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| AGRICULTURE: FROM PRODUCTION TO PROFITABILITY | | |
Dr. Parveen Kumar
The agriculture sector in India is witnessing a phenomenal increase in food grains production. Beating the odd COVID time, agriculture sector has emerged as the sunrise sector when all other sectors of the Indian economy showed a negative growth rate, it was only agriculture sector that came up with a positive growth rate. Infact the sector also absorbed the reverse migration of human resources from the cities witnessed during the pandemic when manufacturing and service sector was closed. The growth in agriculture sector witnessed as a result of green revolution in the 1960s transformed the country from a ‘begging bowl’ to a ‘bread basket’. Unfortunately with this increasing production, the corresponding increase in farmers’ income was far from being proportional. It would not be wrong to say that there was an inverse relationship production with farmers’ income. As production increased, income decreased. This was what is attributed to the agriculture sector being labeled as a non remunerative sector. Infact agriculture became a sector where the cost of cultivation exceeds the net returns ultimately resulting in loss or negligible profit for the farming community. Despite zealous efforts made by central as well as respective state governments to improve the economic condition of the farming community, the state of farmers’ and agriculture has shown little or no improvement over the years. The younger generation is no longer interested in taking on agriculture as a profession and more and more farmers’ are quitting this noble profession.
The focus has thus shifted from production to profitability and for this the government has also launched up many schemes and pro farm and farmer policies to augment the farmers’ income from their limited land and other resources. The Government of India under the dynamic leadership of Hon’ble Primeminister Sh. Narendra Modi came up with the pan India mission of Doubling Farmers Income (DFI) by 2022. This idea of doubling farmers’ income by 2022, when the country completes 75 years of its independence, was shared by the Hon’ble Primeminister at a kisan rally in Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh) in February 2016. To bring in profitability in the agriculture sector, Diversification is necessary. Diversification aims at promotion of ancillary activities like livestock, goatry, piggery poultry, beekeeping fisheries and other allied activities. The basic philosophy is that in case farmers’ crops fail, he gets compensated by other enterprise. Diversification has many advantages. Besides providing regular income throughout the year it also keeps family labour engaged in various activities of different farm enterprises. There have been many success stories where farmers taken to diversification have increased their income tremendously. Diversification also maintains good soil health and proper use of local resources.
Dairy husbandry for example is a boon for small farmers, as a family with three cows or buffaloes can earn an annual income of Rs. 50,000 to 60,000, while conserving our precious native breeds. With stall-fed, high yielding animals, the dung availability will also increase by 3 to 4 times, giving a boost to biogas and agricultural production. Given the scarcity of water resources, more so in the rainfed regions of the country we need to go for efficient use of our
water resources with focus on ‘per drop, more crop’. With most of the area in the rain fed regions where a lot of ground work is yet to be done for ensuring supply of water, we are left with no choice but to produce more crop per drop. Every single drop of water should matter to us. Our production per unit is still less than most of our neighboring countries. This low yield is due to low seed replacement rate in the country and the use of substandard seeds. Farmers in the country still use old traditional and local varieties which result in less production. Seed play an important part in raising yields. Good quality seeds not only give us good yields but also protect the crop from many diseases. The government has also started many initiatives for quality seed production. The sub-mission on seed and planting material under NMAET also emphasize on providing good quality seed and planting material to the farmers. It has also been seen that due to the lack of storage infrastructure with the farmers’ and in the country, majority of the farmers are compelled to sell their produce at whatever price is available at the time of harvesting.
In the absence of adequate storage, they cannot store their produce to sell it later on when they get remunerative price. To remove this bottleneck, the government is also investing in warehousing and cold chains to prevent post-harvest crop losses. The country need storage facility for more than 60 million metric tonnes but the storage capacity is only for 30 million tonnes. Larger investments in ware housing and storage structure at the village/Panchayat level will not only help in solving the problem of rotting of food grains but will also enable us to distribute the food grains them among the needy thereby reducing hunger and ensuring food security for all.
Presently there is a very low level of food processing and value addition in the country. The value addition in the country ranges from 5 to 20 per cent. This is very less as compared to developed world where a good percentage of food products are processed and value added. Value addition facilities can be provided by strengthening food grain storage infrastructure, cool chain systems for perishables, post harvest processing and marketing facilities. This will result in increasing farmers, income and maintaining the quality of food products for a longer time. Farmer produces but when it comes to marketing, he has no say.
Ultimately there are the middlemen and commission agents that have their say in decoding the price of the produce robbing the producers of their hard earned money. Farmers did not have the knowledge of market rates and the markets are very far from the place of produce.
The government has started the electronic-National Agricultural Market. The e-NAM is an electronic platform that will connect all the mandis all over India in a phased manner. It will enable the farmers to sell their produce to distant places without being physically present there.
Crop failure has also been another most unfortunate issue with the farming community in the country. The natural disaster like floods, droughts or some human mistakes like fire, use of degraded seed results in crop failure and bring devastation for the farmers. The government has also taken care of this by bringing in a low cost crop insurance scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). Since independence only about 20 per cent of the farmers are covered under insurance. The new Yojana aims to cover about 50% of the farmers in next three years. Due to adverse conditions if sowing is not done, claims up to 85% of the sum insured will be paid. |
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