48. Essay Writing Format, structure and Examples. ‘CRISIS OF INDIAN AGRICULTURE’

CRISIS OF INDIAN AGRICULTURE

India is an agricultural country. Even while India’s industrial and services sectors are growing by leaps and bounds and where the growth rate of agriculture as below 2% the fact remains that India still lives in villages. Over 70% of India’s population is supported by agriculture. Even industrial and services sectors are invariably entangled with the fortunes of agriculture due to various intricate forward and backward linkages.

 There is an ongoing debate in the country regarding the state of agriculture. There is a general agreement that the Indian agriculture is in Crisis but there is intense debate about the causes which led to such crisis and various way to manage the crisis and put agriculture on a healthy footing. According to nutritional emergency (by Swaminathan), there should be an emphasis on pulses. Alagh’s approach is ground level with people is participation and is realistic in outlook.

 There have been ominous signs which showed that Indian agriculture is in crisis. Unending chain of suicides by farmers in different parts of the country shows that everything is not well with agricultural sectors. Import of wheat by government in the era when there is a talk about the green revolution in the country, high prices of vegetables and pulses, stagnation in white, blue and yellow revolution, setbacks caused by Avian influenza to poultry farmers, inability of peasants and farmers to withstand the competition from globalised market, unmistakably show the state of India or Agriculture. The government of India is not sleeping over this crisis. National Commission on Farmers has been constituted under the eminent Scientist Dr M.S. Swamanathan. He has recommended a comprehensive national policy for farmers to give an all-around boost to the sector. The government has announced a financial package for those districts in the country where maximum farmer suicides have been reported. The financial package includes; interest waiver, rescheduling of loans, and advancing of more capital etc. The government in Union Budget has made provisions for cheap loans for the agricultural sector. Moreover, the present government prefers its concerns about the common man of the country and the peasants and farmers invariably constitute the majority of the common man in the country.

 However, it is a sad state of affairs where the government is busy talking about superficial remedies instead of taking the concrete steps which are the need of the hour. More waiver of interests and rescheduling of loans (as in Vidarbha) do not address the real problem. The real problem is how the farmers got entangled in a debt trap in the first place? Were governmental policies or free market forces responsible for it? Or, was it faulty crop selection and cropping pattern which leads to such a situation? The National Commission on farmers is like a toothless tiger. What is the use of well-meaning and well-researched recommendations of the Commission if the government is deliberately going slow over it. Moreover, recent corporatisation of Indian agriculture with the entry of corporate giants such as Reliance, Bharti, Godrej, Munjals etc has to be critically analysed in a long term perspective to see who would gain and at whose cost such gain would be?

 The genesis of an underlying factor for the present crisis in agriculture can be traced back to Second Five Year Plan where the emphasis was shifted to industrial growth and agricultural sector was to a provider of cheap raw material and a market for finished goods. It was a drain of wealth under the garb of national development. There was a shift in government stand late in the 1960s. The year 1968 marked the beginning of the Green revolution leading to a quantum jump in productivity and production of wheat and rice. Green revolution solved the problem by food import thereby saving foreign exchange and provided food security to the country. There has been a constant reduction of emphasis, monetary and otherwise since the period of the Green Revolution.

 In the decade of liberalisation, privatisation and Globalisation i.e. the last decade of the 20th century, the agricultural landscape of the country was dismal and full of contradiction agricultural growth was stagnant. The condition of farmer remained the same throughout the country i.e. he fought hard to earn his livelihood (except in the areas of) Agriculture to this date remains a gamble against the monsoon. This statement sums up the level of infrastructural support available to Indian farmers.

 In the areas of the green revolution, the situation of farmers was no different. It appeared farmers here had become rich and evolved into entrepreneurs. But the fact remains while in other parts of country agricultural yields were stagnant but in green revolution areas, agricultural yields were actually declining. This is attributed to overexploitation of land and water. There is a deficiency of micronutrients rising input costs coupled with declining yields led to a situation where farmers in Punjab on the average are under the debt of more than Rs 2 lakh. The fragile condition of agriculture became apparent in light of free market forces which was released by the government under the pretext of taking the Indian economy to the next level. While Industrial and services sectors were equipped to deal with global markets, Indian agriculture was taken by surprise. Not even the green revolution farmers were economically and technologically ready to take on the challenge of the global market. This ultimately was manifested by farmer suicides in all the regions of the country.

To emerge from the present crisis the approach needs to be two-pronged. One that provides immediate relief and two that brings in structural changes as a long term measure. Relief package based on debt relief, waiver of interest rate and better credit flow will take care of immediate relief to the farming community.

Studies point out that the choice of crops by farmers has not been correct and they grow crops, which are less well suited to the condition of cultivation. Water intensive crops are cultivated in water scarce areas. As a consequence crop risks increases. Long term solution lies in the policies that will induce the farmer to cultivate crops. Which offer the best return and have low risk? This will be accompanied by better irrigation and marketing support.

The government should introduce such cropping patterns which would ensure that there is a market for the product in global markets. For example, the Green revolution belt can produce fruits, vegetables and flowers for export to the markets of the developed world. Dryland regions consisting of those areas where assured irrigation facilities are non-existent can specialize in the production of produce. The subsistence fanning prevalent in such regions ensure that farmers cannot afford to put chemical fertilizers and insecticides in their fields, hence there is a natural advantage for organic farming.

 Lately, the dairy sector has been projected as a profit-making occupation for farmers. Milk grid has been established in India and farmers are assured of cash income for the milk they produce. However, a study in Punjab suggests that the cost of milk produced is more than what farmers get. Only reason farmers are producing milk is the availability of otherwise scarce cash. it should be noted that India is today the largest producer of milk, but milk does not translate into the property of farmers.

 The government should improve the livestock of milking animals by importing and cross breading good animals and then introducing such animals in the countryside. This would ensure more milk yield for the fodder consumed. The government should either with help of cooperatives such as AMUL or with the help of the private sector explores the possibilities of the market in ASEAN Countries, Gulf Countries. Milk processing unit should be established all around the country and hygienic chain from a ladder to chocolate bar should be established. White revolution should be a revolution for producers and not just a revolution for the consumer.

Horizons of Blue Revolution should be expanded to include prawns and other exotic delicious fishes. Emphasis should be on organic production. Sanitary and Phytosanitary should be adhered to. Fish production can help to fill the gap of protein requirement of Indian population Long coastlines revers, skilled labour is available, large market etc).

The cooperative movement should be strengthened in the country. Farmers in India have faced the problem of shrinking land holdings and coupled with rising input cost. Cooperative movement on the lines of Kibbutzim of Israel can solve such a problem. Furriers can pool their resources and achieve economies of scale corporatization of agriculture represents an antithesis to the cooperative movement. The corporatisation of agriculture means the entry of corporate business houses in the agricultural sector with the aim of profit maximisation. It is ironic that corporate world is ambitious towards the profit yielding potential of agriculture while a study by NSSO suggests that 40% of farmers are ready to quit agriculture as according to them it is not profitable. Through the legislative support for contract fanning, the land ceiling laws have been given a go by. Now a Company can control a vast tract of arable land through the device of contract farming. The government has been positive towards the implication of corporatization of agriculture but on the other hand, it has been argued that corporatization of agriculture would result in the marginalization of peasants and subsistence farmers. This, in turn, would lead to an increase in the already unemployed sea of an unskilled workforce.

The corporatisation of agriculture should be allowed but in a controlled and regulated manner. The government should ensure that the corporate sector discharges its social obligations also. With the purposeful partnership between the private sector and agriculture sectors, the crisis in agriculture can be overcome.

Developed India is possible with the attainment of growing, the advancement of the manufacturing and services sector. But prosperous India is possible only with a healthy agricultural sector. The pride and confidence in farmers and farming need to be restored. This alone can help agriculture grow like never before.

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