Rice is cultivated in a huge area in India with huge amount of water consumption, but it is remunerative crop only in a few pockets. As a result it has great impact on farmers income. Similar is the situation of neighboring Asian countries. To make it profitable crop its selling price should be doubled of what is present today, area may be reduced and productivity increased. However looking to the poverty of the Asian countries and malnourished people living, there is need to re-look into the rice cultivation by developing a policy document.
Economics is not my forte, but if you want to increase the farmers' income (in a market-based economy at least), you either need to increase demand or reduce supply to increase prices, OR reduce input costs so that profits can increase.
- To that end: halve the number of farmers, who then work the same area of farmland. That would upset a great many farmers who would then have no income (or food). And probably over-work the remaining farmers as well.
- OR: Double the price of rice leaving the farm gate. However, that would inconvenience even more people who could get very upset and very hungry, and possibly also raise questions of cartel-like behaviour with pricing authorities.
- OR: Reduce the production of rice, thus increasing demand among the population who would be forced to pay extra for a basic commodity. Also not very ethical or good for those who are already at subsistence levels of food intake.
- OR: reduce input costs such that the same amount of crop can be produced for less monetary expenditure, so that the farmers' profit is increased.
There are plenty of researchers working to produce greater crop yields from the same amount of input (fertiliser etc). I can't see any huge breakthroughs cutting costs, only incremental changes. Yearly events (good rains, droughts, disease, etc) might affect the production, but these are only interruptions to the long-term trends.
Perhaps there is a bigger problem with population-level food demands that over-ride simple economic demand and supply concepts. I'm interested to know what others might have to say on the topic.
EDIT: Value-adding by de-husking the rice might be one way of increasing the value of the product before it leaves the farm, but may not be a viable option for smallholders. Cooperatives may be one way of increasing access, but may be difficult to implement against established bulk handling processors.
The rice farming processes reduce the labor problems and cost and farmer can get more benefit with the help of it. In India, The farmers of some rural areas, they have used the buffalos for land preparation, plantation and harvesting of rice farming. Rice farming can be done in Rabi and Kharif seasons
Approaches for Doubling Farm Income
1) Technology
2) Infrastructure and Institutions
3) Government policies
Infrastructure & Institutions
i. Development of market & storage.
ii. Development of food processing industries including cold chains.
iii. Establishment of special economic zones for export of agricultural commodities.
iv. Development of quick relief mechanism during natural calamities.
v. Implement model APMC Act, 2003 and Swaminathan Committee 2010 recommendations.
Govt. Policy
i. Remunerative price to farmers.
ii. Amendment of land leasing laws.
iii. Creation of non-farm employment opportunities in rural areas.
iv. Mechanism for timely delivery of inputs including disbursement of credit.
v. More investment fund for agriculture.
It is easy to say to double the farmer's income? In my opinion, it is not possible. The way to increase little production and they will get more price (almost double) of their products, then only it can be.
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