Rural infrastructure development of Manipur

— A policy implication for agricultural growth —
By Thokchom Motilal Singh

In a developing country like India, the infrastr- uctural facilities are generally weak and inadequate. However, infrastructure asset prevailing in western part of the country have more or less contributed to the economy of rural areas.

Interestingly, there is wide regional disparity in the development of the rural infrastructure such as in the North Eastern Region as against the western region of India wherein agricultural transformation had been attended when green revolution was started in the early 70s.

However, the North Eastern Region of the country is in the midst of the green revolution when the whole country has called for the second green revolution. Of which, Manipur is in the yore of green revolution mostly with traditional system of agriculture. With this, the agricultural growth rate during last few decades is of negative trend and is the lowest in the NE Region (Planning Commission, 2006).

Therefore direct linkages between infrastructure and the agricultural development can easily be ascertained within a region. Again, experiences have showed that increase in the stock of infrastructure is associated with increase in output. The progress of agricultural achievement in some part of the country can be attributed directly with the rural infrastructure where technological push up alone could hardly achieved similar success without interplay of other infrastructure attribute. Talking about infrastructure, it usually refers to the physical framework of facilities through which goods and services are provided to the public. In fact, it is an umbrella term for many activities such as ‘Social Overhead Capital’ which results in facilities and usually provided free (as in case of roads) or at reduced charges (as in case of electricity). The economic infrastructure supports primarily the eco-nomic activities and its component being utilized such as power irrigation, transport and communication.

The agricultural development is not exclusively determined by the “economic behaviours of the producers,” but also depends on the environment, which according to Wharton includes physical-climate, socio-cultural and institutional components that form what he calls “the agricultural infrastructure”.

Adequate infrastructure raises productivity and lowers production costs, but it has to expand fast enough to accommodate growth. While the precise linkages between infrastructure and development are yet to be firmly established, it is estimated that infrastructure capacity grows step by step with economic output - (a 1 per cent increase in the stock of infrastructure is associated with a 1 percent increase in gross domestic product (GDP) across all countries (summers and Heston, 1991). Rostow in his theory of ‘Stages of Growth’ considered social overhead capital, especially in transport and communication as one of the main pre-conditions for take-off (Rostow, 1960). The role of social overhead capital in accelerating economic growth and in enhancing public welfare is more pronounced in developing economics as the indivisibility in the social overhead capital has been identified as one of the main obstacle of the development of under-developed countries (Rose- nstein-Rodan, 1943).

The spread of technology in agriculture depends critically on both physical and institutional infrastructure. Most of the poor are in the rural areas and the growth of farm productivity and non-farm rural employment is linked closely to infrastructure provision (World Bank, 1994). It is estimated that 15 percent of the crop produce is lost between the farm gate and the consumer because of poor roads and inappropriate storage facilities alone, adversely effecting the income of farmers (World Bank, 1997).

So, social overheads such as electricity, irrigation, road and transport should be maintained, banking, market (Regulated) and warehousing structure are to be taken into account. Recent study of Kumar et al (2006) pointed out this agriculture development has much to do with infrastructure set up.

Further, adequate infrastructure facilities are essential pre-condition for the agricultural growth and accelerated economic development. Also, at the dawn of the new millennium, agricultural transformation is a must so as to feed the growing population in the next few decades to come.

In the state like Manipur where infrastructure development are neglected, high transaction cost arising from inadequate and inefficient infrastructure can prevent the economy from realizing its full growth potential regardless of the progress on other fronts. Infrastructure facility often referred to as social overheads, which help to sustain the growth in production and income generation in the rest of the economy rather then within the infrastructure enterprises.

The link between infrastructure and development is not a once for all affairs, but is a continuing and ongoing process. The progress in economy development has to be preceded, accompanied and followed by progress in infrastructure in order to fulfil the objective of self-accelerating progress of economic development.