TARGETING THE CO-EXISTANCE OF ECOLOGICAL AND INCOME POVERTY: A STUDY BASED ON

WASTELAND MAPPING IN INDIA

Sanjay K Srivastava

sanjay@isro.org

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE IN INDIA – A HOPE OR HYPE ???

1990s 2000Poor 320 260% Population 36 19

0 20 40 60

South

West

East

North

Central

1999-001983-84

% of population below poverty line

Poverty in India

Millions of poor, malnourished and food insecure population cannot be the foot soldiers fighting the cause of sustainable agriculture

(in Million)

Strategy: • Combating poverty• Empowering people• Using core competence in science

& technology – including space applications

• Setting ecological integrity

Who will feed India ? – small and marginal farmers

(FAO/RAP- 2001)

Poverty- geographical profile

WASTELAND ATLAS OF INDIA

• On 1:50,000 scale digital at village/micro-watershed level

Total wasteland : 63.8 MhaCultivable wasteland: 45 Mha

Looking Beyond wasteland mapping…..Poverty Trap ..

Source: Wasteland Atlas of India NRSA 2000

Marginal Agri. Land

POSSIBLE LINKAGES…

POPULATION BELOW POVERTY LINE

They are often visible in proximity to each other highlighting the direct link between the two ?

Ecological Poverty

Income Poverty

POSSIBLE LINKAGES…

AREA (sq. km.)

Area > 30% = 5,67,525Area 5 - 30% = 2,29,080

Marginal Agri. Land

FOOD INSECURE POPULATION

Ecological Poverty Depth of Hunger

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

% Waste land

% P

op

ula

tio

n b

elo

w P

ov

ert

y L

ine

Assam

Bihar

Maharastra

Rajasthan

Andhra Pradesh

R2 = 0.0167

HP

 o         Bihar, for example, is characterized by just 6 % wastelands with 57% population below poverty line.

o         Jharkhand, with 19% wastelands, has got more than 60% population below poverty line.

o         Uttar Pradesh has 9% wastelands with more than 44% population below poverty line.

o         Similarly, West Bengal with just over 6 % wastelands has got more than 40 % population below poverty line.

Does Ecologicaland Income PovertyCo-exists? No…

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

% Waste land

% P

op

ula

tio

n b

elo

w P

ov

ert

y L

ine

Assam

Bihar

Maharastra

Rajasthan

Andhra Pradesh

R2 = 0.0167

HP

• For example, Assam with more than 25 % wastelands has got more than 45 % population below poverty line.

• Similarly, Rajasthan is characterized by more than 30 % wastelands and 26 % incidence of poverty.

• On the other hand, there are States like Punjab with just 4% wastelands and 11% population below poverty line, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Kerala, Gujarat etc.

Does Ecologicaland Income PovertyCo-exists? Yes…

Incidence of Poverty

Interventions - Program,

Technology

Natural Resources

Institutional/ Social Factor

Labour & Capital Flow/Mobility

Spatial Integration of Economic activities

New Lively hood opportunities

ECOLOGICAL AND INCOME POVERTY - DYNAMICS

Databases on relationship to examine

the direction of policies/interventions?

Powerlessness of poor to gain access

or use available natural resources

Role of economic policies and

interventions in altering the relationship

Inequitable access land, Information, market and credit

Number of people moved out of poverty as a result of additional Rs.1Million spending by Government

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

R&D Road IrrigationEducationPower Rural Dev.Soil &Water

Health

Persons

Source: IFPRI Report, 1999-1.0

-0.8

-0.6

-0.4

-0.2

0

2

4

6

8

R&D Road IrrigationEducationPower Rural Dev.Soil &Water

Health

Increase in productivity

Poverty reduction

Percent

Increase in growth of productivity and

reduction in poverty as result of Government

expenditure

Government Spending,

Growth, and Poverty

in Rural India

Government Policy and Programme towards Poverty Reduction

• Self Employment Programme Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana

Synergy and Convergence of (IRDP, TRYSEM, DWCRA and MWS)

Wage Employment Programme Jawahar Gram Samiti Yojana (JGSY) Employment Assurance Scheme

• Infrastructure Development Programme

Indira Awas Jojana

Pradhan Mantri Gramadaya Yojana

Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana

Rural Electrification

• National Social Assistance Programme

National Maternity Benefits Scheme

National Old Age Pension Scheme

Annapurna

• Micro finance- NABARD, SHG linkages

Whether the various policies & interventions are well-targeted, and addressing poverty alleviation and natural resources development?

Do they allow the economic and spatial integration of poor and marginalized to market forces to happen ?Are they opening up new marginal income earning opportunities in the informal sector of economy ?

Did they succeed in reducing their dependence on natural resource base for livelihoods?

REACHING OUT DOWN THE LINE???

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

0 10 20 30 40 50 60Wasteland (%)

Ru

ral

infr

astr

uct

ure

Assam

Bihar

Maharastra

RajasthanAndhra Pradesh

0

40

80

120

0 20 40 60 80

Population Below Poverty Line (%)

Ru

ral

Infr

astr

uct

ure

In

dex

(%

)

R2 = 0.50

Maharastra

HP

Bihar

W. Bengal

The spatial dynamics of poverty seem to be influenced by the rural infrastructure, availability of transport links, and the growth of production and consumption linkages.

Bihar, West Bengal .. need investments in rural infrastructure towards poverty reduction, while Maharastra, HP..need other priority

Economic &Spatial

Integration toMarket Forces

0

1

2

3

4

5

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

% of wasteland

Def

icit

in

fo

od

pro

du

ctio

n (

rati

o)

AssamBihar Maharastra

Rajasthan

Andhra Pradesh

Jharkhand

Kerala

On contrary, Kerala and Bihar, both being also highly food insecure States need to have interventions in other areas for poverty alleviation, as wastelands are quite low in these States,

Jharkhand, Assam, Rajasthan .. wasteland to be put to use towards income generation, employment creation..

The interventions in food secured States Punjab, Chattisgarh, Himanchal, Haryana, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka need to be focused on off-farm income generation.

Policy Interventions towards Food Security

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

0 10 20 30 40 50

Wasteland %

Inci

den

ce o

f P

ove

rty

(% p

oo

r)

Adilabad

R2 = 0.26East Godavari

Chittor

Regression coefficient (R square) between incidence of poverty and wastelands increased from 0.0167 at State levels to as good as around 0.5 for quite a few States at the district level.

It may increase further at village level and thus calling for dis-aggregated wasteland mapping to establish closer linkages with incidence of poverty.

Disaggregated Poverty Mapping

Wasteland mapping could be used to examine the impact of policies and interventions towards poverty reduction,

In a typical state, the focus should be on spatial integration of rural poor to the market forces and creation of alternate livelihood systems,

Evolving the economic policy instruments which could lead to substantial poverty reduction as well as enrichment of natural resources base.

For micro-level interventions, disaggregated poverty mapping depicting the relationship between ecological and income poverty is called for.

He and She are poor;Not because they are borne so;In fact, it is the failure of the institutions, polices and programmethat they continue to be poor andmarginalized.

- A Perception