Crop–livestock systems in rural development: linking India's Green and White Revolutions

Abstract

In discussions on agricultural transformations produced by Green Revolution technologies, an exclusive focus on crops has led to incomplete understanding of the value of livestock in rural economies. The incorporation of crop–livestock systems seems even more pertinent in the context of India, given that the Green Revolution here was also accompanied by a White Revolution in dairying. This paper explicates the links between India's Green and White Revolutions by juxtaposing international and national policies of rural development with village-level practices of cropping and dairying. It begins by comparing the Green and White Revolutions in India, both the dissimilarities that marked their origins and how the White Revolution subsequently grappled with a notion of productivity mirroring that of the Green Revolution. Two village-level case studies then illustrate how dependence on both crops and cattle shape rural livelihoods in ways that require an interrelated understanding of Green–White Revolutions. Overall, this paper shows how the socio-economic and environmental value of crop–livestock farming is valuable for understanding the complexities of small-scale livelihoods, and suggests lessons for building sustainable programmes of rural development.

Keywords:

• cooperatives
• dairying
• gender
• participation
• productivity
• rural development

Notes

In 1990–1991, 59 per cent of India's farmers owned less than 1 hectare of land and 19 per cent owned between 1 and 2 hectares. See Basu (2009c).

This section draws on research conducted by Basu and further details on methods and findings can be found in Basu (2009b). Fieldwork for this research was conducted in 2000–2001 with funding provided by the International Dissertation Research Fellowship (IDRF) Program of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) with funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement (DDRI) Award (BCS-0000280) from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Saundara is located along the Narmada river and is one of the villages slated to be submerged by the Maheshwar dam. However, at this time (2012), the village is yet to be submerged, and at the time that the fieldwork for this article was conducted (2000–2001), cooperative dairying in the village continued without reference to impending displacement, especially since the village at that point was successfully resisting the Maheshwar project.

Contrasts between the two villages can also be viewed through the condition of roads (a significant aspect of ease of milk transportation) and the extent of dependence on migration. The states of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh differed markedly in terms of road quality at the time of the fieldwork. Road quality was not an issue in Mahdol due to the better network and quality of roads in the state of Gujarat. In Saundara, the presence of a paved road, which connected the village to the highway, was an anomaly in the local context and displayed the ability of the village to draw development funding towards itself through its political connections. In terms of migration, Mahdol is situated in a region that has very high rates of international migration and itself seeks to participate in migrant economies. The village however has had less success in comparison to larger surrounding villages. Dairying income becomes important here as provider of subsistence income to support households in the absence of men who have migrated, and as a source of initial capital to facilitate migration. There was no appreciable outmigration from the village of Saundara at the time of fieldwork.

Birkenholtz (2009) has shown that farmers in Rajasthan have moved away from high-yielding Green Revolution to traditional crop varieties in the face of agricultural decline. The present paper builds on ethnographic data to suggest a shift from high-yielding crops to high-yielding cattle, but cannot make more generalized conclusions beyond this.