Should India reduce food and fertilizer subsidies to develop rural India ?

[manish.pawar]

End Subsidies to develop Rural India

India should End all the Subsidies specially on the FERTILIZERS because this subsidies has encouraged the Indian farmer to use more fertilizer in their field which has caused the lost of productivity of the land in long run and pollution of the ground water (clearly manifested symptoms in Punjab after the green revolution) , these pollution in ground water is affecting the human beings too. Therefore India should remove all the subsidies on the chemical fertilizer and encourage farmers of India to use more organic fertilizers.

The purpose of subsidies in India was to provide affordable resources equal to all Indians. However, over time, the subsidies have been misused by mainly those who do not need them. Hence, I have three proposals:

1. Eliminate all subsidies in their current form completely (stop 'saving' the poor)

2. Establish fair pricing for the goods and services offered by the poor (start 'helping' the poor)

a. Establish electronic marketplaces to eliminate the middle men (these do not add any value to the economy except for inducing more corruption)
b. Educate the masses on how-to use these marketplaces (simple, visual, easy to remember training)

3. Provide micro-loans to cover the costs incurred by the poor to create the goods and services ('enable' the poor so that they can stand on their own)

a. Allow private banks to setup micro-loan facilities
b. Establish regulations to ensure that these micro-loans do not end up like the ones in Andhra Pradesh
c. Establish performance criteria for these facilities to stay in business (e.g. % of non-performing loans must be less than 1% of total loans)

The money saved by eliminating subsidies should be redirected to points 2 and 3, either as direct investment by government or as incentives for private sector to develop the infrastructure.

Should India reduce fertilizer and Food subsidies to provide more resources for rural development and infrastructure? If so, how?

 

[R2India]

yes obviously this would give a boost to the poor farmers who most undergo loss for their cultivation. farmers use fertilizers at very high prices and if good subsidies are allotted to them, they would be happy to cultivate more and more crops and hence there would be net increase in productivity.

 

[Greatindia]

It would greatly help the indian farmers if indian government takes the step of reducing the subsidies because if government reduces the prices of fertilizers, farmers rely on fertilizers for better production which inturn is not healthy for the consumers. And moreover govt. can save that money and utilize it to provide better technology for harvesting instead of providing fertilizers.