Significant price instability, climate hazards, and debt afflict Indian agriculture. Because most agricultural landowners (86%) are marginal or small-scale producers with shrinking and disintegrating landholdings, these factors make them even more susceptible and risk-prone. The last two budgets of the Indian government were pro-agriculture. Increased resources were committed to agriculture, and various projects were launched to enhance irrigated land, enhance soil health, boost agro-processing, and mitigate production risk, among other things. Yet, it indicates that agricultural distress is expanding quietly across all regions.

Moreover, all of these programmes and plans can operate independently. Today’s farmers need better programs or buy a Kubota Tractor that meets agricultural concerns and gives superior performance throughout the year. For instance, Kubota MU5501 is the best tractor in the 55 Hp category. It boasts features like a Synchromesh transmission system with double clutch, Oil Immersed Disc Brakes, heavy hydraulic lifting capacity, and a lot more.

Here we are presenting you with some efficient solutions that can minimize farm distress in India.

The Main Culprits Behind Agricultural Distress

Here are some of the main reasons for agricultural distress in India one can blame.

• One of the primary causes of agricultural hardship is the lack of concrete steps to increase farmer welfare.
• Rising demographic stress, hidden agricultural employment, and diversion of agricultural land for alternate uses have all significantly reduced typical land holding.
• Indian agriculture relies heavily on rainfall, and rising world temperatures have made agriculture increasingly vulnerable to catastrophic weather patterns.
• Falling worldwide pricing has harmed exports, while lower imports have harmed domestic prices.
• Introducing new technology has been constrained due to various factors, such as credit availability and insufficient knowledge.

The Solutions

Here are some of the feasible solutions to help farmers.

Doubling The Farmers’ Income

In India, agricultural reform is extremely slow. As a result, the approach to increasing agricultural income is likewise slow. Increasing output was more important than increasing income. It is encouraging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has proposed tripling farmers’ income in the coming years—a paradigm change. It will necessitate multiple steps:

• An aggressive move to enhance technologies by reinforcing the seed industry and knowledge dissemination framework; 
• agricultural diversification towards high-value goods and services and the growth of value chains by connecting manufacturing and distribution centres; 
• And finally, the innovation of methodologies to ensure minimum support price levels when an agricultural harvest price collapses. 

The effectiveness of contract farming, cluster farming, farmer-producer organizations, and self-help cooperatives will be determined by how farmers are pooled for production and selling. Also, new or existing farmers can look at the modern features of the Preet Tractor, with low maintenance and unbeatable performance. Each model, like the Preet 6049 Super, Preet 4549, Preet 3049 etc., has premium quality, improved design and modern features that can effortlessly satisfy the needs of farmers. 

Creating Better Agri-Infrastructure

Agri-infrastructure, which includes market economy, storage facilities, warehousing, and agro-processing, has not grown in lockstep with rising agricultural output. Building agri-infrastructure is still far slower than required to strengthen the total agri-food system. Before, agricultural commodity production received more attention. In the lack of sufficient agri-infrastructure, agri-food commodity supply chains remain under the control of the informal economy. It is chaotic and unproductive. Because expanding agri-infrastructure isn’t economically feasible, the organized private sector is growing slowly.

With public-private partnerships in the development of agri-infrastructure, there is enormous potential for great economic and social rewards.

The state must form a panel to establish public-private partnership models for developing agri-infrastructure, including rural agri-markets, storage facilities, agro-processing, ground irrigation, and agricultural extension. It is possible to derive lessons from PPPs’ outstanding record in building national highways, constructing and running airports, and power distribution. The national government can assist states in developing feasible PPP projects for agri-infrastructure.

Keeping a Tab on Natural Disasters

Natural calamities like rain, storms, and hurricanes can destroy ready-to-harvest crops. A strong insurance scheme may minimize it. However, data acquisition remains an ongoing problem in crop insurance. The key to providing farmers with financial relief is collecting farm-level information using satellites, monitors, and other modern techniques. 

We need an insurance plan that incorporates farm-level statistical information, village and district-level data, multiple analysis techniques and methodologies, and creates a mechanism for prompt recovery of the farmer’s initial investment to that crop level. In addition, it assures that the investment is safe.

Enhancing Quality of Life in Rural Areas

Basic utilities are still lacking in rural Areas (like sanitation, hygiene, drinking water, drainage, schooling and health centres). The Prime Minister then asked each parliamentary and state legislature to support one village and turn it into an urban model village. The main goal was to enhance the standard of living in rural areas by providing all necessary utilities.

The government has put forward an idea called “Provision of Urban Amenities to Rural Areas” (PURA), which aims to provide urban services and facilities in rural centres to promote economic possibilities for rural communities. The project could be resurrected to enhance rural life by improving living conditions. However, although numerous initiatives and schemes are in place to build social and economic infrastructure, they must be integrated for greater impact.

Conclusion

It is time to revitalize farming and increase the disposable income at the bottom of the pyramid to speed up the economy’s overall development. However, farmers can achieve the same by concentrating on essential areas and working towards the same goal.