Focus on Agriculture - Reason of Modi's success

Gujarat Series -1

Focus on Agriculture: Reason of Modi’s success


Mid September this year, Gujarat CM Shri Narendra Modi finished a journey of 4000 days in service of the people of Gujarat.

In these 4000 days he has transformed Gujarat in every sphere and put it on the world map as a place synonymous with development!

On this day, we share some facets of this journey.

Gujarat and Development has become synonymous to each other.This is because of the atmosphere of peace, unity and harmony that prevails in the state, which has become a yardstick of development.

The Bhagwad Gita states the advantages of rising above selfish end and Krishna says, Karma kiye jaa, phal ki chinta na kar tu insaan – jaise karma karega vaise phal dega bhagwaan -“Work for the common good without selfish interests, the rewards of selfless work will take you to a supreme state”. This is how with the vision of Shri Narendra Modi, in Gujarat, development is guided by purity of means, non erosion of moral values and limits to self interest.

The Gujarat Govt. and Shri Narendra Modi is on the fast track of development. On the Sanand branch canal of Narmada Yojna, Photo Voltaic Panels have been arranged in 730 meters length and about 60 mega watt Solar energy has been created. All together 38 canals covering 2538 km. are being built under the Narmada Yojna. 29 branch canals have already been built, which is estimated to be 2000 km. About 5112 km. long sub canal or distribution canals are in pipeline. Of this, on 4000 km canals, in 35% or 1400 km. area, Solar PV panels are being set up and that would generate 2000 mega watt Solar Energy. If this 1400 km area, comes under PV panels, annually 500 to 600 lakh squaremeter, river water can be saved from evaporating. The Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Ltd [GSECL], which has initiated 1 mega watt Solar project on Sanand Branch canal at Chandrasan in Kadi. The project would produce 4383.56 units daily or 16 lakh units per annum.

When Narendra Modi won the 2007 state election in Gujarat, the media limited its attention, while analyzing his victory, on Hindu-Muslim issues- especially the Sohrabuddin encounter. Some journalists did highlight the rapid industrial development that had made Gujarat India’s fastest-growing state.

However, almost all analysts, willfully or otherwise ignored a vital point - the secret of Modi’s success lay in agriculture — that Gujarat’s agricultural performance is by far the best in India.

Between 2000-01 and 2007-08 (despite a major drought in 2002), Gujarat’s “agricultural - value added” grew at a phenomenal 9.6% per year. This is more than double India’s agricultural growth rate. Indeed, 9.6% agricultural growth is among the fastest rates recorded anywhere in the world. That highlights the magnitude of Gujarat’s performance.

Most of Gujarat’s population is still rural, this mega-boom in agriculture must have created millions of satisfied voters. Hence it must have played a major role in Modi’s victory.

Gujarat has always been drought prone, with 70% of its area classified as semi-arid and arid.

During the 1990s decade, Gujarat embarked on decentralised water harvesting. This included the building of check dams, village tanks, and bori-bunds (built with gunny sacks stuffed with mud).

10,700 check dams were built up to 2000, and helped drought-proof 32,000 hectares. That sounds a lot. But subsequently, under Modi, Gujarat has built ten times as many check dams ! These have played a big role in the agricultural growth of Saurashtra and Kutch. Better water availability has also increased milk and livestock production.

Gujarat has promoted drip irrigation. Like other states, Gujarat offers subsidies and loans, but it also fast-tracks and simplifies procedures. Farmers contribute 5% initially. Then a state-owned company provides 50% as subsidy, and arranges a bank loan for the balance of 45%. One lakh acres have been covered by drip irrigation so far. Like the Sardar Sarovar Project, drip irrigation’s total irrigation potential is far higher.

Good roads are the most important investment for agriculture. Gujarat has one of the best rural road networks in India, and 98.7% of villages are connected by pukka roads.

Gujarat govt’s Jyotigram scheme for power has provided regular, high-quality electricity to villages, greatly helping farming. Jyotigram provides separate electric feeders for domestic use and pump-sets. This permits the state to supply round-the-clock domestic supply, while limiting agricultural supply to eight continuous hours a day and of constant voltage.

This has prompted the enterprising Gujarati farmer to switch his produce to high-value crops like mango, banana and wheat, which need assured water. Constant voltage has protected farmers from damage to pump-sets earlier caused by fluctuating voltage. Continuous power for non-agricultural uses has spurred diversification into non-farm activities, vital for rural growth.

The irrigated area has expanded at the rate of 4.4% per year. The fastest growth in crops has been in wheat, followed by cotton and fruits and vegetables.

Private seed companies have brought in new technology for several crops, ranging from bajra to castor, but above all in Bt cotton. More than 20 Bt cotton varieties are now produced by 30 seed companies.

On one hand you see farmers from Maharashtra commiting suicide and on the other, Gujarat has only 26% of India’s cotton area, but 35.5% of its production, thanks to high yields.

New institutional arrangements like contract farming have helped improve marketing. Vimal Dairy and Vadilal Industries have entered the dairy sector. Agrocel has taken up organic farming of cotton and sesame seeds. The state has helped catalyse production, notably in water harvesting. It has worked with NGOs and companies to bring the best technology to farmers. Gujarat Agricultural University has been split into four separate universities, helping strengthen R&D.

MODI SPEAK ON GUJARAT’S DEVELOPMENT

• Gujarat is one state when seven months of the year are in drought. We are a State which depends on rain for agriculture. We have only two big rivers which are Narmada and Tapi. But with rain harvesting, technological approach to farming we have achieved a growth of 10% in a decade while the national growth in farming is 3%.

• We have the Soil Health Card and tele-consultancy services for agriculture. We have also focused in dairy farming and have taken steps to do cataract operations on animals when other parts of the country are failing to extend of this kind of facility even to human beings.

• We have associated ourselves in a milk revolution and I am proud to say that the India Army gets milk supply from my state. In my state in the last 10 years 37 lakh hectare new land has been made cultivable. Industry & Agriculture are both growing simultaneously in Gujarat.


Gujarat Series  2

Celebrating Gunotsva in education..

It is very easy to explain importance of education. Education tells men how to think, how

to work properly, how to make decision. Through education only one can make

separate identity. It is most important in life like our basic need foods, clothing and

shelter. In the beginning we learnt how to interact with others, how to make friends

because of education only. As I remember when my parents had enrolled my name in

school not only I learnt the alphabets and numbers but also I made friends, interacted

with them with teachers.

Education is not just restricted to teaching a person the basic academics, say

computers, mathematics, geography or history education is a much larger term.

If you want to find out the impact of education on any individuality, you better do an

intense observation to the ways of well-educated people and then compare them with

an illiterate man. You would get a clear picture of the education and its accurate

concept. Education is one of the important factors which formulate the persona of a

person.

One must concede that education has played a key role in Gujarat’s success in every

field in the past decade. The education sector in Gujarat has seen a sea change with

the literacy rate increasing from 69.14 % in 2001 to 79.31% in 2011. The female

literacy rate in the last decade has gone up by 12.93%, a figure of achievement

which is one and a half times more than the achievement of the previous decade.

The schemes initiated by the education department have truly led to a complete

turnaround in the way the importance of education is perceived in the state.

 Focus on Primary Education

Gujarat has over 32,700 panchayat and grant-aid primary schools. Around 80,750 new

classrooms have been constructed over the past ten years with the aim of ensuring one

classroom each for every teacher. The state can now boast of 100 per cent drinking

water facilities in primary schools. Nearly 62,000 new toilet blocks have also been

constructed and 18,513 primary schools now have compound walls to ensure safety.

Another major step taken by the government is the electrification of primary

schools. Gujarat now has 100 per cent electrification in all government schools

with the expenditure on power being borne by the state government. Computer

education has been introduced to standard six and seven students and over 22,000

primary schools have been provided with computers. The state government has

invested `1,000 crore in computer infrastructure and provided one 42 inch LCD screen

in all secondary schools and 21,000 upper primary schools.

The infrastructure upgradation has been supported by massive enrollment drives

through programmes like the Kanya Kelavani Rathyatra and Shaala Praveshotsav

(for the support of girl child enrollment).

These programmes have reduced primary school drop-out rates from 38.92 per cent in

2001 to 7.56 per cent in 2011. Also to encourage girl child enrollment into schools

the Vidhyalakshmi Bonds were introduced in 2003, according to which, bonds

worth `2000 are given for every BPL (Below Poverty Line) girl child enrolled into

school. On completion of standard seven, the bond money along with interest is

handed over as an incentive to pursue secondary education. Funds amounting to

`115.48 crore have already been distributed under this scheme to 11,84,655 girl

beneficiaries.

By adopting a transparent, merit-based, on-line recruitment procedure, 86,823 new

primary teachers were employed in the last decade. Also a new cadre of primary school

headmasters was created and 5,000 such headmasters were appointed. Fifty per cent

of them were appointed through the government approved teacher’s aptitude test and

the remaining 50 per cent through promotions. The state government has also

created the Indian Institute of Teacher Education (IITE) with the aim of preparing

high quality teachers. IITE has started with initial intake capacity of 100 students

per year and offers a 4 year B.Ed program to the teachers of tomorrow.

The state Government has started a new initiative called ‘Gunotsav’ to evaluate the

quality of primary schools.

The entire programme has been compartmentalized in seven sub divisons.

They are,

1.To bring about awareness among the teaching staff and people, in general.

2.To assess the working of the teachers of the school and grading it.

3.To ensure the imparting of qualitative education within the four walls of classrooms.

4. To provide educational grading to the school.

5. To assess the structural facilities of the school.

6.To assess the extra curricular facilities provided by the schools.

And,

7.To put in order the better equipped plan to provide further development in the

qualitative education..

The Govt. is providing Rs. 500, per school to carry out the programme of Shala [school]

Praveshotsva.

Rs. 500, per school for first aid facilities and Rs. 1200 for the primary school of 1 to 4

std. for the purpose of sanitation. The schools having classes from 1 to 7th are provided

with Rs. 2400. Under the scheme of Healthy Child [Nirogi Bal Yojna], the 1st std child is

imparted with Rs. 30. School maintenance grant, [per school], with 3 class rooms are

provided with Rs. 7500 and the schools with more than 3 classrooms are given 10,000

Rs. School development grant, for primary section, is Rs. 5000 and T.L.M. grant is Rs.

500 per teachers.

In this annual exercise, the entire bureaucracy, i.e. officers of all the Government

departments are involved. A group of 3,000 class 2 (and above) officers and all

ministers visit schools and spend one full day in a school to examine teaching

conditions, creating enormous accountability.

 Secondary Education Reforms

In Gujarat most of the schools used to be in the grant-in-aid sector, Governments run

schools were few. But in the last decade, the number of government secondary schools

from a mere 140 in 2001 has increased to 744 in 2011. Some of the major initiatives for

quality enhancement in secondary level are: introduction of semester system from class

9, introduction of comprehensive and continuous evaluation, change in pattern of Board

examination etc. Incidentally Gujarat has chosen not to abolish Board exams in Std 10

to test students’ understanding of the subject.

Every school in the state is imparted with mid-day meal and quality of meal, of about 40

lakhs [out of 75 lakh students], is checked, regularly.

The facility of Water Tank, in about 29,500 schools have been provided already and

about 24,500 schools have been facilitated with toilets within the premises. The

provision of electricity, with ensured proper wiring is checked and assessed. The

provision of garden and play ground is also observed.

The conduct of Parent-Teacher meetings are ensured regularly, and cultural

programmes are held, checking the presence of parents or guardians as well as

students.

The teachers as well as the principals are reviewed as per the analysis of the different

activities performed during the academic year.

Another key initiative for students, who have taken the unconventional route to higher

secondary school, is the state government’s decision to allow diploma students from

Industrial Training Institutes (I.T.I) to seek admissions in any of the graduate degree

courses. The Government has announced a major policy of declaring equivalence of ITI

with SSC and HSC.

 The number of Universities in the state has increased from 11 in 2001 to around 45 in

2011.Over 9 lakh students are pursuing college education now as opposed to nearly

half that number a decade ago. Number of students applying for technical courses like

engineering has also significantly risen.

Staying ahead of the demand, the Government has also increased seats for degree and

diploma engineering in Government Engineering Colleges. Total seats in professional

colleges have increased from 22,475 to 1,38,740, while the seats available in

Government and Grant-in-aid colleges have also gone up from 13,470 to 33,955 in the

last decade.

In the Government and grant-in-aid colleges students can study by paying just nominal

fees. Students belonging to Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) avail 5 per cent

reservation in engineering and pharmacy courses. While students whose family annual

income is less than `2.5 lakh or who are handicapped and have secured admission in a

technical course through merit the tuition fee is waived. Over 24,700 students have

been provided free education under this scheme.

To address matters of employment the state government organises job fairs and

vocational training courses. Close to 1,86,000 youth have received vocational training

through these initiatives. Also to increase the knowledge of the English language

among Gujarati youth, the state government has started SCOPE (The Society for

Creation of Opportunity through Proficiency in English) programs. Over two lakh

students have acquired proficiency in English so far through this initiative.

To sum up, these initiatives by the state government in the education sector clearly

indicate that students are provided support at every step in their academic endeavours.

From school enrollment incentives to providing training to teachers on the latest

pedagogical practices, discussions on curriculum to enhance the quality of education to

job fairs and English speaking courses- the state takes care of every requirement of a

Gujarati student.

- Dayanand Nene