Time To Seed A Transition

Context: By shifting from rice to maize and diversifying to fruits and vegetables, farmers can earn more, while practicing sustainable farming.

Issues in agriculture sector

• Agriculture income still at lower end: An average Indian farmer earned Rs 10,218 per month in 2018-19. 
• Regional income inequality: Across states, the highest income was received by a farming household in Meghalaya (Rs 29,348) followed by Punjab (Rs 26,701), Haryana (Rs 22,841) while the lowest income levels were in West Bengal (Rs 6,762), Odisha (Rs 5,112) and Jharkhand (Rs 4,895).
• Earning higher incomes in many states primarily because of the size of their landholding: Eg. If we normalise incomes of agri-households using Census values of average holding sizes, Punjab’s rank would go further down to 21st (household monthly income Rs 7,376) out of 28 states.
• Environmental externalities of green revolution: Dominant rice cultivation is depleting state’s water table, emitting methane and other greenhouse gases that damage environment and stubble burning is choking millions.

Way forward: Agri-income per hectare basis needs to increase more sustainably, protecting land, water and air from further degradation, and producing more nutritious food

• Dedicated fund of (around Rs 25,000 crore) to help farmers switch from paddy to maize: Centre shall take following actions
• Fund should be under a five-year plan to shift at least a million hectares of paddy area (out of a total of 3.1 million hectares of paddy area in Punjab) to maize.
• The corpus should have equal contributions from the Centre and state.
• Since Punjab wants that farmers be given MSP for maize, an agency, the Maize Corporation of Punjab (MCP), should be created to buy maize from farmers at MSP.
• This agency should enter into contracts with ethanol companies, and much of this maize can be used to produce ethanol.
• Maize productivity must be as competitive as that of paddy in Punjab and the best seeds should be used for that purpose.
• Diversification strategy on lines of increasing area under fruits and vegetables, and a more focused policy to build efficient value chains in not just fruits and vegetables but also livestock and fisheries.
• The sector needs to be backed by proper processing, grading and packaging infrastructure to tap its full potential.