Technological and institutional reforms, and the new crop sciences

Detail

1. Why reforms were needed

• The basic problem: Indian farmers have used the same land for thousands of years. Farming techniques and farm institutions did not change to match.

• Overuse without new methods → soil and yields fall → agriculture develops slowly.

• Dependence on nature: most farmers still depend on two things:

• the monsoon for water, because irrigation does not reach large areas

• the soil's natural fertility, with little use of soil testing or balanced fertiliser

• Result: agriculture is a high-risk and low-income activity. The reforms below try to cut that risk (insurance, credit, price support) and to raise output (technology).

2. Institutional reforms after 1947

Institutional reform means changing who owns the land, how it is organised and how farmers get money and support. It is different from technical change such as seeds or machines.

Reform	What it means	Aim
Collectivisation	Farmers pool land and work it together	Economies of scale
Consolidation of holdings	Small, scattered plots of one farmer are exchanged and joined into one block	Saves time; makes wells and machines worth using
Cooperation	Farmers' cooperatives for credit, inputs and marketing	Less dependence on moneylenders
Abolition of zamindari	Removal of intermediary landlords between the state and the cultivator	Land to the tiller; ends rent exploitation

• These reforms were given priority in the First Five-Year Plan. Land-reform laws were passed, but they were carried out weakly in many states.
• Technical phase: the Green Revolution (1960s) brought high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, fertiliser and irrigation, first to wheat in Punjab and Haryana. The White Revolution (Operation Flood) raised milk output.
• These gains were limited to some regions. This led to the comprehensive land development programme of the 1980s–90s, which combined institutional and technical reforms.

3. Risk cover: crop insurance

• Crop insurance: the farmer pays a small premium. If the crop is lost, the farmer is paid compensation.
• Perils covered: drought, flood, cyclone, fire and disease.
• Present scheme: PMFBY (Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, 2016).
• It covers the whole crop cycle, from pre-sowing to post-harvest losses [7].

• It follows "One Nation, One Crop, One Premium": the same premium rate for a crop across the country [7].

• Personal Accident Insurance Scheme (PAIS): covers the farmer's own life and body, not just the crop.

4. Credit and information support

• Low-interest loans come from Grameen (regional rural) banks, cooperative societies and banks. They replace the moneylender, who charges high interest.
• Kisan Credit Card (KCC, 1998): a card that gives farmers quick, cheap short-term loans for seeds, fertiliser and other inputs. The scheme was designed by NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development).
• It works as a single window for a farmer's short-term and investment needs in agriculture and allied activities [8].
• In 2018-19 it was extended to animal husbandry and fisheries.

• Interest subvention: the government pays part of the interest, and farmers who repay on time get an extra reduction.

• Information: weather bulletins and farm programmes on radio and TV help farmers decide when to sow, spray and harvest.

5. Minimum support price (MSP)

• Definition: the minimum support price (MSP) is a price the government announces before sowing, at which it promises to buy a crop.
• It is fixed on the advice of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP, 1965).

• Purpose: it protects farmers from distress sales (selling cheaply after harvest out of need) and from middlemen.

• Coverage: 22 mandated crops [7]:

Group	Number	Examples
Kharif crops	14	Paddy, jowar, bajra, maize, ragi, tur, moong, urad, groundnut, soybean, cotton
Rabi crops	6	Wheat, barley, gram, masur (lentil), rapeseed-mustard, safflower
Commercial crops	2	Jute, copra

• Sugarcane is not on this list. It gets a separate Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP), which sugar mills must pay.

• The 1.5× rule (since 2018-19): MSP is fixed at at least 1.5 times the cost of production [7]. The cost used is A2+FL: paid-out costs (A2) plus the value of family labour (FL).

• Spatial skew (where MSP actually works):
• In practice, the government buys mainly rice and wheat, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.
• Assured buying → farmers keep growing rice and wheat → the rice–wheat pattern gets stronger. This brings groundwater depletion in the north-west and leaves pulses, oilseeds and millets behind.
• Details are in agri-marketing-msp-pds.

6. Bhoodan–Gramdan: a land-reform movement

• Bhoodan ("land gift"): landowners gave land voluntarily to the landless.
• It was started by Vinoba Bhave, called Gandhi's "spiritual heir".
• It began on 18 April 1951 at Pochampally (Nalgonda district, Telangana).

• There, V. Ramachandra Reddy offered land for landless villagers. (NCERT: 80 acres for 80 families; most accounts say 100 acres.)

• Gramdan ("village gift"): a whole village was given to the community.

• It was called the "bloodless revolution" because land changed hands without violence.
• Criticism: some landowners gave land out of fear of land-ceiling laws, and much of the donated land was poor or disputed.

7. Seed dependence

• Company hybrid seeds give high yields and pest resistance.
• The catch: seed from a hybrid crop does not grow true when replanted. So farmers must buy new seed every year and become dependent on companies.
• Contrast: in the traditional system, communities saved and exchanged their own seed, which also kept local varieties alive.

8. New crop sciences (beyond NCERT)

8a. Biofortified crops

• Definition: biofortification means breeding a crop so that the grain itself holds more vitamins and minerals. It fights "hidden hunger" (micronutrient deficiency) without adding pills or powders.
• Examples:
• zinc-rich wheat and rice
• iron-rich pearl millet (bajra), for example Dhanashakti

• protein-rich maize

• Scale: from 2014 to 2024, 152 biofortified varieties were released [4]:

Crop	Varieties (2014–24)
Wheat	53
Millets	26
Maize	24
Oilseeds	21
Rice	14
Pulses	9
Grain amaranth	5

• On 11 August 2024 the Prime Minister released 109 high-yielding, climate-resilient and biofortified varieties [6].

• In the year up to July 2026, ICAR developed 386 varieties across 44 crops. Of these, 94% were climate-resilient and 29 were biofortified [5].

• Link to millets: millets are naturally rich in nutrients and need little water. Biofortified bajra built on this strength during the International Year of Millets (2023).

8b. Genome-edited rice

• Genome editing: scientists make a precise change in a plant's own genes with tools such as CRISPR-Cas ("molecular scissors" that cut DNA at a chosen spot). No foreign DNA is added [2].
• SDN-1 and SDN-2 (Site-Directed Nuclease types 1 and 2): SDN-1 makes a small cut that the plant repairs by itself, and SDN-2 uses a short template to guide the repair. Neither leaves foreign DNA in the plant.

• In 2022, the MoEFCC (Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change) exempted SDN-1 and SDN-2 plants from Rules 7–11 of the Biosafety Rules, 1989. Standard operating procedures for reviewing them were also notified that year [3].

• The two varieties, released in May 2025: India's first genome-edited rice [2]. ICAR started the research in 2018 under the National Agricultural Science Fund [2].

Feature	DRR Dhan 100 (Kamala)	Pusa DST Rice 1
Developed by	ICAR-IIRR, Hyderabad [2]	ICAR-IARI, New Delhi [2]
Parent variety	Samba Mahsuri (BPT 5204) [2]	MTU 1010 [2]
Trait	Higher yield; matures about 20 days earlier (~130 days) [2]	Tolerates salinity and alkalinity (salt-affected soils) [2]
Grain quality	Same as Samba Mahsuri [2]	Same as MTU 1010 (an isogenic line, i.e. the same plant with one trait changed) [2]

• Yield gain: about 19% [2].

• Shorter duration → less water and fertiliser → lower methane emissions from flooded paddy fields [2].

• Contrast with GM crops:

	Genome-edited (SDN-1/2)	Transgenic GM
Foreign DNA	None	Gene from another species added
Examples	Kamala, Pusa DST Rice 1	Bt cotton (Bacillus thuringiensis gene), GM mustard
Regulation	Exempt from GEAC approval rules (2022)	Needs GEAC (Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee) clearance

• Debates:
• Biosafety regime: critics say exempting edited crops weakens GEAC oversight. In November 2025, ICAR rejected claims of bias in the multi-location trials of the two rice lines under the All India Coordinated Research Project on Rice [9].
• Farmers' rights under the PPV&FR Act 2001 (Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act): farmers may save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seed.
• Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety: a global treaty under the CBD on the safe movement of living modified organisms across borders.

Prelims Hooks

• Bhoodan began on 18 April 1951 at Pochampally, Telangana. It was led by Vinoba Bhave, and the first donor was V. Ramachandra Reddy.
• Bhoodan = gift of land; Gramdan = gift of a whole village; together called the "bloodless revolution".
• KCC was launched in 1998 with NABARD. It was extended to animal husbandry and fisheries in 2018-19.
• MSP covers 22 mandated crops: 14 kharif + 6 rabi + 2 commercial (jute, copra). Sugarcane gets the FRP, not MSP. The recommending body is the CACP (1965).
• Since 2018-19, MSP is at least 1.5× the A2+FL cost [7].
• PMFBY (2016) follows "One Nation, One Crop, One Premium" [7].
• DRR Dhan 100 (Kamala) comes from Samba Mahsuri (IIRR Hyderabad). Pusa DST Rice 1 comes from MTU 1010 (IARI New Delhi) and is salinity and alkalinity tolerant [2].
• SDN-1 and SDN-2 genome-edited plants are exempt from Rules 7–11 of the Biosafety Rules, 1989 (2022) [3]. Trap: these exemptions do not cover transgenic crops like Bt cotton.
• Most biofortified varieties released in 2014–24 were of wheat (53) [4]. Dhanashakti is an iron-rich pearl millet.

Mains Points

• MSP and regional imbalance (GS-III): procurement is concentrated on rice and wheat in Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.
• This locks in the rice–wheat cycle, drains groundwater and burns stubble, while pulses, oilseeds and millets get little price support.

• Answer: effective MSP for crops beyond rice and wheat, plus crop diversification.

• Risk and credit as the core of reform: PMFBY, KCC with interest subvention, and PAIS reduce monsoon dependence and moneylender debt.

• Limits: delayed claims, low coverage of tenant farmers, and the exclusion of landless workers.

• Land reform record: zamindari abolition succeeded broadly, but ceiling laws and consolidation were uneven. Bhoodan–Gramdan showed voluntary redistribution, yet much donated land was never actually distributed.

• New crop science for climate resilience and nutrition: genome-edited rice (shorter duration, salt tolerance) and biofortified varieties tackle water stress, saline coastal and canal-irrigated soils, methane emissions and hidden hunger [2][4].
• These gains must be balanced against biosafety (GEAC), seed sovereignty (PPV&FR Act 2001) and Cartagena obligations.