TARGETING THE CO-EXISTANCE OF

ECOLOGICAL AND INCOME POVERTY: A

STUDY BASED ON WASTELAND MAPPING IN
INDIA

Sanjay K Srivastava
sanjay@isro.org
 SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE IN INDIA
– A HOPE OR HYPE ???
Poverty in India
(in Million) 1990s 2000 Poverty- geographical profile
Poor 320 260
% Population 36 19 Central

North
Who will feed India ?
East
– small and marginal farmers
West 1999-00
(FAO/RAP- 2001) 1983-84
South

0 20 40 60
% of population below poverty line
Millions of poor, malnourished and
food insecure population cannot be Strategy:
the foot soldiers fighting the • Combating poverty
• Empowering people
cause of sustainable agriculture • Using core competence in science
& technology – including space
applications
• Setting ecological integrity
 WASTELAND ATLAS OF INDIA

• On 1:50,000 scale digital at

village/micro-watershed level

Total wasteland : 63.8 Mha

Cultivable wasteland: 45 Mha

Looking Beyond wasteland

mapping…..Poverty Trap ..

Source: Wasteland Atlas of India NRSA 2000

 POSSIBLE
LINKAGES…
POPULATION BELOW POVERTY LINE

Income Poverty
Ecological Poverty

They are often visible in proximity to each

 Marginal Agri. Land
other highlighting the direct link between
the two ?
POSSIBLE LINKAGES…

FOOD INSECURE POPULATION

Depth of Hunger
Ecological Poverty

 Marginal Agri. Land

AREA (sq. km.)

Area > 30% = 5,67,525

Area 5 - 30% = 2,29,080
Does Ecological o Bihar, for example, is characterized by
and Income Poverty just 6 % wastelands with 57% population
below poverty line.
Co-exists?
o Jharkhand, with 19% wastelands, has
No… got more than 60% population below poverty
line.
o Uttar Pradesh has 9% wastelands with
more than 44% population below poverty line.
70
o Similarly, West Bengal with just over 6
% Population below Poverty Line

60 Bihar % wastelands has got more than 40 %

population below poverty line.
50
Assam
R2 = 0.0167
40
Maharastr
a
30
Rajasthan
HP
20
Andhra Pradesh
10

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60

% Waste land
Does
Ecological • For example, Assam with more than 25 % wastelands has
and Income got more than 45 % population below poverty line.

Poverty • Similarly, Rajasthan is characterized by more than 30 %

wastelands and 26 % incidence of poverty.
Co-exists? • On the other hand, there are States like Punjab with just 4%
Yes… wastelands and 11% population below poverty line,
70 followed by Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Kerala, Gujarat etc.
% Population below Poverty Line

60 Bihar

50 Assam
R2 = 0.0167
40
Maharastr
30 a
Rajasthan
HP
20
Andhra
10 Pradesh

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
% Waste land
 ECOLOGICAL AND INCOME POVERTY -
DYNAMICS
Role of economic Powerlessness of
policies and poor to gain access
Natural
interventions in Resources
or use available
altering the natural resources
relationship Labour & Capital
Flow/Mobility

Spatial Integration of Institutional/

Interventions - Economic activities
Social Factor
Program,
Technology New Lively hood
opportunities

Incidence of
Poverty
Inequitable access Databases on
land, Information, relationship to examine
market and credit the direction of
policies/interventions?
 Persons

Government 160

Spending, 140

Growth, and 120

Number of people moved
out of poverty as a result
Poverty 100 of additional Rs.1Million
in Rural India 80 spending by Government
60

40
Percent
8 20
Increase in productivity
6 Poverty reduction 0
R&D Road IrrigationEducationPower Rural Dev.Soil & Health
4 Water

-0.2
Increase in growth of
-0.4 productivity and
-0.6
reduction in poverty as
result of Government
-0.8
expenditure
-1.0
R&D Road IrrigationEducationPower Rural Dev.Soil & Health Source: IFPRI Report, 1999
Water
 Government Policy and Programme
towards Poverty Reduction
• Self Employment Programme
 Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana
Synergy and Convergence of (IRDP, TRYSEM, DWCRA and
MWS)
Wage Employment Programme
Jawahar Gram Samiti Yojana (JGSY)
Employment Assurance Scheme

• Infrastructure Development Programme

Indira Awas Jojana
Pradhan Mantri Gramadaya Yojana
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana
Rural Electrification

• National Social Assistance Programme

National Maternity Benefits Scheme
National Old Age Pension Scheme
Annapurna
• Micro finance- NABARD, SHG linkages
REACHING OUT DOWN THE LINE???

Whether the various policies &

interventions are well-targeted, and
addressing poverty alleviation and natural
resources development?

Do they allow the economic and spatial

integration of poor and marginalized to
market forces to happen ?
Are they opening up new marginal
income earning opportunities in the
informal sector of economy ?

Did they succeed in reducing their

dependence on natural resource base for
livelihoods?
 Economic &
Spatial
120

Rural Infrastructure Index (%)

Bihar
Integration to
R2 = 0.50
80 W. Bengal
Market
Forces 40
Maharastra

HP
0
120 0 20 40 60 80

100 Bihar Population Below Poverty Line (%)

Rural infrastructure

80 Assam The spatial dynamics of poverty seem to

be influenced by the rural infrastructure,
60 availability of transport links, and the
Rajasthan growth of production and consumption
linkages.
40 Andhra
Pradesh
Maharastra Bihar, West Bengal .. need investments in
20 rural infrastructure towards poverty
reduction, while Maharastra, HP..need
0 other priority
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Wasteland (%)
Policy Interventions towards
Food Security
On contrary, Kerala and Bihar, both being also highly
food insecure States need to have interventions in
other areas for poverty alleviation, as wastelands are
quite low in these States,
Jharkhand, Assam, Rajasthan .. wasteland to be put to
5 use towards income generation, employment creation..
Deficit in food production (ratio)

Kerala
4 The interventions in food secured States Punjab,
Chattisgarh, Himanchal, Haryana, Uttaranchal, Uttar
Jharkhand Pradesh and Karnataka need to be focused on off-farm
3 income generation.

2
Bihar Maharastra Assam
Rajasthan
1
Andhra Pradesh

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60

% of wasteland
 Disaggregated
Poverty Regression coefficient (R square) between
incidence of poverty and wastelands increased
Mapping from 0.0167 at State levels to as good as around
0.5 for quite a few States at the district level.

It may increase further at village level and thus

calling for dis-aggregated wasteland mapping to
establish closer linkages with incidence of
poverty.
70
Incidence of Poverty (% poor)

60 Chittor
Adilabad
50

40

30
East Godavari
R2 = 0.26
20

10

0
0 10 20 30 40 50
Wasteland %
Wasteland mapping could be used to examine the
impact of policies and interventions towards
poverty reduction,

In a typical state, the focus should be on spatial

integration of rural poor to the market forces and
creation of alternate livelihood systems,

Evolving the economic policy instruments which

could lead to substantial poverty reduction as well
as enrichment of natural resources base.

For micro-level interventions, disaggregated poverty

mapping depicting the relationship between
ecological and income poverty is called for.
He and She are poor;
Not because they are borne so;
In fact, it is the failure of the institutions,
polices and programme
that they continue to be poor and
marginalized.

- A Perception