Market incentives, direct income support for farmers are far more effective in increasing agricultural productivity | The Indian Express

Market incentives, direct income support for farmers are far more effective in increasing agricultural productivity | The Indian Express

Written by Ashok Gulati, Sakshi Gupta |Updated: October 28, 2019 1:56:32 pm

The writer is chair professor for agriculture at ICRIER. Views are personal

Gupta is a junior economist at Crisil Ltd.

Market incentives, direct income support for farmers are far more effective in increasing agricultural productivity

India can learn three lessons from China — investing more in agri-R&D and innovations, improving incentives for farmers by carrying out agri-marketing reforms, and collapsing input subsidies into direct income support on per hectare basis.

The challenge before the two countries is to produce enough food, fodder and fibre for their population. (Illustration: C R Sasikumar)

India and China, the world’s most populous countries, have limited arable land — China has about 120 million hectares (mha) and India 156 mha. The challenge before the two countries is to produce enough food, fodder and fibre for their population. Both have adopted modern technologies in agriculture, starting with high yield variety (HYV) seeds, in the mid-1960s, increasing irrigation cover and using more chemical fertilisers to produce more food from limited land. China’s irrigation cover is 41 per cent of the country’s cultivated area, while India’s irrigation cover is 48 per cent. China’s total sown area, as a result of such irrigation, is 166 mha, compared to India’s gross cropped area of 198 mha. But even though China has less land under cultivation, its agriculture output is valued at $1,367 billion, more than three times that of India’s agriculture output, $407 billion. How has China made this possible? Are there lessons in China’s experience for India?