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A Study on the Agriculture Sector and the Problems Associated with it which
has an Impact on the Farmers
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International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD)
Volume 5 Issue 6, September-October 2021 Available Online: [Link] e-ISSN: 2456 – 6470
A Study on the Agriculture Sector and the Problems
Associated with it which has an Impact on the Farmers
Dr. Sumanta Bhattacharya1, Dr. Heera Lal2, Bhavneet Kaur Sachdev3
1
Research Scholar at MAKAUT, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
2
IAS, Additional Mission Director at National Health Mission, Uttar Pradesh, India
3
Political Science Hons, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
ABSTRACT How to cite this paper: Dr. Sumanta
Farmers are the main pillars of Indian economy and a source of food Bhattacharya | Dr. Heera Lal | Bhavneet
security for the whole nation. Farmers suicide has emerged as a Kaur Sachdev "A Study on the
serious problem today in India, each year thousands of farmers Agriculture Sector and the Problems
commit suicide due to lower income and heavy debt, they don’t have Associated with it which has an Impact
on the Farmers" Published in
access to market, new technologies and irritation facilities, their land
International
is being taken away by private sectors, Contract farming, small Journal of Trend in
holding of lands, climate change, food shortage, water, issues of Scientific Research
droughts and floods have all affected the live of the farmers in a and Development
miserable way ,the income from cultivate is so low that they are now (ijtsrd), ISSN:
shifting from farms to non-farms sector for earning, 76% of the 2456-6470,
farmers have left cultivation, marginalised and small holder farmers Volume-5 | Issue-6, IJTSRD46464
are the worst affected by it. The government has launched many October 2021,
schemes and brought in technology advancement still those facilities pp.589-593, URL:
have not reduced the number of suicide cases, its growing at a rapid [Link]/papers/[Link]
speed. Farmers today belongs to the most vulnerable section of the
Copyright © 2021 by author (s) and
society. We need to all farmers access to the market, create better
International Journal of Trend in
infrastructure and road connectivity followed by free health care and Scientific Research and Development
education provisions for the farmers and their families, special food Journal. This is an
package and medical insurance for farmers and their families. Open Access article
distributed under the
KEYWORDS: Farmers, contract farming, suicide, food security, small terms of the Creative Commons
holding of lands, climate change, cultivate, drought, technology Attribution License (CC BY 4.0)
([Link]
INTRODUCTION
Agriculture is the largest growing industry and the conditions resulting in drought and famine, prolonged
most important sector for living, over the years with dry seasons in some regions whereas in some regions
advance in technology, introduction of equipment and extreme rainfall, which has resulted in food and water
mechanism for bringing efficiency and changes in the crisis eventually, in order to tackle this disaster, the
nature we grow crops and cultivate the land, there world are taken measures to enhance their
have been modernization of the agriculture sector productivity. The word had adopted to sustainable
across the world where each and every country has farming which has helped to combat a lot of problems
worked to bring maximum provisions for the farmers from deforestation to soil erosion, less emission or no
who are producer of food and the whole agriculture emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and
sector, The agriculture sector involves a lot of items less amount of water and chemical fertilisers, which
like horticulture, poultry industry, animal husbandry, has open doors for opportunities for the farmers and
farms, fishery, forestry, agricultural chemistry, local communities are being employed. South Asia
apiculture, aqua farming, agricultural communication, countries like India and Bangladesh which are poor
agricultural engineering and many others, the sector countries and are highly dependent on agricultural for
comprises of branches which contributes a good their economy growth, where in Bangladesh 90 % of
amount to the GDP of a country. Every government the people are farmers, the country insist of being
has introduced different schemes and taken measures prone to floods have shifted to sustainable methods of
to improve the sector for its best. Due to Climate farming in particular adopted floating farms methods
change which has badly affected the weather followed by they have agricultural research
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institutions working and have identified crops which have been brought in, we have regional banks and
are climate tolerant and natural calamities tolerant agricultural banks for the farmers, still farmers are the
which has also helped them to remove poverty to a poorest in the country, the small, marginalised and
great extent from their country, it has the 8th largest large farmers everyone is suffering, the farms bill, the
population, where as in India the scenario is different result was we see maximum farmers came out and
which has the 2nd largest agriculture country in the started protesting against the [Link] order to empower
world, here the agriculture sector is under developed the farmers the government has introduced he
in some ways, which has made the life of the farmers Pradhan Mantri krishi Sichai Yojan which aims to
miserable, Today India is a victim of farmers suicide improve the productivity by providing better
cases, we have experienced over the past few years irrigation facilities. The motive is to ensure that have
like 3 lakh cases of farmer suicide, the land holding is access to the means of irrigation, in fact famers are
so small, the small and marginalised farmers have no being educated on the modern equipment and
access to a minimum income, the new farms laws methods of modern irrigation users. Paramparagat
resulted in huge protest across the country still no Krishi Vikas Yojna has been launched to encourage
change took place. Farms have extreme low income farmers to adopt organic farming, In fact a special
and control over the land regions, contract farming in scheme has been introduced in the North Eastern
India has no provided any kind of benefit to the Region to promote organic farming and reports says
farmers instead made it miserable with no access to North East Region practices organic farming to
market for many farmers and regions. 90%.Price Stabilisation funds with a corpus of 500
crore have been introduced to support market
Research Methodology
intervention for price command of agri-horticultural
For the purpose of this exploration, I have used a
Industries followed by which we have Gran Jyoti
amalgamation of two of the archetypical social
Yojana which will supply continuously electricity to
sciences research tools application –as they are
the farmers which will not only boost economic but
authentic and brilliant method to assemble statistics
also influence the overall lives of the farmers and also
from multiple appellant in an methodical and
make life better where education will also be
convenient way. Question were asked to the common
enhanced, soil health card was also introduced, then
youth, public policy Analyst, rural people, farmers
we have eNam and many other online sites and
,survey, interviews –consisting of several
normal SMS and calls to guide the farmers on the use
interrogation which were dispersed among
of fertilizers ,soil fertile, irrigation. We are adopting
representative of each contender group.
to organic farming part by part with less than 4 % of
Objective of the Research Paper the people have adopted to sustainable farming which
The main areas of exploration in this paper also opens job opportunity for the farmers. Contract
incorporates Farming has been introduced which according to
1. Understanding the farmers problem in India. government is a way to up lift the farmers and
2. What has the government done to improve the increase their income followed by in some states the
conditions of farmers in India. same of Mandis has been removed and we see a direct
3. Why so many farmers are committing suicide contact between the consumers and producers that is
each year. with the farmers, Farmers Producer Organization
4. What can be the solution to this problem. have which ensures better salary for the producers if
Literature Review not individually but as a group which includes
The changing pattern of growing crops, land holding, farmers, fishermen, Producers, weavers, craft men
liberalisation has brought Agricultural sector into the and rural artisans.
fore front and have got a position in the global Findings
market. India is one of the leading producer of many In spite of some many schemes launched by the
crops and even the largest producer of cotton, government, we have seen a rapid rise in Farmer
bananas, milk and many other. Since Independence suicide cases, every year thousands of farmers are
the government has initiated many measures and killing themselves and majority are living before
schemes for the upliftment of farmers and making poverty line, 76% of the farmers are shifting to non-
their lifestyle better from green to white revolution, farm sectors to get a better lifestyle and income.
brown to yellow revolution, blue revolution and make
From 1995 to 2015 more than 3,00,000 farmers have
others, as the agriculture sector comprises of many
committed suicide, where many activists are of the
branches. We have seen an improvement in the
opinion that is an underestimation, the actual number
horticulture sector, India is the second largest
of famer suicide in these 20 years have been way
producer of fish in the world, Advance technologies
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more than 3 Lakh, after 2016 the situation has levels as it will ultimately reduce the cost of the
become [Link] India most of the farmers have small prices it starts to release its stocks, the stocks of food
land holdings and the monsoon rains are very grain that it has or starts to import them, For instance
uncertain and due to climate change is has become in 2017, India had the highest ever cultivation of
more uncertain and irregular and it is one of the Pulses aka Dal 22.95 Million metric tonne of pulses
reason why farming in India doesn’t pay well, if were produced, it was sufficient to fulfil the needs of
monsoon is good, the farmers have a good yield and the whole country, even then the government
if the rain isn’t good in a year there’s a crop failure, imported 6.6 million metric tonne of pulses, at zero
but the reality is whether the year experience good input duties and it led to an increase in supply and
rainfall or not the farmers have to beard loses either prices crashed all over the country and the farmers
[Link] reason for this is imbalance between supply had to bear significant loses, it shows the
and demand, even when the production is good the administrative failure of the government, apart from
farmer have to trade their crops at minimum cost as that we lack domestic storage facilities and our
the government doesn’t want an increment in the cost market infrastructure is inadequate.
Minimum support Price, the cost at which the government assure to purchase the crops from the farmers if they
are unsuccessful in selling the produce in the market, the government decided MSP for 26 crops, it changes
every year, whereas we see in the past few years the growth rate of MSP has fallen very low, a rating agency
CRISIL has published saying that between 2009 to 2013 the average rate of growth in the MSP was 19.3 % but
for the year 2014 to 2017 the rate dropped to mere 3.6%.However in 2018 there was a record breaking increase
in MSP from the government.
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If we talk about Farmer income which comes from three sources Cultivation, Wages and Allied activities, the
income which they receive from cultivation is very less and this is the main reason why they commit suicide. In
the past years we have seen that their income has remained constant or have decreased over the years. Infliction
is increasing the country. Today, The marginal farmers who earns only rupees 566 per month from cultivation,
small farmers who have a land less than 0.4 hectares their income is 1488 rupees only monthly income and large
scale farmers, those famers who have a land of more than 2 hectares is 7572 per month, for a marginalised
farmer it is very difficult to survive a month with just 500 rupees. If we talk about wages it contributes to 34% of
the income of the farmers, this has also remained constant and not increased in this way they can’t even upgrade
their resources ,52% of the farmers are under loan with amounts to rupees 1,04,000 per farmer they are under
debt, even if the government increases the Budget allocation for the agricultural sector it can provide much
benefit to the farmers.
Contract farming has been a big problem for the small farmers as it has given corporates entry into the
agriculture sector, they have captured many lands, Pastoralist do not have their own farms for grazing their cattle
they take their animals to the grazing land of the villages or to the farms where even these cattle fertilize them
with their cow dungs, as the lands are confiscated by the private sector there will be no place for livestock feed,
In contact farming the corporates intends maximum profit and doesn’t give any care towards the preservation of
land or soil. Contract farming also try to entail foreign varieties crops in this way the local grown crops which
has provided nutrition, if gone will result in mal nutrition in India and we have seen this happening across the
country, it also results in decrease of farmer labourers as there is more use of mechanism which has led to
increase in rural unemployment followed by this farmers don’t have access to market which has resulted in the
exploitation of farmers, where the middle men and intermediary take away half of the money and earn profit
whereas the farmers are provided with less income.
Around 85% of the farmers have 5 or less than acres of land for cultivation in different parts of the country.
Small farmers contribute 51%, and 46% operated land, The small size of the land and no land rights have
exploited the farmers, they even undergo production risks like Drouth, issue of swamping, lack of inputs
available. Lack of irrigation, crop failure etc, followed by market risks, high transaction cost, poor price
realisation, lack of access to Mandis. The MSP and depends on lower cost of intensive crops which have been
the main reasons for suicide among farmers With liberalisation and private sector entering the sector, the life of
farmers have been worst with they have control of majority of the land.
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The government and other private agents are taking means and methods introduced and how to use it,
away agricultural lands for developing big factories education on different fertilisers, pesticides, its
and industries and installation of solar panels and positive and negative impact, organic farming,
wind tribunals by which we see day by day the size of sustainable farming etc.
the agriculture getting smaller, followed by soil
Conclusion
erosion, salinization, deforestation which is making Over the years with change in land holding,
the land unfit for cultivation and the farmers are left involvement of the private sector and above all
with nothing to do. Being uneducated they don’t climate change has made the life of the farmers
know how to react to the court and fight for their miserable, they are the most exploited section of the
rights and lands, they are passive victims of this
society where they work hard day and night and their
global market of agriculture. We need to make income is so less than it becomes impossible to
situations better for farmers and bring in new policies survive a month with that, we have seen a rise in
for better facilities for the farmers. farmer suicide cases and maximum people told who
Way Forward are left as farmers are shifting to non-farms sectors
Farmers should be given right over the land and there for employment. Agricultural which is the largest
should be separate farmer land rights where no sector in India and which serves as the primary means
private sector can enter or the land can be used for of economy for the country with soon suffer from
any development purpose, they need to get access to food crisis, where we are already facing food crisis
the market, a direct link between the consumers and because of a number of reasons where food wastage
producers and also between the farmers and market, is the main element. With farmers leaving their farms,
eliminating of intermediary ,Roads connectivity the first questions arise with lack of farmers how will
should be developed, infrastructure should be created the country food security be satisfied if we don’t have
for markets and every rural area should have access to cultivators. The government need to do something to
the rural banks within their range and don’t have to reduce the rate of farmer suicide and enhance the
travel for longer distance, farmers should be informed agriculture sector in particular by giving farmers
about their rights as by the laws and they needs to access to markets.
special agents appointed to train and help the farmers
Reference
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Farming should be stopped and sustainable farming Wednesday, Is Contract farming in India really
should be promoted where they can get better joy worth it? Down To Earth.
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root involvement in decision making should be do India’s farmers kill themselves? Can market
adopted where farmers can propose the idea what are reforms help? The Economic Times
the requirement as they are the ones who are working [3] Sheshan Pradhan, 2020, May Problems faced
in the fields, every state should take measures to by Farmers in India, [Link]
improve the conditions for their agriculture as every
state grows different crops and have different climatic [4] Yogeshi Joshi, 2020, July, Troubled farmers-
conditions where the state can play a wide role than main agriculture problems in India and their
the central. Special security measures should be solutions.
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Heath care package for pregnant farmers and their 2009, March Concerns of Indian Farmers,
children, free health care facilitates once a month for Research Gate.
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