Agriculture in India | Part 3 | Farmers in India
· Jafar is a farmer from Meerut where he owns four bigha land in his village in Sardhana tehsil. He grows wheat and sugarcane on his land but lack of an organised mandi is a big factor. He says, “Only Rs 800-1,000 is what we get from our baniya. When we bring the same to Karnal mandi in Haryana after crossing the border, we get a better price. But the transport cost is high, so I have no option but to work as a labourer in Karnal. If I had two acres of land here, then I would have been a landlord too”.
· Small land owning farmers of Bihar work as labourers in farms in Punjab and Haryana.
· One acre of land utilized to establish a factory would generate more employment and GDP than growing rice/wheat.
· India can reduce farm land and population engaged in farming and yet increase quantity and quality of production.
· Only 10% of food in India is processed. This too is mostly primary processing like pasteurised milk. India has high tax on food processing. Major investment in food processing is minimal because there is hardly any domestic demand.
· Only 7% of food is exported. Major items are Basmati rice and mangoes. India is No 13 in food exports. Exports have been falling since 2014 at the rate of 12%. Not opening trade is a stumbling block.
· Farmer suicides are 12000 per year.
· Case of Vietnam. Vietnam increased 4% agriculture GDP by free trade agreements, value chains and exports. Vietnam exports agricultural products to 185 countries, ranking second in Asia and 15th worldwide. At present, China is known as Vietnam’s biggest export market, followed by the US. In 2019, Vietnam’s export turnover of agro-forestry-fishery products reached nearly $41.3 billion, occupying 15.6 per cent the country’s total export revenue, up 3.25 per cent compared to 2018.In the first nine months of 2020, despite the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, the export of agro-forestry-fishery products reached $30.5 billion, accounting for 15 per cent of the total export of the country, up 1.6 per cent over the same period in 2019.
· No farmers’ group was consulted before the three laws were brought and no credible farmers’ group had asked for these laws.
· The government does not have the sole preserve over wisdom.
· All the protesting farmers are not misguided and stupid.
· Government’s credibility is low with the farmers because of the numerous false promises made in the past and three major policy decisions which have ruined the Indian economy: demonetization, poorly planned GST and an unplanned harsh lockdown.
· Sikhs Are Not Risk Averse: Policies are Bad. India has an oversupply of wheat, rice and sugar. Indian farmers engaged in growing these crops are not fools that they grow these crops. These are the main crops for which they can get assured returns because of the government’s policies. Poor people are risk averse and so are the farmers. The Sikh community can arguably be considered the most enterprising community in India and if they are unwilling to diversify more then there is reason to doubt the policies.
Defence career app Defence learning App
Comments
Post a Comment