Agriculture and the concurrent responsibility
B. VINOD KUMAR
HAVING BEEN witness to various deliberations in Parliament and to the vicissitudes of farmers in my rural constituency, I venture to share my thoughts on Indian agriculture:
Agriculture is basically a State subject under the Constitution. But in practice, it has never been so. The inadequate attention given to agriculture during the first two decades after Independence had its echo in food shortages and recurrent famines till the Green Revolution happened. The major concepts and initiatives of the Green Revolution came from the Central government and State governments were its passive implementers.
It is well articulated that reforms brought about in manufacturing, trading, and infrastructural and other sectors of the economy are perceived to be beneficial to sections of the population inhabiting urban areas and thus, they have become stakeholders in the reform process. However, the reforms have bypassed the agricultural sector leaving the farmers and rural population at the mercy of market distortions and information asymmetry.
The reform process can deepen only if rural people are converted into stakeholders. India cannot achieve the GDP growth rate of 7-8 per cent on a sustainable basis without a minimum assured growth of 3-4 per cent in the agriculture sector. The efforts of the governments both at the Centre and in the States are inadequate to match these challenges due to their fragmented role in understanding the issues related to agriculture.
Agricultural activity is divided into pre-harvesting and post-harvesting phases. Pre-harvesting phase consists of activities such as extension services, cropping selection, soil maintenance, quality seed procurement and supply, fertilizer and pesticides application, credit supply, irrigation provision, provision of power, constant monitoring of the crop, etc. Post-harvesting phase deals with rate support, storage and market/procurement support, insurance and relief measures in case of crop failures.
An unviable activity
Agriculture has become an economically unviable activity for a variety of reasons. There is no supply and demand assessment mechanism for any crop. Information asymmetry and market manipulations are also the contributing factors. As most of the farmers are semi-literate or illiterate, they are not able to articulate their problems to decision-makers. Neither have they been represented in the process of decision-making.
It is to be noted that agricultural research institutes, the apex rural bank NABARD and its affiliates in rural credit, commodities exchanges such as NCDEX and MCX, agricultural pricing committees, etc., are functioning directly under the regulation of the Central government with no similar support system at the State level.
Thus, the role of the State government is relegated to input management during pre-harvesting phase and the Centre has, over the years, become a predominant player in the supply and demand chain of agriculture. However, agriculture is now more vulnerable to vagaries of nature, to the vicissitudes of market and also to forces of globalisation and requires pan-India understanding and monitoring through the joint efforts and responsibility of the Central and State governments.
There is now a strong case for the Centre to take a major proactive role in agriculture along with State governments. For this purpose, it is imperative that the Central government is also constitutionally equipped. Therefore, it is essential to bring agriculture under the Concurrent List.
Such an action is urgently required for launching a Second Green Revolution and also to meet Dr. M.S. Swaminathan's forewarning, "if the agriculture sector cannot go right, nothing else has a chance to go right in the country."
(The writer is an MP from Hanamkonda, Andhra Pradesh. He can be reached at vinodboinpally@hotmail.com)
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