INTEGRATING THE RURAL POOR INTO MARKETS: Bibek Debroy & Amir Ullah Khan — Editors; Academic Foundation in association with India Development Foundation & International Development Enterprises (India), 4772-73/23, Bharat Ram Road, (23 Ansari Road), Daryaganj, New Delhi-110002. Rs. 695. THE ESSENCE of poverty is consumption poverty. Economics defines market as a system which brings demand and supply together. It also defines demand as desire backed by purchasing power. The poor are poor precisely because they do not have purchasing power. Sustainable purchasing power itself can be obtained by the poor not from perennial doles from the government, but through what Amartya Sen calls exchange entitlement, that is, by exchanging something marketable for money.

The paradox, therefore, is that because the poor do not have purchasing power they cannot buy in the market and consume more, and they cannot get purchasing power unless and until they sell something in the market. It is in this context that the title of the book appears intriguing and inviting.

`Market-shed development'

The International Development Enterprises India (IDEI) has been experimenting with projects based on an approach called Integrating the Poor into Market Systems (IPMAS) in India aimed mainly at helping the rural poor to produce a marketable surplus of some saleable commodity so that they may first enter the market as sellers, acquire purchasing power, increase consumption and thus rise above the poverty line.

The IDEI's mission is, "To improve equitably the social, economic and environmental conditions of families in need with special emphasis on the rural poor, by identifying, developing and marketing affordable, appropriate and environmentally sustainable solutions through market forces."

The emphasis may be said to be on "market-shed development" similar to the concept of watershed development in hydrology. Unlike a watershed where the water flows only in one direction, in a market-shed, goods, services, credit and information flow from the market to the agricultural population and the responding surplus production flows to the market.

Global outlook

The book keeps in view not only local but also global markets especially as agriculture is the main sector where India may be hit by the unconscionable subsidies extended by western nations to their agriculture sector and the trade barriers erected by them for keeping out imports from developing countries. The reform agenda for agriculture is vast, encompassing rural infrastructure, public investments, extension services, research, land ownership and tenancy, outdated controls on production and distribution, regulatory oversight and extending the Green Revolution to areas not so far covered by it. All these are sought to be tied together by an overall strategy, whose different aspects are covered by the majority of the papers in this volume. Of the 17 papers in the book, 11 relate to the various aspects of a revamped agricultural strategy, which would result in a marketable surplus in the hands of the rural farmer. Two papers relate to the use of information technology in aid of agricultural productivity, one to the role of genetically modified crops and the remaining three deal with international issues like subsidy to American agriculture, and environmental and phyto-sanitary standards.

Synergising resources

The whole strategy of creating surplus value in agriculture rests on synergising the three crucial resources — people, land and water. This is to be done through a catalysing combination of research, technology, production inputs, free pricing and marketing options, supplemental non-farming activities and public investment in rural infrastructure. Intensification, diversification and value addition are the key directional goals.

The IDEI believes in exploiting micro-irrigation potential and liberating the agricultural markets as the two leading thrusts in this exercise. If only about Rs. 5000 to 10,000 could be added to the annual income of the population hovering around the poverty line, it would substantially reduce the proportion of those living below the poverty line. This is the ultimate concrete aim of IPMAS.

Considering the extent of meticulous, coordinated effort required for implementing the IPMAS strategy, it is clear that decentralised, autonomous, representative local institutions are a must and no single, centralised organisation can deliver the goods. Unfortunately, the vision of Nehru and S.K.Dey during the early days of Community Development to achieve this through a network of throbbing cooperative institutions failed. Or, rather, we failed these institutions.

In many of the articles, the authors recommend the creation of not only such institutions but also institutional alliances. Whether, in the present vitiated political environment, the cooperative concept can regain its old prestige and performance is doubtful.

One of the reasons why globalisation has faced some opposition in India is the neglect of agriculture; though it contributes only 26 per cent of the GDP it still employs nearly 70 per cent of the population directly or indirectly. It is this lacuna that this book seeks to address and redress to some extent.

P. K. DORAISWAMY