Question

Enlist the various institutional reform programs introduced by the government in the interest of farmers.

Answer 1

• As the Agriculture sector provided a livelihood for more than 60 percent of India’s population, there was a need for serious institutional and technical reforms.
• Thus after independence, priority was given to bringing about institutional reforms in the country through various measures such as the abolition of zamindari, consolidation of holdings, cooperation, collectivization, etc.
• The main focus of our First Five Year plans was ‘Land Reforms.’
• Consolidation of holdings was necessary as there was the fragmentation of land holdings which was caused by the right of inheritance.
• Providing loan facilities to the farmers at lower rates of interest, banks, cooperative societies, and Grameen banks were established.
• Provisions were made to provide crop insurance against diseases affecting the crops, fires, cyclones, floods, and droughts.
• The Government of India introduced different schemes for the benefit of the farmers: the Personal Accident Insurance Scheme (PAIS), and the Kissan Credit Card (KCC).
• On television and radio, special agricultural programs and weather bulletins were introduced for the benefit of farmers.
• The White Revolution (Operation Flood), and the Green Revolution were based on the use of package technology and were some of the strategies initiated to improve a lot of Indian agriculture.
• However, development was concentrated in a few selected areas, despite the Government of India's efforts to introduce reforms in the agriculture sector, in the 1960s and 1970s.
• Therefore, in the 1980s and 1990s, including both technical and institutional reforms, there was the initiation of a comprehensive program for land development.
• To check the exploitation of farmers by middlemen, and speculators, the government even announced the procurement prices, remunerative, and minimum support prices for important crops.