REPP TERM PAPER Learning Group - 4

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REPP TERM PAPERLearning Group - 4

• Gender Issue, PRIs, PPPs, Innovative Finance and
  Microfinance in Agriculture in the 11th Five Year
  Approach Plan

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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

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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 on-going programmes
  and effective inter-sectoral integration during
  the XI Five Year Plan.

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Why women in agriculture?

• 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
• 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
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Context for the agrarian crisis

• 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

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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

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Invisibility of Womens Work

• Conceptual Biases in Measurement
• Non recognition of Womens 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 womens
  participation in training programs for technology
  dissemination or micro credit.
• Non involvement of women in institutional work

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Recommendation

• Correct the statistical invisibility of womens
  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 womens 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.

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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
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Persistence of Partial/ Compartmental Approach

• Three components of Gender Mainstreaming
  Approach.
• Womens 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 womens
  empowerment.
• Introduction of Component Plan for Women in all
  development plans during the Ninth Five Year Plan
  was a step in this direction.

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Tasks for Gender Mainstreaming in Agriculture Main Ministries Role of Ministry of Agriculture
Womens Empowerment (human capital formation, exposure, leadership, autonomy, Self esteem, and food security) MoA, MoRD, Social welfare, HRD, Health Gender Focused Strategy for Agri. Growth (main contributor along with other Ministries)
Capacity Building in Agriculture (dissemination of information and technology) MoA Various Extension and Training Programmes (Almost the sole contributor)
Access to Agricultural Inputs (including land, water and credit besides agri-inputs). MoRD, MoA, MoEF Access to Agricultural Inputs, Formation of SHGs, Marketing Facilities (partial contributor with MoRD and MoEF having a major control over property rights regimes).
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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 implementation machinery.

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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.

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Some attempts and initiatives taken by NGOs
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(No Transcript)
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• 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 farmers cooperatives for
  credit, marketing and inputs. The womens
  cooperatives extended it to provide credit to
  milk and related products. This worked very
  successfully to improve their livelihoods

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• UNDP, under its women in agriculture projects,
  undertook 21 districts spread across Andhra
  Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa.
• Provided resources and opportunities to womens
  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.
• 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 womens groups.

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• 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.

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• 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 womens marketing networkSewa 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.

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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 womens 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 womens work burden

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Another picture sourceThe Hindu Business line,
30 December, 2005

• 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.
• 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.
• historically the academic, research and other
  streams of agriculture have been headed by men
  "and the traditional perception of the kisan is
  male.
• Another drawback on the gender front in
  agriculture is whenever a poor women is
  considered for betterment we immediately talk
  about starting SHGs
• 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.

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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, food-insecure households, rural women,
  and other vulnerable groups.

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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.

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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.

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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 PRIs play almost no role
  currently.

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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.

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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.

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Key Stake holders

• Government
• PRI
• Agriculture department
• Planning commission
• Private
• Companies involved in Agri business
• Private traders

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Conti..

• Institution
• NABARD
• RRBs
• MFIs
• NGO
• SIDBI
• People
• Farmers
• Agricultural labourers (Including women
• labourers

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Micro Finance and Poverty Alleviation
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Policy Actor Role Played
Government of India - 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.
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Policy Actor Role Played
Reserve Bank of India 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).
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Policy Actor Role Played
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Contribution to MFDEF SHG Bank linkage programme to finance SHGs across the country through formal banking system
Small Industries Development Bank of India Need based assistance in the form of term loans to NGOs / MFIs to meet their lending requirements.
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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.
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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

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• Weakness
• Dependent on external agency
• Foray into agricultural credit is limited
• Limited experience of NGOs in promoting
  microenterprise
• Marketing problems

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• Opportunity
• Bridging the demand supply gap
• Support from NABARD
• Support from commercial banks
• Inclusion of Service Area Approach

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• Threats
• Quality of SHGs
• Govt. implementing this design in various poverty
  alleviation programmes

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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

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Links between different RFIs
State Governments
RBI / NABARD
Govt. of India
State Cooperative Banks
State Coop. Land Development Bank
Scheduled Commercial Bank
RRBs
Regional Office
Zonal Office
District Central Coop. Banks
PACS
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Issues of Micro Finance in India

• Legal Issues
• - Seventh schedule declares money lending as
  State subject
• - Doesnt mention private money lending
• - No model money lending act prepared by
  center.
• Gender Issues
• Rate of Interest
• Choice of productive assets.

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• 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

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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.

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• 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

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References

• info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/154927/fina
  nceforum2002/pdf/sirtaine.ppt
• www.indianngos.com/issue/microcredit/operationalis
  sues.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)

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Thank You

• Presented by (LG 4)
• Anand Saha - 09
• Gautam Rajagopalan - 16
• Rajat Kumar - 33
• Sandeep Saxena - 42
• Santanu Chakraborty - 44