Urban growth in India has been often termed as the reason for India’s overall development. However, urban-rural migration is also a cause of concern, as more and more people are now moving to cities in search of better opportunities, thereby putting exceptional pressure on their civic services. In such a case, it is important to direct that migration away from cities. One of the prime ways of doing that is by developing rural India. The Government of Uttar Pradesh is making use of this approach, aiming to make rural areas self-sufficient in all aspects. To know more about how the government is doing this and how the state’s farmers are being encouraged to sustainably increase their yields, Abhishek Pandey, Editor, Urban Update, interviewed Sanjay R Bhoosreddy, Additional Chief Secretary, Sugar Industry & Cane Development Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh.
The Government of Uttar Pradesh is constructing plastic roads in rural India to connect farmers with marketplaces. This program is solving the issue of connectivity while ensuring the route to sustainability for urban stakeholders. Could you please elaborate on this program and explain how the Sugar Industry & Cane Development Department is associated with it?
During my time in Housing and Urban Planning Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh (2000-2005), the issue of solid waste management was brought up several times. The amount of solid waste generated in urban centers is a big hindrance to the process of urbanization in any civilization. We have found that plastic has become a big nuisance. It is easier to advise people not to use plastic but in some way or the other, it sneaks into the industrial processes. Its non-biodegradable nature makes it impossible for authorities to be acquiescent of its use. It can choke sewage lines and is often ingested by cows and other animals. Thereby, it enters the food chains and is also polluting the seas. The Sugar Industry and Cane Development Department in Uttar Pradesh is very uniquely placed as it also constructs roads and ensures inter-village connectivity for the farmers so that sugar cane is smoothly supplied to the market.
We have 9000 kilometres of roads in UP. Since it is a big number, we started using plastic while repairing the existing roads or while laying down new ones. A pilot run of the plastic roads was done in Sitaram in 2018-2019, which turned out to be a huge success. We also had to incorporate advanced technology in the operations as a particular type of plastic can only be used which has a specified strength. Furthermore, the department had to involve technological institutes to figure out the nitty-gritty of handling the project. The plastic used has to be collected or bought and then recycled into a processed plastic grain of a particular size. It is very similar to the size of grit, a stone popularly used in making roads. Bitumen, a component used in making roads, when mixed with plastic grains has an enhanced level of adhesiveness. The plastic road also has better life compared to a bitumen road. This is especially beneficial in areas with heavy rainfall. With the increased use of plastic in making roads, the demand for bitumen has dropped, which has a direct impact on foreign exchange. Through the use of plastic roads, the department has found an eco-friendly way of dealing with plastic while making sure farmers have access to the marketplace.
How did the Cane Department find this unique solution? Who is providing the Department with the technological support to run this program?
Even before joining the Department, I was aware of the plastic road concept. But I did not see its application in any other department during the course of my service. So in 2018-19, we decided to build plastic roads. To figure out the specifics of running the program, I sent over my team to the state engineering institute in Kanpur and Roorkee, where this technology was available. After that, a pilot program was run in Sitapur of 600 km which turned out to be a huge success, following which the roads were built on a large scale across the state. The team learnt the protocols of running the program smoothly through the pilot run.
While working on a government project, expenditure plays a vital role because anyone can allege you of siphoning funds. It had to be ensured that the plastic roads were more budget-friendly than the bitumen roads. There was an added pressure to provide strong and durable roads to the farmers so that they had easy access to the sugar mills and the market.
Talking about urban mobility and technology, the use of bio-fuel is being promoted by Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Transport and Highways, in his constituency (Nagpur). How do you see ethanol or bio-fuel being used in public transport to improve the condition of sugarcane farmers and to provide an economic and environmentally-friendly solution to the urban
local bodies?
The ethanol blending concept was introduced in the 2000s by the then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Since then, we have been learning new technologies and are improving our processes.
Uttar Pradesh started the production of ethanol from molasses in 2017-2018 with a small production number of 25 crore litres. In 2018-2019, we started two pilot projects in sugar mills wherein we produced ethanol through PAV. This process helps in increasing the amount of ethanol produced by reducing sugar production by 15 per cent. Since sugar is in abundance, it was necessary to control its production. After the success of the pilot projects, we expanded the production to 28 mills last year and 54 mills this year. After several quantum jumps, today we are producing over 160 crore litres of ethanol. Competing with Maharashtra as a key player in the supply chain, UP also assists other states where ethanol production is limited. Lately, the Government of India has come up with production processes with damaged grains and other agricultural products such as potatoes, etc.
In the last few years, the Government of Uttar Pradesh has started running CNG buses. Now we have switched to electric-vehicle (EV) buses in some areas as well. If you visit Lucknow, you would notice that a majority of the buses have been converted to EVs. There is an experiment going on at the national level to blend ethanol in addition to petrol in diesel. If the project gets cracked, Uttar Pradesh can enhance bio-ethanol production on a larger scale. This would further help the cause of the farmers as it would ensure the utilization of the yield as it would get converted into fuel or some economic product.
There is a stark difference between rural and urban areas in terms of facilities and access to infrastructure. There is a trend prevalent amongst village folk moving to urban areas looking for better health and education facilities, as well as better paying job opportunities. how can we improve the situation of the farmers on the ground and the overall village ecosystem so that people need not migrate?
In order to come to a solution for this, we first need to understand that urban centers have an innate magnetic pull in terms of glitter, glamour, and better services. We have deglamorized the rural sector by over-glamorizing the urban sector. I have initiated a program in which we give prizes, along with a handsome cash amount, by the CM to young farmers. First, we started with male farmers, and last year we started a woman entrepreneurship program. During the pandemic, several girls studying at the University of Lucknow came back to their hometowns and reported that due to the state-run programs, they have started enjoying farming. Hence, we came up with the program of handing out prizes to three girls who practice cane farming every year. The rural ecosystem will not change until we start respecting the agricultural sector and farming as an occupation. The aforementioned initiatives have not only successfully encouraged the youth, but also women entrepreneurs involved in seed production. Consequently, we started another program to encourage the use of technology in farming methods. An ordinary farmer needs to adopt five technologies, called ‘panchamra’. If he/she successfully does so, they are deemed eligible to be declared state champions.
When I joined the force, the rural infrastructure was very poor. However, that is not the case anymore. People need to let go of the exaggerated image shown in black and white films and they need to visit today’s villages in Uttar Pradesh. Our government has closed open drains, set up a proper sewage system with an efficient drainage system in the villages. Villages have their brick or tar roads as well.
The pandemic has shifted the attention of people towards conscious consumption and organic farming. They want to know how their food was cultivated and where it is from. Do you think this will help in increasing the respect people have for farmers?
30-40 years back, a farmer had very little opportunity to market or sell his produce. Their main concern is to be able to sell their produce at a regulated price. Today, jaggery farmers are directly selling to Amazon for `400 per kg, and their products gets sold in advance. Many farmers who are growing their produce organically are earning well as well. Now, a farmer needs to be trained in marketing techniques, which is key to any sale. Any farmer that is networking and successfully marketing their product is earning huge numbers.
The issues of UP’s farmers have several socio-political connotations. What are the initiatives introduced by your department to improve the on-ground situation?
When I entered the Department, it became evident that the system is corrupted by mafia gangs. Farmers directly supply sugar cane to the mill if they receive cane slips. UP has over 9-10 lakh very small farmers who had difficulty in selling their produce at the sugar mills since they would not get the cane slips. So the farmers used to contact local politicians or local representatives to get cane slips, or the farmers would sell their produce to the ‘sugarcane-mafias’ who would then collect the produce in bulk and sell it off at the mills. This would result in the cane getting stale and the mill incurring a loss. We developed an enterprise for resource planning called ‘Smart Ganna Kisaan’ that helped in removing the paper sugar cane slips from the system. Every farmer is now updated through their phones.
You would be surprised to know that over 40 to 45 lakh farmers involved in the cultivation of sugarcane have an android phone with an app called ‘E-Ganna’. With the introduction of technology, the whole politics of the sugarcane industry changed and the issue of unavailability of cane slips for genuine farmers was dissolved. Now, farmers get updates via SMS and the cane slip system is no longer an issue.
Farmers supply a predefined quantity of sugar cane to the mill. In case of surplus, the farmer should have an outlet to market his product. Hence, we also created a Khandsari licensing portal which now has successfully acquired 267 new units. We also connected the farmers to the Government of India’s M-Kisaan portal that provides them with technological assistance, weather, and disease information. We have set up a farm machinery bank wherein we rent out equipment on an hourly basis at a highly reasonable rate. The banks provide the farmer with drip irrigation equipment, trench methodology, retro management device, intercropping tools, and trash mulcher.
We also assist farmers with increasing their yield by trench farming and giving information that would help them in producing more sugar cane. Sugar cane is a water guzzler. Hence, we worked extensively on building a strong drip irrigation system. Along with water, we also help the farmer in sprinkling fertilizers and pesticides. When the quantity of fertilizers is right on the spot, its consumption by the plant is decreased by 60 per cent, thereby reducing the farmer’s expenditure and improving the overall profits. The only way of improving a farmer’s income is to either increase the remuneration or to reduce their cost and expenditure.
The problem of cities cannot be addressed only in cities. If we cannot arrest rural migration, we cannot solve urban issues. How do you see Uttar Pradesh’s rural areas helping the urbanisation process of its cities?
We have to understand that India is a different mosaic. Each state is unique in its own way. For example, you cannot distinguish where the village ends and the city begins in Kerala. The process of urbanisation is very state-specific and hence we should not compare it. When I was in Urban Planning Department, we realized that more urbanisation is okay until its density and intensity increase. Extensive urbanisation can lead to our cities facing urban problems which are very difficult to solve. Each town has an economy of scale which will give you an advantage, but only to an extent. If we keep expanding our cities beyond 50-60 kilometres, it will bring in accessibility and mobility issues. Life in metropolitan cities such as Delhi and Bombay is very difficult as many hours of the day are wasted waiting in traffic jams. Therefore, we should not focus on urbanizing every corner of the country but on providing good infrastructure to the rural areas and making people comfortable there. If people are provided with 24-hour access to water and electricity, education, health, and a good livelihood within their proximity, then they would not think of leaving their ancestral property. If the services provided in a digital headquarter are also accessible in rural areas, people would automatically not get attracted towards urban centers. Nowadays, a new trend has also emerged wherein people have even started shifting away from metropolitans to their native villages, especially people from Delhi, as the smog season approaches.
How do you see the role of villages and Indian agriculture in developing a new-age India?
We need to make the youth understand that being a part of the agricultural ecosystem is very respectful and farming is a very prosperous field in terms of money-making. Living in the digital age, it has never been more convenient to get connected to the global markets and ensure great profits. We have to consciously think and unite the minds of young boys and girls, making them understand the pros and cons of living in an urban area. Today, Kerala’s tourism is booming because they have not industrialised their land and have a higher focus on the environment. Almost every family in Kerala is involved in the tourism ecosystem of the state. We should not keep raising new urban centers but create alternatives. I am optimistic that the rural landscape will be ‘glamorized’ in the coming years.