Modi govt's farm reforms could turn India into a food-export powerhouse


Published On: Friday, October 16, 2020 | By:

Modi govt's farm reforms could turn India into a food-export powerhouse

The recent laws by Modi Govt to liberalise farm sales could turn out to be the most far-reaching. In a fractious and unruly session last month, parliament passed three laws that some say could pave the way for India to upend the global food trade, while others fear it will wreck the livelihoods of millions of farmers. Within days, rural groups and opposition leaders launched public protests. The move toward a free market for farm sales goes to the heart of a system that directly affects more than half of the nation’s 1.37 billion people, altering government controls that millions of families have come to rely on, but that have hobbled the nation’s efforts to productively farm one of the largest areas of fertile land on earth. If they succeed, India could not only feed itself but become a major food exporter.

“We need private sector investment in technology and infrastructure for Indian agriculture to realise its full potential and compete better in the global marketplace,” say experts who support the amendments.

India processes less than 10% of its food production and loses about 900 billion rupees ($12.3 billion) a year due to wastage from inadequate cold storage, said Amitabh Kant, chief executive officer at NITI Aayog.

The new rules would also make it easier to sell crops in other states or abroad. Farmers would get a more stable income and the increased production would boost exports and revenue, experts say.

Before the new amendments, farmers in most states were restricted from selling their crops outside government-facilitated wholesale markets and faced legal hurdles in transporting harvests to other states.

If India can raise productivity to global norms, the country could become “an important link in global food supply chains,” NITI Aayog’s Kant wrote in a newspaper article. The new reforms, he said, set the stage for India to become “a food-export powerhouse.”

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