Agriculture in India | Part 4 | Farmers in India
Problems of Agriculture/Policies
· India is food surplus, thus domestic demand is less than the supply and hence getting the right price for the crops produced is always a problem.
· 44% of the farming population contributes to only 15% of the GDP. Thus majority of the farmers are poor everywhere, including in Punjab and Haryana.
· Farm sizes need to be increased to improve efficiency.
· Not more than 15% of the population is required for agriculture. Thus approximately 30% of the population needs to be shifted to manufacturing and services sectors. With the current high unemployment rate and “Make in India” being only a slogan like most of the present government’s promises there is no scope for absorbing this population.
· India cannot sustain grain stocks of 97 million metric tonnes, which is substantially more than double the buffer stock requirement of 41.2 million tonnes.
· Food exports are very limited. Indian food products may find it difficult to meet the international quality standards as regards the use of chemicals, pesticides and so on.
· Over production of wheat and rice, particularly in Punjab and Haryana and now MP have resulted in a surplus of these grains in India. This has adversely affected the water-table which is unsustainable. The stubble burning, which the farmers are forced to resort to has caused immense pollution.
· There is an over-supply of sugar in the world. India produces surplus sugar. The production of cost of sugar in India is high because of inefficiencies like transportation cost, loss of sugar percentage in transit, inadequate utilization of sugarcane for production of ethanol and other by-products. India often has to export sugar at a loss.
· Over 60 percent of farm land is totally dependent upon rain. There is a need to increase irrigation cover of farm lands.
· Private sector has to be brought in the farm sector because government does not have the required financial capacity.
· The present system of public procurement is untenable and cannot continue. There are levels of wastefulness up to 40% in the PDS system which inflate costs. In addition there is leakage of up to 46% in the procurement system.
· A study by National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) concludes that storage is the major cause of post-harvest losses for all kinds of food in India. This is primarily discussed in the realm of fruits and vegetables, where India faces a critical deficiency of cold storage capacity – this belies the enormous potential of its processed food industry. As of March 2017, India had 7,645 cold storages having an aggregate holding capacity of 34.95 million tonnes. Around 57% of these are based in UP and West Bengal, and 75% of the cold storage capacity is used for potatoes. On the other hand, 30-40% of fruits and vegetables are estimated to be wasted due to lack of proper cold storage facilities.
· Agriculture reforms are due since long but have not been undertaken. The UPA and NDA governments are both blameworthy.
· The UPA government’s plans for reforms were on the similar lines as those undertaken by the present government.
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