Policy reforms for sustainable agriculture in post Covid era

Dr Dipak Nath, Dr Rupak Kr Nath, Dr Ingita Gohain, Pratibha Barman *

The ongoing health crisis around COVID-19 has affected all walks of life. Protecting lives of people suffering from the disease as well as frontline health responders have been the priority of Nations. Governments have swung into action since the coronavirus attack created an unprecedented situation. During these challenging times, how does Indian Agriculture respond to the crisis and how do Government measures affect 140 million farm households across the country and thereafter impact the economy of a very important country in the developing world ?

We assess the immediate challenges that COVID 19 has posed to the farm sector and suggest mitigation measures to ensure a sustainable food system in the post-crisis period. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has issued Statewise guidelines for farmers to be followed during the lockdown period. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also announced specific measures that address the “burden of debt servicing” due to COVID-19 pandemic.

In spite of all these measures and in view of continuing restrictions on movements of people and vehicular traffic, concerns have been raised regarding negative implications of COVID-19 pandemic on the farm economy. Moreover, any severe disruption to the supply of perishable fruits and vegetables, dairy products, fish, etc. having mobilized to meet the increasing demand from a bulging middle class as well as urban and rural consumers, may create irreparable damage to all actors in the supply chain.

The migration of workers from few parts to their native places has also triggered panic buttons, as they are crucial for both harvesting operations and post-harvest handling of produce in storage and marketing centers. The sale of dairy products; fish; poultry, etc. has also been hit during the lockdown period as the uptake by the organized industry players has been affected due to shortage of workforce and transport issues.

India is the world’s largest producer of milk, pulses, and jute, and ranks as the second largest producer of rice, wheat, sugarcane, groundnut, vegetables, fruit, and cotton. The total food grain production was estimated at 298 million tonnes, in 2019-20 which is 13 million tonnes higher than last year. Over the last four years 2016 to 2019, the FCI (Food C0orporation of India) stocks for food grains were highest in 2019.

Now when the other two pillars, manufacturing and services, of the economy have been severely impacted during COVID-19 crisis, it is very crucial to understand what role agriculture, the oldest and strongest pillar, is going to play for unfolding economic recovery. COVID-19 impact was acknowledged largely by vegetable growers as 6 out of 10 could sell their produce partially due to poor access to mandis and non-availability of transport during the lockdown period.

Farmers in the labour deficit States like Maharashtra and Karnataka due to reverse migration of farm labourers reported labour shortage and higher tractor rentals that adversely impacted harvesting and other agri-operations. The major problem during COVID-19 was encountered in selling agri-produce due to the non-availability of the transport poor price realization. Majority of the farmers are not anticipating any problems in the next crop.

PM Kisan and KCC loan has emerged as great savior for majority of farmers during COVID-19 time. The farmers reported that there has been a negligible impact on household consumption during COVID-19 period. The four major disruptions caused due to COVID-19 pandemic namely; Demand, Supply Chain, Farming Operations, and Global Disruptions. Concern for immunity and demand for immunity boosting foods, packaged foods, and trusted trademarks got accentuated in the COVID-19 lockdown periods.

There is a need to understand crop price volatility, farm mechanization, precision farming, farm-gate infrastructure and alignment with market needs, value chain enabled by new laws, trade and commerce facilitation act, and co-existence with APMC act. The continuing need for social distancing to prevent COVID-19 infections is another area that needs to be understood by farmers. Innovations had been implemented in technology and the same is highly required in the direct marketing sector. This is a very optimistic scenario.

The decades fight for agri reforms finally came up to include the essential commodity act which opens up the market. The act is going to be very beneficial to farmers in many ways. We need to know some of the elements that have very critical factors for agriculture involving land, labour, markets, credits among other interventions.

The poor sections of society are always the hardest hit in any disaster or pandemic situation. With about 85 percent of Indian farm households being small and marginal farmers, and a significant part of the population being landless farm laborers, welfare measures to contain any damage from Covid are definitely going to help them with sincere implementation.

The focus of the Government therefore has to be to protect the lives of every citizen. To sustain the demand for agricultural commodities, investments in key logistics must be enhanced. Moreover, e-commerce and delivery companies and start-ups need to be encouraged with suitable policies and incentives.

The small and medium enterprises, running with raw material from the agriculture and allied sector or otherwise, also need special attention so that the rural economy doesn’t collapse. To obviate the immediate concerns of scarcity of farm labor, policies must facilitate easy availability of machinery through State entities, Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) or custom hiring centers (CHCs) with suitable incentives.

Agriculture in India is a State subject, and as has been observed in past years, policies and programs vary from one State to the other. Structural reforms such as land leasing, contract farming and private agricultural markets, etc. have long been advocated to bring enhanced investments into the agriculture sector and to push its growth. However, there has not been uniform implementation of these legislations by State Governments and so the full potential of the sector is unrealized.

These reforms need significant political will. Concerns of a slowdown in the zeal of States, post-Covid scenario, could be tackled with suitable incentive mechanisms by the Federal Government to the States.

Policies for Sustainable Agri in Post Covid Era:

1. Present policies need a paradigm shift to have a pro-farmer (Farmer FIRST) focus with income and prosperity being the central theme of agricultural planning in future.
2. Agricultural diversification towards high-value crops.
3. Shifting from cereal dominance to high value crops like horticulture and livestock.
4. Adoption of new models for collection, dissemination and usage of date, effective use of ICT for knowledge dissemination.
5. Linking subsidies with efficient farming practices around use of water, seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and farm mechanization.

6. Strengthening of Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), Cooperative Banks, Agri-Clinics, Farmer producer Organizations (FPOs), Self-Help Groups (SHGs), Custom Hire Centres (CHC), etc. should receive top priority now.
7. Establishment of successful models for credit to farmers at low interest rate like Grameen Bank in Bangladesh or to establish Kisan Banks in rural areas would be a desirable step to make a difference.
8. High emphasis to be given to post-harvest management, linking to markets, logistics and supply chains along with price support and encourage professionalism in post-harvest value addition.
9. Organic farming by Village Producer Organizations (VPOs) and FPOs is being encouraged in large clusters.
10. Cluster based cultivation and development to achieve economy of scale in the horticultural supply chain though FPOs/VPOs. e-NAM, a mission for a common online market platform to facilitate pan-India trade in agriculture commodities, providing better price discovery through transparent auction process.

11. Promotion of farm mechanization to reduce the cost of production.
12. Development of horticulture based integrated farming system for small and marginal farmers.
13. Investment in human capital (education and health), especially among youth including women and access to financial services are important for enhancing income through rural non-farm sector.
14. Establishment of custom hiring centre in each village.
15. Structural reforms such as land leasing, contract farming and private agricultural markets, etc. have long been advocated to bring enhanced investments into the agriculture sector and to push its growth.

16. Implementation of farmer friendly long-term export policy.
17. Development of export-supportive infrastructure and logistics would need investments and support of the private sector that will be in the long-term interests of farmers in boosting their income.

Good news is that Government of India has now increased its focus on nutrition security and raising farmers income (rather than enhancing farm productivity). Changing the consumer behavior with suitable progams and incentives is already in the agenda.

For all these to happen, the existing landscape of policy incentives that favor the two big staples of wheat and rice has to change. Designing agricultural policies, post COVID-19 scenario, must include these imperatives for a food systems transformation in India.


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