In Shivraj Chouhan’s appointment as minister, how agriculture gets wealth of his Madhya Pradesh work experience

Under his watch, MP became India’s second largest producer of wheat (after Uttar Pradesh) and also supplier to government procurement agencies (after Punjab). The state is also the country’s leading producer of soyabean, chana (chickpea), tomato, garlic, ginger, dhaniya (coriander) and methi (fenugreek), besides No. 2 in onion (after Maharashtra), mustard (after Rajasthan) and maize (after Karnataka).

During the last 10 years from 2014-15 to 2023-24, MP’s annual agricultural growth has averaged 6.5 per cent, as against the corresponding all-India average of 3.7 per cent for this period when the Modi government has been in power at the Centre.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chairs his first Cabinet meeting at the start of his third term in New Delhi, Monday. (ANI)

The Union Agriculture Ministry, during the first two terms of the Modi government, had relatively low-profile persons at the helm: Radha Mohan Singh, Narendra Singh Tomar and Arjun Munda. This was in contrast to the previous UPA dispensation, which had Sharad Pawar as the Agriculture Minister. In the past too, the agriculture portfolio was held by powerful men – from C. Subramaniam and Jagjivan Ram to Rao Birender Singh, Chaudhary Devi Lal and Balram Jakhar.

Chouhan’s taking charge is expected to raise the policy profile of the sector, which accounts for nearly 18 per cent of India’s gross value added at current prices and 46 per cent of its employed labour force.

Indian agriculture is facing challenges from climate change, falling public investment in research, extension and irrigation, and diminishing private sector interest due to a return of controls, whether on pricing of inputs (fertilisers and seeds), technology (especially release of biotech crops) or exports and stocking limits.

The sector not having a “champion minister” — like a Nitin Gadkari in Road Transport and Highways or Piyush Goyal for Commerce and Industry —has also put the farm reform laws, which the Modi government pushed in its second term without forging a political consensus, on the backburner.

President Droupadi Murmu hosted a banquet at Rashtrapati Bhavan in honour of the leaders of neighbouring countries attending the swearing-in-ceremony of the Prime Minister of India. (Express Photo)

MP’s agriculture transformation under Chouhan’s stewardship — drawing comparisons with what Partap Singh Kairon accomplished in post-Independence Punjab — was largely brought about by a doubling of irrigation coverage to over 80 per cent between 2004-05 and 2021-22. Improved access to irrigation enabled farmers to grow more than one crop a year: MP’s cropping intensity of 1.9 is today almost as high as Punjab’s and way above the all-India figure of 1.55.

Along with investments in irrigation, through provision of new tubewell power connections and building/repairing of canals, Chouhan’s government also focused on creating infrastructure for marketing of agricultural produce. Government procurement centres were set up even outside the primary APMC (agricultural produce market committee) yards — in sub-mandis, societies and warehouses closer to villages.

It remains to be seen whether, and to what extent, Chouhan can replicate the success he achieved in MP as Chief Minister to the rest of India, now as Union Agriculture Minister.