Should Agricultural Subsidies be stopped?

Hello I am Devvrat.

Well after going a lot of readings on this topics hers what I think of the topic.

1) As we have discussed earlier about 66% of the India's population is engaged in agriculture and you know how much it contributes to GDP ONLY 8% so this clearly indicates the people in the sector are much capable of PRODUCING MORE and subsides is definitely one of the ways to help in increasing agricultural production.

2) Now we all know we are THE SECOND largest population nation and to feed such a large number we need a large number of hands so as we are adding up an AUSTRALIA per year we also need more people to feed them BUT in contrast, whats happening the condition of farmer gets worse they either suicide or the person who hardly survive don't want to either continue himself or want to put their children in other sector for the high frustration and hardships and disparity they do face. So providing a subsidy would definitely motivate them.

3) Now we know most of us are selfish and you may think I AM NOT A FARMER what effect does the subsidy has on me >>? well subsidy also HELPS THE COMMON MAN as it helps in REGULATING PRICES of good. For EX. As one of my friends said that The price of urea which is presently 5 Rs. Maybe as high as Rs.30 without a subsidy !

4) As a whole it even help our nation to grow and give a better competition to the other countries. This is another advantage of having subsidies in agricultural sector.

Well these are the advantages now I tell you a major disadvantage,

1) When you have subsidies, corruption increases and rich farmers through malpractices takes extra subsidies more than what they deserve kicking the stomach of the poorer and poorest farmers who deserve them.

2) In some cases it may increase the dependency of farmers on the subsidies so in case its reduced or they don't get them it may affect the production very badly !

So here are MY SUGGESTION which I think are VERY APPROPRIATE for the disadvantages,

1) Thorough inspection have to be done before giving the subsidies so that the subsidies goes only to farmer who REALLY DESERVE them.

2) Stricter laws have to be made by the government for the people who are engaged in malpractices regarding subsidies so that they have a lot of fear even making a small bribe activity or any malpractice.

3) Now very IMPORTANT what suggestion I have regarding the dependency I discussed above well one step govt can take is to classify the farmers on the basis of their income, production and whether they really need subsidies. Now govt firstly have to provide EQUAL SUBSIDIES to all the farmers at the beginning now the farmers who gives you a better production in the same class under the same area or the farmer who shows THE BEST PROGRESS OR GROWTH compared to his last production must be AWARDED with a HIGHER subsidies NEXT TIME and this will be continued if he maintains his performance for the next period and if not must be transferred to other one who performs better then him. So as this help in economic prosperity of the farmer and helps in his growth there maybe a time at which they become LESS DEPENDENT on subsidies !and classification and inspection reduce the involvement of farmers who don't deserve subsidies.

4) Farmers must unite and along with the support of common must pressurize the government to design such a system so that middleman are removed who are to large extent responsible for the price hikes so that govt have farmers product on a much lower rate and with profits they earn they can further increase the subsidies for the farmer.

So in fact I would like to say that subsidies are not to be stopped in fact they have to be INCREASED not only for the progress of farmer but for the nation as whole.

Unarguably every farmer needs subsidy in present political system.

Subsidy can be removed provided farmers are given the opportunity to fix price for their products like others in other sectors and are allowed to export their products with out govt intervention.

We need to understand the whole lot of issues and uncertainties of farming community.

How many of us go to work when our transportation expenses are more than what we earn?

How long do we do business when the business is running in to losses?

But, farmer do not have secondary option.

Input cost for farming like pesticides, insecticides, nutrients, manure, labour charges, diesel charges, machinery charges like tractor etc. , charges for repairing water pumps all these have increased abnormally. For example male labour charge increased 3. 5x to 4x. In-spite of this availability of labour is not easy in most of the villages.

On top of this, adequate power is not available for farmers. Low/voltage issues burn motors frequently and transformer issues all these expenses goes from farmers pocket. On top of this bribe for transco guys.

If these things go well, weather may not support. Some times drought and at times heavy rains and floods.

Even if every thing goes goes fine and once the product comes to market, minimum support price that is promised to the farmer is not given many times. In the present scenario, even if the farmer gets minimum support price they will run in to losses. And this is the reason why farmers started agitation declaring crop holiday in some parts of the country and some ransacking agri markets.

People want all the pulses, food grains, milk, meat, eggs at a cheaper price and no one fights for the farmer who feeds billions of mouths.

If oil companies goes in to losses govt jumps in and increases price more than 10 to 15 times in few years and why not the same for the poor farmer?

It is true that poor people suffer if food prices go high. This does mean that the farmers have to give subsidized products to all making losses working under hot sun/rain walking between snakes and scorpions. In a way farmer is giving food security to all billionaires and poor workers investing his resources and in turn making loss for what he/she do.

Moreover, one need to notice that Indian youth are no longer interested in doing farming. Number of youth doing farming are decreasing to a greater extent. None neither the farmers son nor the farm workers son interested nor their parents want their kids to do farming. This explains the scenario. Who is going to feed billions of mouths.

Most shocking thing is that none of them either from urban or rural areas are not showing interest to elope their daugher to a young farmers even if they are holding 30 acres of land. These guyz and their families are really frustrated as they are cornered in the society.

All the above factors are forcing people to move out of agriculture. What will happen next. Corporate agriculture? If so, are the corporate going to sell products at a cheaper price? They'll give millions to those who help them in making things easier by forcing farmers out of this sector. Where do they collect these millions from?

The above facts are based on my experience and observation.

Subsidy need not be stopped but to be regulated. Regulation means the cyclical process of allocation and supervision. For areas like agriculture and because of the huge demographic dividend of our nation, the sensitiveness of the sector is important and thus considered as priority sector which are not allowed to be neglected for the national interest. We were having a 50% GDP contribution of agriculture during the birth of the nation and gradually reduced to 14% these days, this is due to the shift in the nation's priority from agriculture to Service industry. Stopping of subsidies will further top up the issue and a further reduction in the GDP contribution of agriculture is not advisable. Here as I said in the beginning, regulation needs to play an important role to curb the issues associated with subsidy schemes like poor targeting of the subsidy, misuse of subsidy, lack of proper planning in case of devising the subsidy instruments like as in case of urea subsidy etc.

In the next face, one should think that we have started giving subsidy for decades back and still we are doing the same. This need to be introspected without delay. The very motto of subsidy is the welfare of the nation. Giving welfare implies the equalization of the society. Proper policies/schemes to be devised to eliminate subsidy for a long term benefits like adoption of modern technologies, developing the R&D industry etc. The policy of Government should be welfare oriented as in the DPSP of the Constitution but it should not be endless and the agricultural industry which contributes around 70% of labour force must be independent of financial aides like subsidy and grants in future.

Hence this is not the right time to stop the subsidies in the agricultural sector and at the same time we should not have a mind of depending the Government for long. Instead of giving subsidies regulate it and utilize the saved subsidies for the development of the society itself like infrastructure building, R&D, promotion and adoption of newer technologies which all will benefit the agricultural sector (in this context) in the real sense. Therefore conclusion can be drawn in such a way that stoppage of subsidy is not good to the current scenario of India and a proper regulation of subsidy is highly needed with an eye of elimination of subsidy in future.

Thanks.

Viswaraj BR.

Subsidies to agriculture needs to decreased slowly but surely. People would argue that 70% Indians depend on agriculture but they would not think that why do so many people are still in agriculture. I must say it though it may hurt my fellow Indians that agriculture is dead road.

Government subsidies primarily mean that we are transferring wealth from working people to farmers. But it no way increases their productivity rather it is just delaying the inevitable that we need to pull people out of agriculture. Our subsidies to agriculture are more than the government spends on education which should be our foremost responsibility.

People would argue that people are still dying of starvation in India. But I would like to tell them that we produce more than enough food so much that our government isn't able to sell it all, so people are not dying due to lack of food but they are not able to earn enough. Ever saw the news where they show so much is grain rotting it is not because of inefficient governance rather people are not able to buy so much grain. So the government is feeding the farmers even though there is not so much need for them in the market.

Rather reducing the subsidies would free money to invest in education and infrastructure and pull people out of farming in the labour market where they would be able to earn much more.

Suicide of farmers is not due to inadequacy of our government but rather tells us that farming is at its end.

But what about food production you would say, my dear when people will reduce in farming we can easily their efficiency as in India almost 5 farmers are doing the same thing what one farmer can do and that without subsidies. In all developed nation only 10% people work as farmers. So we can continue debating to whether should we increase the subsidies on farmers to stop their suicides which eventually would not be enough or we can solve the crux of the problem. Now don't get emotional any economist worth his salt would tell you this, even our government knows this but those bastards don't have the spine to do anything.

Good evening friends, in my point of view agricultural subsidy should not be stopped. It is a initial help of our farmer. Our 75 % population live in village. This population directly or indirectly depends on farming. Indian farmer are very poor, it is due to the oldest way of farming, low selling price, less government support, lack of education. Indian farmer are the backbone of our GDP. If we stop the agricultural subsidy, then during bad time (cyclone, flood, drought) our farmer helpless. The are force to change their profession and they are searching different occupation. It is due to they doesn't got the actual price of his crop or any other necessary help from government They are spending more money and time in his crop and got less price in compression to expenditure and labouring incurred on his crop. Our former are doing very hard work in his field and faced the lots of problem like cyclone, drought, flood, landslide, these all directly affect the farmer. Due to these natural climate farmer all crop is damaged and he got stressed and taking wrong decision like suicide. To overcome this problem subsidy should be necessary to farmer. Indian government need to improve the oldest way of farming and spread the awareness in the farmer about modern agriculture. Govt also need to improve the system and monitor that subsidy actually go to right hand, maximum people those are not a farmer also got the subsidy, system need to scrutiny these cliprt and stop the subsidy and give him actually that person those who are actually liable for this. Govt also take a decision on swaminathan committee and his good policy should be applied and need to be discussed in Parliament session and should be applied as soon as possible. Because every field of society need to reversion. Like pay commission in all sector. Indian farmer also need pay commission, they are also the part of nation.

In my opinion, agricultural subsidies should not be stopped. The subsidies are a supporting pillar to the lacks of farmers in the country. Farming in our country is primarily not as advanced and mechanised as in other developed countries. Moreover, a large chunk of the Indian population is rural, and this sector directly affects them.

The majority of farmers own a very small portion of land like 2-10 acres, and they directly depend on the monsoon. Many of them lack the irrigation facilities and also don't own a bore-well/well to support their produce round the year. The plight of farmers in our country is very disturbing especially the small farmers. They can't afford to buy the hybrid seeds, fertilizers, pesticides again and again if a continuous drought/bad monsoon persists for a period of 1 or 2 years. Moreover, the investment they put off this period of time goes in vain. The whole budget and economics of a farmer crumbles, also if he has taken loan it goes on increasing year after year. The farmer is crushed under the cycle of debt and drought and is completely helpless. The farmer community in India is unorganized, unlike the trade unions/workers union. They only can helplessly watch this happening and only the govt can help it out.

Unless the agricultural sector is backed by the govt farmers in India cannot survive for long. The Indian economy will get shattered once this sector starts to degrade. Farmers should continue to get support from the govt by helpful programmes like the subsidy, to keep this sector profitable for the farmers. Unless the agricultural sector witnesses a complete makeover like the west it needs to be backed by govt.

Lastly it the govt moral responsibility to back certain aspects of the country like free education, mineral sector, PSU etc for the goodwill of the public. And agriculture is one of them of the Indian scenario.

Indian Agricultural Sector has many challenge on its field. Brilliant Brains of India don't involve them in this sector as it is not so worthy to them. Larger percentage of Indian farmers have less land and are basically illiterate or less educated -these are the obstacles to understand and apply the technology. Moreover the Government Subsidies don't reach to themselves as the larger part of the subsidies are theft by the middlemen or bought by the rich farmers. Due to gambling on monsoon and for less use of Alternative methods like Crop Rotation have made it riskier whereas Crop Insurance facility to the farmers are not so wide. In the case of Irrigation, they are more dependent on Underground Water and lesser in Canal Water -which is more costly. The Infrastructure of Storing Crop, like Cold Storage are not available on every area -this is why 30% of Yearly Production of Vegetables in India are rotten.
Marginal Farmers can't sell their product directly in the Market -this is how they run themselves in loss and gradually take steps toward suicide. Government should take appropriate steps to face these challenges- providing higher rate of subsidies to the marginal farmers and lower rate to the rich farmers; providing appropriate teaching of innovative methods to every farmer; growth of Canal and Tank Irrigation should be accelerated and a Large Chain of Cold Storage should be created and most importantly, Low Rate Loans and Crop Insurance Facility should be provided to every marginal farmer. The Govt should also Inspect the Proper Distribution of Subsidy. This is how the Government should meet the challenges and ensure the Farm Productivity beside protecting the Farmers Life.

Farm subsidy is essential for the development of rural India. Indian economy is dependent on agriculture for employment which also employs a lot of population both directly and indirectly.

Subsidies are direct instruments to give impetus to agricultural growth. The subsidies on power and seeds also lead to their misuse and loss to the nation. The government should rather create market for agriculture products, raise minimum support price, give cheap credits to farmers, revamp land laws and work for transfer of technology from lab to the fields. Subsidies will not kill the root problem that farmers are facing but will make them excessively dependent upon Government to rescue them in bad times. The Government Should create forward linkage for the farmers and food processing industries should boost the marketing of agri products.

Again the subsidies do not reach the ultimate land worker. The landlords who usually remain absent from farm and are not directly engaged in farmers or not at all concerned take away the benefits of the subsidy. The poor farmers remains deprived.

Subsidies are a burden to the national Finance as these are not investment. The subsidies on agriculture should be abolished in a phase manner. Also marginal farmers in tribal belt and North east should have alternate arrangements for subsidies and in time the subsidy should be replaced by cheap loans or insurance.

Country where each day farmer's are committing suicide because of their inability to pay back the loans taken, there is no reason to stop the subsidies, rather, it should be increased. But I feel these days there is a greater need to get rid of the pesticides and fertilizers based farming hence I feel that MORE SUBSIDIES to be given to farmers doing ORGANIC FARMING.

Obstacles for the farmer.

1. Indian farmers have less land and are basically illiterate or less educated.
2. Obstacles to understand and apply the technology.
3. Government Subsidies don't reach to themselves as the larger part of the subsidies are theft by the middlemen or bought by the rich farmers.
4. Gambling is done during monsoon.
5. The Infrastructure of Storing Crop, like Cold Storage is not available on every area -this is why 30% of Yearly Production of Vegetables in India are rotten.

Government should take appropriate steps to face these challenges.
Providing higher rate of subsidies to the marginal farmers and lower rate to the rich farmers.
Providing appropriate teaching of innovative methods to every farmer.
Growth of Canal and Tank Irrigation.
Low Rate Loans and Crop Insurance Facility should be provided.
The Govt should also inspect the Proper Distribution of Subsidy.
This is how the Government should meet the challenges and ensure the Farm Productivity.

First of all is our government giving subsidy on necessary items what a farmer need. They are giving subsidy on seeds not on fertilizers even they give subsidy for fertilizers they are not readily available 80% goes to black market rest will be distributed to the favorable people. We Indians don't give value to our farmers try to feel the pain of a farmer, they are still doing agriculture is the reason they love it not they are getting huge profits on it.

Think what a farmer really needs and support those even a road side hotel person will feed there family with 3 meals a day which is not happening with farmers. Give them some moral support they are not asking all for free they are ready to pay if it is a valuable item which boosts their productivity, they are paying a min. of 250/- Rs to each labor and they are not able to spend 150 for their family. That is the situation of moderate and small farmers in India, still we can't hear their moaning, media to improve their ratings will go to some farmers, if media is really trying to help farmers Indian farmers will not be in this situation.

Finally subsidy is just like a smile from a child who expects at least a peppermint and the father saying wait for 5years I will give you a 5star.