<div><em>The forthcoming issue of the magazine has an in depth story on the overall impact of poor monsoons and the lingering farm crisis. Author <strong>Sutanu Guru</strong> interacted with <strong>Barun Mitra</strong>, Director of the independent Think Tank Liberty Institute who analyses the fault lines in Indian agriculture. </em></div><div> </div><div>In case of food grain, I don't think there is any major worry on the issue of production. The food grain production today is quite evenly spread over kharif and rabi season, which in itself has reduced the dependency on monsoon. The challenge has always been to ensure that the produce reach the markets in time. </div><div> </div><div>The problem has been compounded by the ad hoc approaches to distribution of grain stock, and also the impact of selling grain at a very low cost. In many poorer states, there is perhaps an increasing unwillingness to grow their own grains, if they expect to get it from the government at a much lower price. Then there are issues of APMC, and restrictions of movement of agri produce, lack of processing and cold storage, lack of capacity to manage post harvest stock of grains and other agri produce. </div><div> </div><div>I doubt if there is any trend indicating changing pattern of monsoon. Also, the shortfall and surplus are distributed in different parts of the country. Rather than long term forecast, what the farmers need is a short term and medium term weather forecasting capacity, which is credible, reliable, locally relevant, and real time, so that farmers can actually act on the basis of the information. Currently, for most farmers, there is little practical use of weather forecast. </div><div> </div><div>I think for Indian farmer, the lack of rural infrastructure, access to market, consolidating land holding, problem of leasing and contract farming, inability to capitalize their main productive asset, which is land, quickly and simply, are real challenges, which is impacting productivity. While India is among the top world producer in many crops, the productivity is typically quite lower than the world's best benchmarks. </div><div> </div><div>I tend to look at farmers' suicide in the broader context of agri economy, where over 50% of the population is dependent on 14% of GDP. Also, the fact that suicide is also a distinct phenomenon for a certain social sections, for instance, hardly any suicide among the poorest and marginal farmers. So it seems to be prevalent among middle class farmers, who have higher expectation, and bear higher social pressures. </div><div> </div><div>The fundamental challenge facing agriculture is poor land records, the land laws that restrict consolidation, lease, rent, contract, etc, so that land assets can be optimally utilized by those who are best at it, while the land owners can exercise their options too. And the second challenge is the general economic and business environment, which has actually penalized job creation in the formal sectors of the economy, to the extent that most employers prefer to use capital and technology to reduce the labour component. Finally, there is the challenge of very poor education and skill levels among workers, along with poor health services, which have made it quite difficult to find employable people, from the vast workforce. </div><div> </div><div>This is best illustrated by the slow pace of transition from rural to urban, and agriculture to non-agriculture sectors, retarding the natural transition which most developed and emerging economies have experienced at some point or the others. </div><div> </div>
