Transcript REPP TERM PAPER Learning Group - 4

REPP TERM PAPER
Learning Group - 4
Gender Issue, PRIs, PPPs, Innovative
Finance and Microfinance in
Agriculture in the 11th Five Year
Approach Plan
Introduction
• The Eleventh Five Year Plan visualizes
“faster and more inclusive growth”.
• This implies that we need to/ for –
– Shift the plan priorities towards the social
sectors
– Put appropriate institutions and linkages in
place to bring good to the common man
– The States to play a facilitating role in
encouraging individual-institutional linkages
Objective of the Report
• To undertake a critical review of the existing
approach, strategies, priorities, institutional
arrangements, on-going policies, access to
resources, gender concerns and empowerment
of women in agriculture.
• To review the progress of schemes/measures for
empowerment of women in agriculture and
suggest continuance/ discontinuance/
improvement in design/ convergence of the ongoing programmes and effective inter-sectoral
integration during the XI Five Year Plan.
Why women in agriculture?
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Eradicating poverty
Ensuring food security
Promoting their own well being
Their increasing stake in agriculture
Decreasing economic contribution
Ownership in livestock, land , etc. is limited
Statistics:
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While only 53% of the male population is involved in
agriculture, the corresponding numbers for the female
population was a 85% of all rural female workers.
Source: Report submitted to the Working Group Gender Issue, PRIs, PPPs, Innovative
Finance and Microfinance in Agriculture in the 11th Five Year Approach Plan
Context for the agrarian crisis
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Low size of landholding
Faulty policies and structures
Lack of technology
Sale of spurious seeds and pesticides
Debt at very high interest rates
No health insurance and crop insurance
NCF agrees that there is no agricultural
policy that supports institutional
arrangements
Solutions
• Firstly, the focus has to be on
sustainability
• Find ways to encourage farmers towards
food production over commercial crops
• Strengthen capital related investment in
agriculture and rural infrastructure
• Specific recommendations listed in report
Invisibility of Women’s Work
• Conceptual Biases in Measurement
– Non recognition of Women’s role in decision making
– Historical and Complex Causes reinforced by social, cultural, political and
religious practices and beliefs
• Serious inaccuracies and measurement failure in the recording of the
work that women do due to conceptual and operational (enumerators'
and respondents') biases at the time of data collection.
• Engendering Agriculture reduced to women’s participation in training
programs for technology dissemination or micro credit.
• Non involvement of women in institutional work
Recommendation
• Correct the statistical invisibility of women’s work through preparation
of an account that should include in detail the work that women
undertake.
• Policies and funds allocation need to take cognizance of this, and
address women’s needs.
• Adequate attention is given to the educational process through which
women engage with the institutions in an informed and empowered
way.
• Agricultural education be made gender sensitive and research,
development, extension and services be engendered to give due
recognition to the multiple role played by women agriculturists.
Evolution of Policy
• Gender mainstreaming started from the VI Five Year
Plan when `opportunities for independent employment
and income’ for women was recognized as a necessary
condition for raising social status of women.
Plan
Focus
6th Five Year Plan
Shift from Welfare to Developmental Issues
7th Five Year Plan
Raising Economic and Social Status of Women
8th Five Year Plan
Increased Emphasis on Economic Activities
9th Five Year Plan
From Development to Empowerment
10th Five Year Plan
From Women Alone to Gender Mainstreaming
11th Five Year plan
Propose to Move Towards a Holistic Approach
Persistence of Partial/ Compartmental
Approach
• Three components of Gender Mainstreaming Approach.
– Women’s Empowerment
– Capacity Building
– Access to Inputs as well as technology and resources
• Need for a coordinated approach across Ministries
• Schemes undertaken by the various Ministries will ultimately
converge towards the goal of women’s empowerment.
• Introduction
of
Component
Plan
for
Women
in
all
development plans during the Ninth Five Year Plan was a
Tasks for Gender
Mainstreaming in
Agriculture
Main Ministries
Role of Ministry of
Agriculture
Women’s Empowerment
MoA, MoRD, Social
Gender Focused Strategy for
(human capital formation,
welfare, HRD, Health
Agri. Growth (main contributor
exposure, leadership,
along with other Ministries)
autonomy, Self esteem, and
food security)
Capacity Building in
MoA
Various Extension and
Agriculture (dissemination
Training Programmes (Almost
of information and
the sole contributor)
technology)
Access to Agricultural
MoRD, MoA, MoEF
Access to Agricultural Inputs,
Inputs (including land,
Formation of SHGs, Marketing
water and credit besides
Facilities (partial contributor
agri-inputs).
with MoRD and MoEF having
Approach for Gender
Mainstreaming : Needs
• The present approach for gender mainstreaming needs
strengthening in terms of:
– adoption of a more holistic and comprehensive approach
to impact multiple activities and requirements of individual
farming women.
– Effective implementation perhaps, in partnership with
NGOs. All these would involve fresh thinking and an
overhauling of the design, resource mobilization, and
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Recommendations for Gender
Mainstreaming
For the Plan to be Gender and Poverty Sensitive it must allocate funds
so that first priority is given to ensuring food security and access to
food for all.
• Establish an independent regulatory authority which should be required
to regulate, test and certify quality of inputs e.g. seeds, pesticides.
• Encourage
horticultural
activities,
nursery
raising,
nursery
maintenance, hybrid seed production, and tissue culture propagation of
fruits and flowers as these are remunerative employment options for
women. The fruit and vegetable processing industry also has high
employment potential.
• Allocation funds to enable extension of the NREGA such that women in
each household gets access to at least 100 days work in each year
and their right to get work does not get subsumed within the
household.
Some attempts and
initiatives taken by NGOs
Gender friendly
Innovations
Innovation in
production
practices
Innovation in
infrastructure
Innovation in
delivery
system
Insurance
Agriculture
techniques
Land dev. / water
cons. exercises
Marketing
Collective
farming
Activism for
infrastructure
access and use
Service delivery
leading to women’s
empowement
Allied livelihood
options
Innovation in agriculture practices
Agriculture Techniques
Anar De, (Gujarat) has done a very successful and remunerative program in cultivation of mangoes
and cashew nuts. Intercropping, vermicomposting for women were demonstrated. Mushroom
cultivation and Tissue culture were also successful.
Collective farming
Sewa organized the landless women agriculture workers into a co-operative to cultivate wasteland.
Acquiring the land, systematical planning, environment friendly agriculture practices, including
horticulture, agro-forestry and rainwater harvesting.
Activity of nursery raising is now accepted as an alternative source of employment for agriculture
workers. To minimize the costs, some Mahila mandals have started collecting their own seeds.
Allied Livelihood Options
•Cooperative Development Foundation in Andhra Pradesh has rooted the cooperative movement in the
rural people in the districts of Warangal, Medak, and Karimnagar of the Telangana Region.
This started with farmer’s cooperatives for credit, marketing and inputs. The women’s cooperatives
extended it to provide credit to milk and related products. This worked very successfully to improve
their livelihoods
• UNDP, under its women in agriculture projects, undertook 21
districts spread across Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa.
• Provided resources and opportunities to women’s groups to increase
and improve their private agricultural land, experiment with a range
of farm and off-farm based economic activities, and improve their
access to sustainable farm practices, quality seed and inputs.
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Support was also provided for building rain water harvesting
structures, de-silting tanks/ponds and reviving irrigation systems to
improve the productivity of the land.
• Core issues for women in agriculture projects are access to land
and working on farms collectively. Hence access to productive
assets including land, credit, technologies, inputs and
subsidies were made available to women’s groups.
Innovations in infrastructure
Land development / water conservation exercises
•SEWA organized the women agriculture workers/farmers into Sabarkantha Women
Farmer's Association which initiated watershed development to check soil erosion.The
cooperative also works to organize the women into their own SHGs and provides the
necessary training for leadership development, awareness generation, and capacity
building.
Activism for infrastructure access and use
Dharangrast Parishad working with dam project affected people in South Maharashtra came up with
some innovative demands which shows the concern for women:
women would have an equal access to the water
lands be given in joint names of the man and the woman of the household.
MASUM from Pune district has launched a successful campaign to ensure joint pattas for women and
men and land-rights of female headed households.
Innovations in Delivery System
Insurance sector:
Swayam Shiksha Prayog has started a community based health insurance plan,
Sakhi. Program benefits include reimbursements for hospital expenses of Rs.
5,000, community-level outpatient delivery (OPD) services, discounted rates and
various health education workshops and programs .
Marketing:
Economic associations promoted by SEWA in different districts have come together and
formed their own women’s marketing network—Sewa Gram Mahila Haat (SGMH).
The essence is to strengthen the rural economy through rural procurement and rural
distribution. The focused areas are agriculture, salt, gum and handloom and handicraft.
External and Internal Environment
Reviewing and accessing the availability and utility of gender-disaggregated
data on women in agriculture and measures for effective generation of needed
data, needed for policy making in accordance with the prevailing scenario is
very important:
Issues:
the data system capturing women’s work, simultaneously reflects on issues
like:
•what comes out of the work carried out by women and men;
•who decides the division of work;
•what are the conditions within which the work takes place; how are the
benefits shared and controlled;
•what is the perceived notion of autonomy;
•to what extent does poverty (or economic well being) impinges on women’s
work burden;
Another picture {source:The Hindu Business line, 30 December, 2005}
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Advisor to the Chennai-based M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), on
education, communication and gender, Mrs Mina Swaminathan feels that"people in various
areas of agriculture — the extension departments, the Ministry, the agricultural
universities, the ICAR or the research system, the Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK)... the
entire agricultural bureaucracy... is gender insensitive.
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They're supposed to be serving the farming community but they see only one half of this
community — the men. The entire agricultural establishment does little for women because
they're not aware of women and their problems.
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historically the academic, research and other streams of agriculture have been headed by
men "and the traditional perception of the kisan is male.
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Another drawback on the gender front in agriculture is whenever a poor women is
considered for betterment we immediately talk about starting SHGs
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In horticulture or dairy, where labour is provided usually by women, they do not get the
profits women take care of the cattle, milk the cows, etc, but in the milk co-operatives, the
members are mostly men. Right from the early days the women do all the work in the milk
co-operatives, but the profits come in the name of men.
Public Private Partnership in Agriculture (PPP)
Partnerships between public research institutions,
private firms, and civil society organizations offer a
means of tapping the strengths of diverse actors, while
channeling knowledge and resources into areas where
they can impact poverty reduction, food security, and
agriculture-led development and growth.
Partnerships in research and innovation enhance our
capacity to solve complex development problems and
to provide options to smallholder farmers, foodinsecure households, rural women, and other
vulnerable groups.
MDG and women in agriculture
• About 70 percent of the MDGs' target group live in rural
areas, particularly in Asia and Africa,
• Agriculture is a critical component in the successful
attainment of the MDGs.
• Immediate gains in poor households' welfare can be
achieved through agriculture, involving women, which
can help the poor overcome some of the critical
constraints they now face in meeting their basic needs.
• Thus, a necessary component in meeting the MDGs by
2015 in many parts of the world is a more productive and
profitable agricultural sector.
Strengths
• Linking of agriculture and allied sectors with
national and international markets to achieve the
goal of faster and more inclusive growth.
• Providing critical inputs by linking with mobile,
computer companies who want to access rural
markets.
• New crops with good markets (American corn)
• Organic outlets in malls (Big Bazar).
• Making competition work for farmers; greater
information access.
Weakness
• PRI, differences in the devolution of power and
authority as distinct from delegation of functions.
• Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMC)
autonomy undermined by no cost sharing by
JFMC in JFM, Forester as secretary. Secretary
appoints JFMC members.
• Non existence of agri-extension at village-level;
it has less staff and focuses on subsidy
schemes. Oligopolies of private traders supply
seeds, and inputs on credit. This often results in,
exploitation (esp. tribals), vested information.
The PRI’s play almost no role currently.
Opportunity
• Partnership of the private/ public corporate
sector with farmers’ federations or
community groups have emerged within
the framework of profit driven initiatives
governed on business lines with
CEO/partners accountable to a Board on
which the Farmers federation, CBOs and
PRIs have representation.
Threats
• The performance of NGO implemented
watersheds has been found to be better in
general but a good implementing agency is a
necessary but not sufficient condition.
• Social and human capital at the village level is
another critical need.
• Partnerships between unequal partners as
farmers comprise an unorganized group, this
might led to asymmetry in bargaining
capabilities.
Key Stake holders
Government
• PRI
• Agriculture department
• Planning commission
Private
• Companies involved in Agri business
• Private traders
Conti..
Institution
• NABARD
• RRBs
• MFIs
• NGO
• SIDBI
People
• Farmers
• Agricultural labourers (Including women
labourers
Micro Finance and Poverty
Alleviation
Policy Actor
Government of India
Role Played
- State support to Cooperative Credit
Societies
- Nationalization of Commercial banks
and the policy initiative of ‘Social
Banking’ concept
-Promotion
of
integrated
and
sustainable rural income generating
activity through subsidized lending
under IRDP and SGSY.
- Issuing specific directives related to
Social and Development banking
along with RBI.
- Establishment of Rashtriya Mahila
Kosh to help women organize income
generating activities to improve their
socio-economic status.
- Providing funds for “Portfolio Risk
Fund” to SIDBI. This fund is used for
providing security deposit for the MFI /
NGO availing loan from SIDBI.
Policy Actor
Reserve Bank of India
Role Played
Formulation and
coordination of rural credit
policy as part of its
monetary policy
Priority sector lending target
for NCBs. Agriculture sector
18% and 22% for SSI, small
business and exports
Issuing licenses to open
branches in unbanked and
underbanked areas
Major contributor to Micro
Finance Development and
Equity fund (MFDEF).
Policy Actor
National Bank for
Agriculture and Rural
Development
Small Industries
Development Bank of
India
Role Played
-Contribution to MFDEF
-SHG – Bank linkage
programme to finance
SHGs across the
country through formal
banking system
Need based assistance
in the form of term loans
to NGOs / MFIs to meet
their lending
requirements.
Policy Actor
Role Played
Formal / Banking
Sector
-RRBs cover the poor not covered
by the commercial or cooperative
banks
- Local area banks mobilizes rural
savings by local institutions and
makes them available for
investment locally
-Introduction of Kisan Credit Cards
MFI
- Financial access to those areas
which are underbanked
- One of the most suitable financial
agencies for promoting and
fostering SHGs.
SWOT Analysis of SHG – Bank
Linkage programme
Strengths
• Social Collateral
• Lower transaction cost for banks
• Reduced the incidence of poverty and
helped the poor to build assets
Weakness
• Dependent on external agency
• Foray into agricultural credit is limited
• Limited experience of NGOs in promoting
microenterprise
• Marketing problems
Opportunity
• Bridging the demand – supply gap
• Support from NABARD
• Support from commercial banks
• Inclusion of Service Area Approach
Threats
• Quality of SHGs
• Govt. implementing this design in various
poverty alleviation programmes
Some other models of Micro
Finance in India
• Micro Finance Institutions models
– Agency Model
– MFI Bulk lending model
• Primary Agriculture Credit Societies
• Post office network and banking services
Links between different RFIs
State
Governments
State Cooperative
Banks
RBI / NABARD
State Coop. Land
Scheduled
Development Bank Commercial Bank
Regional Office
Zonal Office
District Central
Coop. Banks
Govt. of India
PACS
RRBs
Issues of Micro Finance in India
• Legal Issues
- Seventh schedule declares money lending as
State subject
- Doesn’t mention private money lending
- No model money lending act prepared by
center.
• Gender Issues
• Rate of Interest
• Choice of productive assets.
• Absence of policy
The ‘MicroFinancial Sector (Developments
and Regulations)’ Bill which is presently
under consideration is expected to
address the issue and the ‘regulator’ which
has been proposed in the Bill is expected
to put in place the required policy and
regulatory framework
• Absence of Information / Statistics
Recommendations
• Access to credit
– Post office network to be used to deliver
effective banking servives.
– NABARD should evolve an efeective strategy
to implement the business facilitator and
correspondence model.
 Formation of consortium by banks
 Uniform legal framework
 National Policy on Micro Finance.
• MFIS should be allowed to mobilize savings at
least from their members under a regulatory
framework monitored by NABARD.
• Credit linked subsidy
• Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) may be utilized for improving the reach
and spread of various Micro-Finance and
Poverty Alleviation Schemes in rural areas in the
country
References
• info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/154927/financeforum2002/pdf/
sirtaine.ppt
• www.indianngos.com/issue/microcredit/operationalissues.htm
• info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/
• Organisation and Management of Rural Financial Sector – Bhupat M
Desai & N.V. Namboodiri
• Feminisation of Agriculture and Marginalization of their economic
stake. - Swarna S Vepa (EPW, June 18,2005)
• Food Security: How and for Whom? – Maithrevi Krishnaraj (EPW,
June 18, 2005)
• Women Professionals in Agriculture; Some employment issues – N
Sandhya Shenoy, D Rama Rao (EPW, April 24, 2004)
Presented by (LG 4):
Anand Saha - 09
Gautam Rajagopalan - 16
Rajat Kumar - 33
Sandeep Saxena - 42
Santanu Chakraborty - 44