People like Mr Mulayam Singh who claim to be the saviours for farmers forget to identify the needs of the farmers.
Why is it that farmers in other countries are financially well off, but in India they are always struggling to meet ends ?
If the government really wants to help farmers, it must start with the following,
- Infrastructure. It is estimated that 40-50% of the vegetable produce of our nation is lost (Rotten) as a result of transportation and lack of cold storage facilities. I do not not propose government starting projects, but encouraging private sector to get involved.
- Industrializing Agriculture. We need technology to improve argiculture. Our argiculture inductry is higly inefficient.
- Trade policies. Government needs to work on foreign trade policies. Farmers must be able to export their produce to different parts of the world.
- Tariffs. We need to eliminate tariffs between different states. Wheat grown in Punjab must be sold in Maharashtra without any Tariff and vice versa.
What government should NOT get involved in is,
- Loans to farmers - Free seeds - Animal fodder
This is not the job of the government. Let the private sector handle this. Lets learn some best practices from developed agricultural states/countries and implement them in India.
India is yet to see an argicultural revolution. This is the route to being a strong nation.
And this route does not go through the government. It is the private sector.
