Massive drive needed to double farm income
By K.R. Sudhaman
Once the then Principal Economic Adviser in Finance Ministry Dipak Dasgupta was asked what is the problem of Indian agriculture? He said in one word that Indian agriculture has to become “smart”. Seventy years after independence, Indian agriculture has not taken off to the desired level despite over all development of Indian Economy. It is not that Indian agriculture has been ignored. A lot has been done but the cutting edge development has not happened. The reason has been that a holistic approach has not been taken so far for the development of agriculture. The holding is getting fragmented, Technology has been inadequately utilised still 60 per cent of the population dependent on agriculture is accounting for less than 15 per cent of GDP. Average farm productivity is one of the lowest in the World in most of the crops though India’s yield of various farm products in pockets matched the best in the World. This is a dichotomy.
Indian agriculture has no doubt come a long way. We have had Green Revolution, White Revolution, blue revolution and so on. No one in India now dies of starvation as used to happen in the past during the British Colonial rule, the most well known being the Bengal Famine of 1942- 43. These are things of the past but farmer’s suicide is rampant and increasing day by day. This is because the development in agriculture is haphazard and topsy turvy. There is no integrated approach. Agriculture being a state subject, there is no single unified market. This explains the fact that seasonal vegetable like bottle gaurd (Giya) is available for Re one a kilo just 50 kms away from Delhi but in Delhi it is never less than Rs 40 a kg. Where does this Rs 39 go? Neither the farmer is benefiting nor the consumers and some middlemen are making money day in day out to the detriment of farmers and consumers.
India has the largest irrigated area in the World, yet more than half of farm land is dependent on monsoon. Also because of geographic situation and India being a peninsula, It is one of the few countries in the World, which has a monsoon season. India has much greater percentage of its land as arable. Even China and US do not have that large percentage of land as arable. Our Gangetic plains are one of the most fertile areas in the world with perennial river flow. Despite the country being endowed with all these positives, India’s water management is one of the worst. Minor irrigations, rain water harvesting, interlinking of peninsular rivers, drip irrigation, have not received adequate attention.
Rice is grown in Punjab where it should not be grown, Sugarcane should not be cultivated in Maharashtra but it is cultivated there resulting in water table depleting and some areas resulting in water shortage.. There is shortage of dal, the main source of protein for vegetarians. All these are happening because soil testing is not taken seriously, water availability is not looked into before selection of crops. Extension work is not carried out in the manner it should be. Fruits and vegetables go waste in large quantities because proper markets have not been developed, poor cold storage facility and insufficient food processing industries too came in the way resulting in Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 crore loss to farmers due to wastage and rotting.
Timely credit is not available to poor farmers despite bank farm credit increasing year after year and stood at Rs 9 lakh crore annually. Multi-brand retail opening up to Foreign Direct Investment would have provided great opportunity to farmers, which would have not only helped in keeping a check on middlemen but also provided remunerative prices to farmers. 70 per cent of the sales in multibrand stores on an average in the world are on food items. One welcome development lately is to allow 100 per cent FDI in food processing and food retail in this year’s budget.
Because of higher MSP being provided to rice and wheat year after year, only rich farmers seem to benefit as top 10 per cent of farmers have 60 per cent of the marketable surplus in rice and wheat, which are procured at high MSP contributing to food inflation. As a result rich farmers keep getting richer at the cost of exchequer and inflation. Also our FCI godowns are overflowing with rice and wheat which are rotting because of excess stocks, three times the buffer requirement. Rich farmers do not want to get into production of pulses as there is no easy money in it. Also poor farmers too are hit because of high MSP as they have to buy from open market at times at much higher price because of high MSP. This is the reality of Indian farming
You also have Nilghai problem is the North where standing crops are damaged. Animal menace is a reality especially in fringe areas around forests as forests have been encroached upon. Besides weather god has not been kind to farmers in recent years. The country not only faced drought last two years but also unseasonal rains damaging standing crops or harvested crops. Herd mentality too has hit farmers. If sugarcane or cotton fetch good price this year, farmers cultivate more sugarcane or cotton subsequent years hurting them badly due to depressed prices arising out of excess supply. To top it all, sugarcane mills, mostly in the hands of politicians and rich businessmen do not release payments in time.
Under the garb of agriculture income, the rich farmers abuse the tax exemption provided to agriculture income to generate black money. The rich farmers have tremendous political clout and most of them are in politics. All of them claim to be humble farmers and in reality they are not. Rollout of Goods and Services Tax will ensure that single common market is created. This will also facilitate east movement of farm produce but along with it APMC act has to be dismantled totally. Adhoc import-export policy in farm produce too is hurting the farmers badly as it creates instability. A stable export-import policy would provide generous income to poor farmers. Exotic farm products from India fetch good price abroad but this requires marketing, better packaging and improved preservation and cold storage.
Disguised unemployment is rampant in agriculture in India and it becomes more pronounced during difficult years. NREGA programme is a welcome development but has been abused badly by middlemen and money has been siphoned off by local politicians. The leakage is so much that it has not served the purpose it is meant for. This is the hard reality of Indian farming. Though it has come a long way since independence, the problems persists and genuine efforts have not yielded desired results so far.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi government has taken some positive initiatives lately. The union budget this year has made some honest attempts to reform Indian agriculture particularly after BJP got a drubbing in Bihar elections where people in rural India made it clear that India is not shining for them and the gap between India and Bharat is ever widening because of the efforts to promote chrony capitalism. It is a welcome development that Modi Government, which was dubbed as Suit-boot ki Sarkar has woken up and decided not to turn deaf year to the vows of farmers. The misery of poor farmers is real. Modi’s announcement earlier this year that his government would strive to double the income of farmers by 2022 if implemented in all earnest, would bring about a sea change in rural India.
Now technology is there. In an era of internet, commnication is so easy that government can achieve wonders through e-farming and e learning. Direct benefit transfer and Aadhaar will help in plugging leakages in the money being doled out to poor farmers, making the social schemes more effective. Modi has taken a good initiative in crop insurance to end the misery of farmers. Mechanisation and technological revolution have to take place taking into account the interests of common farmers. An all out drive to improve the conditions of Indian agriculture, has to be launched to make the sector smart. (IPA Service)