Challenges, Opportunities and Innovation in Indian Rural Economy

In this paper, long winding problems of agriculture sector in India has been elaborated with a focus on
the core policies, structure, and exogenous factors such as climate change. The aim of the study is to
highlight the existing inequalities amongst the farmers based on the land holding and a mixed bag of
policy responses by the government. With a high intervening role of official agencies, poor pricing
policy, input inaccessibility and low incentives for innovation, agriculture has remained by and large a
risky and less profitable venture. In conclusion, a suggestion on minimalistic role for government
agencies and decentralised farmers-oriented marketing model for price discovery has been emphasized
which is based on the Gandhian philosophy of rural development.