State Of Agriculture

There is lots of brouhaha of Farm loan waiver for marginal and small farmers in Uttar Pardesh. This decision could open a Pandora's box as it can fuel similar demands from many other states but it is government's call to take a prudent decision over this issue. Though there is a consensus among politicians, economists and thinkers of society that until we address these issues of farmers properly there will be no substantial growth in the country. All developed economies were agrarian before they were industrialized, only their period vary. Once democratic system developed, the first thing developed economies of today did was to complete agrarian reforms in time-bound way.  As Land remains the means of livelihood for large section of society in an agrarian economy the successful completion of agrarian reforms benefited the maximum number of people thereby improving their economic condition.

So it is very clear now that development of agriculture and farmers is the foremost prerequisite for development of country but are we sussing out their issue completely and correctly. Because data of land records says that 140 million hectare of land is used as agriculture land and this area is distributed among 138 million farmers. In 2011 there was 93 millions were marginal farmers (holdings of less than one hectare). Since smaller land holdings are either fragmented of large holdings which have been passed on within the family or have been informally leased by a large holder, farmers who cultivate these holdings often do not have a formal lease agreement. Sans of any land records tenant is not eligible for formal credit or other government benefits such as input subsidy or crop insurance schemes and if majority of most needy people are excluded from government's welfare schemes and policies then how it would be "sab ka saath, sab a vikas".

Access to agricultural credit is linked to the holding of land titles. Consequently these tenant farmers who account for more than 28% unable to access institutionalized credits for purchasing inputs,seeds, weeding, harvesting and transporting. As a results these farmers primarily borrow from informal source of credit such as money lenders, shopkeepers, relatives and friends on much higher interest rate. As per the report of the Committee on Medium-term Path on Financial Inclusion,RBI more 60% credit of marginal and small farmers comes from informal source of credit. To overcome this NITI Aayog has  proposed a model land leasing law to provide for the litigation of land leasing. This would ensure that land owners have the security of ownership rights, and land tenets are secure in their tenancy.  Legalization of land tenancy would also ensure that farmers get access to formal credit, insurance and input such as fertilizers but this Model Land Leasing law has been adopted only by Madhya Pradesh Government so far. As agriculture is a state subject it is all up to state governments to implement  this original Model law or to bring it with some modifications or to not pay attention to this issue at all but one thing is very evident that agriculture in this country has to go through some serious changes. Because it will never be viable for any marginal farmer with small land holding to follow conventional farming practices and sustain in farming business. So it s remains to be seen that how India will cope up with this deteriorating issue. Can this country ever move towards Cooperative farming like USSR (erstwhile) or will opt for Corporate farming like America and Canada? While in India land is considered a symbol of social prestige, status and identity unlike other the countries which succeeded in their land reforms programmes where it is seen as just an economic asset for income-earning.