You are quite vocal about the government's apathy towards the farm sector. You have said the government has neglected the farm sector.
As an individual I have the right to voice my concern. I wouldn't use the word neglect. There is definitely a deceleration of investment to an extent. (It does not matter) whether it was a deliberate neglect or overconfidence that we have solved our food problem.
A majority of policymakers gave the view that we should not worry about self sufficiency in food, we have enough foreign exchange and therefore we can buy from other countries. Such economists -- those who have never gone to a field or known anything about agriculture -- had too much influence on the government.
For them agriculture means just feeding the PDS. They said, why do you want to produce it here when you can buy from outside.
I am saying again that agriculture in this country is the largest private sector industry catering to the needs of two-thirds of the population. So, it is not just feeding the urban population or feeding the PDS. That is not the only reason why we should develop our agriculture.
Many countries like Holland, Israel etc have developed their agriculture with very little water, but have done it so well. They are very productive.
But our policies are very much influenced by urban needs. And economists are trained on Western thought.
Image: A farmer cultivates his land in Kasinagar village, some 80 km south of Kolkata. Photograph: Deshakalyan Chowdhury/AFP/Getty Images
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