Seeds of a Revolution

Context:  New farm laws offer a way out from the drag on rural economy created by old model of agriculture.

Need for the new farm laws

• Historical reasons
  • Landholdings in many states have shrunk over the years: difficult for a farming family to sustain themselves with small landholdings.
  • After Independence, there was no concrete effort to uplift farm sector, except “Green Revolution”
    • Initially none of the farmers was ready to use Norman Borlaug's methods of farming. (initially implemented in around 150 farm holdings with the assistance of Punjab Agriculture University)
    • The Green Revolution worked on 3 fronts: better seeds, irrigation & optimum use of fertilisers.
  • India opened up its market to the world in 1991: but major changes in the farm sector could not move ahead due to coalition politics.
• Many countries had already successfully done similar reforms: The latest farm policy reforms of the government are also called agrarian transition development and were implemented in Europe and the United States early on.
• Old model is outdated: The old model has been a drag on the economy as well as the villages.
  • When India attained Independence, the contribution of agriculture to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was huge, which today has come down to around 15 %. 
  • Today, around 45% of the country’s workforce is involved in agriculture.
• To extract benefits from the models of Contract farming:
  • Rapid growth of villages:
    • By speeding up urbanisation, development of industries and the service sector that can absorb the excess workforce from farm sector (there are about 20% of excess agricultural workforce.)
  • Help the small and marginal landholders:
    • E.g. If a village has a thousand farmers who have an acre of arable land, then, through contract farming, someone can sow crops on the entire 1,000 acres of land. The farmers will earn profit from the crops and will be free to pursue other employment opportunities.

Conclusion:  Green Revolution 2.0 — will come through in-depth research, better investment opportunities and access to the market. The three farm laws are a revolutionary step in that direction.