Agricultural Development and Ecological

Degradation
An Analytical Framework
C H Hanumantha Rao
The observed pattern of growth in the crop sector of Indian agriculture has had adverse consequences for rural
ecology directly as well as indirectly through its impact on livestock development and the poverty situation. This
paper attempts to suggest an analytical framework for understanding the causes of ecological degradation in the
context of the changing crop and livestock economy as well as the impact of these two on rural poverty.
AGRICULTURAL economists in India have
been interested essentially in the economics
of crop production and comparatively less
in Livestock economics. Their interest in rural
ecology has been negligible. Recently,
however, economists have started analysing
problems of eco-development, but these
analyses are generally unrelated to the trends
and pattern of crop production and livestock
economy [Mishra, 1987]. Even the studies
done on livestock economy do not adequately reflect the dynamics of crop production.
Similarly, it is only recently that, the
economists have been concerned with the
impact of the rate and pattern of crop production changes on rural poverty [Mellor
and Desai, 1985]. Even here, the interrelationships between livestock economy and
poverty and the impact of both on environment have not received1 adequate attention.
It is understandable that in the wake of
rapid population growth and severe shortages of foodgrains, the economists should
be preoccupied with issues like technological
change in foodgrains production, marketed
surpluses of foodgrains and price, etc. Yet,
crop production, livestock economy, rural
poverty and environment are highly interrelated and no single sector can be studied
satisfactorily independent of the other three
sectors. There are clear indications that the
observed pattern of growth in the crop sector
has had certain adverse consequences for
rural ecology directly as well as indirectly
through its impact on livestock development
and poverty situation.

the rural poor, particularly women and

children. The second major source of environmental degradation in rural areas is the
misapplication of yield-increasing inputs like
water, chemical fertilisers and pesticides,
causing water-logging and salinity and pollution of drinking water, loss of fish, etc.
Of these two major sources, viz, deforestation and 'chemicalisation' of agriculture, the
former constitutes a much greater threat to
rural ecology at the present stage of agricultural development in India. This is
because Indian agriculture has been operating at the extensive margin until recently
and we are far from reaching the intensive
margin in large parts of the country even
under the existing technology. Chemicalisation of agriculture may pose a greater threat
to rural ecology at much higher levels of
application of chemical fertilisers and
pesticides as in the western countries. In this
paper we are basically concerned with
ecological degradation associated with
extensive cultivation and deforestation.

IMPACT OF EXTENSIVE VERSUS INTENSIVE

CULTIVATION

In the early stages of economic planning

in India, we were overtaken by population
explosion as we were proceeding on the
assumption of slow growth of population
based on the expectation of success of the
family planning drive. The steep decline in
mortality rate has been associated with the
general improvement in the health of our
population. If the great epidemics in the
earlier periods resulted in the decline of area
under cultivation because of high mortality
and state of indisposition among the agricultural workforce, the decline in mortality
and control of epidemics in the postindependence period resulted in an increase
in the able bodied agricultural workforce as
an input for stepping up agricultural output.
Population explosion has thus increased the
demand for foodgrains as well as the
supply of a major input under traditional
agriculture.

The degradation of rural environment

arises from two major sources. First, from
deforestation and degradation of land on
account of the loss of vegetative cover,
resulting in low water table and loss of top
soil. These have a direct bearing on the proc l i v i t y of soil, its vulnerability to rainfall
variations, scarcities of drinking water,
Jodder and fuel-wood causing hardships to

With technology remaining roughly the

same up to mid-sixties and with sluggish
growth of irrigation, extension of cultivation
to new areas rather than increasing yield per
unit of land constituted a major source of
growth. The failure of land reform measures
to effect a significant redistribution of land
to the landless and the political compulsions
of a democracy to provide wherewithal for

The purpose of this paper is to attempt

an analytical framework for understanding
the causes of ecological degradation in the
context of changing crop and livestock
economy as well as in the context of the
impact of these two on rural poverty.

the landless also contributed substantially

to the encroachment of village common lands
and forest lands by bringing them under the
plough [Nadkarni, 1987]. It is estimated that
out of the total forest cover lost in the
country, as much as half the area has been
brought under the plough [Khoshoo, 1986].
Of the various techniques for increasing crop
production, increase in area under cultivation has the largest requirement of human
and bullock labour. The extension of cultivation, therefore, was associated with a significant increase in the cattle population
exerting pressure on grazing land. Since
much of the area brought under cultivation
or subject to pressures for grazing is
marginal and submarginal, its impact on
soil-erosion and eco-degradation has been
substantial.
The technological changes introduced in
Indian agriculture are essentially landaugmenting or land-saving. Irrigation,
multiple cropping, use of short-duration,
high-yielding varieties of seeds and fertilisers
clearly belong to this category. Even tractorisation, to the extent it facilitates multiple
cropping and helps to divert fodder resources
and grazing land from the maintenance of
plough-cattle towards maintaining milch
animals or for crop production can also be
land-saving. After the introduction of new
technology in mid-sixties, therefore, there
has been a significant deceleration in the
increase in net sown area under cultivation.
Much of the increase in gross cropped area
that has taken place is attributable to
multiple cropping or increase in cropping
intensity. It is, therefore, reasonable to think
that the observed technological changes in
crop production have, by themselves, contributed to reducing the pressure for further
extension of cultivation to the marginal and
sub-marginal land and to the area under
forest. However, the fact that the scope for
such an extension itself has been severely
limited has also militated against further
expansion of cultivation. If it is correct to
believe that ecological degradation would
have been greater in the absence of landsaving and land-augmenting technological
change, it is equally correct to think that a
faster pace of such technological changes
would have freed much of the marginal and
sub-marginal lands and area under forests
from the pressures for cultivation and would

Economic and Political Weekly December 24-31,1988

thus have considerably reduced the rigour

of eco-degradation that has been witnessed.
IMPACT OF POPULATION PRESSURE,
AFFLUENCE AND POVERTY

While population growth did contribute

to the extension of area under cultivation, it
is difficult to subscribe to an oversimplified
view about the relationship between population growth and ecological degradation. If
population growth had been anticipated and
public investments could be stepped up to
cope with the consequences by augmenting
the yield potential of the land resources
already under the plough, eco-degradation
would have been substantially less than what
has been observed. Similarly, successful
implementation of land reform measures
would have also reduced pressure for bring
ing new areas under cultivation.
However, it is important to recognise that
pressures on grazing land and forest resources arise fundamentally from the rising
demand. If population growth could, in fact,
be contained substantially, by the same
token, there would have been a significant
increase in per capita income, and since the
demand for milk, meat and timber, etc, is
highly income elastic, the relevant income
elasticities being in most cases near or more
than unity, the total demand for such
products would have persisted resulting in
eco-degradation, in the absence of countervailing measures. With slower population
growth, the area under plough would
probably have been less but it is unlikely that
this by itself would have made a notable difference to the overall state of environmental
degradation. Eco-degradation should, therefore, be seen essentially as a consequential
result of the failure to cope with the rising
demand for food, fodder, fuel-wood and
other forest products through necessary
investments, technological changes and institutional arrangements for managing the
resources.
Although technological changes introduced in Indian agriculture after mid-sixties
have been land-saving, they have also been
highly capital-using and not sufficiently
labour-absorbing [Rao, Ray and Subbarao,
1988]. There is now enough evidence to suggest that labour-absorption in crop production has been very slow in the post-green
revolution period [Bhalla, 1987). Further,
except in a few states like Punjab, Haryana,
Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh
(presumably western UP), the real wage rates
of male agricultural labourers have either
remained stagnant or declined over a period
of two decades between mid-fifties and midseventies [Jose, 1988). If agricultural growth
in some states has been associated with a
reduction in the proportion of rural population below the poverty line, despite a significant decline in labour input per unit of
output, it is mainly due to the high rate of
growth of crop production, expansion of
employment opportunities in non-crop
enterprises and the consequent rise in wages.
Economic and Political Weekly

But in several other states where the growth

of crop output has been less than, or barely
kept pace with, population growth the
incomes of the poor would have increased,
if at all, only marginally, as bulk of the poor
comprise agricultural labourers who depend
upon large farms for employment.
The persistence of rural poverty in such
regions has exerted pressure on forest
resources on two counts: Since the prices of
fuel, wood have been rising in the urban and
semi-urban, areas, felling of trees became an
attractive source of income for the rural
poor. The only cost of felling the trees for
them is the family labour-time spent. In
many cases, they are financed and otherwise
'protected' by the contractors and the
middle-men. The persistence of poverty has
reduced the opportunity cost of labour. In
many of these areas, the actual wages are
significantly lower than (quite often only
about half) the statutorily fixed minimum
wages. In such a situation, they become a
cheaper source of exploitation for the contractors who employ them for illegal felling
of trees in the forests as well as their
transportation.
IMPACT OF LAND TENURES, FARM
SIZE AND MANAGEMENT PATTERNS

The breakdown of the traditional institutions of management of common property

resources after independence and the failure
of new institutions to fill in the vacuum has
contributed substantially to ecological
degradation. The breakdown of traditional
institutions has rendered the private cost of
grazing their animals and felling trees low
to the individuals in relation to the returns
for them. However, on account of adverse
externalities of such individual actions, the
costs of unregulated or free grazing and felling of trees to the society and to the future
generations have increased. The breakdown
of traditional management practices is itself
traceable, in a considerable measure, to the
increasing pressures for subsistence from the
poor as well as the demand-induced propspects for quick and substantial commercial profits for the contractors from illegal
felling of valuable trees.
Whereas the breakdown of traditional
institutions of management has led to the
degradation of common lands, the degradation caused to the private lands is much less.
This points to the role of property rights and
tenurial arrangements in the conservation of
natural resources and protection of environment in general. For instance, despite
population pressure and the increase in manland ratio, the quality of land among the
small holdings is, on an average, better than
that among large holdings [Khusro, 1973]
which is indeed explained by population
pressure itself as small farms have more
family labour for exploiting ground water
and for making other improvements on land
[Rao, 1966].
The incidence of infertile and degraded
land is greater (as a proportion of area held)

December 24-31, 1988

among large farms owing, among other

things, to the low man-land ratio. However,
the available evidence from the village
studies done by individual scholars suggests
that the number of trees per hectare is probably higher among the large farms as compared to the small farms [Rao, 1966],
although the position is quite the opposite
in regard to crop output per hectare. Large
farms art able to allocate a larger proportion
of their holding to the growing of trees,
because of their better staying power or the
capacity to wait and also on account of the
much lower cost of hired labour for growing
and maintaining trees when compared to
crops. The small farmers, on the other hand,
owing to their pressures for immediate subsistence do not have enough staying power
and have to allocate their area for annual
crops. However, in semi-arid regions where
crop production does not have a comparative advantage, small farmers seem to
optimise the use of their resources by growing a larger number of trees per hectare than
large farmers [Gupta, 1985]. Even in regions
where irrigation facilities are available large
farmers seem to account for larger number
of trees per hectare [Gupta, 1985].
This tendency has been reinforced recently
with the steep rise in the prices of timber and
fuel-wood relative to those of field crops.
Large farmers even in the irrigated tracts are
converting areas under wheat and rice into
commercial tree plantations. This is also
reflected in the relative success of farm
forestry when compared to social forestry.
There is no doubt that such commercial tree
farming reduces pressure on the forests and
thus contributes to arresting eco-degradation
However, it considerably reduces the employment and incomes of the rural poor who
have been depending on wage employment
for the cultivation of field crops. Besides,
it is wrong to believe that such commercial
farming of trees can contribute to ecodevelopment in the same way as the planned
afforestation on the degraded common land.
Eco-development requires afforestation in
the ecologically vulnerable tracts like hill
slopes, catchment areas for reservoirs, tanks
and ponds, etc. Such afforestation has to be
undertaken essentially on a community basis
wherever necessary with usufructuary rights
for the poorer households.
For the same reasons, privatisation of
common lands for developing captive
plantations for meeting the raw material
requirements of paper mills, etc, by exempting them from the operation of land ceiling
laws cannot serve as an efficient means of
eco-development, although it may contribute
to reducing pressure on forests for raw
materials. Besides, commercial farming is
bound to be highly capital-intensive and in
the absence of alternative employment
opportunities, the landless poor may be
driven to the unregulated exploitation of
natural resources, thus contributing to the
further degradation of rural environment.
So long as land was plentiful and nature
A-143

bountiful in relation to population and

demand, management and technology could
be ignored without much loss of benefits,
at least in the short run. But a time has come
when management (including protection of
trees) and technology (choice of sites, species
to be planted, method of nurturing, etc) have
become crucial for augmenting bio-mass in
general and therefore offer large returns.
Privatisation of common lands for individual commercial farming on big holdings
will deprive the poor of large returns
which can otherwise accrue to them from
modern management through community
participation.
What community management through
collective vigilance (or 'social fencing' as
against barbed wire fencing) does, among
other things, is to provide assurance to every
individual participant that no other individual will encroach upon common resources
for private benefit to the detriment of others
interests, because the penalties for such
violations are prohibitive. In the process, the
gains for every individual participant from
such co-operative management would he
much greater than when there is free or
unregulated exploitation of resources. This
institutional arrangement, therefore, offers
considerable potential for participation of
the people.
Paradoxically, despite the potential, this
kind of management is perhaps the most
difficult to achieve and therefore constitutes
the most challenging task in rural development. This is because, in the first place,
government policy in regard to the exploitation of common property resources is not
often clear and even when clear, is not
implemented vigorously by simplifying the
rules and regulations in the allotment of
land, e g, giving tree-pattas to the poor and
providing other complementary assistance.
Secondly, the prevailing rural social structure
operates very much against allotment of
common lands to the poor even on usufructuary basis, as they are a source of exploitation by the contractors for being employed
in forests at lower than minim urn wage, for
selling minor forest produce at throw-away
prices and for getting consumption loans at
exorbitant rates of interest. Therefore, the
main hurdle in the way of community
management through peoples' participation
is the alliance between the big land owner,
contractor, moneylender and the pettitmreaucrat.
It follows, from the above, that active
government intervention to simplify the rules
and procedures and to delegate authority to
peoples' institutions including voluntary
organisations, easy allotment of land
through tree-pattas, measures for doing away
with the contractor system, provision of
institutional credit to the poor for consumption purposes, strict enforcement of minimum wages and ensuring remunerative
prices for minor forest produce are essential
for ensuring benefits to the poor through
their participation in eco-development

EXPERIENCE OF VIETNAM AND CHIN,

The experience of Vietnam as well as

China in regard to the exploitation of forest
resources and eco-development is relevant to
us, as both these countries are characterised
by high demographic pressure and predominance of agriculture at the time of their
liberation. However, the rural social structure
in these countries after liberation is very
different from that obtaining in India which
also helps us to understand the influence of
social structure and management practices
on environment.
The experience in the Langson province
(northernmost hilly region) of Vietnam
bordering China provides a striking example
of the pressures for deforestation from the
poor. Despite the collectively imposed
discipline on the peasants for the protection
of environment and 100 per cent literacy rate,
large-scale deforestation comparable to that
in the Indian Himalayas has been witnessed.
The area under forest has come down from
36 per cent to 17 per cent of geographical
area of the district in the course of the last
6 years. Much of this deforested area has
been converted into arable land. This is
explained by the insufficient availability of
foodgrains from public distribution system,
the steep rise in the price of foodgrains in
the recent period and the consequent decline
in the real incomes of the people. Despite
equitable distribution of land, the hill people
there find themselves much worse off when
compared to those in the plains where each
family has a better access to foodgrains from
the output on their own farms. It must be
added that a good part of deforestation is
accounted by the felling of trees by the
government itself for purposes of construc-

tion and for exports. (These facts came to

light during our discussions with the
authorities of this province in Docember
1987 in the course of the visit of the ICSSR
delegation, to Vietnam at the invitiation of
the Social Science Committee of Vietnarn.)
The Chinese experience in afforestation
is quite encouraging, especially after 1971
when the new liberalised policy of greater
incentives to individual farmers was introduced. These developments have been well
documented by a team of the National
Wastelands Development Board headed by
Kamla Chaudhury which visited China in
May 1987 [Government of India, N W D E ,
1987]. The forest cover in China is reported
to have increased from 8.6 per cent of the
total land mass in 1949 to 12.6 per cent in
the recent period. Much of this increase is
attributable to the recent upsurge, in afforestation efforts, resulting in a 40.7 per
cent increase between 1978 and 1983 [SPWD
1988].
The degradation caused to rural environment in China appears much less than in
India despite the basic similarities such as
the predominance of agrarian economy, high
growth of population and growth of agricultural output at over 2 per cent per annum,
This is attributable basically to the fact that
unlike in India, traditionally Chinese
agriculture is oriented to intensive systems
of cultivation. China supports a much larger
population than India with a smaller arable
land because of significantly higher yields.
As much as 50 per cent of cultivated area
in China is irrigated when compared to
around 30 per cent in India. What is more,
the efficiency of irrigation systems there is
better, as most of them consist of small-scale

projects.

Economic and Political Weekly December 24-31,1988

surface irrigation works constructed through

the mobilisation of local labour, and are
maintained and managed through the locaJl t v d institutions. The environmental hazards
of such works are much less than those
associated w i t h big projects in India, e g,
water-logging and salinity.
One of the major differences between the
two countries is related to the distribution
of land. On account of equal access to land,
the proportion of people below the poverty
line in China is much less than in India.
Consequently, the pressure on forest resources arising from poverty as well as affluence is much less than in India. Further,
China's human-cattle population is in the
ratio of 10:1, whereas in India the ratio is
nearly 2:1 [SPWD, 1988]. Because of this,
the Chinese have been able to ban free
grazing. They could thus make a significant
breakthrough in the reforestation of hills
because of the control on open grazing.
An important factor accounting for the
success of afforestation in China, particularly after 1978, is the involvement of rural
people on a large scale by giving them a stake
in this effort. To quote the relevant extracts,
"On the basis of the new policy framework,
barren hills and water-logged land owned by
collectives have been allotted to peasants for
tree planting on a private basis, with right
to sell the produce or transfer half mature
uses for money and to inher it the trees...
According to some estimates more than half
the rural population in China derives income
from working part-time in forestry" [SPWD,
1988].
Thus, traditional systems of intensive
cultivation which were further strengthened
after the liberation by augmenting irrigation
and organic manures through the use of
labour, effective land reform measures,
intensive livestock management practices by
limiting their numbers, and large-scale
involvement of people in afforestation progMinmes by giving them rights on the use
of produce, have all contributed to the
speedy regeneration of rural environment in
China.
PATTERNS OF AGRARIAN CHANGE
IN INDIA

The interrelationships between the four

variables discussed above, viz, pattern of
crop output growth, livestock economy,
poverty situation and environment reveal
different patterns of agrarian change in
India. They may be classified broadly into
three types. The first typethe most
dynamic one in Indian agricultureis
characterised by intensive systems of cultivation, Punjab, Haryana, west Uttar Pradesh,
and the deltaic regions of Andhra Pradesh
and Tamil Nadu typically represent this
pattern of change. Agricultural breakthrough in these regions has been effected
not so much through increase in area under
cultivation as through increase in irrigation
and cropping intensity and the increasing
application of yield-increasing inputs like
Economic and Political Weekly

high-yielding varieties of seeds and fertilisers. Owing to the increased requirements

of energy, particularly for threshing and
transportation, pressures for timeliness of
ploughing operations and the higher investible capacity of farmers bullock power
in such regions has been rapidly replaced by
tractor power [Rao, 1975], In view of the
higher demand for milk in such prosperous
regions, the feed resources from crop output as well as fodder raised on the farms
have been increasingly allocated to milch
animals, which are generally stall-fed. Owing
to the better availability of bio-mass in such
irrigated regions and also in view of the
capacity of the households to buy commercial fuels, their dependence on fuel-wood
has been reduced. Because of greater
demand for labour and the resulting higher
wages and also on account of the expansion
of non-farm opportunities for gainful
employment, the proportion of population
below the poverty line is also much lower
in such regions [Rao, Ray and Subbarao,
1988]. Ecological degradation, if any, in such
areas has resulted not so much from the
increasing pressure on common lands and
forests for extension of cultivation, for
fodder and fuel-wood as from the commercial demand for timber and other forest products. However, such regions do present problems of water-logging and those arising
from !chemiealisation' or misapplication of
chemical fertilisers and pesticides.
At the other extreme are areas which have
little comparative advantage in crop production and still the area under cultivation has
been increasing on account of pressures of
population growth and poverty, high prices
of foodgrains, and the inadequacy as well
as uncertainty of supply of foodgrains from
the public distribution system. These are the
ecologically fragile areas ranging from the
arid and semi-arid zones characterised by
low and uncertain rainfall to the hill areas
with high and relatively assured rainfall. The
former have a comparative advantage in
animal husbandry whereas the latter in
forestry and horticulture in addition to
animal husbandry. Apart from the increasing presures for bringing area under plough,
the unregulated grazing and indiscriminate
felling of trees for commercial purposes in
addition to felling for fuel-wood have accentuated the degradation of land resulting in
scarcity of drinking water, fuel-wood and
fodder. Since these areas are separated by
long distances and have difficult terrain, the
availability of foodgrains, fertilisers and
commercial fuels, which are needed most in
such areas for relieving pressure on environment, is highly inadequate and uncertain.
Such of the quantities as are available are
sold at high prices which the people of these
areas can ill-afford on account of low
incomes and poverty.
The two types of agrarian change described above together cover a small part of the
country's population. The coverage may be
relatively large in terms of area. However,

December 24-31, 1988

the bulk of the area and population of the

country belong to the intermediate situation
suited to both crop culture and animal
husbandry. The progress of irrigation and
land-augmenting technological change has
been slow in these areas. The increase in area
under cultivation has been sizeable, especially in the first two decades of planning. The
rate of tractorisation being slow, the demand
for bullock power has been significant. The
cattle together with other livestock have been
exerting pressure on village common lands
and forests for grazing. These areas also
account for the large majority of the rural
poor in the country including those belonging to the tribal belts. Some of these poor
supplement their income by cutting trees,
apart from meeting their requirements of
fuel-wood.
NEED FOR EMPIRICAL WORK
The analysis in the previous sections was
designed to attempt an analytical framework
for understanding the factors causing ecological degradation in rural areas. The
analysis brings out the importance of landaugmenting and land-saving technological
change in eco-preservation. If this reasoning
is correct, the prospects for eco-deveiopment
would become brighter with the advent of
new bio-technology which is going to be far
more land-saving than the H Y V technology.
Besides, owing to the prospects for biological
fixation of nitrogen and evolution of pestresistant and drought-resistant seeds, there
seems to be a potential for reducing environmental hazards associated with 'chcmicalisation ? of agriculture.
The observed pattern or agricultural
development may have led to certain compositional changes in livestock by way of
rational adjustment of livestock population
to the changing requirements and supply
conditions [Mishra, 1970, Vaidyanathan,
1988]. Technological changes including biotechnology are likely to reduce the need for
animal traction power and increase the
possibilities for maintaining high-yielding,
stall-fed animals both for milk and meat.
Whereas all these developments can be
expected to have a favourable impact on
environment, their impact on rural poverty
is not clear. Land-saving technology is likely
to be labour-saving as well. The solution to
poverty may have to be increasingly found
in the non-crop sectors like horticulture,
animal husbandry, forestry and nonagricultural activities.
The above inferences are at best tentative.
Detailed empirical work for different aguoclimatic regions of the country is necessary
to understand the changing interrelationships during the plan period between different variables, viz, growth of crop output,
changes in net sown area, irrigation and
cropping-intensity, changes in the number
and composition of livestock population,
changes in area under pastures and fallows,
etc, changes in rural poverty and changes in
the major indicators of rural environment
A-145

such as area under forest cover, extent of

degraded land, water-logging, etc. The interrelationships postulated in this paper need
to be examined and modified in the light of
such empirical evidence, with a view to
predicting the likely course of developments
and drawing policy inferences on a more
informed basis.
[Paper presented at the National Seminar on
'India: The Emerging Challenges' organised at
the Institute for Social and Economic Change,
Bangalore, from October 5-7, 1988, in honour
of V K R V Rao.]

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Economic and Political Weekly

December 24-31, 1988