Problems of Indian agriculture

Topic: Land Use, Farming Systems and Cropping Seasons in India · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 3 "Land Resources and Agriculture"

Meaning

The problems of Indian agriculture are the common difficulties that keep Indian farm output and farm incomes low. NCERT (Class 12) lists seven: dependence on an erratic monsoon, low productivity, money problems and debt, weak land reforms with small and broken-up holdings, lack of commercialisation, underemployment, and degradation of farm land.

• They matter because they reinforce each other and end in agrarian distress (deep trouble for farmers), which can mean a debt trap and farmer suicides.
• They are also region-specific. They are worst in the rainfed drylands, so they are a core GS-I and GS-III theme.

Explanation

Why the problems differ by region

• Agro-ecological conditions: soil, rainfall, slope and water change from place to place.
• A dry Rajasthan farm mainly faces drought.

• A wet Assam farm faces different risks.

• Historical conditions: land tenure (who owns or rents the land), irrigation history and old revenue systems differ by region.

• Even so, NCERT finds seven problems that are common across India.

The seven core problems: cause → process → result

• Dependence on an erratic monsoon
• Erratic monsoon means the south-west monsoon is uncertain. It can come late, stop early, fail, or bring too much rain at once.
• About two-thirds of the cropped area depends on rain, so a weak monsoon hurts farms straight away.
• Drought and flood are the "twin menace". With too little rain, crops wilt and wells dry up. With too much rain in a short time, standing crops are lost and topsoil is washed away.
• Flash floods (sudden floods from very heavy rain within a few hours) happen even in drylands. Dry soil cannot soak up water fast, so the rain runs off and floods low ground.

• Climate change makes this worse, with rain at the wrong time and more extreme events such as heatwaves and cloudbursts.

• Low productivity

• Productivity means output per unit of input. Here it is yield per hectare and output per worker.
• Indian yields and output per worker are lower than in the USA, Russia and Japan.
• Productivity is lowest in rainfed drylands. Water is not assured there, so farmers use fewer fertilisers and high-yielding seeds because the risk is high. Most years only one crop is possible.

• Too many workers share small plots, so each worker produces little.

• Financial constraints and agricultural indebtedness

• Agricultural indebtedness means farmers owe loans they cannot easily repay.
• Seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, diesel and machines are costly. Small farmers have little savings, so they borrow from banks or from moneylenders at high interest.

• If a crop fails (drought, flood, pests) or prices crash, there is no income to repay the loan. The debt grows into a debt trap, and in extreme cases ends in farmer suicides.

• Weak land reforms and small, fragmented holdings

• Land reforms are government steps to share land more fairly: abolishing zamindari, protecting tenants, a land ceiling (the most land one owner may hold) and consolidation of holdings (joining scattered plots into one block). Many states carried these out only partly.
• Fragmented holdings means one farm is split into many small, scattered plots. This happens because land is divided among heirs in every generation.

• On tiny plots, machines, tube wells and fencing do not pay for themselves. So farmers invest little, and yields stay low.

• Lack of commercialisation

• Commercialisation means growing crops mainly to sell in the market for profit.
• Most small farmers grow foodgrains (rice, wheat, millets) mainly for their own families. This is close to subsistence farming (growing food to feed yourself, not to sell).
• With little surplus to sell, cash income is low, so there is little money for better seeds or irrigation.

• Moving to commercial crops (fruit, vegetables, cotton) needs irrigation, credit, roads and markets, which many small farmers do not have.

• Agricultural underemployment

• Underemployment means people have work only part of the time, or more people work on a farm than it needs.
• Disguised unemployment is when some workers could be removed without any fall in output.

• In unirrigated tracts there is seasonal unemployment of 4-8 months a year. Only one kharif (rainy-season) crop is grown, and after the harvest there is no water for a second crop. Workers sit idle or migrate to cities.

• Degradation of cultivable land

• Land degradation is the fall in the soil's ability to grow crops.
• In heavily irrigated areas, the causes are waterlogging (water stuck in the soil), salinity and alkalinity (too much salt or alkali in the soil).
• Other causes are overuse of chemicals and soil erosion in drylands.

Present-day challenges (NCERT Class 7)

• Plots are too small to earn a good living.
• Tractors and harvesters cost too much for small farmers. Smaller, cheaper machines are now being made.
• Income from allied activities (dairy, poultry, fisheries, beekeeping) is too low.
• Some estimates say about 2,300 farmers quit farming every day.
• Feminisation of agriculture: women are over 75% of rural workers in agriculture.
• Men migrate to cities, so women manage the farms.
• Women often do not own the land, so they find it harder to get credit and schemes.

Government support system

• Inputs: subsidised seeds, fertilisers and machines, and cheaper electricity for pumps.
• Information: weather forecasts and advisories, Kisan Call Centres (free phone helplines) and the Farmers' Portal (one website for farm information).
• Soil: the Soil Health Card (2015) tells each farmer the nutrient status of their soil and the right fertiliser dose.
• Credit: the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) gives cheap short-term loans for inputs. Grameen (rural) banks and cooperatives lend so farmers depend less on moneylenders. PAIS (Personal Accident Insurance Scheme) covers farmers against accidents.
• Prices and markets: MSP (Minimum Support Price, a price the government fixes before sowing and pays when it buys certain crops), cold storage, and e-NAM (an online platform that links mandis across India).
• Risk cover: PMFBY (2016), the central crop insurance scheme.
• It covers natural calamities (drought, flood, hailstorm, cyclone) and pests and diseases.
• The farmer's maximum premium (the fee paid for insurance) is 2% for kharif food and oilseed crops, 1.5% for rabi food and oilseed crops, and 5% for annual commercial and horticultural crops.
• Since Kharif 2020, the Centre and states share the rest of the premium 50:50, or 90:10 for the North-Eastern states [3].

• After the 2020 revamp, joining became voluntary for all farmers [3].

• Data: Digital Agriculture Mission (2024)

• It builds three DPIs (Digital Public Infrastructure, shared digital systems that both government and private services can use): AgriStack, the Krishi Decision Support System and Soil Profile Mapping [2].
• AgriStack has a Farmers' Registry (a farmer ID linked to land records), geo-referenced village maps (land maps tied to GPS locations) and a Crop Sown Registry filled by the Digital Crop Survey [2].
• KDSS is a geospatial system (one based on maps and satellite data). It brings together remote-sensing data on crops, soil, weather and water, and helps with crop estimates, drought monitoring and insurance claims [2].

Where it occurs

• Rainfed drylands across India: lowest yields, one crop a year, 4-8 months of idle time, and drought risk.
• Drylands of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan: hit by flash floods in 2006 and 2017.
• Punjab and Haryana (Green Revolution belt): waterlogging, salinity and alkalinity from heavy irrigation, plus falling groundwater.
• Ganga basin: the Ganga rises at Gangotri glacier (Gaumukh), Uttarakhand, as the Bhagirathi. It joins the Alaknanda at Devprayag, flows through Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, and enters the Bay of Bengal through the Ganga-Brahmaputra delta (the Sundarbans). Its plain feeds over 500 million people. Four pressures act on it:
• Glacier melt: more flow now, but less steady summer water later.
• Canal diversion: less water downstream.
• Groundwater pumping: falling water tables and rising pumping costs.

• Dams: less silt reaches the plains and delta, so floodplain fertility falls.

• Farmer suicides (NCRB ADSI 2022): 11,290 deaths in the farming sector, made up of 5,207 farmers/cultivators and 6,083 agricultural labourers. This was 6.6% of all 1,70,924 suicides in India [5]. Of the farmers, 4,999 were men and 208 were women [5]. The leading states were Maharashtra (37.6%), Karnataka (21.2%), Andhra Pradesh (8.1%), Tamil Nadu (6.4%) and Madhya Pradesh (5.7%) [5].

• Holdings (Agriculture Census 2015-16): the average operational holding was 1.08 ha, and small and marginal farmers (below 2 ha) were about 86% of all holders [4].
• Digital Agriculture Mission: approved by the Union Cabinet on 2 September 2024 with an outlay of ₹2,817 crore, of which the central share is ₹1,940 crore. AgriStack is built in a federated way by the Centre and states, so each state keeps its own records [2].
• The target is digital IDs for 11 crore farmers: 6 crore in 2024-25, 3 crore in 2025-26 and 2 crore in 2026-27 [2].

• The Digital Crop Survey is to cover 400 districts in 2024-25 and all districts in 2025-26 [2].

• World comparison: Indian yields and output per worker are lower than in the USA, Russia and Japan.

Don't confuse with

• Underemployment / disguised unemployment vs open unemployment: in disguised unemployment people do have farm work, but removing some of them would not cut output. In open unemployment people have no work at all.
• Fragmented holdings vs small holdings: small means the total farm area is little. Fragmented means the farm is split into many scattered plots. One farm can be both.
• Problems of rainfed drylands vs problems of the irrigated Green Revolution belt: drylands suffer low yields, one crop a year and seasonal idleness. Punjab and Haryana suffer waterlogging, salinity and falling groundwater.
• AgriStack vs Krishi Decision Support System: both are DPIs under the Digital Agriculture Mission, but KDSS is a separate DPI and not one of AgriStack's three registries [2].

Prelims Hooks

• NCERT calls drought and flood the "twin menace" of Indian agriculture. Flash floods hit the drylands of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan in 2006 and 2017.
• Seasonal unemployment of 4-8 months is typical of unirrigated tracts, not irrigated ones.
• PMFBY (2016) caps on the farmer's premium: Kharif 2%, Rabi 1.5%, Commercial/horticultural 5%. Trap: the rabi rate is lower than the kharif rate. It has been voluntary for all farmers since 2020, and the subsidy is shared 50:50 by the Centre and states (90:10 in the North-East) [3].
• Agriculture Census 2015-16: average holding 1.08 ha; small and marginal holders about 86% [4].
• NCRB ADSI 2022: 11,290 suicides in the farming sector (6.6% of all suicides). Maharashtra (37.6%) had the largest share [5].
• Order of launch: Soil Health Card (2015) → PMFBY (2016) → Digital Agriculture Mission (2 September 2024). AgriStack's three registries are the Farmers' Registry, geo-referenced village maps and the Crop Sown Registry [2].

Mains Points

• Causes of agrarian distress (GS-I/III):
• An erratic monsoon, tiny holdings (1.08 ha in 2015-16 [4]), costly inputs and weak markets push farmers into a debt trap.

• Crop failure then turns debt into distress and suicides. These are concentrated in rainfed Maharashtra and Karnataka (NCRB 2022 [5]).

• Regional pattern:

• Problems are sharpest in rainfed drylands, with low yields, one crop a year, 4-8 idle months and flash-flood risk.
• The irrigated Green Revolution belt faces land degradation and falling groundwater.

• In the Ganga basin, glacier melt, canal diversion, groundwater pumping and dams stress the water that feeds over 500 million people.

• Policy response and structural fixes:

• Input subsidies, MSP procurement, KCC credit and PMFBY (voluntary since 2020 [3]) cover risk.
• The Digital Agriculture Mission adds farmer IDs, geo-referenced maps and plot-level crop surveys, so schemes, insurance claims and advice can be targeted better [2].
• Lasting fixes still need consolidated holdings, farmer groups that share machines, higher allied incomes, and land titles for women, given the feminisation of agriculture.

Related concepts

• Agricultural indebtedness
• Agricultural underemployment
• Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana
• Digital Agriculture Mission

Read more

• Problems of Indian agriculture and the support system