vol tion o the ndian        onom         3.7
     better say by early 2000s. Three major reasons may                       sector, but there lacks a conducive
     be cited for this delay:                                                 atmosphere for it.
          (i) Agriculture being always open for the                     (vii) Right kind of ‘downstream and
               private sector, it was now difficult to go                     upstream requirements’ together
               for further privatisation for encouraging                      with a proper kind of ‘supply chain
               investments. The need was for ‘corporate’                      management’ is absent in the area of
               and ‘contract’ farming under the                               agri-goods.
               leadership of the corporate world.                      (viii) Expansion of the right kind
         (ii) Lack of awareness about the contours of                         of commodity trading in—agri
               the economic reforms among the farm                            commodities.
               community.                                                (ix) Strengthening the farm sector to
        (iii) The heavy dependency of population                              face the competition posed by the
               on agriculture for livelihood could not                        agricultural sector of the developed
               permit the government to go for the                            world, with regard subsidies and
               right kind of agricultural reforms at the                      prices, in wake of the globalising
               right time—first, the industrial sector                        world economy.
               (via manufacturing) needed expansion to                    (x) Making farming remunerative to
               lessen the population dependency on the                        check farm crisis of contemporary
               agriculture sector.                                            times.
          Any one sector in which the governments at                 Experts believe that for taking the right
     the Centre and states have been facing the biggest        policy steps in the sector there needs a high degree
     hurdles has been the farm sector. The major               of federal maturity in the country. Increased
     reform needs and the hurdles being faced may be           awareness among farmers together with the right
     summed up in the following points:                        government support to prevent farm distress will
                (i) A national agri-market is the need of      serve the purpose in a great way.
                    the hour, but there lacks a political will
                    among the majority of states to put           Planned and mixed economy
                    in place a right kind of Agricultural
                    Produce Market Committees.                 Independent India was declared to be a planned
                                                               and a mixed economy. India needed national
               (ii) The need of promoting corporate
                                                               planning, which was decided by the political
                    investment in the farm sector is
                                                               leadership almost a decade before Independence.14
                    hurdled by the lack of an effective and
                                                               India was not only facing regional disparities at the
                    transparent land acquisition law.
                                                               level of resources, but inter-regional disparities were
             (iii) Labour reforms needs fine-tuning to         also prevalent, since centuries. Mass poverty could
                    promote industrial farming, which          only be remedied once the government started
                    is hurdled by a long tradition of          the process of economic planning. Economic
                    complex kind of labour laws of the         planning was thus considered an established tool
                    country.                                   of doing away with such disparities.
              (iv) Farm mechanisation is hindered by                Basically, it was the abject poverty of the
                    the lack of investment in industries.      masses which made the government go for
              (vi) Research and development needs
                    huge investment from the private             14.   National Planning committee, GoI, N. Delhi, 1949.