How many of you think that agriculture is the back bone to India?
If your answer is yes, then, probably, you'll have to revisit my previous post "India is a land of extremeties" and come up with practical solutions to the problems - Inspite of majority of the population of the country employed in agriculture(60%), we see a very less contribution towards country's growth (14% approx) from it. I'm just trying to figure out the solution to increase the productivity of the farmers. This is my arguement -
If you are businessmen, you always try to negotiate a lesser price.
Assume, 3 farmers - A, B and C grow the same crop and the last year selling price for Rs.1o/-.
This year, A thinks that he has to hike the price to Rs.11/-, then as a businessmen, you see that there are farmers B and C who are offering for Rs.10/- and definitely, you'll be neglecting A and move on to B. Now that B and C are offering a lesser price and have got business, A eventhough reluctant starts selling for Rs.10/-. End result is that none of them see growth. In worst case, there would be a unsustainable growth among A and other two.
Now, assume a different scenario, suppose that All three A, B and C are part of community and you as a businessmen had to negotiate with the community instead of an individual and the combined body proposes a hike in price to Rs. 11/-, then, most likely that, you would not neglect since there would be shortage of raw material from 3 farmers. Then, you are forced to buy the raw material for Rs. 11/- which in turn results in a sustainable growth of Rs.1/- among all the three farmers.
Effectively, what I wanted to communicate is that instead of individual farmer stepping into trading, if there is a body which can decide what is the best price that an agro product can get by studying the market demands and productions, its more likely that there would be a sustainable growth. Eventhough, farmers are the one who produce, unfortunately, they are not the one who decide the value of the product.
For this to happen - What I would propose is to form a regluatory body (Not a governing body) which has experts from all the fields. For eg: One might be expertise in beetlenut, another might be in potato or onion or anything like this. These people would basically study the market trends as to which crop yields better price and such things.
There is one more strong reason for proposing this body.
Assume that this year sugarcane has produced max amount of profit. Little that the farmers realize that if they all grow, thier profit would be less, all of them start growing sugarcane. Then, obviously, the end result is that there is lot of production than what is necessary and the prices drop down.
Instead, think of a regulatory (Controlling) body which directs farmers to grow what and would result in the growth of the farmers.
I strongly feel that a team can yield a better result rather than an individual fighting to fulfill his basic necessities.
Basically, this body would comprise of experts from each area - who actually know more about agriculture and would guide the farmers on how must quantity must be grown to meet the market demands, thereby reducing the risk of producing the excess.
I strongly believe that for a Country like India, where the wealth is accumulated with very few and rest are just seeing that and getting satisfied, if it has to grow, for atleast 25years from now on, we must turn to be a capitalistic country and then migrate slowly towards a mixed economy.
This system acting as a regulatory body for agriculture would control the market growth. This would be deciding body as to what must be grown so that farmers growth is sustained. To achieve this sustainablity, this would basically comprise of local expertise and has to start from each village. System would comprise from each sect of the village and is governed by certain principles so that decisions are not taken abruptly or according to one person's wish. Core objective of this system is to bring about a sustainable growth among the farmers by guiding them as to what is the crop, if they grow, can yield better results.
Each of these individual bodies (At each village) will be controlled centrally which in turn regulates these mini-bodies.
Also, sales can be well planned so that there is definite income which'll be yielded. For eg: Its more likely that in december, prices'll go up for a particular crop. But, unfortunately, it went down. Then, in this case, farmers are severely hit. So, the system would make sure sales are done in sets so that a definite set of income that'll be yielded and the second set would be sold in the month of december which is most likely to yield profits. By this way, you ensuring that all farmers get enough to sustain thereby reducing the number of suicides.
Wholly, this system would contribute for the huge amount of GDP growth from Agriculture, thereby creating a potential area of study, business. This would attract many individuals to take up the study on agriculture resulting more focus on Agriculture.
Intially, to attract farmers to work in this model, incentives, insurance etc can be offered so that they get attracted and avail all basic facilities. This system'll also be responsible for managing the storage related issues.
I accept that this idea cant be implemented as it is. This requires fine tuning and make it more adaptable.
I strongly beleive that India has large potential and 'll emerge as a super power in near future. This system must start from individual Villages.
Jai Hind.Labels: agriculture, india, problems, solution