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Ideology and Politics in Economic Planning: The Problem of Indian Agricultural Development Strategy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Francine R. Frankel
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Extract

For the first time since independence, economic planners in India are experiencing a serious crisis of confidence. Although there has always been some debate on alternative policies and programs, the central assumptions of development planning have remained unchallenged since the 1930's. Now, in contrast, the very core of economic development strategy has become the target of open and bitter criticism. The final draft of the Fourth Five Year Plan has been delayed for more than a year, and the end of fundamental disagreements seems nowhere in sight.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , July 1967 , pp. 621 - 645
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1967

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References

1 India, Planning Commission, Second Five Year Plan (New Delhi 1956), 22Google Scholar.

2 India, Planning Commission, First Five Year Plan (New Delhi 1953), 187Google Scholar.

3 Interview with Chakravarti, S., Additional Secretary, Ministry of Community Development and Cooperation, in New Delhi, January 16, 1963Google Scholar.

It should be noted that before 1965, Community Development, Cooperation, and Panchayati Raj constituted one ministry; Food and Agriculture another. In 1965, these ministries were amalgamated to form the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Community Development, Cooperation, and Panchayati Raj. Both in this article and in official documents, the ministries are commonly referred to by shortened titles.

4 The Fifth Evaluation Report on Wording of Community Development and N.E.S. Blocks (New Delhi 1958), 30.Google Scholar

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7 Figures for production, imports, and distribution of nitrogenous fertilizers from 1952–1953 to 1964–1965 are given in Fertilizer Association of India, Fertilizer Statistics, 1964–65 (New Delhi 1965), 90Google Scholar. To calculate per acre availability of nitrogen in 1953–1954, 1960–1961, and 1964–1965, I have used figures for area under crops, published in India, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Economic and Statistical Adviser, Growth Rates in Agriculture, 1949–50 to 1964–65 (New Delhi 1966), 84–85Google Scholar. Data in this publication on area under crops are presented in the form of index numbers, with the agricultural year 1949–1950 as the base. I have converted the index numbers back into acres using the Second Plan's estimate that some 326 million acres were under crops in 1949–1950 (Second Five Year Plan, 259).

8 A useful compendium of fertilizer recommendations for various crops in each state is found in Fertilizer Statistics, 1964–65, 114.

9 First Five Year Plan, 164.

10 Second Five Year Plan, 221.

11 India, Reserve Bank, Report of the Committee of Direction, All-India Rural Credit Survey, Vol. II, The General Report (Bombay 1954), 211–20, 253–77.Google Scholar

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16 Each Community Development Block budgeted only one-half or less of the cost of village development projects and required village panchayats to mobilize matching funds in cash, kind, and labor.

17 First Five Year Plan, 148.

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20 Indian Statistical Institute, The National Sample Survey, Number 140: Tables With Notes on Some Aspects of Landholdings in Rural Areas (State and All-India Estimates), Seventeenth Round, September 1961-July 1962, Draft (Calcutta 1966), 11.Google Scholar

21 During the Third Plan, all states except Kerala and Madhya Pradesh established two new sets of local government bodies at the Block and district levels and gave them responsibility for administering development programs within their areas. Some states also gave the newly created Block Committees and District Councils wide powers of taxation.

22 Preliminary estimates provided by the Department of Panchayati Raj, Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Community Development, Cooperation, and Panchayati Raj, August 1966, unpubl.

23 India, Department of Community Development, Highlights of the Programme, Community Development, Special Programmes, Panchayati Raj (New Delhi, August 1966), 31.Google Scholar

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25 India, Ministry of Community Development and Cooperation, Department of Cooperation, Cooperative Movement in India, Important Statistics, 1963–64, Part 1: Credit Sector (New Delhi 1965), 5.Google Scholar

26 This figure is based on the formula used by the Food and Agriculture Ministry's Working Group on Cooperative Policy, which was constituted in November 1958 to study the short-term credit requirements of the cooperative sector. It provides for a production credit of Rs. 200—Rs. 40 to Rs. 50 per acre—to each cultivator having an average holding of four or five acres. There are approximately sixty million agriculturist families in India.

27 Cooperative Movement in India, 5.

28 Ibid., 41.

29 Fourth Five Year Plan: A Draft Outline, 136.

30 Ibid., 142.

31 Complete figures are not available for market arrivals of rice. However, the Directorate of Economics and Statistics does make estimates of arrivals of rice in selected markets. These show that market arrivals of rice have steadily declined since 1962–1963, while production of rice has steadily increased. Total rice production was 31,520,000 metric tons in 1962–1963; it rose to 36,311,000 tons in 1963–1964 and to 38,123,000 tons in 1964–1965. During these same years, market arrivals of rice in selected markets totalled 1,218,000 tons, 968,000 tons, and 841,000 tons respectively (India, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Community Development and Cooperation, Bulletin on Food Statistics [New Delhi, February 1966], 11, 17Google Scholar).

32 Interview with Balasubramaniam, B., Joint Secretary, Procurement, Department of Food, Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Community Development and Cooperation, in New Delhi, July 25, 1966.Google Scholar

33 Interview with Dave, J. A., Director General, Food, Department of Food, Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Community Development and Cooperation, in New Delhi, July 25, 1966.Google Scholar

34 Study of Utilization of Cooperative Loans (New Delhi 1965), 88.Google Scholar

35 Dantwala, M. L., “Financial Implications of Land Reforms,” Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, xvii (October-December 1962), 2.Google Scholar

36 In addition to various service personnel (messengers, clerks, typists, sweepers, and so on), the staffing pattern of a Community Development Block provides for one Block development officer, one extension officer each for agriculture, animal husbandry, cooperation, panchayats, and rural industries, one social education officer, one women's worker, two female village-level workers, and ten male village-level workers.

37 Dey, S. K., Community Development, A Chronicle, 1954–1961 (New Delhi 1962), 98.Google Scholar

38 Highlights of the Programme, 10.

39 India, Planning Commission, Agriculture Division, “Draft Chapter, Agriculture,” prepared for the draft outline of the Fourth Plan, unpubl., 26.

40 Ibid.

41 Ibid., 27.

42 See India, National Cooperative Development Corporation, Report of the Committee on Cooperative Administration (New Delhi 1963)Google Scholar.

43 Second Five Year Plan, 205–8.

44 Ibid., 195.

45 See Dantwala, M. L., “Land Reforms in the Second Plan,” Indian Affairs Record, 11 (September 1956)Google Scholar.

46 The range of ceilings in ordinary acres for each state is as follows: Assam, up to 50 acres; Bihar, 20 to 60 acres; Gujerat, 19 to 132 acres; Kerala, 15 to 37.5 acres; Madhya Pradesh, 25 to 75 acres; Madras, 24 to 120 acres; Maharashtra, 18 to 126 acres; Mysore, 27 to 216 acres; Orissa, 25 to 100 acres; Punjab, up to 60 acres; and West Bengal, 25 acres. Rajasthan has established a ceiling at 30 standard acres, defined as land yielding ten maunds of wheat or any other crop of equal value. See India, Planning Commission, Progress of Land Reform (New Delhi 1963), 62–67Google Scholar.

47 India, Planning Commission, Panel of Land Reform, Report of the Committee on Ceiling on Land Holdings (New Delhi 1961), 8Google Scholar.

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49 Cooperation in India, 199.

50 Fourth Five Year Plan: A Draft Outline, 136.

51 Reorientation of Programmes of Agricultural Production (New Delhi 1965), 2Google Scholar.

52 India, Planning Commission, Agricultural Development in the Fourth Plan, by Rao, V.K.R.V. (New Delhi 1966), 21Google Scholar.

53 Fourth Five Year Plan: A Draft Outline, 175.

54 The Statesman (November 14, 1966).Google Scholar