Problems of plenty

Record farm output unlikely to help farmers

The latest production estimates released by the agriculture ministry indicate a remarkable across-the-board rebound in the farm sector in 2016-17 and stand in stark contrast to the previous two years, which witnessed back-to-back droughts. The output of foodgrain is reckoned to have swelled by over 8 per cent while that of pulses by 35 per cent and oilseeds by 25 per cent. The production of horticultural and livestock products, too, has scaled new heights. Horticultural output has, in fact, outstripped that of foodgrain for the fifth year in a row. There are two clear takeaways. One, these numbers signal that