Harvesting the fruits of enlightened policies

When the place went into a full lockdown just lately following the outbreak of Covid-19, it wrought critical disruption in the economy — and in people’s lives. Hundreds of thousands dropped their livelihoods pretty much right away, and with it the ability to feed their family members. But what served as a societal shock absorber of sorts was the substantial foodgrain stocks held by the state-operate Food items Company of India.

An approximated eighty one crore beneficiaries are becoming provided five kg of rice/wheat for every individual free in excess of and previously mentioned their regular monthly entitlement below the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana.

These largescale distribution of free foodgrains was probable only mainly because the place experienced attained self-sufficiency in food stuff generation in excess of the previous a long time. That signifies a amazing journey for the place, which experienced at the time of Independence been dwelling almost “from ship to mouth”.

Turnaround

What made this transformation probable was the Inexperienced Revolution, which saw the introduction of input-intense farm methods, and efficient policy interventions. Right now, India is among the the world’s prime food stuff producers, and has become a key exporter.

Agriculture and allied sectors remain a key resource of livelihood for a huge section of the populace — whilst agriculture’s share of GDP has appear down from fifty eight for every cent in the early fifties to sixteen.five for every cent. About 70 for every cent of rural homes rely on agriculture for livelihood, and eighty two for every cent of farmers are compact and marginal.

Entry to food stuff

While farm output has stored tempo with populace advancement in excess of 7 a long time, the place still faces food stuff insecurity: millions do not have accessibility to adequate and healthy food stuff. In addition, farming is a problem for a huge section of those people dependent on it owing to a variety of aspects.

“Today, the farmer faces multiple problems: rising cost of cultivation due to rising input price ranges, labour wages, labour shortage, unremunerative price ranges, compact land holdings, altering climatic sample and deteriorating high quality of inputs. If not tackled, these will pose far more challenges,” claims A Narayanamoorthy, former member of the Commission For Agricultural Expenses and Costs (CACP).

The federal government really should appear past wheat and rice, reinforce procurement of other commodities, and preserve input price ranges in check out, Narayanamoorthy claims. In his look at, earnings support to farmers must be increased from ₹6,000 for every annum at present to ₹10,000.

‘Expand tank irrigation’

Even further, Narayanamoorthy claims, the emphasis really should be on expanding surface area irrigation via canals and tanks. “One of the factors for the enhanced cultivation cost is the increasing dependence on groundwater. The federal government really should promote tank irrigation: it is reasonably priced, and ecologically helpful,” claims Narayanamoorthy, who heads the Office of Economics and Rural Development at Alagappa College.

In addition to these problems, aspects these kinds of as stagnation of yields, pest assaults, escalating land degradation and insufficient infrastructure for storage and processing weigh on farmers.

The Narendra Modi federal government just lately initiated key reforms to tackle the agri-marketing and advertising problems. A ₹1-lakh crore Agriculture Infrastructure Fund, a medium-very long time period personal debt funding facility released last fortnight, is expected to catalyse farm infrastructure tasks.

Local weather adjust

A the latest FAO report projected that India is among the the nations likely to facial area a pronounced influence of local weather adjust on agriculture, ensuing in output drop and a fall in yields.

To facial area the problems of the long term, there is a want for concerted and holistic method to agriculture: this really should uncover expression in policies that tackle both equally the financial and ecological problems, and develop up the country’s food stuff safety in the a long time ahead.