From subsistence to commercial farming
In our country, farming is generally done for subsistence purpose not for commercial purpose. Most of our farmers are small and marginal even landless labourers and share croppers. The average land area of a farmer in our country is 1.5 ha whereas it is 250 ha in other developed countries like USA. With the increasing population, average farm size is declining, which is the major hinderance for the development in agriculture sector because it is difficult for a resource poor marginal farmer to adopt new technology, farm machinery and power, irrigation or any other innovative farm practices. They can not take measures to increase the productivity and it is difficult for them to protect the crop from disease, pest or environmental hazards. In this context, direct benefit transfer schemes like KALIA and PM-KISAN could be effective in strengthening farmers’ socioeconomic status, if implemented properly. ...