Summary
In an Indian Express column, agricultural economist Ashok Gulati of ICRIER argues that India's farm sector has achieved food security but not income growth. Rice and wheat are in surplus, with buffer stocks more than four times the norm for rice, while India imports about 40 billion dollars of farm products a year, mostly edible oils and pulses.
He proposes redirecting the roughly Rs 40,000 per hectare in input subsidies that paddy receives in Punjab and Haryana into a reward of about Rs 35,000 per hectare for growing pulses and oilseeds, at no extra cost to the exchequer, starting in Haryana.
He also urges amending PM-KUSUM to scale agri-photovoltaics, which raised a pilot farmer's income eight to ten times in Rajasthan. Haryana's existing Mera Pani Meri Virasat scheme, which pays farmers to switch away from paddy, has seen slow uptake.
WHY IT MATTERS FOR UPSC & STATE PCS
An Indian Express column by ICRIER's Ashok Gulati, published on 12 October 2026, called for the next farm revolution to focus on raising farmers' incomes by realigning subsidies towards pulses and oilseeds and scaling agri-photovoltaics.
Standard News
INDIA IS PAYING FARMERS TO GROW THE CROP IT HAS TOO MUCH OF
India's farm policy has worked for one goal and is now working against another. Assured procurement and subsidised inputs made paddy and wheat the safest crops in Punjab and Haryana, which built the grain reserves behind India's food security.
But India now holds rice stocks more than four times the buffer norm, it plans to divert about 7.2 million tonnes of FCI rice into ethanol and it still imports about 40 billion dollars of farm products a year, mostly edible oils and pulses.
Meanwhile, as Ashok Gulati of ICRIER notes, Haryana's water table is falling by 1.7 feet a year.
The case for keeping assured paddy Farmers in Punjab and Haryana grow paddy for a simple reason: they know someone will buy it at a known price.
That certainty matters more to a small farmer than a higher price that might not materialise. The evidence is in Haryana itself. The Mera Pani Meri Virasat scheme offers Rs 7,000 per acre to switch from paddy and uptake has been sluggish because assured MSP procurement still pays better.
Pulses and oilseeds markets are more volatile and procurement for them is far weaker. Agri-photovoltaics, the other part of the proposal, can reduce yields for sun-hungry crops under the panels. Asking farmers to give up a guaranteed income for promises is asking them to carry the risk of national policy.
The case for redirecting the subsidy The counter-argument is that the current system already pays farmers heavily, just to do the wrong thing.
ICRIER research finds that paddy in the Punjab-Haryana belt receives input subsidies on power, fertiliser and canal water of almost Rs 40,000 per hectare. Gulati proposes giving pulses and oilseeds growers about Rs 35,000 per hectare instead, funded from the same subsidy, so the exchequer pays nothing extra.
That would cut imports, save groundwater and diversify farm incomes. Add agri-photovoltaics through an amended PM-KUSUM and farmers become producers of both food and power: an ICRIER pilot in Rajasthan raised one farmer's income eight to ten times.
Where this leaves us TAN's position is that the subsidy should be redirected, but only if the certainty moves with it.
Mera Pani Meri Virasat failed for an instructive reason: at roughly Rs 17,000 a hectare, its incentive is well under half of the subsidy advantage paddy already enjoys. A switch payment that small cannot compete with an assured market.
Gulati's Rs 35,000 per hectare is closer to the right scale, but money alone is not enough. Farmers who switch must have assured procurement or a reliable price guarantee for pulses and oilseeds for a defined transition period.
The Haryana pilot he proposes, shared equally by the Centre and the State, is the right test. What would change our view? If pilots showed farmers' incomes falling despite the payment or if procurement for pulses and oilseeds could not be guaranteed at scale, the case for moving faster would weaken.
Until then, continuing to subsidise a water-intensive surplus is the costlier choice.
Quick Facts
Key numbers & takeaways — revise these first
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Almost 60% of India's gross cropped area is irrigated.
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India is the world's largest exporter of rice and its second-largest producer after China.
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India exported about 53 billion dollars of agricultural products in 2025-26 and imported about 40 billion dollars, mainly edible oils and pulses.
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Average agricultural GDP growth from 2014-15 to 2025-26 was about 4% a year.
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The Ashok Dalwai Committee estimated that doubling farmers' real incomes would need agricultural growth of 10.4% a year.
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FCI's 1 October buffer norms are 10.25 million tonnes for rice and 20.52 million tonnes for wheat.
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About 7.2 million tonnes of FCI rice has been allocated for ethanol production in 2026-27.
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PM-KUSUM, under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, supports solar power for farmers through grid-connected plants, standalone solar pumps and solarisation of grid-connected pumps.
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Haryana's Mera Pani Meri Virasat scheme offers Rs 7,000 per acre to farmers who switch away from paddy.
Connect the dots for your UPSC preparation.
Standard news covers the event. Log in to read our comprehensive analysis and uncover the hidden constitutional, structural, and ethical dimensions of this topic:
The case for assured paddy procurement built at full strength, including why farmers rationally distrust switching schemes
A side-by-side comparison of Mera Pani Meri Virasat's incentive and the Rs 40,000 per hectare subsidy paddy already enjoys and why the gap explains slow uptake
How agri-photovoltaics under an amended PM-KUSUM could change farm incomes and the risks to yields that must be managed
A bounded TAN position on redirecting subsidies with assured procurement and the evidence that would change it
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