IDFC’s jaundiced Rural Development Report

One would have thought that the Second Green Revolution was science-based agriculture done for commercial profit not subsistence, with companies motivated by self interest tapping the enterprise of farmers, supplying them high quality inputs, providing agronomic advice through the farming cycle and assuring purchase of produce. But this is what the report has to say about contract farming: "except for Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and AP, where private firms work with small farmers for crops that require careful cultivation, most private firms work with large and medium farmers. Most projects are also in agriculturally developed states and not in eastern and north-eastern state that have a large number of small and marginal farms. Contract farming often occurs without enforceable agreements. Buyers routinely procure only a limited portion of growers’ crop without a firm commitment and without sharing the risk. Farmers thus receive no benefits of contract farming, such as assured markets and prices and access to support services."