Question

What are the reasons for and against treating agriculture differently from a legal and policy standpoint? (

Answer 1

Agriculture is a sector which is the backbone for any nation , as it provides for the basic need to survive, food. Although the need is maximum for food consumption , but the value for it is low. This is a case of dimond -water paradox. Agriculture is also most vulnerable to natural instabilities hence the output is unpredictable. The input to labour is high while the output is mostly not as optimistic and high. Although some nations have agriculture land distributed among a small group, the profits are high, but for developing nations where agriculture is the primary source of income for majority population , there is disguised unemployment , and land takes on burden of more people than it can actually sustain .

Argument in favour of keeping agriculture differently from legal and policy stand point include the vulnerability this area suffers in order to production risk and high labour demanded and it being not a profitable profession in general. Hence some relaxation and some additional policy inputs like subsidies and tax relaxations must be added to overcome the vulnerabilities.

Although argument against keeping it different from legal and policy standpoint is the excessive burdern which govt faces and is compensated from other departments like industry and service sector. For countries which makes the maximum profit from agriculture and has high demand gets add on benefits which can be avoided and used towards growth and development instead.

These are some arguments in favour and against , should the agricultural sector be treated differently from a legal and policy standpoint.