Shreekant Sambrani: Sisyphean challenge of Indian agriculture - I

Greek mythology has King Sisyphus condemned for all eternity to rolling a boulder up a hill, only to watch it slide down before it reached the top to start all over again. The crisis of Indian agriculture is no less severe and daunting.

Greek mythology has King Sisyphus condemned for all eternity to rolling a boulder up a hill, only to watch it slide down before it reached the top to start all over again. The crisis of Indian agriculture is no less severe and daunting.

Countless trees have been sacrificed in the last three weeks discussing the agriculture loan waiver in print. With all due respect to the many learned government spokespersons and other supporters of the measure as well as its equally eloquent critics, I would like to submit that indebtedness is not the heart of the problem of agriculture in India. It is perhaps the most visible symptom of it, but the real malady lies elsewhere.

The root cause of the crisis is the income-deficit of the sector. This may sound too simple, or even simplistic, but most seemingly complex situations do have a simple causation at their core. The term income-deficit needs clarification. At a basic level, it means that the income derived from the activity is not sufficient to meet the consumption needs of the recipient. Defining consumption needs is a messy affair and cannot be done entirely objectively, unless it is reduced down to sheer survival levels, whence the concept of the poverty line. It depends on numerous social, economic and cultural factors which would have substantial subjective elements. It would also vary from time to time, region to region and within their sub-groups as well.

The point to note is that most agriculturists, and not just those below the poverty line, believe that their income does not allow them to live in what they consider to be a minimum acceptable manner. Their response then is something all economists and accountants warn against: mixing stocks and flows, using assets to meet consumption needs.

Indian farmers are hardly alone in this behaviour. Native American Indians sold their land at throwaway prices to white settlers to pay for the blankets, pots and pans, and firewater. The burning issue of today