Thread by @taxingpolitics

Agriculture & Prosperity

One of the major indicator of Economic Development of a country is the % of Population dependent on Agriculture. No country can really call itself a developed country unless it has minimum Population depending on Agriculture & yet producing better.
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During WWII, Germany had almost 30% Population depending on Agriculture while USSR had 50-60%. This is the reason Germany could give so much hell to USSR even though it didn't have enough land & resources especially Oil. On the other hand, Britain had only 3% population...
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... depending on Agriculture and I am sure it would be similar number for US too. This is why Britain could eventually win with lesser losses than USSR (USSR won because of blunders committed by Hitler & not because of its own efficiency). A country's % of Population...
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... depending on Agriculture reflects it's overall industrial and Economic capabilities. Allied Powers could produce more Aircrafts, Ships & they could overhaul, repair them without wasting time, technological advancements etc was possible because of their strong industry.
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& Industrial Development creates wealth for govt to spend more on Defense too.

What's the situation in India?

We have more than 60% of Population which is directly/indirectly dependent on Agriculture. India has the most fertile land which can get upto 3 crops per year.
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We have abundance of fertile land but we are totally inefficient in Agriculture. We are still producing unnecessary amount of Wheat & Rice which is insane. We are not producing wisely. Our agriculture is totally inefficient & 70 years of efforts haven't made it efficient.
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And that's because our Politicians have treated Agriculture & Farmers as a Votebank than as a player in Economy. We have this Socialist Mindset of glorifying Poverty of Farmers. 'Kisan ki Jamin, Kisan ki Mehnat, Kisan ka Paseena' etc kind of thing. No offense to Farmers.
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It's not their fault. But at the end of the day, Agriculture is a business. And if we want to be efficient in Agriculture, it should be treated like a business & not like a Maay-Baap sarkar sponsored Social Activity.

Currently Agricultural land in India is fragmented.
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In India, Farmers are individuals and small land is owned by each individual farmer. Many farmers can't even use Tractor in his land as it is not economically viable.
Till now, we had made it mandatory for farmers to sell their produce only to APMCs & authorized traders.
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Thanks to 3 bills brought by @nsitharaman recently which freed the farmers from the clutches of APMCs & Essential commodities Act & also allowed Contract Farming.
To know more, watch these.
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Now state govts needs to do more in their respective states to take these reforms forward and Centre needs to stand firm against any kind of opposition to these reforms. But atleast few distortions in Agri Markets are removed by this. But we need a lot more changes.
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First of all, we need to wake up the sleeping Make in India, give impetus to labour intensive sectors, ensure Free Market for Industry to make it competitive for exports, invest in Infrastructure, Privatization of PSUs in phased manner, Land & Labour Market reforms,..
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..Tax rationalization, Single rate GST etc for creating employment in Manufacturing & Service Sector. The purpose of this thread is about Agriculture & hence I won't talk much about other sectors. When Modi talked about doubling Farmers income, someone had said that..
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..only way to achieve it is by reducing no of Farmers by half. Sounds funny. But it's the truth.
Unless we are able to create employment in other sectors to accommodate the population which will be out from Agriculture in next 5 years, we cannot do serious reforms in Agri.
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Once our Population depending on Agriculture comes down to 40%, we must do following 2 things :
1. Allow Industrial Farming - Means allow companies like TATA, Godrej, Reliance to buy land from Farmers & do farming on Industrial scale. They would be dying for it.
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This will improve efficiency of Farming & we can produce 3 crops per year as per our potential. Presently our farmers can't store their foodgrains for long time & hence they have sell their produce to Middle men in distress. Govt can't make heavy investment in building...
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... storage facilities/warehousing as they have other financial commitments. But Private Players would be able to build their own storage capacity, warehouses, they would be able to bring technology & adopt modern methods for farming. They will also need workers to work...
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... in their huge farm though not in the huge numbers as presently engaged in Agriculture. That means farmers can get money by selling their land which they can invest & earn regular monthly income & efficient farmers can work on those farms on salary basis too.
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This way Farmers will be free from debt trap & can lead a respectful life too. Small farms are not helping us at all. Infact they are harming us. We must allow Industry in Agriculture for it to prosper. & Farmers can live a decent life too as they will be getting...
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...fair compensation for their land & as I mentioned they can work for these companies too on salary basis. Govt can make a rule that any Private Company buying land from farmer must give him job for 5 years etc. Ofcourse there will be usual Socialist ranting like....
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... we always see. "Modi hamare Gareeb Kisano ki Zameen Ambani Adani ko bech raha hai", "Kisan ki Zameen uska Swabhiman hai, Modi ne Kisano se unka Swabhiman chin ke liys hai" etc.
In India, everything gets political. But that's why we need strong leaders like...
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..Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, PVNR, Vajapayee etc who can stand firm amidst all the pessimists & naysayers (I wish Modi becomes like them). This will stop Farmers suicide. Govt can reduce its spending on Agriculture. We are wastingg lot of money on Agriculture....
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.. through subsidies etc. While Kisan wing of RSS & other Socialists will argue that even western countries give subsidies for Agriculture, the truth is they have less than 5% population depending on Agriculture & we have more than 60%. So for us, it's huge amount.
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We can use that money to build Infrastructure, Healthcare, Education, Defense etc.
2. Second thing govt needs to do is to open Indian Agriculture for International competition. Which means allowing import & export of farm produce without any restriction.
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Now here my fellow BJP supporters will disagree with me as majority of us influenced by Swadeshi policy. But understand that keeping small farmers protected is atleast Morally justified. But once we allow Industrial Farming, it's not even morally justified to protect....
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...them from competition. Our Domestic Industry is very much competitive & they can compete efficiently if govt promises not to change policy by their whims & fancies. Secondly, allowing free trade in Agriculture will ensure benefit for consumers by hell of a lot.
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It will reduce raw food prices by atleast half. So, no one has any right to call it anti poor. Poors will be the ones who will be biggest beneficiaries of it. Our Free Trade Agreement with US, Australia has not yet materialized due to this issue of opening up Agriculture.
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It's understandable for now. But once we allow Industrial Farming, it's not justified and we must enter into FTAs for Agriculture as well.

While Concluding, I will just say that I want India to become an economic as well ad military superpower. We can't become Military..
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.. superpower without becoming economic superpower. That's because everything needs money. We need money for defense purchase, salaries of servicemen, etc. In Marathi, we say 'सगळी सोंग आणता येतात, पण पैशाचं सोंग नाही आणता येत' which means 'You can disguise everything...
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..but not money'. So Money (read economy) is everything.
Thanks for reading patiently.
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@APanagariya Sir, as your fan, I would be more than happy if you read this and offer your suggestions.

Sorry for poor English Translation of that Marathi saying. The better one is "You can pretend whatever you are not, whatever you don't have but you can't pretend to have money if you don't".