Raising Agricultural Productivity and Making Farming Remunerative for Farmers
Published By: Niti Aayog on eSS | Published Date: December, 16 , 2015The paper identifies five important aspects of agriculture that
need immediate attention to bring economic advantages to millions of farm families. First, output
per hectare, which is a common measure of agricultural productivity, remains low for many
crops when compared to many other countries. There are also large regional variations within the
country. Reasons include low and faulty input uses, poor access to modern technology and no
real technological breakthrough in recent times. Second, on average, farmers do not realize
remunerative prices due to limited reach of the minimum support prices (MSP) and an
agricultural marketing system that delivers only a small fraction of the final price to the actual
farmer. Third, the farm size of the majority of the household has declined to unviable levels
inducing farmers to leave land and look for better job opportunities elsewhere. Because landleasing
laws make it risky to lease land, increasingly, productive land is being left uncultivated.
Changes in the land leasing laws may bring consolidation of land holding at operational level
and attract better investment along with access to credit and relief to tenants. Fourth, relief
measures in the event of natural disasters are inadequate and suffer from procedural
inefficiencies and delays. The risk adaptation measures are poorly executed and have not worked
effectively. This situation needs to be rectified with at least minimum quick relief to farmers for
crop loss in case of natural calamities. Finally the potential of the eastern region needs to be
harnessed with suitable interventions. This region is unique for its suitability to the production of
certain commodities. However, taking advantage of this potential would require institutional
support and investment in technological innovations. The paper offers ideas on how these
problems can be addressed so as to accelerate agricultural growth and bring remunerative prices
to farmers.
Author(s): Niti Aayog GOI | Posted on: Jan 18, 2016 | Views() | Download (648)