Real estate is killing agriculture

Why read this story?

Editor's note: One of the oldest concerns around Indian agriculture is the relatively lower productivity of our farmlands. Given our large population that keeps on growing, the implications of low productivity on national food security are significant. There are many factors that impact productivity, but the ones that get attributed for it the most are our dependence on the monsoon, improper use of soil nutrients, small landholdings, low mechanization and lack of access to credit and new agri-technologies. There is a lot of buzz around solving these problems. This focus on mechanization and technology is reflected in the Union Budget for 2022-23, which mentions digital and high-tech services for farmers, kisan drones and machinery rentals, among other structural remedies for the agricultural system. Here, again, we are missing the woods for the trees. Well-intentioned as they are, these are cosmetic remedies that can’t tackle the more significant challenges of climate change, water availability and the underlying quality of the land itself. We have only just started acknowledging the impact of climate change, which will determine crop choices and farming practices in the …