Agriculture

Amit Kumar Anandwww.amitkanand.com

September 9, 2016

1 Introduction

• India has 2.4 % land area having 17% ofworld population.

• Agriculture accounts for 80% of waterneeds; 60% from ground water.

• 52 % workers in Agriculture; 14 % ofGDP.

2 Farmers

2.1 Disadvantages to Farmers

1. Economic Disadvatage: landlessness,near-landlessness, or small size of ownedor operated holdings.

• Small size of landholdings re-duces the farmer’s ability to in-vest in lumpy inputs, or gain fromeconomies of scale, or have neces-sary bargaining power in marketsand with service agencies.

• Marginal farmer : land holding < 1ha (2.5 acre).

• Small farmer : land holding upto 2ha (2.5 acre to 5 acre).

• 83% farmers are small and marginal.43% of area under their cultivation.

• 10% of rural households landless.

2. Social Disadvantage: gender (beingwomen), caste or tribe (belonging to SCor ST).

3. Ecological or regional disadvantage:located in regions which are arid, semiarid, rainfed, disaster prone, poorly irri-gated or geographically remote.

2.2 Constraints faced by Farmers

1. Poor land access

2. Poor credit access

3. Poor access to critical inputs, such as wa-ter, power, seeds, and fertilizers/manure.

4. Neglect by extension services and crop re-search.

5. High production risk and little insurancecoverage.

6. Limited market access. : Small numberof farmers taking advantage of marketingcooperatives.

2.3 Best Practices

2.3.1 Kudambashree, Kerala

• Kudambshree project in Kerala pro-vided for land leasing to women SHGs.Later Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) - aNABARD scheme - and given financialand technical support.

2.3.2 Andhra Pradesh MahilaSamatha Society

• Women’s group farming. Part of Na-tional Mahila Samkhya Programme.

• Aim is to achieve food security. Onlyfood crops grown.

2.3.3 The Gambhira farmers’ collec-tive, Gujrat

• Farming cooperative formed in 1953.

• Cultivation on a stretch of River Mahi byfarmers of four villages.

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2.4 Measures to improve agricul-ture

• Easing land constraint

1. Land transfer by government tolandless.

2. Facilitating land purchase .

3. Facilitating land leasing includingcreation of land bank.

4. Tenancy to be legalized and regu-lated.

5. Protecting small and marginal hold-ers from indiscriminate land acquisi-tion of land for non-agricultural use.

6. Improving land records and genderdisaggregated data.

• Promoting group farming: Advan-tages of pooling of resources like credit,equipments, irrigation etc.

1. Incentivize group farming by landpooling or land leasing.

2. Can be integrated with MGN-REGA.

3. Kudambshree and APMSS model tospread.

• Enhancing access to Production In-puts

1. Development and preservation ofcrop varieties.

2. Joint crop planning and input pro-curement.

3. Non chemical agriculture.

4. Improvement in irrigation facilities.

5. Low cost custom hiring of agricul-tural machinery.

• Enhancing credit access

1. Financial inclusion.

• Extension, Training and CapacityBuilding

1. Training essential for increasing pro-ductivity e.g.System of Rice Intensi-fication (SRI).

2. Resource centres to build capacityand knowledge of farmers on contin-uous basis especially women farm-ers.

3. Agricultural Technology Manage-ment Agencies (ATMAs)

• Risk Mitigation

1. Crop insurance.

2. MSP

• Marketing of Produce

1. Producers Organisations to be setup. More bargaining power.

2. Amendments in APMC act forprotection for delayed paymentsand deliveries, contract cancellationdamages, sharing production risks,dispute resolution etc.

3. Contract farming linkages.

3 Animal Husbandry andDairying

4 Schemes

4.1 Soil Health Card Scheme

• CSS for issuing soil health card to everyfarmer.

• report on soil fertility status.

• advisory on soil test based use of fertiliz-ers and amendments to increase produc-tivity and profitability.

• SHC to be updated every 3 years.

• soil sample drawn from uniform grid of2.5 ha in irrigated land and 10 ha in nonirrigated land.

4.2 Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yo-jana (PKVY)

• to promote organic farming.

• Group of farmers to be promoted toadopt organic farming. 50 or more farm-ers to form clusters having 50 acre land.

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• adoption of Participatory GuaranteeScheme (PGS) certification.

• creating facilities for production oforganic manure/ bio-fertilizer/ bio-pesticides and marketing of produce.

4.3 Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sin-chayee Yojana (PMKSY)

• extending irrigation coverage “Har Khetko Pani” and improving water use effi-ciency “Per Drop More Crop” in a fo-cused manner.

• end to end solution on source creation,distribution, management, field applica-tion and extension activities.

4.4 Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF)

• CSS with initial corpus of 500 croreto support market intervention for pricecontrol of agri-horticultural commodities.

• interest free loans to State Governmentsand Central agencies.

• procurement directly from farmers orfarmers’ organisation at farm gate/Mandi.

• Centre State contribution 50:50, in NE75:25.

4.5 National Agricultural Marketthrough Agri Tech Infrastruc-ture Fund (ATIF)

• aimed at migration towards nationalmarket with implementation of commone-market platform.

• address present challenges in agriculturalmarketing especially providing remuner-ative prices to farmers.

• enhance marketing of produce, improveaccess to market related information,better price discovery, accessing greaternumber of buyers through transparentauction process.

4.6 Schemes for enhancing relief tofarmers due to Natural Disas-ters

1. National Disaster Response Fund(NDRF)/ State Disaster Response Fund(SDRF) norms revised comprehensively.

2. Relief in form of input subsidy.

3. Enhancement in financial assistance tofarmers for crop damage due to naturalcalamities.

4. Crisis Management Plan (CMP) fordrought.

5. National Crop Insurance Plan (NCIP)

4.7 Mission for Integrated Develop-ment of Horticulture (MIDH)

• Subsumes all horticulture developmentschemes.

• Research, technology promotion, exten-sion, post harvest management, process-ing and marketing.

• Encourage Farmer groups to leverageeconomies of scale and scope.

• Augment farmers income and strengthennutritional security.

• Improve productivity by way of qualitygermplasm, planting material and wateruse efficiency.

• Skill Development. Create employmentgeneration opportunities for rural youthin horticulture and post harvest manage-ment, especially in the cold chain sector.

4.8 Farm Mechanisation

• Overall 40-45 % mechanisation.

4.8.1 Farm Mechanisation Areas

1. Tillage & seed bed preparation.

2. Sowing/ Planting

3. Fertilizer Application.

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4. irrigation.

5. Harvesting.

6. Post Harvesting.

4.9 Core issues

1. Adverse Economies of Scale.

2. Weak financial strength of majority offarmers.

3. Lack of access to credit.

4. Need for promoting appropriate FarmEquipment: Low cost, region and cropspecific, indigenous technology.

4.9.1 Sub Mission of AgriculturalMechanisation (SMAM)

• Promoting farm mechanization in smalland marginal farmers.

• Promoting Custom Hiring Centres tooffset the adverse economies of scale aris-ing due to small landholding and highcost of individual ownership.

• Creating hubs for hi-tech & high valuefarm equipments.

• Ensuring performance testing and certi-fication.

4.10 Rainfed Area DevelopmentProgramme (RADP)

• The Food Bowl of India (North West) isbecoming unsustainable. Urgent need for“Second Green” revolution from “RAIN-FED AREAS”

• 60 % of net sown area is rainfed.

4.10.1 Problems in Rainfed areas

4.10.2 Natural

1. Erratic Rainfall, Floods, Droughts, Inad-equate Irrigation Infrastructure.

2. Land Degradation, Poor Soil Fertility.

4.10.3 Socio-Economic

1. Small Land Holdings, Poor Farmers.

2. Lower Credit off take.

3. Poor Socio-Economic growth, Illiteracy,Poverty.

• High risk, low yield business.

• High Risk → Less investments in Inputs→ Low Productivity→ Under developedMarket Infrastructure, Poor Post HarvestManagement → High Risk.

4.11 National Food Security Mis-sion (NFSM)

• increase the production of rice, wheat,pulses and coarse grains by 10, 8, 4 and3 million tonnes.

• promote and extend improved tech-nologies, i.e., seed, micronutrients, soilamendments, integrated pest manage-ment farm machinery and implements,irrigation devices resource conservationalong with capacity building of farmers.

4.12 Integrated Scheme for Agricul-tural Marketing (ISAM)

The ISAM has five sub schemes namely

1. Agricultural Marketing Infrastruc-ture (AMI) the erstwhile schemesof Grameen Bhandaran Yojana(GBY) and the Scheme for Devel-opment/Strengthening of AgriculturalMarketing Infrastructure, Grading andStandardisation (AMIGS) have beensubsumed into AMI sub scheme.

2. Marketing Research and Informa-tion Network (MRIN) : collect anddisseminate information on price, ar-rival and other market related data forthe benefit of farmers and other marketstakeholders.

3. Strengthening of Agmark GradingFacilities (SAGF)

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4. Agri-business Development (ABD)through Venture Capital Assistance(VCA) and Project Development Facil-ity (PDF) and

5. Ch. Charan Singh National Institute ofAgricultural Marketing (NIAM), Jaipur

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