Indian agriculture needs a Verghese Kurien

The Hindu     27th November 2021     Save    
QEP Pocket Notes

    Context: Conflict between Central government and farming community on issue of farm laws are still unresolved. Current Crisis calls for rural revolution that will eventually transform lives of millions of farmers.

    Possible solutions to the current crisis of farming community

    • Focus on co-operative model of business development like Amul:  that led to partnership between the wisdom of its rural people and the skill of its professionals.
    • Co-operatives is the closest embodiment of Mahatma Gandhi’s powerful insight that what the world needs is not mass production, but production by the masses”.
    • Cooperative model helps poverty alleviation and social transformation: As it meets both the  social objectives of public sector undertaking and  profit motive private corporate entity.
    • Co-operative movement helps in economic transformation at the grass-roots level.
    • Farmers should borrows ideas and the practices of the corporate world in agriculture: In areas such as innovations in marketing and management, branding and technology.
    • Indigenous technological development: Co-operative must focus on developing significant innovations and evolving technologies of its own.
    • Focus on digital revolution: India’s digital revolution has bypassed the agriculture sector. 
    • India talks about smart cities, not smart villages, nor even liveable villages. 
    • Rejig India’s bureaucracy: That still seen by many as a leftover of the colonial mindset and the product of a western lifestyle.

              Conclusion: Co-operative movement in India is in a state of flux. It has suffered due to lack of professional management, adequate finance and poor adoption of technology. In the meantime, the pandemic has deepened the urban-rural divide. This is truly a moment to bring Amul like movements across other agricultural commodities.
              QEP Pocket Notes