India’s agriculture became moribund
decades ago, and shows no sign of uplift for the long haul needed. Indeed, the
rain gods have played havoc with Indian farmers. But not just the gods, Indian
states have done precious little to tackle the problem head-on. The government
solution is to give financial sops to farmers to buy peace from time to time.
It is equally unfortunate that farmers just accept the sops and go away, only
to return when hard times hit them again.
India’s agricultural growth rate
has hovered around 2-3% annually, when in fact it should be at least 5%. Former
Prime Minister said Indian agriculture must grow at least at 4% without which
there will be no real rural poverty alleviation and no relief to distressed
farmers. India’s green revolution is fatigued and needs a scientific and
technological boost.
Indian agriculture is sick and it
needs a strong dose of bitter medicine Market based solutions are the only way
forward. India investment in agricultural science and technology and rural infrastructure
must be upped by 25% and Indian council of Agricultural research must be turned
into a private research corporation headed by a business minded CEO and private
equity participation must be brought into India’s agricultural R&D.
Secondary agriculture must drive
rural economic development. Small-scale farmers and subsistence farming must be
gradually phased out as its size is not economically viable in 21st
century. No amount of shoring up economically unviable agriculture can help.
Stubbornly persisting on flogging a dead horse is not going to improve the
farmer’s plight. The NDA government has given no evidence of its intent to set
a future looking agenda so far. That is not good for the nation neither for the
NDA electoral fortunes in the years to come. It needs to act fast.
No comments:
Post a Comment