Number Theory: Understanding the issues ailing Indian agriculture
With both the public and private sector giving up on long-term investment in agriculture, the future of farming and food security in India is far from secure.
With some farmers’ unions in Punjab restarting their protests demanding a guarantee on minimum support prices (MSP), agricultural policy is back in public debate. While, there can be no rationale for a law providing a blanket guarantee for MSP, support or opposition to this demand cannot be the be all and end all of agricultural policy debate in India. In fact, one can argue that the tragedy of Indian agriculture is that it has been caught up in sensational debates such as these and substantive issues always fail to catch the public imagination. If Indian agriculture has to have a future — it is absolutely essential that it does — it needs to have a future-oriented policy outlook. In economic terms, this means that it should have adequate investment. Is this requirement being adequately met? Here are three charts that try and answer this question.
