While government response has largely centred on price support and subsidies for agriculture, a deeper and more enduring driver of agrarian stagnation hasn’t been sufficiently addressed — poor quality agriculture education and research With the US and India having signed a historic trade deal in February under which India is obliged to lower tariffs on a “vast array” of American industrial and agricultural products, including fruits and vegetables, the country’s 195 million farmers — long cushioned by policy protections — are confronted with the prospect of being tested for efficiency, productivity, and international competitiveness as never before. This moment of reckoning comes against the backdrop of a failing, structurally weak agriculture sector struggling to keep pace with the demands of an increasingly competitive global agricultural marketplace. The contribution of agriculture to national GDP has steadily shrunk from 35 percent in 1990-91 to 15 percent in 2022-23, even as it continues…