Times Agricultural Journal

G Shankar Ranganathan
Chairman, Ion Exchange

The majority of our people depend on agriculture as a source of food and income. Unfortunately we have neglected the rural sector, giving priority to industrialisation. There has been a distinct urban bias in the development policies resulting in the transfer of surplus from agriculture to industry. Even the input subsidies dispersed in the agriculture sector are skewed and benefit only a few large-scale farmers who have access to irrigation facilities.

The agriculture sector is too vital to India’s economy to be neglected. It cannot be put on the back burner. Much greater private and public investment must be channelised into farm extension, research and development, infrastructure development, marketing and processing, leading to higher productivity in agriculture. Higher agricultural productivity would raise the disposable incomes in rural households, pushing up the demand support that industry so desperately needs.

After the economic reforms in 1991-92 that lifted the restrictive and unproductive licensing regime for industry, the policy focus turned to agriculture. The National Agriculture Policy announced on July 28, 2000 addressed these issues, freeing agriculture from various restrictions. However, agriculture being a state subject, restrictions like monopoly procurement, levies and restricted movement of agro-products continue in some states.

In this connection, chief minister of Maharashtra, Vilasrao Deshmukh’s appeal to the Centre to remove quantitative restrictions which continue on export of agricultural products needs to be highlighted. Also, the Reserve Bank of India governor, Bimal Jalan’s, at a World Bank seminar in New Delhi, expressed his concern that ‘while Rs 32,000 crore had been allocated for rural development, diesel subsidy, etc. barely Rs 1,700 crore had been set aside for irrigation’.

It is essential for the Indian farmer to have the whole country as a single, open market. Further, under WTO from April 2001, it has become all the more necessary for farmers to look not only to the domestic market but also to seek opportunities globally to improve value addition. Thus, for agriculture related products, inputs and services and all restrictions including reservations for small-scale industries should be removed.