Move Beyond Peasantries

Context: A second Green Revolution is the way out of farm protests and can usher in a win-win for farmers and the government.

Issues in the food and agriculture sector

• Policy stagnation: Monsoon dependence have reduced, and we have a huge stock of grains, but our food and broader agricultural policy are stuck in a 50-year-old mindset.
• Low productivity trap: India derives only 15% of its GDP from agriculture. But over 42% of its population remains dependent on farming, against 10% in China and less than 1% in the US.
  • 61% of farmers surveyed said they would prefer to leave farming if they found employment in the city - Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) study.
  • Of the 42% dependent on farming, more than 50% do not even own land but work as labourers.
• Fall in farm size: Over 45 years till 2016, according to agricultural census, the average size of the Indian farm has shrunk by more than half, from 2.28 hectares (ha) to 1.08 ha. 
  • Of 146 million farms, nearly 100 million are marginal, or smaller than 1 ha.
  • The average size of farm holdings in 2015-16 ranged from 3.62 ha in Punjab, 2.73 ha in Rajasthan and 2.22 ha in Haryana, to 0.75 ha in Tamil Nadu, 0.73 ha in UP, 0.39 in Bihar and 0.18 in Kerala.
• Infrastructure gap: A CSDS Lokniti study revealed that 50% feel their problems are linked to low productivity, lack of irrigation and poor institutional arrangements in agriculture.
• Inequity: Only a few have benefited hugely from free electricity, no-income-tax, cheap fertilisers and assured MSPs in government mandis.
• Health and environmental concerns: 
  • Free electricity is destroying the water table.
  • Heavy fertiliser and pesticide use have created a cancer crisis in Punjab. 
  • Burning stubble contributed to massive air pollution in Delhi-NCR.

Comprehensive policy shift towards second Green Revolution: Suggestions by agricultural economist S S Johl

• Crop diversification: Encourage farmers, especially in Punjab and Haryana, to shift their crop production away from wheat and rice to fruit, vegetables, pulses and oilseeds whose demand has been growing.
  • Such a shift will allow other states to increase their production of these items and increase incomes.
• Income support instead of subsidies: Farmers should, instead, have income support to pay for electricity and other inputs. GoI should increase payments under PM-KISAN and expand MGNREGA.
• Invest in technology and infrastructure development: GoI should improve the farm price information systems through mobile telephony and vital infrastructure for the food supply chain.