Indian Agriculture Needs Reforms To Meet The Future Challenges

Agriculture plays a major role in fostering the economic growth of a country. Most of the macro economic factors that affect Indian economy have their deep roots in agriculture and allied activities. Even after seven decades of India’s independence, dependence over agriculture has been somehow similar to what it was in the early 50s.

Unlike manufacturing or service industry, the ailments in agriculture play a direct role in farmers’ distress. Recent agrarian agony is not hidden from any Indian. Any agrarian distress gives birth to various related factors that pull the agrarian economy on the back foot. BW Businessworld takes a look at few of the major agriculture issues which collectively capture the root of the agrarian agony.

In the words of JLN Srivastava, former agriculture secretary government of India, “A farmer with restrictions in land ceiling act (LCA), has to seek for different permissions to sell his own land which he may use for agrarian purposes, or for a better living”. It simply gives a hint of modification in the present form of the act, making it simple for a farmer to sell or purchase land for their well-being, freeing them from distress.

Rayat and Shetkari (two biggest farmers’ organisations from Karnataka and Maharashtra) organisation, believes that ‘essential commodities & services management act (ESMA) had been used to suppress the trade of agro-produce to benefit large industries. This was and is used for pulses, onions, maize, potato and many other grains. This act with its current provisions ends up suppressing the farmers and it’s high time for them to free themselves from the clutches of its dictating provisions.

The father of Indian green revolution MS Swaminathan suggests, “Effective crop insurance need to be affordable and must be small farmers’ friendly”. There must be a system of group insurance according to both location and farming system. Hence farmers need to free themselves from complicated crop insurance procedures and underlying policy complications.

Indians have recently been witness to a distressing sight in the form of rotten tomatoes and onions on road. Pricing & Procurement is another area where farmers must be allowed to decide the price of their produce; it is not the matter of deciding the minimum support prices (MSP) and playing with multiple market intervention schemes (MIS). The introduction of better practices will free the market from various standard pricing issues, which finally prove to be a burden. Even a common man, purchasing costly vegetables has to suffer every day from fluctuation in prices and unnecessary price hikes of agricultural commodities.        

Land holdings are continuously getting small and they force farmers to get higher yields from smaller lands. Such practices can lead farmers to a threshold at any time, says the organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) outlook and farmers need freedom from it. National Farmers’ Commission's proposal of feminisation of agriculture may possibly result in better training and in future can somehow control land holding fragmentation.

Farm Credit has been said to have a major role in farmer suicides. Farm credit on easy terms and lowest possible interest rates may play a crucial role in motivating farmers to get back to agrarian practices, says S K Singh of small farmers business consortium. Agriculture needs freedom from sugar coated credit schemes with a trap at its core; this may give a huge boost to agrarian practices and will reduce farmers’ suicide.

The introduction of Agriculture Produce and Livestock Marketing Act (APML) 2017 may free both farmers and consumers from the core problem of price differences in different regions over different products. Higher market connectivity and free licencing mechanisms may prove to be highly responsive. Support of digital market tools like e-NAM (electronic national agriculture market) has though given some relief already.     

Finally, agriculture needs freedom from those farm land owners who don’t practice agriculture but enjoy all the compensatory benefits. The real practitioner in their farm lands remains deprived of all the compensations. Above all, the problem in heavy wastage of agriculture produce which is more than Rs. one lakh crore per annum must be handled by various participating agencies to free all the stakeholders in agriculture from this wastage tradition, suggests a research by the Crop Care Federation of India.

Agriculture should be practised as a culture by policy makers, says chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on farmers. A freedom that is must for someone who spends day and night in the farm fields to arrange food for us.