The first meeting of the Chief Ministers’ Committee on transforming agriculture took place recently.
In this meeting, it was proposed to link the allocation of Central funds to farm sector reforms in states.
Why do farming reforms have low progress?
Several farm sector reforms initiated by the Centre have failed to make much progress.
This is because of the states’ apathy, the denial of funding which may prove counterproductive and undermines the spirit of federalism.
Squeezing funds would be unfair to do in the above case. But if it is attributable to administrative lethargy and inefficiency or politically motivated one-upmanship, harsher fiscal steps may be justified.
Why the tie-up could be done?
Leveraging Central finances for pushing states to hasten reforms is not new.
In 2017, the NITI Aayog had advised the agriculture ministry in 2017 to tie up a part of the grant under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (an umbrella farm development scheme) with the implementation of farm sector reforms.
However, this proposition was not pursued due to the fear of backlash from state governments.
But if some chief ministers are themselves veering round to this view, it may be worthwhile to try it out, even if on a selective basic.
What change could be done?
A beginning can be made to push reforms in fields such as agricultural marketing, land leasing, contract farming, crop insurance, and agricultural credit.
A way to avoid the states’ indifference towards the Centre’s farmer-oriented agenda could be to shift agriculture from the State list to the Concurrent List of the Constitution’s Seventh Schedule.
Who suggested such a change?
Such a statutory translocation of agriculture was suggested by the M S Swaminathan-led National Commission on Farmers in its final report in 2006.
The Dalwai committee’s report, 2018 on the issues related to doubling farmers’ income by 2022, also favored putting agricultural marketing on the Concurrent List.
However, the amendment to the Constitution for this purpose would require the support of 2/3rd members of both houses of Parliament and an endorsement by a requisite number of state legislatures.
What is the way forward?
To carry forward some vital and need-based reforms in agriculture to restore profitability and mitigate farmers’ lingering financial woes.
Exit avenues also need to be created to let farmers quit farming if they intend to do so to improve their livelihood prospects.
The Chief Ministers’ panel could come out with practically feasible plans to rejuvenate the country’s farm sector.
