If the Congress government of P V Narasimha Rao will go down in history for launching economic reforms, the NDA government will be remembered for extending them to the agriculture sector.
However, like other liberalisation measures, the agricultural reforms, too, have not shown quick results in terms of production growth. This can be attributed largely to intermittent failures of the monsoon resulting in severe droughts in 2000 and 2002.
Foodgrain output clocked a negative annual growth of 7.16 per cent in 2000-01 and minus 14.43 per cent in 2002-03. However, it grew handsomely in good monsoon years -- by 8.85 per cent in 2001-02 and an anticipated double digit growth again in the current year.
The feel-good sentiment that is sought to be projected now is based largely on the current year's performance of agriculture and several recent pro-farmer moves like cheaper credit, liberal hikes in minimum support prices and continuation of subsidies.
The reform-oriented steps taken by the NDA government in the first couple of years of its rule included opening up of agriculture extension to the private sector through agri-clinics and freeing the multi-state cooperatives of the stranglehold of officialdom by amending the multi-state cooperative societies Act.
This period also saw major changes in the management of agricultural development programmes and devolution of more powers to the states for planning and implementation of the need-based projects.
Indeed, the process of agriculture reforms got into the top gear mainly after the present agriculture minister Rajnath Singh took over. The most significant initiatives are the reduction of interest rate on agricultural credit, promotion of the use of modern information and communication technology in the farm sector through measures like toll-free call centres, exclusive agricultural channels on TV and radio and encouraging new, market-friendly mode of agriculture -- contract farming.
A process has been initiated to reform agricultural marketing and persuade the states to amend their agricultural produce marketing Acts to allow greater role for the private sector.
Besides, a novel farmers' income insurance scheme has been launched on a pilot basis to hedge the farmers' risk of both crop yield and income fluctuation.
Significantly, some new concepts like land share companies and legalising land lease have been mooted though the states are yet to fully agree to implement them. Other major steps are lifting of curbs and controls and introduction of futures trading in almost all commodities.
This apart, some of the recent pre-budget announcements concerning reduction of interest rate on the food credit borrowed by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) from a consortium of banks and allowing the FCI to borrow money directly from the capital market are among the welcome measures aimed at fiscal reforms in this sector.
On the agricultural import-export front, the notable moves include lifting of quantitative restrictions, offering incentives for exports and setting up exclusive agro-processing and export zones.
On the other hand, there are still are several areas where the reforms are either inadequate or incomplete. Dilution of the draconian essential commodities Act is the most significant among them.
The reforms in the laws concerning packed and processed foods, too, have been talked about all the while but nothing concrete has yet been done on this front.