Solutions to Increase Agricultural Productivity

Following prioritized list of recommendations will improve agricultural productivity:

1. Make catastrophe insurance including drought insurance available to all farmers thereby setting a floor in case of disasters.
2. Make price hedging mechanism available to all farmers to prevent losses due to volatile commodity markets
3. Improve price realization to the farmer by eliminating the 10 fold profit availed by the middle men. Reliance Retail and Bharti Walmart have established direct linkages with farmers.
4. Shift focus to high yield ‘cash’ crops where the soil and weather will support such higher profit products.
5. Improve logistics and build out cold storages to prevent spoilage. Container Corporation has established a cold storage subsidiary to further capitalize on its’ extensive container rail network. Blue Star is the leader in cold storage solutions.
6. Improve seed quality including introducing genetically modified seeds if necessary on a case by case basis. Monsanto, Syngenta and Advanta are major listed companies.
7. Increase adoption of micro-irrigation. Jain Irrigation is the leader in micro-irrigation technology.
8. Increase adoption of modern farming implements like tractors etc. Mahindra and Mahindra is the leader in tractors having purchased Punjab Tractors.
9. Foster farm cooperatives as an alternative to contract farming to capitalize on economics of scale