Gram Charcha, Problems faced by Indian Agriculture - 1

EXTRACTS FROM THE DISCUSSION

DAY, DATE:- Saturday, 11th July 2020

• India is an agriculture dominated country. Large instability in agriculture. We have to reduce pollution and also try to get good output.

• A large workforce of India is involved in agriculture but contributes low to GDP. Low investments in agriculture and related industries like food processing, cold storage, warehouses are some of the reasons.

• Quality of products should also be given importance in measuring Agriculture. One should also look at the fact that only raw food produce goes into the GDP, but final processed food should be included. As lots of industries depend on agriculture and contribute to it. And no other industry or service can provide employment to such a large population.

• One should think about whether the farmers are getting a fair price for their produce. Farmers put a lot of effort into Agriculture, but their efforts are not properly acknowledged. As the prices are dictated by others. They have no control over the prices. 

• In states like Himachal Pradesh where all the products will be shared locally, with no intervention of external markets, if we consider only GDP there won’t be any contribution from them.

• In order for children’s’ education, farmers are getting into distress sales and into debts.  Children’s’ education is the first contact of rural farmers with urban life.

• Students have to go out for studies since the education they receive in rural areas doesn’t enable them to earn on their own. Also in this way, they lose contact with the skills they have learned from generations. Urban education renders them useless in rural fields by training them only for urban jobs.

• Villages in Himachal Pradesh have a high standard of living with good literacy. But things have been changing recently due to contact with the external world.

• Although rural people have reservations in government jobs and many such facilities, they migrate to urban areas due to uncertain incomes in Agriculture.

• Under FPO’s and FPC’s, activities are being held for helping farmers, in a collective way. Also under van-Dhan yojana, tribals are being trained to create processed final products with technology.

• Commercial markets are directing agriculture, leading to low production of food crops. When commercialization takes priority, incorrect and unethical practices take place, which has to be stopped.

• Educated minds should try to understand what comes and goes in their plates. We who can understand the economy and technology should try to help farmers. 

• The green revolution has impacted Punjab and other states with good products and also cancer and other disorders due to chemicals. Genetically modified seeds, which require a high intensity of water, have caused greater damage to the groundwater table. We are exporting our groundwater in the form of paddy and such crops.

• The colonial rule has pulled a lot of Indian farmers into the industries like cotton mills, etc. also it disrupted small scale industries in villages and led to the creation of large populations with no land, who became the Agricultural wage laborers

• Due to lack of awareness, farmers are not raising their voices against governmental policies, they are not asking for fair prices for their produce. 

• Farmers do not know what will be in demand in the future so that they can produce that particular product. Hence they are getting stuck in the cycle of unstable agricultural prices again and again.