Need for better Agricultural outcomes Link

Nitin Gadkari during CMA-FPO Symposium (Aug-2022) talks about ways to improve India's agriculture.

Ntin Gadkari says Indian agriculture is not viable without huge subsidies. He says agri productivity in India is low compared to other countries (eg. Brazil, US) and it is hard to raise it. Many interventions have been made (and more can be done on a national scale), including promoting modern methods (1); making more water available viz river-linking and dams (2); reducing logistics, power and input costs (3); increasing agri investment in micro-irrigation, fertilisers, seeds, mechanisation, drone spraying & surveys, warehousing, cold chains & transportation, value addition, waste-to-wealth, etc (4); and putting emphasis on marketing reforms, exports and biofuels (5). On a positive note, he says there is now a good alternative to traditional farming, which is to diversify to ethanol, biogas, solar energy and green hydrogen.

Notes

It is easy to understand why Centre is eager to raise agricultural production. Earlier agri surpluses were a millstone around Centre's neck as it would be forced to buy the lot under MSP. Now, agri surpluses and agri waste can be converted into biofuels. Also, Government has (or seems to have) an agreement with Gulf countries (eg UAE) for export of agricultural produce, as per the wishes of the customer and without export restrictions. Thus, more production translates into more foreign exchange and higher incomes for farmers. Commerce ministry also wants to increase production of agri raw materials to meet the demands of higher manufacturing and exports. It desires to raise the quality of some agri raw materials (as per industry requirements, eg cotton, silk) as these would otherwise be imported at high cost.