'Farm sector crisis expected to deepen further in 2016-17'

Existing schemes should converge to boost investment

Noting that global commodities markets are behaving in an abnormal way, NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand today warned that the country's farm sector crisis is expected to deepen further in 2016-17 if the current trend of falling global commodities prices is not reversed.

He also pitched for more private sector involvement, reforms in land lease policy and easy market access, while emphasising the need to train farmers with additional skills to get jobs outside farming to tide over the agricultural crisis.

“At present, the market is not behaving in a normal manner. As a result, the crisis (in agriculture sector) is deepening,” Chand said while delivering the keynote address at a national conference on sustainable agriculture in Gangtok.

Suggesting key reforms to sustain farm growth and farmers’ welfare, Chand said there is a need to provide some income to farmers outside agricultural sector.

Aiming to achieve four per cent growth in the farm sector, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Sunday called for convergence of existing schemes to boost investment in the sector.

“To achieve high growth in agriculture, we need to increase both public and private investments. We are looking at convergence of schemes to enhance investments in agriculture,” Singh said while addressing a national conference on sustainable agriculture and farmers welfare here.

Higher investment will lead to creation of backward and forward linkages besides support production, processing and marketing, he added.

For that, farmers need to be trained to get jobs outside farming and existing programmes like Start Up India should focus on these issues as well.

Since farmers are leaving farming and not land holdings, a reform in land lease policy is required to ensure that land is put in use and facilitate tenant farmers to take up farming with adequate credit access, he added.

On credit, Chand said that 50 per cent of the farmers still depend on private lenders. To bring them into formal banking credit system, he suggested launch of a 'kisan dhan yojana' to be blend with the existing 'Jhan Dhan Yojana'.

He also emphasized on shedding the socialist mindset and involving the private sector in all aspects of agriculture.

"We need to involve private sector as in many areas public sector is not delivering," he said.

Observing that it was difficult to assess farmers' welfare in the absence of data on farmers income and other related issues, Chand suggested that NSSO should publish data on farmers' income annually.