Indian Agrarian economy is in shambles, what are its fault lines.
India is basically an agricultural oriented country so as our Society which can be considered as Agrarian Society. From the Indian history itself; it is very much evident that the main profession of the ancient Indian people was agriculture and animal Husbandry. But the colonialism era has destroyed our agriculture due to the fact that British Government's main aim was to exploit Indian resources and they didn't care for the betterment of the Indian agriculture system. Post Independence era has seen some fundamental steps initiated during first two Five Year Plan resulting in Green revolution in Country and hence making India self sufficient in food grain and other crops.
But during the last decade we observed that our Agrarian Economy is in shambles which can be evident from the following facts:-
- The 70 % of population of India is involved in primary sector (agriculture and related activities) but forming only 20% share of our GDP.
- The growth of agriculture sector is continuously declining evident from the fact that agriculture growth rate is 3.5 % is recorded in 12th five year plan (2007-12) as against 4.8% recorded in 8th five year plan (1992-97).
- Villagers which are the backbone of the Agrarian society are
rushing towards the urban areas in search of other employment
- Farmers are committing suicide daily due to non-fulfillment of
their needs from agriculture and majority of farmers are living in
hand to mouth situation.
Now question arises why our Agrarian economy is in
shambles. The following reasons can be assigned to this very insecure
situation of agrarian economy of the country.
- The main reason of this situation lies with the fact that the
most of our agriculture processes are not scientifically updated in
accordance with the development took place in the all over world in
agriculture sector. Most of farmers have no ideas of crop rotation,
profit- making crops, scientific agriculture according to land
characteristics etc and continued the old fashioned agriculture which
is a business of loss for them and for the whole agriculture sector.
- The new equipment commonly used in International agriculture
sectors are still out of reach from most of the farmers of India
resulting less productivity and time consuming processes.
- Farmers are not aware of the genetically modified seeds,
availability of specific fertilizers for crops and hence their crops
got destroyed due to the attack of virus, bacteria, fungus etc.
- India is a country of diversified whether condition. The
agriculture sector of the India relies on the good rain only. In case
rain is less, the crops are getting destroyed and farmers are forced
to strive. Even after so much time since Independence, we are not able
to provide good irrigation systems to our farmers.
- The agriculture policy of Indian Government has provided a
number of facilities like Kisan Credit card, easy access to banking
loans for farmers, scientific method of agriculture etc but the same
has not been implemented properly and out of the reach of needy
farmers and hence resulting in continuation of miserable situation of
small scale farmers.
- The existence of the intermediary persons/agencies between
Government and farmers during sale of the crops has worsened the
situation. Absence of the direct sale of the crops by the Govt.
enables these intermediary persons/agencies to exploit the farmers to
the extent of not getting proper price of the crops and hence despite
of the hard-working farmers are not able to enrich themselves.
- The storage system managed by Food Corporation of India is not
fully equipped with Godowns, warehouses etc. and in absence of proper
storage system, the farmers are not able to sell their crops even
after long wait and sometimes their crops get destroyed in
Bazaar/Mandi/Market due to lack of customers.
- Black marketing of crops has also harmed the Farmers as well as
the common people in India.
The above mentioned reasons have contributed significantly to force our Agriculture economy in shaky situation. The country, whose 70% population relies on the agriculture/agriculture related activities for their livelihood, cannot afford the destruction of agriculture system. Therefore, it's very much essential to re-look our National agriculture policies and to make requisite changes so as to enable it to counter the problems of agriculture system. Moreover, the executive section of the policy should be modified to the extent of proper implementation of the said policy to ensure the maximum reach of the same up to the neediest farmers. Only then, the agrarian economy can come out of this shambles.
Ajeet Singh
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