Page 152 - DECO502_INDIAN_ECONOMIC_POLICY_ENGLISH

Indian Economic Policy

Notes 10 million hectares of new area under irrigation should be developed under Bharat Nirman.
All existing wells and ponds should be renovation.
Sea water farming should be promoted in areas through the cultivation of mangroves, salicons
casuarinar and appropriate halophytic plants.
Demand management through improved irrigated practices, including sprinkler and drip
irrigations show receive priority attention.
(3) Credit and Insurance : The National Commission on Farmers considers : ‘“Credit reform is the
primary pathway to enhancing small farm productivity and ending farmer suicides.”
Firstly, the difference between lending and deposit interest rate is high in India by international
standard. This needs to be reduced. Keeping in view, the decline in profitability and the farmers’
distress, it would be deshable for the government to reduce the rate of interest on crop loans to
4 per cent.
On account of droughts and floods and the high interest on farm loans, the farmers become
defaulters and thus the credit system pushes them out of its network. To meet natural calamities,
the Central and Stale governments must step in to create an Agriculture Risk Fund to provide
relief. This may be in the form of full/part waiver of the loan and interest.
(4) Technology : Agriculture scientists should state the performance of new varieties and
technologies in terms of net income per hectare, and not just in terms of yield per hectare.
Moreover, there is a need for proper integration of production and post-harvest technologies.
For this purpose the Commission suggests that a post-harvest techanlogy wing should be added
to Krishi Vigyan Kendras. Also, lab-to-land demonstrations should be organized in dry farming
areas where millets, pulses, oilseeds and cotton are grown. Value addition to biomass will help
to generate skilled jobs in the non-farm sector.
Rice covers the largest area in the country and there are opportunities for creating more jobs
and income by establishing rice bio-parks. Similarly, eco-boards can be produced from cotton
stalks as a replacement for plywood from timber.
Acadre of Rural Farm Science Managers should be developed by training some members in
every panchayat to manage these new technologies. It would be necessary to establish a
professional National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority without further delay.
(5) Market : Ultimately, it is only opportunities for assured and remunerative marketing that will
determine the economic viability of farming both as a way of life and as a means to livelihood.
Market reform should begin with production planning, so that every link in the cultivation-
consumption-commerce chain receives aquate and timely attention.
A Land Use Advisory Service is needed so that informed decisions are taken with ecological,
meteorological marketing factors being kept in view.
National Commission on Farmers and Second Green Revolution
Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, the architect of India’s first green revolution listed five components of
Agricultural Renewal in his report as Chairman of the National Commission on Farmers. These five
components suggested by the Commission are : Soil health enhancement; water harvesting and
sustainable and equitable use of water; access to affordable credit and crop and life insurance reform;
development and dissemination of appropriate technologies and improved opportunities;
infrastructure and regulation for marketing of agricultural produce.
Inaugurating the 93 Indian Science Congress on June 3, 2006, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
rd
added two more components : (a) application of science and biotechnology to the improvement of
seeds and utilization of herbal and other plants; and (b) application of science to animal husbandry to
improve productivity of livestock and poultry. It may, however, be mentioned that these two
components were already covered by the National Commission on Farmers. For instance, Dr.
Swaminathan mentions : “Had we adopted a pro-small farmer biotechnology strategy, we would by
now have had Bt-cotton varieties whose seeds farmers could keep and replant, unlike in the case of

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