Q. Presently highlight the major problems of Indian agriculture and suggest way to remove them and discuss the major programs being run by the Government for the development of Indian agriculture. [63 BPSC/2019]

Q. Presently highlight the major problems of Indian agriculture and suggest way to remove them and discuss the major programs being run by the Government for the development of Indian agriculture. [63 BPSC/2019]
Ans:
The agriculture is the backbone of Indian economy. This sector plays a significant role in rural livelihood, employment and national food security. Almost 70 percent of India’s rural households still depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihood. While the contribution of Indian agriculture and its allied sectors to the GDP is nearly 16 percent. It fulfils the basic need of human beings and animals. It is an important source of raw material for many agro-based industries.
India has unique geographical condition for agriculture because it provides many favourable conditions. There are plain areas, fertile soil, long growing season and wide variation in climatic condition etc. Besides, India is also consistently making innovative efforts by using science and technology to increase production.
However, there are several challenges and issues being faced in the whole gamut of agriculture process like challenges related to the sustained growth of productivity, procurement and access to inputs like irrigation, credit, power, fertilisers; marketing of output at remunerative prices; issues relating to costs, prices and profitability; investments in fixed capital formation for a long term growth and technological upgrading in agriculture etc. ©crackingcivilservices.com

The problems in Indian agriculture:

• Subsistence Agriculture: Most parts of India have subsistence agriculture. This type of agriculture has been practised in India for several hundreds of years and still prevails in a larger part of India in spite of the large scale change in agricultural practices after independence.
• Pressure of population on Agriculture: Despite increase in urbanization and industrialization, nearly 70% of population is still directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture.
• Mechanization of farming: Green Revolution took place in India in the late sixties and early seventies. After more than forty years of Green Revolution and revolution in agricultural machinery and equipments, complete mechanization is still a distant dream.
• Stagnation in Production of Major Crops: Production of some of the major staple food crops like rice and wheat has been stagnating for quite some time. This is a situation which is worrying our agricultural scientists, planners and policy makers. If this trend continues, there would be a huge gap between the demand of ever growing population and the production threatening the food security.
• High cost of Farm Inputs: Over the years rates of farm inputs have increased manifold. Farm inputs include fertilizer, insecticide, pesticides, HYV seeds, farm labour cost etc. Such an increase puts low and medium land holding farmers at a disadvantage.
• Adverse impact of Global Climatic Change: It has been predicted that impact climate change on agriculture would be immense. Climate change is related to unpredictable rainfall, sea level rise, more intense cyclones, faster melting of glaciers impacting river flow, decline in crop productivity, higher pest attacks etc. Thus it adversely impact the production and productivity of agriculture.
• Inadequate agricultural education and extension services: Effective agricultural education (both for farmers as well as researchers) leads to better economic and technical decision making in agricultural processes, which is further reflected in increase in agricultural productivity.
  • Challenges faced in this regards are inadequate finance, lack of quality education at agriculture universities, lack of association among different national and international universities for academic activities etc.
  • Less than 1% of the Agricultural GDP in India is spent on research.
• Large number of farmers want to quit– The survey of 5,000 farm households across 18 states says that 76% farmers would prefer to do some work other than farming.
• Rural Distress & Farmer Suicides: According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report (2015), over 8000 farmers and 4500 agricultural labourers have committed suicide.
• Issues with land use:
  • Fragmentation of land: India’s 85 per cent of landholdings are below 2 Ha making it harder to achieve economies of scale. These farmers mainly cultivate low value, subsistence crops. Due to this, they are facing various problems like: low productivity, low income, low investment and capital formation, low prices, high production costs, low purchasing power, infrastructure deficits, etc.
  • These small and marginal farmers earn 9 per cent of total income while the rest earn 91 per cent. It hinders the modernisation process due to lack of capital availability as well as lack of adoption of new technology.
  • Ever shrinking land availability due to conversion of agricultural land into the non-agricultural uses, rising pace of urbanisation, population pressure etc.
  • Under-utilisation of the available agricultural land use issues with tenancy, fragmented land, leaving land uncultivated.
  • Soil Exhaustion and Land degradation: Nearly 30% of its land area, as much as the area of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra put together, has been degraded through deforestation, over-cultivation, improper use of chemical fertilisers, soil erosion and depletion of wetlands.
  • Computerisation of land records, an essential prerequisite for the successful implementation of consolidation of land holdings and land ceiling laws has yet to be fully implemented.
• Issues with the inputs to the agriculture:
  • Irrigation:
    • Since independence, there has been a rapid expansion of irrigation infrastructure. Despite the large scale expansion, nearly 60 percent of area sown is dependent upon rainfall. The monsoon in India is uncertain and unreliable. This has become even more unreliable due to change in climate. Further, three-fourths of the rainfall is received in first four months of the year (i.e. June to September).
    • The utilisation of the extended irrigation potential and its distribution raises certain issues that need to be addressed.
    • Regional disparities in irrigation development e.g. the water resource development in norther-eastern India is much less than northern India.
    • The structure of the existing system has become increasingly ground water dependent partly because of the farmers’ control over the system, the price-subsidisation of use of electricity for operating the tube wells and also because of the lack of access to the surface water irrigation.
      • Almost 89% of groundwater in India is extracted for irrigation.
    • During and after green revolution, most of the irrigation in dry areas of Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh was carried out by excessive use of ground water resulted in the depletion of ground water as well as the uranium, arsenic etc contamination of groundwater.
    • Inefficient irrigation practices has led to water-logging and soil salinity in many areas.
  • Availability and Access to Credit:
    • The perennial issues concerning the availability and access to credit have continued to persist despite vast changes in the institutional support for the supply of credit to agriculture.
    • The Reserve Bank of India has observed that in spite of quantitative expansion, the credit system has suffered from four major weaknesses: (i) weak recycling of credit, (ii) poor deposit mobilisation, (iii) ineffective lending, and (iv) poor loan recovery.
    • According to National All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey (NAFIS 2015), about 72 per cent of the credit requirement was met through institutional sources and 28 per cent from non-institutional sources. Thus, the role of the moneylender has not been eliminated.
    • Unavailability of credit for consumption purposes and to tenant farmers, sharecroppers and landless labourers, who are not able to offer collateral security, further pushes them towards non-institutional sources.
    • Skewed agency share in institutional credit: Dependency on scheduled commercial banks in agricultural & allied credit is still large (~78-80% of the credit). Though co-operative institutions (~15%) and Regional Rural Banks (~5%) play a significant role in extending agricultural credit, their share is highly skewed geographically.
    • Regional Disparity in Agricultural Credit: States falling under central, eastern and north eastern regions are getting very low agri-credit as % of their agri-GDP.
    • Poor deployment of agricultural credit to allied sectors (~6-7%) despite a share of 38-42% in agricultural output indicates neglect of allied sectors by the banks.
    • Issues with Priority Sector Lending (PSL):
      • Though at the aggregate level banks have been able to achieve the overall PSL target of 40%, so far they have failed to achieve the agriculture target of 18% at system-wide level.
      • Moreover, ~60% of Small & Marginal Farmers (SMFs) have not been covered by SCBs
    • Interest Subvention Scheme (ISS) on short term loans have skewed distribution of agricultural credit in favour of production credit against crop-related investment credit, which is important for long-term sustainability of agriculture sector.
    • Kisan Credit Card: As per Agricultural Census 2015-16, only 45% of the farmers possess operative KCCs. Agricultural households are unable to get credit for their consumption requirements from and hence, they are compelled to go to money lenders. Existing 10% limit in KCC scheme for consumption requirements is inadequate.
    • Diversion of agriculture loans for non-agriculture purposes: In many states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala etc, agri-credit is far higher than their agri-GDP, indicating the possibility of diversion of credit for non-agricultural purposes. Diversion accentuates the problem of debt overhang, fuels high level of indebtedness and deteriorates credit culture in long run.
    • Moral Hazard of Farm Loan Waiver – Expectations of loan waiver prompt farmers to default on loans. Moreover, it has a domino effect such that farmers from different states demand loan waivers.
  • Availability and Use of Other Inputs: Fertilisers, Seeds and Pesticides:
    • Fertiliser:
      • There is rising trend in the use of chemical fertilisers since onset of green revolution. It has increased from less than 14 kg. per hectare of gross cropped area in 1970-71 to almost 90 kg. per hectare of gross cropped area in 2003-04.
      • Availability: Since sale of urea is controlled, the government needs to estimate demand in each of the regions. Inaccurate estimation of demand of urea had led to large shortages in the market.
      • Major issue with the application of fertiliser is that the farmers’ application of fertiliser has been different from that recommended on the basis of soil tests.
      • Farmers have been substituting low priced N (nitrogenous fertiliser) for the high priced P (phosphorous) in order to increase profitability.
      • The indiscriminate use of fertilisers has led to leaching of nitrates into ground water and depositing of phosphorous in surface water through soil erosion.
      • The increase in soil fatigue has been seen due to improper or overuse of chemical fertilisers. This is best represented by the fertiliser response ratio that has shown a declining trend.
        • Fertiliser response ratio is an indicator of responsiveness of soil fertility to fertiliser application. In the 1970s, the response ratio was high at 13.4, it declined to 4.1 in 2000.
      • The urea sector is highly regulated which creates a black market that burdens small farmers disproportionately. Almost 36% of the subsidy is lost through leakage to industry or smuggled across borders.
    • Seeds:
      • Seed replacement rate continues to remain below the desired level of 20 % for most crops.
      • Unscientific use of farm-grown seed lead to lower return from agricultural output.
      • Availability of less areas for seeds to achieve optimum Seed Multiplication Rate add hardship to farmers.
      • Regulatory failure in preventing the rampant illegal sale and planting of seeds based on an unapproved GM crop had been reported in Maharashtra and Telangana.
      • The research investment by private seed companies remained at a meagre 3-4% of revenue against the international norm of 10-12%, due to complex and weak IPR regime and various licencing term for the companies.
    • Pesticides:
      • It has been estimated that nearly 30 per cent of potential food production is lost due to insects, pests, weeds, rodents etc.
      • The new crop varieties introduced during green revolution were disease and pest prone.
      • The ineffective use of pesticides is leading to widespread contamination of environment. The problem of pesticide residues in India is particularly serious in the case of cereals, pulses, fruits, vegetables, milk and milk products.
      • Pesticide residues in several crops with export potential e.g. cotton, rice, plantation crops etc. have adversely affected the export performance in respect of these crops.
      • The Anupam Verma Committee, in 2016, recommended a ban on 13 ‘extremely hazardous’ and phasing out of six ‘moderately hazardous’ pesticides by 2020. It also asked for a review of 27 pesticides in 2018 which are barred/restricted for use in agriculture in other countries. However, total compliance of the recommendations is nowhere to be seen.
• Issues with Profitability:
  • Price fluctuations in harvest season: It is harvest season prices, which are relevant for the farmer. Fluctuation mainly arise out of the vagaries of rainfall.
  • A system of Minimum Support Prices (MSP) acts as an insurance against excessive price fall in the years of boom. But only 6% of the country’s farmers take advantage of MSP.
    • Further, the price interventions by the Government by way of MSP have resulted in some distortions in the cropping pattern, the growing stocks of foodgrains, high carrying and storage costs and increasing food subsidies.
  • The biggest challenge for horticulture farmers is the sale and post-harvest loss. The post-harvest loss account for about 25 per cent to 30 per cent of production of fruits and vegetables.
• Issues with marketing System:
  • Fragmentation of markets – Absence of a National Integrated Market. for eg. Thousands of APMC markets under respective State Government, with no linkages between them, operating in monopolistic silos.
  • High logistics costs: India’s cost of logistics is currently around 14% of GDP – higher than developed country exporters like the US (9.5%).
  • Lack of unrestricted movement-
    • Obsolete APMC act mandates that farmer’s first sale shall only be to commission agents, which forces farmers to sell their produce in the immediate market yards.
    • This creates problem of plenty at one market and scarcity at another market, resulting either in price-depression and loss to producer, or inflation and loss to the consumer
  • Institutional Issues like licensing barriers for owning a shop or godown, very high incidence of market charges (as large as 15% in some cases) and absence of standardized grading mechanism of agricultural produce.
  • Infrastructural Issues like
    • limited access of Agricultural Produce Markets in some areas in the country,
    • poor Infrastructure in Agricultural Markets (like Cold Storage facilities, modern warehouses, Electronic weigh-bridges etc.) and
    • poor economic viability of agricultural infrastructure projects.
  • Market information system issues like
    • absence of real time informational channels creating lag in demand signals,
    • information to farmers is limited to major commodities and
    • poor awareness among farmers regarding new channels of information (like SMS based advisories).
  • Other issues:
    • Limited public investment: Public expenditure on agricultural marketing sub-sector ranges 4-5 % of the total public expenses on agriculture, while expenditure on marketing infrastructure development has been less than 1 %.
    • Less farmers’ price realisation – The share of farmer in consumer’s price is very low, particularly in perishables, due to a large number of intermediaries, lack of infrastructure and poor holding capacity.
    • Discourages Direct selling – No direct selling to contract farming sponsors, retailers, food processing unit etc. As a result, farmers are unable to command higher profits, forward linkages to food processing industry are distorted, and private investment is adversely affected.
    • Exploitation by intermediaries – Lack of direct selling opportunity also increases exploitation by commission agents, who cartelise themselves, depress gains of farmer, increase prices of consumer, restrict entry of new players, etc.
    • Non transparency in utilization of levies collected – Levies do not go to state exchequer and, hence, do not require approval of state legislature. No oversight on its utilization.
    • Political interference & corruption – APMC and APMC boards are occupied by politically influential persons, who are hand in glove with commission agents to wield monopoly power over a particular market area.
    • High Wastages in Supply Chain – Inclusion of fruits and vegetables under the purview of APMCs has resulted in Post-harvest losses & large wastage.
• Investment in Agriculture:
  • According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), insufficient investment in the agriculture sector in India over the past 30 years has resulted in low productivity and stagnant production.
  • Over the years, the share of agriculture investment in the total investment has declining trend. e.g. from 11.4% of GDP in 1980s to 7.4% of GDP in 2005-06.
  • The agriculture sector has been sustaining on private investments, mostly from the debt-ridden farmers. The corporate sector investment and public investment has remained extremely low.
  • During 2011-12 and 2014-15, gross capital formation in agriculture in fact dipped: from Rs. 2.74 lakh crore to Rs. 2.54 lakh crore. Out of this private contribution to this was Rs. 2.38 lakh crore in 2011-12 and Rs. 2.20 lakh crore in 2014-15.
    • Public contribution was just Rs. 35,715 crore in 2011 and Rs. 36,061 crore in 2014.
• Negative impacts of Globalisation:
  • Trade liberalization exposes these farmers to competition from highly subsidized production in the developed world. While Indian agriculture exports face non-tariff barriers stringent sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards, residue Limits for various pesticides, antibiotics, etc in attractive markets such as Europe.
  • The WTO Agreement on agriculture also have some adverse impact. While giving farm subsidies and promoting agriculture export, under the agreement India have to ensure that the support doesn’t cross the de minimis entitlement.

Previous commission and committees like The National Commission on Farmers (2004), The Ashok Dalwai Committee on Doubling Farmers’ etc. have provided solutions to deal with the different challenges faced by the agriculture sector.
Way to remove these problems:

• Improving land use:
  • Incentivising Land pooling, Model Land Leasing Act, 2016, drafting Model Contract Farming Act, digitisation of land records, encouraging Farmer producer organisations, etc
  • The implementation of several land reform and land development programmes. Computerisation of land records, Land consolidationetc to deal with the issue of land fragmentation.
  • Comprehensive inventory of land resources and usage patterns: It should be made with information on the location of each property, its dimensions, legal title, current & planned use etc. to enable effective identification of land usage pattern.
  • Early Finalisation of National Land Reforms Policy.
• Farmers should be incentivised to adopt water-efficient practices in order to avert a looming water crisis, the previous economic survey said called for shifting the focus in agriculture to ‘irrigation water productivity’ from ‘land productivity’.
• Adopting agricultural diversification, organic farming, zero budget natural farming etc. for sustainable agriculture with less input cost with higher return.
• Recognize agriculture in India as an enterprise– that is based on the principles of profit. Following actions have been recommended.
  • Pursue adoption of NITI Aayog’s Model Land Leasing Act by all the states and UTs in a time bound manner.
  • Enable farm owners to transit from the status of cultivators to farm managers by outsourcing all possible farm operations, so as to achieve both resource use efficiency and effective outcome, besides realising reduced cost of cultivation.
  • Farmers should transact with the service providers as a Group like Village Produce Organisations (VPOs), Farmers Produce Organisations (FPOs) etc.
• Expand the mandate of agriculture– from food and nutrition security existing currently-
  • To generate resources as raw materials to feed and support industrial enterprises – chemicals, construction, energy, fibre, food, medicinal, etc.
• Adopt ‘Fork to Farm’ approach– by reversing the ‘Farm to Fork’ approach now accepted generally in the following manner.
  • Maximise monetisation possibilities by upgrading and harmonising the agri-logistics (storage & transportation), agro-processing and marketing.
  • Adopt new market architecture comprising GrAMs, alternate Wholesale markets (APMCs – in private & public sectors) and Export market.
• Increasing fertiliser use efficiency requires farmers’ knowledge regarding the right product, dosage, time and method of application. And suggesting ways like fertiliser doses based on soil health status, promotion of neem-coated urea, micronutrients, organic fertilisers, and water-soluble fertilisers.
• Prioritize Sub sectors for investment – Need for diversification into high growth and high-value sub sectors such as horticulture (under crop sector), animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries.
• Bringing Urea under NBS scheme: Bringing urea under the Nutrient Based Subsidy program currently in place for DAP and MOP would allow domestic producers to continue receiving fixed subsidies based on the nutritional content of their fertiliser, while deregulating the market would allow domestic producers to charge market prices.
• Ensuring adequate investment for priority sub-sectors –
  • Private investment in new-age infrastructure such as agri – logistics, pack-houses, greenhouses and micro-irrigation,
  • Public investment in irrigation, R&D, rural roads & transport, rural energy, etc and to “crowd in” private investment.
• Adopt risk management strategies at all the stages of agriculture-
  • Pre-and Post-production stages-
    • Replicate Meteorological Advisory Services across the country; on the lines of the technology platform adopted in Karnataka.
    • Coverage of farming under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) should become a norm.
  • Market risks-
    • Adopt an institutional mechanism for price & demand forecasting.
    • Adopt an import-export duty structure, that helps domestic market sentiments to the advantage of farmer-producers.
• Effective implementation of recently passed three farm laws can is expected to bring more private investment, reforms the agriculture marketing system in India etc.
• Reforms in Agri-marketing-
  • The state governments need to reform their respective agricultural marketing systems on the pattern of Model APLM Act 2017 for enabling better price realisation by the farmers,
  • Upgrading Rural Periodical Markets (RPMs) into primary rural agricultural markets (PRAMs) having dual function to serve as local retail markets as well as assembly and aggregation centres, thus, benefitting small & marginal farmers through direct participation
  • The Centre and the States should work concertedly to achieve a truly unified national agricultural market (NAM) within a period of 3 years (ie. 2019-20).
  • Promoting trading on the electronic national agriculture market (eNAM)
  • Creation of Post-production Agri-logistics infrastructure for scientific storage, cold chains, market yards and food processing units to minimize food wastages, ensure better returns to farmers, and benefit consumers in form of assured supply and lower prices
  • Developing comprehensive guidelines to promote warehouse based post-harvest loans and eNWR based trading to help small & marginal farmers benefit from an efficient marketing system
  • An aggressive agricultural trade policy to raise the agricultural exports to USD 100 billion, a minimum of three times, by 2022-23
  • Futures market can be developed to provide an alternative channel, especially for village/farmer producer organisations.
• Access to institutional Credit – Reducing the current dependence levels of landless, small and marginal farmers on non-institutional credit, with special attention to the north-eastern, eastern and rainfed state/regions.
• Strengthening linkages – Forward linkages with micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) would accelerate growth of both farm as well as non-farm income along with employment creation.
• Minimizing production and market risks – restructuring of Directorate of Marketing & Inspection to take onus for market intelligence and price and demand forecasting; using geo-spatial tools for more accurate assessments of cropped area/production; drought-proofing of vulnerable districts; Deploying sensor based technologies to ensure resource use efficiency, improving Post-harvest management and holding capacity of farmers.
• The report of ‘Doubling of Farmer’s Income (DFI)’ has recommended formation of 7,000 FPOs by 2022 towards convergence of efforts for doubling the farmers’ income.
• Liberalisation and Simplification of agriculture policies – rationalising policies relating to areas such as seed, fertilizer, pesticides, agriculture marketing, private participation etc.
• Bridging Data Gaps – Regular assessment of changes in farmers’ income, savings and investments over time to facilitate the formulation of evidence-based appropriate policy interventions.
• Promote Ease of Doing Agri-business – A State and UT ranking system is recommended to ensure reforms enable Ease of Doing Agri-business.
• Overcoming climate change risk – through rigorous monitoring of climate change, adoption of new technologies to mitigate adverse impact, preparing farmers for possible shifts in practices and habits that have developed over generations, propagating transition in cropping system, crop selection, and livestock care etc.
• Grassroot level participation (‘Farmers as partners’) –
  • Gram Panchayats can be made responsible for agricultural development and preparation of Village level action plans.
  • Creation of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), Village Producer Organisations (VPOs), etc., to enable aggregation of the output from farms, organising market linkages, ability to select destination markets, reducing post-harvest losses, and optimising transaction costs.
  • Participatory Irrigation Management: This is at present receiving a great deal of attention. Legislations are being amended and programmes being implemented for management of irrigation system with the participation of user bodies. The ultimate impact will be realised over a longer period of time.
• Measures to boost agri-exports:
  • To diversify our export basket, destinations and boost high value and value added agricultural exports including focus on perishables.
  • There is a need to reorient crop production in favour of high value & export worthy products E.g. Paddy can be substituted in north-western non-rice consuming region of India with basmati, cotton, maize, soyabean etc which are in high demand domestically and abroad. Haryana has started incentivising farmers to sow alternative crops.
  • A holistic response to Sanitary and PhytoSanitary (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) barriers faced by Indian products
• Involving civil societies,agricultural universities as well as new media channels like social media for extension services. Only trained and accredited workers should be allowed for on-farm application of pesticides, fertilisers etc.

The major programs being run by the Government for the development of Indian agriculture:

• Soil Health Card scheme: To keep the need for balanced use of fertilizers. It aims to promote soil management practices and restore soil health by ensuring judicious use of inputs/soil nutrients.
• Nutrient Based Subsidy scheme: Under this, government announces a fixed rate of subsidy (in Rs. per Kg basis), on each nutrient of subsidized P&K fertilizers, namely Nitrogen (N), Phosphate (P), Potash (K) and Sulphur (S). It is applicable to 22 fertilizers (other than Urea) for which MRP will be decided taking into account the international and domestic prices of P&K fertilizers, exchange rate, and inventory level in the country.
• Recently passed three farm laws:
  • The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020,
  • The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and
  • The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
• For agricultural credit:
  • Priority Sector Lending: PSL was introduced to ensure that vulnerable sections of the society get access to credit and that there is an adequate flow of credit to employment intensive sectors like agriculture and MSME.
  • Interest Subvention Scheme (ISS) was launched for short term crop loans in 2006-07. 2% interest subvention is given to farmers, which is reimbursed to banks (through RBI and NABARD). Additionally, 3% prompt repayment incentive (PRI) is provided for good credit discipline.
  • Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Scheme, introduced in 1998, aimed at providing adequate and timely credit with flexible and simplified procedure for agriculture related and also consumption requirements of farmer households.
  • Self Help Group – Bank Linkage Programme (SHG-BLP) aimed at harnessing the flexibility of an informal system with the strength and affordability of a formal system. The SHG-BLP model accepted informal groups as clients of banks – both deposit and credit linkage & allowed collateral free lending to groups.
  • Joint Liability Groups (JLG) Scheme was initiated by NABARD in 2006 to enhance credit flow to share croppers/tenant farmers who do not have land rights.
• Pradhan Mantri Kisan Mandhan Yojana (PM-KMY):
  • PM-KMY is an old age pension scheme for all land holding Small and Marginal Farmers (SMFs) in the country with a view to provide social security net.
• For boosting agricultural marketing:
  • Consumer/Farmer Market (Direct Sale by the Producer): Direct marketing by farmers to the consumers has been experimented in the country at the State level. For example, Apni Mandi of Punjab, Rythu Bazaars in Andhra Pradesh, Shetkari Bazar in Maharashtra etc.
  • AGMARKNET: It is a G2C e-governance portal that caters to the needs of various stakeholders such as farmers, industry, policy makers and academic institutions by providing agricultural marketing related information from a single window.
  • Gramin Agricultural Markets (GrAMs): Efforts are being made to develop and upgrade existing 22,000 rural haats (Rural Primary Markets) into GrAMs. These markets will have several features like:
    • Physically strengthened infrastructure enabled through MGNREGS and other schemes along with better road linkages with habitations.
    • An Agri-market infrastructure fund with a corpus of Rs. 2000 crore has been envisaged for the initiative.
    • GrAMs will be linked to e-NAM and will remain outside the APMC Act regulation.
  • Government announces minimum support prices (MSPs) for 22 mandated crops and fair and remunerative price (FRP) for sugarcane. It acts as a safety net or insurance for farmers when they sell particular crops.
  • E-NAM: To promote genuine price discovery Increases farmers’ options for sale and access to markets.
• Scheme for the Formation and Promotion of Farmer Produce Organizations (FPOs).
  • 10,000 FPOs would be formed in five years period from 2019-20 to 2023-24 to ensure economies of scale for farmers.
  • Handholding support to each FPO would be continued for 5 years from its year of inception for which support will continue till 2027-28.
• PM-KISAN scheme: Income support of Rs.6000/- per year is provided to all land holding eligible farmer families across the country, in three equal installments of Rs.2000/- every four months.
• Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana: It aims at supporting sustainable production in agriculture sector by way of providing financial support to farmers suffering crop loss/damage arising out of unforeseen events.
• Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana: It is a comprehensive package to promote food processing by creation of modern infrastructure with efficient supply chain management.
• Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana to improve farm productivity and ensure better utilization of the resources in the country. It is following components:
  • Accelerated irrigation benefit programme,
  • Har khet ko pani,
  • Per drop more crop,
  • Integrated watershed management.
• Promoting organic farming in country through Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) (under National Mission of Sustainable Agriculture): Promotes traditional methods like yogik farming, gou mata kheti, Vedic farming, Vaishnav kheti, Ahinsa farming, Adhvoot Shivanand farming, and rishi krishi.
  • National program for organic production to certify the organic farm produce by the third party.
• Steps by Bihar government:
  • The State Government is implementing Agriculture Roadmap since 2008. It has led to laudable achievements in agriculture sector. The Government of India has conferred the Krishi Karman Award to the state on 2nd January 2020, for its achievements in production and productivity of Maize and Wheat.
  • Under the Chief Minister Horticulture Mission, there is a provision of grants for promoting roof top horticulture in five cities of the state, including Patna. Out of the total allocated amount of Rs. 4126.31 lakh, an expenditure of Rs. 3569.86 lakh has been incurred under the scheme.
  • The Bihar State Organic Mission is being implemented in 12 districts to promote organic farming in the state, protect the environment, soil and water resources from pollution and make farming sustainable.
  • Under the Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali campaign, the State government has recently launched a new scheme of Jalvayu ke Anukul Krishi (Climate Resilient Agriculture) Karykram.

Thus, agriculture and multidimensional problems and government is trying to bring out the solutions for these issues. Agriculture in India is not just an economic activity, it also has social and cultural significance. Only when the issues related with this sector is fixed, India can realise the goals of sustainable development. ©crackingcivilservices.com