Panjab’s Agriculture Policy 2023 Proposes Reforms Amid Funding Concerns

The Punjab Agriculture Policy 2023 proposes bold measures to address the state’s agrarian crisis, including promoting crop diversification, offering a legal guarantee for the Minimum Support Price, introducing one-time debt settlements, providing pension plans for small farmers and farm workers, need for agro-processing of crops, crops according to Natural Growth Areas and natural farming. However, concerns remain about implementation and funding. While the policy suggests special debt waivers, registering money lenders, and instituting crop insurance, the challenge lies in execution, as similar proposals from past committees have failed to materialize. The policy records farmer suicide data up to 2018, addresses institutional debt of $8.8B, and suggests reform of the arthiya (commission agent) structure. Arthiyas are the biggest non-institutional loan givers. Experts point out the lack of immediate measures to address the heavy burden of free power subsidies, estimated at $970M to $1.09B annually. Meanwhile, the Union govt. has discontinued private sector participation in grain procurement under the Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA) scheme after the Union Cabinet approved restructuring of the program. Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced that the Private Procurement and Stockist Scheme has been scrapped due to low private sector interest, with companies finding the 15% cap on remuneration insufficient. At the same time, the govt. of India is promoting nano DAP, a liquid form of DiAmmonium Phosphate, as a cost-effective alternative to conventional granular DAP, especially for Panjab’s Rabi (winter) season. Panjab requires roughly 550K tonnes of DAP annually, with 480K tonnes needed during the Rabi season for crops like wheat and potatoes (SDW Vol. 2 Issue 31, Story 2).