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Notes

Contents

• Farmer Suicides

• Other Development

A. Soil Degradation-

B. Organic farming : Pramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana - (Traditional FarmingImprovement Programme)

C. Union Government launcheed NOWCAST (a weather alert system) and crop InsuranceWeb portal

D. Agriculture extension : steps taken

E. National Agricultural Market through Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund

• Shanta Prasad panel - High Level Committee on Restructuring of FCI

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CURRENT AFFAIRSAgriculture

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Notes

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NotesFarmer Suicides

Present status -

1. According to figures of the Ministry of Agriculture published in April2015, the total number of suicides committed by farmers due to agrarianissues in the last three years stands at 3313.

2. The five States - Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh andKerala - accounted for 3301 of them.

3. Farmer suicides account for 11.2% of all suicides in India.

Reasons -

Activists and scholars have offered a number of conflicting reasons for farmersuicides, such as monsoon failure, high debt burdens, genetically modified crops,government policies, public mental health, personal issues and family problems.There are also accusation of states fudging the data on farmer suicides.

1. Drought

a. As much as 79.5% of India's farmland relies on flooding duringmonsoon season, so inadequate rainfall can cause droughts, makingcrop failure more common. In the regions that have experienceddroughts, crop yields have declined, and food for cattle has becomescarce. Agricultural regions that have been affected by droughts havesubsequently seen their suicide rates being increased.

2. New Economic Policy

a. Left leaning economists like Usha Patnaik, Jayati Ghosh and PrabhatPatnaik suggest that structural changes in the macro-economic policyof Indian Government that favoured privatisation, liberalisation andglobalisation is the root cause of farmer suicides. Others disputeover such views.

3. GM crops

a. A number of social activist groups and studies proposed a link betweenGM crops and farmer suicides. Bt cotton (Bacillus thuringiensis cotton)was claimed to be responsible for farmer suicides. The Bt cottonseeds cost nearly twice as much as ordinary ones. The higher costsforced many farmers into taking ever larger loans, often from privatemoneylenders charging exorbitant interest rates (60% a year). Themoneylender was claimed to collect his dues at harvest time, bycompelling farmers to sell their cotton to him at a price lower thanit can fetch in the market. According to activists, this created asource of debt and economic stress, ultimately suicides, amongfarmers. Scholars claim that this Bt cotton theory made certainassumptions and ignored field reality.

4. Suicide ideation -

a. Southern Indian states have ten times higher rates of suicides thansome northern states. This difference, they claim, is not because ofmisclassification of a person's death, for example as homicide, butbecause of regional causes. The most common cause for suicide inIndia's southern states are a combination of social issues, such asinterpersonal and family problems, financial difficulties, and pre-

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Notesexisting mental illness. Suicidal ideation is as culturally accepted insouth India as in some high-income countries. The high suicide ratesin southern states of India may be, as suggested by Patel el al, in partbecause of social acceptance of suicide as a method to deal withdifficulties.

5. State government field surveys -

a. The Government of Maharashtra, concerned about the highest totalnumber of farmer suicides among its rural populations, commissionedits own study for reasons. At its behest, Indira Gandhi Institute ofDevelopment Research in Mumbai did field research and found thetop causes of farmers suicides to be: debt, low income and cropfailure, family issues such as illness and inability to pay celebrationexpenses for daughter's marriage, lack of secondary incomeoccupations and lack of value-added opportunities.

Responses to farmer's suicides -

1. The government appointed a number of enquiries to look into the causesof farmer’s suicide and farm related distress in general. Rashtriya KrishakAayog (National Farmer Commission) visited all suicide prone farmingregions of India, then in 2006 published three reports with itsrecommendations.

2. In 2006, the Government of India identified 31 districts in the four statesof Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Kerala with high relativeincidence of farmers suicides. A special rehabilitation package was launchedto mitigate the distress of these farmers.

3. The Government of India next implemented the Agricultural debt Waiverand Debt Relief Scheme in 2008 to benefit over 36 million farmers at thecost of 653 billion(US$9.9 billion). This spending was aimed at writing ofpart off loan principal as well as the interest owed by the farmers. Directagricultural loan by stressed farmers under so-called Kisan Credit Cardwere also to be covered under this Scheme.

4. The State Government of Maharashtra made it illegal, in 2010, for non-licensed moneylenders from seeking loan repayment. The StateGovernment also announced that it will from Village Farmer Self HelpGroups, that will disburse government financed loans,a low rate CropInsurance program whose premium will be paid 50% by farmer and 50%by government, launch of alternate income opportunities such as poultry,dairy and sericulture for farmers in high suicide prone districts.

5. In 2013, the Government of India launched a Special Livestock Sectorand Fisheries Package for farmers suicide-prone regions of Andhra Pradesh,Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala.

Effectiveness of government response -

1. The government's response and relief packages have generally beenineffective, misdirected and flawed, states Surinder Sud. It has focused oncredit and loan, rather than income, productivity and farmer prosperity.Assistance in paying off outstanding principal and interest helps the moneylenders, but has failed to create reliable and good sources of income forthe farmer going forward. The usurious moneylenders continue to offerloans at interest rates between 24 to 50 percent, while income generatingpotential of the land the farmer works on has remained low and subjectto weather conditions.

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Notes2. Sud states that the government has failed to understand that debt reliefjust postpones the problem and a more lasting answer to farmer distresscan only come from reliable income sources, higher crop yields per hectare,irrigation and other infrastructure security. Golait, in a Reserve Bank OfIndia paper, acknowledged the positive role of crop diversification initiativeannounced in government's response to reports of farmer suicides. Golaitadded, "Indian agriculture still suffers from: i) poor productivity, ii) fallingwater levels, iii) expensive credit, iv) a distorted market, v) many middlemenand intermediaries who increase cost but do not add much value, vi) lawsthat stifle private investment, vii) controlled prices, viii) poor infrastructure,and ix) inappropriate research. Thus the approach with mere emphasis oncredit in isolation from the above factors will not help agriculture".

3. Furthermore, recommended Golait, a more pro-active role in creating andmaintaining reliable irrigation and other agriculture infrastructure is necessaryto address farmer distress in India.

Suggestions -

Other Developments

A. Soil Degradation-

1. Soil fertility is declining due to -

a. Excessive use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers.

b. Excessive use of irrigation which leads to water logging and thusleads to Stalinization and alkalization of soils and water logging.

c. Cultivating same crop repeatedly in the area. That's why crop rotationis suggested.

d. Duration of fallow has substantially reduced owing to multiplecropping. This has obliterated the process of natural fertilizationsuch as nitrogen fixation.

One response in the short run must be to enhancetargeted support for the vulnerable in agriculture,namely the small farmer and agricultural labourer.The MGNREGA program has the virtue of beingreasonably well-targeted. The challenge here is to buildon this feature and use the program to build assetssuch as rural roads, micro-irrrigation and watermanagement, while also shoring up rural incomes.

In the medium-term, the time is ripe for a more broad-based response to the challenges in agriculture and toensure that agriculture grows at about 4 percent on asustained basis.

One of the most striking problems is how unintegratedand distortions-ridden are our agricultural markets (seechapter 8 of this volume, which also offers possiblesolutions). India needs a national common marketfor agricultural commodities by making theAgricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs)just one among many options available for the farmersto sell their produce.

Short term response

Medium termresponse

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Notese. Soil erosion due to wind and running water.

f. Thus due to declining soil fertility soil testing is vital. In this sampleof soil is analyzed and recommendations are made about whatelements are needed to optimize it.

2. Soil health card -

a. It has been introduced for the purpose of center to assist the StateGovernments in issuing soil health cards to all farmers in the country.

b. Soil health card will provide the following information to farmers

i. nutrient status of their soil.

ii. recommendation on appropriate dosage of nutrients.

c. Soil Health status will be assessed regularly in a cycle of 3 years.

3. Soil Health Card portal -

a. Launched in July 2015

b. Serves as a single unified platform for

i. registration of soil samples,

ii. recording test results of soil samples and

iii. generation of Soil Health Card (SHC) along with FertilizerRecommendations.

B. Organic farming : Pramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana - (TraditionalFarming Improvement Programme)

1. In 2015-16 budget, govt announced it. An amount of Rs 300 crore hasbeen earmarked for the scheme for the year 2015-16.

2. It is a Cluster based programme to encourage the farmers for taking uporganic farming.

3. Its working-

a. Fifty or more farmers will form a cluster having 50 acre land to takeup the organic farming under the scheme.In this way during threeyears 10,000 clusters will be formed covering 5.0 lakh acre areaunder organic farming.

b. Every farmer will be provided Rs. 20,000 per acre in three years forneed to harvesting of crops and to transport produce to the market.

c. There will be no liability on the farmers for expenditure oncertification.

Organic farming:

1. Participatory Guarantee System portal -

a. It is a portal launched by union government for certifying organicproducts in accordance with the standards laid down.

b. The Participatory Guarantee System portal provides for onlineregistration, approval, documentation, record of inspection andCertification of organic products produced by a farmer.

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Notes2. Organic farming is a system which -

a. Avoids synthetic inputs (such as fertilizers, pesticides, hormones,feed additives etc) and

b. Uses natural fertilizers (compost made from leaves, legumes), naturalinsect predators are used for prest control

c. Relies upon crop rotations, crop residues, animal manures, off-farmorganic waste and biological system of nutrient mobilization andplant protection.

d. Thus it maintains the ecological balance.

3. Evolution :

a. In ancient and medieval era the traditional farming in ancient andmedieval era was organic farming only as there was no use ofchemicals. After the industrial revolution, inorganic methods wereintroduced (i.e. chemical fertilizers, pesticides etc). But since 1940sand people realized its negative effects and led to the organicmovement.

4. Advantages

a. Use of chemical fertilizers leads to various ecological harms likeaffecting water quality (ethrophication), GHG emission in itsproduction and use, soil acidification (&thus poor soil quality). Andall these affects human health. So these problems of chemicalfertilizers are removed.

b. As no natural gas and petro products are consumed in makingfertilizers thus it saves energy.

c. Farmer's income can increase as their money is saved on costlieragricultural inputs.

d. There is huge demand for organic food in international market, thuscan earn money and boost export.

e. Although debatable, but studies across the countries have shown thatorganically grown food has more nutritional value than those obtainedby chemical farming thus providing us with healthy foods.

f. Has increased productivity.

5. Indian scenario -

a. The number of organic farmers are growing. Area under organiccertification has increased from 42,000 ha in 2003 to 4.4 million hain 2010.

b. But if we compare with others and India's potential then it is onlya small industry due to various challenges

6. Challenges -

a. Low awareness among the people.

b. Apprehensions among farmers to shift to a new method are that theyields from organic farming are less than modern agricultural farming.

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Notesc. Inadequate infrastructure and marketing problem

d. Vested interests i.e. lobbying by all promoters of chemical fertilizers

7. Case studies of india

a. Sikkim : In nov 2012, 40 p.c. of Sikkim was under organic cultivationand it is aiming for to cover the entire Sikkim by organic farming.

b. In Feb 2013, Rakesh Kumar of Nalanda district set a new worldrecord of potato production by producing 1,088 quintals per hectare.He relied on organic farming.

C. Union Government launcheed NOWCAST (a weather alert system) andcrop Insurance Web portal

1. NOWCAST weather alert system -

a. It will provide free SMS service alerts on extreme weather conditions (ex-hailstorm) to over one crore registered farmers on their mobile phones.

b. The free SMS alerts will be sent in Hindi, English and regional languagesas per farmers' requests.

c. It will be issued to the farmers whose mobile phones are already registeredon the government's mKisan portal

d. Under this initiative, the extreme weather data originated from IMD willbe updated on mKisan portal using a web service. Later, from mKisanportal the warnings regarding extreme weather conditions will beautomatically transmitted by SMS to farmers located at district and blocklevels.

2. Insurance Web-Portal

a. It will be used to create awareness and encourage farmers to insure theircrops by taking advantage of existing three schemes.

D. Agriculture extension : steps taken

1. Kisan TV -

a. Budget 2014-15 allocated Rs100 crore to Kisan TV for disseminatingreal-time information to farmers regarding new farming techniques,water conservation, organic farming, etc.

b. This will partly make up for the existing adverse ratio of one extensionworker for every 800 to 1000 farmers and provide farmers a directinterface with the agricultural experts.

c. It was launched on May 26.

2. IARI, @ Barhi Jharkhand -

a. In june 2015 PM laid the foundation Stone of the Indian AgriculturalResearch Institute at Barhi in Jharkhand

E. National Agricultural Market through Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund

1. In July 2015, cabinet approved the scheme for "Promotion of NationalAgricultural Market through Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund (ATIF)"

2. Aim is to Create a unified national market through provision of thecommon e-platform.

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Notes3. How will it work?

a. Under this, 585 regulated markets across the country will be integratedwith the common e-platform within 3 years (2015-16: 250 mandisin 2015-6, 200 mandis in 2016-17 and 135 in 2017-18).

b. This common e-market platform will be deployed in the selected585 regulated wholesale markets in States/UTs desirous of joiningthe e-platform.

c. For integration with the e-platform, the States/UTs will have to take3 reforms

i. a single license to be valid across the State,

ii. single point levy of market fee and

iii. provision for electronic auction as a mode for price discovery.

4. Other facts -

a. An amount of Rs. 200 crore has been earmarked for the scheme.

b. The Scheme is applicable on All-India basis.

c. Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) will be the leadagency for the development of the National e-Market by the Ministryof Agriculture, and they will select a service provider through openbidding.

5. It will help to overcome the challenges posed by the present agri-marketing system namely -

a. Fragmentation of State into multiple market areas each administeredby separate APMC,

b. Multiple levy of mandi fees,

c. Requirement for multiple license for trading in different APMCs,

d. Licensing barriers leading to conditions of monopoly,

e. Poor quality of infrastructure and low use of technology,

f. Information asymmetry, opaque process for price discovery,

g. High level of market charges,

h. Movement controls, etc.

6. Farmers will have improved access to market related information andbetter price discovery through a more efficient, transparent and competitivemarketing platform, which gives him access to a greater number of buyers.

Shanta Prasad panel -High Level Committee onRestructuring of FCI

1. Government set up a High Level Committee (HLC) in August 2014under the chairmanship of Shanta Kumar to suggest restructuring of FCI.

2. Report was released on 22nd Jan, 2015.

3. Recommendations -

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Notes• The FCI should hand over all procurementoperations of wheat, paddy, and rice to states thathave created reasonable infrastructure forprocurement.

• Reduce statutory levies including commissionsuniformly to 3-4 % of MSP.

• The Government of India must provide betterprice support operations for pulses and oilseeds

• FCI should outsource its stocking operations tovarious agencies.

• Covered and plinth (CAP) storage should begradually phased out. Replace it with Silo bagtechnology and conventional storages

• Need a transparent liquidation policy to liquidatestocks in OMSS or in export markets. This willautomatically kick-in when FCI is faced withsurplus stocks than buffer norms.

• Give Greater flexibility to FCI to operate inOMSS and export markets.

• Coverage of population should be brought downto around 40% from present 67%.

• Cash transfers in PDS should be graduallyintroduced.

• Each beneficiary should be given 7 kg of graininstead of 5 kg under the Act.

• Due to huge leakages in the PDS range (40-50 %),GOI should defer implementation of the NFSAin states that

• have not done end to end computerization

• have not put the list of beneficiaries onlinefor anyone to verify and

• have not set up vigilance committees tocheck pilferage from PDS.

• Farmers should be given direct cash subsidy (ofabout Rs 7000/ha).

• After doing it, fertilizer sector can be deregulated.

• End to end computerization of the entire foodmanagement system, starting from procurementfrom fanners; to stocking movement and finallydistribution through the TPDS.

• creating competition in every segment of thefoodgrain supply chain so that overall costs ofthe system are reduced.

W.r.t Procurement

On storage

On Buffer StockingOperations andLiquidation Policy

On PDS and NF5Arelated issues

On direct subsidyto farmers

On end to endComputerization

Primary focus of FCI