As Budget 2024-25 aimed to lay the foundation of Viksit Bharat, agriculture and allied activities received heightened attention among the nine priority areas.

In this context, a few issues need to be addressed: What could be the thrust areas of agricultural research? And what should be the modalities of a review conducted at various levels of a federal structure?

For example, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) operates at the Centre, ICAR coordinating units and State State Agricultural Universities at the zonal and State levels, and Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) at the district level.

Given the budget constraints, the review should focus on competitive funding and chart priority research areas by revisiting a policy document on agricultural R&D policy in India – the funding, institutions, and impact (Pal, 2017).

First, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) should make a concerted effort with CGIAR institutions, donor agencies, multilateral development banks, and agribusiness corporations to perform a comprehensive review of the following areas: research planning and monitoring; impact assessment, and revenue from basic and strategic research; decentralisation relating to improved institutional efficiency and accountability; prospective planning and competitive funding for improving the relevance and efficiency of research projects and outcomes; research partnership through resource sharing and synergies; and efficiency, effectiveness, and equity of extension networks, such as the Agricultural Technology Management Agency, on-farm productivity, farmer income, and sustainability.

Revamp research system

Second, there is a need to revamp the National Agricultural Research System (NARS) by designing a comprehensive performance evaluation system and tenure track implementation for the career progression of ICAR and KVK scientists. To embrace these principles for the lab to land research, scientists must develop their capacity to conduct multi-disciplinary research in problematised areas.

The contingent effectiveness framework must be adopted in agricultural research systems to evaluate the prospect of technology transfer for commercialisation, called the “go to the market” strategy.

Third, farmers and land registry data curated by the Agri Stack project can help scientists revamp eco-regional planning-enabled cropping. So, planned funding to set up a digital technology-enabled agriculture research lab is critical to induce productivity and resilience in agriculture.

Fourth, the National Programme for Organic Production has been in place to promote organic agriculture through a voluntary certification or participatory guarantee system. However, compliance must be in place to ensure traceability and transparency of the organic agri supply chain.

Certification and branding might remain a lopsided issue until the All India Coordinated Research Projects commission adequate field trials and validate results to differentiate between organic and non-organic agri produce.

Budgetary allocation to agriculture and allied activities for 2024-25 is 10 per cent of the total budget. The total R&D expenditure in India as a percentage of GDP has been stagnant at 0.6-0.7 per cent for the last two decades. It is much lower than in the US (2.8 per cent), China (2.1 per cent) and Israel (4.2 per cent).

Agricultural R&D needs facilities and funds, while digital goods, organic agriculture and FPO promotion can only complement this effort.

Dey teaches at IIM Lucknow. Views are personal

Related Topics