75 Days Mains Revision Plan 2024 – Agriculture
Agriculture
Topic: Agriculture Policies
Q1. How do subsidies impact the choices farmers make regarding their cropping patterns and crop diversity? Illustrate with examples. 10M
Difficulty level: Moderate
Key Demand of the question: To analyze how subsidies influence farmers’ decisions on cropping patterns and crop diversity, including both positive and negative impacts, supported by examples.
Structure of the Answer:
Introduction: Introduce the concept of agricultural subsidies and their role in supporting farmers and influencing cropping decisions.
Body:
- Positive Impacts:
- Increased production and food security: e.g., subsidies for rice and wheat in India.
- Income stability for farmers: e.g., Minimum Support Price (MSP) for certain crops.
- Encouraging risk management: e.g., subsidies on crop insurance premiums.
- Promoting crop rotation and diversification: e.g., subsidies on micro-irrigation systems.
- Negative Impacts:
- Promotion of monoculture: e.g., dominance of rice and wheat in India.
- Neglect of non-subsidized crops: leading to reduced crop diversity.
- Excessive use of inputs: e.g., fertilizer subsidies leading to ecological imbalances.
- Market distortions: impacting crop choices and sustainability.
- Environmental concerns: unsustainable practices encouraged by certain subsidies.
Conclusion: Summarize the need for balanced subsidy policies that ensure food security, support farmer livelihoods, and promote sustainable agricultural practices.
Introduction:
Agricultural subsidies are financial incentives provided by governments that aim to support agricultural production, improve yields, and enhance food security while incentivising certain crops over others.
Body:
Subsidies impact the choices farmers make regarding their cropping patterns and crop diversity
Positive Impact:
- Increased production and food security: Subsidies for staple crops like rice and wheat in India have contributed to increased production and improved food security.
- Income stability for farmers: Subsidies provide income stability to farmers by offering price support and ensuring a minimum income even during unfavourable market conditions.
- Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops like rice and wheat in India guarantees farmers a fixed price, protecting them from market price fluctuations.
- Encouraging risk management: Subsidies incentivize farmers to adopt riskier crops by reducing the financial impact of potential losses.
- For instance, subsidies on crop insurance premiums encourage farmers to insure their crops against unpredictable events like droughts or pests.
- Crop rotation and diversification: Some subsidies may incentivize farmers to diversify their cropping patterns, especially when subsidies are linked to crop rotation or mixed cropping.
- Subsidies on micro irrigation result in year-round water availability and increased diversification.
- Income security and risk management: Income support subsidies can give farmers a safety net, allowing them to experiment with different crops and adopt riskier but potentially profitable crops.
- Direct income support programs, like the PM-KISAN scheme in India, provide farmers with financial assistance regardless of the crops they choose to cultivate.
Negatives:
- Monoculture promotion: Subsidies often target specific crops that are considered essential for food security or export earnings. This can lead to monoculture practices.
- For example, as of 2021, wheat and rice accounted for about 42% of the total cropped area in India.
- Neglect of non-subsidized crops: Subsidies may lead to a neglect of non-subsidized or traditional crops, reducing the diversity of crops grown in a region.
- Input subsidies and fertilizer use: Input subsidies on fertilizers and pesticides can encourage farmers to use these inputs excessively.
- In Punjab, India, the Green Revolution was initially successful, but it also led to ecological imbalances and reduced crop diversity.
- Market distortions and export focus: Subsidies can distort domestic markets, affecting cropping choices. This has been a major issue in WTO negotiations and outcomes like the Amber Box of subsidies.
- Environmental concerns: Some subsidies encourage unsustainable agricultural practices, such as excessive water use or chemical inputs, leading to environmental degradation.
- MSP on rice and FRP on Sugarcane have shown clear impacts of overuse of water and other inputs.
Conclusion:
Recognizing the nuances of subsidies’ impact on cropping choices, policymakers need to strike a balance between ensuring food security, supporting farmers’ livelihoods, and promoting sustainable agricultural practices.
Topic: Government Schemes
Q2. Despite challenges, PM KISAN has played a significant role in addressing agrarian concerns and fostering rural growth. Critically examine the statement. 15M
Difficulty level: Moderate
Key Demand of the question: To critically analyse the role of PM KISAN in addressing agrarian issues and promoting rural development, highlighting both achievements and challenges.
Structure of the Answer:
Introduction: Introduce PM KISAN, its objectives, and its implementation since its launch.
Body:
- Role in Addressing Agrarian Concerns:
- Income stability: e.g., providing regular income support to farmers.
- Debt relief: e.g., helping farmers repay loans and reducing financial burden.
- Reducing input costs: e.g., aiding in purchasing seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides.
- Boosting agricultural activities: e.g., investment in better farming practices.
- Role in Fostering Rural Growth:
- Increased purchasing power: e.g., stimulating local markets.
- Investment in local businesses: e.g., promoting non-agricultural economic activities.
- Agricultural value addition: e.g., investment in value-added products and diversification.
- Challenges:
- Limited beneficiary reach: e.g., exclusion of tenant farmers and landless laborers.
- Structural and scope limitations: e.g., inadequate financial support relative to needs.
- Market distortions: e.g., potential negative impacts on cropping patterns.
- Awareness and accessibility issues: e.g., low awareness among eligible farmers.
- Inclusion of non-genuine beneficiaries: e.g., landowners rather than active farmers.
Conclusion: Summarize the overall impact of PM KISAN, acknowledging its significant role while highlighting the need for improvements to ensure broader and more effective coverage.
Introduction
PM-KISAN is a central sector scheme launched on 24 February 2019 to supplement the financial needs of land-holding farmers, subject to exclusions. Under the scheme, the financial benefit of Rs 6000/- per year is transferred in three equal four-monthly instalments into the bank accounts of farmers’ families across the country, through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode.
Body:
PM KISAN has played a significant role in addressing agrarian concerns and fostering rural growth:
Addressing Agrarian Concerns:
- Income Stability: PM-KISAN provides 6,000 annually to eligible farmers in three equal instalments. This regular income support offers stability to farmers, helping them cope with income fluctuations caused by changing weather conditions and market volatility.
- Debt Relief: Reports indicate that many small and marginal farmers use PM-KISAN funds to repay debts, reducing their financial burden and improving their creditworthiness.
- This leads to decreased instances of farmer suicides and distress.
- Reducing Input Costs: The income support from PM-KISAN assists farmers in meeting essential agricultural input costs, such as seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides, enhancing their ability to manage their crops effectively.
- Boosting Agricultural Activities: The additional income encourages farmers to invest in improved farming practices, leading to increased productivity.
- For example, farmers may adopt better irrigation methods or modern machinery, resulting in better crop yields.
Fostering rural growth:
- Increased Purchasing Power: Income support has a direct impact on farmers’ purchasing power.
- This translates to increased demand for consumer goods, stimulating local rural markets and boosting rural economic growth.
- Investment in Local Businesses: With increased disposable income, farmers engage in more non-agricultural economic activities, such as retail, services, and trade, leading to the growth of local businesses.
- Agricultural Value Addition: PM-KISAN indirectly contributes to the growth of the food processing industry.
- As farmers’ incomes rise, they might invest in value-added products, contributing to rural economic diversification.
Challenges
- Practical Difficulties: 125 million farming households own small and marginal holdings of land in the country, and constitute the scheme’s original intended beneficiaries.
- However, at present, the list of beneficiaries includes only 32% (40.27 million) of these households.
- Structural Issues: PM-KISAN offers ₹6,000 a year per household in three instalments.
- Broadly speaking, this amounts to only about a tenth of the production cost per hectare or consumption expenditure for a poor household.
- Scope Limitations: PM-KISAN focuses mainly on land-owning farmers, leaving out tenant farmers and landless labourers who constitute a significant portion of the rural population.
- Market Distortions: Critics contend that income support schemes like PM-KISAN, if not accompanied by complementary market reforms, can distort cropping patterns, market prices, and incentives for crop diversification.
- Awareness: Many eligible farmers are unaware of the scheme or the application process, resulting in them missing out on the benefits.
- g. only about 41% of the surveyed farmers in Bihar were aware of the PM KISAN scheme.
- Genuine Farmers vs. Landowners: The scheme’s focus on landownership rather than active farming raises concerns about its reach to genuine farmers.
- For instance, in Uttar Pradesh, reports indicated that over 12,000 non-farmers, including government employees, had received PM KISAN benefits.
Way forward:
- Revise eligibility criteria to include landless labourers, tenant farmers, and sharecroppers to ensure that the benefits reach a wider section of the farming community.
- Conduct targeted awareness campaigns using multiple channels, including local media, community meetings, and rural development workers.
- Develop a user-friendly and easily accessible online portal for registration and application, while also providing offline options for farmers with limited digital access. g. PM KISAN App.
- Integrate PM KISAN with other agricultural and rural development schemes to provide comprehensive support to farmers and address their diverse needs.
- Implement a robust mechanism to verify and update beneficiary data regularly to ensure accurate and up-to-date information.
Conclusion
PM KISAN marks a significant shift in farmer support in India, exemplifying effective governance and digital outreach. Leveraging technology, the government is crafting an Agri stack, a digital public good for agriculture, built on PM KISAN data. This system, led by States, utilizes digital tools for a federated farmers’ database.
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