Winning Bizness Desk

Mumbai. Indian farmers are getting 200 times less subsidy than developed countries like America. Despite this dark fact, there has been a recommendation to slash this subsidy. According to a report by SBI Research, there is a need to cut the subsidy of Indian farmers by 92 percent at this time. However, this recommendation has been made in accordance with the rules of the Agricultural Production and World Trade Organization (WTO) of 1987. The report said that this time India is chairing the Group of 20 countries and in such a situation, it has a golden opportunity to solve the long-pending issues on farmers' subsidies.

What report says ?

According to the report, every farmer in the US received a subsidy of $ 60,586 in 2016. In Britain, this amount was $ 6,762. $863 in China, $16,562 in Canada, $10,149 in Japan and $227 in India. However, based on the SBI report estimates in India in 2021, this has increased to $600, which is about two and a half times more than in 2016. Subsidies are an important matter for agriculture. In developed countries, farmers' products get a competitive advantage by getting more subsidies. The subsidy limits for developed and developing countries are between 5 and 10 per cent in proportion to their agricultural output.

India should cut subsidies by 31%

SBI Research believes that the reference to the World Trade Organization is out of date. It should now be prepared on the basis of G-33 proposals. Also the maximum and minimum value should be removed. As part of this proposed measure, the report said that India should cut subsidies by 31 per cent from current levels if we follow the WTO mandated targeted subsidies.

India is giving free ration to 80 crore

Interestingly, India's subsidies were much lower than the WTO mandated subsidies average during FY 2018 to 2020, prior to Covid. India is giving free ration to 80 crore Indians since the pandemic. This helped the economy a lot during the pandemic. India will chair the Group 20 (G-20) from December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2023. The G-20 group accounts for 85 percent of global GDP while it accounts for 75 per cent of international trade. It has two-thirds of the world's population.