Relevance : GS Paper III (Indian Economy)
[1000 words reduced to 150]
- Doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022-23 cannot be realised with loan waivers and higher MSPs
- In fact, they may worsen the condition of agriculturists over the medium to long run by:
- eating into the scarce resources of the sector,
- shrinking public investments in agriculture and
- lower growth in this sector.
- Way forward
- Ushering in structural reforms.
- getting the agri-markets right
- farmers’ access to best technologies
- augmenting investments in agri-R&D
- fixing the weak Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime
- massive investments in areas such as better water management technologies
- institutional reforms in land management
- reforms in agri-credit markets
- Streamlining crop-insurance
- Reforming the Essential Commodities Act
- Export and domestic marketing policies need to be liberalised.
- Agricultural growth rate of more than 10 per cent per annum.