Crisis in Indian agriculture: can it be overcome?

The crisis in Indian agriculture, which has been building up for decades, is not one of declining profitability, but a more basic one of the bulk of its holdings being non-viable. Not only the number of these holdings, but even the extent of non-viable land in the total area is fast increasing and will dominate agriculture unless the trend is reversed. Merely increasing the productivity of small holdings has not helped much. Non-viability comes in the way of capital formation in agriculture and its dynamic growth. The main culprit behind this situation is that employment opportunities in non-agricultural sectors are not growing fast enough. In an international perspective, Indian situation is among the worst. It needs urgent attention. A number of steps are suggested.