Published on: 19th March, 2022 | Duration: 1 hours, 34 mins, 29 seconds.

India’s agricultural growth was historically dependent on the investments made by the public sector. Research conducted by the Foundation for Agrarian Studies shows that the public expenditure on agriculture has continued to decline considerably in the past decade (2010-11 to 2019-20). How do we make sense of this situation? Which are the areas that have suffered the most under expenditure cuts? What are the implications of this pattern for the future?

To deliberate further on these questions, the Foundation organised a virtual panel with R. Ramakumar, Professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Vijoo Krishnan, Joint Secretary, All India Kisan Sabha, and S. Niyati, Associate Scientist, International Rice Research Institute. The research project on public spending patterns in Indian agriculture by the Foundation was supported by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung and led by Professor Ramakumar with Raya Das, Research Scholar, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Abhinav Surya, Research Scholar, Centre for Development Studies as co-investigators. For the panel, Raya and Abhinav presented the research report highlighting some key findings.

The panelists spoke on different aspects related to public spending on agriculture, such as the importance of the investments and the current political economy context, and the impact on farming population especially smallholders and women farmers and workers.