I am terribly disappointed by the finance minister. By his decision to give a waiver to the farmers and winning votes. It’s like feeding a beggar once without giving him a living.
From a Harvard scholar, I wanted to think of something more innovative. Something that would be long term. Something that would be a one time cost/ investment.
Just imagine. There are 80% people in India depending on farming for a living. That’s around 80 crore people. Why can’t the government offer them a long term solution.
I have a few solutions that might work.
Firstly, why doesn’t the government buy most of the land and convert these vast stretches of land into a public company. And employ farmers to produce and pay them a salary. If government an do that with airlines, banks, petroleum companies, then why not with agriculture? May be then there can be a lot more money invested on R&D and better practices.
Secondly, why don’t government let private players do that instead of the government directly? Like let the private companies float subsidiaries that would be funded by them which will sell farm products as the produce. If they can produce steel, if they can mine, if they can go for oil wells why not farming?
Lastly, why doesn’t government let the RBI conduct a IPO where the public holds the shares of the company that will hold and own the land for agriculture. The risks for the farmers would be zero and would protect them against the vagaries of the agriculture sector’s unpredictability.
With the food production going down in many countries why is India not playing the role of the world’s feeder in addition to the role of being the world’s backoffice? I think its more respectable, more profitable and would help the government earn the goodwill of the biggest vote bank in the country. And not to mention save our tax money from cheap thrills on part of every finance minister in the future.