Question

Farmers are key to economic growth.should their demands be fulfilled. write a debate

Answer 1

In any debate, give both sides of the picture. Despite the theory of comparative advantage, each nation wants to be self sufficient in all strategic sectors. Food is of course one of them. So farmers are very important from that point of view. However, by offering subsidies on farm produce, it tends to distort the market. For example, in India, we have overproduction of wheat and rice simply because the Indian Government promises to buy whatever production at a set price. However, since there is no such policy for pulses, there is huge undersupply of pulses. As a result, price of pulses are sky high in India. Also, for instance, the USA subsidizes its cotton farmers in a big way, the US farmer is able to outdo the farmer say in Burkina Faso despite their soil being far more suitable for cotton cultivation.  This leads to inefficient allocation of resources.