Revitalization of Rivers in India Draft Policy - Isha Guru Jaggi Vasudev

Revitalization of Rivers In India
Draft Policy Recommendation
When such a small pie is shared by a huge number of farmers, the profit
margins naturally go down. While the data show that there is a reduction
in consumption of wheat and rice by 1-2% in rural and urban areas, there
is an increase in the consumption of fruits and vegetables by 2-3%. 21 This
is an annually observed trend. It is observed that most farmers across
the country only manage to break even by producing the staples of wheat
and rice, but they realize higher profit through fruits, vegetables and
other produces. Are farmers then not aware of the difference in profit
realization? Or are there other reasons why they choose to stick to rice
and wheat and realize lesser margins? In fact, there are a set of valid
reasons why our farmers do not move into producing any other crop than
what they have conventionally produced:
••
When a farmer transitions to a new crop, he needs to learn all about
this crop and bridge the knowledge gap
••
He may not know if the agro-climatic conditions of his farm can
produce good yields of the new crop
••
As farmers are not an organized group to plan and decide when and
what to crop, they get dictated by the market’s needs or a middle man
asks them to produce what he wants
••
A farmer’s economic condition makes his ability to handle risks
associated with transitioning from one crop to another very low.
When farmers produce perishables, their vulnerability to the market
is higher than with staple crops, and they have very little control on
price volatility.
••
Lack of cold storage facilities forces them to sell their produce as
quickly as possible without being able to wait to realize decent
margins on their produce
••
Last but not the least, there is no minimum support price for
perishables.
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