Give a man fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. - Chinese Proverb.

Give a man fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. - Chinese Proverb.

Yet, we insist on giving our farmers fish in the shape of loan waivers.

We ignore the underlying problems. We think by giving him fish today, we will be able to feed him and he won't be under any stress any longer.

What are the underlying problems?

Right Price.
Any business, including farming has to make profits. Profits are generally calculated as sale price - cost price.
In our country, we have the essential commodities act under fall many of the things that the farmer produces. These commodities are price controlled and the government fixes a minimum support price. The farmer produces crops keeping these prices in mind but because of wild fluctuations of weather, there is either a bumper crop or a complete wash out. Under both circumstances the farmer suffers. In case of bumper crops the farmer is unable to sell his produce at the MSP as the government does not procure 100% of the produce on offer. In case of crop failure, he has nothing to sell.

The solution to this lies in government procuring all the produce at the MSP or at least ensuring that even private purchase happens at this price.

Vagaries of weather.
Seventy years after independence, the farmers are still suffering the vagaries of weather. Government investment in irrigation projects have failed to yield constant and reliable water supply.

Poor supply of electricity.
Rural areas still remain affected by unreliable power supply forcing them to use expensive diesel to run their water pumps. This leads to higher production costs.

Land Ceiling Act.
Although urban land ceiling act has been abolished, rural land ceiling act remains, Over years the land holdings have shrunk and thus farming has become non remunerative as land parcels are too small. The farmer can neither sell his land or buy land to increase his land holding size.

Poor information network.
Government is unable to provide timely and right information to the farmers as to what to grow and how to grow.

APMC's
These markets that were supposed to aid the farmers have become dens for exploitation of the farmer with the middlemen walking away with most of the profits.

GST
Government has imposed GST on many things used by farmers in inputs, this has also led to increase in their production costs and shrinking of their profits.

These are the issues that require addressing.
Is it thus any wonder that despite of governments giving farm loan waivers, the number of farmer suicides across the length and breadth of the country keep increasing with every passing day.

But loan waiver is a low hanging fruit that the government plucks all the time.