India is reforming other bits of its economy, but not farming

NEARLY a quarter of a century after India launched its first big liberalising reforms in 1991, setting off a new spurt of growth, one area of the country’s economy remains hardly touched: farming. The prime minister, Narendra Modi, launched a 24-hour state-run TV channel for farmers in May, but has fostered no public debate about how to improve India’s dreadfully backward agriculture. This matters. About 600m Indians, or roughly half the population, depend upon growing crops or rearing animals to survive. Many farming practices, along with India’s agricultural markets, infrastructure, insurance and rules on leasing land, have barely changed in decades. Reform is long overdue............Read more

Source: The Economist