India is seventh largest country with an area of around 33 lakh sq.Km and second largest in population with nearly 121 crore people.Our huge population is mostly dependent on domestic agriculture production for food security.During initial years of our independence we were dependent on food aid from foreign countries(mostly form U.S.A),but with in one decade we moved near to self sufficient.India proved herself the brave and hard working nature by achieving self sufficiency, in food, when entire world was thinking about final stages of India.This spectacular achievement can be attributed to our great Indian farmers led by versatile administrators of that time(founding fathers of India).
This victory in agriculture would have least possible if our farmers couldn't put their sweat in our mother land. So, the person who made us self sufficient and who is feeding our belly is nothing but our brave farmer.It would be difficult for me to describe the greatness of our farmer, he is the person who is feeding entire population in spite of many challenges in cultivation.The real servants of society are not those who are in front pages of news paper but are those from soil of rural India.
But, during recent past our great warrior is struggling himself to ensure nation self sufficiency.The person who is feeding us is finding difficult to feed himself and starving his stomach.The reasons can be trace out to the following to the best of my knowledge.
* Vagaries of monsoon.
* Nature fury(cyclones etc)
* Irrigation facilities.
* Degradation of land.
* Fertilizer subsidies
* Ever increasing population.
* Failure of Govt policies like NREGA.
* Costly credit.
* lack of mechanization and scientific management.
* No proper remuneration to produced output.
* Bad procurement network.
* Lack of warehousing facilities
* Lack of cold storage chains.
* Loop holes in PDS.
* Hoarding and future trading.
*Policy paralysis in Govt.
Indian economy is gamble of monsoon, the right time arrival of monsoon decides the fate of agriculture which in turn decides the fate of entire economy.The recent events proved again how the vagaries of monsoon impacting the Indian agriculture.The deficit in rainfall during june, july months led lacks of acres of land to leave fallow.In some parts of Andhra pradesh the Kharif season started too lately in the month of august instead of June.So, harvest is slightly delayed and likely to happen during November and December.But, when farmers are about to reap the crop the Neelam cyclonic effect taken it's fury on coastal areas of Tamil nadu and Andhra pradesh by destroying nearly 14 lakh acres in AP alone(nearly 50 people died in this calamity).All together the late monsoonal rains and the Neelam cyclone ensured southern India farmer with huge loss and unrecoverable damage.
India is well equipped with good river systems having perennial Himalayan rivers on northern part of India and monsoonal river systems on central and southern part of India.Having plenty of water resources still many parts in India are struggling for water because of lack of irrigation management.Every year millions of cusecs of water is flowing into sea over Ganga, BrahmaPutra and, Gadavari. The river inter-linking project which was proposed to join northern perennial rivers with southern non-perennial rivers ensures unirrigated areas with irrigation facilities,but this project is facing it's own scientific hurdles and social challenges and finally emerged as unimaginable project.The construction of many other nation importance dams also became questionable with day by day uprising opposition on the grounds of environmental rights, tribal rights, regional politics, and challenges posed for mitigating problems of displaced.
Thanks to green revolution , it has played great role in achieving self sufficiency by introducing high yielding vaarities(HYV) of seeds and usage of synthetic fertilizers. This HYV seeds requires good irrigation facilities, so the introduction of this seeds was restricted to areas where irrigation facilities are already available and where irrigation facilities can be provided easily.So,it mainly concentrated in Punjab, haryana, western central india,some patches of eastern coastal India.The green revolution is restricted to certain parts only.The uncovered areas left with low or no productivity while the covered areas ensured with high productivity with the usage of HYV and fertilizers.But, over the due course of time the green revolution covered areas are facing problem of land degradation because of unsustainable exploitation of land with excessive dose of nitrozen-fertilizer and pesticides.The implementation process of fertilizer subsidy also motivating farmer to use it unscientifically. Now we are at cross roads to take up second green revolution to cover entire India with sustainable usage of synthetic materials in harmony with land fertility.
As I mentioned earlier India is rich country in human resources but at the same time this richness itself leading to poverty because of mismanagement of resources.The ever increasing population generating huge work force but to absorb this huge work force Indian Industry and service sectors has it's own limitations.So, out of total work force 65-70% of work force depends on agriculture and it's allied activities.The actual demand of work force for Indian agriculture sector is well below than 10% .This phenomenon leading to disguised unemployment in this sector. Children may be burden to any one else but not to mother, Agriculture is taking care of it's children and giving space to all by splitting herself into small and further small land holdings. These small land holdings are coming against to the scientific management of crops.The small land holding farmers are not able to adopt new mechanisms and the costly credit driving them into debt trap which is primary reason for all farmer suicides in India.
On par with all these hurdles the research and development in Agriculture sector is also not upto the present requirements. The investment rates in bio-technology and genetic engineering is at it's minimum in India. The developments of transgenic plants are yet to indigenize and reach the stage of commercial benefit. The plight of cotton growers in India is the best example to appreciate the science and technology role in developing BT cotton seeds.The gap between Agriculture university and farmers is huge in India. This gap is leaving our warrior unaware of scientific methods, in cultivation methodologies, which is leading to unviable economic practice to farmer.
In spite of all these hurdles our farmer is coming to market with a hope to sell his produce at a rate which will compensate i/p cost and little margin of profit. But, this is the juncture where small and marginal farmers are getting cheated by middle men.The middle men are those who are micro financiers and procurement agents in rural India.With their credit system farmer is compelled to sell his produce at throw away prices immediately after the harvest is over. In fact the farmer will get competitive price if he manages to store the produce at least for the next quarter,but he is not allowed to do so bcz of policies of middle men.
Every year on an average basis Indian farmer is producing around 240-250 million tonnes of food grains out of which around 84 million tonnes are procured by Food Corporation of India(FCI) and remaining procured by market players. Out of 80 or 84 MT with FCI, it has proper storage facilities to store only for around 60 MT, the remaining stored out side godowns, under the sun, out of which narly 6.5 MT are being maintained with unscientific measures.Because of lack of storage facilities considerable lot of grain is getting rotted. the problem is there in cold storage chains also which is leading to wastage of perishable vegetables and fruits.
The Public Distribution System(PDS) was universal PDS at least in papers till 1997, after this year PDS converted into targeted PDS which led to too much of misappropriation in food grains. There were many families left out of Anthyodaya anna yojana, which is part of targeted PDS, who are really deserved of it.On one side the PDS is struggling with poor quality of food grains and the other side with inefficient management of fair price shops(FPSs) and it's network mechanisms.Moreover the food grains offered by PDS are mainly rice and wheat, but there are many villages in India where the staple food of the people being maize and millets. Many people even from above the poverty line are desperate to have access to PDS for subsidized food grain. Identification of households who are eligible for BPL status, a qualification to get entitlement for PDS services, has been highly irregular and diverse in various states. The recent development of Aadhar cards has taken up this challenge of solving the problem of identification and distribution of PDS services along via Direct Cash Transfers.In this cash transfer schemes proposals also there were certain limitations, born out of Indian culture, clearly raised by noble laureate Amartya Sen.
In addition to all these the self interests of millers are driving the crucial farm produce to hoarding and future trading which is one of the factor in rise of food inflation in India.
The last but the most important one to address these problems is Govt policies which is facing policy paralysis because of insecure govt. There are problems in agriculture which govt also can't help anything and at the same time there are many where govt can mitigate the problems to a large extinct especially in the management of PDS and subsidies to fertilizers..
Finally in this modern world after achieving scientific temper in human civilization and administration, our innocent farmer still continuing to pray for lord Varuna and goddess soil for their holy Karuna which is a pathetic story.
We may live without machines and computers but can't be lived without food.please be aware of the state of our food donor and act in cohesion for his development.As rightly said by A. P. J Abdul Kalam and Y.S Rajan in "India 2020", I firmly believe that India has every capability to lead the entire world if we maintain our resources in a proper way.
JAI JAWAN...JAI KISAN
This victory in agriculture would have least possible if our farmers couldn't put their sweat in our mother land. So, the person who made us self sufficient and who is feeding our belly is nothing but our brave farmer.It would be difficult for me to describe the greatness of our farmer, he is the person who is feeding entire population in spite of many challenges in cultivation.The real servants of society are not those who are in front pages of news paper but are those from soil of rural India.
But, during recent past our great warrior is struggling himself to ensure nation self sufficiency.The person who is feeding us is finding difficult to feed himself and starving his stomach.The reasons can be trace out to the following to the best of my knowledge.
* Vagaries of monsoon.
* Nature fury(cyclones etc)
* Irrigation facilities.
* Degradation of land.
* Fertilizer subsidies
* Ever increasing population.
* Failure of Govt policies like NREGA.
* Costly credit.
* lack of mechanization and scientific management.
* No proper remuneration to produced output.
* Bad procurement network.
* Lack of warehousing facilities
* Lack of cold storage chains.
* Loop holes in PDS.
* Hoarding and future trading.
*Policy paralysis in Govt.
Indian economy is gamble of monsoon, the right time arrival of monsoon decides the fate of agriculture which in turn decides the fate of entire economy.The recent events proved again how the vagaries of monsoon impacting the Indian agriculture.The deficit in rainfall during june, july months led lacks of acres of land to leave fallow.In some parts of Andhra pradesh the Kharif season started too lately in the month of august instead of June.So, harvest is slightly delayed and likely to happen during November and December.But, when farmers are about to reap the crop the Neelam cyclonic effect taken it's fury on coastal areas of Tamil nadu and Andhra pradesh by destroying nearly 14 lakh acres in AP alone(nearly 50 people died in this calamity).All together the late monsoonal rains and the Neelam cyclone ensured southern India farmer with huge loss and unrecoverable damage.
India is well equipped with good river systems having perennial Himalayan rivers on northern part of India and monsoonal river systems on central and southern part of India.Having plenty of water resources still many parts in India are struggling for water because of lack of irrigation management.Every year millions of cusecs of water is flowing into sea over Ganga, BrahmaPutra and, Gadavari. The river inter-linking project which was proposed to join northern perennial rivers with southern non-perennial rivers ensures unirrigated areas with irrigation facilities,but this project is facing it's own scientific hurdles and social challenges and finally emerged as unimaginable project.The construction of many other nation importance dams also became questionable with day by day uprising opposition on the grounds of environmental rights, tribal rights, regional politics, and challenges posed for mitigating problems of displaced.
Thanks to green revolution , it has played great role in achieving self sufficiency by introducing high yielding vaarities(HYV) of seeds and usage of synthetic fertilizers. This HYV seeds requires good irrigation facilities, so the introduction of this seeds was restricted to areas where irrigation facilities are already available and where irrigation facilities can be provided easily.So,it mainly concentrated in Punjab, haryana, western central india,some patches of eastern coastal India.The green revolution is restricted to certain parts only.The uncovered areas left with low or no productivity while the covered areas ensured with high productivity with the usage of HYV and fertilizers.But, over the due course of time the green revolution covered areas are facing problem of land degradation because of unsustainable exploitation of land with excessive dose of nitrozen-fertilizer and pesticides.The implementation process of fertilizer subsidy also motivating farmer to use it unscientifically. Now we are at cross roads to take up second green revolution to cover entire India with sustainable usage of synthetic materials in harmony with land fertility.
As I mentioned earlier India is rich country in human resources but at the same time this richness itself leading to poverty because of mismanagement of resources.The ever increasing population generating huge work force but to absorb this huge work force Indian Industry and service sectors has it's own limitations.So, out of total work force 65-70% of work force depends on agriculture and it's allied activities.The actual demand of work force for Indian agriculture sector is well below than 10% .This phenomenon leading to disguised unemployment in this sector. Children may be burden to any one else but not to mother, Agriculture is taking care of it's children and giving space to all by splitting herself into small and further small land holdings. These small land holdings are coming against to the scientific management of crops.The small land holding farmers are not able to adopt new mechanisms and the costly credit driving them into debt trap which is primary reason for all farmer suicides in India.
On par with all these hurdles the research and development in Agriculture sector is also not upto the present requirements. The investment rates in bio-technology and genetic engineering is at it's minimum in India. The developments of transgenic plants are yet to indigenize and reach the stage of commercial benefit. The plight of cotton growers in India is the best example to appreciate the science and technology role in developing BT cotton seeds.The gap between Agriculture university and farmers is huge in India. This gap is leaving our warrior unaware of scientific methods, in cultivation methodologies, which is leading to unviable economic practice to farmer.
In spite of all these hurdles our farmer is coming to market with a hope to sell his produce at a rate which will compensate i/p cost and little margin of profit. But, this is the juncture where small and marginal farmers are getting cheated by middle men.The middle men are those who are micro financiers and procurement agents in rural India.With their credit system farmer is compelled to sell his produce at throw away prices immediately after the harvest is over. In fact the farmer will get competitive price if he manages to store the produce at least for the next quarter,but he is not allowed to do so bcz of policies of middle men.
Every year on an average basis Indian farmer is producing around 240-250 million tonnes of food grains out of which around 84 million tonnes are procured by Food Corporation of India(FCI) and remaining procured by market players. Out of 80 or 84 MT with FCI, it has proper storage facilities to store only for around 60 MT, the remaining stored out side godowns, under the sun, out of which narly 6.5 MT are being maintained with unscientific measures.Because of lack of storage facilities considerable lot of grain is getting rotted. the problem is there in cold storage chains also which is leading to wastage of perishable vegetables and fruits.
The Public Distribution System(PDS) was universal PDS at least in papers till 1997, after this year PDS converted into targeted PDS which led to too much of misappropriation in food grains. There were many families left out of Anthyodaya anna yojana, which is part of targeted PDS, who are really deserved of it.On one side the PDS is struggling with poor quality of food grains and the other side with inefficient management of fair price shops(FPSs) and it's network mechanisms.Moreover the food grains offered by PDS are mainly rice and wheat, but there are many villages in India where the staple food of the people being maize and millets. Many people even from above the poverty line are desperate to have access to PDS for subsidized food grain. Identification of households who are eligible for BPL status, a qualification to get entitlement for PDS services, has been highly irregular and diverse in various states. The recent development of Aadhar cards has taken up this challenge of solving the problem of identification and distribution of PDS services along via Direct Cash Transfers.In this cash transfer schemes proposals also there were certain limitations, born out of Indian culture, clearly raised by noble laureate Amartya Sen.
In addition to all these the self interests of millers are driving the crucial farm produce to hoarding and future trading which is one of the factor in rise of food inflation in India.
The last but the most important one to address these problems is Govt policies which is facing policy paralysis because of insecure govt. There are problems in agriculture which govt also can't help anything and at the same time there are many where govt can mitigate the problems to a large extinct especially in the management of PDS and subsidies to fertilizers..
Finally in this modern world after achieving scientific temper in human civilization and administration, our innocent farmer still continuing to pray for lord Varuna and goddess soil for their holy Karuna which is a pathetic story.
We may live without machines and computers but can't be lived without food.please be aware of the state of our food donor and act in cohesion for his development.As rightly said by A. P. J Abdul Kalam and Y.S Rajan in "India 2020", I firmly believe that India has every capability to lead the entire world if we maintain our resources in a proper way.
JAI JAWAN...JAI KISAN
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