Paddy-Milling: Problems in Policy and the Choice of Technology

Abstract

In 1963 the Ford Foundation, in the wake of their important blueprint of a modernised agricultural production technology (Ford Foundation, 1959), moved their attention to the technologies of the foodgrains distribution system, anticipating problems of processing future surpluses. They found that marketable surpluses of food grains were of low quality, as were storage facilities, and that hulling technology was antiquated; and they advocated a comprehensive updating of the system (Faulkner et al., 1963) . In 1970 the Rice Milling Industry (Regulation and Licensing) Amendment Rules prescribed that all traditional mills should be replaced by newer technologies (NCDC, 1975, p. 12). These rules have been a notable failure: in the face of difficulties imposed by government policy the obsolescent technology continues to diffuse through the South Asian countryside.

To most people progress has become synonymous with imitation of Western models but where we have followed models from the industrial society and have been insensitive to our own circumstances the results have not been happy. The time has come for us to think deeply about the kind of progress we want. (Indira Gandhi at inauguration of the National Committee on Environmental Planning and Co-ordination, Delhi, April 1972)