Abstract
In the sudden passing away of Prof. Tajamul Haque, the country has lost a scholar of rare integrity and commitment. Agriculture was his passion and his life’s mission, but it would be unfair to single him out as an agricultural economist for Prof. Haque was deeply involved in thinking about development issues facing this country.
Prof. Haque had a distinguished professional career. He was a scientist at the agricultural economics division of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute. Subsequently, he became the national fellow of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) at the National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, following which he became the director of the National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD), Hyderabad. Prof. Haque made his move from being a policy researcher to policymaker when he became a member of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), and then for several years he served as the chairperson of this institution. After completing his tenure with the CACP, he took over as the director of the Council of Social Development (CSD), getting back to his passion, policy research.
Prof. Haque was a researcher par excellence and very well regarded both in the country and internationally. He dwelled on a wide spectrum of research areas, including issues of smallholder agriculture, agrarian reforms, and land tenancy and rural development. His seminal contributions helped in enhancing our understanding on critical issues confronting agriculture and the rural economy. He authored several books including, Empowerment of Rural Women in Developing Countries, Socio-economic Impact Assessment of Bt Cotton in India, Land Policies for Inclusive Growth, Agrarian Reforms and Institutional Changes in India, Impact of Land Reforms on Agriculture and Rural Development, Transfer of Technology to Small Farmers and Impact of Tenancy Reform on Agricultural Productivity and Socio-economic Status of Tenants and Sustainability of Small Holder Agriculture. Most of his writings used to solve the misery of poor and downtrodden, especially landless labour, and small and marginal farmers.
Prof. Haque was also known as a land expert in India and abroad. He had been associated with land-related issues in South Asian countries for quite a long time. He was the national coordinator and member, Technical Advisory Group of the Land Governance Assessment Framework, implemented by the World Bank in collaboration with the Department of Land Resources, Government of India. He was also the advisor to the World Bank commissioned studies on ‘Operationalization of Gender Equitable Land Tenure Governance in Odisha in the Context of the VGGT’ and ‘Monitoring Women’s Land Rights in India in the Context of the SDGs’. He had been working as an advisor to Landesa, an NGO which works in more than 40 countries. In more recent years, Prof. Haque shared his expertise and experience as an advisor to the NITI Aayog. He headed the committee constituted by the NITI Aayog to critical review of the existing agricultural tenancy laws of the states. The committee prepared a Model Law on Agricultural Land Leasing, keeping in view the need to legalise land leasing. Concurrently, he served as chair of an Expert Appraisal Committee for the environmental impact assessment of several major infrastructural projects set up by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
Prof. Haque served as a consultant to several international organisations such as the International Labour Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the African-Asian Rural Development Organization and the World Bank, among others. He was a visiting fellow of the International Food Policy Research Institute, Oxford University and University of Alberta, Canada. Prof. Haque had worked as a member/chairperson of several professional societies, working groups and advisory boards, including the erstwhile Planning Commission, Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Agriculture, the Confederation of Indian Industry, ICAR, NIRD and Haryana Institute of Rural Development.
Prof. Haque consistently focussed on issues which would help in improving the condition of small farmers in the country. Soon after leaving CACP, he launched the National Alliance of Farmers Association aimed at providing a common platform for farmers’ associations/unions so that their voices would reach policymakers. He organised frequent interactions between farmers’ organisations and policy/lawmakers, always acting as a bridge for the redressal of the farmer’s concerns. Having participated in several of these interactions, I could see the tremendous acceptance that Prof. Haque had among the farmers. I have not seen any one from the policymaking world who was so intimately connected with the grassroots as Prof. Haque was.
It was this quality that made him an excellent organiser. He would constantly look for ways in which ideas could be cross-fertilised with fellow travellers. It was this thinking of his that led him to establish a forum for actively engaging on issues of agriculture and rural development, the Centre for Agricultural Policy. The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted his plans of bringing the major stakeholders onto this forum to discuss the vexed problems in Indian agriculture, and he was looking forward to the post-COVID phase to do so.
Prof. Haque’s passing away has left a huge void in the lives of many of his close friends. The one wonderful quality that he possessed was that he always encouraged his younger friends. I was particularly fortunate to have him as one of my close friends. In my two decades of association with him, Prof. Haque was my friend, philosopher and guide. Meeting him was always extremely productive for he would not only share and bounce off many different ideas. But more than anything else, I never heard a critical comment from him on anyone. I believe that in this age and time, only exceptional persons possess this trait. Prof. Haque was that exceptional person who will sorely be missed by all those who knew him.