A White Touch for a Fresh Green Revolution

Whose 100th birth anniversary was celebrated on 26th November, 2021 in Anand, Gujarat? Verghese Kurien, leader of India’s ‘White Revolution’, which increased the income and wealth of millions of cattle-owning small farmers in India, many of whom were women. November 26, 2021 also marked a year from the day when thousands of crop-growing farmers, who have been beneficiaries of the ‘Green Revolution’ that increased their income, forced the Indian government to withdraw the new started a non-violent protest for It enacted laws to undo the policies of the Green Revolution. The new policies of the government are aimed at doubling the income of small farmers, who have been sluggish during the stock market boom. The protesting farmers feared that the new policies would enable corporations to make more profits and further marginalize farmers. The government must now go back to the drawing board to find better ways to increase farmers’ income.

Revolutions, Miscellaneous Purposes

The difference between the two revolutions provides valuable insight. His objectives were different. The aim of the Green Revolution was to increase agricultural production to prevent food shortage. The aim of the White Revolution was to increase the income of small farmers in Gujarat, not the production of milk. The Green Revolution was largely a technological enterprise driven by the principles of science and efficiency. Whereas, the White Revolution was a socio-economic enterprise driven by political leaders and principles of equality. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel had the dream of a cooperative movement to increase the income of Gujarati farmers. Verghese Kurien wrote in his autobiography, i also had a dream, how he enrolled him in his visionary enterprise and how he became a servant of the farmers for whom the enterprise was made, and among whom he lived.

Amul has become one of the most preferred brands in India, and is also respected internationally for the quality of its products and the efficiency of its management. It has successfully competed with the world’s largest corporations and their well-established brands. The fledgling, farmer-owned, Indian enterprise, which the two Patels sponsored, had many technical problems to solve. So he enrolled Kurien, who had studied engineering in the United States (on a Government of India scholarship). Kurien and his engineering compatriots in the organization were forced to develop the solution indigenously when Indian policy makers, influenced by foreign experts, said that Indians could not build it.

equity was important

The political battles fought for Kurien’s ‘Make in India’ and the ‘can do’ spirit of Indian engineers are inspiring about innovation. However, as he repeatedly emphasizes, enterprise achieved its results by empowering farmers because the governance of enterprise was always placed in the foreground to achieve equity, with its consequences in the background as a means of achieving There was efficiency of production processes.

The objective of the Green Revolution was to increase production by applying scientific breakthroughs along with management methods to achieve economies of scale. This required inputs like chemical fertilizers on a large scale and at a low cost. Therefore, large fertilizer factories were set up for the Green Revolution. And large dams and irrigation systems were also needed to supply water on a large scale. Monocropping in the fields was essential for large scale application of all suitable inputs – seeds, fertilisers, water, etc. Focusing on only one or two crops at a time increased their production by avoiding diverting land use to other “non-essential” crops. Monocropping increased efficiency in the application of inputs. Thus, farms became like large, dedicated engineering factories, designed to efficiently produce large quantities. Diversity in the products and processes of large factories creates complexity. Therefore, diversity is eliminated in order to keep factories well focused on the outputs for which they are designed. Similarly, in large-scale farms and plantations, plants other than the field is designed to be produced on a large scale are weeds.

on productivity

In large, modern factories, workers are only a means of production. Workers are replaced by machines whenever possible in order to increase production more efficiently. Thus, ‘productivity’, when defined as output per worker, can be increased by eliminating workers. It can be an acceptable way of measuring and increasing productivity when the objective of the enterprise is to increase the profits of the investors in the enterprise. This is a wrong approach to productivity when the aim of the enterprise is to enable more workers to increase their income, which should be the aim of any policy to increase the income of small farmers.

The need for new solutions has become imperative to increase the income of farmers. Furthermore, fundamental changes in economics and management science are necessary to reverse the degradation of the planet’s natural environment with the application of modern technological solutions and management methods for the pursuit of economic growth. IRMA, or the Institute of Rural Management, Anand, which was set up by Kurien to develop a new breed of manager to enhance the well-being of farmers, convened a workshop to celebrate his 100th birth anniversary, to find out how What can be learned from the White Revolution. Beat the green again. Leaders of on-the-ground movements that are applying the principles of cooperative management in “natural (eco-friendly) farming” across India, enhancing insights for better economic policies and better management methods and improving environmental sustainability gathered to do.

guidelines

The first insight is this: Inclusion and equity in governance must be hardwired into the design of the enterprise. The objective of the enterprise should be to increase the income and wealth of the workers and small property owners in the enterprise rather than to produce better returns for the investors.

Second: The ‘social’ side of the enterprise is as important as its ‘business’ side. Therefore, new metrics of performance must be used, and many ‘non-corporate’ methods of management learned and applied to strengthen their social fabric.

Third: the solution should be a ‘local system’ solution rather than a ‘global (or national) scale’ solution. Resources in the local environment (including local workers) should be the core resources of the enterprise. The enterprise must be included in the local community from which it derives its environmental resources, and whose well-being must be nurtured by its operation.

Fourth: Science should be practical and usable by people on the ground, rather than science developed by experts to convince other people. Furthermore, people at the grassroots are often better scientists from whom university scientists can learn useful science.

Fifth: Permanent change is brought about by a steady process of development and not by drastic revolution. Like strong drugs to treat specific diseases, the massive changes imposed above can also have strong side effects. They gradually undermine the health of the patient, as the scientific managerial solutions of the Green Revolution have damaged the soil and water resources of North India.

Large-scale farming using modern scientific methods was the approach to improving agricultural production in the Soviet Union, as in the United States, and it yielded equally spectacular results. However, it wiped out farmers in the Soviet Union and excommunicated small farmers in the US. Kurien told the USSR Premier Alexei Kosygin, who came to him with pleasure, that enterprises were owned from top to bottom, whether by the state (Soviet model). in), or by remote investors (in the capitalist model) was the wrong solution. The essence of democratic economic governance is that an enterprise should be of the people, for the people and also governed by the people.

Arun Maira is a former member, Planning Commission and author of The Solution Factory: A Consultant’s Problem-Solving Handbook