Centrum Report: Doubling Farmers’ Income Requires Fresh Thinking

Rising food inflation is a source of concern, and the government's reduction in grain purchases in May is a major source of anxiety for farmers, according to Centrum Broking research.

The larger concern, however, is neglecting falling farmers' income and programs motivating them to produce more in order to prevent a situation in which India needs to import food grains from outside, as witnessed previously in 2007 and 2016.

"Only when impoverished people have more money to spend will the FMCG business see great development. When this occurs, the demand skyrockets, and the company's economics no longer require any sort of boost "Centrum made the statement following conversations with Devinder Sharma, a professional agriculture scientist.

Despite government attempts such as fertilizer subsidies, determining minimum support prices (MSPs) for crops (reviewing before each season), and ENam procurement perks, farmers in the nation are in big hardship.

Sharma made a few proposals, including a greater emphasis on agricultural mechanization, price certainty to improve productivity, and guaranteed income in the hands of farmers, which may help the economy as a whole.

"The country's supply chain is pushed by output. Several firms are working in the right spirit to provide agricultural education and monitoring to farmers. 

The attitude shift must be implemented on the secondary side of the supply chain, where the market must be pushed to become more demand-driven "Agrigator, an agricultural supply chain platform, co-founded by Udit Sangwan.

"This will bridge the information gap and provide improved visibility into consumer expectations, resulting in better crop planning at the farmer's end and, as a consequence, higher returns."