Accelerating India's Agricultural Growth & Doubling Farmer's Income

Introduction

More than 50% of India' population is dependent on Agriculture which is contributing 16% to India's GDP. The sector is affected by instability in incomes due to vagaries of climate (droughts, floods, pest attacks etc), market issues and unremunerative prices. Surya foundation Think Tank on Agriculture discussed issues pertaining to “Accelerating India's Agricultural Growth and Doubling Farmer's Income”. Salient issues discussed are highlighted in the subsequent paragraphs.

Issues

Minimum Support Price (MSP) for Farmers 

Govt. has done well to announce in the Union budget 2018-19 an MSP that is 50% over cost of production. Production cost include input and wages of labour (A2) and imputed wages for the time spent by the farmer and his family (FL) in crop production.

Sugarcane Pricing

• Centre announces a Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) for sugarcane every season to support farmer's interests. Ultimate sugar prices are determined by market dynamics and in excess production years there is a crash in prices. Our sugar export is constrained due to Indian sugar prices being higher than International prices.

• It is recommended that the Commission For Agriculture Costs and Pricing (CACP) revenue sharing model proposed for sugarcane pricing be adopted i.e. provide a realistic fair and remunerative price (FRP) for farmers and in years where market price of sugar rises, the gains will be proportionately shared by farmers and sugar mills. In case there is a fall in prices, the farmers will be compensated from a Price Stabilization Fund. There is also a case for more production of ethanol from excess sugar with oil companies to increase their off take  from sugar mills which is presently only around 3.5% against the 10% permitted in ethanol blending in fuel oil.

Market Reforms in Agriculture. 

The State Ministers Committee on Agricultural Marketing Reforms (July 2013) recommended the “Removal of State Market Barriers / Restrictive Trade Practices” to evolve an All India Market for agricultural products, giving freedom to the farmer to sell in any market of his choice. The recent Dalwai Committee Report in addition to the above has suggested placing Agricultural Marketing in the Concurrent list to facilitate a “One India Agricultural Market”, to be owned by Centre and States, and to convert existing Agriculture Price Marketing Committee (APMC) markets into independent markets, working along with private markets.

Risk Management in Agriculture

Production Risks. 

These include vagaries due to droughts, floods, delayed monsoon as also pest attacks resulting in 5% to 45% losses primarily in cotton, paddy and vegetables. It is recommended that Research efforts to develop pest resistant and low water requirement crop varieties by ICAR and other institutions be strengthened.

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). 

Introduced in 2016, it is a farmer friendly plan for covering crop production losses. This is heavily subsidized by Central and State Govts.

Accelerating India's Agricultural Growth

The First Green Revolution 

India achieved spectacular growth in Agricultural production which grew at 3.3% against population/demand increase of 2.2% with India reaching self sufficiency in cereals. Three decades later the progress has however slowed down due to scale of irrigation support going down, rained areas undergoing severe droughts and, farm holding size coming down.

Ushering in Second Green Revolution 

A second Green Revolution based on climate sustainability, R&D, Bio - technology innovations, less water requiring high yield disease resistant crops for India is the need of the hour.  Initiatives of Ministry of Agriculture, in this regard include:-

• National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture. This aims at seeking to transform Indian agriculture being climate resilient and being more productive by location of specific integrated farming systems and efficient water management practices.
• Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture. This covers fruits, vegetables, root crops, flowers and medicinal plants.
• Rasthriya Krishi Vikas Yojana. This encompasses a Centre / State funding in the ratio 60/40.

Oil seed shortages in country is an  issue of  concern 

India being 60% import dependant with annual out flow of Rs 75,000 crores in Foreign Exchange. The demand supply gap may widen further in future years with our planned growth of Animal Husbandry and other live stock.

Transgenic/Genetic Modified Crops 

India has the fourth largest acreage in the world for GM (Genetically Modified) crops due to adoption of BT cotton extensively by farmers. On the edible side, GM mustard developed by Indian R&D is yet to be cleared as also other GM varieties developed by indigenous R&D (ICAR).

Focus of the Second Green revolution should be on water surplus Eastern States by increasing production of paddy, Sugarcane and corn (with potential for production of bio fuel. Setting up of Primary Kisan Centres in each village with electrical/digital connectivity with some small warehousing facility/cold storage.

Imbalance In Use of Fertilizers 

There is distortion in current usage of fertilizers in the NPK Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potassium ratio with heavy usage of nitrogenous fertilizers against low usage of phosphate and potassium. Neem coating of urea to avoid diversion to other use, appears to be yielding results with urea consumption. It is important to intensify the Soil Health Card Mission. There is an urgent need to increase indigenous fertilizer production.

Indo-Israeli Collaboration in Agriculture

Following PM's last visit to Israel, bilateral cooperation has been extended for joint development of new crop varieties, transfer of water    conserving technologies and use of recycled water for agriculture.

Addressing Water Shortages for Agriculture

Govt's initiative to link rivers for sharing surplus waters is laudable. A beginning has been made on the Rs 10,000 crore Ken-Betwa project with MP and UP cooperation which is expected to irrigate 6.35 lakh acres. The 8,500 crore Narmada-Parvati river link will benefit 2 lakh acres in Malwa region. There is a need for relook on large water storage dams. Despite India having more than 5,000 storage dams, its annual per capita storage capacity is only around 225 cubic meters compared to China which has 1,200 cubic meters. Hydro power has been attempted through Run of the River (ROR) projects without storage facility. There is an urgent need to revisit the issue of need for large storage dams. Atal Bhujal Yojana. The Govt has done well to launch the Rs 6,000 crore (World Bank Aided) initiatives of Ministry of Water resources to address critically depleting ground water resources in the identified 8,350 panchayats / 78 districts.

Doubling Farmers Income-2022 

It is quite evident that the Agricultural Sector in India is witnessing an unprecedented downturn in so far as the income levels of farmers are concerned. In this regard, PM's call for “Doubling Farmer's income by 2022" is timely.

Doubling Farmer's income will involve several measures viz, developing yield/pest resistance varieties, increasing crop intensity (with minor irrigation support), crop diversification and shift to high value crops, providing access to information and markets, remunerative pricing, effective and timely crop insurance disbursals and introducing a stabilisation fund that can support farmer's.  Strengthening Agricultural Infrastructure in the form of cold chains, warehouses and agro processing units is vital if we consider the enormous losses in food grains post harvest. A fillip to agro based industries in rural areas is called for.

Role of Horticulture

India has done well in the horticulture field with an annual production exceeding cereals with a growth rate of around 5%, resulting in higher income and sustaining even smaller farmers. Organic farming holds promises, particularly in the North-East region.

Ushering in Second White revolution

India ranks first among the milk producing nations since 1998. Milk production in India reached 163 MT in 2016-17 accounting for 19% of world production. Approximately 70 million rural households in the country are engaged in milk production and the average herd size is less than four. India's milk production has been characterized more by “production by masses” than big “mass production”.

Pivotal Role of R&D in Agricultural Growth 

In 1900, Global population was around 1.6, billion; today it is 7.3 billion. Fertilizers, Mechanization and Plant Breeding are three major R&D developments that have contributed towards avoidance of mass famines and resultant political unrest.

Success in R&D is only possible if the most competent scientists across ICAR, DBT, CSIR and universities are involved on a long term basis by creating Centers of Excellence. Every Project needs to be anchored and funded by one of the agencies — ICAR, DBT or CSIR.

Farmers should be able to connect with Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) and institutions to get their day-to-day problems solved. Greater role may be given to well performing NGO's to connect farmers to KVK's. Aerobic Cultivation of Rice to Save Ground Water Resources in Irrigated Ecologies. Fifty four percent of the country is facing high to extreme high water stress. Ground water depletion in North-West and Coastal areas where rice is grown under irrigation has reached alarming levels. There is urgent need to increase R&D investment in Agriculture.

Conclusion 

It may be pointed out that rapid growth in agriculture will ultimately depend on individual States initiative with the Centre acting as a facilitator. It is recommended that progress of agriculture should be an important point in the agenda of Inter State Council Meetings.