Experts’ Speak - Protect Our Livelihood
Integrating livestock and crops, a common practice in the past, is a viable option that all farmers should adopt. This approach offers multidimensional benefits, including income security, continued availability of animal manure, and reduced dependency on crops for livelihoods. Government incentives, awareness campaigns, and training programmes can help farmers revive this approach. 
Ineffective implementation of MSP and ‘non-procurement’ of all the crops at the MSP is also one of the main concerns of farmers. Such a scenario builds a strong rationale for giving ‘legal status’ to MSP as it is the floor or reference price. This does not imply that the government should procure all those crops but would certainly bind the private players to procure those crops at least at the MSP. Convergence of SHGs, Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs) and Co-operatives will lead to better bargaining power of farmers in terms of bulk procurement of inputs at a discounted price, economies of scale in transportation and warehousing, access to low cost institutional finance, farm mechanisation (drones for monitoring of crops and spraying of fertilisers and plant protection chemicals, etc.), aggregation in selling of agri-produce at remunerative prices. Over the last six years, farmers paid a premium of about Rs. 25, 186 crore but received claims worth Rs. 1,25,662 core (as on Oct 31, 2022). There can't be a better deal than this for farmers. Still, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Telangana, Jharkhand and West Bengal opted out of the scheme citing 'financial constraints'. Punjab persistently opposed and never implemented the scheme [PM-Fasal Bima Yojana]. Now is the time for them to think and join this PM-FBY. “We need innovations in technologies, products, institutions and policies for more diversified high-value agriculture that is also planet friendly. On the question of doubling farmers’ income, we must realise it is going to take time. It can be done by increasing productivity through better seeds and better irrigation.” The FM has announced an Agri-Focused Accelerator Fund. She also talked of creating digital public infrastructure for agriculture as an open-source, open-standard and interoperable public good... These are steps in the right direction but we have to see how much funds are allocated under these schemes. “Agriculture 4.0, a considerably more advanced variant of precision farming, has the potential to transform the traditional farming industry. It refers to the use of the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, artificial intelligence, and robotics, to extend, accelerate, and improve the efficiency of activities throughout the entire production chain.” Nutritional advantages apart, millets are hardy and drought-resistant crops. This has to do with their short duration (70-100) days, against 115-150 days for rice and wheat), lower water requirement (350-500 mm versus 600-1,250 mm) and ability to grow even on poor soils and in hilly terrain. However, millets are not the first choice either of consumers or of farmers. The rice area in India has shown a mild shift, both temporally and spatially — from the rain-fed eastern belt to the drier north-west, served by controlled irrigation — despite a declining trend of rainfall observed in both the regions. The shift is part of the broader changes in land use. The agriculture for tomorrow is going to be science-based, and the winners will be those who adopt it and develop it further today. Innovation is the name of the game, and “Jai Anusandhan” is a good slogan given by PM Modi. But it will have meaning only when the government goes ahead with not just GM Mustard but also fast-tracks Ht Bt cotton, Bt Brinjal, and even GM soya and corn.