All over the world agriculture is not a lucrative business. When you deep dive into it, you get disappointed to know that all over the globe the situation is more or less the same. This is why Indian Farmers need help from the Government immediately and on an urgent basis otherwise, the future of this sector is bleak.
People who provide food to us, are forced to live in very sad conditions. Farmers are struggling to live a decent life and having difficulties providing good education to their children.
It is very important to understand why it is happening and is there any solution to it? There are several reasons why it is happening –
Agriculture is by and large unorganised:
The agricultural sector is more or less unorganized and mostly governed by less educated people and they keep on doing traditional farming. They do not have organized societies or a single platform, from where they can raise their issues. Due to its unorganized structure, Indian agriculture needs government help desperately.
Above reality make it very clear that why Indian farmers need help from the Government.
Input cost for farming is too high:
Due to the unorganized sector, they are not able to effectively negotiate for their agricultural products and sometimes end up selling them at those prices which is lower than their cost of production.
Due to very high cost of inputs it becomes absolutely necessity that why Indian farmers need help from the Government.
The farmer has to buy seeds, chemicals, manure, Implements which are getting more and more expensive due to bad marketing practices of the corporate world. There are many occasions when we find that farmers are not able to get even that money from their products which they spent on crop production.
In the name of providing good quality seeds and fertilizers, lot of companies selling seeds and fertilizers for crop at exuberant cost. Rates of fuel like petrol and diesel are quite high and getting costlier day by day.
In some cases, companies buy agricultural produce at a very low cost and then with little modification selling it in very high price which is far from the reach of most farmers and forces them to grow poor seeds that have low yield potential.
Agricultural equipment and implements are getting too much costly. Tractors and water pump which is now become necessity are getting costlier every year. This is again an area where Indian farmer needs government help as without help from government agriculture may become unviable.
Size of landholding:
As land is divided into family members, its size becomes lower and lower. Due to the low size of landholding overall cost is increasing and profit is diminishing.
Due to small land holding sizes and no proper organized societies or groups they are individually purchasing and using agricultural implements which make agricultural operations very costly.
Price control by Government:
This is surprising but it is true fact that Government wants to control inflation rate and want to provide food grains and other agricultural produce at low price to non farming community as they are big chunk of vote bank to any political party. They want to make city people happy by controlling agricultural commodity price.
These policies of the government make it difficult to get high income in agriculture sector. Moreover Governments has to provide free food grains to people those are extremely poor and has to buy food grains from farmers. It is therefore government wants to maintain prices of these agricultural produce at lower level so that they do not have to spend big chunk of money on this.
Lack of Investment in agriculture sector:
It is very important that big investment comes to farming sector. This is why Indian farmers need help from the government in a big way.
Due to very low profit margin there are only handful people those want to invest in farming sector. Although government has many schemes for investment in agricultural sector but this is not sufficient as huge investment require in this sector for any substantial improvement.
High tech literate people averse to working in rural remote areas:
Corporate sector and big companies are also not interested in investing in agriculture sector as chances of making profit is quite low and they want to put their money in those sectors which are more profitable.
Due to lack of basic amenities available in rural sector, very few people want to invest their expertise in rural sector. As the living life is very tough in these areas most of the companies stay away from far flung rural areas. There are plenty of examples when highly educated people belong to farming family choose migrate to cities instead of working for farming communities.
The farming sector is managed by poor people:
Most of the farming sector is managed by poor people and not in a condition to put required inputs and infrastructure in this sector. Not only do this even rich people not want to invest in the Agriculture sector in a big way. An even rich farmer does not want their children to work as a farmer and wants them to move to cities. Due to these financial constraints, their bargaining power is very low. They are not able to create new tech infrastructure and it put farmers in a disadvantageous situation. To make farming viable and profitable it is necessary that Government make sure that the income of farmers increases so that they have enough money to adopt high tech in agriculture. Due to the scarcity of available funds in this sector, this is why Indian farmers need help from the government desperately.
Supply and demand:
At the time of harvesting, the Market is flooded with excess crops,s and prices of crops start dropping. This gives a golden opportunity to marketing companies and middlemen to make money with unfair means. As they know farmers have to sell their crop as soon as possible as farmers don’t have any infrastructure to keep these products and have the risk, get them destroyed in the field itself.
No Minimum support price:
They start buying low quantities of crop produces and start putting harsh quality conditions for crop produces. Due to the risk of crops getting destroyed in the field itself, farmers start selling their crops at through away low prices, which sometimes not even return their cost of production.
There are only very few areas where Government gives a guaranty of a Minimum support price and that too for very few crops. In India lot of agitations erupted when Government comes with three new agricultural laws which intend to open the agriculture sector to private companies. Although Government says it will help farmers but farmers believe that Private big players if entered into the agriculture sector, will not get proper price for their products and will depend on the mercy of the corporate sector. They also believe rightly or wrongly that Government wants to get away from MSP as the government has to spend a lot of money on this.
Hoarding of Crop produces:
As the market flooded with a lot of crops produce during harvesting time Many big companies and other middle man take this opportunity to buy a lot of crop production at a low price and start hoarding a lot of crop production in their godown warehouses and once crop produce is stopped coming from farmers. They start selling it at exorbitant prices.
Not only these even good/big companies buy agricultural produce at a very low price and then store them for some time. Do packaging and sell this product in quite high prices. For example, companies buy potato at very low prices and then make potato chips, do packaging, and sell it at very high prices.
Very low coverage in National and International Media:
It is quite sad that most of the media has no intention to show any constructive news about farming. They do not interest to spread news of good technology in farming. They are run on revenue generated by ads, so they are more interested in news related to revenue generation.
No substantial Monetary help for purchasing Agricultural Equipments:
The price of Agricultural equipment is so high that purchasing this equipment is far from the reach of most of the farmers and the Government must provide substantial monetary help.
Lack of research in Farming Sector:
Although a majority of the population belongs to the farming community there is very little research in this sector. Big corporate sector mostly interested to do in other fields rather than establishing their research center in far-flung remote rural areas. This is the area where Indian farming needs government help on an urgent basis.
Excess production of the same crop:
Due to cultivation of same crop in large quantity in specific areas create mismatch in demand and supply, which resulted in very low price of that crop.
Loss of nutrient in the Soil:
Due to prolonged cropping, soil loses its nutrient and now farmers have to spend lot of money to produce of crops. Government has to provide subsidized fertilizers and help Indian farmers.
Health hazards:
Prolonged use of chemicals makes available water harmful and become health hazardous to the people.
Lack of Irrigation facilities:
Most of the farmer has very limited irrigation facilities and mostly depend on natural weather. Due to modern high-cost infrastructure is required in this field it is therefore why Indian farmers require Government help on an immediate and urgent basis before Indian farming gets into deep trouble.
Import of cheaper foods:
To make people happy Government import food from rich countries where agriculture is highly subsidized. This in return lower the prices of agriculture produces and farmers income reduce.
More yield more Loss:
Quite surprising but Instead of getting more money for more yield, farmers end up getting less price in the market due to a mismatch in demand-supply. If climatic conditions are favorable, the farmer gets a high yield but due to low demand, they are not able to get good prices for their crop yield. This is the situation if arises government must help farmers.
Most of Agriculture is dependent on weather:
Most of the Farmers are depend on weather which makes farming very risky business. Some time whole crop destroyed in matter of minutes due to heavy rain or storm etc.
All above facts make it very clear that this is very important that Government must support farming community. To make it more profitable, some of the suggestions are following:
Minimum support Price:
Due to the bigger chances of exploitation, why Indian farmers need government help. Government has to make sure that there should be a minimum supporting price at which farmer can sell their products. No one should be allowed to buy any agriculture products below this price.
MSP should be declared after considering all the money and labor spend by farmers to produce that crop. Infect Labor cost of farmer and his family should also include in it.
More investment in agriculture Sector:
To make good infrastructure in Agriculture sector, Govt. must put investment in creating more cold storages, irrigation facilities.
Proving Subsidy for buying seeds, fertilizers and other inputs:
Govt. must ensure that farmers get subsidized farming inputs.
More irrigation facility:
This is the duty of the government that farmers get good irrigation facilities.
More storage Facility:
Due to lack storage facilities Indian farmers need help from the Goverments on immediate and urgent basis. Government has to Provide more cold storages and other storages facilities to store and keep agriculture produces.
Loan waiver:
Due to high input cost, some time farmers take loans from banks but not able to pay it back.
Research and development:
It is the need of the time that Government must spend significant amount in Research and development in farming sector.
Diversification in crop:
Instead of growing same crop in large area, we should make policy of growing different crops so that market is not flooded with single crop and there is mismatch in demand and supply.
The opportunity of Export:
Farmers should have the opportunity to export their products to other countries if they get a good price for their produce in these countries. The government should create some type of reliable mechanism for this.
Insurance in Agriculture:
All farmers should be enrolled in insurance policies for crops, so that in case of any calamity farmer must get some damages to look after their family and grow new crops.
As more than 60% Indian population is depend on Agriculture, it is very important that Government and other agencies must come up with new investment in agriculture sector and innovative ideas to increase farming income. Country cannot become developed country until unless this farming sector becomes part of countries development story. Increasing income of agriculture sector is quite complicated and this is why Indian farmers need help from Government.
Any delay from government for implementing good policies in farming sector will have very disastrous implications which will impact all citizens of the country.
Government must insure that to make happy other sector happy or policy of providing food to people on lower rate must not decrease farmers’ income.
Farmer must get good return on their hard work and investment they have put in growing crops.
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