Agricultural distress and not the global slowdown is the biggest challenge faced by the Indian Economy today. Rising domestic farm distress not merely impacts the Indian economy but also has significant political implications. There is an urgent need for policy intervention to bring agriculture back on track.

We should focus on three major changes: Water Use Efficiency, Fertilizers production and rise in pulses cultivation and production.

Water

India is trying to improve its capacity. Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana by Narendra  Modi led government has promised to invest 50,000 crore Rupees over the next five years. This scheme was launched for providing assured irrigation cover to every farm under the slogan “Har Khet ko Pani” and for maximizing water use efficiency. Currently, 142 million hectares are used for cultivation, of which only 45 per cent farmland is under irrigation. This scheme is expected to bring an additional 6 lakh hectares under irrigation while 5 lakh hectares will benefit from drip irrigation. That apart, 1,300 watershed projects have been marked for completion.

Setting aside the buzz around developing irrigation infrastructure, it is important to ensure and intelligently allocate resources.

Recently, the Maharashtra government came up with ‘Jalyukt Shivir Abhiyaan’ to deal with water scarcity in drought hit area by renovating watershed projects, traditional nallahs and rejuvenating ponds. This needs an integrated water management plan for building farm ponds for rain water harvesting that will also enable the proper use of stored water in irrigation. Farm ponds can accumulate 25 Lakh - 30 Lakh Ltrs in a monsoon season even after 5 % of loss of water to evaporation and seepage. Using advanced technologies, we can minimize losses from ponds as well. Implementation of intelligent drip irrigation system and optimal resource allocation can systematically increase efficiency.

Intelligent drip irrigation technology is more efficient than conventional irrigation and flood irrigation. It is able to cover 10 times more area than flood irrigation.

Fertilizers  

Successive governments in the past have failed to bring back agriculture on the main track. It was either lack of vision or willingness towards developing the agriculture sector. In 2000, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee pushed for Oman India Fertilizers Company (Omifco) after struggling since 1993 to get approval. A joint venture between Oman Oil, Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative and Krishak Bharati Cooperative finally got commissioned in 2005. This move of establishing a venture for Urea production made India secure even when the international market was unstable. India is able to draw an average long-term offtake price of $130-140 per ton free-on-board, whereas in year 2008 it crossed $800 per ton and even in the current scenario it is at $230-240 per ton.

India needs more such plants for producing cheap urea. At the same time, India is also looking towards more sustainable agricultural practices such as organic farming. It is established in recent scientific studies that heavy use of fertilizers has side effects on human health as well as the environment. We certainly need to focus on chemical free farming and enhanced organic farming techniques. Organic farming is chemical free and is good for soil health. However, Organic farming in the present context is unable to meet with the demand of yield, but with scientific evaluation, this challenge can be surmounted as well.

Pulses

The UN Initiative of Sustainable Development Goals 2030 has three key issues related to poverty, food, and health. To ensure healthy lives and to promote well-being, it is required by any Nation to promote nutrition based food consumption. Pulses not merely have high nutritional value but is also able to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increasing soil health, and they use less water compared to other crops.

India’s pulses production has to significantly increase from present 17-18 mt level to meet with the domestic demand. Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh are heavy pulse production regions. The recent drought in Maharashtra has hit productivity which definitely can’t be filled through imports.

India’s Agrarian States such as Punjab, Andhra, Haryana & Uttar Pradesh, which mostly produce paddy, wheat and sugar cane can be given additional incentives to adopt pulses cultivation. Unfortunately, today the scenario for Pulses is that they are akin to orphan crops which are only planted into moisture stress regions.

Certainly a new strategy to make pulses more attractive for farmers should be pondered over. However, nothing can change without government assurance of proper procurement and fixing of minimum support price reasonably aligned with the market. Recently, the Union Minister for Agriculture, Radha Mohan Singh,  in an event said that the Government of India is framing a mechanism for procurement by bringing in FCI, NAFED and state trading corporations as stakeholders. Another idea being explored was procuring 50,000 tons and 100,000 tons of pulses in Kharif and Rabi seasons respectively whereby a buffer stock of 1.5 lakh tons could be readied. Mr. Singh further went onto inform that the pulse procurement process would be done at market price rather than the announced MSP.

Conclusion:

Indian Agricultural Policies have to mature. Simply extending support and a more scientific policy is inadequate since no one is watching the delivery mechanism based on the outcomes on the ground. Between Agriculture and Manufacturing, there has to be an equivalent distribution of talent in rural and semi urban India. A country that could become 1.5 billion in no time, doesn’t have the luxury of neglecting Agriculture.