Coalitions of Interest: Partnerships for Processes of Agricultural Change

Recent years have witnessed a number of policy reforms in Indian agriculture, both at the national and state levels. However, it is being realised that large sections of the agricultural population have not benefited from these development initiatives. This book documents the agricultural scenario in the semi-arid region of Rajasthan, and establishes the need for what the authors call process monitoring (PM), or the interaction and collaboration between different stakeholders: various levels of government, NGOS and farmers’ groups. Based on first-hand knowledge and practical experience, the authors first list out the performance gaps arising out of misplaced policy concerns and from inefficient implementation of policy decisions in the agricultural sector. They argue that difficulties in establishing links between governmental organisations, local membership organisations and NGOs hamper development programmes. While NGOs have a close association with the rural people, they lack the technical expertise to introduce beneficial technologies. On the other hand, the strength of government agencies lies in technology, but they are unable to respond to the requirements of low-income farmers. In addition, the government remains the major actor in the provision of services for low resource agriculture, as a result of which private organisations do not have enough space to function. The authors conclude that practical mechanisms are needed to bring about the approximate consensus necessary to effect change through multiple stakeholder interaction. Process monitoring is hailed as the key tool for these coalitions. This book will be essential reading for those in the fields of agricultural economics, rural development, development administration, research methodology and sociology, and will also interest international and donor agencies, programme designers as well as non-government organisations struggling to assist diverse agents to articulate and act upon a common interest.