Farm Crisis The Way Out

Agriculture once considered as a noble profession, now is largely being perceived as disillusionment by the farming community. No doubt the production has increased, but it has cost us heavily. The productivity at the demonstration plots of research institutes is good; but in farmer’s field, story is something different. Still we have not been able to come up with the extreme poverty and hunger. A series of reports after reports have highlighted the tragic facts about these vital indicators. The latest is the report of the International Food Policy Research Institute; the Global Hunger Index 2014. While progress has been made; but many countries still fall in ‘alarming’ to ‘extremely alarming’ category. India’s hunger status is still classified in the ‘serious’ category. The present book is an endaveour to present various challenges that confront the agricultural sector in general and to India in particular. The book dwells at length the fate of the farmer over the years, the story of grain drain, the minimum support prices, the agriculture subsidies, declining share of investment in agriculture, the land use dynamics, declining size of operational holdings, low level of farm mechanization and low level of food processing. The book discusses at length the importance of the rainfed agriculture in the global as well as national economy, the constraints in this handicapped zone and the strategies for overcoming the constraints. Public distribution system and extension services have come under serious attack. The book also presents some alternatives for the Public distribution system and how the extension services can be revitalized; how the paradigm has changed to rope in the private players and building partnerships to provide the extension services to the farmers. The book also contains an appraisal of how agriculture affects climate and in turn is itself affected by it and how can we cope with the changing climate. Sustainability today is the need and cry of the hour. Over the years various agricultural practices have made the sector highly unsustainable. The book also summarizes how the crisis of the agriculture can be contained by different approaches along with some out of box solutions. To conclude the book depicts a comprehensive picture of the state of agriculture and will serve as a useful guide for the students, researchers, teachers, policy makers and planners and the extension professionals.