Crisis in Indian Agriculture: Can It be Overcome?

The crisis in Indian agriculture, which has been building up for decades, is not one of declining profitability but of non-viability of the bulk of landholdings. The number of these holdings is fast increasing, and even the extent of non-viable land in the total cultivable area is expanding. Merely boosting the productivity of smallholdings is not sufficient, and their non-viability hinders capital formation in agriculture. The main reason behind the crisis is that employment opportunities in non-agricultural sectors are not growing fast enough.