The need of the hour is not to give loan waivers to farmers, but to find a long term sustainable solution, which not only improves the standard of living of farmers, but also increases farm produce multifold from the current levels.
India continues to have small acreages with millions of farmers, who on account of following one or more reasons, are unable to either cultivate their land or increase quantum of produce / productivity.
Small land acreages.
Inability to source or purchase quality seeds and fertilizer.
Lack of working capital or financial resources for cultivation / irrigation, etc.
Inability or non-availability of sourcing latest mechanized equipment
Inability or non-availability of information technology driven solutions for both cultivations and irrigation
Lack of availability of labour, both in terms of skill and numbers.
Inability to sell all the produce in time
All the above, if addressed logically and scientifically, which can easily be done, then the country will be able to easily achieve following:
Leap frogging on the current method of farming / cultivation, which is traditional / conventional to a state-of-the-art next generation automated / mechanized information technology driven farming / cultivation. This will avoid necessity of large number of labour requirement.
To provide a standard mix of best quality seeds with fertilizer as one package to be used for the purpose of sowing, leading to highest quality and a large quantum of produce.
Irrigation infrastructure and facility would require installing a small electronic gadget on the water pump, which would allow a farmer to undertake remote water pump operation, which will control the flow of water, duration for which would be provided, quantum of water actually used and time at which it is to be provided. This will obviate the necessity of the farmer to go to the field unless he willingly wants to go and not just for this purpose.
This will also allow water to be released after 10 pm every day at which point of time India has lowest base load power requirement and the power is available at about Rs.1 to 1.50 kwH (the least cost). This will also improve the productivity of the power plants at near zero additional fixed cost.
The cultivation of land will be done through a mechanized equipment, which will do ploughing, seeding with fertilizer, and closing the land at one go through the specially created mechanized equipment, fully equipped with information technology software solution, which will measure the depth of the ploughing, the space between the two seeding, closing the land again. All this will result into 100% ploughing of the land with the best of seeds and fertilizer at the right depth and proper closure of the land again with no requirement of labour and 24x7 operations, and availability of real time data with live video, if required.
For the above, what is required from the Government is:
To educate, motivate and inform all farmer / land holders to allow their land or fields to be cultivated by a designated agency of the Government through the above methods and at a cost which will be lower than what is being incurred by the farmers today.
The cost of cultivation will be recovered by the Government from the farmer or land holder only when the crop is sold Government nominated agencies at the minimum support price MSP. As a matter of fact, the declared cost of cultivation per acre will be deducted from the proceeds of the sale of crop of the farmer and the net amount will be given back to him. Through this mechanism, farmer will not be required to have a single rupee or funds for the purpose of cultivating his land. This will automatically obviate grant of loan to farmer and subsequent recovery.
There would be a probability that the desired quantum or quality of the crop is not produced and therefore the farmer is not able to pay to the Government even the cultivation cost, leave alone the sale produce to the earned by him. For this purpose, the Government will take insurance, which will not only cover the cultivation cost of the Government (if not recovered from the farmer, but also provide minimum recovery to farmer in the form of insurance claims).
The use of mechanized equipment for cultivation etc will be done by Government selected capable private parties, who will be paid the cost of the same only when the produce is sold by farmers. Effectively, they would invest into the working capital.
From the above, it is quite clear that the volume of produce will increase multifold and may have significant downward impact on the selling price leading to less cashflow in the hands of farmers. As a matter of fact, this should be taken as an opportunity and all the surplus produced must be exported out of India (contracts to be done well in advance) and ensure reasonable selling price to farmers. Over a period of time, India will become a major exporter of farm produce.
Conclusion: India has embarked on various new initiatives, including digital India. The time has come to use the state-of-the-art technologies in the form of cultivations and sees / irrigation and once and for all significantly increase per capita income of our farmers, their standard of living and allow them to have much higher level of disposal income in their hands. This will propel demand and in turn will give accelerated impetus to the GDP growth on sustainable basis for years to come. This will also stop migration from rural area to urban area. Government will have additional funds available in their hands, which can be used for infrastructure development.