The demons of demonetisation in agriculture

Demonetisation – this brittle word with its short, sharp syllables, gained currency overnight with the draconian move of the Indian Government to invalidate Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes. Many in Auroville were not affected, and jokes about Auroville finally becoming a no-money society abounded. But as week after week the cash crunch refused to subside, the demons of demonetisation began to show up. And these demons have particularly reared their heads in the cash-dependent sector of agriculture.

Demonetisation in India invalidated approximately Rs 14,180 billion worth of high value currency, which is almost 86% of the total currency in circulation. With the government failing to distribute adequate new notes, coupled with a shortage of low value currency, the farming sector in India, which is highly dependent on cash-exchange, stands crippled. To get some idea of how bleak the picture is, consider these facts: nearly 81% of the villages in India do not have access to bank branches; in many states co-operative banks dominate, but co-operative banks were excluded from exchange-deposit of demonetized currency; and without government help, wily money-lenders stepped into exploit the need of cash-strapped villagers. It is rumoured that in many rural areas, including the villages around Auroville, old currency notes continue to change hands, but by December 30th, these will be worth only the paper that they are printed on, for they will no longer be accepted in banks.

The economy has visibly slowed down with this cash crunch – shops stand closed in the town and cities, and trade in the “subji-mandi,” the vegetable market, is slow. Given the subdued demand, prices for perishable goods, like vegetables and fruits, have slumped by 40-50%. In Chhattisgarh, the prices of tomatoes came down to 50 paise per kg, and angry farmers in one town dumped tomatoes on the national highway to express their frustration. Apparently there are similar stories from the nearby regions of Cuddalore and Panruti, where the vegetable farmers did not even bother to harvest the produce.

Admittedly, these demons may be short-lived, and as promised by the winning election slogan, the “Good days” will soon come. But not so for farmers. All over India, these are the busiest months in the agricultural season, when the Kharif (summer) crops are harvested and the Rabi (winter) crops are sowed. Both these operations are hugely labour-dependent and cash-dependent. Without access to cash for purchasing seeds, fertilizers, implements and tools, it is likely that fields will lie fallow or will be sown late, and next year yields will be low, with the inevitable domino effect that we all pay higher prices for our daily bread. How long will demonetisation drag down the agriculture sector? And how soon will the sector rebound? Questions such as these still stump agricultural economists, for no one truly knows when the storm kicked off by demonetisation will finally abate.

“But, ah, what has this to do with Auroville?” the selfish gene in us may well ask. Unfortunately, the agricultural sector of Auroville is not totally free from these demons. Agriculture has never been a central concern of Auroville. The wheels of Auroville’s formal economy turn around the commercial units and their contribution to the City Services. The services, by and large, are left to manage on their own, and in the agricultural sector there is no centralized strategic planning to ensure food security for the community. On the positive side, the community provides maintenances to farm stewards and fair prices for farm produce. But, due to the lack of centralized strategies, there is little help to be had in times like these, and Auroville farmers struggle to pay their manual labourers or find the needed capital to sow seeds. Consequently, as with the rest of India, fields will be sowed late or not at all this season.

Turning this challenge into an opportunity, recently there has been a small movement towards Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), pioneered by Solitude Farm. Community-supported agriculture implies a shift from the current scenario, where farmers take primary responsibility for food production, to having the community take equal responsibility for it. It also implies that farmers seek to meet community needs rather than producing solely for the market and for profits.

This year, another small step in that direction was made when an Aurovilian raised funds for additional rice cultivation. The grain group (comprising the main farms in Auroville producing grain) recently calculated that the community’s demand for boiled/raw Ponni rice is approximately 9,500 kg/year, as measured in terms of consumption at the Solar Kitchen and two distribution outlets at the Pour Tous Distribution Center and Foodlink. At present, Auroville produces about 6,000 kg boiled/raw Ponni rice per year [see box]. This creates a deficit of 3,500 kg/year, which can be bridged by bringing six more acres of land under rice cultivation, as it is estimated that 2 acres of rice fields yields 1,000-1,500 kg of boiled/raw Ponni rice per year.

Incereasing rice cultivation involves raising seedlings in seed-trays and bringing additional land under irrigation, for which trenches and pipes are needed. Most farms cover their operational expenses each year, but rarely have funds for new initiatives. Also, there is no profit to be had in grains, so if left to market forces grain cultivation in Auroville would slowly die out. A grant from Auroville International The Netherlands has made it possible to bring two more acres under rice cultivation, which will bridge a third of our current deficit. Emboldened by this move, the grain group now seeks in the coming year to bring an additional four acres in two other rice farms under cultivation with community-generated funds, thereby ensuring self-sufficiency in Ponni rice.

Achieving self-sufficiency in rice production and consumption is by no means an easy task but not an impossible one. And every journey begins with a single step – the one we took this year,

In Auroville rice is grown in four farms:

– Annapurna

– Ayarpadi

– Kalpavrukshaa

– Siddhartha Farm

There are four main varieties of rice cultivated in Auroville:

– White Ponni

– ChinnaPonni

– Poovan Samba or complete red rice

– Annapurna (a complete brown variety that has been developed at Annapurna!)

Paddy (rice in the husk) is processed in different ways:

– Complete rice (red and brown varieties): where only the husk is removed from the kernel totally

– Raw rice (Ponni varieties): where the husk, bran and germ are removed from the kernel

– Par-boiled rice (Ponni varieties): where paddy is soaked, steamed and re-dried before husk, bran and germ are removed.

All Auroville grown paddy goes after harvest to Annapurna. Here the grain is cleaned, dried and bagged and goes into storage. The total paddy production in recent years is approximately 27,400 kg, which after milling gives approx 17,800 kg of rice.

In 2015, a grain separation machine was donated to Annapurna by the Dutch foundation Stichting Aurofonds.