Can Agriculture Policies of India eliminate poverty and ensure food security?

Can Agriculture Policies of India eliminate poverty and ensure food security?

Disclaimer: All data are from official sources only.

Why per capita income in agriculture dominating states is lower than national average? 

Punjab and Haryana are not agriculture states according to share of agriculture in State GDP.

Let us discuss a case of Punjab. 

Punjab is not an agriculture based economy. It is fuelled by NRI remittance and Service economy.

It is important to note area under cultivation of major food crops are going down in Punjab, because they are no more profitable to farmers due to various reasons.

We all talk about irrigation as the key factor in productivity and profitability of farms, please look at irrigation percentage in Punjab it is 98+ percentage.

Now the question is, why Wheat and Paddy farmers of Punjab not happy even with assured irrigation and moving away from these crops?

What is the use of education in fertiliser use? With all the education and extension services provided by Agriculture University, why farmers are not learning the use of balanced fertiliser? Why they ignore the knowledge and still prefer cheapest option which is spoiling their soil? Which is the biggest motivator for farmer money or knowledge?Think about it. 

With all the best possible environment in Punjab for Wheat and Paddy, why Market arrivals are going down? At the same time, there is no investment in these sectors in food processing. We just export rice to world market with least value addition at the cost of natural resources like soil and water. Is this sensible policy?

Important: In Punjab, rural poverty is less than urban poverty? Why so, if agriculture production is going down, who is making them rich? What is their source of earning? What is the definition of rural Punjab and is't source of income?

Punjab farmers are diversifying to other crops. Will this make sense to them because they are more perishable than wheat and paddy? Do these crops have better marketing system?

Now, Big Questions are: 

• Why we are not compensating farmers for basic inflation?  
• Will this make farmers rich or poor?

1. Is it fair to have MSP increase less than the Consumer price Index? 

2. Why we are not even compensating farmers for inflation? What is the motive behind this?

3. Will this help in poverty elimination or it will promote poverty promotion?


Revised MSP  is less than inflation, Why? 
Any reason..pl. share.

Farmers are suffering because MSP fixation policy is not interested in farmers profits and welfare. They are only keen on consumers interest. 

It means poor rural farmers is subsidising urban rich in cities. Is this fair?

Implications: Rural poverty is increasing and will further increase, food security of India will suffer, food inflation will be out of control and our food import bill will go up.

In this policy environment, future of Indian's food security is dark:  We will continue to play politics with agriculture and overall industrial growth will suffer due to high food inflation in coming months and years. 

Our policy makers will continue to work under pressure from corporate interests to reduce taxes and this means offer less than required support to agriculture.

Short sighted industrial policy regime will suffer due to food inflation. Government will continue to please corporate interests and will only do lip service for agriculture. 

What do you think, even if Punjab farmers are suffering, what is the future of India's food security and poverty in rural India with this approach?

Pl. do write your feedback...