Agricultural Predicament

Mahatma Gandhi once said “Real India lives in rural villages”.Almost 70 percent of Indian population lives in rural areas.But today’s irony is that those who feed the nation go to bed without food.My understanding of rural India is a less developed countryside where the infrastructure is primitive, houses are of mud or brick but rarely painted well, the primary source of livelihood is agriculture, employment opportunities in the organized sector are negligible, eating choices are restricted to home-cooked simple food, schools are far away, health facilities are rudimentary and -- importantly -- the youth, while energetic and ambitious, are to be seen playing cards the whole day.Average income level is low.Penetration of consumer goods is low as compared to urban areas.Our rural folks have negligible access to banking services.Teledensity in rural area is far less than that in urban areas.

Indian GDP is growing consistently at the rate of 7 percent since 1991.Still our rural areas are underdeveloped.This indicates that fruits of higher economic growth are being enjoyed by people living in urban areas only.Rich are getting richer and poor are getting poorer. Indian marketeers  define today’s consumer as a person with higher disposal income aspiring for better lifestyle and convenience.But such consumer can be located only in urban area.If this is the fact, higher GDP numbers are meaningless. What has gone wrong with the rural conusmer?

Primary source of income of rural consumer is agriculture.Major agricultural land is not irrigated.So there is no option but to place bets on the arrival of good monsoon.Given the ecological  imbalance ,lately monsoon has become irratic.With the irregular monsoon,agricultural production has gone down. Also under the name of development ,agricultural land is being procured at throw away prices.Once agriculture was 50 percent of our GDP.Now it is less than 25 percent.As a consequence,agriculture has become less lucrative option to pursue as a profession. Urban migration has picked up momentum.Cities are getting more crowded which is resulting into regional imbalances.

Only government can correct the situation.Minimum support price paid by government for all kinds of crops is very low.Major beneficiaries are the middlemen who pocket major chunk of the retail price.Also infrastructure needed to store and transport agriculture produce is not in place.Major losses  occur at this stage.Some schemes have been floated by government  for the welfare of farmers.But major chunk of money leaks through a funnel called as beurocracy.

Correction in all the aspects stated above will improve the income levels and life of people living in the rural area.Then we can say that Indian GDP growth is all inclusive and Indian marketeers will stop discriminating between urban and rural consumers.

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