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Conclusions and Policy Implications
A. Myriad Challenges Facing the Agricultural Sector in India
The Indian agriculture has been facing multiple challenges which has
culminated into a severe crisis. The farm crisis have twin but inter-related
dimensions: an agrarian crisis and an agricultural development crisis. Apart
from the poor and declining farm growth, rapdily increasing marginalisation
has hit the precipice. As a result, the rural credit institutions have undoubtedly
faced a roadblock in their credit delivery efforts.
The answer obviously lies in a revitalisation of the agricultural sector
including pressing for diversification and expansion of non-farm economic
opportunities, particularly for the small and marginal farmers. Of late, after the
mid-term appraisal of the Tenth Five Year Plan, the sector has received from the
authorities from 2004-05 onwards added attention for a multi-pronged attack
to revive it. Apart from the increased budgetary allocations for agricultural
development for raising the agricultural growth rate to 4.0% per annum in
the medium term and a special drive bestowed on agricultural extension
programmes, the government have now prepared a blue print on
National
Policy for Farmers
with farmers’ activities defined more comprehensively.
Improvement in terms of trade has also aided the uptrend in farm growth
noticed recently.
As for the agrarian issues, the questions of survey and settlements and
completion of 430 million land records, implementation of land ceiling laws
and distribution of surplus land on the lines of West Bengal, acceptance of
the proposal to legalise tenancy with adequate safeguards, etc., are long term
issues which remain to be addressed. More to the point of addressing agrarian
distresses affecting better credit delivery, it is necessary to single out the
marginal farmers as distinguished from other farmers, even as distinguished
from small farmers, for this purpose. Landholdings of marginal farmers is
so tiny that it is almost impossible for them to become viable. In terms of
resource availability, certainly such miniscule landholdings as average 0.383
hectare per holding would face more acute resource constraints as compared
with small farmers possessing an average of 1.422 hectares per holding. It is
for this reason that marginal farmers, even as compared with small farmers,
become easy candidates for diversification and for migration to off-farm and
non-farm activities. Thus, the marginal farmers become obvious candidates
for getting included as part of the erstwhile SGSY programme which has now
