Question

what problems are faced by indian farmer today and what steps government has taken to solve them and also give your suggestions to solve them in about 250 words

Answer 1

Indian farmers face multitude of problems before independence and also after independence. The former is due to colonial exploitation and later due to middle men exploitation.

Problems of Indian farmer :

Fragmented land holdings - Indian landholdings are so small that makes little marketable surplus. This makes them to go for subsistence agriculture and also difficult for mechanization.Looting Middle men - Most of the farmers are left with small volume of produce. Taking them to Government mandi will be a burden as transportation costs, storage costs adds up. So they sell it to middle men at distress price. The middlemen will make it to Mandi and get lucrative prices that is often not shared with farmers.Gamble of Monsoon - Indian Monsoon is always a gamble of Monsoon. If it's doesn't rain farmers will be worst hit of drought and famine. You might think he will be happy if it rains adequately. But the answer is NO. Because in one extreme his crop would be flooded or he would not get good price due to high supply in Market. This happens in 2017, where prices of Onion, Pulses went down due to good production after two years of below normal Monsoon. So whether rains or not rains. Farmers suffer.Victim of its past success - Past success of Green revolution has put Agriculture sector into ‘chakravyug' of Hybrid seeds - Urea dumping farming. Farmers and Research institutions are still struggling to get out of that unsustainable - high input cost farming.



Ignoring Women farmers - No policy measures have been evolved to protect or help women farmers who predominantly suffer in Agriculture. Agriculture will not develop if the schemes, policies, inventions and benefits doesn't reach the other half of agrarians who happens to be women farmer. Read : Women Farmers - The Hidden face of Agriculture - IMoT ForumCycle of Indebtedness - Economists make hue and cry when farmers demand Farm loan waiver. But they need to think about farm credit and credit accessibility to farmers. Nearly 40 % of farmers are getting their farm loans through formal sources. Rest all dependent on Money lenders and land owners. The crop insurance policy has long been less favourable to farmers. We have to wait to see the result of PM fasal bima yojna. The huge risk and uncertainty involved in agriculture make it hard farmers to get out of poverty.New threats of Global warming - Climate change may heve lead to over 59,000 farmers suicide over the last 30 years in India as per reports from University of California, Berkeley, US. Here is the article Climate change and Agrarian distress in India that goes in length and breath about the issue.Government policies - Government policies like MSP favouring certain crops, Poor allocation for Agricultural R & D - less than 1% of GDP very low compared to other emerging economies. Week extension networks, supply infrastructure all adds farmers worry. Read The reasons why Farmers protest are more frequent and intense across India ?! - IMoT Forum to know How recent policy measures of NDA Government caused wide protest accross country.

The problems are still numerous. I tried to restrict myself to Biggest as Requested in question. (Solutions are given correspondingly to the problem stated above.. follow the numbers)

How to solve it through technology ..?

Smart machineries like drones and robots to work in fragmented lands. This small machines can do all sort of works from checking the field level, sowing, spraying and monitoring. But the cost of such smart miniature farm machineries should be subsidised to make it affordable.E- NAM virtual market introduced by GoI is set to reduce middle men problem and also ensure easy marketing across states.Smart sensors with precision farming helps to get out of drought adversities by targeted input delivery. It requires minimum input and also reduces cost of production. Already Micro irrigations are helping rained farmers in drought conditions.



Organic farming is the way out for sustainable farming. Hyperspectral imaging (can be used in mobile cameras) are used to check pesticide and other chemical residue in plants. This speeds up organic certification process.Women farmers don't enjoy entitlement to their land. GoI is in process of digitisation of land records. In that process women farmers of that family can also be done to get their Rights.