Question

Answer the following questions.

What are the positive and negative effects of LPG (Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation) on agriculture?

Answer 1

Positive effects
a. Increase in agricultural production– With globalisation, Indian farmers were able to buy the best quality seeds and other agricultural inputs at competitive prices. This, in turn, helped in increasing increased productivity per hectare.
b. Diversification in cropping pattern– Initially, Indian farmers only produced traditional food crops like rice and wheat. But with the advent of globalisation, farmers also engaged in horticulture and floriculture.
c. Better prices– As the quality of the produce improved the farmers were able to command a better price for their crops.
d. Increase in exports– Over the years the volume of exports of the agriculture sector has increased tremendously.

Negative effects
a. Shift towards cash crops and lack of food grains– The export-oriented production strategies led to the shift of agricultural production from food grains to cash crops, such as cotton, jute, etc. This led to reduced availability of food grains in the country.
b. Instability in prices– As the Indian economy was opened up, fluctuations in international prices and production patterns affected domestic prices and created problems for producers and consumers.
c. Adverse effect on poor farmers– The benefits of globalisation remained concentrated among the rich framers who increased the production of exportable crops, while the poor farmers were left out.