Elixir of Indian Economy

 

 

It is a known fact that India is fundamentally an agrarian country. Almost 58% of the Indian population is entirely dependent upon the Agricultural sector for their livelihood, with 120 million farming households (small/marginal) contributing almost 17% to India’s GDP. The highlight of our agricultural sector is mainly milk, pulses, and jute, which we are obviously producing in the highest volume in the world. We are also the second-largest producer/exporter of wheat, rice, cotton, sugarcane, groundnut, vegetables & fruits. India also boasts of leading the production of spices, fish, poultry, livestock, and plantation crops. Currently, with worth $ 2.8 trillion, India is the world's fifth powerful economy after the US, China, Japan, and Germany.

 

But the sad fact is that the Agricultural sector is also one of the most ignored sectors in India Economy at this point in time. The farmers all over the nation are not happy with the new farm law that has been introduced by the centre. We also cannot refrain the fact that while reaching food sufficiency in production, India still holds major drawbacks in agricultural policy, its strategies, implementation & conscious sustainability. Indian agricultural sector is plagued by several chronic issues; some of them are natural and some others are manmade. Some of the major problems are:

 

• The stagnant yield per hectare is disrupting India’s growing needs. To achieve the government’s aim of doubling farmer’s income in the next five years, the net yield must escalate substantially. 
• Enormous disengagement between farm and market. We can often see the availability of excess buffer stocks of farm produce in the warehouses, while the consumers face a scarcity of staple commodities like onions in the market. The marketing policy of agricultural products is apparently flawed because we can see the lack of sync between agro-based industrial interests, farming reforms, and political will. 
• Lack of political initiative to address the alarming ecological challenges like the declining water table, excessive influx of pesticide, and increasing soil erosion.
• The financial distress of farmers; because the selling price of their agricultural produces does not compliment the sector’s increasing requirements for investment. Their shrinking per-capital land holding share with each successive generation is resulting in added exacerbation of the situation. 
• Insufficient & non-existing rural infrastructure such as cold storage, warehousing facilities, and processing units, results in an increased gap between rural produce and urban consumer’s table, resulting in wastage.

 

None of these farm issues are addressed by the new farm law (introduced in 2020). The above challenges have built up gradually over the past decades & the government has not yet introduced a convincing initiative that will strengthen the idea of an empowered agrarian nation & a welfare state. This is why there is a stringent need to amend the Indian farm policy. But what we are lacking here is the rights & consent of farmers who are the main protagonists in the process of farm law and also mainly because their lives & livelihood will be directly affected in a long run. The exigency of reforms in the agriculture sector is more overdue as existing laws kept the Indian farmers enslaved to the wholesale market & their obligation for rent-seeking intermediaries. 

 

Many of the small, medium & large-scale industries in India are directly & indirectly dependent upon agricultural output. The agro-based industries use agricultural products (output from food & non-food crops) as their primary raw materials. These industries range from extremely vast textile industries, food industries, dairy industries, paper industries, pharmaceutical companies, and many more. Further, there are many secondary industries as well that are greatly dependent upon agro-based products for their operation & output. 

Indian Economy is like a giant tree and agriculture represents its fundamental roots. The branches are primary industries and the sub-branches are secondary industries that depend upon produces from primary industries. Agriculture as a root of the Indian Economy plays a great role to determine the quality of fruit that is the GDP of the nation. There is a matter of grave concern as the majority of Indians are still practicing farming & its allied activities but still, the government is not able to secure & implement the interests of farmers. If farmers are not content with what the government has to offer & what the SC appointed “four-member committee” has expressed to support the contentious law, then the need of the hour is to understand what the leaders of the farm law protest wants, to resolve the deadlock between centre & farm union. 

The spoken & written support of the four-member committee of farm law has made many people question the impartiality of the committee & their sanity towards the farmer’s community. Many people who are been opposing this farm bill are been saying that all four committee members are regular “known supporters of the government’s policies”. 

 

We cannot take people for granted with whose efforts we get food in our plate and we cannot take the industry for granted whose contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) has reached almost 20 percent for the first time in the last 17 years, making it a highlight in GDP performance during 2020-21, according to the Economic Survey 2020-2021. The agricultural sector in India is something whose miseries will adversely & directly affect not only the people who are engaged/dependent upon the agricultural sector but also every single household & every single layman because food is our primary necessity, we need it every day to survive. 

 

It will not be wrong to say Agriculture- an Elixir of Indian Economy, being a sovereign sector that not only feeds the people of this nation but also holds a great scope to redefine the GDP & nation’s economy.