Come what may, India will remain an agricultural country for quite some time to come. Despite urbanisation and the growth of industry and services, agriculture remains the largest provider of wherewithal to a big chunk of the population. Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood to 58 per cent of the Indian population.

The COVID-19 lockdown reminded us of this fact: agriculture was the sector that kept the wheels of the economy moving. Yet, we have largely neglected farmers in India’s growth story. They have borne the brunt of the sacrifices that a changing economic structure demands from the market participants. If it were not for the pandemic, the farmers and their issues might have continued to remain a matter of academic interest.

Just think about it. We still haven’t been able to create the cold storage chains and logistics required by a sector on which 58 per cent of the population depends. The result: 20 per cent of farm produce goes waste, and farmers continue to be at the mercy of market fluctuations.

Neither do the farmers have access to crop data to plan like their counterparts in the developed world. Though baby steps are being taken towards this, farmers at large are still clueless. Their crop planning remains primordial at best and they play safe by choosing crops on which the government offers minimum support prices.

The argument is not against the mechanism of minimum support prices, but more a lament about the fact that farmers cannot tap market information. While the poor infrastructure forces farmers to dump produce when demand falls short of supply, they cannot even choose a crop properly because they do not access market intelligence.

Putting such things right would go a long way in empowering our farmers. With the 58 per cent economically empowered, the nation wouldn’t have to struggle so much with basic issues. An empowered farming community would help all of us and push industry towards the growth we aspire to reach.