The Central and state governments are providing income support for the farmers through different schemes.
These schemes serve a purpose, but the farm sector needs a lot more.
What are some income support schemes?
The Centre’s PM-KISAN scheme provides Rs. 6,000 to farm families owning less than 5 acres of land.
Similar to PM-KISAN, Telangana, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh have cash transfer programmes for farmers.
The Chhattisgarh’s Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana aims to supplement the income of the State’s rice, maize and sugarcane farmers.
This scheme provides the farmers with Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 13,000 per acre, through direct cash transfers.
What is the problem with MSP?
India has a Minimum Support Price (MSP) regime which works in combination with the Public Distribution System (PDS).
This regime tries to balance the interests of the consumer and farmer.
But the efficiency of neither MSP procurements nor the PDS is uniform across the country.
The Centre says it fixes MSPs at 1.5 times the cost of production for farmers, but this calculation is not free of controversy.
In 2019, several States questioned the Centre’s MSP calculations.
Are these income support schemes sufficient?
Though food is a universal necessity, those who produce it suffer at the bottom of the economic pyramid.
These income support schemes target land owners, and bypass tenants and labourers.
In Chhattisgarh, there is evidence that tenants managed better rates from owners last year after the government gave incentives above MSPs to farmers.
The State is now designing a cash transfer scheme for landless labourers.
But these interventions are only palliative and cannot address the underlying problem, which is the non-remunerative nature of farming.
What was the solution proposed?
A more market-driven approach has often been proposed as the solution.
The agriculture-related components in the Centre’s response to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic appear to toe that line.
However, many previous arguments about the agriculture economy have been rendered questionable by the pandemic.
What is the crisis in the US?
The food supply chain in the U.S. was considered supremely efficient.
But it ended up with wasted produce and unmet demand as the pandemic erupted.
What could be done?
India’s agricultural management must consider fresh learning from the pandemic.
It should also learn from the vulnerabilities arising out of supply chain-dependent food security.
The list of pre-existing morbidities in the agriculture sector is also long.
This list includes messy land records, unsustainable crop patterns, inadequate irrigation, adoption of technology, etc.,
For now, the Centre must announce the MSPs for the current season at the earliest. [Late announcements have added to the uncertainties for the farmers in recent years]
The creation of a buoyant agriculture sector will take much more, and those efforts must be made on a war-footing.
