, the distribution
of sample blocks arrived is presented in the following table:

35
Second Stage – Selection of Sample Blocks:

In this stage all the blocks under each of the four sub categories were arranged in ascending
order of ST Population. The required sample blocks under each sub category were selected
using probability sampling.
Third Stage – Sample Villages Distribution:

In this stage the 200 sample villages were proportionately distributed across the sample blocks
selected in second stage. The distribution of number of sample villages in the four categories of
ST population is presented below:
In each of the sample blocks 8 to 9 sample villages were selected based on the proportionate
distribution of ST population.
Fourth stage – Selection of Sample Villages:

All the villages within the sample blocks identified in Stage 3 were arranged in the ascending
order of the ST population and 8 or 9 villages were selected in each of the sample blocks
selected using probability sampling.
Fifth Stage – Selection of sample households:

In this stage, all the households in the sample village were listed and information on the social
category and the land holding details were mapped. A sample of 20 households – 15
landholding and 5 landless households – were selected based on the land holding category and
the social category so that all the category of households are represented in the sample. In big
villages, listing of households was done based on sampling fraction, so that the whole village
gets represented in the process.
Estimation Procedure
The estimation of population based on the sample information was done using multipliers. The
following formula is used for calculating the multipliers for estimation the population characteristics.

36
It is to be note here that the survey listed all the households in a village along with few key
parameters such as social caste, land holding status etc. However, at the time of listing, some of
the households across different categories were not available. It is also observed that most of
the non-listed households belong to non-ST which resulted in under estimation of these non-ST
households. Present study is mainly on tribal households. Sample household has been selected
randomly from each category of households representing social caste and land holding classes.
All ratio estimate given in the report from each category of the households is based on primary
data which are reliable and valid.
4.4 Analysis Framework:
The impact assessment study has measured the change (direct /indirect, positive /negative,
intended /unintended) due to agriculture interventions in tribal areas. The change is measured
related to four key dimensions:
• Economic
• Political and Institutional
• Socio-cultural
• Environmental

37
There are two level of change measured in the impact assessment study:
• Primary, which means the ultimate impact of agriculture interventions

• Intermediate, which means the outcomes and results of agriculture interventions
Overall, the study answers 5 primary (ultimate impact) indicators and 13 intermediate impact
indicators. The key findings of the study are therefore presented by the dimension of impact
and corresponding indicator of change. The study has recognised “stepping stones” to change,
without which the change will either not happen or the degree of change will be lower.
Therefore the entire analysis is based on how “stepping stones” have been crossed by the
agriculture interventions in tribal areas and subsequent to this analysis, the study has looked

38
into what can be done better in the future to arrive at a set of policy and programmatic
recommendations.
In terms of analysis tables, there were number of tables and cross-tabs developed. Many more
analysis is possible with both the quantitative and qualitative data. For want of better
readability and focusing on key points, the report brings-in only important graphs and tables,
and highlights the analysis related to this. The databases and output tables are being submitted
to the PMPSUS.
4.5 The Study Process:
Catalyst Management Services (CMS) was commissioned by Poverty Monitoring and Policy
Support Unit Society (PMPSUS), State Planning Commission to analyze the status and impact
of agriculture interventions and schemes in tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh. A rigorous process
(extensive consultations, field testing, pilot study) of designing the impact assessment study
was followed during Nov-Dec.08. The study field work was launched after training to the field
team on 8-9 Jan.09. Entire field work (covering 4000 HHs, 50 Focus groups and numerous
individual interviews at village and block levels) were completed by 28th Feb 2009. The data
checking and validation process were completed by 5th March 09. The data entry work was
completed by 15th March 09. The secondary data analysis was completed by 18th March 2009.
The consultations with agriculture experts were completed by 20th March 2009. CMS
organised an analysis workshop with the field team during 13-14 March 2009. PMPSUS team
also participated in the analysis workshop and provided their rich inputs. The analysis and draft
report preparation process happened during 11-30 March 2009. CMS team presented the draft
analysis to PMPSUS team on 30th March 2009. CMS further refined the analysis and multiplier
application during 31 March to 10 April 2009. The draft report to PMPSUS was submitted on
13th April 2009. Based on the feedback, this report has been prepared and being submitted by
CMS to PMPSUS.

39
5 Profile of Samples
In this section, the profile of the sample villages and the socio-economic profile of farmers in
the study area (using estimated values) are presented. Not all tables are brought into this
section in the main report to ensure readability. Detailed output tables related to profiles are
given in the annex.
5.1 Sample Profile

The study was done in 202 villages in 24 blocks of 17 districts. The sampled study villages
were spread out within a district which can be gauged from the fact that only 13 percent of the
Fig 5.1: Proportion of Sampled Villages by Distance from District HQ
study villages were less than 25 Km from
the district HQ. One third of study villages
< 25 Kms from
> 100 Kms from
District HQ
District HQ were 25-50 Km from the district HQ. About
13%
74 - 100 Kms from
5% one fourth of the study villages were 50-75
District HQ
23% Km from district HQ. Similarly about one
25 - 50 Kms from
District HQ
fourth of study villages were 74-100 Km
50 - 75 Kms from
33% from the district HQ. This shows that the
District HQ
26% study team went into large number of very
interior villages. Team covered diversified
profile of villages, including those interior ones where no agriculture interventions by the
FE&AD has reached. In one of the village in Sidhi, the villagers reported that an external
visitor has come to the village, for the first time!
The estimated number of households in the study area is 42.87 lakhs. The distribution of these
HHs across the four categories of tribal population are: > 75 percent - 11 percent; 50 percent to
Fig. 5.2 Distribution of Farmers in the Study Area
75 percent - 16 percent; 25 percent
(estimated number of HH - 42.87 Lakhs) to 50 percent - 29 percent and < 25
Vindhya Plateau percent - 44 percent. While based
Satpura Plateau
on the 2001 census the distribution
Agro Climatic zones
Northern Hills Region of CG

Nimar Plains
across these categories indicates 6
Malwa Plateau percent, 12 percent, 21 percent and
Kymore Plateau & Satpura Hills 61 percent respectively.
Jhabua Hills
Central Narmada Valley
<25%
The distribution of the population in
Rank of the
terms of agro-climatic zones and the

Blocks
25-50%
50-75% rank of the blocks (in terms of

>75%
proportion of tribal pop) are given in
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% the graph. Maximum proportion of
farmers are from the agro-climatic
zone – Kymore Plateau & Satpura Hills and in terms of rank of the block on tribal population it
is <25 percent tribal population blocks. Study sample <25 percent tribal population represent
165 blocks of the state, so this sample represent the general situation of the state agriculture.

40
5.2 Socio-economic Profile of Farmers in Tribal Areas

The study was conducted in 24 blocks, selected based on different proportion of tribal
population (>75 percent, 50-75 percent, 25-50 percent, <25 percent) as explained in the
sampling procedure in the section 4.3.
Fig.5.3 Socio-economic and Land Classification Profile of the Sampled Households
100%
80%
60%
37.6% 34.7% 36.2%
40%
26.3% 24.9% 22.3% 23.7%
19.6% 21.2% 19.2% 17.8%
16.5%
20%
0%
TRIBAL NON-TRIBAL Overall
LAND LESS MARGINAL SMALL MEDIUM & LARGE
The proportion of landless tribal households (19.6 percent) is less than proportion of landless
non-tribal households (24.9 percent). Landlessness among tribals has reduced by 2 percent over
the last five years (this may due to increased allocation of land patta under Forest Land rights
act, implemented in the last two years). However small and marginal farmers among tribal are
more (63.9 percent) than small and marginal farmers among non-tribals (55.9 percent).
Medium and Large Farmers are more among non-tribals (19.2 percent) than among tribals
(16.5 percent). Overall about three fifth of the households are small and marginal farmers.
Based on the 2001 agricultural census this distribution is: Marginal – 39 percent; Small – 27
percent; Medium – 20 percent; Large – 2 percent; the all India level distribution of landholding
pattern during 2001 has been: Marginal – 69 percent; Small – 19 percent; Medium – 12
percent; Large – 1 percent;
Average land holding size for tribal farmers is 2.8 acres while for non-tribal farmer, it is 3
acres. The cropping intensity in tribal areas for tribal households is 113 and for non-tribal
households it is 127 against 135 for the state.
The sampling methodology has ensured that proportion of sampled households to a particular
social class (ST /SC/OBC/Gen) is similar to the proportion in the population. The multiplier
application has fine-tuned the sampling methodology by providing adjusted weightages so that
proportion of samples in a particular class matches that with the proportion in the sampling
universe.
The overall samples drawn are 51 percent tribals and 49 percent non-tribals. In blocks with
more than 75 percent tribal population, 93.8 percent of the sample drawn are tribals. In blocks
with 50 to 75 percent of tribal population, 87.3 percent of the samples drawn are tribals. The
details on samples from various social classifications by different land classification are given
in the above Fig. 5.3. The graph above (Fig. 5.4) captures the socio-economic profile of the
estimated population. The tribal households constitute 51 percent while Non Tribal – 49

41
percent. The poverty status shows that 59 percent are BPL families and 41 percent APL
families. The social stratification shows that 51 percent households belong to ST and 9 percent
are SC’s. The OBC and General categories of households comprises of 33 percent and 7
percent respectively. 92
Fig. 5.4: Profile of Farmers in the Study Area percent are male headed
(estimated number of HH - 42.87 Lakhs)
households and 8 percent
100%
are female headed
households. Overall 24
80%
percent of the
Households have
60%
received the Annapurna /
Anotdya card.
40%
The study has surveyed

20% women headed
households as well.
0% Overall 8.3 percent of the
GENERAL
OBC
Non-Tribal
BPL
APL
No
No
Yes
Yes
SC
Med
ST
Tribal
Marginal
Small
Landless
Large
households in tribal areas

are women headed
Whether
Tribal
Farmer Type Poverty Social Category-wise Women-
headed
Annapurna
Card
households. More
proportion of women
headed households are found among non-tribals (9.5 percent) than in tribals (7.2 percent). It
requires detailed sociological /anthropological explorations for finding the reasons behind this.
The tribal areas have 28.1 percent illiterates among men and 49.3 percent illiterate among
women. Another 12.7 percent among men are illiterates but can read and write. Similarly
another 13.4 percent among women are illiterates but can read and write. Only about half of
men and one fourth of women in tribal areas have gone through formal education. Only
5.4 percent among men and 0.59 percent among women are graduate or above. State level
literacy rate18 for Madhya Pradesh is 62.8 percent. Dismal status of education in tribal areas has
contributed significantly to that.
In terms of change in type of housing over the last five years in the selected regions shows that
3.9 percent of the households have moved from ‘kutcha’ houses to ‘semi pucca’ (3.8 percent)
and ‘pucca’ houses (0.10 percent). The change is seen more in the 25 percent to 50 percent
category (7 percent) while 3 percent change is seen in the <25 percent and 50 percent to 75
percent category of tribal population. In the villages with more than 75 percent tribal
population the housing type has changed least (1 percent). Overall 80.8 percent households
rely upon public source (rest have private sources) of drinking water, which is an improvement
of 1.6 percent over the last five years. This is more so in the Tribal dominated area (>75
percent).
The ownership of land has increased by 3.2 percent in tribals areas in last five years (increase is
almost same for both tribals and non tribals), one of the reason for increased landholding can be
the land ownership “pattas” distributed under tribal forest right act during last two years.
18
As per State Human Development Report -2007

42
Leased in land has increased by almost 40 percent which is more so for non tribals (53 percent)
than for tribals (22 percent). It is to be noted however that proportion of leased in land is only
3,3 percent of the total owned land and hence the increase in leased in land is on a small base of
leased in land against the total land owned in the tribal areas. The relatively more increase in
leased in land for non-tribals as
compared to tribals shows that non
tribals capacity and resources for
agriculture is increasing at much faster
pace than of tribals. Leased out land has
decreased by 15.6 percent, mainly for the
non-tribals, which further corroborate the
above statement that non-tribals’ capacity,
resources and utilisation of Govt. schemes
has increased over the last five years.
Overall fallow lands have increased

marginally by 1.3 percent. Fellow land is
4.9 percent of the total owned land now.
Five years ago, it was 5 percent of the total owned land.
Fig. 5.5: Change in Land Holding Status in Tribal Areas in MP, over the Last five years
60% 53.01%
50%
40%
30% 22.19%
20% 12.53% 13.80%
8.80% 8.99% 7.57%
10% 3.22% 6.91% 7.22%
3.17%
0%
Ow n Land Leased in Land Leased Out Land Fallow Land Plantation Net Cultivable Gross Cultivable Net Irrigated Area
-10% -2.05% -3.04% Area Area
-20%
-30%
-28.75%
-31.26%
-40%
-42.85%
-50%
TRIBAL NON TRIBAL
This plantation on private lands are generally done by farmers by tree planting in their fields
and by growing grass in raining sessions for the fodder purpose. The plantation on private lands
has reduced (in last five years) from 8.4 percent of total owned land to 4.6 percent. This is a
drastic reduction by 38 percent. The decrease in plantation area on private lands is more in case
of tribals (43 percent) than non-tribals (31 percent). The reduction can be explained by the
decreasing land holding size due to distribution of land in the family to the new generation.
Net cultivable area (NCA) has increased by 7.8 percent (8.8 percent for tribals and 6.9 percent
for non tribals). Gross cultivable area (GCA) has increased by 8 percent (9 percent for tribals
and 7.2 percent for non-tribals) over the last five year period. The increase in net cropped area

43
(22 percent) and gross cropped area (24 percent) is high in villages having 25 to 50 percent
tribal population. This area have medium black soil with average 1000-1400 mm annual
rainfall which is good for rice, wheat and cotton crops, which explain the relatively more
increase in net and cropped area in the blocks with 25 to 50 percent of the tribal population.
Across the different agro climatic zones in Nimar Plateau NCA has increased by 17 percent and
by 9 percent in Northern Hills Region of CG. In other regions increase in NCA is less than 5
percent.
The net irrigated area has increased by 9.7 percent. 42 percent of the NCA is irrigated during
the current period as compared to 41 percent five years ago. The net irrigated area is high (59
percent) in <25 percent category. In Central Narmada Valley region the net irrigated area is
87 percent and in Vindhya plateau it is 63 percent. The lowest is seen in Jhabua Hills region (7
percent). Overall in tribal areas, most popular scheme under the NREGS sub sector “Kapil
Dahra” is impacting well on increasing the irrigation area. 34 percent of the area is fully
irrigated, while 11 percent is partially irrigated and 55 percent un-irrigated. Change in the fully
irrigated area over the last five years indicates decline of 10 percent among the small and
marginal farmers, while it remained same for the medium farmers. For large farmers it has
increased by 2 percent.
Increase in the number of crops cultivated over the last five years has been reported by 6
percent of the HHs and decrease by 1 percent. While the remaining have reported no change in
the number of crops cultivated.
The cropping intensity has remained at 120 percent during the two periods. The cropping
intensity is 134 percent in <25 percent tribal population, while it is low (103 percent) in the 25
percent to 50 percent category. Cropping Intensity is highest at 171 percent in Central Narmada
Valley region and 122 percent in Northern Hills Region of CG. In other regions it is less than
105 percent. The cropping intensity is 133 percent among the SC and OBC groups, as
compared to 113 percent among STs. Cropping intensity is 115 percent among the BPL
families and 124 present in APL families. In Hoshangabad (Babai block), most of the farmers
are cultivating more than two crops and in Jhabua most of the farmers are dependent on one
crop only. Hoshangabad comes under the <25 percent tribal population and agriculture
extension programme have good reach in the area with existing agriculture research station and
better implementation of ATMA scheme. Jhabua have undulated topography and >90 tribal
population less (7%) irrigated area, rainfed farming, low input efficiency resulted less cropping
intensity in the area.
In terms of livestock, Cows are the most common livestock held by the households (52 percent
of households own currently) followed by Ox (47 percent). Buffalo and Goat are held by 18
percent of the households. The average number of cows held by the households has declined
from 2.28 to 1.8, while it is from 2.32 to 2.15 for ox and 2.23 to 1.7 for Buffalo. In case of
Goats the average holding has declined from 5.06 to 3.73. The decline in the average holding is
due to the increase in the number of households owning livestock. Average ox number in non
tribal family reduced from 2.45 to 2.05 and in tribal families, it has marginally reduced from
2.24 to 2.21. This reflects non tribal farmers are now moving towards mechanised farming with
tractors and its related implements but in tribals, this occurrence is very limited as of now. The
number of poultry per household has also reduced from 5.12 to 3.83 for tribals as well as non

44
tribals (4.6 to 3.68) in the last five years. This means that in tribal areas, one of the diversified
livelihood option (poultry) is losing grip at households level in the present situation.
6 Objective 1 - Impact and Sustainability of Agricultural

Interventions
6.1 Economic Impact
The study has measured economic impact through:
• Reach, access, adoption and benefits from agriculture service by the farmers in tribal areas
• Increased Irrigated Area
• Diversified Farmers’ Income
• Increased production and productivity
• Improved technology applications in the tribal areas
• Proportion of credit needs met though institutional sources
• Proportion of produce being marketed
• Beneficial changes in cropping pattern etc.
The detailed assessment on above and many other aspects of economic impact is described in
this section.
6.1.1 Reach of Agriculture Services

Madhya Pradesh agricultures are largely dependent on rain fed farming. During sampled
households’ surveys and in general community discussions, it is known that RAEO visits to the
village to disseminate information about the new schemes are quite infrequent and some of the
village even don’t know any departmental interventions in the village. Farmers seem to be
receiving agriculture information from the private agencies, seed and pesticide shopkeepers,
agents, big farmers. ATMA scheme have seen presence in some villages with some private
company (Dawat & ITC). In remote villages, the reach of the department and private sector
interventions seems to be very poor currently.
The study has consulted Deputy Director Agriculture, SADOs and RAEOs of the Department
of Agriculture and taken their perceptions regarding role of agricultural interventions for tribal
area development. The main findings from discussions reveal that due to the overburden,
RAEO is unable to focus their time and energies in the villages. Reaching village more than
one time in a month or two is almost impossible. Half of RAEO time goes in other-
departmental work of Janpad where as other half of the time, RAEO is spending on field visit
and reporting, meetings etc., the later still consumes chunk of RAEO’s time. During the
discussion, it emerged that the selection of beneficiaries under any scheme is one of the
toughest exercise. This is largely due to large demands (applications) in comparison to the
allocated targets by the district. Regarding gender budgeting, most of the SADO has no

45
understanding on the allocations and prioritization of beneficiaries. ATMA is a better scheme

due to inbuilt mechanisms of aggressive extension. According to the one of the SADO (met
during the study), farmers means the person having evidence of holding land. Therefore,
agriculture interventions are only limited to farmers who are holding land.
In all the 200 study villages, a detailed meeting was conducted with a group of villagers (total
of 11,048 villagers participated, average 55 villagers per meeting) for understanding five key
development programmes
Fig. 6.1: Reach and Visibility of Major Agriculture Related Development
(related to agriculture) present in Schemes in Tribal Areas - Proportion of Villages (Sample - 200 Villages)
the village. The communities
100%
were asked to respond in order of
Proportion of Villages
their priority19 of the 80%
development programme. The 60%

responses show the top 5
development programmes in 40%
tribal areas are: 20%
•
0%
Kapil Dhara (NREGA)
DP
A
ra
er
na
SM
A
M
ed
LP
P
e
en
rn
M
m
EG
EG
DE
ha
kl
PA
ja
sh
PR
IT
pu
scheme has attained 50
pm
AT
he
NF
rin
Yo
jd
NR
NA
NR
O
er
na
Sc
M
Sp
ra
ui
IS
at
m
An
Su
Eq
a-
as
ra
ar
percent reach in tribal areas,
G
ri
G
Dh
Ag
ej
Bi
Be
l
pi
Ka
with communities in 42
Reach - % of Villages Rank 1 or 2 - % of villages
percent villages giving it
Rank-1 or 2 development programme in their village
• NREGA has reached to 32 percent villages in tribal areas, with communities in 24 percent
villages assigning it Rank-1 or 2
• Watershed programmes has reached to 31 percent villages in tribal areas, with communities
in 11 percent villages assigning it Rank-1 or 2
• Annapurna has reached 30 percent of the villages in tribal areas, with communities in 9
percent of villages assigning it Rank-1 or 2
• Surajdhara has reached 28 percent of the villages in tribal areas, with communities in 16
percent of villages assigning it Rank-1 or 2
Large number of other agriculture interventions has reportedly reached to only 5 to 10 percent
of the villages. The household survey also report similar stark figures of limited reach of
agriculture services in the tribal areas. About 9 percent of the households have received training
through FW&AD (has played either critical or catalytic roles). About 10 percent of the
households have participated in kisan melas wherein about three fourth of them directly
supported by the FW&AD.
19
Community Priority (Rank 1 to Rank 5, 1 being highest priority) will reflect utility, relevance and benefit
realisation from the scheme

46
About 5.9 percent of the farmers have been supported by FW&AD in preparation of their farm
plans. About 10 percent of the households have Kisan credit card while about 5 percent have
accessed crop insurance facility. About 7 percent of the households are involved in contract
farming and also in collective farming. Less than one fourth (23.4 percent) of the households
have accessed banks for agricultural credit and received credit facility varying from Rs. 1500
and up to Rs. 3 lakhs. The main purpose of availing credit is for agriculture and related inputs
& equipments.
12.5 percent of the households reported that they have received assistance (any one particular
service) from the agriculture department in the last five years. Specifically macro management
programme related assistance is reported by 14.7 percent of the households followed by soil
and water conservation support received by 10.5 percent of the households. Other significant
level of assistance is reported on the Micro Minor irrigation (8.8 percent), NFSM (6.3 percent),
Crop improvement programme (6 percent), State sector schemes (6.2 percent) and National
Agriculture Insurance Scheme (3.9 percent). The reach of other tribal relevant schemes like
Surajdhara (5.2 percent households), Participation of women in agriculture (0.5 percent) is very
low.

47
Predominant source of information for the farmers on agriculture in tribal areas are fellow
farmers (35 percent), Radio (28 percent), TV (20 percent), NGOs (10 percent) and FW&AD (5
percent).
6.1.2 Level of Awareness and Adoption of Package of Practices
Awareness and adoption of Package of Practices in tribal areas in MP are at low levels. The
relatively higher awareness levels are expressed by the tribal households on seed replacement
(37 percent households), summer ploughing (28 percent), Balanced use of chemical fertilizer
(24 percent), Soil priming (22 percent), soil testing and seed sowing techniques (21 percent),
and use of organic farming (20 percent). On other POP areas, about one fifth or less than one
fifth households are aware about. The least awareness levels are expressed on seed treatment
and culture (16 percent). The level of awareness on various POP areas has improved over the
last five years but not substantially. Generally seen, 1 to 9 percent more households are aware

48
(on different POP areas) now than five years ago. A gap between awareness to adoption is
witnessed in the tribal areas. 2 to 17 percent of the households have not converted their
awareness and knowledge
Fig. 6.2: Proportion of Households showing Awareness and Application of about (different) POP area
POP
40 into practice. Largest gap (17
35 percent) between awareness
30
to adoption is in the soil
HHs
Proportion of
25
20
15
testing POP area. Seed
10 priming and seed
5
0
replacement (14 percent) and
organic farming (13 percent)
ploughing
Soil Testing
Use of quality
equipments
Judicial use
Organic
farming
Inter-culture
Seed priming
Balanced use
Seed Sowing
treatment,
Replacement
of chemicals
agriculture
operations
Summer
Improved
/irrigation
insecticide,
techniques
culture
pesticide
of water
fertilizer
Seed
Seed
have also seen large gaps

between awareness to
Aware (Men) Now Aware (Men) 5 years back adoption.
Applied (Regularly) Now Applied (Regularly) 5 years back
In general, non tribals are

marginally more aware than the tribals on different POPs. However the adoption level
among tribals (once aware) is more than the non-tribals in tribal areas of the state. Tribal
farmers have generally no information about
Kishan mitra and Kishan didi schemes.
The farmers in tribal areas are supported the

most by other fellow farmers in increased
awareness and adoption of package of practices.
This is evident from 20 to 64 percent of
households who reported getting support on
different POPs from the fellow farmers.
Second most important support providers for
the tribal farmers are the local shop keepers. Gram Sevak has also come out as the third most
important support provider to the tribal farmers. Department of Agriculture role has been
important for 1 to 8 percent of the households in
knowing about various POPs. This is further evident
from the finding that ever participation in any
demonstration trial is reported by 5.5 percent of the
farmer household in the tribal area. Radio has also
supported 1 to 5 percent of tribal farmers in
awareness and adoption of POPs.
6.1.3 Changes in Cropped Area, Crops and Cropping

Pattern
In this section, to understand the impact of agricultural interventions, analysis has been done
in terms of changes that have happened over a period five years (i.e. difference between the
practices currently and five years before), both at aggregate level (i.e. for all the samples put
together) and at the household level (i.e. proportion of household showing changes).
Therefore, the results are presented first at the aggregate level (overall and season-wise),

49
followed by the household level. Any significant changes observed in any of the profiles or
segments are highlighted. For want of better presentation, the data related to very small
proportions are NOT presented here (e.g. changes in pattern of crop Arrndi), but available in
detailed tables for reference.
The results of the study show that at the aggregate level, there is an overall increase of 14.6
percent in the area under cultivation from 5 years before to now. The percentage of increase is
marginally higher in Rabi (i.e. 15.13 percent) compared to Kharif (14.28 percent).
Fig. 6.3: Changes in Area under Cultivation for Major Crops
18,000,000
16,000,000 Others, 2,076,797
Maize, 994,111
14,000,000 Others, 1,852,080
Area under Cultivation in Acres
Cotton, 2,093,446
12,000,000 Maize, 1,479,913
Soybean, 2,241,887 Cotton, 1,713,387

10,000,000
Soybean, 2,041,621
8,000,000
Wheat, 4,606,683
6,000,000 Wheat, 4,021,853
4,000,000
Paddy, 4,945,351
2,000,000 Paddy, 3,693,595
-
Now 5 Yrs Back
Five major crops account for about 88 percent of the total area under cultivation (i.e. Paddy,
Wheat, Soybean, Cotton and Maize, in that order), and the trend is similar 5 years before and
now. Of these five major crops, only in the case of Maize there has been a significant reduction
in the area of cultivation, i.e. by 33 percent. In all other major crops, there is an increase in the
area of cultivation, i.e. in Paddy – 34 percent, in Cotton – 22 percent, in Wheat 15 percent, and
in Soybean – 10 percent. In terms of other crops, there has been a significant increase in the
area under cultivation of Vegetables (by about 540 percent). Arandi has come in as new crops
among the sample households and Lakhodi which was reported 5 years before does not find
space in the current cropping pattern. The following table captures these changes for all crops:

50
While the changes are analysed on household basis, the highest proportion of positive changes
are observed among the ‘medium and large farmers’ category (about 7.94 percent of farmers
reporting increase in area under cultivation), followed by small farmers (about 7.51 percent
reporting positive). Highest proportions of negative changes are observed among the medium
and large farmers (about 3.22 percent reporting negative changes). In majority of the farmers,
i.e. about 93 percent, there has been no change in the area of cultivation.
% of HH showing folliwng changes in the Area Under Cultivation

Present Land from Now and 5 years before
Holding Negetive No Change Positive
Tribal Non Tribal Total Tribal Non Tribal Total Tribal Non Tribal Total
Landless 0.19% 0.00% 0.09% 99.81% 100.00% 99.91% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00%
Marginal 1.61% 1.71% 1.65% 94.68% 92.84% 93.82% 3.71% 5.45% 4.53%
Small 3.06% 1.10% 2.20% 88.80% 92.21% 90.29% 8.15% 6.69% 7.51%
Medium & Large 2.20% 4.14% 3.22% 90.38% 87.47% 88.84% 7.42% 8.40% 7.94%
Total 1.81% 1.62% 1.72% 93.43% 93.46% 93.44% 4.76% 4.92% 4.84%
In terms of tribal and non-tribal farmers, highest proportion of positive changes are observed
among non-tribal farmers (4.92 percent), and the highest proportion of negative changes are
with tribal farmers (1.81 percent). Combining these two profiles, it can be concluded that the
positive and negative changes are observed in both and tribal-non-tribal and also different land

51
holding categories. The highest proportion of households reporting positive and negative
changes has been in non-tribal medium and large farmers. Similar trend is noticed among the
tribal small farmers (i.e. 8.15 percent reporting positive change and 3.06 percent reporting
negative change).
Key points:
Overall, comparing with the situation five years before, currently there has been an increase in
area of cultivation (about 15 percent). The increase has been to a very small proportion of the
households, i.e. less than 5 percent. Most of the households did not report any change in the
area of cultivation. Within the category of households, largest proportion of households
reporting increase is in medium and large farmers’ category. Of the five major crops that
account of 88 percent of the total area under cultivation, only in the case of Maize there has
been a significant reduction in the area of cultivation, i.e. by 33 percent (possible reasons for
this are the history of Maize crop failure, maize being replaced by other crops like Soybean and
paddy and no supportive Govt. scheme for the crop). In all other major crops, there is an
increase in the area of cultivation. In terms of other crops, there has been a significant increase
in the area under cultivation of Vegetables. Chilli and Arrndi have come in as new crops among
the sample households and Lakhodi which was reported 5 years before does not find space in
the current cropping pattern. In terms of changes in area of cultivation among different profiles,
it can be concluded that the positive and negative changes are observed in both and tribal-non-
tribal and also different land holding categories. However, the highest proportion of
households reporting positive and negative changes has been in non-tribal medium and large
farmers. Similar trend is noticed
among the tribal small farmers. Fig. 6.4: Changes in Productivity and Production for Major Crops
(Current and Five Years Back)
70%
6.1.4 Changes in Productivity and 60%
Production 60%
50%
The results of the study show that 40% 35%

31%
at the aggregate level, total 30%
30%
production of most of the crops

20%
have increased (except for four 8%
10%
crops out of 18). Of the main 2%
five crops that account for 0%
Paddy Wheat Soybean Cotton Maize
maximum proportion of -10% -3% -5% -9%
cultivated area, only in case of -20% -12%
Maize the total production is % Change in Productivity % Change in Production

reduced. In case of Soybean, the
total production has increased marginally and substantial increase is noticed in Cotton and
Paddy.
In case of productivity of these crops, in three of the major crops (Paddy, Wheat and Soybean),
there is a reduction; with Soybean’s productivity reduced by 12 percent. Cotton is the only
crop where both the productivity and production have increased. In case of Paddy, Wheat and
Soybean, higher production was possible due to increased area under cultivation. In case of

52
Maize, the total production was marginally lower by 9 percent due to improved productivity,
even though there was substantial reduction in the area under cultivation.
The following table captures the change in production and productivity for all crops between
current year and five years before:
Comparisons of productivity are further illustrated by the following table and the graph:

53
Fig. 6.5: Productivity of Main Crops (Qutl. /Acre) in Tribal Areas in MP (With
Comparisons with State and National Figures)
12.0
10.0
8.0
6.0
4.0
2.0
0.0
rd
s
et
am
n
r
dy
ar
m
ar
t
ra
ze
oo
et
a
to
ea
dn
ta
ra
he
rh
aj
w
ad
ai
ill
gr
ot
as
us
ab
Jo
B
G
un
A
M
M
W
ck
P
M
oy
M
ro
or
la
S
G
in
B
M
Tribals Non-Tribals State National
6.1.5 Changes in Cost of Production
Fig. 6.6: Changes in Cost of Production for Major

The cost of production for various crops five Crops (Current and Five Years Back) - (actual prices)
years before and current year is arrived at 4,000 3,597
based on the data obtained from the 3,500 3,298 3,353

Cost of Production - Rs. / Acre
respondents on areas, crops and the costs 3,000

2,649
2,823
incurred in various seasons in a year. 2,500
2,000
1,388 1,571
There is an increase in Cost of Production (Rs/ 1,500 1,251
1,083
Acre) for all the major crops in the past give 1,000 869
years (without adjusting for the inflation). 500
Largest reduction is noticed in the case of -
Vegetables, Kakdi, and Groundnut. If we Paddy Wheat Soybean Cotton Maize
Current Year 5 Years Before

54
correct the costs for inflation (with approx. 5 percent per annum) then the increases are seen in
only about 50 percent of the crops sown. Among the major crops, highest proportion of
increase in cost of production is noticed in Cotton, followed by Maize and Wheat.
The following table captures the cost of production of all the crops (with calculated value for
both with inflation correction and without):
Cost of Production - Rs. / Acre
Change in Cost of Change in Cost of
Inflation Corrected
Crops Five Years Production (%) - (+ve Production (%) -
Current Cost - now (5% for
Before means increased after corr for
five years)
cost of production) inflation
Arrndi 0 NA NA - NA
Chilly 7483 150 NA 5,864 NA
Onion 4,525 1,750 159% 3,545 103%
Cotton 3,353 1,571 113% 2,627 67%
Kutki 565 379 49% 443 17%
Musterd 408 275 49% 320 17%
Blackgram 1,631 1,098 49% 1,278 16%
Pea 1,261 857 47% 988 15%
Gram 1,484 1,019 46% 1,163 14%
Maize 1,251 869 44% 980 13%
Bajra 841 605 39% 659 9%
Wheat 3,597 2,649 36% 2,818 6%
Ramtila 311 239 30% 244 2%
Paddy 1,388 1,083 28% 1,088 0%
Soyabean 3,298 2,823 17% 2,584 -8%
Arhar 1,087 944 15% 851 -10%
Kondu 306 268 14% 240 -11%
Masoor 787 805 -2% 617 -23%
Jowar 545 582 -6% 427 -27%
Dangrabadi 31,275 33,881 -8% 24,505 -28%
Groundnut 1,190 1,710 -30% 932 -45%
Kakdi 11,058 17,811 -38% 8,664 -51%
Vegetables 427 2,840 -85% 335 -88%
Note: Colour Coding:
- Increase in Cost of Production in the five years
- Decrease or Stagnant in Cost of Production over five years
- Five major crops that account for 85% of cultivated area
6.1.6 Changes in Marketable Surplus
The study obtained information on the Fig. 6.7: Changes in Marketable Surplus for Major Crops
(Current and Five Years Back)
marketable surplus of various crops, and
90% 85%
analysed the changes over the period of five 80%
78%
years. 70% 62%
68%
60%
At the aggregate level, for most of the crops 50%
the proportion of marketable surplus has 40%
33%
35%
either remained stagnant or reduced. Of the 30% 22%
20%
main five crops, only in the case of Cotton, 20%
there has been an increase of 13 percent in 10%
the marketable surplus from the five years 0%

Paddy Wheat Soybean Maize
before situation. In case of Paddy the
Current Year 5 Years Before
reduction is marginal. But given that the

55
area and production have gone up, the proportion of marketable surplus has gone down. This
may be due to the fact that the farmers hold on to Paddy and other food grain crops to ensure
that food security. The data on marketable surplus for other crops are given below:
% of Total Produce Sold % of Total Produce Sold to Total

Change in Mkt
Production
Crop Surplus over
Five Years Five Years
Present Present five years
Before Before
Chilly 4,778 5,181 18% NA NA
Dangrabadi 38,489 4,621 NA NA NA
Cotton 4,039,719 1,905,708 52% 39% 13%
Gram 701,828 517,260 46% 35% 11%
Bajra 17,799 6,285 11% 4% 7%
Blackgram 33,499 20,902 24% 18% 7%
Vegetables 7,771 - 1% 0% 1%
Masoor 30,639 27,269 6% 6% 0%
Musterd 0% 0% 0%
Ramtila - - 0% 0% 0%
Jowar 163,306 185,020 17% 18% -1%
Paddy 6,240,732 5,158,516 33% 35% -2%
Maize 779,555 979,611 20% 22% -3%
Kondu 5,843 10,834 2% 5% -3%
Arhar 116,877 104,629 16% 20% -5%
Wheat 26,153,519 26,408,462 62% 68% -6%
Soyabean 8,431,632 9,022,805 78% 85% -7%
Groundnut 11,147 20,170 18% 31% -13%
Pea 77,065 65,009 9% 29% -20%
Kutki 3,037 59,572 2% 29% -27%
Note: Colour Coding:
- Decrease in Marketable Surplus over five years
- Increase in Marketable Surplus over five years
- Five major crops that account for 85% of cultivated area
The comparison of status of tribal and non-tribal households on area sown, productivity,
marketable surplus and cost of production is given in the table below, for the five main crops
(accounting for 88 percent of area sown in tribal areas):

56
Mostly the farmers in the tribal areas do not sell their produce and use it for their consumption
needs. Wherever farmers are in position to sell, they are selling it to local mahajan (money
lender). The villagers are aware that the market can provide better price of their produce though
they are not aware about the minimum support price. However in the absence of transportation
and other communication infrastructure which can link them to the market (which are around
10-12 Kms away), they are unable to get the benefits. In some areas, Soya choupals have made
market access easier.
Further there are no storage facilities in the villages. No collective marketing is attempted as
yet. Despite great potential due to raw material availability, there are no processing units
nearby. RAEO can provide the necessary facilitation to the villagers linking them to the
markets, however villagers say that RAEO is mostly seen in the Panchayat’s meeting and goes
off without much sharing happening.
Contract farming is practiced to a small extent in the tribal areas. Usually the farmers take up
the lands of others as per the availability of the water sources. The produce is divided among
the land owner & water source owner and the agriculture labourer to whom land is leased.
Box 1: Mandi has no attraction to Marginal Farmer in the Tribal Area
Village Pandlaya, District Khandwa: Small and big framers believe that Mandi does not provide right
price for their agricultural produce. Whatever rate (Minimum support price) government announces
Mandi system underestimate the produce through different reasons. The highest disadvantage the
farmers face while weighing of products is the attitude of the hammal. Hammal deliberately falls down
the products while it’s weighing and does not include that amount in total weight. According to farmers
Hammal falls approximately 5 KG from 5-10 quintal of produce. As soon as weighing is complete Hamaal
collects that fallen grain for their use. Farmers appreciated new policy of cash payment against the
produce, earlier (5year back) when payment done by the cheque they all faced problem of withdrawing it
as it takes 4-5 days on an average. Other benefit from Mandi is some time price of produce change within
the six hours and framer get benefit of that. Mostly villagers sell their produce to the village shopkeepers
(Seth), though he does not weigh produce accurately. While weighing 1 quintal he use to weigh it in four
rounds of 25 KG each with ½ Kg extra per weighing. The main advantage behind this is that farmer is
saving transportation cost as well as time. Electronic weighing machine in the Mandi is another problem
for the illiterate small and marginal farmers as they are not able to read number on the machines. This is
only a benefit to the big and literate farmers. Farmers shared one incident of Khandwa mandi regarding
complain on Hamaal issue to the Mandi chairperson, but he totally ignored the problems of the framers.
Hammal always demands for Rs.10-20 as a tip for refreshment and if farmers does not provide them then
they does not behave properly while weighing of produce. And create problems like less weighing and
delay in weighing. Farmers appreciated the correct weighing of ITC Choupal but ITC looks for quality
grading of grains/ produce and decides rates accordingly. Farmers have no storage facility and mostly
they store in bags and drums.
6.1.7 Changes in Agriculture and Diversified Sources of Income
The study tried to understand the primary, subsidiary sources of incomes for the farming and
non-farming households in the tribal areas. The study tracked in the changes in sources of
income over the last five years as well. The results shows interesting picture, as presented in the
tables below:

57
Let us examine the analysis table above by sources of income, starting from Agriculture:
Agriculture:
Close to half the population in tribal areas is dependant on agriculture as their primary source
of income. This is an increase of one percent households who are reporting agriculture as their
primary sources of income now as compared to five years back. Another one fourth of
households are dependent on agriculture as their subsidiary sources of income. It is interesting
to note that 28 percent of the households (which is a 3 percent reduction from the situation five
years ago) in tribal areas are not drawing their income from agriculture. This may also be due
to the fact that close to one fourth of households in tribal areas are landless.
Tribal households are more dependent on agriculture than non-tribal households as 74 percent
of tribal households have reported agriculture as either primary or subsidiary sources of income
while 70 percent of the non-tribals have reported so. However for more proportion of non-
tribals (52.3 percent), agriculture is the primary source of income than it is for tribals (49.3
percent). Agriculture as a primary source of income is reported in highest proportion from
Nimar plains (71.6 percent households) and in lowest proportion from Jhabua Hills (12.2
percent of households). Furthermore BPL (46.5 percent) are less dependent on agriculture as a
primary source of income as compared to non-BPL (57 percent households). All these results
clearly shows that with increasing poverty levels, the dependence on agriculture as a primary
source of income reduces.
Non-Farm Labour:
Close to one third (29.7 percent) of the population in tribal areas is dependant on non-farm
labour as their primary source of income. This is an increase of 2 percent households who are
reporting non farm labour as their primary sources of income now as compared to five years
back. Another one third of households (29.8 percent) are dependent on non-farm labour as their
subsidiary sources of income. It is interesting to note that close to two fifth (40.5 percent) of the

58
households (which is a 4 percent reduction from the situation five years ago) in tribal areas are
not drawing their income from non-farm labour. This may also be due to the fact that close to
one fifth of households in tribal areas are medium and large farmers whose dependence on non-
farm labour is reported to be very low.
Tribal households are more dependent on non farm labour than non-tribal households as two
third (66 percent) of tribal households have reported non farm labour as either primary or
subsidiary sources of income while only about half (48 percent) of the non-tribals have reported
so. However the dependence on non-farm labour for livelihoods have increased over the last
five years for both tribals (3 percent households) and non-tribals (5 percent households). Non
farm labour as a primary source of income is reported in highest proportion from Jhabua Hills
agro-climatic region (78.7 percent households) and in lowest proportion from Nimar plains (7.2
percent of households) agro-climatic region. This is completely a reverse trend of what is
available for households’ dependence on agriculture for a primary source of income. This
suggest that agriculture in Nimar plains is much more forward than the agriculture in Jhabua
hills. The agro-climatic conditions, resource allocations, departmental reach and planning,
geographical locations (remoteness) are some of the factors responsible for agriculturally and
occupationally different situation across the regions in tribal areas of the state. Furthermore
BPL (33.4 percent) are more dependent on non-farm labour as a primary source of income as
compared to non-BPL (24.5 percent households). All these results clearly shows that with
increasing poverty levels, the dependence on non-farm labour as a primary source of income
increases.
Farm Labour:
Only 6.9 percent of households in tribal areas are dependant on farm labour as their primary
source of income. This is a marginal decrease of 0.7 percent households who are reporting farm
labour as their primary sources of income now as compared to five years back. Another one
third of households are dependent on farm labour as their subsidiary sources of income. It is
interesting to note that more than three fifth households (61.3 percent - which is a 1.3 percent
reduction from the situation five years ago) in tribal areas are NOT drawing their income from
farm labour. This may also be due to the fact that farm labour prevalence is largely seen in
landless, small and marginal farmers.
Tribal households are more dependent on farm labour than non-tribal households as 44.6
percent of tribal households have reported farm labour as either primary or subsidiary sources
of income while 32.6 percent of the non-tribals have reported so. Farm labour as a primary
source of income is reported in highest proportion from Northern hills agro-climatic region
(19.6 percent households) and in lowest proportion from Jhabua Hills agro-climatic region (2.4
percent of households). Furthermore BPL (8.1 percent) are more dependent on farm labour as a
primary source of income as compared to non-BPL (5.3 percent households). All these results
clearly shows that with increasing poverty levels, the dependence on farm labour as a primary
source of income increases.
The other important source of income in tribal areas are livestock even though for close to three
quarters of households, this is not a source of income.

59
The analysis above shows the shift happening in poor farmers resorting to non farm and farm
labour for their primary or subsidiary sources of income. The returns from agriculture for small
and marginal farmers have seen a reducing trend which justify their looking out for other viable
sources of livelihoods, as the study result shows.
21 percent of the households (among those who have undertaken diversified income generation
activities) have expressed an increase in income due to engagement in other IG activities in the
last five years. Nearly 92 percent of the households have received Job Card under NREGS,
with 38 percent of these households reporting non availability of employment under the
scheme; while others have received employment varying from 10 days to 90 days. The support
by FW&AD in these diversified initiatives (agri-allied) is expressed by 11 percent of the
households. NREGA reportedly have contributed to increase in non-farm labour. While
analysing this among tribal and non-tribal households, the proportion of households reporting
non-farm labour and farm labour is higher in non-tribal households (6 percent compared to -1
percent in tribal). New opportunities related to labour seems to have benefited non-tribals more.
6.1.8 Changes in Migration20
The overall migration has increased from 29 percent to 32 percent in the five year period. In
tribal dominated villages, migration is higher than the less tribal population villages. It is
reported that in 53 percent of the
Fig. 6.8: Migration - % of HH Reporting and Change over Five years -
Rank of the Block and Agro-climatic zone-wise
HHs in the > 75 percent tribal
population villages’ migration is
100.00%
taking place while it is 46
80.00%
percent in the 50 percent to 75
60.00% percent category villages. In the
40.00% other two categories of villages,
migration is reported by 39
20.00%
percent and 17 percent
0.00%
respectively. There migration
Narmada
Jhabua
Nimar
> 75%
< 25%
Plateau &
Plains
Region of
Plateau
Satpura
Vindhya
50% -
25% -
Plateau
Plateau
Malwa
Northern
75%
50%
Central
Kymore
Satpura
Valley
Hills
has increased over the last five

Hills
years in all the categories of

Rank of the Block Agro-Climatic Zones tribal population except a
Now Five Yrs Bef marginal decline of 1 percent in
the 50 percent to 75 percent
category.
In terms of agro-climatic zones, migration of households is reported more in the Jhabua Hills
(77 percent), Malwa Plateau (82 percent) and Satpura Plateau (68 percent), while in Vindhya
Plateau it is lowest with only 6 percent of the HHs migrate in distress. Social category-wise,
migration is reported by 38 percent of the tribal households while it is 28 percent among the SC
and 24 percent among the other social groups. Migration is higher among the women headed
20
Migration in this document refers to household forced to move out of their native locations for food security for a short period
of time (more than a week)

60
households (42 percent of the HHs) as compared to 31 percent among the male headed HHs. In
terms of socio-economic categories, the pattern of distress migration is given in the graph
below:
Fig. 6.9: Migration - % of HH Reporting and Change over Five years - Socio-
Economic Category-wise
Overall, highest proportion of
100% migration is reported in women-
80% headed households, tribal
60%
households, and landless and
marginal farmers (around 40
40%
percent in these categories).
20%
0%
In terms of economic categories,
MARGINAL
ST
Tribal
Non-Tribal
MEDIUM
SC
OBC
LAND
GENERAL
No
BPL
APL
SMALL
LESS
LARGE
Yes
a marginal difference in distress

migration of HHs is seen
Social Class Women Tribal/ Non- BPL Status Landholding Categories
Headed tribal between BPL (33 percent) and
Now Five Yrs Bef
APL (31 percent) households
(present status). It is more
among the landless (39 percent HH) and marginal (34 percent HH) & small (33 percent HH)
landholding HHs. It is lower in case of medium and large landholding HHs. However,
households reporting distress migration has increased among all categories of landholding size
with increase varying from 1 percent to 5 percent.
In terms of change over years in distress migration, there is an increase of about 3 percent.
Higher proportion of increase is seen among the categories – OBC and general in social, in
BPL households, non-tribals and in landless and small farmers. There is a marginal reduction
seen in STs and tribal households.
Within the migrant families, on an average about 2.20 persons per household go for migration,
which remains the same five years before. There has been increase in migration of males and
females (about 6 percent) and an increase of children migrating (about 35 percent).
6.1.9 Access to Institutional Sources of Credit
In the tribal areas in MP, institutional credit delivery is under-developed as of now. In India, the
micro-finance sector has grown form a few self-help groups (SHGs) promoted by NGOs in the
mid-1980s to over 29 lakh SHGs at present. Out of this, Madhaya Pradesh account for about
than 2 lakhs SHGs. However, in the tribal areas of the state, the SHG movement is suffering due
to poor capacities of self help group promoting institutions. Recently, the state has seen
emergence of micro finance institutions as well especially in Jhabua and Mandla areas.
The study result shows that presently the main source of credit in the tribal areas is moneylenders
with 36 percent of credit delivery taking place from them. The proportion of households
dependent on moneylenders for their credit needs have remained the same over the last five
years. The rate of interest charged by moneylenders is reported to be in the range of 24 to 100
percent per annum. The non-tribals (39 percent) are more dependent on moneylenders than the
tribals (35 percent). The dependence on moneylenders is reported by 26 percent of the women
headed households. The dependence on moneylenders is reported highest from Malwa Plaeatue

61
(99 percent of households) and Jhabua hills (96 percent of households) and lowest in Northern
hills agro-climatic region (19 percent of households) and Nimar plains (31 percent of the
households). This shows that dependence on moneylenders for credit is evidently more in tribal
areas with more proportion of tribal population as more than 75 percent tribal population
areas as 67 percent households report dependence on moneylender. The dependence on
moneylenders for credit is further reported more by landless, marginal and small farmers (in
the range of 26 to 49 percent) than by medium and large farmers (12 to 34 percent).
The next important source of credit in the tribal areas is co-operative societies, contributing
credit to 24 percent of households in tribal areas. The role of co-operative society has remained
at the same level over the last five years. The tribals (27 percent) dependence on co-operative
societies is much more than the non-tribals (18 percent). The dependence of women headed
households to this source of credit is reported by 22 percent of households. The reach of co-
operative societies is reported highest in Northern Hill region (42 percent households reporting)
followed by Vindhyanchal region (16 percent of households). The reach of co-operative societies
is reported lowest in Jhabua Hills (1 percent) followed by Kymore Plateau and Satupura hills (5
percent). Tribal dominated areas (with population of tribal more than 50%) have reported
relatively higher uptake of credit from co-operative societies (18 to 41 percent). The study results
therefore shows that the co-operative society model is reasonably working in predominantly
tribal areas, especially for the tribal farmers. The commercial banks reach for credit services has
improved by one percent over the last five years (from 8 to 9 percent households). Access to
bank for credit is evidently more for the non-tribals (14 percent of households) than the tribals (7
percent of the households). Clearly there is a marked difference in access to institutional sources
of credit among tribals and non-tribals. There is therefore a need to study the strength and
weaknesses of co-opertive society and
other institutional delivery of credit in
the tribal areas to gain an idea about
their effectiveness to arrive at policy
options of promoting institutional credit
in the tribal areas.
It is interesting to note that for three

fourth of the households, the amount of
credit taken is in between Rs.10001 to 25000. Credit uptake below this limit is higher for tribal
households (19 percent households accessing credit of less than Rs.10000) than the non-tribal

62
households (5 percent non-tribal households accessing credit below this limit). This shows that
the general credit requirements in the tribal areas is in the range of Rs.10000 to Rs.25000.
The purpose of credit in the tribal areas is largely for agriculture inputs (seeds and fertilizers) as
71 percent of the households has reported this. Relatively more tribal households (73 percent)
take credit for agriculture inputs than non tribal households (68 percent). Second most important
reason for credit is for
buying agriculture
equipment. Herein also
more tribal households
(16 percent) take credit
for agri-equipments than
non-tribal households (8
percent). It becomes known that close of one fifth of non-tribal households are accessing credit
for livelihoods diversification (other income generation activities) while the credit offtake for the
similar purpose among tribal households is minuscule (1 percent). Further while 6 percent of
tribal households have reported credit offtake for consumption purposes (house construction,
marriage etc.), none among non-tribals have taken credit for this purpose.
Once, the credit is taken, how does households in tribal areas pay back?. The study explored this
issue as well. The study results shows seasonal repayment is the preferred method in the tribal
areas with 55 percent households preferring the method. Another 15 percent households are
paying in regular instalments. The credit payment is reported irrgeular in case of 20 percent
households in the tribal areas while another 10 percent of households are reported to be
defaulters. It is interesting to note that while more tribal households (22 percent) are resorting to
irregular payments than the non-tribal households (16 percent), there are less number of tribal
households (9 percent) who are defaulters than the non-tribal households (13 percent). The study
results therefore shows that credit delivery in tribal areas is not expected to generate high rate of
defaulters and the rate of defaulting is expected to be lower among tribals than among non-
tribals.
Clearly, the findings shows that the need to strengthen the institutional delivery of credit in tribal
areas with awareness building on the financial discipline.
6.1.10 Changes in Agriculture Technology in Tribal Areas
A crucial determinant of productivity is the level of technology available, reflected in irrigation

levels and source, quality of seeds, use of nutrients, level of mechanization, implements and tools

63
used in agricultural production, post production harvesting and marketing etc. The overall picture
of utilisation of technology in tribal Agriculture indicates very low levels of uptake and adoption.
Canal irrigation is available to a miniscule number of farmers in the tribal areas. The cost of
irrigation from other sources have increased cost of agriculture and contributed to making
agriculture less profitable for the
Fig. 6.10: Average Irrigation Cost -Per Acre
farmers in tribal areas. All farmers do
not have the access of irrigation
1400 sources. The big farmers are able to
Amount in Rs.
1200 get water from the river through pipes.

1000
800
Even though the land of the small &
600 marginal farmers lies in between but
400
they are not able to get water out of
200
0
river. There is no farmer’s association
Diesel Pump Electric Pump Canal for the equal distribution of water
among the User’s group. The villagers
who don’t have any water lifting device take the diesel pump from other farmers on rent by
paying Rs. 50 per hour+ diesel. In
some villages, diesel pumps have been
provided by agricultural department
(through Panchayat) to BPL tribal
farmers. There is very limited number
of NGOs or corporate working on
irrigation and water related issues in
tribal areas.
As explained in the production and

productivity sections above, the seed
rate is higher in tribal areas than the
overall state average. Seed
replacement rate and fertilizer consumption per acre is much lower in tribal areas than the state
average. Adequate and timely availability of seed remains a concern for almost half of the
farmers in tribal area. Adequate and
timely availability of fertiliser
remains a concern for one third of
the farmers in tribal areas. POP
awareness and adoption levels are
very low for most POPs (except few
where POP awareness and
application is in about one third of
the farmers in tribal areas). Use of
post harvest technologies is found at
low levels. Most of tribal agriculture
is for subsistence and therefore link
to agriculture Mandis is found to be weak.

64
Technological improvements are also evident from the ownership of modern agriculture
implements by the tribal households. The ownership status of agriculture assets is as given
below:
Tractor: About 10 percent of the households own tractors in the tribal areas. Ownership of
tractor is more with non-tribals (15.2 percent households) than with tribals (5.5 percent
households). The tractor is purchased from borrowed money by close to half of the households
who have aquired the asset. The subsidy from FW&AD is reported by only 1 percent among
those who have purchased the asset. The ownership of tractor is found highest in Central
Narmada valley agro-climatic region (40.4 percent households) followed by Malwa plateau (22.8
percent households). The ownership of tractor is found lowest in Jhabua Hills (0.8 percent
households) followed by Nimar plains (2.1 percent). The ownership of tractor is evidently more
in medium (21.7 percent households) and large farmers (43.6 percent households) than small (5.5
percent households) and marginal farmers (11.3 percent households).
Seed Drill: 30 percent of the households reported to have seed drills in the tribal areas.
Ownership of seed drill is almost in equal proportion (30 percent) among both tribals and non-
tribals. The FW&AD has supported 7.5 percent of those households who have acquired this
asset. The seed drill is purchased from borrowed money by 43.7 percent of the households who
have aquired the asset. The ownership of seed drill is seen highest in Vindhyanchal plateau (69.5
percent households) followed by Northern hill region (68.7 percent households). The ownership
of seed drill is seen lowest in Jhabua Hills (0.6 percent) and Satpura plateau (2.9 percent). The
ownership of seed drill is evidently more in medium (41.6 percent households) and large farmers
(59.2 percent households) than small (35.1 percent households) and marginal farmers (35 percent
households).
Spraying Pump: 26 percent of the households reported having this asset in the tribal areas. More
than one third of these households have acquired this asset through borrowed money while about
one tenth of these households are supported by FW&AD for acquiring the asset. Spraying Pump
is available in higher proportions with tribals (29.3 percent) than with non-tribals (23.3 percent).
The support from FW&AD is reported by 9.5 percent of those households who own the asset
currently. The ownership of spraying pump is seen highest in Vindhyanchal plateau (69 percent
households) followed by Northern hill region (58 percent households). The ownership of
spraying pump is seen lowest in Kymore Plateau (3.4 percent) and Satpura plateau (6.9 percent).
The ownership of Spraying pump is evidently more in medium (39.9 percent households) and
large farmers (59.5 percent households) than small (32.2 percent households) and marginal
farmers (27 percent households).
Motor Pump: 28 percent of the households own motor pump in the tribal areas. About half of
these households have acquired this asset from own money. 7.8 percent of these households are
supported by FW&AD in procuring the motor pump. Ownership of motor pump is seen more
among the tribal households (33.4 percent) than the non-tribal households (22.4 percent). Among
the agro-climatic regions, Vindhyanchal region has the highest motor pump availability (70.9
percent households) followed by Northern Hill region (58.8 percent). Jhabua hills (6.5 percent
households) has the lowest availability of motor pump followed by Kymore Plateau region (12.1
percent). The ownership of motor pump is evidently more in medium (39.8 percent households)

65
and large farmers (70.2 percent households) than small (38 percent households) and marginal
farmers (26.9 percent households).
Sprinkler: 17 percent of the households have Sprinkler in the tribal areas. One fifth of these
households are supported by FW&AD in getting the asset. More than one third (36.9 percent)
households have acquired this asset through borrowed money. Sprinkler is available in higher
proportions with tribals (23.2 percent) than with non-tribals (10.8 percent). The ownership of
sprinkler is seen highest in Vindhyanchal plateau (69.4 percent households) followed by
Northern hill region (57.7 percent households). The ownership of sprinkler is seen lowest in
Jhabua hills (0.8 percent households) followed by Kymore Plateau (3.5 percent). The ownership
of Sprinkler is evidently more in large farmers (37.5 percent households) than medium (15.6
percent households), small (25.5 percent households) and marginal farmers (18.2 percent
households).
HDPE Pipes: 20 percent of the households have HDPE pipes in the tribal areas. 7.9 percent of
these households are supported by FW&AD in getting the asset. More than one third (38.3
percent) households have acquired this asset through borrowed money. HDPE pipes is available
in higher proportions with tribals (28.6 percent) than with non-tribals (11 percent). The
ownership of HDPE pipes is seen highest in Vindhyanchal plateau (68.5 percent households)
followed by Northern hill region (60 percent households). The ownership of HDPE pipes is seen
lowest in Kymore Plateau (2.7 percent households) followed by Jhabua hills (4.8 percent
households).
Small Inter Culture Operation Equipments: More than two third (67.5 percent households)
have Small Inter Cultural operation equipment in the tribal areas. Only 1.1 percent of these
households are supported by FW&AD in getting the asset. More than 90 percent households
have acquired this asset through own money. Small Inter Cultural operation equipment is
available in higher proportions with tribals (71.3 percent) than with non-tribals (63.5 percent).
The ownership of Small Inter Cultural operation equipment is seen highest in Jhabua hills (98.6
percent) followed by Malwa Plateau (89.2 percent households). The ownership of Small Inter
Cultural operation equipment is seen lowest in Nimar plains (52.1 percent households) followed
by Central Narmada Valley (63.1 percent).
Drip Irrigation: 15.5 percent of the households have Drip irrigation in the tribal areas. 13.3
percent of these households are supported by FW&AD in getting the asset. More than one third
(38.5 percent) households have acquired this asset through borrowed money. Drip irrigation is
available in higher proportions with tribals (22.3 percent) than with non-tribals (8.4 percent). The
ownership of Drip irrigation is seen highest in Vindhyanchal plateau (61.4 percent households)
followed by Northern hill region (60 percent households). The ownership of Drip irrigation is
seen lowest in Jhabua hills (2 percent households) followed by Kymore Plateau (3.2 percent).
Tube Well: 17.9 percent of the households have Tube well in the tribal areas. 12.9 percent of
these households are supported by FW&AD in getting the asset. About two fifth of these
households have acquired this asset through borrowed money. Tube well is available in higher
proportions with tribals (24 percent) than with non-tribals (11.4 percent). The ownership of Tube
well is seen highest in Vindhyanchal plateau (64.6 percent households) followed by Northern hill

66
region (60 percent households). The ownership of Tube well is seen lowest in Jhabua hills (0.9
percent households) followed by Satpura Plateau (3.2 percent).
Well: 26.4 percent of the households have well in the tribal areas. Only 3.9 percent of these
households are supported by FW&AD in getting the asset. More than half of these households
have acquired this asset through borrowed money. Well is available in higher proportions with
tribals (34 percent) than with non-tribals (18.6 percent). The ownership of well is seen highest in
Vindhyanchal plateau (65.9 percent households) followed by Northern hill region (65.3 percent
households). The ownership of well is seen lowest in Jhabua hills (9.2 percent households)
followed by Kymore Plateau (10.5 percent).
Storage Facility: More than half of the households have Storage facility in the tribal areas. Oly
1.5 percent of these households are supported by FW&AD in getting the asset. 81.8 percent of
these households have acquired this asset through own money. Storage facility is available in
higher proportions with tribals (53 percent) than with non-tribals (49 percent). The ownership of
storage facility is seen highest in Northern hill region (89.3 percent households) followed by
Satupura Plateau region (70.6 percent households). The ownership of storage facility is seen
lowest in Jhabua hills (0.6 percent households) followed by Nimar Plains (30.6 percent).
Adequate and Timely Availability of Seed: More than half (52.8 percent) of the households have
reported adequate and timely availability of seed in the tribal areas. Only 5.9 percent of these
households are supported by FW&AD in this. 74.7 percent households acquire seed through own
money. Adequate and timely availability of seed is available in higher proportions with tribals
(56.6 percent) than with non-tribals (48.8 percent). The adequate and timely availability of seed
is seen highest in Northern Hill region (85.6 percent households) followed by Satpura Plateau
(76.8 percent households). The adequate and timely availability of seed is seen lowest in Jhabua
hills (0.6 percent households) followed by Malwa Plateau (27.6 percent).
Adequate and Timely Availability of Fertilisers: 35.4 percent of the households have Adequate
and timely availability of fertiliser in the tribal areas. Only 5.7 percent of these households are
supported by FW&AD in getting this. More than half (56.6 percent) households have acquired
this through borrowed money. Adequate and timely availability of fertiliser is available in higher
proportions with tribals (39.4 percent) than with non-tribals (31.2 percent). The ownership of
adequate and timely availability of fertiliser is seen highest in Northern Hill region (82.4 percent
households) followed by Vindhyanchal Plateau (67.1 percent households). The ownership of
adequate and timely availability of fertiliser is seen lowest in Jhabua hills (0.6 percent
households) followed by Malwa Plateau (4.8 percent).
The overall study results show that the uptake of agriculture technology has taken place
predominantly among medium and large farmers (where about one third to half of these
households are reporting the ownership of agriculture assets). Vindhayanchal (Raisen, Sehore,
Damoh), Northern Hills (Dindori, Mandla, Shadole, Sidhi), Central Narmada (Hoshangabad) and
Malwa Plateau (Ratlam, Dhar, Barwani) are agriculturally forward regions in the state, where
relatively higher uptake of agriculture technology has taken place as compared to Jhabua hills,
Nimar plains, Satpura Plateau (Betul and Chindwara), where agriculture development is lacking
as is shown by various agriculture technology, POP, production and productivity figures.

67
6.2 Political and Institutional Impact
Change is led as much by political and institutional processes as by social and economic
processes. The agriculture induced change may not initiate or sustain without necessary
political will and appropriate institutional arrangement. It is necessary therefore to look at this
aspect of change as stepping stone towards poverty impact of agriculture interventions. Under
this section, the study looked at the level of access to critical services and entitlements which
facilitate agriculture development and poverty reduction in the tribal areas. The study also
looked at the status of community institutions and leadership in tribal areas that can facilitate
agriculture development on sustainable basis.
6.2.1 Level of Access to Critical Services and Entitlements
Critical services and entitlements in the context of tribal agriculture are BPL card,
Antodaya/Annapurna Card, Electricity, Agriculture input shops, agro-processing units within
Fig. 6.11: Status of Electricity in Tribal Areas /Villages in MP
the village, Storage facility for major crops
in the village, farm roads, crop insurance
Good Availability
etc.
Not Available 33%
42%
In tribal areas in Madhya Pradesh, 59.2
percent of the households have received
BPL status. This is an increase from 52.2
Limited
Very Limited
12%
13% percent households who had received BPL
status five years ago. More number of tribal
households (64.7 percent) has received BPL
status than the non-tribal households (53.4 percent).
On Antodaya /Annapurna card, 26 percent Box 1: The front face of Agriculture
Extension (i.e. RAEO) faces many
households have received it now as against 15.5 constraints
percent households who had Antodaya /Annapurna
card five years ago. This shows that the state Govt. Dindori is one of most backward tribal district
of MP, with 80 percent population dependent
outreach for the provision of BPL services have on agriculture. The Sahapura sub-district,
somewhat increased over the last five years. consisting of 111 villages, is covered by 12 RAEO
circles. Four RAEOs are posted overall in 12
circles and so each RAEO responsible to cover
In tribal areas in the state, 42 percent of villages approx. 28 villages. It is estimated that 50
have no electricity. About one fourth of the villages percent of the RAEO time is spent in reporting
and other departmental work. So RAEO has
have limited or very limited availability of about half of his official time for field level
electricity. Only one third of villages have reported extension work. Considering that a RAEO
good availability of electricity. On this front, works for 24 days in a month and so about 12
days are available per month for doing field
situation has remained the same in 60 percent of the extension. Clearly RAEO at the most can visit a
villages while in 28 percent villages situation has village, only once in a quarter. No wonder that
improved for the better over the last five years. The many agriculture schemes and programmes do
not reach the tribal households esp. small and
situation has actually worsened over the last five marginal farmers and Krishak Didi and Krishak
years in 12 percent of the villages. The state level Mitra concepts are not effectively running in
official figure shows that 68.6 percent of villages the field due to lack of support and close
monitoring.
are electrified (source: State Human Development

68
Report -2007). This shows that tribal areas electrification has happened to a much lower extent
than the non-tribal areas.
Agriculture input shops are available in 18 percent of the villages in tribal areas. Agro-
processing units are available in 1 percent of the villages in tribal areas. Storage facility for
major crops is available in 5 percent of the villages in tribal areas. The farm roads are kuccha is
95 percent of the villages in tribal areas. Crop insurance practice is seen in 27 percent of the
villages in tribal areas. In about half of the villages where crop insurance practice is available,
FW&AD has played a critical or catalytic role in the process.
Fig. 6.12: Status of NREGA in Tribal Areas in MP: Number of HHs Receiving what No. of Days of
Employment
100% 10% 7% 11% 11% 11%

12% 16%
90%
80% 32%
31% 34% 36% 33%
70% 34%
34%
60%
50%
40%
40% 49% 44% 43%
30% 46%
40% 33%
20%
10% 7%
0% 3% 1% 4% 1% 4%
0%
Baghelkhand Bundelkhand Mahakaushal Malwa Nimad Vindhyachal State
0 1 to 25 26-50 51-75
NREGA job cards are reported to be accessed by 91.1 percent households. The status of
NREGA implementation shows that 43 percent of the households have obtained 1 to 25 days of
employment under the scheme. About one third of the households have obtained 26-50 days of
employment. About one tenth of households have obtained 51 to 75 days of employment.
6.2.2 Status of Community Institutions and Leaders in catalyzing Agriculture development
Community based mechanism had proven its success in many field of development endeavour.
Therefore it is important to look at the extent to which community based mechanism exist, is
functional and contributing to agriculture development in tribal areas. Only 9.7 percent of the
households have reported to be part of some groups such as Farmers Club (1.4 percent),
Cooperative Society (3.7 percent), SHG (3.6 percent), Federation (1.6 percent), and Producer
Company (0.2 percent). The status of tribals (11.5 percent) being part of any group is better
than the non-tribals (7.8 percent) e.g. proportionately more tribals (5.8 percent) are part of the
co-opertive societies21 than the non-tribals (1.5 percent).
21
The uptake of credit from the co-operative is by 24 percent of households in the tribal areas, which therefore
means that these many households are part of the co-operative societies. The figures on co-operative membership
projected here are in divergence with the households figures having credit access to co-operatives. It is known that

69
The study results shows that medium and large farmers are relatively more in proportion as
member to one or the other community institutional mechanism than the small, marginal and
landless households in the tribal areas. Overall it becomes clear that the community based
mechanisms for agriculture development is utilized only to a very small extent in the tribal
areas.
The study team saw glimpses of emerging tribal leadership e.g. in some of the villages, success
of Kapildhara scheme showed the strength of Sarpanch and his team to bring the allotted fund
into their Panchayat. It is seen that wherever villagers have their approach to local leader above
Sarpanch or where a sarpanch is active, good implementation of watershed /development
project is carried out. Similarly much better convergence and many best practices are visible in
these areas. The tribal people realize that person amongst them can truly work for their
development. However the tribal leadership also suffers from the same malaise as is seen in
leadership of the other communities. In Nishana village of Betal district for example, the tribal
sarpanch was seen as “playing favourite” by the villagers. Political influence is noticed in large
number of study villages in decisions on allocation and selection of beneficiaries. Some
RAEOs reported that at least 20 percent schemes benefits are influenced by the local political
leaders and elected representatives. In Mahakaushal region, number of tribal Sarpanchs is not
able to implement NREGA according to norms due to capacity constraints. Clearly, the
leadership challenge22 still remains in tribal societies.
After 73rd amendment, the district level officers of the line Departments such as agriculture,
horticulture, fisheries and animal husbandry are linked to Zila panchayats. The Deputy Director
of Agriculture (DDA) works as secretary of the agriculture committee at the Zila Panchayat.
Similarly, the SADO would function as secretary of the agriculture committee at the Janpad
panchayat level. The RAEOs works under SADO and CEO of the Janpad and SADO carries
households have reported their membership to co-operative understanding its meaning beyond accessing credit
services only.
22
Leadership which can work for the benefit of the whole community rather than benefiting few among the
community

70
out daily supervision of their duties. There is no formal linkage between the RAEOs working at
the village level and gram panchayat.
The linkage between the PRIs and extension Department are strong at the district and block
levels, especially at the SADO, ADO and RAEO levels, The district level linkages are mainly
for planning and monitoring while the block level linkage are for implementing various
programmes and schemes. Poor capacities of Panchayats were observed with regard to making
use of such linkages and for sustainable planning of natural resource management with the on
going schemes like NREGA and SGSY etc. Since implementation of Gram Swaraj 2001
Agriculture department officials are now participating in the Panchayat meeting and sharing the
schemes and progress (e.g. after an hour long discussion in the Bhadera village, community
agreed that new variety of wheat and paddy in village were brought by RAEO sahib).
6.3 Socio-Cultural Impact

Madhya Pradesh has the largest population of tribals among all states in India (nearly one
fourth of India’s total tribal population). There are as many as 46 different tribal groups in the
state among which Gond, Bhils, Oroans, Bhilalas, Kols, Kanwars are prominent. These groups
show considerable variation in population size, level of development, accumulation and
assimilation. Social and cultural traits, religious believes and norms as well as traditional
economic pursuits vary from tribe to tribe as well as from area to area (Saxena and Pandey,
1998). Some of these customs believes and reservations which have implications on agriculture
development in tribal areas are captured here (largely based on few focus groups discussions
with communities and secondary data review). Social and cultural dynamics need to be
understood before designing developmental interventions in tribal areas. The need for same is
demonstrated by a case study presented in this section.
In tribal areas, due to the departmental policy and programme to reduce coverage of low value
crop (Minor millets) with high value crops (Soyaben, pulses, Wheat etc.), major changes in
cropping pattern has been witnessed over the last five years (as highlighted in the economic
impact section). Minor millets are most important traditional crop in the tribal area of Madhya
Pradesh. This crop is linked with the
Minor Millets Comprative Nutrints Vulue with Whaet and Rice
tribal life and its social, culture and
14 health practices. The minor millets
12 are very rich in nutrition as can be
Q u n t it y in G r a m
10
seen from the accompanying
8
6
comparison chart. Tribal know the
4 value of minor millets and they still
2 feel this is very important food crop
0 for them to protect and fight against
Finger millet Kodo millet Proso Foxtail millet Little millet Baranyard Cereals Rice
(Ragi) millet millet wheat
so many diseases. Minor millets have
huge nutritional power especially for
Proteins (g) Fat (g) Crude fiber (g) Mineral matter (g) the women at the time of pregnancy.
The tribal of Jabalpur, Balaghat,

Chhindwara, Seoni, Mandla, Dindori, Sidhi, Shahdol, Anuppur, Umariya, Betul districts are
the main minor millets producers and belong to the communities of Gond, Bhil, Kol, Bhuria,

71
Saharia and Baiga, Minor millet is deeply related to culture and sustainable agricultural
practices of tribal communities. The tribal communities use minor millets for both food for
themselves and feed for their animals. In the changing climatic conditions and uncertainty of
rainfall, minor millets are most suitable and sustainable crop of the tribal area. Minor millets is
group of crop like Kodo Millets (Kodo), Foxtail Millets (Kangani), Little Millets (Kutki), Proso
Millets (China), Barnyard Millets (Sanwa), Finger Millets (Ragi) are being produced by the
tribal communities.
In Mandla and Dindori, the tribal communities are growing minor millets in a significant
manner. However they claim that it does not provide them good market price so they don’t sell
it but use it for self-consumption. In both the districts, agriculture is rain fed and minor millets
require hardly any irrigation however now the tribals and non-tribal farmers in these areas have
started growing cash crops to improve their living standard. Because of the poor mentality of
the market (driven by the state policy) towards minor millets, there is now a reduction in
production and productivity of the crop as is shown by the table below:
Source: Agriculture Compendium 2006-07
In 2005-06 the minor millets cultivation area in the state was 17% of the total minor millet
cropping area of India but its production was only 5% of the total production. Causes for low
productivity of minor millets in the state are related to undulated topography, Poor Soil depth,
Poor soil fertility, high run off, soil erosion, lack of awareness regarding scientific package of
practices and adequate input supply, Lack of good quality seeds/ Varieties, lack of state
government policy/ schemes to promote minor millets and the fact that the Government has not
declared Minimum Support Price (MSP) for Minor Millets etc.
The socio-cultural practices of three main tribes of Madhya Pradesh: Baiga, Saharia and
Bhils
Herein below a case study of socio-cultural profiles of 3 main tribes of MP are presented to
analyse the reasons or factors which has affected agriculture development, positively or
negatively
Baiga tribes are predominantly resident of Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. The largest
number of Baigas are found in Baiga-chuk in Mandla district and Balaghat district of
Madhya Pradesh. They have sub-castes - Bijhwar, Narotia, Bharotiya, Nahar, Rai Bhaina, and
Kadh Bhaina. The Baiga tribes practice shifting cultivation in forest areas. They say they never

72
ploughed the Earth, because it would be like scratching the breast of their Mother, and how
could they possibly ask Mother to produce food from the same patch of earth time and time
again – she would have become weakened. That’s why Baigas used to lived a semi-nomadic
life, and practiced Bewar cultivation (slash & burn) – out of respect, not aggression. Until fairly
recently the Baigas practiced 'dahiya' cultivation, that is, slash and burn. Thousands of square
miles of sal forests have been cleanly destroyed by them in the progress of their dahiya
cultivation, the ground being afterwards occupied by dense scrub of low sal species springing
from the stumps. The Baigas are courageous woodsman and hunter.
The Baiga tribe in Madhya Pradesh is known for its unique culture. They do not interact even
with other tribals like the Gonds, believe in a hand-to-mouth existence, and do not try to access
education, eat outside their community, or associate with others. After a death in the family, the
Baigas just leave the house and build another. They are totally dependent on the jungle, they do
not engage in tendu patta collection, which is a major livelihood provider in Madhya Pradesh.
The Baigas live for the present, and do not think of the future. Their love for the country liquor
called mahua daru is absolute, and they spend their week's earnings on liquor on Fridays and
Saturdays.
The baiga takes coarse food and shows no extravagance in this aspect. They eat coarse grain,
kodo, and kutki, drink pej, eat little flour and are normally content with what little that they get.
One of the prime foods is pej that can be made from grounding maize or from the water left
from boiling rice. Local people gave testimony that this food is much better and healthier than
many other food that they eat. Also, beyond doubt they eat several items from the forest that
includes primarily Chirota Bhaji, Gular leaves such as Chirota, chinch, chakora, sarroota,
peepal etc. They also eat BirarKand, Kadukand and other rhizomes. Mushroom is also a
delicacy. Numerous fruits such as mango, char, jamun, tendu are also eaten.
During the study in one of the district, it was found that all Baiga families have Job Cards, but
they didn’t work under NREGS programme, even though they belong to poorest category. The
reason behind this is they need daily work and also payment against that work. According to
them panchayat releases payment after 20-25 days of work completion, sometimes even after
more than a month for the work done. During household visits, it was found that a Baiga family
has very little grain (2-5 Kg.), malnourished children, poor health status. Their main occupation
is hunting and selling of Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP), mainly items made out of
bamboo. From this they earn daily Rs.10-15 but get payment as per their requirement.
The Bhils have a patriarchal type of society. Their family consists of man, wife and children
the head of the village is known as the tadvi. The panchayat is a statutory body, which consists
of the tadvi, kotwal (mediator between the villagers and officials) mafidar (person who assists
the management of the State in some way.) The panchayat is responsible for settling disputes:
petty quarrels, petty thefts and breach of tribal rules. The Fair and festivals play an important
role in social and cultural life. The Singhasan Mata Ka Mela, Bhagoria Mela, Wavni, Divasa
and Nawai are the main festivals. These traditional festivals are celebrated during sowing,
growing and harvesting period. At the time of social celebrations and works people cooperate
by contribute in the form of crop produce.

73
Sahariya (Bundelkhand) tribals are largely dependent on NTFP based livelihood (collecting,
eating and selling locally). Baiga tribals (Balaghat & Mandla) are mostly dependent on the
minor millets and NTFPs harvested from the forest. Bhil tribals (Malwa) have traditional
practice of cultivation to produce minor millets (Kondo, Kutki, Ragi etc), maize and low land
paddy. All these crops are now witnessing reduced productivity and areas sown in the state due
to unfavourable policy environment.
6.3.1 Changes in Customs, Believes and Reservations
Beneficial socio-cultural practices (towards agriculture development) which are

continued:
Tribals’ practice of preserving seed has been beneficial for protecting the seed genome in the
tribal areas. Their custom, their festivals support the seed preservation practice e.g. in the Betul
district before sowing all the farmers gathers at one place and do worship (bidri puja). During
this event, every one brings their seed
material. There itself they judge the Box 3: How a new development scheme coming to a
best seed and other farmers change village does not lead to desired outcomes
their seed material with that of the best This is the story of Dogargoan village in Pandhana Block, Kandwa
material by giving additional District. In 1994, DRDA supported a new irrigation scheme in the
quantities. By this practice they insure village, involving 43 households, who were made part of two
that the best seed is sown in the samitis of 21 and 22 households. Two irrigation pipelines were laid
out. One pipeline from Sumta river, about 5 Kms away and
village. another from a nearby Talav, one Km away. Bank of India
financed Rs.29 Lakhs for motor pump and pipeline, which
included Rs.14 lakh subsidy. However there were no water use and
With mixed cropping tribal farmer distribution plans were made, thereby only about 6-7 families used
minimize the risk involved with failure the water. The electricity bills which came for about Rs.10000+
of single crop as well as ensures the surprised the villagers and they naturally did not deposit the bill
amount. Bank loans instalments were also not paid back.
variety in their food. Participating households approached Janpad, Zilla panchayat and
collector and on enquiry it was found that Bank Manager and
For sowing of seed, the tribal farmer Cashier has misled the households and were suspended. The loan
default case went up to the High Court but the participating
prepares the field by two times households were clearly not willing to budge from their stand that
ploughing in summer season. He does as they have not used water, why they should repay the loan.
the final and third ploughing and sows Meanwhile, Bank loan interest kept on accumulating. Clearly the
scheme failed and created wide spread animosity within the
the seed in the field by throwing village. Clearly:
method called as “Chhidka”. For - The scheme was not demand driven, and was thrust on
ploughing he uses plough (Hal) of households who were attracted to the Bank loan subsidy
- The scheme was implemented without any due process and
wood. Then he uses cow dunk as planning by the participating households
fertiliser. No use of any chemical - The vested interest of financing bank manager and other
fertiliser and pesticide. When crop intermediaries involved ensured that the scheme died an
unnatural death in the village
ripened, harvesting happens and - There was no facilitating agency or leadership within the village
“Udavani” (process in which first they who could channelise and solve problems in constructive way
- The scheme could have been targeted and managed better
beat the crop by sticks and through the
crop plants from a high place to take
seed out of plant) process is used.

74
The villagers use mud pots for storage of crop produce. They use white stone inside the pot to
save crop produce from insects. These are fixed on the earth and could not move.
The line sowing practice is beneficial to the productivity & micro-environment. The line
sowing is the age old practice by the farmers in the area. The practice of cross sowing also is
seen in tribal areas e.g. tribal farmers take up Wheat crop using cross sowing method which
results into double plant population. The single sowing would result less plant population
leading to more productivity.
Socio-cultural Practices which makes tribal agriculture still traditional:
Tribal cultivation history shows that farming is mostly for own consumptions and not for
market purpose. Tribal farmers tend to be less worried about future planning and therefore
entire efforts are directed towards ensuring existing livelihood through land and forest.
However the practice is seeing some perceptible change in the tribal, more so with the changes
in the cropping pattern. However still the marketable surplus available with vast majority of
tribal farmers is limited and so is their access to markets.
Minor millets are socially respectable crops in tribal culture. Minor millets are integral part of
tribal food habits. These are consumed during festivals and marriage times as well. All these
crops are now witnessing reduced productivity and areas sown in the state due to unfavourable
policy environment. The change in cropping pattern over the last five years (as explained in the
earlier sections) has influenced the change in tribal food habits as well.
Tribal occupation as agriculture is very simple and technological very poor23. Among the
agriculturist tribes, generalised type of reciprocity can clearly be seen at the times of sowing.
The kins help each other and at the end of the work are food and drink as hospitability. The
Bhils of Madhya Pradesh help each other in sowing and harvesting. They borrow cattle on
reciprocal basis for ploughing the field for cultivation.
The unbalance use of fertilisers & insecticides is also seen in tribal areas which damage soil
health. Traditional farm practices such broadcasting of seeds, use of local seeds etc. reduce
farm efficiency.
6.3.2 Changes in Gender and Social Relations
Women and men play equal role in agriculture, NTFP collection and in other means of securing
livelihoods. The women help men in agricultural work by performing work of threshing,
weeding and harvesting. Mostly women don’t work in sowing and ploughing as these are
performed by men only.
23
K.N.Dash in his book on Social and Cultural Anthropology

75
The study results shows that 60 to 83 percent of all decisions related to agriculture are taken by
men while 12 to 34 percent of various decisions related to agriculture are jointly taken by men
and women. The women role in taking the decision by their own is reported by generally 2 to 4
percent of households except in case of holding of money where about one quarter of households
have reported that women takes the decision. Maximum joint decisions are reported on decisions
related to selection of crops (34 percent of households), holding of money (36 percent),
investments (37 percent), selection of variety (31 percent). Lowest joint decisions are reported on
decisions related to use of new technologies and POP (12 percent of households), use of
agriculture implements (15 percent of households), purchasing of equipments (15 percent of
households). Some of these promising findings show the potential of agriculture extension which
focuses on both men and women farmers. However, women reportedly have not received
training from the agriculture department. This is due to the socio-cultural conditioning that
the men and women go through. Level of education attainment among women is also very poor.
However there is some glimmer of hope. The condition of women is improving over the years.
Education is making a good dent in this process. There are self help groups of women formed by
MPRLP or other NGOs in the area which are helping women come out of their traditionally roles
and be more active in social and political arena (As the above case studies demonstrate). The
state Govt. scheme of providing bicycle to girl for promoting medium and high school education
is found to be popular and effective in tribal areas. With slow but steady changes and integration
of tribal societies with the mainstream, it is expected that in 2 to 3 decades, gender and social
relations will undergo path breaking changes in the tribal areas. It is important for the policy
makers to ponder whether the rate of change can be speeded up to attain positive influence in
gender and social relations in tribal societies earlier than this. On social and political issues, role
of women is reported low though few NGOs are working towards women empowerment issues
in the tribal areas these empowerment initiatives are also focusing on backyard poultry training
and other income generation activities. Herein below are some of the observations from the field
that capture the situation of women in tribal societies in general and in agriculture development
in particular:
A grassroots NGO PGVS formed 2 Self Help groups wherein 24 women are participating
since two years. All women have regular saving in group. NGO also provided backyard
poultry training. NGO provided general awareness to the women group members on
agriculture. Women are now showing signs of empowerment – taking agriculture related
decisions, visiting the village market to gain access to agriculture related information etc.
Women are contributing in household economy by 100% of domestic work, 80% of

agriculture work and 40 % participation in social functions and meetings. Women shared
that given more support they can work at district level as well for livelihoods and

76
agriculture development - Based on FGD with Women members at village Jhapal, Block
Bhimpur, Betul
Women are back bone of agriculture in the village. Women contribute in agriculture
related decision making with their men counterpart. Women as part of SHGs share
agriculture related information in their group. SHG also meet their agriculture credit
requirements. Mostly women are not having land on own name - Based on FGD with
women members, village- Sarang, Block – Mahar, District:- Satana
“At the village level department should appoint women staff on priority basis and also
implementation support for women farmers through club/Group formation” said Smt. Parvathy
Durvey, Sarpanch Kotmi Janpad Shahpur
“We need to prepare state level women agriculture policy that promotes Village level women
farmers’ group formation and involvement of Civil Society Originations for its facilitation.” Said
Smt. Rekha Gujare, Secretary, Pradeepan, A Grass root NGO
6.4 Environmental Impacts
Adverse changes in the climatic conditions are having negative impact on the agriculture
production. It is noticed that tribal cultivation is now shifting from organic to chemical
fertiliser. Tribal farmers have very less knowledge on organic manure management. Villagers
Fig.: Number of HHs Reporting Receiving Support from Various Agencies for SWC Measures met during the study
were of the opinion
100% that it has become
80% increasingly difficult
over the years to
60%
predict when rain will
40% come. Awareness
20%
level on the climate
and environment
0% issues is very low.
Earthen Contour Stone Bunding Loose stone Talav Farm Pond Dabra Dabri Well
Bunding Bunding check dam Deepening
DOA NGOs Government supported Project (MPRLP, DPIP, Tejaswani) NREGS

There are no specific
Corporate (ITC, Hariyali, Reliance) Forest department Other Department Others
schemes of the
Government which address environmental vulnerability of the tribal farmers.
6.4.1 Use of environmentally beneficial Practices
It is widely accepted fact that the tribal agriculture, supported by Soil and Water Conservation
measures can enhance production and productivity of agriculture while at the same time very
beneficial for the environment. Status of adoption of various SWC measures in tribal areas
shows that:
Earthen Bunding

77
• 13 percent of the households have reported to have benefited from this activity. This
activity has been mainly implemented under the FW&AD scheme, NREGS, Govt.
supported projects and other departments. Also, NGO’s are reported to have supported
this activity.
• Across the different category of tribal population villages, 35 percent of the households in
50 percent to 75 percent have benefited, while about 10 percent households benefited in <
50 percent group. In the> 75 percent group only 3 percent of the households have
reported benefited from this activity.
• Across the different ago climatic zones, 56 percent of the households have reported
benefited from earthen bunding activity in Northern Hills region of CG, while in Jhabua
Hills region none of the households have been benefited from this activity. In other
regions beneficiary households reported range from 3 percent in Central Narmada Valley
region to 20 percent in Malwa Plateau region.
• Across the different social classes of households, the benefits from earthen bunding is
higher among the OBC (15 percent households) as compared to 12 percent each among
the ST and General households. SC households benefited is 10 percent.
• About 10 percent of the households have reported varying levels of satisfaction ranging
from ‘Some What Satisfied (5 percent households)’ to ‘Fully Satisfied (0.4 percent
households)’.
• 9 percent of the households have reported the asset created is functioning.
Contour Bund
• Only 4 percent of the households have reported to have benefited from contour bunding
activity, which has been implemented under FW&AD and NREGS. About 2 percent of
the households reported ‘Some What Satisfied’ level relating to contour bunding.
Stone Bunding
• Stone bunding activity has benefited 5 percent of the households with more than 2
percent of the households expressing marginal and partially satisfied level.
Loose Stone Check Dam (LSCD)

• Only 3 percent of the households reported benefited from this, mostly implemented under
FW&AD and NREGS schemes. Good functional status is reported by over 1 percent of
the households.
Balram Pond
• Less than 4 percent of the households reported benefited from this activity, which is
mostly implemented under NREGS. The functional status of this asset is reported to be
good by over 1 percent of the households.
Farm Pond (Chet Talab Yojana)

• 9 percent of the households have reported benefited from this activity implemented by
FW&AD and NREGS. 7 percent of the households have reported good functioning of the
asset.
Dabara Dabri

78
• 6 percent of the households reported benefited from this activity implemented mainly
through NREGS.
Well Deepening
• 13 percent of the households reported benefited from this activity implemented mainly
through NREGS.
Well deepening, earthen bunding and Farm ponds (11 percent) are most visible activities. The
rest of the SWC measures are undertaken by 3 to 6 percent of the households. It is interesting to
note that the predominantly tribal areas with population of tribals in excess of 75 percent have
least SWC activities taking place. This shows that the potential of SWC for improving tribal
agriculture has been only marginally utilized. It is known that except Talav (Balram talav –
39.3 percent of which are currently functional), more than two third of all other SWC measures
are currently functional. Once the tribal farmers have known and understood the utility of SWC
measures, the functionality is duly taken of.
FW&AD has supported the tribal households for undertaking loose stone check dams the most
as 43.4 percent of those who have undertaken this SWC stated so. NREGS has promoted
agriculture infrastructure development in tribal areas as almost half of SWC measures
undertaken by the tribal households are supported by NREGS. This is evidenced by the fact
that 48.3 percent households have reportedly received assistance from NREGS for Earthen
bunding, 74.8 percent households for Farm ponds, 61.4 percent households for Dabra Dabri,
41.5 percent households for stone bunding etc. The role of Forest Department, Govt. supported
projects and other departments have been marginal in promoting soil and water conservation in
the tribal areas.
6.4.2 Changes in use of Organic Agriculture in Tribal Areas
The tribal farmer’s use of FYM is an age old organic practice. Low rate of fertilizer
consumption is an opportunity for promoting organic agriculture. The current level of
awareness on organic agriculture is reported by 21 percent of the household however the
application of organic agriculture is reported by 7 percent of the households (which is a small
increase from 6 percent households five years ago).
6.5 Contribution of Agriculture towards Poverty Reduction
As of December 2005, the government defined a person with an income of less than Rs 368
(rural) and Rs 559 (urban) per month or consuming less than 2,400 and 2,100 calories per day in
rural and urban areas respectively as living below the poverty line. However as per one of private
think tank24 in India, “A true and complete definition of poverty should include all the basic
needs of human life with a modest modicum of quality.” According to the think-tank, “a person
is poor in India if he or she has a monthly per capita expenditure lesser than Rs 840 or does not
have access to either drinking water, proper shelter, sanitation, quality secondary education or an
24
Centre for Policy Alterative Society

79
all-weather road with public transport.” Poverty essentially is deprivation of basic human
necessities for survival and decent living. In rural context, poverty in India is generally seen at
four levels viz. Extreme Poor, Very Poor, Poor and Better off. The participatory poverty
measures (well being ranking) are used generally for the poverty alleviation programmes. The
study has also used participatory methods of assessment of the poverty status of the households
now and five years back.
Well Being Ranking: This is a methodology for identification of different socio- economic category households from the village, in the four
categories. This helps in identification of the poor, less poor and the well-off households in the community because
with the limited resources available we need to give priority to people who are resource poor and lack an effective
‘voice’. The success of adopting a methodology also needs to be seen in the context of its acceptance by the relevant
communities. In the study, we had the opportunity to assess the situation of Household in participatory manner after
the intensive discussion with the household member
The General criterias used for Well Being Ranking:

WBR Category Assumed social and Economic Status of Agriculture Status of HHs
HHs
Extreme Poor Hand to mouth, Physically week, handicap No land for agriculture and no capacity to
no natural assets for livelihood, No access take lease land,
in Panchyat and departmental programme ,
Distress migration, No part of any
institution, Kuccha house in poor
condition, no livestock, illiterate
Very Poor Dependent on daily wage, less participation Land up to 2 acres, no irrigation facility ,
in Gram Panchayt, Know some scheme and Khrif crop only with traditional cultivation
programme from of department but note practices (No use of package of practice), No
benefited, Kuccha House, Seasonal produce for sell mostly consuming or
Migration , Members with Institiution but repayment to the money land against the
note benefited or deflator, 1-2 Livestock, loan, 4-5 month grain from field
Some (2-3)tree in field, functional literacy
Poor Have access at Panchyat with little Up to 5 acre land, Partially irrigated and
influence, Work as labour if available in some irrigated land, Using some POPs at
village, Able to access and utilise some field, minimum one crops takes from the field,
scheme and programme from different Average productivity of crop, 8-9 month
department, Semi pucca house, Memebrs grain form on land, Use new seed for some
with institutions , 2-4 Livestock, 5-8 tress on crops like cotton and Maize and Bajra at
field, Sending children’s in school small land
Better off Have access and influence at Panchayt More than 5 acre land, more 1 acre land
level, Members of main institutions, irrigated, Using of new techniques of
Benefiting form all major schemes, Big agriculture, and able to demonstrate new
family size and educated, Social respect in technologies to other farmers, Better
community high, political party leader in productivity, Whole year grain from own
village, Other HHs working as agriculture land and surplus grain and produce sell to
labour on field , Productive animals and the market, good use of agriculture
having own plantation land with more than implements, Storage facility available,
8-10 trees capacity to take others land on lease
The tribal areas are showing upward movement of poverty profile of households from extreme
poor (net 4.3 percent upward movement) to poor /very poor/Better off and from Very poor (net
9.7 percent upward movement) to poor /Better off . As a result, as compared to five years back,
there are net 11.4 percent more households in “Poor” category. Similarly net 2.5 percent more
households are better off now than five years back. The table alongside presents a clear picture
of different category of households, moving in and out of various levels of poverty. 75 percent

80
of the extreme poor have remained so in the last 5 years. 21 percent of extreme poor have
moved to become very poor. Overall 26.2 percent of extreme poor households have moved out
of extreme poverty. 41.8 percent of very
poor households have remained very
poor over the last five years. 51.4
percent have moved to become poor and
0.6 percent better off so overall 52
percent households have shown upward
movement. However 6.2 percent
households have slipped back to being
very poor from other levels of poverty.
The data shows that 8.4 percent of poor
households have moved to become
better off households in the last five
years. Only marginally (3.3 percent)
better offs households have slipped back into lower poverty profiles.
One of the reasons that can be attributed for this upward movement of poverty profile is that
there is 14.6 percent more area under cultivation and crop production has improved for all
crops except Maize. However this is true for only 7.94 percent of the households (about 92
percent have shown no increase). Productivity of all major crops has reduced with Soybean
productivity down by 12 percent. There is an increase in Cost of Production (Rs/ Acre) for all
the major crops in the past five years (without adjusting for the inflation). At the aggregate
level, for most of the crops the proportion of marketable surplus has either remained stagnant
or reduced. All this shows that contribution of agriculture to movement in poverty profile will
be marginal. In fact there is a possibility that due to increased cost of production and reduced
productivity, agriculture is contributing negatively to movement of poverty profile of
households. The study results shows that 38.7 percent households have reported overall
improvement in well being in the last five years. This is a significant number which is not
getting accounted by the agriculture improvements (which are able to partially take care of
immediate food security of the households) in the tribal areas. There are some significant
findings from the study worth revisiting here:
1. It is interesting to note that 28 percent of the households in tribal areas are not drawing
their income from agriculture.
2. Close to one third (29.7 percent) of the population in tribal areas is dependant on non-farm
labour as their primary source of income. Another one third of households (29.8 percent)
are dependent on non-farm labour as their subsidiary sources of income. Tribal households

81
are more dependent on non farm labour than non-tribal households as two third (66
percent) of tribal households have reported non farm labour as either primary or subsidiary
sources of income while only about half (48 percent) of the non-tribals have reported so.
All these results clearly show that with increasing poverty levels, the dependence on non-
farm labour as a primary source of income increases.
3. 21 percent of the households (among those who have undertaken diversified income
generation activities) have expressed an increase in income due to engagement in other IG
activities in the last five years.
4. Nearly 92 percent of the households have received Job Card under NREGS, with 38
percent of these households reporting non availability of employment under the scheme;
while others have received employment varying from 10 days to 90 days. Programmes like
NREGS have addressed transient poverty.
5. Migration is reported by one third of households in tribal areas. More tribals (38.3 percent)
are resorting to migration as compared with non-tribals (23.7 percent).
The analysis above shows the shift happening in poor farmers resorting to non farm and farm
labour for their primary or subsidiary sources of income. The returns from agriculture for small
and marginal farmers and more so for tribal households have seen a reducing trend which
justifies their looking out for other viable sources of livelihoods, as the study result shows. So
the overall improvement in poverty profile is due to other sources of income opportunities
available in the tribal areas or due to migration earning of the households. The role of
agriculture in graduating poor out of poverty is weakening over the years, given the fact that
technology uptake in agriculture in tribal areas is still weak, the institutional delivery system of
Govt. agriculture extension is reaching to (at the maximum) only about one sixth of the farmers
in tribal areas and therefore role of agriculture will continue to diminish in addressing causes of
poverty in tribal areas unless intensive and relevant engagement models are successfully tried
out.
6.6 Sustainability
6.6.1 Sustainability of Benefits:
The agriculture development in tribal areas will sustain when individuals are aware of
technology, apply best practices, benefit from them and spread the information around so
that many more fellow farmers become aware, adopt and benefit. Sustainability will set on its
own when agriculture extension services reach out to maximum number of farmers (including
small and marginal farmers). Some of these farmers learn from their own demonstrations and
spread their knowledge and thereby agriculture development start happening on its own,
wherein even if agriculture department maintains a low profile, the process will take care of
itself. However we have not reached that stage yet. The first step of awareness of farmers in
tribal areas is very low (not more than one third of farmers are aware of any POP area). There
is a gap between awareness to adoption. Though the trend over the last five years is improving,
the slow improvements are leading to any significant outcomes for the agriculture development
in tribal areas. Reach and coverage of agriculture extension and delivery mechanism is up to
medium and large farmers in tribal areas, those too in lower proportions (one sixth). Clearly the
momentum of sustainability will not build on its own under these circumstances.

82
6.6.2 Institutional Sustainability
The agriculture development in tribal areas will sustain if the community based mechanism is
in place and working in tandem with the local governance structure. However the
community based mechanisms is found to be weak or non-existent in tribal areas for planning
and delivery of agriculture services. Hence sustainability concerns will need to address that
first. Secondly though under the Gram Swaraj, the MP Govt. has created a mechanism of
agriculture department participation in the Panchayats. The link still remains limited to
participation in meetings and information dissemination at the best. The real convergence of
department thinking and planning with the gram sabha has not happened significantly in the
tribal areas.
The agriculture development in tribal areas will sustain when the institutional mechanism for
the delivery of agriculture services becomes effective. This requires sensitization and capacity
building at all levels of institutional arrangements. This also requires institutional models
capable of fulfilling the mandate. Signs of achievements are already visible on this front with
the PPP institutional models being tried out under ATMA.
6.6.3 Environmental Sustainability
The agriculture development in tribal areas will sustain when agriculture practices does not
lead to harmful effects on the environment. The tribal agriculture follows age old practice of
using FYM. The chemical fertilizer consumption level in tribal areas is still much lower than
the state average. This offers an opportunity for promoting sustainable organic agriculture in
tribal areas. The current level of organic agriculture in tribal areas remains limited.
6.6.4 Sustainability of the Programme Model
The agriculture development in tribal areas will sustain if planning of interventions is need
based and becomes relevant. The agriculture planning though is decentralized, but the real
process of farm planning and district planning is not fully influencing the overall plans that are
made. The interventions need investments in the areas which can address the causes of low
agriculture based livelihoods development in the tribal areas. Therefore many programme
models related to integrated farming systems, watershed developments, agriculture value
chain development etc. need to be adopted and implemented in the tribal areas.
Finally, the agriculture developmental is tribal areas will sustain when agriculture is able to
provide marketable surplus for the farm families to take care of their livelihoods largely. If that
does not happen, there is a risk that the next generation will move away from agriculture to
other options for livelihoods generation, which if it happens will endanger the food security of
the country. The agriculture in tribal areas is subsistence and marketable surplus currently in
low, showing an increasing trend over the last five years. Potential for increasing the
marketable surplus is very high considering that the productivity is one of lowest in tribal areas
in the state.

83
7 Objective 2 and 4 – Context and Relevance of Agricultural

Interventions
7.1.1 Reach and Relevance of Agriculture Intervention in Tribal Areas
Today, the tribal majority areas, which overlap with the state’s major forest areas, are also areas
with the highest concentrations of poverty. Agriculture is predominantly rainfed and mono-
cropped. Horticulture is marginally developed in the tribal areas with the present area under
fruits, vegetables, and spices accounting for only about 2.5 percent of the cultivated area25.
Vegetable cultivation is picking up very fast. These are preferably grown on Bari land
(homestead). Women participate in all agricultural operations excepting ploughing and sowing
of rice seed, contributing between 70 to 80 percent of the total labour. In spite of favourable
resource conditions, tribal regions perform poorly in terms of infrastructure, returns from
agriculture and almost all human development indicators (The detailed social, economic and
cultural context of tribals is discussed in the earlier chapters). Herein this chapter looks at the
extent to which current agriculture interventions in tribal areas are best suited to the context of
tribal people and the vulnerability factors affecting them.
Relevance or suitability of agriculture interventions is demonstrated when more and more

numbers of tribal farmers get the benefit of agriculture programmes and schemes. The detailed
design analysis of agriculture programmes and schemes present the following picture:
Status of Reach and Relevance of Irrigation Source Developmental Schemes:
Micro-minor irrigation schemes are most relevant for the tribal areas, considering undulated
topography and the nature of small
holder agriculture. The schemes like
Kapildhara, well deepening are
relatively working well as shown in the
accompanying table. However most of
other schemes have reached to very
marginal number of households. Balram
talab scheme is currently benefiting
more non tribal farmers as this is
appropriate for medium and large
farmers. However the Farm pond
scheme (Khet Talab Yojana) and Dabra
Dabri schemes are best suited to the social and cultural milieu of the tribal areas as these helps
the farmers to provide life saving irrigation to the Kharif crop during the long gap between two
rains and this is also useful for vegetable cultivation and plantation purposes. Tube well
25

84
(Nalkup) scheme may not be beneficial to large numbers of small and medium farmers and also
not good for the environmental reasons and hence can be discontinued.
Clearly if micro minor irrigation is promoted on a large scale with adequate allocations and
overall budgets for these schemes should be based on local soil profile conditions. It is also
advised that well recharging schemes are also promoted to maintain the water table.
Status of Reach and Relevance of Agriculture Extension Schemes:
Krishi mela and Krishi Seminar are most popular in the tribal community, implemented under
the ATMA scheme. 2 percent farmers are aware where 44 percent households among them
have benefited from the programme. Women participation is agriculture extension programme
is very limited suggesting a strong need to promote extension programmes with women farmers
as tribal women contribute more
then men in agriculture. Kissan
Mitra and Kisan Didi schemes are
among the most relevant schemes
in tribal areas as they follow the
approach of community based
extension. However the reach of
these schemes is currently very
limited with only 0.2 percent
households aware and getting the benefit from the schemes. During the interactions with the
Agriculture department functionaries, it became known that REAO is not able to provide the
follow up support to the Kissan Didi and Kissan Mitra after their training, leaving a very well
designed scheme to not achieve it potential. The field demonstration benefit is gained more by
non-tribals farmers than the tribal farmers in the tribal areas. During focus group discussions, it
was observed that one REAO in Kharif or Rabi conducts more than 20 field demonstration and
this forces him to go to those farmers where these demonstrations can be easily carried out as if
he spread out the demonstration or carries them out with tribal /small and medium farmers then
it will require support amounting to at least 100 days of visit in one season to the 20
demonstration, which considering his work profile and resources may not be possible.
At below block level REAO is responsible for providing information and coordination of
agricultural schemes and technologies. There is need of one REAO on 400-60026 families but
at present, the Department has only one REAO on 1500 to 2500 families. Although tribal areas
need more RAEOs for the extension support, the reverse is the case.
Status of Reach and Relevance of Agriculture Input Schemes:
Seed is important input for the agriculture in Madhya Pradesh. Under centrally sponsored
scheme Annpurna (for cereals) and Surajdhara (for Oilseeds) seed is provided to the SC & ST
farmers under different sub schemes. Annapurna has 7 percent households aware about it with
26

85
86 percent of them benefitting. Non-tribals households are relatively more aware as well as
drawing more benefits than the tribal households. Seed gram scheme have 4 percent households
aware and 96 percent of them have benefited. The seed schemes have shown relatively good
results. Presently department have every year target to take 5 village from the each blocks of
the state and this numbers
need to increase. 5 percent
households are aware and
among them 71 percent of
households have benefited
from the Surajdhara scheme.
The study results shows that
the Seed Exchange scheme is
not working in tribal area as
tribals due to their practices
do not exchange own seed
with seed from other sources.
The tribal areas face the problem of availability of seeds at the right time and therefore Seed
gram scheme is best suited in tribal area. If farmers are able to produce seed within the village
in supervision of department this will be best situation for farmers.
Status of Reach and Relevance of Central Schemes:
All central supported schemes have presence in tribal and non tribal areas of the state. National
food security Mission (NFSM) is known by the 6 percent of tribal households with 79 percent
of the households among them benefitting from the scheme while 22 percent of non tribal
households are aware about
NFSM and 28 percent among
them have benefitted as well.
NFSM scheme have given
opportunity to good numbers of
farmers to secure benefits in the
short term. 2 percent of the tribal
households are aware about
National Agriculture
Development Programme
(RKVY) with 64 percent of them benefitting as well. ISOPAM scheme have achieved coverage
in terms of awareness to 4 percent tribal households and among them 79 percent have
benefitted, however the scheme benefits have gone to more proportion of non-tribals. Same is
the case with National crop Insurance scheme. This reflects tribal farmers have less access to
take claim from insurance of crop as well awareness on crop insurance. The Intensive Cotton
Development has reached to only 1 percent of tribal farmers in terms of awareness with 75
percent among them getting the benefit from the scheme. It is observed during the field study
that cotton crop productivity has increased over the last 5 year due to the BT and hybrid cotton
seeds for which the tribal farmers are ready to pay the cost of the seed also.
Status of Reach and Relevance of Soil & Water Conservation Scheme:

86
7 percent of tribal households are on Hariyali scheme under the soil and water conservation
programme however only 4 percent households among them have benefited, the situation is
similar with non-tribal households as well. Farm bunding scheme have been recognised by the
farmers as having impacted on the
field wherein 5 percent tribal farmers
are aware and among them 41
percent have benefited. Farm
bunding scheme is very useful for
the tribal areas with undulated
topography requiring soil and water
conservation work. Presently
NREGS have provided opportunity
to the farmers to work on their own land. SWC programme needs still lot of efforts by different
implementation agencies in the tribal areas to improve land structure and moisture in the field.
Watershed development programme brings double benefits by providing wage labour
opportunity as well as conserving environmental and natural resources which improve crop
productivity.
Other Programme:-
1 percent of the tribal households are aware on plant protection, seed treatment and soil testing
schemes wherein among them 65 percent, 81 percent and 20 percent have benefitted
respectively. Non-tribals households are
marginally more aware and have
realised benefits in more proportion
than the tribal farmers. Organic farming
is most suitable intervention in the tribal
areas however current uptake on this is
very low with only 3 percent tribal
households aware and among them 55
percent realising the benefit. Tribal agriculture is close to the organic farming and this
opportunity need to be leveraged by the state policy. The organic farming practices along with
marketing support for organically grown crops will boost the organic practice in tribal areas of
the state.
The analysis shows how coverage attained for most of the agriculture interventions in tribal
areas is very low and therefore the larger issue for the state policy and programming to address
is increase the coverage while focusing on relatively more relevant schemes like NREGS,
Annapurna, Surajdhara, NFSM, RKVY, Agrisnet, Organic farming, Soil and water
conservation, agriculture extension etc.

87
7.1.2 Adequacy and Relevance of Public Investments in Agriculture Sector in MP
The public investments in agriculture have been stagnant during the three year period (2005-06
to 2007-08). The planned
Fig. Agriculture Sector: Planned Outlay Vs. Utilisation - Overall and TSP outlay in Agriculture Sector in
Madhya Pradesh has
marginally moved up from
TSP - Actual Exp.
Rs.148.63 crores in 2005-06 to
Rs.177.75 crores in 2007-08.
TSP - Planned
The proportion of TSP to
overall plan outlay has been
Actual Exp.
around 27 percent, over this
three years period. But the TSP
Planned Outlay
utilization has remained lower
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 (72 percent) than the overall
utilization level (82 percent).
2005-06 2006-07 2007-08
The planned outlay for the last
financial year (2008-09) increased significantly to Rs.689.61 crores. The actual expenditure till
November 2008 shows utilization of only Rs.155.98 crores (25 percent of the total plan outlay).
The plan outlay for 2009-10 are projected at Rs.585.61 crores of which 23 percent is the TSP
outlay. The major addition to current fiscal outlay is RKVY which brings in Rs.380 crores of
additional public investments in the sector (of which 23 percent are under TSP). Clearly the
public investments in agriculture have almost tripled for the current fiscal against the trends of
annual utilization of over the last 5 years. The crucial issue to monitor will be whether the
tripling of investments brings in increased reach and coverage of agriculture services, and
possibly tripling of agriculture growth in the state, to move up to 5 percent level as envisaged in

88
the annual plan for 2009-10. The budgetary analysis throws up following findings and resultant
pointers for improved allocation planning:
TSP allocations are a pointer towards commitment to improve tribal development. The
allocations have followed the principle of budgets proportion to population size, and as tribal
land holding constitute around one fifth of all land holdings in the state, thereby the budgetary
allocations have stayed around one fifth of total plan outlays. However the principle of equality
which will require disproportionately higher public investments to improve tribal agriculture
and economic well being of tribal farmers dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods.
The trend of proportion of

agriculture investments and
allocations (over the period
2005-06 to 2007-08) shows
that TSP allocations have
generally followed the
overall allocations across
various programmes and
schemes. There are few
exceptions also wherein
schemes like Surajdhara,
Annapurna have received
higher allocations in tribal areas, which demonstrate the relevant planning as per the
requirements of the tribal farmers. There are areas which are possibly more relevant for tribal
agriculture development but have received proportionately less allocations e.g. watershed
development, Balram Talav, research and education, agriculture extension etc. The entire
Research and Education budget under TSP have gone to JNKVV, the benefit from which to
tribal agriculture in not much evident. The allocations on soft components (like agriculture
extension) have seen declining trend over the years, more so in the tribal areas whereas the
need for more and effective agriculture extension is evident from the impact assessment. How
do public investments translate into development outcomes?. Analysis by International Food
Policy Research Institute shows that investments on Roads achieve first rank in terms of
converting public investments into development outcomes27. Agriculture research and
development investment occupy second rank in translating public investment into development
outcomes. However based on the quantitative and qualitative data from the impact assessment
study, it becomes known that anti-poverty programmes in tribal areas makes the best returns on
public investments. One of the reasons is that the programmes are most relevantly designed and
intensively executed. Soil and water conservation, irrigation occupies second and third rank in
translating public investments in tribal areas to poverty reduction outcomes. Clearly the
investment needs in tribal areas need to be differently understood and planned.
27
The analysis based on multi-country research by IFPRI
** The analysis is based on review of secondary documents, best practices on tribal agriculture, various program
models for tribal area development and combined experience of study team in tribal agriculture improvement

89
7.1.3 Adequacy and Relevance of Gender Budgeting
Budgets are universally accepted as a powerful tool in achieving development objectives and
act as an indicator of commitment to the stated policy of the Government. Gender Budgeting is
a dissection of the Government budget to establish its gender-differential impacts and to
translate gender commitments into budgetary commitments. The Approach Paper to the
Eleventh Five Year Plan mentions "Gender Equity requires adequate provisions to be made in
policies and schemes across Ministries and Departments”. It also entails ‘strict adherence to
gender budgeting across the board.
As per the guidelines of the Ministry of Women and Child Development on Gender Budgeting,
FW&AD in Madhya Pradesh had broadened its understanding and application of gender
budgets. This is perceptible from the significantly increasing trend of budget lines for women
specific activities in different programmes and schemes. In 2007-08, only 3 percent of total
outlay was dedicated to women specific activities. In 2008-09, it had increased to 8 percent. In
both these years, large share of women specific activities were allocated to training programme
for women. However in 2009-10 women budget lines have increased to 25 percent of the total
outlay and it is known that FW&AD has done programme and scheme specific planning for
women participation. As the
Fig. Programmes with Signigicant Budget Allocation for Women in 2009-10 Plan graph shows, the budget is
Outlay
women is in the range of 20
2500 to 30 percent across major
schemes and programmes in
Rs. In Lakhs
2000
1500
the state. Along with positive
1000
500
movements observable on
0 gender budgeting, few
Top-up Subsidy
Grant-in-Aid to
Grant-in-Aid to
Communication
Engineering
National Bio-
Programme
National Pulse
Training Centre
Surajdhara
Production
exclusions are also evident,

Agriculture
Balram Talab
Development
Information &
Scheme
on Irrigation
Oilseed
Gas Dev.
Boring of
State Level
Project
JNKVV
Yojna
wherein no women specific

budget lines are cited in the
2009-10 plan outlays, some
Plan outlay Women Component
of which are:
• Agriculture Extension programme (Plan outlay - Rs.54.88 crores)

• National Crop Insurance Scheme (Plan outlay – Rs. 16.91 crores)
• Rajya Krishak Ayog (Plan Outlay – Rs. 1.5 crores)
• Development of Watersheds (Plan outlay – Rs. 6.22 crores)
Such exclusion points out that the Agriculture policy and strategies in the state have not fully
taken role of women as a farmer and women as a beneficiary into account. Some of the village
level PRI members whom this study met were of the opinion that the state should bring out a
Women Agriculture Policy to emphasise role of women in agriculture, more so in the tribal
areas. The discussions with agriculture department functionaries has revealed that department
wide awareness and sensitivity on women farmers is low and therefore the policy and
interventions are needed to address this as well.

90
8 Objective 3 – Best Practices

The five best practices mentioned in this section are selected based on their relevance to
agriculture development in tribal areas. The best practices offers proven models (programme
as well as institutional) and innovations. The best practices can be adapted and replicated for
the benefit of tribal and non-tribal farmers in the tribal areas of the state.
8.1.1 Model of Tribal Agriculture Development:
In 2002, the IWMI-Tata Water Policy Program (ITP), Sadguru Foundation and PRADAN led a
collaborative initiative called the Central India Initiative (CInI) to evolve, through a
coordinated program of applied research, a strategy to use small-scale water-control
interventions as the center-pin of tribal agricultural development. The research argues that there
is a need to reorient India’s current thinking on tribal affairs. It argues that context specific and
innovative small-scale water control interventions can act as a trigger to revitalize tribal
livelihoods.
The policy on tribal affairs has given inadequate emphasis to livelihood enhancement and
improvement of economic status of tribals. There has been no concerted effort at improving the
access of the tribal people to improved agricultural practices and water control. During the
course of our studies, we found numerous cases where sensible investments in land care and
water management have the power to transform tribal agrarian systems.
Lifting devices such as low-cost and high-efficiency diesel pumps as well as manually operated
treadle pumps need to be encouraged and supported. The region is abundant in streams and
rivulets that can be harvested through small-scale lift irrigation projects. At places where wells
exist, low cost micro-irrigation systems may be introduced to support women-managed
vegetable cultivation on homestead lands. Simultaneously, uplands may be taken up for soil
water conservation measures and growing improved grasses, timber, host plants for
silkworms/lac and fruit trees. A series of such interventions undertaken together across the
local topography [Figure 5] can have a positive impact on tribal livelihoods.
Agri-horti-forestry, a concept demonstrated in the Wadi (farm plus residence) development

program of BAIF, the development research foundation, is an integrated land and water
management initiative. A wadi is typically a one acre plot, in most places with a high slope that
is difficult to farm. BAIF has promoted plantations in these plots using local water resources.
When no external sources of water appear feasible, recourse is taken to creating harvesting-
cum-storage structures that capture rainwater. This is done by digging small pits of 4 cubic
metres capacity. The water is used to protect standing plants of fruit crops, the core of the Wadi
model. Farmers are encouraged and helped to take inter-crops of marketable vegetables and
other cash crops till the shade created by the tree canopy makes plant growth difficult. This
way the tribal families derive some income even during the long gestation period of the Wadi,
usually between 5 and 7 years. Harnessing locally available water resources also takes the form

91
of diversion channels or small check-dams which store rainwater for dry-spell irrigation;
recharge groundwater and in some cases, also facilitate second crops. However, one of the
biggest initiatives of harnessing the potential of local rivers and streams for tribal welfare can
be seen in the work of the NM Sadguru foundation in the western tribal homelands.
These involve relatively large check dams and lift irrigation schemes which typically irrigate
around 200 acres through a lift irrigation scheme which is managed by the tribal farmers’
cooperative. Besides generating substantial economic and livelihood benefits for poor tribal
communities, these schemes have significant multiplier effects in the local economy. Since
water availability in this part of tribal India is relatively less, building a large number of such
check-dams can lead to upstream-downstream conflicts. However, a major strength of
Sadguru’s interventions is that they operate at the catchments level and plan each intervention
after considering its possible impacts downstream. Other avenues to uplift tribal agrarian
economies from the current low-productivity levels include initiatives of community based
irrigation management, market led initiatives, watershed and watershed PLUS programs as well
as spontaneous community action based on traditional wisdom. While the methods varied
across the diverse socio-ecologies, all of them aimed to reverse the trend of distress migration
and helping tribal farmers find their feet in settled agriculture through the provision of
improved water control.
Key learning from this model are:
• Innovative small-scale water control interventions can act as a trigger to revitalize

tribal livelihoods.
• Lifting devices such as low-cost and high-efficiency diesel pumps as well as manually
operated treadle pumps need to be encouraged and supported in tribal area.
• Community based irrigation management, market led initiatives, watershed and
watershed PLUS programs as well as spontaneous community action based on
traditional wisdom – these are critical elements of successful initiatives in tribal areas
• Agri-horti-forestry, a concept Wadi (farm plus residence) is effective for small and
marginal farmers.
• Social mobilisation is a useful tool for adaptation of technological and market-led
initiatives. Community mobilisation through a CSO facilitation process is an effective
mechanism to improve the delivery and effectiveness of the development initiative.
8.1.2 System of Rice intensification can improve livelihood profile of small farmers
“Small and marginal farmers in rice growing pockets can improve their livelihoods profile by
practicing System of Rice Intensification, which can efficiently address food security issue”28
Agriculture is the main source of livelihood in Madhya Pradesh. About 70 percent of total
population of state is directly dependent on agriculture for their livelihood and 10 percent
28
Principal Secretary Rural Development Shri. I. S. Dani while addressed a state workshop on System of Rice Intensification
organized by Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihoods Project (MPRLP)

92
families indirectly dependent upon it. So from agriculture these families get 60-75 percent of
their household income, but the contribution of agriculture to the state GDP is merely 26
percent, which is highly disproportionate as compared to the number of people involved in it.
From studies of agriculture area it is clear that more effort is required to make agriculture a
profitable business, and the process has already been initiated. Paddy has more importance
among main crops of Madhya Pradesh. And production can be affected by the quality of seed,
sowing technique, availability of water, diseases etc. To address all such issues Madagascar or
System of Rice Intensification Technique has been developed for the production of paddy
which increases its yield and also decreases the usage of seed.
An initiative has been taken in the state to cultivate Paddy by System of Rice Intensification
Technique. For this work Farmer Welfare and Agriculture Development, other NGOs, Krishi
Vigyan Kendra and Agriculture universities play an active role. Different studies and research
show that marginal and small farmers will benefit from this technique. By the System of Rice
Intensification paddy cultivation needs very less amount of water.
From last three years MPRLP (Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihood Project) has been taking the
initiative to motivate farmers to adopt the System of Rice Intensification Technique for
paddy cultivation which leads to better results in production. On the basis of last experiences
the project will take initiative and adopt SRI technique for paddy cultivation in large scale for
upcoming kharif season. Presently it is required to make a strategy for proper implementation
of technique in the State. And on this basis a concert work plan should be designed for smooth
functioning of this technique and more production.
Following are the main factors which affects production of Paddy:

• No use of good quality seeds
• No change in the old techniques of paddy production
• No proper awareness about new and advanced techniques
• Increased seed rate
• No timely availability of paddy
• Dependency on rain
• Preparation of land
• No timely availability of labour
• Sudden change in production per Ha.
• To increase production of paddy proper attention is needed upon the above issues, SRI
provides opportunity to work on such issues like seed treatment, Nursery raising,
Preparation on land, use of good quality of seeds etc. The State is working on SRI
technique from last 5-6 years but the noticeable progress started from 2004 when different
Non Government Organisation and government schemes and programs have taken initiative
to promote the SRI technique.
Detail of efforts to promote SRI technique in the state:
Awareness increases in the state regarding SRI technique, for this there is a great contribution
of different organizations. Major roles are played by Farmer Welfare and Agriculture

93
Development Department as well as different schemes of the state and central government to
promote SRI technique in larger areas of state. In this the role of NGOs is also appreciable.
These organizations not only promote awareness, but also organize demonstration which leads
to better progress. Of these organizations PRADAN has played a very important role. After the
positive results in Jharkhand state, in the East region of Madhya Pradesh many demonstrations
have been organized in the lands of farmers after which most of the farmers adopted the SRI
technique. Action for Social Advancement, Bhopal, Srijan New Delhi, Foundation for
Ecological Security, Mandla, Dawat Foods etc have played very important role in the
promotion and implementation of the SRI technique in the state.
Status of achievement of SRI Technique in the State:
1. Farmers adopted test of seed germination rate which results in to proper growth.
2. 215 farmers adopted Back-up Nursery technique and to reduce cost some farmers associate
in group for nursery raising.
3. In most of the places farmers adopted the principal of standard gap between plant to plant
and line to line.
4. All farmers irrigate their farms according to the technique and also realize the importance of
water management.
5. Now farmers know the importance of time to time weeding and hoeing to remove weeds
from farms and also adopted different equipment like Cono weeder.
6. Farmers now understand that huge amount of water is not required in paddy cultivation
which also leads to water conservation.
Key Learning:
• Involvement of NGOs and Private agencies leads to technologies adoption for small
and marginal farmers. Bringing complementary skills through building synergies
among different types of organsiations, and providing space for each one to operate –
very useful and effective.
• Assured irrigation even if there is less quantum of water is important for SRI technique,
therefore, where farmers are dependent on rain-fed paddy, SRI technique was less
adopted by the farmers.
• Convergence with NREGS for field levelling and water resource development for
promotion of SRI worked through private partnership in district Betul found very useful.
8.1.3 Participatory Varietals Selection and Promotion (PVSP) in DPIP-MP
Seed of improved varieties of crop could increase the production levels significantly. The
adoption of new varieties is still not a common practice among farmers, especially in interior
areas. The number of new varieties grown is small and the most popular varieties are mostly
local, and are often cultivated across the entire cultivable land. The age of the most popular
variety is over 15-20 years. Widely grown old varieties are not only low yielding, but also
vulnerable to pests and diseases. The crop improvements is partly governed by the Seed Act

94
and regulatory system made to dovetail the efforts of the researchers and extension agencies.
Tripps (1995) notes29, “regulatory framework is the product of the political debate in which
resource-poor farmer have usually not had adequate voice”. The interest of the farmers,
consumers, processors and plant breeders in the regulation all differs, and the voice of the small
farmers has to be made stronger if they are to be applied in a neutral fashion.
Limitations in the conventional agriculture research and extension system:

• Researchers decide the research agenda without consulting farmers and appreciating their
needs; farmer is seldom involved in the entire process of research;
• It aims at selecting a few widely adaptable varieties, differences in physical and socio-
economic environments within areas are not considered.
• The research environment seldom represents the actual field situation on account of agro-
ecology, input use and management practices generally followed by the farmers
especially small and marginal class in the resource poor areas;
• The extension process is supply driven instead of demand driven;
• The research and extension agencies dictate the recommendations onto the community,
hence, the change of seeds or varieties are not informed decision by the farmer;
• Due to uniform and generic recommendation domain the monoculture of one prominent
variety on a large area increases the chances of pest outbreak and diminishes the on-farm
bio-diversity.
This has led to:

• Poor adoption rates of new varieties due to lack of farmer preferred traits. For instance,
country has developed over 650 new rice varieties in last 55 years but hardly 5 percent of
them are in general cultivation on a sizeable area;
• There is huge gap between the potential of the new varieties claimed by the research
system and actual yield realized by the farmers.
• The gross annual losses due to unavailability of the potential variety are estimated at
about Rs. 25 crores per annum for paddy, wheat and maize in the four districts of central
west India where ASA is working. This is only a theoretical calculation giving an idea of
the magnitude of losses.
• It takes about 8-10 years in Govt. system from development to release of any variety. A
variety released for a state needs another 4-5 years at least for it to be released for another
state. Formal extension involves huge subsidies for popularization of varieties. Since the
ownership of decision for change of varieties is not taken fully by the farmers hence they
expect state to bear the burden of subsidies, or in other words it is fully supply driven;
Participatory Varietals Selection and Promotion - some successful initiatives
To overcome these shortcomings several researchers and development agencies world over
initiated the Participatory Varietals Selection and Promotion (PVSP) initiatives – a method
intended to understand the felt and perceived needs of the farmers for suitable crop varieties
29
Seeds of Choice, by Virk and Witcombe, Oxford-IBH, 1998.

95
and allowing them to test, identify, and adopt/spread the suitable “farmer preferred” varieties
from a “basket of choices” provided to them. The PVSP process follows four distinct stages:
• Identifying farmers’ needs in varieties by using participatory methods – the range of

attributes upon which farmers prefer a variety are many and mostly qualitative.
• Search for suitable varieties having attributes closer to farmers’ preferences within the
existing released varieties of Agriculture Research system.
• Experimentation on new varieties by farmers under their own management and assessment of
their acceptability by farmers; and
• Natural spread and promotion of farmers’ preferred varieties across villages within similar
agro-ecology and socio-economy.
Many studies have confirmed substantial benefits of PVSP. The benefits are realized in terms
of (i) yield increment up to 30-40 percent by adopting new varieties against local variety, (ii)
reduction in cost of components like fertilizer, irrigation, pesticides, (iii) mitigating calamity of
drought to certain extent, (iv) increasing varietals diversity in the area.
There are some interesting findings like, (i) the adoption rate of improved varieties among poor
category farmers are higher, (ii) farmer to farmer spread of seed of improved varieties has been
found very effective in wider dissemination of varieties – seeds of the improved varieties have
been traced up to a radius of 80-100 kms. from the project villages, (iii) at times the varieties
accepted by the farmers are the not the ones which have been officially released by the
respective states, this confirms that farmers require a larger basket of choices than the limited
ones recommended for their state only.
PVSP in DPIP-MP - ASA experience30
Action for Social Advancement (ASA)31 is associated with MPDPIP since June 2003 with the
objective of providing capacity-building support to MPDPIP for establishing Participatory
Varietals Selection Programme (PVSP) for increasing unit productivity of major crops under
farmer’s own management domain. The program initiated June’03 in two districts (Rajgarh &
Guna) on pilot basis and later expanded to three districts adding Vidisha during Rabi (2003-
04). After two cropping seasons (Kharif’03 and Rabi’03-04), it was emerging that PVSP
programme can immensely add value to the crop productivity of the farmers especially of those
who have been supported by MPDPIP for land and water development. Taking into
consideration the success of last two previous seasons in terms of crop productivity and early-
ness advantages from the introduced new varieties, MPDPIP top management decided to
replicate and institutionalize it, in all 14 districts.
Overall in MP DPIP more then 70 new varieties of 11 crops were tested through more than
50,000 thousand participatory varietals trials. Some of varieties have now become ruling
varieties like Raj 3077 of wheat in DPIP villages of Guna district.
30
This part of the note taken from ASA- MPDPIP market initiative “Market Up-Linking Of Small Farmers”
31
ASA is a non-profit, social development organisation working for livelihood enhancement of poor & rural people

96
PVSP opened the new avenues of seed enterprise in MPDPIP. The program not only benefited
farmers in terms of yield increment, increased self-confidence through conducting successful
PVSP trials but also raised awareness on seed and other agri-business issues, which prepared a
basis for market-oriented initiative.
Key learning:
• For better adoption of new varieties, small and marginal farmers from remote areas
need to be involved in PVSP trials
• PVSP gives” basket of choices” to the farmers to select crop variety with local
condition and input efficiency of farmers.
• PVSP needs higher facilitation at field level and for better success need involvement of
private agencies for wider dissemination in the state.
• Through project mode this kind of activity easy to spread in larger farmers’ community
and resolve the problems of quality seed production and supply.
8.1.4 Bio-Technology in Agriculture: Factors leading to success of interventions
During this study we found mix results of extension services made available through either
Government departments or NGOs working in the area. Through our interactions and
observation it became clear that farmers are willing to adopt good or appropriate technologies.
However, if their requirements are different to technologies being offered, they will oppose it
This news piece from the Hindustan Times is an example of how farmers are keen to use
genetically modified seeds, but only those that suit their needs.
MP farmers stage protests, Seek one variety of Bt cotton-

Stories
BHOPAL, MAY 14: Farmers in Madhya Pradesh’s cotton belt have given a new dimension to
the debate over genetically modified crops by staging street protests demanding supply of Bt
cotton seeds of only one variety.
As many as 30 varieties of BT cotton seeds sold by 13 companies are available in the state but
farmers in Khargone and Dhar districts have shown an unusual preference for the RCH-2
variety. So much so that it has become a major law and order problem, forcing the
administration to intervene and ration supplies.
Serpentine queues following arrival of fresh stocks and eventual lathicharge have become
common features over the last few days in Khargone. Hoarding by some dealers have only
made matters worse. Thousands of farmers have taken to the streets for the variety which
apparently gives better yield and flowers early.
“We have been promoting other varieties, telling farmers that benefits are almost the same, but
they are not ready to listen,” Khargone additional district magistrate B L Kulmi told The Indian
Express on Monday. Three other varieties sold by the same company have found few takers.

97
At two lakh Ha., cotton is cultivated over more than half the cultivable land in Khargone, the
biggest production centre in the state.
Meanwhile, against the estimated demand of 1.5 lakh packets of RCH-2 variety, the company
has been able to supply only 37,000 packets so far. Whenever new stocks arrive, farmers queue
up, forcing the administration to intervene. Now the seeds are distributed at the local mandi
instead of the distributor outlets.
The seed company is finding it difficult to cope with the sudden demand. “Our seeds have
performed well in the last three years as the yield potential is very high,” the company’s
regional business manager Pankaj Bhatnagar said.
The company sold 1.46 lakh packets last year in the entire state and in anticipation increased its
supply to 1.66 packets this year. “Even 4 lakh packets would not be sufficient,” Bhatnagar said.
According to him, several farmers who were using illegal seeds have turned to legal varieties.
But what seems to have fuelled the demand is the reduction in prices brought about by court
and Government intervention.
Sunil, an anti-genetically modified crop activist, said he was surprised by the protests. “Maybe
they are sponsored or maybe farmers hassled by failures of other crops are looking for
miracles”. These protests were because farmers wanted a good variety of Bt cotton. But in
another instance they rejected new varieties of maize seeds.
During FGD’s with farmers in Mandla, Anuppur, Dhindori and Sidhi districts, farmers narrated
an instance when they had received maize seeds. The seeds, which were in the mini kits, were
not compatible to their conditions. They had tried these varieties previously in their fields and
found that results were not satisfactory in comparisons to the local Desi macca seeds that they
traditionally used. But in subsequent years the distribution of mini kits were still continued.
“Phir hum log ya to us beej ki pej banakar pee jate the ya use phir apni sabse bekar jameen
me bote the” (then we would either brew the seeds and drink it off, or we would sown them in
our worst piece of land), said by a farmer during the discussion.
If we analyze these two situations we find that the FW&AD’s role is very important in both
cases. If a particular variety clicks at one place then the FW&AD has to ensure sufficient
availability of that variety in subsequent years. But if one variety is not suitable over the local
variety in some condition they must change extension programme in that area next year and not
push the unsuitable variety.
Key learning:
• FW&AD’s role is very important in making these initiatives succeed. If a particular

variety clicks at one place then the FW&AD has to ensure sufficient availability of that
variety in subsequent years. But if one variety is not suitable over the local variety in
some condition they must change extension programme in that area next year and not
push the unsuitable variety.

98
• Farmers if informed by any sources on issue of high profitability with the intervention
they easy to ready to adopt and even ready for fight.
• Extension programme or massage should have triggering capacity to the community.
Than successes and adoption of information/ technique will more than 100 percent. But
we have to strengthen our agriculture extension programme. Why local input supplier is
more popular compare to the some time REAO in villages?
• Need to develop effective IEC material for agriculture extension programme with
involving the local input shop keepers.
8.1.5 Moving with the Market (Basmati rice Cultivation under the ATMA)
When we talk about changes we consider positive and negative aspects. And when the change
that occurs with the community participation is positive, the ranking of this change is very
high. This is the kind of positive change we saw in Betul district where a better variety of
paddy was adopted. An assured market, good extension work and positive implementation
together changed the economics for the farmer in positive way.
In Betul district the major Kharif crop is soybean which covers the maximum area under
cultivation. The average productivity has been going down year by year and farmers were
looking for alternate options. At this time the Farmers Welfare and Agriculture Development
Department initiated an ambitious public private partnership project i.e. ‘ATMA’. Through this
project, the Dawat group promoted paddy cultivation in the region.
The ATMA project was launched in village Badora in February 2008, 3 kms away from district
Headquarters. It established a ‘Krishi Salah Up Kendra’, 35 Farm Schools and more then 75
demonstrations of paddy crop.
Mr Rupendra Patel (in-charge Dawat Foods - ATMA project) explained that through this
project Dawat seeks to promote three varieties of Basmati rice namely Pusa-1, Pusa- 1121 and
CSR – 30 in the area.
The process has been participatory and this has contributed to its success. It started with
detailed discussion with the groups of farmers from village to village. In these discussions the
economics of present variety (mostly desi) & the varieties to be promoted were discussed and
compared.
After the discussions innovative/interested farmers visited the ‘Krishi Salah Up Kendra’
regularly. Exposure visits were organized in which a group of 25 to 30 farmers went to
Jabalpur to meet the paddy growers of the area. After that in ‘Krishi Salah Up Kendra’ detailed
step by step technical training on package of practices of Paddy crop was given to them. The
varieties of paddy were made available by Dawat at Rs. 55 to 60 per kg. The seed rate of these
varieties is 8 to 10 kg per acre. In 2008 102 qtl of rice seed were made available to farmers.
Some of Rice growers includes Mr Manohar Choure (village Chirma tekri), Mr Dhanraj and Mr
Narhari Prasad ( village Bhiya badi), Mr Ramji Lilatia (village Sohagpur Dhana) Shahpur
block of Betul district. Mr Manohar Chore said, “We were highly motivated when we meet the

99
farmers of Jabalpur where Dawat is working from last few year”. He added that they discussed
in detail about the POP and economics of paddy cultivation under the guidance of Dawat group
and realized the gains to be made using the Dawat promoted seeds. Apart from this they have
an assured market at Mandeedeep where the plant of Dawat group is located.
This year despite the low rains farmer managed to produce 18 – 20 qlt Paddy/ acre which is
quite encouraging to both the farmers and Dawat as well. The detail of the changed economics
of paddy is as follows:
Activity Earlier With Dawat (Per Acre)

(Per Acre)
Variety Desi Rice Pusa-1, Pusa- 1121 and
CSR – 30
POP Traditional Scientific
Seed Rate 32-35 10
DAP 16 Kg 30Kg
Urea 50 Kg 50 Kg
Potash -- 25 Kg
Zink Phosphate -- 10 Kg
Production cost Approx. (A) – Rs. 2,600 8,000
Produce in Qlt 6 20
By product in Qlt 3 10
Cost of main produce in Rs. 6,000 48,500
By product in Rs. 600 2,000
Total Earning in Rs. (B) – Rs. 6,600 50,500
Net Earnings in Rs. ( B- A) – Rs. 4,000 42,500
Key learning:
• Promotion of Bansmati rice under ATMA worked because of selection of right farmers
needy farmers.
• Strategic involvement of Private Company Dawat for promotion of own brand rice
with technically poor framers highly appreciable.
• Involvement of Private players those have own strong commitment and agenda fruitful
for better productivity and production
• Adoption by other farmers of best practice is easy if results are quick and leads to
higher benefits.
8.1.6 Micro Nutrient Initiatives -
India was dependent on external food supplies in the early 1960s. To meet the growing demand
for food, fiber and fuel, high yielding cultivars were introduced. These high yielding crop
cultivars were highly responsive to fertilizers. Thus, slowly the soils were exhausted of their
nutrients. Application of major nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) became
common, therefore the crops started responding to micronutrient fertilizers. At present about
48.1% of Indian soils are deficient in diethy lenetriaminepentaacetate (DTPA) extractable zinc,

100
11.2% in iron, 7% in copper and 5.1% in manganese. Apart from the deficiency of these
micronutrients, deficiencies of boron and molybdenum have also been reported in some areas.
Areas with multi-micronutrient deficiencies are limited, thus simple fertilizers are sufficient to
exploit the potential of crops and cropping systems. Based on the extent of deficiency, cultivated
area, and crop removal, the micronutrient fertilizer demand in 2025 is projected using
sufficiency and maintenance approaches.32
BYPASS Sansthan have started working with 5 villages each of Raisen and Sagar. BYPASS
Sansthan conducted assessment of micronutrient status with the help of ICRISAT
(International Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics). Deficiency in micronutrient is
one major cause for low productivity and production in under informed rainfed agrarian
community. According to the field assessment report BYPASS supported farmers through
zinc, boron, gypsum. This science led initiative has yielded very positive results.
In district Raisen, block Silwani & Begumgunj were selected under productivity
enhancement activities. In summer 2008 Soil samples were collected and got tested at
ICRISAT Hyderabad for Macro/ Micro Nutrients. Afterwards training sessions were
organized for 3 days on Agriculture techniques to the farmers.
During Rabi season 2008-09. 32 farmers were participated in the trials with coverage of 32
ha land under Chickpea crop. Foundation seeds were distributed to all farmers with variety
ICCCV 37. JG16. JAK
9218 & JKG1. Before
JG 16
12.38 sowing the Micronutrient
13.49
(Zinc, Boron & Gypsum)
12.77 were applied in the plot
JKG 1
15.12 (Treated plot). Also farmers
were told to take their
ICCCV 37
13.62
15.95 ongoing practices in rest area
with their own seeds (Control
JAKI 9218 14.54 plot). Every farmer got 2 to 3
17.03
Quintals more yield of
Average Yield in Control Plot with local variety (Qt/Ha)
Chickpea in treated plot as
Average Yield in Treated Plot (Qt/Ha)
compare to control plot. The
average yield with different
varieties is as shown in the above graph. This was very first year with these farmers from
next season with application of Organic fertilizers and Micro nutrients yield will enhance
definitely. All support under the programme is on 50-50% cost sharing basis and nothing is
free of cost.
Farmer Ram Kumar Lodhi from Pahariya village told that “we apply only DAP & urea and
think that this is enough to increase yield. We were never heard about other elements rather
32
Anand P Gupta 2005 Department of Soil Science, CCS HAU, Hisar, India -Micronutrient status and fertilizer use
scenario in India

101
than NPK and no information on seed change and very small quantity of nutrient could make
a big difference”.
Learning:
• Micronutrients (Zn and B) and secondary nutrients (S) are needed in small quantities by
crops and are as important as N, P, and K for plant growth and yield.
• Generally farmers understand the value of major nutrients in increasing production and
productivity however due to excessive use of NPK, the soil becomes imbalanced in
nutrients especially the micro nutrients. Even if only subsistence farming is practiced in
rain-fed areas, over time, soils are depleted not only of macro but also micro-nutrients.
• Therefore there is a need to sensitise farmers about micro nutrients. Micro and
secondary nutrients are equally important to agricultural productivity as are macro-
nutrients.
• Currently farmers understanding on micro nutrients is very low, more so in tribal areas.
Most agriculture demonstrations and trials are not focussing on explaining the use of
micro nutrients therefore the farmers understanding on this subject has generally
remained weak.
• The initiative by BYPASS and ICRISET address these gaps in understanding of the use of
micro nutrients through practical demonstrations and therefore it is a best practice for
other agriculture interventions to learn from.
Based on analysis of best practices in the state, it is very clear that to improve the status of
tribal agriculture there needs to be multi-pronged strategies and initiatives. Bringing together
complementary skills and building synergy through partnerships seems an important area.
There is a clear learning that social mobilisation and facilitation are essential for technology
adoption and sustenance of practices. There are many models and initiatives within the state
which could be scaled up for better outcomes.
8.2 Role of Private players and NGOs in Agriculture
ITC:
In MP ITC have strong presence in all good productive areas. ITC introduced farmers to e-
Choupal, earlier farmers were restricted to selling produce in the local mandi. Farmers had to
go through middlemen and prices were low. ITC trained farmers to manage the Internet kiosk
and I became the e-Choupal Sanchalak in village. Now community of e-farmers with access to
daily prices of a variety of crops in India and abroad – this helps to get the best price. Farmers
can also find out about many other important things – weather forecasts, the latest farming
techniques, crop insurance, etc. e-Choupal has not only changed the quality of lives, but entire
outlook.
Hariyali:
Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar’s 24 operational centres have a presence across belts in Madhya
Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana, with additional plans to
rapidly scale-up presence in the next few years. The Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar’s model seeks to

102
empower the Indian farmer by setting-up retail centres and providing all encompassing retail
solutions from utilities to banking, under one roof. Through the tie-up with Motorola, it fulfils
the burgeoning rural demand for handsets as well
Dawat Group:
LT Overseas (DAAWAT) is primarily in the business of milling, processing and marketing of

branded and non-branded basmati rice and manufacturing of rice food products in the domestic
and overseas market. Incorporated as a private limited company on Oct. 16, 1990 and the
company was converted into a public limited company on May 3,1994. The company`s
operations include contract farming, procurement, storage, processing, packaging and
distribution. It has R&D facilities to develop better aroma, better head grains yield, reduce
stickiness and develop value-added rice. Product portfolio includes basmati, brown, white,
steamed, parboiled, organic, quick-cooking, value-added and flavored rice in the ready to cook
segment. Popular brand names are Dawaat and Heritage. The manufacturing facility in
Bahalgarh, Haryana has processing capacity of 27 TPH of paddy and 3.5 TPH is processed in
leased facilities. The company has ISO 9000:2001, HACCP and the SQF certification. Satake
Corporation, Japan develops and design rice processing machines for the company. It has
contract farming agreements for basmati paddy with Tata Chemicals; strategic alliance with
Phoenix Agri Silica Corporation for development of a silica plant which converts husk ash into
silica; and MoU with Madhya Pradesh State Industrial Corporation to set up a Rs 600 million
rice milling and rice food processing project.
NGOs:- Pradan and ASA
ASA:- Development of Farmers' Producers Company
Whilst production technologies may significantly increase production, the ultimate objective of
augmented farm income may not be realized. The absence of appropriate and viable marketing
facilities may restrict small and marginal farmers from availing the benefits of agriculture
development. Small marketable surpluses, lack of market preferred quality, poor negotiation
capacity resulting in low and un-remunerative prices further vitiates the situation. To integrate
farmers with the value chain and market the best form of institutional model available today is
the Farmers' Producers' Company (FPC) under the Indian Company Act (Amendment 2002). The
farmers or the producers' are the equity holders of the company thus provide the best framework
for ownership. The basic purpose of this FPCs is to collectivise small farmers for –
(a) backward linkage for inputs like seeds, fertilisers, credit, insurance and knowledge and
extension services and
(b) forward linkages such as collective marketing, processing, market led agriculture production,
etc. At the heart of this effort is to gain collective bargaining power for the small farmers.
Pradan:-

103
Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood in the regions where PRADAN works. With
current low levels of productivity in agriculture, PRADAN extends assistance in finding
opportunities to enhance livelihoods. Over half of PRADAN’s livelihood programmes are
focused on agriculture, its improvement – and the overall management of natural resources –
remains key in the battle against endemic poverty in the rural areas.
Enhancing productivity and diversification are the core strategies of PRADAN’s agriculture
programmes. Specific activities are increasing the productivity of the main cereal crops to
improve food security, and diversification into cash crops such as pulses, oil seeds, and
vegetables.
Whichever programme is undertaken, PRADAN seeks to ensure its sustainability. In order to

achieve this, the organisation trains and deploys a large number of agriculture extension
entrepreneurs to the field. Producers’ institutions around agriculture are formed and
strengthened as well.
8.3 Public Private Partnership programme

(Situation – Agriculture Extension reform) (Based on department presentation in National conference on
agriculture for Rabi campaign September 2008 )
ATMA:-
PPP Partners No of Partner contribution Project
dist./blk % value
(Rs. Lakhs)
ITC Limited 22/83 50 663.7
K.J. Education 48/313 50 48
Society
Dawat Foods 8/25 50.4 301.8
ISAP 6/34 20 375.53
GVT 7/19 20 214.58
ASA 8/15 15 94.53
PRADAN 7/31 10 75.57
MPRLP 7/31 10 623.12
Grand Total: 2406.83
BAYPASS:
Working on agriculture research with ICRISAT on micro nutrients and organic farming.
Bypass has its operation area 11 districts of Madhya Pradesh.
SAMAJ PRAGATI SAHYAOG:

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This is Bagli Dewas based organization headed by Mr. Mihir Shah, one of the members of
planning commission government of India. Working on watershed, Agriclutre and livestock
issues and have contribution in its policy related issues.
Samavesh, Society For Development and Governance:-
Samavesh developing Krishi MItra with intensive training to the youth farmers in remote tribal
area for use of better package of practice and organic farming, work area is Harada and Devash
districts of Madhya Pradesh.
AKRSP:
Aga Khan Rural Support Programme working is Khandwa and Khargon district of Madhya
Pradesh on integrated livelihood development approach where utilizing the NREGS fund as
well for watershed development.

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9 Objective 5 – Lessons and Key Messages
9.1 Key Lessons:
Agriculture development has seen limited growth in tribal areas in MP, lower than the overall
agriculture growth in the state. Production and productivity figures are improving but not to
the extent of creating marketable surplus for the farmers in tribal areas. Thereby agriculture
role remain limited to meeting the food security needs of the households in tribal area. Low
value crops (minor millets) are being increasing displaced with high value crops like oilseeds
and pulses which are as per the strategic orientation on Agriculture in the state. Minor millets
play an important role in food and nutrition security of a tribal family. The implications of
the change in cropping pattern are evidently not so positive for the economy of a tribal
household as return from agriculture has reduced due to high input costs and as small and
marginal tribal farmer is unable to get easy and low interest agriculture credit.
Poverty reduction has happened in the last five years in tribal areas in MP, but attributability
to agriculture has become weak. There are two discernible trends as data gathered by the
impact study shows. The tribal agriculture has become riskier proposition over the last five
years with return from agriculture declining sharply due to increased cost of irrigation,
electricity and other inputs. There is a possibility that completely agriculture dependent
families have fallen back into extreme poverty leading them to go for distress migration. The
second trend observable from the data is the increasing contribution of non-farm labour (on
migration and in nearby towns) in the livelihoods of the tribal farmers. Further, the
development programmes like NREGS have increased wage labour opportunities for the
tribal communities. The trend clearly indicates that poverty linked to food security has
reduced marginally in tribal areas but the attributability of agriculture to that reduction is
weak. Livelihoods diversification is happening in tribal areas.
The reach of agriculture services and adoption of technology and POP has happened at best
among one sixth of the tribal households. Department of Agriculture as source of information
and extension support is available currently to less than 10 percent of the households in tribal
areas. Uptake of credit is still dominated by informal sources for about three fifths of the
households in tribal areas. Agriculture extension is reaching to not more than 10 percent of
tribal farmers. RAEO is overburdened generally. The number of villages, a RAEO is
responsible for in tribal areas is higher than the number of villages, a RAEO is responsible
for in non-tribal areas. Extension vehicle is the local shop keeper, who is not currently part of
agriculture department extension network. Clearly, agriculture extension delivery system is
unable to meet its fuller mandate in the tribal areas due to variety of reasons.
The public investments in agriculture have declined in the state, over the last five years
(inflation adjusted actual expenditure). The utilization of planned budgets is 72 percent under
TSP which is lower than the utilization of 82 percent under normal plan.

106
Surplus based, production oriented agriculture development may not reach or benefit the
tribals. As is seen, the majority of investments in agriculture in the state go in crop
husbandry. The need of tribal agriculture demand investments in soft components, integrated
farming systems, watershed development and agriculture based livelihoods development
interventions. The planning not being decentralized in spirit, poses obvious challenges to
provide differential regional allocations as per needs emerging from the field. The tribal
agriculture contributing to livelihoods of poor tribal farmers require improved and relevant
planning and allocations. The centrally sponsored scheme like RKVY offers flexibility and
innovations to address agriculture and poverty link comprehensively, which can address
currently skewed planning and budgetary allocations to a certain extent.
Targeting remains a key concern in the FW&AD programmes and schemes. The percolation
to the village level in tribal areas covers 1 to 15 percent of the households, which is not
sufficient to bring in changes at a scale. The coverage achieved has generally addressed
medium and large farmers and bypassed the small and marginal farmers.
Policy intent at central level (11th plan) and at state level is very strong. The growth
objectives (4 to 5 percent), the pathways towards achieving the objectives, the commitment
of investments for the purpose are all there, stated very clearly. The translation of the policy
intent, however in operational realities have been an under achieved area. Areas which
require attention are decentralized planning and budgeting, making delivery system efficient
and effective and improving performance management paradigm.
Community based institutional mechanisms for agriculture development (planning and

implementation) is evidently not utilised in tribal areas. Less than 5 percent of households in
tribal areas are part of farmers club, SHGs or other community based forum has not evolved
to the desired extent. This makes access to formal banking system very weak in tribal areas
for agriculture credit.
Diverse experiences in livelihoods promotion of tribals shows that what works is the
integrated farming system approach.
Agricultural research is under-funded but lack of resources is not the only problem. Available
resources also have not been optimally utilized because of lack of a clearly stated strategy
that assigns definite responsibilities, prioritizes the research agenda rationally, and recognizes
that the research mode is not always best suited for product development and delivery ICAR
institutes should mainly undertake basic, strategic, and anticipatory research in line with
national priorities, while SAUs do applied and adaptive research addressing location-specific
problems, with complementarities also found between the public and private sectors in
product development.
9.2 Agriculture Development in Tribal Areas: Enabling and Disabling

(Vulnerability) Factors
The synthesis of primary survey, secondary information suggest a summary picture of enabling
and disabling factors affecting agriculture development in tribal areas. The top 10 factors which

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are promoting and factors which are impeding the agriculture development and its impact in
tribal areas are summarised in the diagram below:
Enabling Factors:
The study shows that Agriculture development in tribal areas is amply supported by the Policy
intent of the earlier five years plans (both state and central). The current 11th five year plan is
well articulated and positioned to guide the agriculture development process in tribal areas.
Clearly policy intent, if implemented fully is the biggest enabling factor for agriculture
development in tribal areas.
The integrated development programmes like MPRLP, Tejaswini and large schemes like
NREGA are pushing the agenda of agriculture development in tribal areas very strongly.
Leveraging and convergence with these programme has the potential to speed up the
agriculture development in tribal areas, more so as these programmes are innovative and
flexible in design and implementation.
Increasing trend of production in cereals and pulses is the reasons for not worsening of the food
security situation in tribal areas. With clearly evident reduction in production and productivity
of minor millets (traditional food crops for tribals), cereals and pulses are providing the cushion
of food security to poor households in tribal areas.
Increased allocations in the Annual plan for 2009-10 are expected to reap increased dividends
for agriculture development in tribal areas.
Various soil and watershed conservations measures are also contributing to agriculture
development in a significant way.

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Increasing outreach of state Govt. provision of BPL, antodaya and other entitlements are
contributing towards addressing basic and immediate need to very poor households in tribal
areas.
The institutional model like PPP are being successful tried out (refer ATMA best practice).
The trend of increasing educational attainment of this generation of tribal families is expected
to continue and help address main vulnerability issue of information asymmetry (access to
information and use of information for livelihoods development).
Low uptake of chemical fertiliser provides an opportunity in tribal areas to promote and deepen
organic agriculture.
Outcome based budgeting for TSP and women components are a catalyst for quality delivery of
agriculture services in tribal areas.
Disabling or Vulnerability Factors:
The most important factor which makes tribal agriculture most vulnerable (besides the natural
factors) is the reach of the State in the tribal areas. The institutional delivery mechanism and
the extension services are currently ineffective to address the cause of agriculture development
in tribal areas.
Agriculture planning exists along with a clear scope for improvement. Field based, farm based
planning need to happen practically. The relevance of agriculture interventions can improve
many folds with improved effectiveness of agriculture planning in tribal areas.
Targeting remains a key concern in the FW&AD programmes and schemes. The percolation to
the village level in tribal areas covers 1 to 15 percent of the households, which is not sufficient
to bring in changes at a scale. The coverage achieved has generally addressed medium and
large farmers and bypassed the small and marginal farmers. As the study result shows small
and marginal farmers are getting least proportion of benefits of schemes and programmes.
Furthermore, relevant solutions for small and marginal farmers are not being implemented.
Surplus based, production oriented agriculture development may not reach or benefit the
tribals. As is seen, the majority of investments in agriculture in the state go in crop husbandry.
The need of tribal agriculture demand investments in soft components, integrated farming
systems, watershed development and agriculture based livelihoods development interventions.
The public investments in agriculture have declined in the state, over the last five years
(inflation adjusted actual expenditure). The utilization of planned budgets is 72 percent under
TSP which is lower than the utilization of 82 percent under normal plan.
Community based institutional mechanisms for agriculture development (planning and

implementation) is evidently not utilised in tribal areas. Less than 5 percent of households in
tribal areas are part of farmers club, SHGs or other community based forum has not evolved to

109
the desired extent. This makes access to formal banking system very weak in tribal areas for
agriculture credit.
Agriculture especially tribal agriculture faces many risks. Managing these risks is crucial for a
farmer in tribal areas to not fall back into the poverty trap. That continues to happen every
alternate year for many tribal families. This can be prevented with a risk management strategy
and fund for risk minimization. The options for planning and implementing this fund under
RKVY (as an innovation) can also be explored.

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10 Policy Pointers and other Recommendations

The study findings show that agriculture sector has strong policy intent and planned
investments. Translating the intent into outcomes for agriculture development and poverty
reduction in tribal areas require rethinking of the agriculture development paradigm. What
works in other areas may not give us the same results in tribal areas.
Suggested framework for improvement in agriculture interventions in tribal areas:
The framework suggested here brings together ideas emerging out of the findings, expert interviews and
the review of other models and best practices. The suggestions are given in the following framework:
10.1 Policy Pointers:
State Policy for Agriculture Development in Tribal Areas: The performance management can
improve with fixing of accountability and with clear mandate and outcomes specified. It might serve
therefore to bring in an Agriculture Policy for the State specifically for tribal areas. This is more so as
poverty reduction is crucially dependent on agriculture and as state progress towards meeting MDGs
will remain half achieved if the tribal areas does not become the focus of state agriculture policy.
Balancing the policy focus on low productive areas and low productive population is important for
promoting inclusive growth objectives of 11th five year plan. Gender differential impacts can be defined
in the state agriculture policy.
Equitable Investments, positive discrimination for Inclusive Growth: Tribal areas are resource poor
areas. Tribal farmers are susceptible to socio-cultural, political, environmental and social factors of
vulnerability (as highlighted by the study) thereby probability of a farmers falling back into poverty is
much more evident in tribal areas than in non tribal areas of the state. The principle of equality
which will require disproportionately higher public investments to improve tribal agriculture and
economic well being of tribal farmers dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. The plan outlay for
2009-10 are projected at Rs.585.61 crores of which 23 percent is the TSP outlay. The major addition to

111
current fiscal outlay is RKVY which brings in Rs.380 crores of additional public investments in the
sector. The allocations on soft components (like agriculture extension) have seen declining trend over
the years, more so in the tribal areas whereas the need for more and effective agriculture extension is
evident from the impact assessment. The centrally sponsored scheme like RKVY offers flexibility and
innovations to address agriculture and poverty link comprehensively, which can address currently
skewed planning and budgetary allocations to a certain extent.
Resource Allocation Decisions: The resource allocation decisions need to be based on schemes’ reach
and relevance. The decisions based on other considerations may not lead to desirable outcomes as is
witnessed and presented by this study. The few resource allocations policy pointers are as presented
below:
• Micro minor irrigation needs to be promoted on a large scale with adequate allocations and
overall budgets for these schemes should be based on local soil profile conditions. It is also advised
that well recharging schemes are also promoted to maintain the water table.
• Kissan Mitra and Kisan Didi schemes are among the most relevant schemes in tribal areas as they
follow the approach of community based extension. However the reach of these schemes is
currently very limited which demand a detailed understanding of constraints facing Kisan Mitras
and Kisan Didi to improve the implementation processes. Herein investing on RAEOs’ capacity
building and redesigning their work portfolio is advisable considering that agriculture
department functionaries also felt that RAEO can provide crucial follow up support to Kisan Mitras
and Kisan didi, after their training
• There is need of one REAO on 400-60033 families but at present, the Department has only one
REAO on 1500 to 2500 families. Furthermore, the tribal areas need more RAEOs for the extension
support, than the other areas. The state need to take a policy call on this aspect.
• The study results shows that the Seed Exchange scheme is not working in tribal area as tribals due
to their practices do not exchange own seed with seed from other sources. The tribal areas face the
problem of availability of seeds at the right time and therefore Seed gram scheme is best suited in
tribal area.
• The relevance of crop insurance schemes for tribal farmers can never be overemphasised. Very
limited awareness and benefit from crop insurance demand a policy intervention from the state
• Soil and water conservation activities need higher allocation for tribal areas e.g. farm bunding
scheme is very useful for the tribal areas with undulated topography requiring soil and water
conservation work. Presently NREGS have provided opportunity to the farmers to work on their
own land. SWC programme needs still lot of efforts by different implementation agencies in the
tribal areas to improve land structure and moisture in the field.
• Tribal agriculture is close to the organic farming and this opportunity need to be leveraged by the
state policy. The organic farming practices along with marketing support for organically grown
crops will boost the organic practice in tribal areas of the state.
Improving Relevance of Planning (of resources, interventions, strategies): The process of planning
should be strengthened in letter and spirit. The decentralization of planning with strong emphasis on
robust district planning should become an urgent and critical priority of the department.
Necessary push for outcome based budgets: Outcomes are the benefits drawn by the community of
farmers and not limited to only delivery of activities. The policy therefore need to strongly review the
outcome based budgeting process and attainment of outcomes over a period of time.
33

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10.2 Programme Interventions:
Integrated Programme Models: The study results shows that integrated anti-poverty programmes in
tribal areas are likely to generate the best outcomes /returns on public investments. One of the reasons is
that these programmes are most relevantly designed and intensively executed. Soil and water
conservation, irrigation infrastructure will also significantly translate public investments in tribal areas
to poverty reduction outcomes. Clearly the investment needs in tribal areas need to be differently
understood and planned. Therefore the policy needs to look at agriculture investment in tribal areas
differently than agriculture investments in other areas. Poverty reduction is possible in tribal areas but
require an approach of agriculture and agri-allied focused livelihoods and watershed development. Such
programme models exist within the tribal areas in Madhya Pradesh (see the best practices section of this
report). The Govt. agriculture set up in the state need to emulate these models and lead tribal agriculture
on the path of sustained growth.
Strengthening institutional /co-operative delivery of Agriculture credit: Credit is an essential

ingredient of agriculture investment for a farmer household in tribal areas. The credit delivery system is
largely informal even today in the tribal areas. Unlike in other states, the Co-operative societies are
working for at least one fourth of the households in tribal areas. The model of co-operative societies
providing agriculture, other investment and consumption credit can be strengthened though trying out
linkages with Nationalised and other banks /MFIs. Banks will get access to large markets through
correspondent model with co-operative societies providing the facilitation services as business
correspondents.
Pushing Measures which serve environmental cause: The agriculture interventions in the state esp. in
the tribal areas need to provide the necessary push to measures like soil and water conservation, organic
farming etc. which serve environmental cause while providing economic returns to low resource
farmers.
Designing and Implementing Risk Management System: Agriculture especially tribal agriculture
faces many risks. Managing these risks is crucial for a farmer in tribal areas to not fall back into the
poverty trap. That continues to happen every alternate year for many tribal families. This can be
prevented with a risk management strategy and fund for risk minimization. The options for planning and
implementing this fund under RKVY (as an innovation) can also be explored.
Building the agriculture interventions on the Social mobilization base: Social mobilization is the
pre-requisites for building the sustainable community mechanism that can become vehicle for
agriculture development interventions in tribal areas. Extension requires social mobilization (to deal
with the issues of information asymmetry34).
Investing in Education sector in Tribal Areas: Experiences from other states suggest that
improvement in agriculture along with improvement in education attainment levels can lead to faster
area development. Hence agriculture development requires investments in education (possibly higher
investments and focus) in tribal areas. Tribal societies are changing for the better and getting into the
mainstream of development. It may take another two decades to achieve envisaged growth and
development in tribal areas. If education levels improve faster, tribal area agriculture and overall
development can possibly be achieved in lesser time horizon.
34
Information reach becoming limited to fortunate few…which is tribal areas context, are medium and large farmers
and generally non-tribals

113
Promoting low value crops: Minor millets are most important traditional crop in the tribal area of
Madhya Pradesh. This crop is linked with the tribal life and its social, culture and health practices. The
State Pro-poor strategy for supporting vulnerable community in the tribal areas can be strengthened with
promotion of minor millets. Food grain dependency on other cereals crops will reduce with increased
minor millets production as there are large potential for productivity improvement. It is therefore
advisable for the state to formulate its policy for the Minor Millets related to MSP, private sector
participation for processing and propagating benefits etc.
Utilising the potential of RKVY for tribal area development: RKVY have immense potential for
tribal area development due to innovation and flexibility that it provides. The study have spoken to
agriculture experts on this aspect. Some of the ideas for using RKVY funds in Tribal Areas are:
• Establish Integrated farming system models
• Agriculture product based value chain development /micro enterprise promotion
• Markets facilitation for agriculture commodities
• NREGA led agriculture development
• Promotion of organic agriculture in tribal areas
• Developing markets for organic products
• Private extension models up-scaled
10.3 Management Interventions:
Improving Extension through diverse institutional models: Extension being a basic essential service,
can work through different solutions like privatization, PPP, NGO driven, convergence model etc. as
these solutions focus on collectivization and leadership development approaches. Tribal leadership, if
developed can harness intent skills of tribals for agriculture improvement in tribal areas.
Madhya Pradesh is fortunate to have chosen the route of Gram Swaraj for facilitating participatory
equitable development processes. For ensuring accountability of departmental investments, agriculture
interventions, community based monitoring mechanism working with the Panchayats is the answer.
Performance and Accountability System: Improvement by few percentages of accountability in

departmental delivery will lead to huge gains for agriculture development in tribal areas as the tribal
agriculture has immense scope of improvement to catch up to. The institutional delivery mechanism
faces performance issues in the state, more so in relation to tribal areas where both spending and human
resources are lower than the other areas of the state.
Periodic evaluation of agriculture development in tribal areas may provide the necessary ideas on course
corrections and improvement. The accountability will set in when performance is monitored and
reflected upon in the spirit of improving agriculture for the cause of tribal development.

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Annex-1: Terms of Reference
1. Brief Background
The Poverty Monitoring and Policy Support Unit Society (PMPSUS), Madhya Pradesh
(MP), a registered Society anchored within the MP State Planning Commission
(MPSPC), Department of Planning, Economics & Statistics, Government of MP
(GoMP) is mandated to support GoMP departments in the design and review of their
policy initiatives and programmes and, in line with this mandate, undertake or
commission specialized research on issues relating to poverty, inequality, gender and
social exclusion.
The GoMP recognizes that Agriculture Sector interventions are crucial in the State
given the high proportion of population dependent on agriculture and the potential role
of such interventions in addressing wide-ranging issues around employment and
income generation, nutritional security, balanced regional development and rural
poverty alleviation. This is especially significant for Tribal Areas where, for a variety of
historical reasons, agricultural development has been constrained. A series of
interventions are being undertaken in these areas and the GoMP now considers it
opportune to undertake an Impact Assessment of these with a view to assessing their
impacts, identifying specific constraints to realizing their full potential and
recommending measures to address the same.
2. Objectives of the Study:
The GoMP now proposes to undertake an impact assessment of agricultural

interventions in tribal areas in Madhya Pradesh. Expected Output is to come out with
a report detailing below-
f. Ascertain sustainability of impacts (social, cultural, economic, political, environment)

of various ongoing agriculture schemes/interventions in the tribal areas of agro-
climatic regions of MP, and how individually/collectively these schemes/interventions
have impacted in the light of poverty reduction.
g. Investigate how the existing agricultural schemes/interventions are best suited in the
social, economic and cultural context of tribal population.
h. Identify and document best practices with in depth analysis on “why certain
interventions succeeded under what conditions while other interventions could not
have the intended impacts”
i. Ascertain various vulnerability context, gender-budgeting/auditing, fund
allocation/utilizations, policies, institutions, processes, institutional linkages,
technology etc affecting agriculture schemes/interventions ( positively/negatively,
intended/non-intended, directly/indirectly ) in the tribal areas of MP

115
j. Draw appropriate lessons, bottleneck issues, framework and approaches for the
improvement in agriculture schemes/interventions for site selection, planning
process, design of the scheme/interventions and implementation cycle.
3. Scope of the Work:
• Assess the progress and status of Agriculture Department interventions ongoing in

Tribal Areas (more details of ongoing Agriculture Department interventions are
available at http://mpkrishi.org/) and delineate criteria against which impacts of
various interventions will be assessed
• Identify specific agricultural schemes/interventions by giving rationale which will be

studied in-depth for the Impact Assessment and develop a statistically robust
Sampling Plan that identifies specific districts and details the number of households
and locations to be covered within these
• Undertake primary research to ascertain the impact of the agricultural
schemes/interventions as per the agreed Sampling Plan and impact assessment
criteria; also, investigate the gaps constraining the realization of the full potential of
the agricultural interventions and recommend measures to address the same (the
gaps and recommendations are to be discussed not only with primary stakeholders
but also State, district and village-level stakeholders, including Agricultural
Department personnel, civil society organizations and PRI representatives)
• Ascertain whether agricultural interventions helped in increasing the crop
productivity and whether there have been any changes in the cropping pattern.
• Categorize all impacts (direct /indirect; intended/unintended etc) and investigate the
outreach/degree of impacts at Household level, village level, Panchayat level, block
level , district level and State level.
• By commenting on the design of agricultural schemes/interventions, ascertain

whether existing interventions are best suited in the social, economic and cultural
context of tribal population and also any impact on status of women, agricultural
practices etc.
• Study the process mapping of identified interventions to understand efficacy,

efficiency and sustainability of impacts
• Identify the roles played by private players in promoting agriculture and providing
them with technical and financial assistance to increase the production and its
marketing. Also determine efforts made towards realization of credit requirement by
various agencies.
• Documentation of at least six best practices (location specific) with in depth analysis
on “why certain interventions succeeded under what conditions while other

116
interventions could not have the intended impacts”. It should include innovations,
best practices at group level, community level
• Recommend appropriate lessons, bottleneck issues, framework and approach for

the improvement in agriculture schemes/interventions for site selection, planning
process, design, and result frameworks.
• While undertaking the tasks, the Consultants are expected to maintain close contact
with the PMPSUS and provide regular updates on progress and emergent findings.
4. Team Composition:
The team should have the following experts in the team for conducting this study:
• Team Leader & Agriculture Expert
• Agricultural Expert
• Evaluation Expert
• Social Development Expert
• Statistical Expert
The experts should meet the following criteria:
• Experience and proven track record of evaluating the impacts of large
programmes particularly in the agriculture sector (essential)
• Experience of evaluating impacts of large government/ donor funded
programmes, particularly programs with social sector focus and community
development (essential)
• Experience of working in India (essential)
• Experience of working in Madhya Pradesh (desirable)
5. Timeline and Deliverables
1) Inception Report – Within 30 days i.e. one month of Contract

2) Progress Report 1 – Within 45 days of inception report
3) Progress Report 2 – Within 90 days of inception report
4) Draft Final Report with Presentation – Within 20 days of Progress Report 2
5) Final Report – Within 10 days of Draft Final Report
The consultants are however at liberty to propose a lesser calendar time frame for
implementation of all the tasks under this consultancy.
6. Reporting
The consultant will work under the direct supervision of Monitoring and Evaluation
Specialist. The consultant will report to Nodal Officer, PMPSUS for contract related issues.

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Annex-2: Sources of Secondary Information

S. Name of Document
No.
1. Government of Madhya Pradesh Farmer’s Welfare and Agriculture Development Department
Website:- www.mpkrishi.org
2.
Government of MP Compendium of Agricultural Statistics, 2005-06 MP
3. MP Agriculture vision 2020 & A strategic action plan for Agriculture development
4. Medium Term Expenditure Framework for Farmers Welfare and Agriculture Development 2007-
08 under SPMG project with GoMP
5. Draft Eleven Five Year Plan 2007-12 and Annual Plan 2007-08
6. National Conference on Agriculture for Rabi Campaign 2008 MP PS (Agriculture) Presentation
7. MP Krishi yojana Pustaka
8. MPRLP Website:- www.mprlp.in
9. DPIP website: http://www.dpipmp.mp.gov.in/english/main.htm
10. MP forest Department:- www.forest.mp.gov.in
11. MP Mahial & Vitt Vilash Nigam :- http://www.mpmvvn.org/
12. JVKVV Website: www.jnkvv.nic.in
13. Website Material search of selected private sector Agencies:- ITC, Reliance, Hariyali, Dawat
14. Websites of selected NGOs working in MP:- Pradan, ASA, GVT, CARD, NCHCE etc.
15. Website - National Center for Agriculture policy and Economic Research:
http://www.ncap.res.in/
16. Crops with Attitude, Mac Margolis, Newsweek Dated March 22, 2009
17. The Hindu Report - New Agriculture Strategy for the Tribals
18. Website of Ministry of Women and Child Development on Gender Budgeting
19. Report on National Seminar on Private Extension held at MANAGE, Hyderabad - July 2000
20. Agricultural Innovations and their Impact on Agricultural Development in Madhya Pradesh by S.
K. Sharma, Published in “The Deccan Geographer”, Vol. 41 No.2, December 2003. pp 49-64.
21. Adoption and Impact of New Agricultural Technology on Tribal Agriculture/B.B. Pawde, V.B.
Bhise and S.R. Takle. New Delhi, Serials Pub., 2008, viii, 124 p., tables, ISBN 81-8387-139-6.
22. World Development Report -2008 by World Bank, Excerpts on Agriculture for Development,
options for India
23 11th Five Year Plan - Agriculture Sector, Planning Commission
24 Business and Economic Development - Agriculture Sector Report - December 2004 by
AccountAbility and Business for Social Responsibility
25 Assessing Household Poverty and Well Being - A Manual with Examples
from Kutai Barat, Indonesia
26 MP Human Development Report - 2007
27 National Policy for Farmers - Plan of Action -2007
28 A critique of the Draft Tribal Policy
29 Guidelines for Strengthening of the National Agriculture Extension System
30 National Tribal Policy
31 State Development Report 2009 - Agriculture in Madhya Pradesh

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S. Name of Document
No.
32 Annual plan 2008-09
33 Annual plan 2009-10 and Physical and Financial Progress Made
34 Comprehensive District Agriculture Plan (C-DAP), A Manual by Planning Commission, March
2008
35 Guidelines for National Agriculture Development Programme (RKVY), Ministry of Agriculture,
August 2007
36 National Seminar on Agricultural Extension (NSAE) on February 27-28’ 2009 by Department of
Agriculture & Cooperation, MoA
37 Approach Paper to 11th Five year plan - Agriculture and Allied sectors
38 Tribal Agriculture and Modernisation By Sujit Kumar Paul. Delhi: Daya Publishing
House
39 Rethinking Tribal Development: Water Management Strategies for Revitalizing Tribal Agriculture
in central India by International Water Management Institute
40 Various publications from International Food Policy Research Institute
41 Reducing Poverty and Hunger in India: The Role of Agriculture IFPRI 2004-2005 Annual Report
Essay Montek S. Ahluwalia 2005

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Annex-3: List of Interviewees
List of Government officials met during the Assignment
S. Name of Person Post Agency/ Department

No.
1. Mr. Mangesh Tyagi Nodal office/ Advisor – Planning Commission- MP
PMPUS
2. Mr. Chitrangan Tyagi Team Leader-PMPUS Planning Commission- MP
3. Mr Upaddhyay Add. Director Planning Tribal Welfare Dept
4. Mr. Parte Add. Director Monitoring Tribal Welfare Dept
5. Mr. Hurmade Deputy Commissioner Tribal Welfare Dept
6. Mr. Batra Statistical Specialist- Planning Commission-MP
PMPUS
7. Mr. Deepak Dey Monitoring & Evaluation Planning Commission-MP
Specialist-PMPUS
8. Mr. Yogesh Mahor Social Development Planning Commission-MP
Specialist- PMPUS
9. Mr. Shivendra Pandya State Coordinator M&E MPRLP
10. Mr. Sandeep Khanwilkar State Coordinator Agriculture MPRLP
11. Dr. Hariom Sharma HOD-Agriculture Economics JNKVV- Jabalpur
12. Dr. K.K. Saxena HOD- Extension Education JNKVV- Jabalpur
13 Mr. O.P.Malviya, SADO FWAD, Babai,
Hoshangabad
14. Mr. Agrawal CEO, Janpad Panchayat Shahpur, Betul
15. Mr.S. D. Dubey Member Secretary Rajya Krishak Ayog,
Bhopal
16. Mr. Alok Asthana Programme Associate PMPSUS-Madhya Pradesh
List of Agriculture Department person met during the study:
S.No. Name of the person Post Name of District Place/Block Name
1 Mr. SK Additional Agriculture Vindhyachal, Bhopal

Bhatnagar Director Directorate
Agriculture
(Planning)
2 Mr DL Kori JDA Agriculture Vindhyachal, Bhopal
Directorate
3 Mr Kamal Jain ADA- Agriculture Vindhyachal, Bhopal
Agrisnet Directorate
4 Mr. Suresh Rao SADO Betul Bhensadehi

120
S.No. Name of the person Post Name of District Place/Block Name
5 Mr.VK Thoke SADO Betul Shahpur

6 Mr.B.C. Bargale SADO Hoshangabad Babai
7 Mr. AK Nema SADO Mandla Mandla
8 Mr.KP Saiyaam SADO Mandla Bichhiya
9 Mrs. Parvati Parte REAO Mandla Bichhiya
10 Mr. S.Khan REAO Mandla Bichhiya
11 Mr.Dehariya SADO Dindhori Shahpura(Dhirwanmal)
12 Mr.C.K.Jain RAEO Damoh Jabera(Devtara)
13 Mr.RK Pandey SADO Damoh Jabera
14 Mr.R.K.Yadav RAEO Damoh Jabera(Majhgaon)
15 Mr.U.S.Thakur RAEO Damoh Jabera(Jamuniya))
16 Mr. S.K.Rai RAEO Damoh Jabera(Sagra)
17 Mr.K.L.Chaurasia RAEO Damoh Jabera(Dewari)
18 Mr.Sumo Markam SADO Katni Rithi
19 Mr.Ashok Uike SADO Anuppur Pusprajgarh
20 Mr.Avinash DDA Khargone Khargon
Prihar
21 Mr.RS Chouhan SADO Khargone Bageshwar
22 Mr. D.R. Situle ADO Barwani Neydeli
23 Mr. Farooq Sekh REAO Barwani Neyedi
24 Mr. HL bhargaw REAO Barwani Neyadi
25 Mr. Baghel SADO Barwani Pansemal
26 Mr.BS Rajpoot SADO Barwani Pansemal
List of NGO, Corporate persons met during the Assignment

No.
1. Dr. Arun Joshi Head, NLRI Ratlam National Livelihood Resource
Center- GVT Ratlam
2. Mr. KL Rao MTEF Expert PwC, SPMG Project
3. Mr. Amod Khanna Director TAAL, Bhopal
4. Dr. Vivek Sharma Executive Director CARD, Bhopal
5. Dr. Kaushal Ex. Director - Bhopal
FW&AD
6. Mr. Vinod Singh Head Maa vaijanthi Shiksha Samiti ,
Nagod

121

No.
7. Mr. Abhishek Parsai Executive Director Uday Vikas Sangh, Jabalpur
8. Mr. Pramod Naik Head Pragati Gramin Vikas Sansthan ,
Betul
9. Mr. Sandhu Regional Manager GVT, Bhopal
10. Mr.Rajesh Bhadoria Team leader Samavesh , Bhopal
11. Mr. Anil Bhusari Head Gramin Vikas Sansthan, Chicholi
12. Mr. Sunil Gangrade Editor Krishk Jagat Bhopal
13. Mr. Rakesh Gaur Team leader Dawat, Mandideep
List of PRI members met during the study:
Name of PRI
S.No Designation District Block Village
Member
1 Mr.Harak Chand Panch Khandwa Pandhana Balwada

2 Mr Raghuraj Panch Khandwa Pandhana Balwada
3 Mr Ramchandra Sarpanch Khandwa Pandhana Gandhwa
4 Mr Raisingh President Khandwa Pandhana Deshgaon

Ranawat WDC
5 Mr Radhe Up-Sarpanch Khandwa Pandhana FW&ADngarga
SyamYadav on
6 Mr Hamid Baig Secretary, Burhanpur Nepanagar Amba
Gram
Panchyat
7 Mr Harilal Rathore Sarpanch Burhanpur Nepanagar Amba
8 Mr Nandram Sarpanch Burhanpur Nepanagar Amba

Bamaniya
9 Mr Tukaram Sarpanch Burhanpur Nepanagar Amba
Korkhu
10 Mr Ramkaran Up-Sarpanch Burhanpur Nepanagar Amba
11 Mr Julat Basawe Sarpanch Badwani Pansemal Deodhar

12 Mr Ratan Basawe Secretary, Badwani Pansemal Deodhar
Gram
Panchyat
13 Mr Sayaja Bai Sarpanch Badwani Pansemal Mankuye
14 Mr Pandrinath Secretary, Badwani Pansemal Mankuye
Patil Gram
Panchyat

122
Name of PRI
S.No Designation District Block Village
Member
15 Mr Gyansingh Secretary, Badwani Pansemal Bandhara Khurd

Gram
Panchyat
16 Mr Kewajiya Sarpanch Badwani Pansemal Bandhara Khurd
17 Mr Bhaiyalal Sarpanch Sidhi Gopadbanas Sendura

18 Mrs Bhuri Bai Sarpanch Satna Mahir Lohi
19 Mr Lalua Kole Sarpanch Satna Mahir Madanpur
20 Mr Gopal Singh Sarpanch Annuppur Pusparajghar Jilan
21 Mr Rameshwar Sarpanch Annuppur Pusparajghar Patna
22 Mr Vinod Secretary, Annuppur Pusparajghar Patna

Sonwani Gram
Panchyat

123
Annex-4: Pointers on Utilising the Potential of RKVY

Silent feature of RKVY that can be utilize for agriculture development for tribal area.
The main objectives of the scheme are to incentivise the states so as to increase public
investment in Agriculture and allied sectors:
Pointer - The study results show that infrastructure development in tribal area needs
acceleration. Allocation of fund through various sources is not sufficient. Success of scheme
like Kapil dhara shows the importance and means of infrastructure development. Balram
talab scheme is also very popular but again the allotted district budget is not sufficient even
for a block. Through RKVY FW&AD can meet these challenges.
RKVY intend to provide flexibility and autonomy to states in the process of planning and
executing Agriculture and allied sector schemes:
Pointer - Requirements of tribal and non tribal , Irrigated and rain fed , hilly and rocky area
Vs plane and fertile area are always differs. Through RKVY FW&AD can actually plan
specific area development plan for tribal area with proper backward and forward linkages
RKVY plan to ensure the preparation of agriculture plans for the districts and the states
based on agro-climatic conditions, availability of technology and natural resources.
Pointer - As we mentioned above there is a need of specific area development plan. Plan at
micro level as well keeping local resources in mind
RKVY plan to ensure that the local needs/crops/priorities are better reflected in the
agricultural plans of the states:
Pointer - Farmers of Nimar region needs timely availability of sufficient and input support
from FW&AD where as farmers of districts like Sidhi, Dhindhori needs infrastructure
support or training and subsidy support to go for organic certification. These are two
different conditions for FW&AD. Through RKVY these can be addressed properly.
RKVY want to achieve the goal of reducing the yield gaps in important crops, through focused
interventions:
Pointer - This is again related to difference in availability of basic infrastructure in tribal

and non tribal area. This is one of the major reasons behind the yield gaps. Availability of
market for tribal produce is also an area which can be achieved through RKVY. Who can
think that in urban areas people can have food like Ragi & Kodo in their morning breakfast.
As theses crops area not having proper markets they have not proper rates. But through
RKVY we even think of value addition in these food crops too.

124
RKVY aim to maximize returns to the farmers in Agriculture and allied sectors:
Pointer - Tribal farmers are not at all getting even lower mandi rate for their produce as
they have to sell their produce either in village it self or at nearby local market. Tribal
already uses very less quantity of chemical. There produce is almost organic still they
are unable to get right prize !!! Through RKVY FW&AD can work for organic market for
them.
RKVY want to bring about quantifiable changes in the production and productivity of
various components of Agriculture and allied sectors by addressing them in a holistic
manner:
Pointer - This is the most important area in which FW&AD can work. In present situation
FW&AD has to depend on several other line departments for agriculture development. But
through RKVY he can demonstrate the end to end solution to farmers, including market based
value chain development and agriculture based enterprise promotion.

125
Annex-5: Comparative Study of Status of Agriculture in Two Tribal

Districts
During our field visits for data collection, we had discussions on certain aspects related to
agriculture in the concerned area with various groups of tribal farmers, and government
officials. Based on these discussions we are comparing the Shahpur block of Betul and Babai
block of Hoshangabad districts.
Issue Betul (Shahpur) Hoshangabad (Babai)

Availability of Field staff Insufficient Sufficient
Average village per 25 to 30 7 to 10
RAEO
Work load on field staff Time to time engaged in More involved in
other department’s work agriculture work
Transport facilities Poor Sufficient availability
Reach of farmer to Poor / less Good
Agriculture Farms &
training centers
Irrigation facility Poor mostly un irrigated Largely Irrigated
Zayad crops No Yes
Topography Undulated , Hilly area Plain
Agriculture practices More traditional Open to new & innovative
agriculture
Availability of agriculture Good Very Good
inputs
Education status Poor Take interest in education
Economic status Poor Relatively better
The discussions were put into the context of the agro climatic and average rain fall:
The agro-climatic and rain fall conditions in Shahpur block are relatively poorer than the Babai
block in terms of rainfall and soil type. Study sampling rank 2 for Betul district means that
tribal population in this district is between 50 to 75 percent. In Hoshngabad the 4 rank means
tribal population is lesser then the 25 percent. There is need of agriculture department to give

126
specific attention for improvement of agriculture production and productivity. Special

programme should be design for the naturally poor conditions of the region.

127
Annex-6: Design Analysis of Annpurna and Surajdhara Scheme

Tribals are dependent on old traditional seeds and do not generally make a difference between
grain and seeds. Farmer welfare and Agriculture development department is implementing two
centrally sponsored schemes for high yielding varieties of seeds under Annapurna and
Surajdhara.
Design of Annapurna and Surajdhara Scheme:
The objective of the SURAJDHARA and ANNAPURNA scheme is to provide seeds of

improved and high yielding varieties for cereals, oilseeds and pulse crops, through replacement
of old varieties. It shall cover small and marginal farmers of ST and SC categories. In order to
get these seeds the farmers will have to give the non certified seed which is 25% of the received
certified seed. Both Annapurna and Surajdhara schemes has these 3 components viz. Seed
Exchange, Seed Self Reliance, Seed Production.
Under these schemes there are various crops to be covered in Kharif and the Rabi Season, these
crops are as follows:
1. Kharif
• Pulses: Arhar, Moong, Urad.
• Oilseeds: Soyabean, Til, Ramtil (niger), Castor, Groundnut, Sunflower.
• Cereals: Rice, Maize, Jowar, Kodo - Kutki.
2. Rabi
• Pulses: Gram, Pea, Lentil, Teora, Moong, Urad.
• Oilseeds: Safflower, Mustard, Toria, Rapeseed, Linseed, Castor, Sunflower, Ramtil
(Niger), Groundnut.
• Cereals: Wheat, Gram.
Status of Implementation of Annapurna and Surajdhara in Tribal Areas
The study collected feedback from 4000 households on the status of implementation of various
schemes of the FW&AD in the state. The study results on the Annapurna and Surjadhara
scheme are:
• 15 percent of tribal farmers (ST) and 18 percent of SC farmers are aware about the
Annpurana scheme while 10 percent of tribal farmers and 4 percent of SC farmers are aware
about the Surajdhara scheme.
• Among those who are aware, 91 percent of tribal farmers and 74 percent of SC farmer have
benefitted from Annapurna scheme
• Among those who are aware, 46 percent of ST farmers and 81 percent of SC farmers have
benefitted from Surajdhara scheme.
worked with RAEO and SADO for the Annapurna scheme implementation

128
worked with RAEO and SADO for the Surajdhara scheme implementation
The tables below describe the status of farmers’ involvement in planning, implementation and
monitoring of Annapurna and Surajdhara schemes in the tribal areas, for both ST and SC
farmers.
The study results clearly show that the status of implementation of Annapurna and Surajdhara
schemes in tribal areas is very weak. The study team explored the reason for poor reach and
awareness in tribal and SC farmers about the most relevant schemes meant for them. The
discussions were carried out with the farmers, SADO, RAEO and other departmental
functionaries as well as with agriculture experts on this aspect. Following is the summary of
reasons for the current status of poor reach and targeting of schemes meant for tribal areas:
i. Week Extension Programme due to the burden REAOs: The discussions revealed that
due to overburdened nature of work of RAEO, the time available for extension is very

129
limited. RAEO are unable to focus their time and energies on the field level activities of
scheme implementation. Reaching a village more than one time in a month or two is
almost impossible. Half of RAEO time goes in other-departmental work of Janpad where
as other half of the time, RAEO is spending on field visit and reporting, meetings etc.
Clearly rationalization of work at this key unit of implementation is necessary for the
department to expect better reach and quality of implementation
ii. Selection of Beneficiaries toughest exercise: (If REAO want to support poorest farmers)
During the discussion, it emerged that the selection of beneficiaries under any scheme is
one of the toughest exercise. This is largely due to large demands in comparison to the
allocated targets. The department’s way of allotting benefits on first come, first serve
basis work to the advantage of large and medium farmers. The reach of schemes to small
and marginal farmers remains a huge area of concern.
iii. Local Political Influence: Various pulls and pressures were expressed by
SADO/RAEO/Panchyat functionaries in allotment of benefits of schemes. Clearly the
Gram sabha is unable to facilitate the limited benefits of schemes to most deserving and
appropriate farmers. Few RAEOs reported that at least 20% schemes benefits are
influenced by the local political leaders and elected representatives. Framers and
community awareness level are low to understand the distributional pattern of scheme
benefits and then do something about it.
iv. Poor capacities of Panchayats and Agriculture Committees: This was observed with
regard to making integrated planning individual Households with convergence with on
going schemes like NREG and SGSY etc. Ruling party leaders decide the beneficiaries
for any training and exposure programmes from any department. Since implementation
of Gram Swaraj 2001 Agriculture department officials are now participating in the
Panchayat meeting and sharing the schemes and progress (e.g. after an hour long
discussion in the Bhadera village, community agreed that new variety of wheat and paddy
in village were brought by RAEO sahib).Tribal farmers have generally no information
about Kishan mitra and Kishan didi schemes.
v. Seed Exchange Programme: This programme is not working well in both schemes,
largely due to the fact that except large farmers, other farmers do not have their own seed
during the sowing time. The seed is purchased by them from money lender/ shop keeper
on credit. So large numbers of farmers are unable to participate in the seed exchange
programme. Seed Exchange programme need high level of awareness and timely
availability of seeds on the farmer’s field.
vi. Seed Production/Seed Village Programme: The seed village programme has achieved a
good success and therefore need to be continued for the seed bank in every village. The
technical support like proper seed treatment, seed selection & pre-cultivation preparation
has changed the yield of the crops. The intercropping also helped the farmers to get good
result from the same land. This programme has only five villages per block in per year.
This need to extend and will reach to the maximum villages in the state.

130
vii. Comments on Scheme Design (Surajdhara and Annpurana)
Achievements: The agriculture department demonstrated the new technologies of farming

through the new varieties of seed, although this is till limited with the large and medium
farmers.
Suggested design changes and implementation improvement Plan:
REAO’s support for farm based planning is important for the small and marginal farmers under
both the schemes. REAO can prepare plan in advance and do awareness building of small and
marginal farmers on new variety and its adoption benefits. FW&AD should increase the
resources on these schemes and increase the allocation targets for the tribal areas. The seed
reliance scheme should be promoted within the village through seed production and seed bank
in tribal area. Department should promote more oilseed and pulses crops with tribal farmers in
Rabi and Kharif period. Department should monitor the allocation process of benefit
distribution so that targeted farmers are able to get the benefit in maximum numbers. The
monitoring of these schemes can be done involving NGOs, private agencies etc.

131
Annex-7: Design Analysis of Minor Irrigation Scheme
To increase in irrigation area of state and to enhance productivity and production of holdings
with Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe families, the scheme for Boring of tube wells on
cultivator’s field has been continued. For efficient utilization of irrigation water sprinkler sets
and drip units are also being subsidized under different centrally sponsored schemes.
Status of Implementation of Micro Irrigation schemes in the tribal areas:
It is a dream for every farmer to own a water source like tube well. The FW&AD department is
implementing tube well and micro irrigation related schemes. The study findings on the reach,
access and benefit of these schemes to ST and SC families suggest:
• 4 percent of households are aware about tubewell or irrigation schemes.

• Among those who are aware, 31 percent have accessed and benefitted from the tube well
scheme and 92 percent have benefitted from irrigation scheme.
• Among those who are aware, 23 percent have participated in the planning of the tube well
scheme with SADO/RAEO level while 51 percent have participated in planning of the
irrigation scheme.
• Among those who are aware, a minuscule percent of households have participated in the
implementation or monitoring of the schemes.
Design Analysis and Improvement Plan:
Both the micro irrigation schemes have good popularity among the farmers esp. medium and
large farmers. The reported benefits drawn by small and marginal farmers from these schemes
are very low. Due to the selection criteria of the beneficiaries, and due to working methodology
of first come and first serve, small and marginal farmers find themselves in no position to even
have the necessary token money in time for taking benefits of the schemes. Under both schemes,
implementation and selection of beneficiaries is strongly influenced by local politicians.

132
Need to include recharging of tube wells under this scheme and special provision for small and
marginal farmers from the tribal community with intensive support from farm based
participatory micro planning. Target of scheme should be increased so that large number of
deserving farmers can get the benefit of these very relevant schemes.

133

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Impact Assessment of Agriculture Interventions in Tribal Areas in MP-Final Report

Impact Assessment of Agriculture Interventions in

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Catalyst Management Services, Bhopal

Abbreviations and Acronyms

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ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ...................................................................................................................II

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10.3 MANAGEMENT INTERVENTIONS: ............................................................................................................114

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We thank the staff of Farmers Welfare and Agriculture Development (FW&AD)

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Impact Assessment of Agriculture Interventions in Tribal Areas in

Catalyst Management Services, Bhopal

Catalyst Management Services, Bhopal

5. Reducing productivity in major crops; Cotton an exception: In case of productivity of these

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Catalyst Management Services, Bhopal

Catalyst Management Services, Bhopal

Policy Pointers and other Recommendations:

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Suggested framework for improvement in agriculture interventions in tribal areas:

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Catalyst Management Services, Bhopal

Strengthening institutional /co-operative delivery of Agriculture credit: Credit is an essential

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Performance and Accountability System: Improvement by few percentages of accountability in

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Impact Assessment of Agriculture Interventions in Tribal Areas in

Catalyst Management Services, Bhopal

Catalyst Management Services, Bhopal

1 Status of Agriculture and Agriculture Interventions in MP

1.1 Status of Agriculture:

Agriculture Sector in India:

Table: Annual Average Growth Rates (At 1993-94 prices)

Agriculture Sector in MP:

Type No. in Lakh Percentage Area Operated (in Percentage

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Large 1.66 2.26 25.76 15.73

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Soybean: MP is producing 50 percent of Soybean on 60 percent area at national level .In

1.2 Agriculture Interventions in MP:

Agriculture interventions in Madhya

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Soil & Water Conservation:

Micro Minor Irrigation (Balram Talab):

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National level Developmental Programme which contribute towards Agriculture

State level Development Programmes contributing to Agriculture Development:

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Catalyst Management Services, Bhopal

2 Status of Tribals Development and Tribal Agriculture

2.1 Tribal Development:

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2.2 Status of Tribal Agriculture

Historically, tribal communities were characterized by a lifestyle distinct from agrarian

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Catalyst Management Services, Bhopal

3 Objectives and Scope

3.1 Main Objective:

The broad objectives of the impact assessment are: