Direction (Qs.1 to 7): Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.

Agricultural development in post-independence India started as a response to food shortages and the green revolution was designed to meet this challenge. Even after India became a net exporter of food grains, the mindset continued, and food security remained central to agricultural planning. The expansion of the public distribution system, price controls, export bans and the pernicious use of the Essential Commodities Act dominated the scene. Most of these interventions had an unapologetic consumer bias driven mostly by political considerations. While serious efforts were under way for increasing production and productivity, any adverse impact of the weather followed by a blip in production triggered immediate responses from the government on the above lines. Centrality of food security in policy planning took away the freedom and a substantial portion of the income due to the farmer. While some freedoms were taken away by law, others were influenced by a complex regime of financial incentives. Things have changed. Surpluses have become the recent worry. Sugar is a case in point. Farmers have also found a new voice, hitherto unheard of in the corridors of power. Their expectations from the government will double their incomes by 2022. What we have so far is an elaborate report and a few schemes.

The time has come (actually, it is long overdue) to make farmers’ income and prosperity the central theme of agricultural planning for the future. This is not to say that food and nutrition security should be lost sight of! From a food security, pro-consumer focus (often anti-farmer by default), the policy needs to shift to a pro-farmer (the farmers need the consumers anyway) bias. This involves a paradigm shift in thinking and planning.

This would involve, interalia, the following:

(1) Designing the agricultural policy to focus on the best returns a farmer can get from his land. Start with reforming the market. Remove almost all restrictions: EC Act, APMC Act, movement across states, most of the export restrictions, etc. Make e-NAM and the village markets deliver for the farmers. If there is an occasional shortage, resort to ‘calibrated’ imports.

(2) Change the main objective of ICAR to focus on ‘best returns for farmers’. ICAR has done well to increase productivity and get India out of food insecurity. Continuing with the current structure with an unwidely number of institutes (they seem to be adding new ones with every change of government) and a bevy of projects is not the ideal way forward.

(3) Weather and climate variability pose new challenges. These differ across regions and crops. Crop diversification will be dictated by climate change more than policy instruments. Efforts should focus on micro-climate-based strategies.