When first the subjects were classified in the 1919 Act -- which is also known as the Montague-Chelmsford Act or Montford reforms (combined names of the Secretary of State of India and the Governor General) 1919-- it classified the subjects first as ‘central’ and ‘provincial’. The provincial subjects were further divided into ‘reserved’ and ‘transferred’.
The reserved subjects were supposed to be important and so it was handled by the Governor and his council. The transferred subjects required more local knowledge, so subjects like agriculture, local government, health and education were given to elected representatives of the people. The first ministers in the provincial council under the 1919 Act handled agriculture.
When the Constitution was drafted, agriculture as a subject remained under the state list. Agriculture is a state subject and the states are supposed to address all the issues related to agriculture. In the last 70 years, agriculture has experienced several challenges.
In states like Maharashtra, it is the change of crops from the traditional to cash crops drove many farmers to suicide.
Each region in India has a specific problem relating to farmers in the region. It may be extreme weather conditions like too much rain or no rain, drought, vagaries of nature, ever-increasing price of fertilizers and pesticides, exorbitant interest rates of moneylenders and the pressure from the banks to repay the loan.
It is the government which also decides the support price of the main agricultural products. With the emergence of agro-chemical industries and with the export of agricultural products, agriculture has emerged as more than a state subject.
Trade and commerce, import and export and banking are in the union list. So the union and the state governments have passed several laws relating to agriculture. Every farmer in India also expects some relief for them in the Union Budget, by way of waiver of loans or an increase in the support price for their products. Over the years, agriculture has become more than a state subject.
In the Union- State relations under the Constitution, even in normal times (not during the Emergency time), the Union can legislate on a subject that comes under the state list. The union government intervenes through promotional schemes for a particular variety of crop or monetary incentives for certain agricultural products.
India is also a signatory to several international treaties and the division of power between the Centre and the state will not stand in the way while implementing such commitments. As agriculture is intertwined with many other subjects which are not under the State list, should there be an effort to move it to Concurrent List? Education was moved from state list to Concurrent List through the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution in 1976.
The advantage of it will be the Centre giving more attention to the problems farmers are facing in different parts of the country. It is the union government that decides on the grant-in-aid to the states; also the overriding financial powers of the Union will help the states to address the issues relating to agriculture.
As agriculture has been debated in the trade talks (WTO and in many other multilateral forums) where the union government participates, it will be good and appropriate that the Union government gets the input from states when such meetings are held. This will help present the problems of the farmers objectively in the trade talks.
Agriculture needs an emergency like response both from the Union and state governments. The rural distress migration, that is mainly due to the failure of agriculture, has resulted in an unprecedented exodus of people from northern states to the southern states.
In order to protect the interest of the farmers, it is essential both the Union and state pass best of the legislations and interventions to reduce the pain of the farmers.