Opinion: Agriculture needs comprehensive policy

By Devi Prasad Juvvadi Agriculture in India has suffered a plethora of structural ailments that has contributed to the continuing crisis of the sector for long while nearly 50% of the workforce is still engaged in the farm sector. Every government that comes to power promises a better tomorrow for farmers in particular and the […]

By Devi Prasad Juvvadi

Agriculture in India has suffered a plethora of structural ailments that has contributed to the continuing crisis of the sector for long while nearly 50% of the workforce is still engaged in the farm sector. Every government that comes to power promises a better tomorrow for farmers in particular and the agriculture sector in general and probably in that direction Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought in farm laws in 2020.

The government stated that the laws would transform the sector and help raise farm incomes. The merits and demerits of farm laws were debated for over a year, and none was against the need to reform the agricultural sector, which has become unremunerative and requires revitalisation. However, the laws were withdrawn.

While the farm law repeal has received mixed reactions from people across the country, the episode serves as a reminder to the policymakers that laws and policies must be enacted after detailed consultations with all stakeholders and after giving due consideration to the interests of all concerned, particularly governments in States as the subject belongs to them under the Constitution. Whatever be the reasons that forced the government to revoke these Acts, farmers in India continue to face significant challenges, including a crisis of poverty and mounting debt, driving many to suicide.

World Experience

It is interesting to note that in the US only 1% workforce depends on agriculture and in many countries of the European Union, about 4% of the people are dependent on agriculture but agriculture policies in these countries are regularly enacted. In the US, Farm Acts are enacted about every five years, while the EU countries adopt their Common Agricultural Policy almost every decade.

However, in India well over 50% of the workforce is still directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture and yet none of the governments at the Centre initiated a process of enacting farm policies in consultation with the State governments. Inadequate investment, coupled with diminishing funding for agricultural research over the decades, meant growing inefficiencies in this sector. This can be seen from the fact that although India is among the top producers of all major food crops, it is considerably behind others countries in terms of productivity per unit area, according to data provided by the Food and Agricultural Organisation.

For example, India’s rice yield in 2019 was 2.7 tonnes per hectare as compared with Australia’s 8.8 tonnes per hectare, while India’s wheat yield was 3.5 tonnes per hectare as against Ireland’s 9.4 tonnes per hectare. This reveals the absence of farm-centric interventions and farmer-centred development that has hurt the agriculture sector the most. Further, the agricultural policy is mainly focused on subsidies and needs a serious relook as dole-out is a price that the country has had to pay for the failure of the policymakers to comprehensively address the problems of the farm sector and yet, the fundamental ills of Indian agriculture are not adequately addressed.

Complex System

At present, agricultural policies in India are designed and implemented by a complex system of institutions. The States have constitutional responsibility for many aspects of agriculture, but the Central government plays an important role by developing national approaches to policy and providing the necessary funds for implementation at the State level. Nevertheless, a sufficiently strong mechanism does not exist to bring State and Central level policymakers together to discuss problems, design solutions and monitor performance. This has resulted in lagging in reforms in agricultural policy compared with other sectors.

Since independence, the governments have laid down clear policies for all sectors starting with the Industrial Policy in 1948 followed by its detailed version in 1956 but the agricultural policy never went beyond a draft that was prepared by the NDA government at the turn of the millennium.

The National Agricultural Policy (NAP) document of July 2000 aims to attain output growth rate in excess of 4% per annum in the agriculture sector based on efficient use of resources. It also seeks to achieve growth with equity, ie, growth, which is widespread across regions and farmers but did not yield the desired results due to poor allocation of funds and implementation flaws. The fact remains that the country does not have any comprehensive agricultural policy taking into consideration the opportunities and technologies that have emerged in the last two decades.

Production, Productivity

Agricultural policy of the country must be designed by the government for raising agricultural production and productivity, and also for raising the level of income and standard of living of farmers within a definite time frame. The policy should generally be formulated for all-round and comprehensive development of the agricultural sector. However, agricultural policy is a complex net of interventions, covering input markets, output markets, infrastructure investments, renewable and exhaustible natural resources, regulation of externalities, extension, marketing of produce, processing, value addition and distribution of food products.

After repealing the farm laws, agriculture appears to stare at a bleak future in the long run if a dialogue is not initiated for the adoption of a comprehensive agricultural policy, which can reverse the neglect that the sector has faced over the past decades. As the Prime Minister has indicated that a committee would be formed to address agrarian issues, it is imperative to involve all the stakeholders, including Central, State governments and farmers. Formulating a comprehensive National Agriculture Policy at this juncture addressing the current and future agrarian issues is in the best interest of the Indian farming sector.

Agricultural policy should be in the vanguard of priorities of governments with clearly defined roles for the Centre and States for transforming the sector. It is time to create a policy environment that enables income security for farmers, while maintaining India’s food security with the participation of all the stakeholders taking agricultural development to transition from livelihoods to farm business.

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