Context: The distinct characteristics of India’s agriculture require that a reformed state must ensure farmer, consumer welfare.
Issues associated with Indian agriculture:The following issues deeply requires state interventions too.
Wrong economic framework: Based on the notion that a progressively reduced role of the state would automatically deliver greater economic growth and welfare to people.
However, it is the state that has played (in the past) the leading role in provisioning the most critical aspects of life: water, sanitation, education, health, food and nutrition.
Low returns: Due to a variety of limiting factors, from uncertainties of the weather to soil fertility and water availability, increasing returns to scale are very difficult to achieve in farming.
In competition with the economies of scale: While the economies of scale can generate profits even by cutting their costs, nothing of such sorts happens in agriculture. (Skewed balance of power)
Of nine crore rural families who draw their main income from unskilled manual labour, four crores are small and marginal farmers.
Agriculture cannot be organised in an assembly line: Because of integral dependence on annual climatic cycle.
All farmers harvest the crop at the same time.
86% of India’s farmers are ‘small and marginal’, cannot afford warehousing facilities.
Inelastic demand resulting in price crash during periods of extra supplies.
Unregulated markets: Only 17% of farm produce passes through mandis. Thus, during drought, vulnerable farmer either starve or get pauperised, being forced to buy very expensive commodities.
Biased credit market and exploitation by money lenders: High-interest rates as 60%-120% per annum create a debt trap.
Cumulative and cascading spiral of expropriation. E.g. Oppressive caste system, with poorer, ‘lower’ caste farmers left with no protection.
Negative consequences of Green Revolution:
It made farmers dependent on water-intensive crops. More than 300,000 farmers committed suicide in the last 30 years.
Reported steady decline in water tables and water quality; Around 90% of India’s water is consumed in farming, and of this, 80% is used up by rice, wheat and sugarcane.
Falling yield response to application of increasingly expensive chemical inputs, which mean higher costs of cultivation, without a corresponding rise in output.
Way forward:
Expand basket of public procurement: Procurement must be local and follow the logic of regional agroecology to include more crops, more regions and more farmers. Benefits
Can ensure higher and more sustainable farmer incomes.
Greater water security and better consumer health: Diversify to include millets, pulses and oilseeds to reduce agri-water consumption in stressed areas.
Ensuring steady market: Allot 25% of actual production as proposed under 2018 Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay SanraksHan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA) scheme.
Localise farm-market operations: Locally procured crops can be incorporated into Anganwadi supplementary nutrition and school mid-day meal programmes.
It will help tackle India’s twin syndemic of malnutrition and diabetes; through Public investment in specific infrastructure for millets and pulses.
Infrastructure expansion: To provide farmers access within a radius of five kilometres, India needs 42,000 mandis, and there is a need for reforms to ensure transparency and farmer-friendly operations.
Focus on rural India: United Nations estimates that in 2050, 800 million people will continue to live in rural India; thus the prosperity of rural India is indispensable in all negotiations.