July 2020, South Asia
India’s farm sector needs help to get back on its feet
A crisis like Covid-19 presents a good opportunity to re-examine underlying assumptions in the way we operate.
The agriculture sector is critical for India from a consistent growth and food security perspective as the sector and allied activities account for approximately 55% of India’s workforce and nearly 15% of India’s GDP. Today, India has come a long way from facing severe food shortages after Independence to becoming a net exporter of food. While the agricultural sector has made considerable progress, in India, we still have a long way to go when it comes to global benchmarks. The nation-wide lockdown due to the Covid-19 outbreak has further exposed the vulnerabilities in our agricultural supply chain and the prevalence of the Agricultural Produce Market Committee, or APMC, model that made farmers highly dependent on mandis.
Never waste a good crisis
In many ways, a crisis like Covid-19 presents a good opportunity to re-examine underlying assumptions in the way we operate and take a fresh look at the art of the possible. To its credit, the government has been swift in announcing the Covid-19 stimulus package worth Rs 1.63 lakh crore aimed at boosting credit availability for farmers and improving supply chain infrastructure for agriculture and allied industries. The government also announced key reforms related to the deregulation of commodities in the Essential Commodities Act, promoting barrier-free inter-state trade of agricultural produce and legal framework for contract farming.
Here are five recommendations that could help propel Indian agriculture on to a high performing trajectory.
