There and Back Again: the World Travels of a Watson Fellow: World Agricultural Forum Congress & Hyderabad Reflections

November 8, 2013 - Post-Hyderabad Reflections

As I reflect on the past week, I consider how that which is unplanned is often an ideal situation. For example, I was staying with a man named Kiran, a veteran volunteer activist and lifetime fellow with AID India (Association for India’s Development). I had referenced Kiran in my original Watson application, so it was thoroughly exciting when we finally met, as some original contacts have since fallen through. It felt like a dream materializing into reality. I really hit it off with Kiran and his family. I have had many homestays since I left Massachusetts in June: Helen and Kosmos Nguya in Usa River Tanzania; the Dolker family in Likir, Ladakh; Nathela/Lopa/Raj in New Delhi; Kawaljeet Dhindsa and his family in Lehragaga, Punjab; many farming families in Punjab; Anil and his wife at NARI Phaltan; Kiran and Samyuktha in Hyderabad; and most recently, Prameela, mom of two and fellow WAF Congress participant in Hyderabad. Sometimes you just get along better with one person over another. With Kiran and his family, including his cohort of AID volunteers who were practically like family, it just felt natural. Our shared values, interests in sustainable agriculture and social justice, mutual experiences of living in the U.S., superior English language skills etc. made me feel very close to them. I contrast this with my experience staying with Prameela, which was an unplanned visit. Originally, I was going to stay with one of Kiran’s friends/AID colleagues but the first day of the Congress, I was at registration inquiring about the field trip and so was this single woman, Prameela. She confessed later that she believed me to be a Northeast Indian but we quickly became acquainted, especially after she learned that I was attending and traveling alone. We went out for a lovely lunch to have the famous Hyderabad Biryani rice dish and then she offered to take me back to her home before the Congress inaugural dinner (but not before she took me to the handicraft market to get a Henna tattoo and shop around for clothes). I was overwhelmed by her generosity and in hindsight, things went quite well when she could have been a total creep. I learned that her husband works for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and is currently based in Afghanistan (before it was Haiti). He only comes home for less than two weeks every few months and Prameela spends much of her time taking care of her kids (daughter age 12 and son age 9). I think she must be quite lonely and was happy to meet another young woman. Her husband’s high paying job has allowed them to purchase a 9 acre farm several kilometres outside the city. She’s hired one family as labourers and is growing many varieties of gram, fruit trees, and some vegetables. She has a few buffalo, a large water catchment pond, and is hoping to further diversify in the future. I was most impressed by this (9 acres is fairly large as far as Indian farms go) and eager to learn more. Prameela and her family are also Christians, which is so common in India compared to Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism. Her home was adorned with imagery of Jesus Christ, crosses, prayers etc. Overall, I had some nice experiences with Prameela. She helped me dress in saris for the fancy Congress dinners. One night, we even rode to the venue on her scooter (“two wheeler” or “scootie”). It was an incredible experience, zooming through the crowded streets of Hyderabad, riding side-saddle in flowing sari on the back of her bike. The wind whipped through my hair (on a helmetless head, mind you) and ruffled the fabric of the traditional dress (which I was careful to tie up so that it wouldn’t catch). People stared, yet I felt unthreatened and even invincible. India has the power to make me feel so alive. For some reason, I feel like I developed a kind of passivity in Tanzania. Perhaps this was attributed to my inability to communicate with most people I met, whereas India has given me the gift of English in many places to which I’ve traveled. Regardless of this, India has recharged me with life. Despite its imperfections and drawbacks, I find myself in love with this country. Mangos are revered as a most important fruit, dairy products are widespread, and where else can I wipe my hands on my shirt, burp, spit openly, and slurp my food (all things that would make my parents appalled)? The daughter in one homestay family even told me, “stop saying thank you so much; don’t be so formal!” In some ways, I feel that it is encouraging rudeness since I am always in the habit of saying thank you and sorry.

Super excitement after finding Tim Tam cookies in the supermarket (I discovered these delightful treats in Australia and haven't seen them since!)

The reason why I want to go to Vidarbha region of Maharasthra - to explore the issue of farmer suicides in India's cotton-belt

Buying fireworks for Diwali - India's Festival of Lights

Diwali celebrations are marked by fireworks, better known here as "crackers"

Kiran's apartment building lit up for Diwali

Lighting a "cracker"

Playing this Indian game called Carro, which is a little bit like pool except you use your fingers

Finally found an occasion to wear my sari! Yay Diwali.

Altar complete with a meal offering for the Gods

Diwali feast! Including one of my favorite desserts: Seviyan (vermicelli noodles, milk, sugar, spices, nuts, dried fruit, etc.) - recipe here

People of all ages doing fireworks, including babies. I am shocked that there weren't any serious injuries at the apartment building. I found Diwali to be very representative of my experience with India: loud, chaotic, but beautiful. Little kids running around with flames in their hands, people bumping into each other etc. I don't think this would ever fly in the U.S., especially given that it is illegal to even purchase fireworks in Massachusetts.

Hyderabad skyline lit up into the night

Reflections on the World Agricultural Forum Congress 2013

This is the report I wrote and submitted to the World Agricultural Forum (WAF) committee in exchange for them giving me a large student discount to participate. Initially, they were asking for $780 USD for a foreigner, but when I explained my financial constraints and research fellowship, they agreed to give me the “Indian Scientist Rate,” which was around $230. So here are my reflections about the conference:

The World Agricultural Forum (WAF) 2013 Congress was a significant opportunity for me to engage, learn, and collaborate with a variety of stakeholders in the global farming system, ranging from industry leaders to politicians and farmers to academics. I was impressed by the variety of content presented within the 14 keynote speakers, 14 roundtables, and 3 parallel sessions, which made me more deeply aware of the challenges facing smallholder farmers in the future (especially within the Indian context) and also the exciting prospects and potential solutions. My experience at WAF 2013 left me with several take away messages, including:

•         Agriculture will continue to be critical for India, with as many as 800 million people still living in rural villages in the years to come
•         We must work collectively to close the gap in productivity between potential and actual yield and close gap between farm and non-farm incomes. To achieve these objectives, small farmers need access to finance/credit, technologies, knowledge, and the market.
•         Contract farming can help provided assured markets but only if small farmers interests are preserved and not exploited
•         Labor shortages present a major challenge (even though 55% of the population is involved in agriculture of a 1.3 billion person population), which can only be partially addressed by appropriate mechanization
•         Moreover, smaller land holdings create bigger challenges and fewer and larger farmers are easier to mechanize with economies of scale
•         Regardless of the source, handouts are not sustainable – just a short-term fix; knowledge transfer and sustained practice exchange are preferable (education is key, both formal and informal). This training could be implemented through innovative communication that is accessible to farmers.
•         Thus, the potential for the ICT sector (namely web-based, mobile, and television technology) to assist with agriculture and knowledge transfer – connecting farmers with each other, consumers, government, universities etc. – should have an emphasis on local language exchange, database creation, precision agriculture to make application of inputs more efficient, weather prediction, marketing support etc. (though ICT can only facilitate and not solve)
•         Public private partnerships are crucial (e.g. producer companies, private extension officers, venture capitalists and other private companies investing in infrastructure), but the private sector needs to ensure fair share to farmer
•         Risk management (e.g. insurance support) and price management should be prioritized
•         Technology is definitely available but requires capacity building, and it should first and foremost be appropriate for small farmers
•         We cannot overlook the role of cooperatives and producer companies in uplifting marginal farmers and providing them with collective bargaining power
•         Policy alone is not the solution as it just provides a favorable environment for change
•         We should concentrate on multi-use crops for food, fodder, and fuel, which addresses the food versus fuel debate, the loss of fodder from mechanized harvesting, and the fact that breeding is overly focused on grain so crop residues are suffering
•         We need data and science (not ideology) driven policy frameworks, especially through utilizing existing knowledge, technology and science – we don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but this info needs to be practically available to farmers
•         Modern methods such as genomics, markered selection, tissue culture, GMOs, precision agriculture (more efficient use of natural resources), conservation agriculture (low carbon and sequestration) etc. have the ability to help
•         We must consider “sense of place” and place-based solutions (e.g. crop selection based on suitable crops; irrigated versus dryland farming and cereals, millets etc.)
•         There is a possibility for an innovative extension service with farmer facilitators (could be option for entrepreneurship or private sector where government has failed)
•         Importance of renewable energy in farm sector and all stages of value chain
•         Climate change: post-harvesting processing, storage, and cool chain are related with mitigation potential (i.e. if we decrease losses through proper cold storage, then we don’t need productivity increases in agriculture, which emit GHGs)
•         Sustainable agriculture can be a form of value addition in and of itself
•         Farmers should partake in the first levels of post-harvest processing and value addition at the farm or village level. If farmers can do step one of value addition/processing, this can lead to a 10-50x livelihood improvement (could be as simple as grading, sorting, or processing, but this requires capacity building)
•         Projects like Bhoochetana (collaboration with Govt. of Karnataka, ICRISAT, CGIAR etc.) are model projects – collaborative and consortium based and holistic using existing technology and methodology (first focused on soil health and then extended to mechanization, post harvest processing, and marketing)
•         We should consider the potential of a bio-based economy – e.g. can close the nutrient loop of potassium by applying enzymes and inoculants to facilitate digestion of P in ruminants and also encourage roots to take up more P for increased production and less fertilizer requirements; can also use it to create chemicals, biogas, etc.
•         We should remember that there are roughly 140 million households in agriculture in India and each household is a potential enterprise (but it requires credit, loans, markets etc.) – cannot address each household at the individual level
•         What is entrepreneurship? The ability to start economically viable business – but much more complicated for farmer-entrepreneurs; about wanting to solve problems not just make profit. Could involve training rural youth to become service providers/extension officers
•         Currently, policy has an over-emphasis on production, whereas there needs to be an equal focus on processing and value addition at farm/small level (i.e. the farmer can increase share if he adds value, since the person adding the value makes the money)
•         There is a strong need to eliminate middle men, a system that victimizes farmers and removes capital and power from their hands; farmers should be given a choice and only then will they be able to increase their profits
•         The central government minimum support price for crops such as wheat, rice, and cotton has not been fair – some argue that government elected representatives have been decreasing farmer incomes and are failing farmers through anti-farmer policies
•         In terms of subsidies, we must remember “politics without principle” is one of Gandhi’s sins – subsidies can help and also their removal can eliminate uneconomical practices
•         In sum, the main issues involved in the topic of promoting sustainability and enhancing agriculture for smallholder farmers include: capacity building, mechanization, research and development, changing undergraduate curriculum, entrepreneurship, science-based and data-driven policy, gender equity, climate change, cooperatives, post-harvest processing and cold chain development, ICT, biotechnology and bio-based farming, industry, labor shortages and unemployment, political impartiality, credit and finance, insurance, risk management, subsidies, trade collaboration/exchange, and alliances
•         The challenges of the world food and farming system require a holistic approach. There is no silver bullet magic solution.

After living in India for three months, the is the first time I heard the Indian national anthem, which made me feel very much united with the other Indian delegates even for just a brief moment. I enjoyed the closing speech in Telegu, even though I could not understand it. Thus, I would have liked to see more of this inclusivity for Indian nationals and marginal farmers. Moreover, the cultural programs involving traditional song and dance were beautiful presentations.

And while my knowledge base was enhanced through the various panel sessions and presentations and my senses stimulated during the dinners, I also have some constructive feedback. First and foremost, I found the environment to be rather exclusive, especially the Gala dinners, which were quite lavish and perhaps uncomfortable for marginal farmers. Furthermore, English was the primary language without translation into Hindi or Telegu, which rendered the Congress somewhat irrelevant and inaccessible for small farmers. Similarly, the cost of registration was around Rs 5,500 (close to $100 USD), a figure that most small farmers cannot possibly finance. I understand that the government and WAF provided some discounts, but these seemed to be insufficient given the lack of farmers participating. Moreover, I think that panels, roundtables, etc. should have had more farmer representation, as they were largely dominated by industry and academia. Similarly, I did not feel that there was enough explicit emphasis on integrated, diversified, and organic farming in both the Congress and Agri-Tech Trade Fair, which had few organic-based, non-chemical companies.

Due to technical difficulties, question and answer sessions were difficult during the first few sessions, however, in general, I hope that future Congresses can better promote interaction and exchange among delegates and speakers with more emphasis on Q+A and perhaps even smaller breakout sessions for discussion. Similarly, I did not find the main hall to be very conducive for the feeling of an intimate roundtable, so in the future, I would suggest putting these sessions in smaller rooms within the venue. Moreover, if there is a presenter who is speaking in the national language (and if the language of the congress is English), there should be translators present (e.g. Roundtable A1: Role of Cooperatives and Corporations had one missing presenter and the chairman of the farmers union spoke only in Hindi). Moreover, I realize there are circumstances that arise out of the planners’ control, but in the event that speakers cancel, a replacement would have been ideal (e.g. the cancelled Fair Trade keynote would have been an extremely relevant topic of discussion and especially beneficial for small farmers). If the next congress is held in conjunction with a trade fair, it might be ideal to have certain times blocked off in the schedule for delegates to visit rather than having to sacrifice conference time. Similarly, perhaps fewer or shorter sessions would have been favorable, especially since the roundtable conclusions were canceled due to temporal constraints (is it possible to make these summaries available via email or Internet?). That being said, some kind of online drop box or means of exchanging information and resources would be useful so delegates can share any notes, reflections, or ideas for future collaboration. And in retrospect, a way to reduce paper waste and make the Congress more environmentally-friendly would be to give delegates the option at registration to receive the welcome-packet literature in an electronic form.

I really enjoyed the keynote: “Success Story of Mulkanoor Rural Bank and Marketing Society for Sustainable Agriculture” with Mr. A Praveen Reddy of ANGRAU. I thought this aptly described and provided a sincere example of how the issues discussed at WAF are being practically and effectively addressed. I would have liked to see more of these sessions that offer real-life success stories from the farmers and community leaders themselves. I also wonder how we can collectively promote increased participation from women? I would guess that the ratio of men to women was around 400:50 (seriously, this is the first time I have never had to wait in line for the women’s restroom). However, on a more serious note, given that women make up the majority of labor in agriculture worldwide, I feel that their participation in the dialogue alongside men is of paramount importance. Thus, some kind of gender-specific outreach could help facilitate equitable representation.

In addition to the Congress, I was able to attend a tour of ICRISAT, which was a wonderful supplement to the conference proceedings. I was able to learn more about genomics and hybrid breeding; their efforts in ICT research and development (namely mobile and tablet technology for extension services and precision farming, and we even video-communicated with a group of female farmers from the Bhoochetana initiative), and their multiple decade village-level research initiatives. It was encouraging to know that many of the topics discussed at the Congress are being implemented here and now.

WAF has also opened the door to future cross-cultural collaboration. For instance, I received an email from a Hyderabad-based engineer-turned-farmer and the Director of the Agriculture Management Resource Group (AMRG), Centre for Good Governance in Hyderabad, both asking to work in partnership. Moreover, I was introduced and exposed to individuals and initiatives from the Netherlands and Germany, two countries I hope to travel to towards the end of my research fellowship year.

Some of my other observations and reflections from the Congress include the potential gap between Chief Minister Honorable Sri N. Kirankumar Reddy’s speech (saturated with good intentions) and stereotypical corporate interests. I wonder, is the union that is WAF going to close the gap? I also acknowledge and respect that my newly formed friends and colleagues from Rythu Swarajya Vedika, the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Chetna Organic, AID India etc. withdrew their invitations to speak at the Congress, held a press conference at the Agri-Tech Trade Fair, submitted press releases to local newspapers, and made demands for CM/Government of Andra Pradesh to withdraw state support, all in protest of the corporate-dominated agenda and co-sponsorship by the AP government. Moreover, while I believe protest can be beneficial on the one hand, I also think we need productive dialogue, which requires everyone to be in the room for the conversation. Along these lines, there was an excellent Q+A session following the entrepreneurship roundtable, a truly challenging and reciprocal dialogue, of which I would have liked to see more. I must admit that I also have inherent doubts about the possibility of profit sharing between corporations and small farmers (e.g. the “Corporation with a Cooperative Mindset” model proposed in the roundtable titled “Role of Cooperatives and Corporations in Sustainable Agriculture”). In my opinion, large multinational corporations have never been known for promoting equity, so how can this change be implemented? Moreover, what are the barriers to value addition (at least the first level) and marketing taking place on the farm or at the village level, as shorter supply chains tend to benefit farmers? Why must this all take place by corporations as proposed in the same roundtable session? Basically, I am discouraged and tired of hearing the same rhetoric on opposing sides. On the one hand, the organic movement critiques MNCs and the industry for exploiting small farmers and on the other hand, industry says that privatization, technology, and modern inputs are going to be the saving grace of small farmers. I feel pulled in opposite directions and seek a neutral opinion, as both ends of the spectrum articulate and support their arguments eloquently and compellingly. While I acknowledge that all stakeholders have their own values and agendas, I like to think that everyone wants the same thing and that it is just a matter of how we achieve these collective goals without letting vested interests get in the way.

In essence, I am very grateful to have been given the opportunity to attend this year’s World Agricultural Forum (WAF) 2013 Congress, which would not have been possible without the committee providing me a generous discount as a student researcher with limited financial means. So for that, I thank the committee. Upon final reflection, I would have liked to see less agribusiness, industry, and multinational corporation representation and more farmer, independent NGO, civil society, and advocacy group participation in the Congress. This is necessary to ensure that the corporate-driven agenda is not the only factor shaping agriculture policy moving forward. Moreover, I hope that you can make the minutes from each of the sessions publically available for the benefit of not only delegates but also the larger community. In essence, I feel that WAF provides a good opportunity and platform for diverse stakeholders to come together to discuss crucial issues relevant to the future of farming, and with some adjustments, future congresses can be even better.

Sincerely,

Lauren L. Howe

2013-2014 Thomas J. Watson Fellow

Thomas J. Watson Foundation, New York, NY, USA

Research Project: “The Future of Food: Modern Technology and Traditional Agriculture Systems” in Tanzania, India, Bhutan, Peru, Bolivia, Germany, and the Netherlands

Getting henna done!

This dries and then cracks off, revealing the orange/reddish tattoo

My host and fellow WAF delegate, Prameela, and her children

Dressed in a sari for one of the gala dinners

Amazing cultural programs

Looking BA wearing a sari on her two-wheeler.

One of the many Indian politicians who spoke at the Congress

My colleagues and friends leading a protest at the Agri-Tech Trade Fair (because WAF is accused of being anti-farmer and simply multinational corporations dictating Indian policy)