{"id":122066,"date":"2021-07-29T18:35:45","date_gmt":"2021-07-29T13:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=122066"},"modified":"2021-07-29T18:35:45","modified_gmt":"2021-07-29T13:05:45","slug":"how-to-exit-farming-risk-trap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/how-to-exit-farming-risk-trap\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Exit Farming Risk Trap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Source<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/farm-laws-india-protest-7427334\/\">Indian Express<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance<\/strong>: The article highlights issues in Indian agriculture<\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis<\/strong>: Reforms in agriculture are needed to extract ourselves out of the risk-laden currents of agriculture.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>State\u2019s interference in agriculture:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Indian agriculture was saved from nationalization due to opposition of Swatantra Party in Parliament against Jawaharlal Nehru\u2019s farm collectivization efforts in the 1950s. However, even today, government agencies have a say on all aspects of the farmer\u2019s livelihood.\u00a0It includes <strong>13 central and countless state ministries and agencies<\/strong> that oversee rural property rights, commodity prices, input subsidies and taxes, agribusiness and research, etc.<\/p>\n<p>The result has been a suffocating mix of <strong>arbitrary and conflicting policy interventions<\/strong> by both the central and state government agencies. For example, poor and varying levels of provision of basic public goods, including irrigation.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Implications of state\u2019s interference:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>First, <strong>relatively low productivity levels<\/strong> with high levels of <strong>variation in crop yields across the country<\/strong>.\u00a0It has resulted in lower levels of individual welfare and higher levels of overall risk.\u00a0The <strong>large gap in rice and wheat yields<\/strong> between Punjab and Haryana and the farm districts in the rest of the country remains far from being closed.<\/li>\n<li>Second, there is <strong>severe unevenness in the provision of common goods<\/strong>.\u00a0The absence of well-functioning markets for agricultural land, crops, inputs, poor quality of education, and slow progress achieved on labor reform <strong>have reduced overall resource mobility<\/strong>.\u00a0They have limited the mobility of ideas and technology.<\/li>\n<li>Third, the real promise of a <strong>decentralised system<\/strong> has <strong>failed to materialize due to <\/strong>highly fragmented efforts with different \u201cagricultural models\u201d for different farming districts.<\/li>\n<li>Four, the <strong>various input subsidies and minimum price guarantee procurement<\/strong> schemes have worsened the overall levels of productivity.\u00a0It has resulted in <strong>the degradation<\/strong> of our water resources, soil, health, and climate.\u00a0Thus, it is no surprise then that the farm households of Punjab and Haryana fear both, the loss of state support for rice and wheat and the higher risks implied by a switch to other crops.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>Suggestions<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Farm reforms must be <strong>oriented towards minimizing risk<\/strong> and increasing returns for farmers.\u00a0Farmers must be free to determine the <strong>best mix of resources, land, inputs,<\/strong> technology, and organizational forms for their farms.\u00a0Farmers must be <strong>allowed to enter and exit agriculture<\/strong> on their own terms and contract with whomever they wish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Indian Express Relevance: The article highlights issues in Indian agriculture Synopsis: Reforms in agriculture are needed to extract ourselves out of the risk-laden currents of agriculture. State\u2019s interference in agriculture: Indian agriculture was saved from nationalization due to opposition of Swatantra Party in Parliament against Jawaharlal Nehru\u2019s farm collectivization efforts in the 1950s. However,&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/how-to-exit-farming-risk-trap\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How to Exit Farming Risk Trap<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10316,"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":[216],"class_list":["post-122066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700773108,"cached_date":1704902366},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122066","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\/10316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122066\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}