Marginal farmer may have to depend on non-farm income

Endowed with the mighty responsibility of controlling prices, RBI has recognised stagnation in agricultural output as a major source of inflation. Seeing increasing agricultural output as the only way to ease the situation, it has rehashed in its Annual Report 2006-07 what the government and experts have been recommending for agricultural growth for the past 60 years, but are far from achieving. Among a host of other recommendations with a view of achieving 4 per cent growth in agriculture, as per the 11th plan target, it calls for a revolution in poultry, dairy, horticulture and fisheries production along the lines of the green revolution. It reveals that small and marginal farmers might have to depend upon non-farm sources of income in the future, and recommends thrust on food-processing and other rural industries will be critical in betterment of living standards in rural areas. This implies that farming might become unsustainable for small and marginal farmers in future.