On Agriculture

For all the crocodile tears being shed and thousands of words being filed/posted by bloggers, journalists, and Sainaths who visit Vidarbha and other places of India with an acute agricultural crisis, the most hit-the-nail-on-the-head post in recent days has come from Nilu. In this post he writes,

Let's assume, every farmer in this country does get a loan at an interest rate of 5%. Will that solve the crises? Firstly, what are the crises? Do they stop with suicides in Vidarbha? Or do they extend to the abysmal yield in the rest of the country? To start with, there simply isn't any real investment in technology or innovation in this area. Farm credits, crop insurance and support prices are only measures to help those in misery. What about solutions that result in yields which would make agriculture a viable profession? How about the land ceiling act that encourages subsistence farming? Where are the infrastructure projects like building cold storage facilities?

Read it. Good stuff.