Socio-Ecological Paradigm for Analysing Problems of Poor in Dry Regions: An Indian Contribution

Anil K Gupta

	The adjustments by small farmers and labourers with risks inherent in dry regions have become weaker over time. This has posed challenge to social scientists and development planners who have failed so far in providing any viable policy and programme alternatives. Increasing regional imbalances and emerging social tensions on account of deterioration access of poor farmers cum livestockmen cum craftsmen to resources like fodder; grazing land (common as well as private fallows etc…) have added to the complexity. Frequent droughts in these regions further impair the negative homeostatic adjustments that these households had historically achieved.
	I have tried to argue that logic of simultaneous operations of different classes of rural producers in various markets like credit, product and labour was eco-specific. The socio-ecological paradigm developed recently based on my earlier work on household economy as well as design public delivery systems organisations unable to serve the needs of these farmers is summarised below.
Household economy in semi-arid regions: Socio-ecological paradigm
	It was hypothesized earlier that credit, product and labour market might interrelate in some eco-specific manner (Gupta 1981 a). However the precise logic of this relationship remained to be empirically explored. As  illustrated in figure one (see on p. 74), the socio-ecological perspective for household economy was derived based on a two point (1979-80 and 1982) survey of a large sample of farmers in a semi-arid district of Haryana. Even though all the subsets could not be empirically illustrated, basic framework nevertheless was indeed validated. (Also, see figure p. 73).
	The main elements of the socio-ecological thesis are as follows:
	The ecological conditions defined the range of economic activities that could be sustained in a given context. The scale at which different classes operated these enterprises or activities labour markets. As already mentioned, the choice in one market was not independent of the constraints or opportunities in other markets.  The mix of enterprises so evolved determined the specific subsets of mean variance matrix (see figure) in which we could categorize the household resource management potential different classes. For instance, the sustained operation in low mean-high classes. For instance, the sustained operation in low mean-high variance or to contrast it, high mean low variance would have a significant bearing on social and economic inter-and intra-class exchange relations. Further, the risk co-efficient of the technological level of enterprise management besides the access to institutions also influenced these perceptions were accumulated debts, repertoire of risk adjustment devices, (intra as well as inter household resource adjustment devices), and other communal and public distress mitigating interventions. The perception of risk influenced the future expectations reflected in the choice of discount rate as well as the time period in which these choices were appraised. These efforts together generated a given size and rate of capital accumulation as characterising stable or unstable cash flows. In turn, these cash flows created surplus, subsistence, or deficit budget conditions.
	It was inevitable that the surplus or deficit conditions of different classes would have an important bearing on the stakes they had in environmental protection as well as in planning resource use in a longer time frame. In a dynamic manner the interface between risk, resource and skills modified the enterprise mix which in turn had a feedback effect on the ecological context itself. In semi-arid regions, given the wide range of environmental fluctuations, the changes generally were oriented towards a condition of high entropy. Ultimately the deficit marginal households had to liquidate their assets to survive in the short-run. Whether with the help of credit interventions, public works or other relief policies, poor could or could not recuperate their losses was an empirical question. However, the fact remained that as long as policies for small farmer development in dry regions did not grapple with complexity of socio-ecological settings in which some farmers accumulated surplus while others became deficit budget, it was difficult to make any significant breakthrough in poverty alleviation.
Features of Dry Regions
	The key characteristics of semi-arid regions were summarised as low population density, high fluctuations in agricultural production with very low average productivity levels, high dependence on livestock by poor having majority of browsers and rich having majority of gazers, poor infrastructure of markets, banking and other public systems, dispersed human settlement system, high proportion of low value crops like millets and oil seeds vulnerable to pests and diseases, in the cropping pattern, very fragile but organic link between craft and livestock activities, though inputs or seasonality, e.g. embroidery, weaving, leather work and other skills for utilizing grass or crop residues and livestock products etc., higher average size of land holding, low proportion of landless labourers, severe problem of salinity and alkalinity, etc., The important implications of this for design of delivery systems are mentioned below:
Design of Delivery System
a)	Can sedentary organizations designed to serve sedentary populations serve mobile population? How to organize delivery systems which do not pass on the problem of gaining access on to the poor who should either organize, protest or demand the services which these organizations are in fact set up to supply?
b)	The cost of delivery in low population-density regions was inherently high. Similar financial and budgetary allocations here per capita or per unit of area would intensify regional imbalances.  How to design fiscal policies which avoid such an outcome?
c)	Many times while replicating programmes across different ecological regions, the uniform administrative set up was followed for instance, in T&V system.  If a village level worker was expected to cover same number of households or villages in high and low population density villages, it was inevitable that services should suffer in the backward region. How to design bureaucratic structures for various programmes including DRDA which take different structural constraints into account?
d)	In risky regions, the delivery system was expected to perform more efficiently because, (1) the markets were very weak, and (2) the uncertain rainfall necessitated a high degree of preparedness and resourcefulness on the part of the farmer. How to design monitoring and control system which ensure that reverse is not the case.
      There were several other issues like existence of large number of vacancies, absence of any incentives for postings in such areas, lack of basic amenities, predominance of female headed households (when male migrated away seasonally and bureaucracy proved singularly ineffective in dealing with women clientele), uniform population and costing norms in terms of per capita or number of people per unit of facility (e.g. a bank branch was expected to serve 17000 people all over the country regardless of population density), similar budgetary system despite known and predictable instances of delay, uniform location norms (guided often by growth centre theory which had proved highly inadequate for developing economies) etc. as the review of CMA studies shows, large number of institutional inadequacies have been noted in revenue (or so called regulatory wing) administration having implications for development. While employment oriented programme as well as drought relief works continued to remain with revenue administration, the myth of developmental and regulatory dichotomies in administration continued to influence training and research efforts in development.  There is an urgent need to look systematically into the links which already exist and also the ones which need to be forged between various wings of administration and organization in dry regions.  Highly diversified households in such region necessitated highly diversified programme delivery.
	It is obvious that role of public enterprise in such regions could not be conceptualized in the same way as traditionally done. The fact that dry regions did not attract market forces underlined the need for generating state supported mechanisms (a) to provide access to basic needs (b) to unfold productive potential of poor and (c) to provide opportunity of value addition for local resources.
	Thus, three fulcra on which the design of public enterprises would rest were risks, resources and skills of poor multi-enterprise diversified but deficit budget vulnerable household. Even the design of technology will have to be reconceptualised in socio-ecological framework. Some dimensions of this aspect are mentioned below:
Technology
a)	There is a need to document the traditional criteria for varietal selection in crops as well as livestock so as to integrate these organically with the breeding objectives for future e.g. in a labour surplus economy, synchronous varieties severely constrain the option of subsistence households to manage sowing or harvest within a limited period of time.
b)	There is a need for social science contribution at the ex-ante stage of setting up technological priorities. The scope of such interaction will depend upon the ability of management scientists to demonstrate the feasibility of such contributions besides identifying precise characteristics of the niches for new technologies as well as the constraints at various levels of farmers to be resolved by these technologies.
c)	As against 'package' approach recent attempts amongst dry farming scientists to develop 'tiers of technology' deserve better and greater attention for management scientist so as to improve technological diffusion process.
d)	Risk has been known to be important factor inhibiting experimentation with high mean-high variance technology. Instead of/or together with direct relief, there is a need to launch action-research projects on credit-linked insurance so as to trigger technological transition in a big way. The real trade-off is between sustained expenditure of huge amount in ad hoc manner and massive investments now so as to reduce future needs for relief.
The socio-ecological paradigm provided the scope for redefining the problems and also approaches to solve these problems. It must be recognised that poor were not only better conservators of natural resources as demonstrated in our studies, but also had longer term stakes in their preservation. The village rich who did not have to either often migrate out or graze their animals over longer distances unlike poor were mainly responsible for degradation of village commons. It is submitted therefore, that to provide any long term answer to the increasing problem of poverty and degradation in drought prone environments, concerted effort along socio-ecological lines should be warranted. It is hoped that this work will generate scope for dialogue amongst monority of professionals who may not have been lured already by the tempting, agri-business supported, multinational corporation-dominated research support system biased towards irrigated regions. Unfortunately, the governments in developing countries relying on conceptual filters developed for irrigated regions were neither keen to define the problems of dry regions differently nor in solving them. Delay in this regard would only breed tensions. Hopefully the international concern towards the problem of poor in such regions will manifest before the patience of poor runs out.
SELECT REFERENCES OF OWN WORK

Anil K Gupta	A Note on internal resource management in arid regions small farmers-credit constraints": a paradigm, Agricultural Systems (UK), 1981 Vol: 2: pp. 157-161 (a).

__________	"Social effects of rural projects monitoring through people's participation", International Review of Administrative Science, Vol. XLVII, No. 3, 1981: pp. 241-251(b).

__________	Credit Arrangements for Drought Prone Regions:Policy Prescriptions and Planners' Reaction - September 1983. (IIM Working Paper No. 478).

__________	Designing Developmental Organisations: Search for an Indian Theory, W.P. 444, 1982 p. 28 included XIX Congress International des sciences administratives, Berlin, held in September 1983.

__________	Role of Public Enterprises in Backward Regions: Generating Peasants Perspective - IIM: June 1984, (Working Paper No. 511) - Also presented at XV International CIRIEC Congress at Florence, 1984.

__________	Socio-Ecology of Grazing Land Management: Inventory of Issues - IIM: Sept. 1984 (Working Paper No. 524) p. 16.

__________	Socio-Ecology of Land Use Planning in Semi-Arid Regions - IIM: September 1984 (Working Paper) 

__________	Agenda for Future Research in Dry Regions: Socio-ecological perspective - IIM: forthcoming, (Working Paper)

Kuldeep Mathur	"Action-research for micro level planning: a self appraisal"
& Anil K Gupta	International Review of Adm. Sciences, No. 1, 1984: pp.60-68.

The spatial, seasonal and sectoral dimensions can also be seen with the help of following diagram:

   Space

				
				         1      	         2

3

HPD

LPD

Sector

Specialised	

4

Diversified	
								    5
		            Uni-model					
                                        Low Rainfall
		                                    
                                                                  Bi-model					      6
                                                                High Rainfall

Figure No.   2

				         				

Legend

1.	Low population density
2.	High population density
3.	Specialised (Say only Agri.)
4.	Diversified (Agri – lit – crafts – lab, etc.)
5.	Uni-modal rainfall 
6.	Bi-modal rainfall

Implication:
In low population density region with uni-modal low rainfall, the diversification of sectoral activities is inherent in the household economy.

(Gupta, 1989, 1995, Gupta et al, 1996)