Agriculture is among the significant pillars of the Indian economy, providing employment to over 50% of the Indian population and contributing significantly to the GDP of the country. However, despite its significance, the problems plaguing the agricultural sector in India are making an enemy-like danger that vitally affects the development of agriculture and the well-being of farmers. In order to deliberate upon the major agricultural problems in India and present practical solutions that can help overcome them, this paper identifies the main causes and provides insights for all the related issues.

1. Fragmented Landholdings
Indian agriculture comprises a vast highly fragmented land holding of farm. Under this circumstances, 85% of the farmers of India operate less than two hectares of land. As such, there has been a decline in productivity due to the absence of benefits derived from economies of scale. Land is fragmented, and thus modern farming techniques and tools such as agricultural harvesters and combine harvesters can not be effectively employed to bring about increased crop yield.

Land Consolidation: Pooling of land started by the Government through consolidation schemes will lead to bigger plots that are workable. This will then allow the farmer to pool irrigation facilities and machinery.

Cooperative Farming: Cooperative farming may lead to collective ownership and management of the land. Pooling resources allows the acquisition of modern equipment such as harvesters and other technologies which many smallholders cannot afford.

2. Water Scarcity
Water and agriculture go together because many parts of India suffer from acute scarcity of water primarily due to over-reliance on rains during monsoon seasons and inefficient irrigation.

This has resulted in the worst case or rather, the worst scenario since it eventually leads to crop failures followed by farmer distress.

It reduces wastage of water and provides the correct supply of the required quantity of water for crops. Thus, the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana micro-irrigation techniques need to be promoted.

Rainwater Harvesting: Techniques associated with rainwater harvesting are very much favored and of a significant benefit for farmers because it not only saves the water consumed during rainy seasons but also can store a significant quantity of water that can be availed of during dry seasons.

Watershed Management: Watershed management programs can recharge groundwater besides increasing the water retentive capability of farmlands that might be helpful in mitigating scarcity.

3. Limited Access to Modern Technology
Indian farmers face inefficiencies and low productivity because they are practicing aged practices in these fields while modern technology for agriculture is available. Lack of knowledge, poor access to technology, and high costs attribute to this situation.

Subsidies and Training: the government should provide subsidies to purchase modern machinery like tractors, seed drills, and farm harvesters like a combine harvester. Along with that, training can be given among the farmers to use this technology.

Digital Platforms: The mobile-based agriculture apps would provide the right kind of information regarding weather, crop diseases, and market prices to help rational decisions by the farmers.

Public-Private Partnerships (PPP): Collaboration between the public and private sectors can help speed up precision farming equipment, remote-sensed crop monitoring, and data-driven farm solutions.

4. Crude Storage and Transport Infrastructure
Poor post-harvest handling due to lack of adequate storage and transport infrastructure remains one of the major problems. About 30-40% of farm output annually is lost to inadequate storage. That means farmers get lower returns while consumers have to pay more for their food.

Solution:

Infrastructure for Cold Storage: It would reduce post-harvest losses of fruits and vegetables if construction of cold storage facilities is made. The government should encourage private sector investments in the cold chain logistics.

Connecting Rural Roads: Better rural road infrastructure would allow easy transport of crops from farms to marketplaces, reduce transit time, and spoilage.

Farmaer Markets and Direct Sales: The local farmer market was expanded, and there is also a digital platform which called e-NAM (National Agriculture Market), through which direct sales from the farmer to consumer are done, hence the middleman is eradicated, and return on incomes increases.

5. Monsoons Dependence Farming in India is primarily rain-fed with about 60% of the land under farm going by monsoon rains, and any aberration in monsoon—be it drought or deluge— leads to crop failures and even significant financial crisis for the farmer.

Solution:

Crop diversification: Farmers must crop diversify to drought and short duration varieties so that the risk of crop failure during the erratic monsoon seasons is reduced.

Irrigation Infrastructure Development: Atal Bhujal Yojana, a scheme that is supposed to raise the ground water level, will reduce dependence on monsoons.

Crop Insurance: Promoting crop insurance schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana on a mass scale will recover crop losses from erratic weather conditions for farmers.

6. Credit Restraint
Most of the small farmers face issues related to securing the credit for acquiring inputs like seeds, fertilizers, machinery, etc. The debt trap is because of borrowing loans at high interest rates from informal sources.

Solutions:
Low Interest Loans: Economically, low-interest loan arrangements with formal sources such as banks and financial institutions would be beneficial to farmers.
Kisan Credit Card (KCC): Coverage under the scheme of KCC must be expanded to provide short-term credit to the farmer without much formality.

Microfinance Institutions: The microfinance institutions may be motivated to come with niche financial products, especially for small farmers without charging the astronomical interest rates.

7. Market Price Fluctuation
The market price fluctuation due to supply-demand gaps and also due to the international trade policies and the government policy often makes the farmers beggars of the whims. Without proper market information, they often sell their produce at abnormally lower prices.

Solution:

MSP: MSP policy reform and implementation should ensure the provision of a minimum support price to farmers at least.

Farmer Producer Organizations: FPOs will ensure collective bargaining for better prices and value-addition in food processing by farmers to increase their income.

Market Intelligence Systems: Crop prices and demand ought to be adequately presented up-to-date using market intelligence systems and from which the farmers can make early decisions of when and where to sell their crops.

Conclusion
Indian agriculture is fraught with many problems, but none of them is insurmountable. All these problems can be overcome through proper policy intervention, technological innovations, and education. Proper education to farmers through improved infrastructure and access to technology such as the agricultural harvester and sustainable practices will guarantee a prosperous and resilient agricultural future for India.

These solutions may, in large scale, help alter the complexion of Indian agriculture, function as a catalyst for food security in the country, and increase farmer livelihoods.