Factors Behind Unfavorable Outcomes For Farmers: Evidence From India

Agriculture is India’s backbone. The sector employs 44% of the total Indian workforce and contributes 15-18% of the GDP. However, output is inefficient, and farmers are struggling. This empirical paper identifies the factors contributing to pitfalls in rural Indian agriculture, investigates the comparative significance of each factor, and evaluates how each of them differently impacts rich and poor farmers. This research is a qualitative study, where 12 farmers from 2 regions within the state of Madhya Pradesh were interviewed using an identical questionnaire. A standard code was created to categorize and analyze their responses. The study finds that land fragmentation and price volatility were the most significant issues for poor farmers and that low mechanization and capital usage is a universal problem across all farmers contributing to low efficiency. Economies of scale is the key differentiating factor between rich and poor farmers. Further, while the government has introduced schemes to address the aforementioned issues, the participation rate within them is inconsistent between regions, and the schemes suffer from inconsistent and untimely provision of benefits that ultimately restrain their potential.