Why a loan waiver is far from enough to solve UP's agricultural crisis

UP's political significance is well known, but the state is no less significant agriculturally

The first Cabinet meeting of the newly-elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Uttar Pradesh (UP), which took place on April 4, announced a Rs  30,729-crore scheme waiving crop loans up to Rs  1 lakh for small and medium farmers. In addition to this, Rs  5,630 crore was allocated for writing off bad loans of around seven lakh farmers, which had become NPAs for banks. This takes the total amount allocated for loan relief to Rs  36,359 crore.

Though there has been criticism from the Opposition for limiting the waiver to crop loans alone (which comprise only one type of agricultural