Ensure more incentives timely

Farming activities should receive the focus of Govt to ensure there is an uninterrupted supply of essential commodities to customers like food grains, vegetables, fruits, etc. The Enforcement Wing of the department should facilitate the smooth movement and stocking of fertilizers for timely availability to the farmers. On the other hand, farmers need to avail subsidy/incentives on machinery for promoting mechanized sowing, transplanting, weeding. The agriculture department needs to mobilize its extension staff for the dissemination of relevant technical know-how for the benefit of the farmers. Officers need to make all efforts at district, block and ground level to assist the farmers. The current situation arising due to COVID-19 pandemic has affected every sphere of human activity across many countries in the world. From agriculture to manufacturing, from hospitality to small businesses, every sector has been impacted by the lockdown imposed to check the spread of the contagion. It is the responsibility of Government to enable the farming community to cope up with harvesting, post-harvest management, storage and marketing of standing field and horticulture crops. The government is making efforts for doubling farmers’ income and various steps have been taken to facilitate the farmers. The only remedy to the crisis is to do all that is possible to make agriculture a profitable enterprise and attract the farmers to continue the crop production activities. As an effort towards this direction, the government should augment its investment and expenditure in the farm sector. Investment in agriculture and its allied sectors, including irrigation, transport, communication, rural market, rural infrastructure, and farm research, should be drastically increased, and the government should aim at integrated development of the rural areas. The stark reality is agriculture is no more a profitable economic activity when compared to other enterprises. It means that the income derived from these activities is not sufficient enough to meet the expenditure of the cultivators. And therefore, unless agriculture is made a profitable enterprise, the present crisis cannot be solved. The related factors responsible for the crisis include dependence on rainfall and climate, reduction in agricultural subsidies, lack of easy credit to agriculture, and dependence on money lenders. The consequence of the agricultural crisis in India is very vast and likely to hit all the other sectors and the national economy in several ways. If urgent steps are not taken agricultural crisis would be affecting a majority of the people in India and the economy as a whole in the long run.