Agriculture is said to be India’s largest private-sector enterprise, engaging nearly 119 million farmers (“cultivators”) and another 144 million landless labourers, as per the 2011 Census. It is even considered the most respectable business, going by the oft-quoted slogan “uttam kheti, madhyam vyapar, kanishtha naukri (supreme is farming, mediocre is trade and most lowly is service)”.

But the exalted status apart, it must be asked: Is farming really a business? Even if it is, then to what extent? Is there something about agriculture that makes it fundamentally different as a business? One could point to at least four “laws” of business operating only in farming, of which the last two are probably unique to India.

Read the full article in The Indian Express