 To aim for 8% growth in Agriculture as achieved by China. |
To provide economic equity to 600 million farmers
assured income –risk mitigation –old age pension. |
Develop global competitiveness of small farming –
Utilizing modern technologies – IT- Remote Sensing – Irradiation – Nano – GMOs – Organic - Mechanization. |
To provide employment and nutrition food to all rural people. |
STRATEGY-I: FINANCIAL REFORMS
|
Increase in Public and Private Investment in Agriculture. |
To redefine agriculture credit flow guidelines to small farmers.
Indirect finance should not be included in 18% target for agriculture credit.
Sub limit of 10% out of 18% should be fixed for marginal & tenants. |
Rural credit / deposit ratio of banks (now 57%) to be maintained at 75% (CD for metros is 90%) |
To increase the number of Rural Bank Branches. |
To implement the recommendations of Committees headed by Prof. Arjun Sen Gupta, Prof. Radha Krishna and Prof. Vydyanathan. |
To provide agriculture and consumer needs credit to all the small farmers at nominal interest rate. |
STRATEGY –II: POLICY REFORMS
|
Removing Essential Commodities Act. |
To amend Sugarcane Act. |
Direct fertilizer subsidy to farmers. |
Re-organize Food Corporation of India functioning. |
Re-structuring Public Distribution System (PDS). |
Encourage APMC - Contract Farming - Commodity Trading. |
To have long term agriculture policies. |
To converge NREGs with farm activities. |
To utilize global opportunities in Tobacco and Other related Commodities production and marketing.
|
STRATEGY –III: IMPLEMENTATION OF NATIONAL COMMISSION OF FARMERS |
(Dr M.S.S.Swaminadhan Commitment Report)
|
1MSP should be C2+ Minimum 50%. Remunerative prices. |
Statutory status to CACP. |
Market Stabilization Fund and Risk Mitigation Fund to be provided. |
Agricultural progress should be measured by growth in net farm income.
|
Irrigation, projects to be completed in time bound manner.
|
Village based Crop Insurance.
|
Other recommendations of the Commission to be implemented.
|
STRATEGY –IV: EMPOWERMENT OF FARMERS |
Agriculture planning and implementation through Panchayat Raj – Decentralized planning and implementation - bottom up approach.
|
Establishing and recognizing commodity (producers) interest groups (CIGs). |
To encourage CIGs, partnership programs, contract farming and direct marketing. |
Empowerment of Farmers to manage Irrigation Projects, Market Yards, Commodity Boards and etc. |
To convert water as a marketable resource & incensentivise conservation. |
STRATEGY –V: TAX REFORMS (INCENTIVES) |
Incentivize private investment in Agriculture – Research – Extension – Farmers Training – Rural - Education – Health.
|
To save 1, 40,000 Crores Crop losses due to pests by incentivizing crop protection availability to small farmers, tribal, tenants and dry land farmers.
|
To incentivize mechanization of Agriculture.
|
To incentivize Water Conservation equipment manufacturing and usage.
|
To encourage organic manure production by converting urban waste.
|
To encourage organic products, marketing and consumption.
|
To incentivize usage of GMOs, Nano, Remote sensing by private sectors.
|
To encourage PPP in rural infrastructure, Cold Storage, Transport etc. |
To encourage PPP in TV Kisan Channels & Radio. |
2. New deal for inclusive growth S. D. Naik BL030609 |
| PM said: “This verdict is a verdict for inclusive growth. It is a verdict for equitable development. It is a verdict for secular and plural India.” Challenge is to ensure that the growth process in the coming days becomes more equitable. In the Indian context, the core agenda for inclusive growth must include: A new deal for agriculture, a greater thrust to manufacturing by strengthening physical and social infrastructure and a significant improvement in governance and delivery. |
Neglect of AGRICULTURE |
The share of agriculture in GDP has declined steadily from 36.4 per cent in 1982-83 to just around 18 per cent now, even as this sector provides employment to some 52 per cent of the country’s workforce. The average income of this overwhelmingly large population is less than a quarter compared to those dependent on the rest of the economy. |
It would be necessary to step up public investment in the sector significantly along with efforts to ensure that not only institutional credit to the sector increases but it also reaches more number of farmers.
|
Improving crop productivity is highest priority. This would call for building an outcome-oriented perspective in the implementation of public programmes in the area of irrigation, fertilisers, use of high-yielding varieties of seeds etc.
|
The other areas requiring urgent attention are the strengthening of research and extension services and risk mitigation measures such as crop insurance, weather insurance, price risk mitigation and expanding the livelihood opportunities for rural population outside the farm sector. |
MANUFACTURING |
Despite some resurgence of manufacturing activity from 2002-03 to 2006-07 on the back of strong domestic and export demand, the share of this sector in GDP is just around 17 per cent, much below its true potential. Rate of manufacturing growth has to reach 12-14 per cent per annum to raise its contribution to GDP to at least 23 per cent by 2015.
|
The major impediments facing the sector to achieve the kind of growth suggested by NMCC are the infrastructural bottlenecks — both physical and social infrastructure.
|
In the area of social infrastructure, there are glaring deficiencies in elementary and higher education, health, availability of skilled and properly trained labour force. Empowering the poor with quality education and skills would be a more effective way of bringing about inclusive growth rather than handing out doles to the poor.
|
GOVERNANCE AND DELIVERY |
Poor governance has now become a major cause for worry. There are huge leakages and rampant corruption in the plethora of anti-poverty schemes launched over the years and more often the benefits fail to reach the targeted people below the poverty line. Even after spending over Rs 300,000 crore of tax payers’ money over the last five years on poverty alleviation schemes — both old and new — there have been major slippages on goals.
|
The previous government’s flagship programme, Bharat Nirman, launched in 2005 for creating rural infrastructure, for instance, could not achieve even a third of its target. The inordinate delays in the Central sector projects have been costing thousands of crore rupees every year. Public Accounts Committee report has revealed huge misuse of funds in the Prime Minister’s rural road scheme.The much-touted Public Distribution System (PDS) has failed to provide food security to millions of poor. A study conducted in 2007 had put the number of bogus ration cards in the country at a staggering 2.3 crore. It was also found that huge quantities of foodgrains meant for the poor were being diverted to the black market. Same is the story with PDS kerosene meant for the poor.Clearly, the time has come to introduce a proper coupon system or work out an effective way of directing cash transfer to the poor and scrap the corruption-ridden PDS altogether. In all the anti-poverty programme, the accent hereafter should be better governance and delivery rather than allocation of more funds.
|
3. Farm sector needs right nutrients, now -Sharad Joshi –BL 030609
|
The agriculture sector has for decades been subject to massive negative subsidies. This, along with the paucity of investment in the sector, had pushed farmers into poverty, indebtedness and even suicide. Agriculture has been deficient in investments, both private and public, whereas the stock market has fortified the finances of the secondary and tertiary sectors
|
Access to markets |
The only way to remove the negative subsidies is to accept in principle the farmers’ freedom of access to markets. This can be done by forswearing all measures that depress agricultural prices and by striking a healthy balance between consumer and producer interests. In the past, policies have been drafted without fully realising that while the urban consumer has a preference for low prices, the rural consumer prefers prices that boost his income.In this context, the commodity futures market would help improve the investment environment. |
Futures trading |
Action needs to be taken to accelerate the passage of the Forward Markets Commission Bill and promote futures trade among farmers, as suggested by the 2008 Sen Committee Report. The Congress manifesto promised that those in the BPL (below poverty line) category will be supplied 25 kg of foodgrains at Rs 3 a kg. This measure will depress prices in a major part of the grain market.
|
With the carrying cost of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) already high, this measure will necessarily result in hefty price subsidies, which in turn will invite opposition from the World Trade Organisation and embarrass the Indian delegation on account of the position they have taken so far. |
The loan waivers and the debt relief scheme announced before the elections have certainly helped the banking system sanitise its non-performing assets, but done little to lift the farmers’ spirits. The scheme needs to be supplemented by a much simpler one, which will remove the distinctions between various classes of landholders and various types of moneylenders. |
NREGS effect |
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has certainly played a major role in the Congress’ electoral victory. But the scheme has affected the agricultural labour market, apart from providing opportunities for corruption. Further, it condemns large sections to a life of manual wage labour. The scheme must be replaced by one that will provide some modest venture capital to those wanting to start enterprises of their own rather than doing manual work. In any case, the wage rate and the number of days for which such employment is given should not be such as to affect labour supply in a sector where 40 per cent of the employers themselves want to quit.
|
4.Rana Kapoor, yes Bank,BL 080609 |
i.Since the early 1980s public investment in agriculture has experienced a decline. Though private investment in agriculture has been increasing, it has not yet fully compensated for the loss from falling public investment. Hence, the emphasis must be to raise the level of public investment in agriculture and rural India. This move would also help unleash private sector investment, which complements public investment. Taking into consideration the 18 per cent contribution of agriculture to total GDP, a minimum 5 per cent of total GDP should be invested in agriculture and allied activities, and the desired investment can be increased in a phased manner.
|
ii.Investments of large scale in irrigation projects, roads and connectivity have the most potent effect in terms of return of investment. There is also a need for enhancing productivity by introduction of new varieties of crops, breeds of livestock, efficient packages of technologies and investments in advanced crop technologies with accompanying investments in infrastructure of institutions those deliver these.
|
iii.Strengthening and modernising marketing infrastructure by attracting private investment for creation of modern terminal / wholesale markets, warehouses, agro-logistics hubs etc, facilitation of investments in cold chain, agro-processing industries and agri-infrastructure projects such as integrated agro food parks, will be key enablers that will have a multiplier effect in the resurgence of the sector.
|
iv.Development of a network of certified warehouses all over the country, which meet certain specifications and standards to store the produce, will be significant to enhance the quality of Indian produce.
|
v.Encouraging contract and corporate farming and the system of aggregators producers’ cooperatives/banks, which can collect the produce of small and marginal farmers, aggregate them and then hedge the produce in the futures market, will provide appropriate economic size and scale.
|
5.Putting farming in the frame- Surinder Sud:BS-020609
|
Unless the impact of agriculture is taken into account, the plans to cut global warming will come a cropper.
|
As pointed out by IFPRI Director-General Joachim von Braun in one of these papers, agriculture accounts for about 13.5 per cent of the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions against 13.1 per cent by the transportation sector. The forestry sector contributes adds another 19 per cent to the emissions. As such, agriculture is part of climate change problem and is also part of the solution, offering promising opportunities for mitigating GHG emissions through carbon sequestering. Technology can convert the challenges posed by climate change into opportunities for increasing agriculture’s capacity to sequester carbon and, in the process, aid reversal of the global warming process. Conservation agriculture, which involves minimum disturbance of land (zero tillage) and incorporation of crop residues back into the soil, can help sequester carbon in the ground, besides conserving scarce water. |
Similarly, changes in the irrigation schedules and systems of paddy cultivation can help cut down methane emission from rice fields perceptibly. Farm animals, too, can be made to produce less methane by suitably altering their diets and introducing new enzymes in their systems to promote better digestion of their feed. |
IFPRI feels that the next climate change protocol must focus on three points: a) an explicit inclusion of agriculture-related investments, especially as part of a global climate change fund; b) a deliberate focus on introducing incentives to reduce emissions and support technological change; and c) a solid commitment to establish comprehensive information and monitoring services in soil and land use management.-Compiled by: K. Ramasubba Reddy |
