Crisis in the Agrarian Sector and its Impact on India's Economy and Politics

The state of agriculture in India is rather precarious. The viability of agriculture and the livelihoods it sustains stands to be called into question due to new technologies and commitment to international agreements like in the WTO. Natural disasters and the inadequacy of the government to mitigate this is a huge problem. Due to which today several India states have witnessed widespread agrarian protests. In the present scenario, successive regimes have tried to revive the sector by pumping in money through Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) and loan waivers. But the net result is that the agriculture sector’s contribution to the country’s GDP continues to decline and a large mass of farmers face an uncertain future.

In light of this, going forward, the roundtable discussion on “Crisis in the Agrarian Sector and its Impact on India’s Economy and Politics” held on August 11th, 2018, in New Delhi deliberated on what solutions can be adopted to secure livelihoods and increase productivity at the same time. The discussion was co-organised by FES India, Hardnews Magazine and Seeking Modern Applications for Real Transformation (SMART).

Around 20 experts and practitioners from various sectors representing media, industry, NGOs, university, Forum for Women Farmers' Rights, etc. gathered together in New Delhi to start a discourse over the issue of the viability of agriculture due to reasons of technology and commitment to international agreements for an economy of tomorrow.

More photos on our Facebook post

More videos on our Facebook post