In the early 1980s, when Maoists had just entered Dandakaranya forest after their disastrous adventure in Bengal, India’s new PM Indira Gandhi had commissioned a study.

She wanted to know, unlike Bengal, where the police defeated the Maoists (who were called Naxals at that time) under the leadership of Siddhartha Shankar Roy, can there be another way?

The study, which unfortunately was completed after the murder of Mrs Gandhi and was never implemented, found two things. No 1 it said tribal farmers at the moment grow only one crop and if we want the tribals not to join the Naxals, we need to somehow get them engaged with the second crop. We will have to increase irrigation facilities.

Second, it had talked of ensuring tribals get more out of the forest.

The Report prepared in the leadership of Ramchandra Singhdeo, then deputy chairman of the Planning Commission of Madhya Pradesh, which was called Bastar Development Plan, said, “currently we have irrigation facilities in around 1% of Bastar. We need to make ponds and check dams to increase this significantly. If a tribe of Bastar is busy with farming for 8 months, they will do dancing and singing for the rest and have no time to join the Naxals”.

40 years on we have again defeated the Maoists, again with guns and surprisingly the area under irrigation in Bastar still remains around 1-2%. In non-Maoist-affected tribal areas of North Chhattisgarh, this figure is less than 1%. Nationally, India has around 44.4% of its area under irrigation, and Chhattisgarh, as a state, has 23%. We can blame the Maoists and the hilly terrain, but we must do something in the post-Maoist future.

Technology is here to help. Chhattisgarh is a success story in Solar water pumps. Though Chhattisgarh has only 2.8% of land but around 30% solar water pumps have been installed here. Maoists Jantana Sarkar ( People’s govt) has developed many community ponds in their areas of control. That needs to continue under G Ram G. But the post-Maoist future need is one solar water pump for each farmer in the entire tribal region of Chhattisgarh.

Like mobile phones, the price of Solar pumps has also come down drastically in the last few years. The Central Govt gives 30% subsidy under the PM-KUSUM scheme. The Chhattisgarh state Govt has its own Saur Sujala Yojana, which gives another 30% rebate. What needs to be done is to do it in a mission mode and what better time can be than while we are thinking of the post-Maoist future. One Solar pump can increase farm income by twice or thrice.

In the post-forest rights Act era, the average farm ownership in tribal areas in Chhattisgarh is 2-4 acres. A farmer roughly earns Rs 30-40,000 per acre per year with one monsoon crop. In comparison, an average tribal family here earns around Rs 1.5 lakhs after selling Minor Forest Produce. A solar pump roughly costs 2-5 lakhs if we include bore well and fencing, which is part and parcel of the package.

There are 6-7 lakh farming families in Bastar. If the state spends Rs 5 lakh per family, it will need 3000 crores. The state has been spending at least Rs 3-4000 crores every year to fight the Maoists for many decades. Some put this figure to double of it. Chhattisgarh earns around Rs 15,000 crores every year from mining ( if you also add the entire income of the Centre, then the figure goes to 35-40,000 crores per year). Out of this, Bastar generates more than half.

So, looking at these figures, does it make any logical sense to say that the state ( and center) does not have money to give a solar power pump + a bore well + fencing to each Bastar family to double or triple their farm income? Of course, it is a complex issue. Only by giving a solar pump, not much changes. The tribal farmer needs to be convinced that investing in a second and third crop is a good business proposition. We will also have to add a long-term maintenance contract and also train hundreds of locals as repair people.

There are stories abound that a farmer grew lots of tomatoes with the help of a pump ( often it was an electric or diesel pump with regular costs involved) but he could not get a price because there was no market and it resulted in a loss. So, as solar pumps need to be linked with tube wells and fencing, similarly it also need to be linked with the supply chain and refrigeration. Farmers also need to be organised under Farmer-Producer companies.

45 years ago, when the Maoists came, irrigation in Bastar was at 1%. 45 years after Maoists left, we are still at 1.6%. With one project in mission mode, we can take it to 100% in one year with no extra cost. If we invest the money we spent to fight Maoists every year, or 10% of what we earn from mining in Bastar in one year, we can do this miracle. Income from the forest and mining is another two subjects on which we also need to think simultaneously.

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