Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T05:59:23.023Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

International Posturing amidst Domestic Neglect: India's Agricultural Policy Examined

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2018

PRIYANSHU GUPTA  and
R. RAJESH BABU
PRIYANSHU GUPTA*
Affiliation:
Indian Institute of Management Calcutta
R. RAJESH BABU*
Affiliation:
Indian Institute of Management Calcutta
*
*Email: [email protected].
**Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

India has actively tried to shape the WTO agricultural negotiations by submitting detailed proposals, building coalitions, and even taking hard stands (veto) at critical junctures. However, this aggressive posturing presents a sharp contrast with India's domestic agricultural space, where the situation highlights policy neglect, manifesting in agrarian distress and farmer suicides. This paper analyzes contradictions between India's internationally espoused negotiating positions and its domestic policy goals. It argues that India's core focus has been to preserve status quo in the domestic food markets, driven by the political need to provide food-based consumption subsidies and manage an assured price and supply protection to its vulnerable consumers. As a result, India's interests are divergent from most of its developing country coalition partners in the G-20 as well as the G-33 groups. Our discussion has significant implications for both the domestic policy, as well as the sustainability of India's strategy in global agricultural trade negotiations.

Type
Review Article
Information
World Trade Review , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , July 2019 , pp. 399 - 429
Copyright
Copyright © Priyanshu Gupta And R. Rajesh Babu 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The authors would like to thank Ms. Sophia Murphy of Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), University of British Columbia and Prof. Rajesh Bhattacharya and Prof. Manish Thakur of IIM Calcutta for their valuable comments on earlier versions. We also thank the editor and two unnamed referees for providing extensive feedback and help in refining this paper.

References

Aggarwal, R. (2005), ‘Dynamics of Agriculture Negotiations in the World Trade Organization’, Journal of World Trade, 39(4): 741–761.Google Scholar
Agricultural Census (2017), ‘Agriculture Census India’, National Informatics Centre, Department of Agriculture and Co-operation, Agricultural Census Division.Google Scholar
Anderson, K. (2016), Agricultural Trade, Policy Reforms, and Global Food Security, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Arora, V. P. S. (2013), ‘Agricultural Policies in India: Retrospect and Prospect’, Agricultural Economics Research Review, 26(2): 135–157.Google Scholar
Babu, R. R. (2014), ‘The Post-Bali Debacle and India's Strategy at the WTO: A Legal and Policy Perspective’, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta WPS 754.Google Scholar
Bandara, J. S. (2013), ‘What Is Driving India's Food Inflation? A Survey of Recent Evidence’, South Asia Economic Journal, 14(1): 127–156.Google Scholar
Banik, D. (2016), ‘The Hungry Nation: Food Policy and Food Politics in India’, Food Ethics, 1: 29–45.Google Scholar
Bardhan, P. (1999), The Political Economy of Development in India: Expanded Edition with an Epilogue on the Political Economy of Reform in India, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bardhan, P. (2009), ‘Notes on the Political Economy of India's Tortuous Transition’, Economic and Political Weekly, 44(49): 31–36.Google Scholar
Basu, D., Misra, K., and Das, D. (2016), ‘Farmer Suicides in India Trends across Major States, 1995–2011’, Economic and Political Weekly, 51(21): 61–65.Google Scholar
Bhattacharya, Sudipta (2014), Two Decades of Market Reform in India: Some Dissenting Views, edited by Bhattacharya, S., Delhi: Anthem Press.Google Scholar
Bisaliah, S., Mahendra Dev, S., Saifullah, S., and Sarkar, D. (2014), Asset and Liability Portfolio of Farmers, New Delhi: Academic Foundation.Google Scholar
Brink, L., Orden, D., and Datz, G. (2013), ‘BRIC Agricultural Policies through a WTO Lens’, Journal of Agricultural Economics, 64(1): 197–216.Google Scholar
Central Statistical Office (CSO) (2016), Summary of Macroeconomic Aggregates, Central Statistical Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India.Google Scholar
Chakraborty, D. (2010), ‘Searching for the Missing Link: India's “Negotiation Strategy” at the WTO?’, in Barua, A. and Stern, R. M. (eds.), The WTO and India: Issues and Negotiating Strategies, Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan, pp. 65–87.Google Scholar
Chand, R. (2010), ‘WTO Agriculture Negotiations and India’, in Barua, A. and Stern, R. M. (eds.), The WTO and India: Issues and Negotiating Strategies, Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan, pp. 123–141.Google Scholar
Chatterjee, P. (2008), ‘Democracy and Economic Transformation in India’, Economic and Political Weekly, 19 April 2008, pp. 53–62.Google Scholar
Clapp, J. (2015), ‘Food Security and Contested Agricultural Trade Norms’, Journal of International Law and International Relations, 11(2): 104–115.Google Scholar
da Conceição-Heldt, Eugénia (2013), ‘Emerging Powers in WTO Negotiations: The Domestic Sources of Trade Policy Preferences’, The International Trade Journal, 27(5): 431–449.Google Scholar
Deshpande, R. S. and Arora, S. (2010), Agrarian Crisis and Farmer Suicides, edited by Deshpande, R. S. and Arora, S., New Delhi: SAGE Publications India.Google Scholar
Deshpande, R. S. and Prabhu, N. (2005), ‘Farmers’ Distress: Proof beyond Question’, Economic and Political Weekly, 40(44/45): 4663–4665.Google Scholar
Diaz-Bonilla, E. (2014), ‘On Food Security Stocks, Peace Clauses, and Permanent Solutions after Bali’, International Food Policy Research Institute Discussion Paper 1388.Google Scholar
Dorin, B., Hourcade, J. C., and Benoit-Cattin, M. (2013), ‘A World without Farmers? The Lewis Path Revisited’, CIRED Working Papers 47–2013.Google Scholar
Drèze, J. and Sen, A. (2013), An Uncertain Glory: India and Its Contradictions, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Economic and Political Weekly Research Foundation (EPWRF) (2017), India Time Series, Economic and Political Weekly Research Foundation.Google Scholar
Efstathopoulos, C. (2012), ‘Leadership in the WTO: Brazil, India and the Doha Development Agenda’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 25(2): 269–293.Google Scholar
Efstathopoulos, C. and Kelly, D. (2014), ‘India, Developmental Multilateralism and the Doha Ministerial Conference’, Third World Quarterly, 35(6): 1066–1081.Google Scholar
Fan, S., Gulati, A., and Thorat, S. (2008), ‘Investment, Subsidies, and Pro-Poor Growth in Rural India’, Agricultural Economics, 39(2): 163–170.Google Scholar
Farsund, A. A., Daugbjerg, C., and Langhelle, O. (2015), ‘Food Security and Trade: Reconciling Discourses in the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Trade Organization’, Food Security, 7(2): 383–391.Google Scholar
Flemes, D. (2009), ‘India–Brazil–South Africa (IBSA) in the New Global Order Interests, Strategies and Values of the Emerging Coalition’, International Studies, 46(4): 401–421.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (1991), ‘Governmentality’, in Gordon, C., Burchell, G., and Miller, P. (eds.), The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, Harvester Wheatsheaf, pp. 87–104.Google Scholar
Frankel, F. R. (2006), India's Political Economy: The Gradual Revolution (1947–2004), New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Government of India (GOI) (2017), ‘Economic Survey 2016–17’, Department of Economic Affairs, Economic Division, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, Delhi.Google Scholar
Gupta, Dipankar (2005), ‘Whither the Indian Village: Culture and Agriculture in “Rural” India’, Economic and Political Weekly, 40(8): 751–758.Google Scholar
Gupta, Dipankar (2015), ‘The Importance of Being “Rurban”', Economic and Political Weekly, 50(24): 37–43.Google Scholar
Gupta, P. and Thakur, M. (2017), ‘The Changing Rural-Agrarian Dominance: A Conceptual Excursus’, Sociological Bulletin, 66(1): 42–57.Google Scholar
Harriss-White, B. (2008), ‘Introduction: India's Rainfed Agricultural Dystopia’, The European Journal of Development Research, 20(4): 549–561.Google Scholar
Hawkes, S. and Plahe, J. K. (2013), ‘Worlds Apart: The WTO's Agreement on Agriculture and the Right to Food in Developing Countries’, International Political Science Review, 34(1): 21–38.Google Scholar
Himanshu, P. J. (2014), ‘Rural Non-Farm Employment in India: Trends, Patterns and Regional Dimensions’, India Rural Development Report 2013–14, Rural Development Network, Delhi: Orient BlackSwan, pp. 81–106.Google Scholar
Himanshu, P. J. and Rodgers, G. (2016), The Changing Village in India: Insights from Longitudinal Research, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hoda, A. and Gulati, A. (2013), ‘India's Agricultural Trade Policy and Sustainable Development’, ICTSD Issue Paper 49, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development.Google Scholar
Hoda, A. and Terway, P. (2015), ‘Credit Policy for Agriculture in India: An Evaluation’, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations.Google Scholar
Hopewell, K. (2015), ‘Different Paths to Power: The Rise of Brazil, India and China at the World Trade Organization’, Review of International Political Economy, 22(2): 311–338.Google Scholar
Hurrell, A. and Narlikar, A. (2006), ‘A New Politics of Confrontation? Brazil and India in Multilateral Trade Negotiations’, Global Society, 20(4): 415–433.Google Scholar
IDFC Rural Development Network (2014), India Rural Development Report 2013–14, Delhi: Orient BlackSwan.Google Scholar
International Labour Organization (ILO) (2016), ‘Key Indicators of the Labour Market’, International Labour Organization, Geneva.Google Scholar
Joshi, P. K., Kumar, P., and Parappurathu, S. (2015), ‘Public Investment in Agricultural Research and Extension in India’, The European Journal of Development Research, 27(3): 438–451.Google Scholar
Joshi, S. S. (2010), Down to Earth, New Delhi: Academic Foundation.Google Scholar
Kanth, D. R. (2016), ‘What Happened at Nairobi and Why: Dismantling of Doha Development Agenda and India's Role’, Economic and Political Weekly, 51(11).Google Scholar
Kanth, D. R. (2017), ‘WTO Meet in Buenos Aires a Litmus Test for Suresh Prabhu’, Livemint, 8 December 2017.Google Scholar
Kohli, A. (2007), ‘State, Business, and Economic Growth in India’, Studies in Comparative International Development, 42: 87–114.Google Scholar
Kohli, A. (2009), Democracy and Development in India: From Socialism to Pro-Business, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kotwal, A., Murugukar, M., and Ramaswami, B. (2011), ‘PDS Forever?’, Economic and Political Weekly, 46(21): 72–76.Google Scholar
Lewis, W. A. (1954), ‘Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour’, The Manchester School, 22(2):139–191.Google Scholar
Lipton, M. (1977), Why Poor People Stay Poor: A Study of the Urban Bias in World Development, London: Temple Smith.Google Scholar
Lipton, M. (2006), ‘Can Small Farmers Survive, Prosper, or Be the Key Channel to Cut Mass Poverty?’, Electronic Journal of Agricultural and Development Economics, 3(1): 58–85.Google Scholar
Mahajan, P. and Nanda, P. (2011), ‘Structural Changes in Commodity Composition and Direction of Agricultural Exports in India Under WTO Regime’, IUP Journal of Agricultural Economics, 8(3):7–23.Google Scholar
Matthews, A. (2014), ‘Food Security and WTO Domestic Support Disciplines Post-Bali’, ICTSD Programme on Agricultural Trade and Sustainable Development Geneva.Google Scholar
Mehta, S. and Kumar, A. (2017), ‘Deconstructing the Enigma of Recent Farmers’ Protests in India’, IndraStra Global 7.Google Scholar
Mendelsohn, O. (1993), ‘The Transformation of Authority in Rural India’, Modern Asian Studies, 27(4): 805–842.Google Scholar
Mines, D. P. and Yazgi, N. (2010), Village Matters: Relocating Villages in the Contemporary Anthropology of India, Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mines, D. P. and Yazgi, N. (2017), Economic Survey 2016–17, New Delhi: Ministry of Finance.Google Scholar
Ministry of Finance (2016), Economic Survey 2015–16, New Delhi: Ministry of Finance.Google Scholar
Ministry of Finance (2017), Economic Survey 2016–17, New Delhi: Ministry of Finance.Google Scholar
Mishra, A. R. (2017), ‘India Unlikely to Insist on Food Security Clause at WTO's Buenos Aires Meet’, Livemint, 11 December 2017.Google Scholar
Mishra, S. (2007), ‘Agrarian Scenario in Post-Reform India: A Story of Distress, Despair and Death’, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research Working Paper, January.Google Scholar
Mody, A. (2016), ‘The Politics of Food Distribution in India’, New York University.Google Scholar
Mooij, J. (1998), ‘Food Policy and Politics: The Political Economy of the Public Distribution System in India’, The Journal of Peasant Studies, 25(2): 77–101.Google Scholar
Mooij, J. (1999), ‘Food Policy in India: The Importance of Electoral Politics in Policy Implementation’, Journal of International Development, 11(4): 625–636.Google Scholar
Mukherjee, S. and Pal, P. (2017), ‘Impediments to the Spread of Crop Insurance in India’, Economic and Political Weekly, 52(35): 16–19.Google Scholar
Nandy, A. (2001), An Ambiguous Journey to the City: The Village and Other Ruins of the Self in the Indian Imagination, Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Narayanan, S. (2014), ‘The National Food Security Act Vis-à-Vis the WTO Agreement on Agriculture’, Economic and Political Weekly, 49(5): 41–46.Google Scholar
Narayanan, S. (2015), ‘Food Security in India: The Imperative and Its Challenges’, Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, 2(1): 197–209.Google Scholar
Narlikar, A. (2006), ‘Peculiar Chauvinism or Strategic Calculation? Explaining the Negotiating Strategy of a Rising India’, International Affairs, 82(1): 59–76.Google Scholar
Narlikar, A. (2011), ‘Is India a Responsible Great Power?’, Third World Quarterly, 32(9): 1607–1621.Google Scholar
Narlikar, A. (2013), ‘India Rising: Responsible to Whom?’, International Affairs, 89(3): 595–614.Google Scholar
National Commission on Farmers (2004), ‘Serving Farmers and Saving Farming’, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India.Google Scholar
NSSO (2005), ‘India – Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers, 2003, NSS 59th Round’, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India.Google Scholar
NSSO (2016), ‘India – Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households, January–December 2013, NSS 70th Round’, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India.Google Scholar
Omvedt, G. (1981), ‘Capitalist Agriculture and Rural Classes in India’, Economic and Political Weekly, 16(52): 140–159.Google Scholar
Parry, J. P (2003), ‘Nehru's Dream and the Village “Waiting Room”: Long-Distance Labour Migrants to a Central Indian Steel Town’, Contributions to Indian Sociology, 37(1and2): 218–249.Google Scholar
Parry, J. P (2004), ‘Nehru's Dream and the Village “Waiting Room”: Long-Distance Labour Migrants to a Central Indian Steel Town’, in Osella, F. and Gardner, K. (eds.), Migration, Modernity and Social Transformation in South Asia, New Delhi: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Polaski, S. (2005), ‘Agricultural Negotiations at the WTO: First, Do No Harm’, Policy Outlook, June, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.Google Scholar
Pritchard, B. (2009), ‘The Long Hangover from the Second Food Regime: A World-Historical Interpretation of the Collapse of the WTO Doha Round’, Agriculture and Human Values, 26: 297–307.Google Scholar
Priyadarshi, S. (2004), ‘Decision-Making Processes in India: The Case of the Agriculture Negotiations’, Managing the Challenges of WTO Participation: Case Study, 15.Google Scholar
Purohit, K. (2015), ‘The Political Trilemma and India at the WTO’, Asian Journal of Public Affairs, 8(1): 3–24.Google Scholar
Reddy, D. N. and Mishra, S. (2008), ‘Crisis in Agriculture and Rural Distress in Post-Reform India’, in Radhakrishna, R. (ed.), India Development Report, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 40–53.Google Scholar
Reddy, D. N. and Mishra, S. (2009), Agrarian Crisis in India, edited by Narasimha Reddy, D. and Mishra, Srijit, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) (2016), Handbook of Statistics on Indian Economy 2015–16, Reserve Bank of India.Google Scholar
Roy, D. and Doerr, F. (2013), ‘Free Trade or Food Security – Did India Succeed at WTO Bali?’, Future of Food: Journal on Food, Agriculture and Society, 1(2): 122–126.Google Scholar
Rudolph, L. I. and Rudolph, S. H. (1987), In Pursuit of Lakshmi: The Political Economy of the Indian State, New Delhi: Orient Longman Limited.Google Scholar
Sanyal, K. (2007), Rethinking Capitalist Development: Primitive Accumulation, Governmentality and Post-Colonial Capitalism, New Delhi: Routledge.Google Scholar
Schneider, M. and Sircar, N. (2014), ‘Whose Side Are You On? Identifying Distributive Preferences of Local Politicians in India’, Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association.Google Scholar
Schnepf, R. (2014), ‘Agriculture in the WTO Bali Ministerial Agreement’, Congressional Research Service Report 13.Google Scholar
Schwab, S. C. (2011), ‘After Doha: Why the Negotiations Are Doomed and What We Should Do About It’, Foreign Affairs, 90(3): 104–117.Google Scholar
Scott, J. (2017), ‘The Future of Agricultural Trade Governance in the World Trade Organization’, International Affairs, 93(5): 519–543.Google Scholar
Scroll Staff (2017), ‘India and US Blame Each Other after WTO Conference Ends without Progress on Food Security Concern’, Scroll, 15 December 2017.Google Scholar
Seetha, (2017), ‘WTO's Buenos Aires Ministerial Starts Today: Why It's a Make-or-Break Meeting for Both Suresh Prabhu and Trade Body’, Firstpost, 10 December 2017.Google Scholar
Sharma, D. (2004), ‘WTO and Agriculture: “Green Box” Subsidies Must Go’, Economic and Political Weekly, 1997–98.Google Scholar
Siddiqui, K. (2015), ‘Agrarian Crisis and Transformation in India’, Journal of Economics and Political Economy, 2(1): 3–22.Google Scholar
Singh, R. and Singh, A.K. (2009), ‘Agricultural Growth in the Reform Period: An Inter-State Study’, in Singh, S. and Ratna Reddy, V., Changing Contours of Asian Agriculture: Policies, Performances and Challenges, New Delhi: Academic Foundation.Google Scholar
Sinha, D., Patnaik, B., Raaj, V., Bhattacharya, S., and Joshi, A. (2014), ‘Popular Actions, State Reactions: The Moral and Political Economy of Food in India’, Food Riots and Food Rights, Brighton/New Delhi: Institute of Development Studies.Google Scholar
Tangermann, S. (2016), ‘Agriculture: Food Security and Trade Liberalization’, in Bhagwati, J. N., Krishna, P., and Panagariya, A. (eds.) The World Trade System: Trends and Challenges, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 193–228.Google Scholar
Vakulabharanam, V. (2005), ‘Growth and Distress in a South Indian Peasant Economy during the Era of Economic Liberalisation’, The Journal of Development Studies, 41(6): 971–997.Google Scholar
Vanaik, A. (1990), The Painful Transition: Bourgeois Democracy in India, London: Verso Books.Google Scholar
Varshney, A. (1993), ‘Self-limited Empowerment: Democracy, Economic Development and Rural India’, The Journal of Development Studies, 29(4): 177–215.Google Scholar
Varshney, A. (1998), Democracy, Development, and the Countryside: Urban–Rural Struggles in India, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Varshney, A. (2014), Battles Half Won: India's Improbable Democracy, New Delhi: Penguin.Google Scholar
Walker, K. Le Mons (2008), ‘Neoliberalism on the Ground in Rural India: Predatory Growth, Agrarian Crisis, Internal Colonization, and the Intensification of Class Struggle’, The Journal of Peasant Studies, 35(4): 557–620.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, R. (2015), ‘Changing Power Relations in the WTO: Why the India–US Trade Agreement Should Make Us Worry More, rather than Less, about Global Trade Governance’, Geoforum, 61:13–16.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, R., Hannah, E., and Scott, J. (2014), ‘The WTO in Bali: What mc9 Means for the Doha Development Agenda and Why It Matters’, Third World Quarterly, 35(6):1032–1050.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, R., Hannah, E., and Scott, J. (2016), ‘The WTO in Nairobi: The Demise of the Doha Development Agenda and the Future of the Multilateral Trading System’, Global Policy, 7(2): 247–255.Google Scholar
Wolfe, R. (2009), ‘The Special Safeguard Fiasco in the WTO: The Perils of Inadequate Analysis and Negotiation’, World Trade Review, 8(4): 517–544.Google Scholar
World Bank Group (2014), Republic of India: Accelerating Agricultural Productivity Growth, The World Bank.Google Scholar
WTO (1998a), ‘AIE/30: Submission by India on ‘Issues of Interest to Developing Countries’.’Google Scholar
WTO (1998b), ‘AIE/44: Submission by India on ‘Food Security – An Important Non-Trade Concern’.’Google Scholar
WTO (1999a), ‘WT/GC/W/152: Submission by India for the Preparatory Process for the Third Ministerial Conference of the WTO’.Google Scholar
WTO (1999b), ‘WT/GC/W/342: Submission by India for the Preparatory Process for the Third Ministerial Conference of the WTO’.Google Scholar
WTO (2001), Proposals by India in the Areas of: (I) Food Security, (Ii) Market Access, (Iii) Domestic Support, and (Iv) Export Competition’, G/AG/NG/W/102.Google Scholar
WTO (2015a), International Trade Statistics, World Trade Organization.Google Scholar
WTO (2015b), Nairobi Ministerial Declaration, WT/MIN(15)/DEC.Google Scholar
WTO (2016a), World Trade Statistical Review 2016, World Trade Organization.Google Scholar
WTO (2016b), Summary Record of the Ninth Meeting, Ministerial Conference, Tenth Session, Nairobi, WT/MIN(15)/SR/9, 15–18 December 201.Google Scholar
WTO (2017a), Address by Mr Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Commerce and Industry, India, at the Plenary Session of the 11th Ministerial Conference of the WTO.Google Scholar
WTO (2017b), ‘Elimination of AMS to Reduce Distortions in Global Agricultural Trade', Submission by China and India, Job/AG/102.Google Scholar