De-Risking agriculture: What remains to be done!

Farming is one of the riskiest of operations and affordable insurance packages should be available to farmers, but most farmers avoid crop insurance and other insurance facilities. If the monsoons fail, then farmers fail to repay loans from money-lenders, banks, agents and relative and with mounting interest dues, fall deeper and deeper into debt. Sometimes, farmers are reduced to being bonded laborers for generations due to past debt obligations. The Royal Commission on Agriculture, 1928, was colonial India's effort to examine and report on the impoverished conditions of farmers and the famous phrase “The Indian peasant is born in debt, lives in debt, and bequeaths indebtedness to his successors”, was recorded therein. The Report examined the major causes of indebtedness of Indian farmers and it is distressing to learn that 90 years later, the basic reasons for farmer indebtedness and poverty, remain the same. If India aspires to super-power status, then the production and productivity of farms and Farmers has to double and not only farmer incomes. How to drought-proof our rain-fed farming efforts and improve the profitability of farmers, reduce their production risks and marketing risks are major tasks as is reducing the cost of inputs, deliver affordable credit and ensure that farmers earn 70% of the profits and not the traders. This paper attempts to show the major risks of Farmers and also how to minimise them.