Agriculture - the black sheep

You know there is inflation when you start seeing pictures of onions in newspapers(don't know why onions always hog the limelight).On a more serious note one cant ignore that dreaded word 'Inflation'.It has now reached a two year high of 6.58%.And a vital contributor are agricultural products with some food grains inflating by even 20%.Lack of supply is the reason why the prices are shooting up.And prices of food items hit the general public(and the politicians) the hardest.

The news of farmer suicides in Vidarbha never cease to stop these days.They bear a horrid testimony to the fact that agriculture has indeed ceased to provide the yield that it used to earlier.The agricultural sector is under performing like never before.It's growth rate has steadily declined.Its share in the GDP has also fallen down.In fact it is one of the factors dragging down the economy.Green Revolution seems like a distant past.

Manufacturing and services now are the fastest growing sectors.But agriculture still forms a sizable share of the GDP.And the problem is that it employs almost 60% of the workforce of the country.It is vital that major part of a countries workforce should be not be engaged in activities that are least productive.So the two approaches would be reducing workforce dependent on agriculture or making it more productive.The solution lies in reconciling the two to achieve a proper balance so that neither agriculture is too neglected nor too many people are employed in it when it is less productive.

Farm lands in India are largely fragmented.Add to the fact that most are owned by families who exclusively work on them which results in lands employing more manpower than necessary.This form of disorganization in the farming sector has to be reduced.Better organization will lead to lesser labor efficiently producing higher yield.Increasing productivity would involve introducing technology and improving irrigation.What about those who are displaced - it is expected that most of the people will be absorbed in manufacturing and services.This will ensure that manpower is involved more efficiently.This form of migration of labour from agricultural activities to other jobs has already started in a gradual manner.

Keeping aside the supply side constraints there are other factors that add to the prices of food grains- the middlemen.Since most food products are perishable the farmer has to sell it in the market for a price which is dictated by the middlemen.So the high amount that consumers pay(inflation) passes through a lot of hands and the farmer may never actually recover his deserved return(farmer suicides).The aim should be reduce the people involved between the producer and the consumer so that the consumer would get the best price and producer the best return.Organized farming dealing with organized retail would be an ideal way to start.

We must ensure that the black sheep(agriculture) doesn't lead the herd(the economy) to stray off the path of progress.