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The country saw mammoth farmer agitations in the last five years across multiple states. The farmers had demands. They voiced them. And why not? After all, over 61 percent of India's population is rural and dependent upon agriculture, which continues to be the mainstay for Indian economy. The year 2019 witnessed the launch of PM-Kisan scheme for the small and marginal farmers. Now, hopes are pinned on the government for more farmer friendly measures. In an exclusive conversation with India TV Digital, Arun Nagpal, Co-founder and Managing Director of Mrida Group, spoke at length about budget allocation for agriculture and farmers.
Farmer incomes:
No doubt doubling farmer incomes is a commendable goal, but there is first and foremost, a need for a robust mechanism that fairly and at least reasonably accurately measures the actual increase in farmer incomes and reports it in a transparent manner. In essence, there needs to be a sense of accountability towards this objective, across the board.
Another core issue that needs to be addressed is not farmer incomes per se, but disparity in these incomes as well. There needs to be a visible, concerted effort at bridging the gap between the haves and the have nots, and ensuring that small and marginal farmers, who make up by far the bulk of India’s farmer base, are specifically addressed.
Krishi Vigyan Kendras
Using the KVK’s – Krishi Vigyan Kendras as a tool to reach out to the farmer to facilitate (a) knowledge dissemination and practical inputs on the ground and (b) convergence of various Central and State schemes at the last mile and the farmer’s doorstep.
Single window facility
A well-defined, massive outreach program ensuring that a single window facility is available to the farmer at the last mile is a critical requirement. The Budget would do well to provide a specific outlay and defined objectives for such a program, targeted at creating pockets of excellence across different crops and in different parts of the country, which actually demonstrate significantly higher income enhancement than the national average - these pockets of excellence could then be horizontally deployed and scaled up quickly thereafter.
Leveraging technology
Leveraging technology in the agriculture sector – a specific outlay that marries technology with the available knowledge base to address issues such as the vagaries of weather, irrigation facilities, crop inputs and so on. The objective would be to develop an integrated system that not only makes critical information available on a real time basis to the farmer, but also facilitates efficient utilization of scarce resources – drip irrigation, seed treatment, threshers, and so on.
Facilitating investment
Facilitating investment in a more holistic approach to the agriculture value chain – from weather forecasting to Agri inputs through the sowing-cultivation-harvesting cycle, to agri processing and value addition, and finally the supply chain – including storage, cold chains, and market linkages. In fact, if we can have Technology Parks, IT Parks, Industrial Hubs and the like, why not a specific outlay to set up large, integrated Agri Hubs which will span the entire value chain from farm-to-fork? Combined with the policy level initiatives as proposed, and the on ground operational inputs as outlined, these agri hubs could well be a harbinger of real change.
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