Agriculture

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KEY POINTS

Populistic

·         Farm loan waivers have become a popular demand and a politically attractive option to address agrarian stress.

·         A waiver is an easy way out with an eye on the upcoming elections.

·         It may benefit politicians but not the farmers and the state.

·         It will impact credit discipline and vitiate credit culture.

·         It is bad for the fiscal health of the state.

Myopic

·         Farm loan waivers are a tool to address agrarian distress temporarily.

·         The seeming relief given to the farmer is no relief at all because the loan waiver does not address the real problems that plague agriculture.

·         A majority of farmers do not take loans from banks. It is often the comparatively better-off farmers who are able to access bank credit.

·         All bank loans are supposed to be insured under various insurance schemes of the government.

·         Farm loan waivers do not cover loans from the non-banking sector, but cover only private banks.

Way ahead

·         Lack of irrigation facilities, wrong and faulty practices, small and unviable holdings, dependence of too many people on farming and inadequate insurance facilities, infrastructural deficit are serious handicaps of this sector.

·         Cold storage and marketing facilities are poor and inefficient and farmers are exploited by middlemen.

·         Farmers will benefit only if these problems are tackled. 

Please review