Top 3 Challenges Faced by Indian Farmers

Posted by Vikram Singh on January 11th, 2019

Agriculture has always been the backbone of Indian economy. But the declining percentage of contribution of agriculture in India’s GDP has been a worry for all the Governments Indian farmers face multiple problems at different levels. In this article we will discuss about the three major problems faced by an Indian Farmer.

1- Red Tapism and Middleman

Although the government announces farmer friendly policies from time to time such as buying farmer’s produce at a better price, and easily accessible markets for the growth of agriculture, but farmers often feel that an analysis to the roots is missing. Farmers have to follow a long channel to sought out their problems and more than often this results in protests and agitations. This is a sheer wastage of time and meager resources that a farmer has. Due to lack of coordination between the banks and agricultural departments the farmer suffers. Most of the Indian farmers have a small produce. Often farmers cannot bear the transportation costs to the Government Mandi so they sell it to middlemen at distress prices. Middlemen in turn sells them at lucrative prices at the Mandi that is often not shared with the farmers.

2- Infertile and Degradation of Soil

Another major problem faced by Indian farmers is infertility of soil and its degradation due to excessive use of fertilizers. Farmers follow the tradition of growing the same crops again over a period of time. Use of excessive fertilizers gives high yield for a short period of time then degrades the soil. Degraded soil requires massive amount of fertilizers even for mediocre output thus increasing input costs. Due to over use of pesticides some parasites become immune to pesticides. It is essential to get the soil tested for higher yield farming and best crop yields. A government approved soil testing lab can help test the quality of soil to support agriculture but such soil tests are still out of the farmer’s reach due to lack of knowledge and financial constraints.

3- Over Dependence on Nature and Lack of Mechanization

Indian farmers are largely dependent on monsoons. But most of the time nature is unpredictable in India. Whereas good rains can result in bountiful crops which will further benefit the farmers, floods and droughts aggravate the problems of farmers. The use drought and flood resistant seeds is not prevalent in India. Each year, the climate change impacts the agriculture and leads to 1.5% loss in India’s GDP. Lack of mechanization and technology increases labor costs and reduces the output yield. India has not yet seen use of drones and AI sprinklers in agriculture which can monitor the crop growth and help increase crop production.