23/04/2020 - Agriculture | Mainstorming

IAS Parliament 5 years

KEY POINTS

Challenges

· The Covid-19 pandemic has added a new dimension to the agriculture sector’s woes. Small and marginal farmers, landless agricultural labourers, and informal workers are the hardest hit.

· That the present crisis will have a profound impact on the economy and food security is a foregone conclusion. Welfare governments, both central and states/UTs have done well to declare agriculture as an essential service, and come out with financial packages and social security measures.

· As the corona crisis coincides with the rabi harvest/preparation for kharif sowing season, its impacts on food production and movement through the value chain loom large.

· Small and marginal farmers remain the dominant food producer and major workforce in India, and the country would rely on them to contribute to the post-pandemic revival. But, small farming remains adaptive, making this group the most important constituent of farm debate in the Covid-19 context.

Measures

· A key trigger of growth of informal workforce is rural land tenure informalities embedded in rural landlessness, and all-pervasive agricultural tenancy and sharecropping

· Rural India, especially the farm sector, therefore, must prepare to productively absorb these additional labour. India’s small farms may be able to productively engage them, as they are extended enhanced tenure security, which can trigger farm investments, ‘sustainable’ intensification and diversification.

· Post-pandemic, states must consider accommodating returnee migrants in small-farming by legalising and implementing leasing reforms.

· Land-leasing reforms and documentation can aid more inclusive delivery of public service entitlements to these vulnerable tenants, critical to trigger rural revival.

· Informality of labour is linked to informality around land relations; post-pandemic farm growth hinges on strategic action on land leasing reforms.