SHIKHAR Mains 2023 Day 13 Model Answer - English

Q1: न्यूनतम समर्थन मूल्य (MSP) क्या है? साथ ही इससे जुड़ी चुनौतियों की भी चर्चा कीजिए।        8 marks 

What is Minimum Support Price (MSP)? Also discuss the challenges associated with it.

Approach:

• Begin the answer by giving a general introduction of the Minimum Support Price.
• After this, expand the answer by writing about CACP.
• Further mention its advantages and challenges.
• Conclude accordingly.

Answer -

Minimum Support Price is an intervention by the government in the form of price support to provide protection to the farmers against any sharp fall in the agricultural prices. The Minimum Support Price ensures a guaranteed offtake price which is also beneficial to the farmers.

The main objective of MSP is to save farmers from distress sale and purchase of food grains for the public distribution system. The objective of MSP is to encourage investment in modern technologies for agriculture by ensuring assured income to the farmers.

The Minimum Support Price is announced by the Government of India on the basis of the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP). The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices is a statutory body, which submits various reports recommending prices for Kharif and Rabi seasonal crops. Minimum Support Price is declared before the sowing season for 23 crops including rice, wheat, pulses etc.

The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices submits its recommendations to the government in the form of price policy reports every year for five groups of different commodities, namely Kharif crops, Rabi crops, sugarcane, raw jute and copra.

After considering the reports and views of the State Governments and keeping in view the overall demand and supply situation in the country, the Central Government takes the final decision.

Over the years, MSP has become a major aspect of government assistance to farmers. The minimum support price has benefited a lot.

• It has ensured food security for the citizens.
• This has ensured efficient implementation of the Public Distribution System (PDS).
• It has provided assured cash flow to the farmers.
• This has helped in containing the fluctuations in the prices of food crops.
• However, over the years, several concerns have emerged regarding the MSP.

Issues related to Minimum Support Price:

• The formula used by the government for fixing the minimum support price and the demand of the farmers for the minimum support price is not in sync.
• The government declares the MSP on the basis of the formula A2+Family Labor (FL), where A2=input cost (seeds, fertilisers, machinery, labour, etc.).
• Farmers' demand is 1.5 times C2, which is equal to the government MSP + the cost of rent plus interest on the land owned.
• In this context, the National Commission for Farmers, commonly known as M.S. Swaminathan Committee, had recommended a formula for a minimum support price (MSP) to match the demands of the farmers. Implementation of the Swaminathan Committee formula remains a major issue.
• MSP has distorted the cropping pattern, resulting in the preference of water consuming crops like rice over traditional crops like pulses, millets etc.
• MSP involves an open ended buying mechanism. Therefore, most of the products procured through MSP reduce the supply in the open markets. As a result, the consumption of non-cereals is increasing leading to nutritional issues.
• More procurement is done under MSP, but lack of proportionate storage facilities leads to wastage of produce.
• According to the report of Shanta Kumar Committee on Role and Restructuring of Food Corporation of India, selling wheat and paddy directly to any procurement agency benefits only 6% of farmers. Despite being disputed, this figure points to the wide disparity in access to MSPs across sectors.
• Internationally, the MSP has been a cause of conflict between India and the developed world at the World Trade Organization (WTO). MSP is included in the amber box as a subsidy which distorts production and should be abolished.

Minimum Support Price has also discouraged private sector participation in agriculture. Therefore, the gains that could have been made by private sectors have been lost.

The Minimum Support Price was seen as a safety net for the farmers. However, despite its noble intentions, concerns regarding it have only grown. There is a dire need of reforms in the implementation of the Minimum Support Price. Recent agricultural reforms have given rise to a debate on the same. The grievances of farmers should be addressed while formulating policies for MSP reforms.

Q2: कृषि में ई-प्रौद्योगिकी की भूमिका की विवेचना कीजिए तथा ई-प्रौद्योगिकी के प्रसार में आने वाली प्रमुख चुनौतियों की भी व्याख्या कीजिए।  12 marks

Discuss the role of e-technology in Agriculture, and also explain major challenges in the spread of e-technology.

Approach:

• Begin the answer by giving a general introduction of e-technology in agriculture.
• After this, discuss the importance of adopting e-agriculture.
• Finally, conclude the answer by writing its challenges.

Answer:

E-Agriculture is a new area of knowledge emerging out of convergence of IT and farming techniques. It enhances the agricultural value chain through the application of the Internet and related technologies. Technology has provided Soil Management, Water Management, Seed Management, Fertilizer Management, Pest Management, Harvest Management and Post-Harvest Management. It uses a host of technologies like Remote Sensing, Computer Simulation, Assessment of speed and direction of Wind, Soil quality assays, Crop Yield predictions and Marketing using IT. 

The E-Agriculture is part of Mission Mode Project (MMP), which has been included in NeGP (under National E-governance Plan) in an effort to consolidate the various learnings from the past, integrate all the diverse and disparate efforts currently underway, and upscale them to cover the entire country.

E-Agriculture can help in improving skills and productive capacities of farmers while ensuring cost effectiveness, viability and sustainability of the farming practices. It can facilitate linkages with academia, industry and government agencies

IMPORTANCE OF ADOPTING TECHNOLOGY IN AGRICULTURE:

• Remedial therapy: In India, where water crisis, desertification, crop pests, diseases and a persistent lack of infrastructure continue to threaten the agricultural sector, technological advancement is providing a much-needed lifeline to remedy the problematic situation.
• Development of efficient methods: With significant advancements in the fields of robotics and sensing technologies, e-technology has led to the development of more sophisticated, effective and efficient practices and methods of undertaking agricultural practices.
• Decision support system: Farmers with all relevant information in their hand, can make a better and informed decision for their agricultural activities, for grains, communication channels, distribution, and other needs.
• Disintermediation: In the technological era, the farmer can adopt innovative technology in order to gain control of the changing dynamics and leverage market insight without relying on traders. Thus helping in widening market access.
• New techniques are disseminated to farmers through use of Information technology to ensure inclusiveness and to avoid digital divide.

Major challenges:

• Lack of infrastructure: The lack of information on farm inputs, unorganized credit, and absence of market linkages are the major hurdles faced by farmers in adopting new technologies.
• Right inputs and advisory: Farmers lack enough knowledge regarding various resources available related to farming and the right advice on the way to use them.
• Poor reach: In rural areas, the reach of e-technology is really poor, even the distribution of technology is uneven throughout the country.
• Insufficiency & Illiteracy: In rural areas, insufficient connectivity, along with lack of basic computer knowledge, high costs for services and literacy hinder rapid development of electronic-agriculture.
• Adoption issues: Despite the visible benefits of the new agricultural technologies, farmers either do not adopt them or it takes a long time for them to adopt.
• Financial constraints: Rich farmers are adopting the technology and utilizing their services but the small and marginal farmers are unable to afford the new technologies and they remain left out.

All of the above challenges call for bottom-up, complementary investments in physical, human, and institutional capital, and farmer-friendly e-platforms.