{"id":100816,"date":"2021-04-10T08:35:31","date_gmt":"2021-04-10T03:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=100816"},"modified":"2021-04-10T21:54:52","modified_gmt":"2021-04-10T16:24:52","slug":"need-of-state-support-for-agricultural-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/need-of-state-support-for-agricultural-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Need of State Support for Agricultural development"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><b>Synopsis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The current situation of the agricultural sector demands state support to tackle future challenges. This will ensure sustainable benefits for both &#8211; farmers and consumers.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Background<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Countries across the globe are focusing on the gradual reduction of state\u2019s role in almost every sector (including agriculture). Their objective is to bring greater economic development.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In India, the government&#8217;s focus is more on developing the industrial and service sector since the 2nd five-year plan of 1956. Its aim is to move excess people from agriculture into other sectors and attain better growth.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, some experts still believe that state support is necessary for agricultural development.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Factors inducing the state support:<\/b><\/h5>\n<ol>\n<li><b>Poor State of Resources: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fertility of agricultural land is declining coupled with scarce water availability.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Resistance to other occupation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: People in agriculture don\u2019t shut down their farming in case of rising costs. Rather they employ family labour in farm and non-farm activities. This allows them to stick to farming despite lower returns and excessive work.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Difficult to streamline the production<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The production process can\u2019t be strengthened by building an assembly line. It is connected to the annual climatic cycle which is volatile and makes farming difficult.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Size of Farmers:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Around 86% of farmers are small and medium. They can\u2019t access good storage, transportation and marketing facilities. This leads to distress sales in agriculture.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Price Inelastic nature:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It means demand for Agri products will not witness a major change with a change in the price of Agri products.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>For instance,<\/strong> a bumper crop reduces the price of Agri product as supply gets increased. This is not followed by a corresponding increase in demand that can push the price upwards. Hence, less income is generated by farmers.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Tackling Emergencies:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> State support is desirable to provide quality food grains at affordable price in case of emergencies like drought, pandemic etc.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Accommodating the Demographic profile<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Despite the push towards urbanization, the UN estimates that around 800 million people will reside in rural areas in 2050. It requires proactive action by the state.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h5><b>Past Performance with State support<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The state initiated the green revolution in the 1960s. It established the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and Agricultural Prices Commission in 1965.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Positives<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Surplus production allowed India to attain food security.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Farmers were incentivised to grow as they enjoy a safety cushion based on FCI\u2019s procurement guarantee.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Quality grains at low prices through the <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answeredthere-is-need-to-move-away-from-the-present-staple-grain-fundamentalism-of-public-distribution-system-pds-to-a-more-diversified-food-basket-with-an-emphasis-o\/\">PDS<\/a> enhanced consumer welfare.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Concerns<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Post green revolution, a decline in quantity as well quality of water is witnessed.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The yield from chemical-based farming is also declining.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The sector is mainly growing rice and wheat due to MSP (minimum assured price) availability. This is hampering crop diversification and encouraging more water usage as they are water-intensive crops.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Agriculture became unviable in some regions. It led to over 3 lakh farmer suicides in the last 3 decades. This is an unprecedented event for the country.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Way Forward<\/b><\/h5>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Firstly, the <\/span><b>government should diversify the procurement basket.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It should include more crops (like pulses, millets etc.) and more regions.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It can procure 25% of the actual production of the commodity for that particular season. This was proposed under the 2018 Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay SanraksHan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA) scheme.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Secondly, further the <\/span><b>procurement process should\u00a0 respect the regional agroecology.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Eg &#8211; don\u2019t procure water-intensive crops from water-stressed regions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thirdly, the <\/span><b>locally procured crops must be linked to Anganwadi and mid-meal centres<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This will give a good market to farmers and improve nutrition of children.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fourthly, the government should do <\/span><b>greater investment in specific infrastructure<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for pulses, millets, etc. crops that are low-priced and provide better nutrition.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fifthly, the <\/span><b>network of Mandis should be expanded<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This will protect farmers from exploitation of large retailers.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Currently, there are 2,477 mandis and 4,843 sub-mandis and only 17% of farm produce pass through them. However, the need is to create a network of 42000 mandis that will enable the selling of goods within a 5 km radius.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/Home\/ShareArticle?OrgId=G758FA4TF.1&amp;imageview=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Hindu<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Synopsis:\u00a0The current situation of the agricultural sector demands state support to tackle future challenges. This will ensure sustainable benefits for both &#8211; farmers and consumers. Background: Countries across the globe are focusing on the gradual reduction of state\u2019s role in almost every sector (including agriculture). Their objective is to bring greater economic development. In India,&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/need-of-state-support-for-agricultural-development\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Need of State Support for Agricultural development<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10322,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[1314],"class_list":["post-100816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-agri_6","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704833908},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}