He explained how the government is working closely with farmers to improve their income levels and how its several policies support farmers. He believes the benefits of these measures should be visible ahead, especially with the integration of ongoing and new schemes. In fact, some structural changes are already visible for agri inputs, he believes, driven by policies and consumption patterns.
The trend is positive. Several parts of the country have had excessive rainfall and that is going to support planting and crop production this year. Overall, we should see not only better kharif output, but also strong rabi output, much better than last year. Several reforms have been initiated over the past four years at both production- and post-production levels. Post-production becomes very important because incentives to farmers come at this stage, including marketing and logistics. On the marketing side, one act was discussed with several state governments in terms of amending it – the APMC Act – and the committee is already set up.
The Maharashtra government is looking at transforming agriculture, and has rolled out a few reforms including a new marketing act, Contract Farming Act, Promotion of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), Gramin Agriculture Markets (GAMs), and exports policy for quality crops. All these measures are catching momentum and should support farmers. If farmers start earning more, then they will reinvest. More marketing support for these farmers will help them to earn better realisations and improve their income levels.
There is greater government support for reforming agriculture. A consistent improvement in MSPs (Minimum Support Price) and moving towards better procurement is supporting farmers. In 2018, the government adopted a new MSP policy to give a minimum 50% profit margin for farm produce, which resulted in MSPs going up for all 20-25 notified commodities; this helped farmers.
Procurement by the government has also increased. In the last four years, procurement quantities of pulses increased by 20% whereas oilseeds procurement went up by 8-11%. Whatever lag is there in existing policies will be addressed by the government in a phased manner.
Post-harvest management across the agriculture subsectors is gaining momentum. There is some shift towards horticulture. Its productivity has gone up and area under cultivation touched 26mn hectares. Fishery is another segment that is growing very fast. The government has already announced 10,000 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) by 2022, which will help address structural weakness in our country (FPOs are farmers’ collectives comprising small and marginal farmers; these collectives help farmers to improve production, procurement, and marketing of crops). With improved productivity, the government’s focus will be on exports. For the first time, India has a dedicated agriculture-exports policy; it was released last year. The focus is on cluster development (identifying areas, crops, and promotion), exploring newer seeds, planting materials, and technologies.
Over the past 40-50 years, soil became nutrient deficient because of poor cultivation practices. More nutrients were extracted from the soil than needed. We require soil-health management to overcome the deficiency of primary, secondary and micro nutrients. With soil health cards (SHC), the focus will move towards better usage of N, P, and K. Historically, Indian soil was deficient in N, but that has reduced now. We need balanced usage now, with better secondary and micro nutrients.
We are now focusing on educating farmers. The focus is to educate them by reaching out at all levels, i.e., every district and village. An educated farmer will demonstrate to others and this will further support the success of SHC. In soil, organic carbon content is very important; it should be around 1.0-1.5%. It is currently at 0.3-0.5%, well below the acceptable limit, and it is a cause for concern. So balanced nutrient requirement has a lot of scope for improvement. The government has already started promoting organic farming and also provided subsidies for micro-nutrient usage in fertilisers.
The government has already moved in that direction. The present form of DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) has the perspective to ensure that companies get subsidies based on actual sales. It has more transparency and accountability. Lots of initiatives are taken by the government to educate farmers on DBT over the past few months. Hence, there is very high visibility for implementing DBT in the true sense, anytime. Yes, it is a complicated subject in terms of integrating databases. The government will take a call considering all permutations and combinations in a certain time frame.
Decontrolling prices is a very complicated subject for the government. Historically, it has taken some steps to encourage the usage of P&K – such as allowing exports, NBS (Nutrient Based Subsidy policy) for P&K, neem-coating, etc. and these measures to some extent benefited the industry. Yes, on agrochemicals, India is one of the lowest users, and we need to think of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). The usage of the biological method should be encouraged more. In fact, usage of biological products is picking up, and this should also be encouraged, but at a low price to farmers. The new pesticide-management bill will also address some points – such as lower prices, quality of products, investment in R&D, and manufacturing facilities.
The aim of the government is to boost farmers’ income. The amount distributed to farmers goes to agriculture and indirectly to the rural economy, boosting India’s growth. As more farmers are integrated with the markets on both the pre- and post-production side, the sector will see a proportionate rise in opportunities and growth. Gradual adoption of technology, micro irrigation, etc., will create demand for agriculture-allied sectors. We are moving towards digitalisation (here it means delivery of services to farmers in various forms of farm activities), so as more farmers are integrated into new and ongoing policies, benefits will be visible across the value chain over a longer period.
Subscribe to enjoy uninterrupted access
