Answer:

The current scenario in Indian agriculture is that wheat and rice, the two main cereals, are grown on the most fertile and irrigated areas of the country. Green revolution was focused around these cereals which made the country self-sufficient in food production. However this also meant diversion of land from crops like pulses and coarse grains to water guzzling crops like paddy. It also led to growing regional disparities between the original Green Revolution States (Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh) as compared to the eastern states of the country.

The successive monoculture has also led to increased dependence on fertilizers for maintaining soil fertility and sustained outputs. Input intensive agriculture has brought down the profit margins for farmers, especially the marginal ones.

Not only these cereals highly input intensive, they also use a large part of the resources that the government channels to agriculture, be it water, fertilizer, power, credit or procurement under the MSP program. It has created a vicious cycle, where increasing input costs lead to further demand of increase in MSP and increases of MSP has led to these crops being grown in unsuitable regions leading to rise in input costs.While the government announces MSP for 23 crops, effective MSP-linked procurement occurs mainly for wheat, rice and cotton. The MSP policy needs to encourage other crops, like pulses, through a Rainbow Revolution on the lines of the Green Revolution.

The government of India has taken several initiatives to promote diversification of agriculture, remove regional bias and reduce input intensity. These include:

♤ Promotion of cultivation of pulses and coarse cereals under National Food Security Mission (NFSM) and oilseeds under National Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm (NMOOP)

♤ Crop Diversification Programme in Original Green Revolution States as a sub scheme of Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) since 2013-14 to divert the area of water guzzling paddy to alternate crops like pulses, oilseeds, maize, cotton and agro forestry system. The programme has been extended to tobacco growing states to encourage tobacco growing farmers to shift to alternate crops/cropping system

♤ Technology Mission for the Integrated Development of Horticulture in the Northeastern Region. This will ameliorate the regional bias.

♤ National Agriculture Insurance Scheme. The scheme will cover food crops and oilseeds and annual commercial and horticulture crops, and thus promote other crops.