Raising Agricultural Productivity and Making Farming Remunerative for Farmers

The paper identifies five important aspects of agriculture that need immediate attention to bring economic advantages to millions of farm families. First, output per hectare, which is a common measure of agricultural productivity, remains low for many crops when compared to many other countries. There are also large regional variations within the country. Reasons include low and faulty input uses, poor access to modern technology and no real technological breakthrough in recent times. Second, on average, farmers do not realize remunerative prices due to limited reach of the minimum support prices (MSP) and an agricultural marketing system that delivers only a small fraction of the final price to the actual farmer. Third, the farm size of the majority of the household has declined to unviable levels inducing farmers to leave land and look for better job opportunities elsewhere. Because landleasing laws make it risky to lease land, increasingly, productive land is being left uncultivated. Changes in the land leasing laws may bring consolidation of land holding at operational level and attract better investment along with access to credit and relief to tenants. Fourth, relief measures in the event of natural disasters are inadequate and suffer from procedural inefficiencies and delays. The risk adaptation measures are poorly executed and have not worked effectively. This situation needs to be rectified with at least minimum quick relief to farmers for crop loss in case of natural calamities. Finally the potential of the eastern region needs to be harnessed with suitable interventions. This region is unique for its suitability to the production of certain commodities. However, taking advantage of this potential would require institutional support and investment in technological innovations. The paper offers ideas on how these problems can be addressed so as to accelerate agricultural growth and bring remunerative prices to farmers.