India needs greater focus on farmers with small land holdings: P K Mishra

During the last decade, governments -- both at the Central and state levels -- have taken initiatives to assist small farmers, including small and marginal farmers, Mishra said at the lecture hosted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on November 28.

Mumbai: India needs a greater focus on farmers with small land holdings and formulate a strategy to increase their income in order to realise the goal of a Viksit Bharat, or a developed nation by 2047, said P K Mishra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, while delivering the 19th C D Deshmukh Memorial Lecture here.

During the last decade, governments -- both at the Central and state levels -- have taken initiatives to assist small farmers, including small and marginal farmers, he said at the lecture hosted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on November 28.

Speaking on the topic 'Transforming Small-holder Agriculture in India in the 21st Century: Challenges and Strategies', he said the issue of smallholder agriculture needs to be addressed in order to realise our goal of a Viksit Bharat or a developed India by 2047.

Mishra said several measures such as crop diversification, use of technology, climate-resilient crop varieties, storage to reduce post-harvest losses, direct farmer-consumer platforms, rural industrialisation and setting up of farmer producer organisations have been attempted.

"Our analysis reveals that there is a need to have greater focus on small-holders and formulate a strategy to increase their income," Mishra said.

In this regard, he suggested diversification towards more profitable crops, livestock and fisheries; use of technology, especially focusing on small farms, among others.

He said India's agriculture is dominated by small-holders and will continue to be so in the near future. There are 168 million operational holdings, of which small holdings of less than 2 hectares contribute to 88 per cent.

During the five decades after 1970, farm size in US and Canada have increased from 157 and 187 hectares, respectively, to 178 and 331 hectares. Denmark, France, the Netherlands have seen a tripling of farm size since the early 1970s.

In contrast, Mishra said the concentration of small-holdings has remained very high in Asia.

"For a more inclusive, equitable and sustainable economic growth, it is necessary to have a higher share of income by farm households.

"The disparity in per worker productivity or income between agriculture and non-agriculture is witnessed even in countries such as China, Vietnam and Indonesia as in India," he said.

C D Deshmukh played a key role in shaping India's financial system, governance structure and institutional development.

He presided over the transformation of the RBI from a private shareholders' bank to a public institution.

Deshmukh had a role in the formation of the Planning Commission, and served as its member when it was set up in 1950.

He was India's finance minister during 1951-57.