The bubble burst: Bihar now 14th in growth rate

29/08/2010

Patna,(BiharTimes): It has finally been conceded that the growth rate of Bihar for the year 2009-10 is 4.72 per cent, placing the state 14th in the country.

“The major fall in the growth rate is largely due to fall in agriculture sector. The fragile economy of the state lead to such a drastic fall,” explained economist Shaibal Gupta.

“The decline in agriculture growth rate (-17 percent) is worth pondering over and surprisingly all these data are not mentioned in the Economic Survey (2009-10),” said another senior economist N K Chaudhary.

The big fall in Bihar from the first place to 14th came as a rude shock as this figure is even less than 5. 15 per cent in 2003-4

Chhattisgarh, the state known more for Maoists’ violence, has emerged as the number one state in the last financial year. Its GDP growth rate was 11.49 per cent in constant prices at Rs 60,080 crore in 2009-10. Bihar’s GDP during the same period was Rs 1,09,420 crore.

Bihar, which claimed to have registered a growth rate of 11.03 per cent in the previous five years period, had clocked the growth rate of 16.59 per cent in 2008-09. So in one year it fell from 16.59 to 4.72 per cent.

Chhattisgarh clocked a GDP growth of 17.51 per cent in 2006-07 and 11.71 per cent in 2007-08, before coming down to 6.81 per cent in 2008-09, but then recovered again.

Gujarat emerged as the runner-up with a GDP growth rate of 10.53 per cent during 2009-10. The state’s GDP at constant prices over the last decade went to Rs 2,52,528 crore.

Uttarakhand, which like Chhattisgarh was carved out in 2000, stood third. But along with Himachal Pradesh the Vajpayee government offered special hill states package to it in 2003. This status expired in March 2010. Its GDP grew by 9.41 per cent to Rs 29,507 crore in 2009-10.

Maharashtra, among the most industrialized state, secured the fourth rank. Its GDP went up by 8.59 per cent to Rs 4,80,335 crore.

Orissa surprised everyone by bagging fifth position with a GDP growth rate of 8.35 per cent in the last fiscal. Its GDP at constant prices stood at Rs 90,229 crore in 2009-10.

This official statistics have come at the most inappropriate time, that is, just before the assembly election.

Thanks for bringing this news in the public domain. I am quite new to your news portal. Actually Nitishji is very good media manager. Moreover he is blessed with having lalooji as predecessor. Lalooji being totally incompetent makes nitishji like hero in the eyes of people( as comparison is made out between these two). The scenario of education has become murkier in the time of nathish ji. What purpose is being served by having contract teacher at paltry sum rather than by having competition. Will incompetent teachers serve any purpose of education as such. This should be debated at length by the intellectual class of the society. He has spent large amount of money on upgrading high schools to 10+2 schools. There seems to be large scale of corruption involved in the process. But again, there is no investigative media on this. Hope there would be some. Quality of teacher is the most important criteria for improving quality of education. Go and see the quality of teachers hired by the government.
Why is media eulogizing nitishji is beyond comprehension. The caste conscious society of bihar will have to be more vigilant and assertive for these thing. It is fact tat he is better than lalooji but that is not enough. Education is only one aspect. There are many more.
I hope to see the investigative media coverage of bihar particularly from your portal.

Prakash Chandra jha
New DELHI

This is an extraordinary example of a great manipulator sri Nitish Kumar. He has made the mockery of whole system in bihar in the name of “Sushashan”.
The corruption is at its highest level never before in the history of bihar. A good part of Rs. 32,000.00 crores have been looted by the corrupt politicians and bearcats.
Only god can save bihar now. It is beyond the human control.
LAST WORD : BIHAR IS AT TOTAL RISK!

It is a matter of serious concern that GDP growth declined by 4.72 percent during 2009-2010 Agriculture sector is blamed for declining SGDP growth to 4.72 percent in 2009-2010 from 11 percent in 2008-2009.

In 2009-2010 Agricultural GDP declined by 17 % in Bihar from Rs. 23205 crore in 2008-2009 to Rs.19260 crore in 2009-2010. Despite drought the food grain production declined by only 14 lakh tonnes from 122.20 lakh tonnes in 2008-2009 to 106 lakh tonnes in 2009-2010. The value of 14 lakh tonnes of food grain is estimated at about 5.8 % of Agricultural GDP of Bihar at 1999-2000 prices.
Besides food grain, sugarcane, potato, vegetables, and fruits are important components of agricultural sector which kept increasing trend in 2009-2010. However production of these agricultural commodities were higher in 2009-2010 over 2008-2009. Agricultural GDP generated through live stock sector has been substantial (about 40% of Agricultural GDP) and It also kept increasing trend during last 5 year and performed well in 2009-2010.

In this situation, decline of agricultural GDP by 17% in Bihar during 2009-2010 seems to be either guess estimate or some omission in calculating Agricultural GDP in Bihar for 2009-2010.

Decline in Agricultural GDP by 17% and increase in state GDP by 4.7 2% clearly indicates that the growth rates of secondary and tertiary sectors have not been more than 11% in 2009-2010 which was also comparable to corresponding growth rate achieved by these sectors in 2008-2009. Hence agriculture should not be only blamed for declining growth of SGDP in Bihar.

This is very disheartning news. India's growth rate stands nearly 8%. That means Bihar has indeed fallen back.

There is a bright side to it also, Take away the negative growth rate of agriculture sector , one will find that growth in other sectors have been good. The growth rate in these sectors must be maintained at current level for years to come.

Agriculture is the core competency of Bihar and all out effort should be put in place to get the Agro Growth going.

Bihar with it’s resources should become Bread Basket for country. However we face two challenges:

1: Environment: Either it is too wet (Flood) or it is too Dry (Drought) There is hardly any in-between.

2: Thanks to flood that soil is renewed, however the excessive use of chemicals is making farming land less productive.

The agriculture must grow at much higher rate. It has to reach a growth level of 10% to become the bread basket of India. This will require strong commitment from all the stakeholders, Central Government, State Government, local administrative staff and the farmers to work jointly. The farmers must be able to take the opportunity with open arms.

The infrastructure and control required by farmers to meet their part of commitment for 10% growth are:

1: Access to Information (7x24) Farmers even in the remotest part of Bihar should have access to pertinent information seven days a week 24 hours a day. The recent devastation in Purnea and other area shows the lack of this infrastructure. The availability to get world price of grain, weather, information on nearest market, market demand of high cash value crop and good farming techniques would give farmers a chance to play their role in achieving 10% growth.

2: Access to Market: Not all the farmers have access to market. This compromises in the income of farmer. Samridhi foundation has proved that by giving access to market the farmers will easily raise their income. The construction of roads and providing special transport service to transport farmer’s produce to reach market will enable the access to market. This will not only facilitate to get fresh quality of produce but also in larger quantity. Government should not hesitate to give special incentives to transport service provider who bring the fresh produce directly from farmers to market in an expeditious way.

3: Value Add to Produce: Bring the packaging plants to farmers, so that they can move up the food chain by providing items with value added. Processing of Dried fruits, vegetables and vacuum packed fruits and vegetables etc. will not only reduce the wastage but also produce employment while generating more revenue for farmers. This value add and reduction in waste will result in increased revenue for farmer, which will work as incentive to achieve 10 % growth.

4: Access to Water: The infrastructure must be put in place such that the excessive rain or extra dry spell will not severely hurt the crop production. This can be done by state government working very closely with central government to manage the water by constructing, dams, canals, and interconnecting rivers. Hon President Kalam has a master plan to connect the rivers of state and India. Bihar will become the capital of water in coming decades and century. The successful water management will stop the devastation, and the Government and state can spend money on development, rather than on repair.

5: Access to Power: Power is key to increase efficiency of farmers, The watering of crop, processing for value added, capability to access information, requires power all the time. The success to achieve 10% growth in agriculture could be severely hampered by non availability of power. Government must provide incentives for generation of clean and green renewable energy. This is a opportunity which is just knocking at the door. Government of Bihar should promote the clean energy power generation by providing huge incentives to set up renewable power generation in village and it’s surrounding areas.

6: Access to essential services: Farmers should be able to fill up forms, request data, file a complaint, get land registry and be able to get all the requested information. These data are so easily available in any city and should be equally easily available in even the remotest village of Bihar. The banking facility should be available to each and every farmer in their own village. This will increase the productivity.

7: Access to Good Health: The proactive education on health, hygiene, preventative care and early treatment will make the villagers healthier. The health clinic should be part of the school facility with a nurse present all the time. Good health will result in good attitude and more productive farmer.

All the above seven points are equally important to achieve 10 % growth in agriculture sector. Government has to play a key role of facilitator. It has to attract business in green and renewable power sector. It must put it’s full effort on water control. It must put programs to give incentives to entrepreneurs provide farmers the access to market. With these as objectives, nothing can stop from becoming bread basket of India.

So the time has come for each Bihari to work hard. It is news like this which wakes all of us up and requires all the energy to be harnessed in making Bihar a developed state which starts with Agriculture sector development.

If Nitish takes the credit of 11 percent and 16 percent growth then must come forward and explain such a stiff fall in the growth rate. But it appears that the exercise is on to cover up this fact.

Agriculture growth rate was -17% during the year 2009-10. We should remember here that there was drought in Bihar last year. Kharif crop failed miserably and low rainfall had an effect on Rabi crop as well. But it can take away the fact that Agriculture needs immediate sincere attention of all (it includes Government, landlords sitting in towns). Irrigation is the major lacuna even after 67 years of our independence. Instead of going for big irrigation projects, Bihar should think of scale –neutral irrigation projects where farming community should be an integral of decision making (management) system.
Farming in today’s world ask for a certain level of wisdom & knowledge & tewchnology intervention. Our farming sector are lagging behind every fronts. Villages are crying for lack of talent in farming. We should ponder over how make farming an attractive profession in changed world. The most worrisome fact is no youth wishes to become farmer. We need intelligent people to do farming. Otherwise days are not far away where we will have to do talent hunt for farming.
Kaushlendra
Ashoka Fellow

It is a pity that a steep decline in agricultural growth rate has pulled down the overall growth rate of Bihar.

These figures coming from Shri Shaibal Gupta leave no scope for doubt-Shri Gupta has been closely associated with the preparation of Bihar’s Economic Surveys and a number of other analytical reports.

Agriculture remains the mainstay of Bihar’s economy. Without agricultural development, Bihar cannot develop at all. It is shocking that such a decline has occurred despite the Road Map for Agriculture and Allied Sectors having been launched by the State Government some 3 years back. Has there been a regular and substantive monitoring right from the Block to the highest level of the State machinery of the implementation of the Road Map ?

For any development to take roots and to ensure its benefits reaching the targeted groups , 2 things are a must- a close and careful periodical monitoring and encouraging the feedback from the target groups. On both these counts, the State Farmers Commission under my Chairmanship had about 3 years back made recommendations to the State Government and provided even the format of a monthly monitoring of all agricultural programmes at all levels from the Block to the highest level of the Government. The Commission had further suggested the constitution of a Cabinet Committee on Agriculture and Rural Affairs with the responsibility to monitor the progress at least on a quarterly basis. This monitoring, to be supplemented by the field visits, was meant to analyse the progress and to make mid-course corrections as required .Another recommendation related to the setting apart at least one hour each day by the officials and higher policy level functionaries to meet in an unhindered way farmers and other concerned people .

The implementation, however, of these ( and a number of other recommendations of the Commission , based on wide-ranging consultations and local observations ), remains the responsibility and prerogative of the State Government.

Ramadhar,