<\/p>\n
News<\/span><\/b>: In the backdrop of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, the Prime Minister<\/span> of India<\/span>\u202fhas emphasised the need for India to be atmanirbhar (self-reliant) in defence and agricultural sector in the Amrit Kaal (next 25 years). <\/span><\/p>\n India has achieved self-reliance in production of a large amount of food in the agricultural sector. It<\/span> is also a net exporter of agri-produce.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n India has high dependence on imports for edible oils<\/strong>. India imports around 55 to 60% of consumption.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n India has a vast potential to emerge as a significant exporter of agri-produce remains untapped.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the area of agriculture and food, various factors lead to comparative advantage, like<\/span><\/p>\n –<\/strong> the research and development (agri-R&D) from lab to land<\/span><\/p>\n –<\/strong> investing in irrigation infrastructure<\/span><\/p>\n –<\/strong> marketing<\/span><\/p>\n –<\/strong> Agro-processing, and <\/span><\/p>\n –<\/strong> improving supply from farmers\u2019 fields to consumers or export destinations.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Agri-R&D is important in achieving total factor productivity<\/strong>. It makes agriculture more competitive globally. For example, In the Green Revolution, \u201cmiracle seeds\u201d were developed for agricultural development.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Economic Survey (2021-22) pointed out that every rupee spent on agri-R&D yields much better returns, compared to returns on every rupee spent on say fertiliser subsidy, power subsidy etc.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Thus, in order to become fully self-reliant in food, India must invest at least 1% of its Agriculture GDP for R&D in Agriculture.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Low expenditure on agri education & R&D<\/strong>: Total share of expenditure on agricultural education and R&D at both the Union government and the states level hovers around 0.6% of Agri-GDP. It is much below the minimum cut off point of 1%.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Populism<\/strong>: India\u2019s scarce resources are allocated on sub-optimal choices like food subsidy and MGNREGA or on income support and subsidies for farmers, but very little for Agri-R&D. It is largely due to competitive populism.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Private sector should come forward. <\/strong>It should help India attain supremacy in Agri-R&D and innovation systems that make the country not just atmanirbhar but a hub for exports and Agri-technology.<\/p>\n Raising the expenditure on Agri R&D<\/strong>: The <\/span>govt policy must urgently work towards raising the expenditure on Agri-R&D. <\/span><\/p>\n Self-reliance should be done only by specialising in certain commodities where India has a comparative advantage<\/strong>. We can import those commodities where India don\u2019t have a significant comparative advantage.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n India\u2019s budget allocation in the agri-food space<\/strong> should focus more on investing in Agri-R&D instead of less-important aspects<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Keep a check on the mismanagement of natural resources<\/strong> and mitigate climate change issues.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The R&D should focus on building long-term sustainable solutions<\/strong> to various issues faced by the agricultural sector.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The government should incentivise private companies to expand their R&D programmes<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Some protection<\/strong> may be given for new areas<\/strong> to develop (infant industry argument).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Source<\/span><\/b>: The post is based on an article \u201cBudgeting for a well-fed, self-reliant India<\/strong>\u201d published in the Indian Express<\/strong> on 28<\/strong><\/span>th<\/strong> Mar 22<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" News: In the backdrop of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, the Prime Minister of India\u202fhas emphasised the need for India to be atmanirbhar (self-reliant) in defence and agricultural sector in the Amrit Kaal (next 25 years). What is India\u2019s present situation in terms of import dependence? India has achieved self-reliance in production of… Continue reading Budgeting for a well-fed, self-reliant India\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"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":[216,10500],"class_list":["post-176397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704924963},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176397","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\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What is India\u2019s present situation in terms of import dependence?<\/span><\/b>
\n<\/span><\/h5>\nWhy is Agri R&D significant for India? <\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n
What are the challenges that need to be addressed?<\/span><\/b>
\n<\/strong><\/h5>\nWhat is the way forward?<\/span><\/b>
\n<\/span><\/h5>\n