Policy Dimensions for Sustainable Agriculture and Farmer Welfare in India

India is home to over 100 million farm families, yet the policies designed to protect their livelihoods remain a patchwork of ambitious goals and incomplete action. From the landmark National Policy for Farmers (2007) to the ongoing struggles with globalization, land access, and rural exodus, the policy dimensions of sustainable agriculture in India tell a story of both vision and delay. Let’s break down the key policy frameworks, their promises, and the gaps that still need filling.

The national policy for farmers: a shift in focus 🔗

For decades, Indian agricultural policy revolved around increasing crop production – how many tonnes of wheat or rice could the country grow? The National Commission on Farmers (NCF), chaired by Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, changed that conversation. Set up in 2004, the Commission submitted five reports between December 2004 and October 2006, ultimately laying the groundwork for the National Policy for Farmers, 2007.

The most significant departure from past policy was simple but powerful: measure agricultural progress by the income of farm families, not just the quantity of commodities produced. The policy broadened the definition of “farmer” beyond just landowners to include landless labourers, sharecroppers, tenant farmers, fisherfolk, livestock rearers, pastoralists, and even those engaged in sericulture and beekeeping. This inclusive definition was essential because millions of people contributing to agriculture were invisible to earlier policy frameworks.

Key pillars of the policy 🔗

The National Policy for Farmers, 2007, rests on several interconnected goals. Asset reforms aim to ensure every rural man and woman has access to a productive asset – whether land, livestock, a fishpond, or a marketable skill. Bio-security provisions call for a coordinated national system to protect crops, animals, and forests from biological threats, thereby safeguarding both livelihoods and food security. The policy also introduces measures like Soil Health Passbooks for every farm family, farm schools for peer-to-peer learning, and Gyan Chaupals (village knowledge centres) to bring information and communication technology to the grassroots.

Gender equity is woven throughout the policy. It acknowledges that women perform a large share of agricultural labour, and calls for support services – crèches, child care centres, and better nutrition – to address the practical challenges women face. The policy also recommends issuing Kisan Credit Cards to women farmers, using joint land titles as collateral. A National Network of Women Scientists was proposed to conduct long-term studies of women’s roles in agriculture across different regions.

Social security and risk management 🔗

Recognizing that farming is one of the most risk-prone occupations, the policy calls for a comprehensive national social security scheme for farmers. This includes insurance for illness and old age, effective implementation of Minimum Support Prices (MSP) across the country, and the creation of community food grain banks. Credit counselling centres are envisioned to help debt-trapped farmers find a way out, and crop insurance is to be expanded with the village – not the block – as the assessment unit, making payouts more accurate and timely.

Globalization and its challenges for Indian farmers 🔗

The 1990s brought economic liberalization to India, but the agricultural sector was not equipped with a dedicated reform package. The assumption was that liberalizing industrial trade would indirectly benefit farmers through better exchange rates and improved terms of trade. That assumption proved optimistic at best.

The subsidy imbalance 🔗

One of the sharpest challenges Indian farmers face in a globalized economy is the subsidy gap between developed and developing nations. According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), India’s total agricultural subsidies represented about 8.11% of its agricultural production value in 2018. While that percentage is comparable to countries like the United States (7.05%) or Japan (9.7%), the picture changes drastically when you compare per-farmer support. India has hundreds of millions of farmers; developed nations have far fewer. The per-farmer subsidy in developed countries dwarfs what Indian farmers receive.

This disparity has real consequences. Heavily subsidized agricultural exports from developed nations can undercut prices in global markets, making it difficult for Indian farmers to compete. For instance, U.S. cotton subsidies have historically depressed global cotton prices, directly hurting cotton growers in India and Africa. Free trade agreements (FTAs), including India’s deal with Southeast Asian countries, have already led to a surge in agricultural imports that far exceeds exports, negatively affecting rural livelihoods.

WTO pressures and India’s response 🔗

At the World Trade Organization (WTO), India faces ongoing pressure to reduce domestic support measures like MSP, which the WTO classifies as trade-distorting. For a country where farming sustains hundreds of millions of people, these rules create a tense balancing act. India secured a temporary “peace clause” in 2014 that shields its food security subsidies from legal challenge – but a permanent solution has not been reached. The National Policy for Farmers explicitly advocates for fair trade practices and calls on the Indian government to protect small farmers from sudden import surges and volatile global prices.

Production by masses, not mass production 🔗

This phrase, often attributed to the Swaminathan Commission’s philosophy, captures a fundamental reality about Indian agriculture. Unlike countries such as the United States, Australia, or Brazil, where farming is dominated by large mechanized operations, India’s agricultural sector is built on small and marginal holdings. According to data cited across multiple government and academic sources, small and marginal producers make up 85% of India’s agricultural sector.

The risk of “jobless growth” 🔗

Industrialized farming models may deliver high output, but they employ very few people relative to the land and capital they use. India cannot afford to replicate that model. Agriculture provides employment to more than 40% of the country’s workforce. A shift to large-scale, technology-heavy farming without alternative employment opportunities would displace tens of millions, accelerating rural-to-urban migration and deepening inequality. The phenomenon of “jobless growth” – where economic output rises but employment does not – is already a reality in parts of the Indian economy.

Value addition and retaining youth 🔗

The National Policy for Farmers proposes a different path: instead of scaling up farm size, scale up the value of what small farms produce. This means investing in agro-processing, food storage, and local supply chains so that farmers capture more of the final product’s value. The policy also calls for measures to attract and retain educated youth in farming – through low-interest loans, allotment of wasteland for agri-clinics, and outsourcing hubs. Group farming through self-help groups, farmers’ companies, and cooperative models are seen as ways to give small producers the advantages of scale without displacing them.

The idea is straightforward: if millions of people are going to farm, then policy should make that farming more profitable, more sustainable, and more dignified – rather than pushing people off the land and hoping the industrial sector will absorb them (which, as decades of evidence show, it has not).

The unfinished reform agenda 🔗

Perhaps the most sobering aspect of India’s agricultural policy landscape is how much remains undone. The NCF itself identified the unfinished agenda of land reform as a primary cause of agrarian distress. Two decades later, that assessment still holds.

Land reforms: the persistent gap 🔗

India’s land reform story is one of ambitious legislation and weak implementation. After independence, the government abolished the zamindari (landlord) system, bringing about 20 million tenants into direct contact with the state. But subsequent reforms – land ceiling laws, redistribution of surplus land, tenancy protections – were unevenly enforced across states. Landowners exploited loopholes through benami (proxy) transactions and delayed compliance. As a result, in 1991-92, the bottom 50% of rural households owned just 3% of the land, while the top 10% controlled 54%.

Today, tenancy remains illegal in many Indian states, which paradoxically prevents landless farmers from legally leasing cultivable land. The NCF recommended legalizing and regulating tenancy to enable long-term leasing arrangements, but progress has been slow. Accurate, digitized land records – a basic prerequisite for any meaningful reform – are still absent in many regions.

Aquarian reforms and water access 🔗

Water is inseparable from agriculture, yet India’s water governance remains fragmented. Around 60% of the country’s gross cropped area depends on rainfall, making millions of farmers vulnerable to monsoon variability. The NCF recommended a comprehensive water reform agenda that includes mandatory rainwater harvesting, aquifer recharge programmes, and a shift towards measuring income per unit of water rather than just yield. Despite these recommendations, implementation has lagged behind, and groundwater depletion continues to threaten farming communities across western and central India.

Social security: still a promise 🔗

The 2007 policy called for covering all farmers under a comprehensive social security scheme. While subsequent government programmes – such as PM-Kisan (which provides cash transfers to farmers) and the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (crop insurance) – have made some headway, a unified, comprehensive safety net for all categories of farmers, including the landless and tenant farmers, remains unrealized. The NCF had specifically flagged farmer suicides as a crisis, recommending that the National Rural Health Mission be extended to suicide hotspot locations on a priority basis. With farmer suicides persisting as a grim reality, this remains an urgent unmet need.

Where policy meets practice 🔗

India’s agricultural policy frameworks are, on paper, among the most comprehensive in the developing world. The National Policy for Farmers addresses income, equity, ecology, biosecurity, gender, and social protection in a single integrated vision. The challenge is not a shortage of ideas but a persistent gap between policy design and ground-level delivery. Political will, institutional capacity, and coordination across central and state governments all play a role in this gap.

The shift from viewing farmers merely as producers to viewing them as citizens with rights to income security, natural resource access, and social protection is a meaningful one. But the real test lies in translating that vision into funded, monitored, and enforceable programmes that reach the 85% of farm households who are small and marginal.

What do you think? Can India’s small-farm model become a sustainable alternative to industrialized agriculture if the right policy support is delivered – or will the pressure of globalization inevitably push farming towards consolidation? And what would it take for land and water reforms to finally move from policy documents to the fields where they are needed most?

References

1. https://prsindia.org/policy/report-summaries/swaminathan-report-national-commission-farmers
2. https://www.pib.gov.in/newsite/erelcontent.aspx?relid=33200
3. https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/serving-farmers-and-saving-farming-jai-kisan-revised-draft-national-policy-for-farmers/
4. https://www.iisd.org/articles/policy-analysis/agricultural-subsidies-india
5. https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/minist_e/mc13_e/ngo_position_papers_e/balancing_agricultural_subsidies.pdf
6. https://tci.cornell.edu/?blog=a-full-circle-unfinished-agenda-of-institutional-reforms-in-indian-agriculture
7. https://www.businesstoday.in/opinion/columns/story/indian-economy-the-unifinished-agenda-of-land-reforms-nobody-talks-about-landless-agricultural-labour-281494-2020-12-14
8. https://www.fao.org/4/y5026e/y5026e0b.htm