Agricultural issues have lost importance in public and political dialogue because __________ .
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → No pressure group to influence policy maker
Option (2) No pressure group to influence policy maker — Correct. A pressure group presses the government on behalf of a section of people. Agricultural issues are no longer key public issues, and lack of mobilisation means that agriculturists are unable to form powerful pressure groups that can influence policy making in their favour.
Note: The lines on why agricultural issues have lost importance in public debate, which follow the account of farmers’ suicides in the chapter ‘Change and Development in Rural Society’, were there in the pre-rationalised NCERT, the textbook of 2022. This portion has been deleted from the NCERT book (2025-26), though the chapter and its box on farmers’ suicides are still there.
NCERT (Pre-rationalised): “4.6 Globalisation, Liberalisation, and Rural Society … Sociologists have attempted to explain this phenomenon by looking at the structural and social changes that have been occurring in agriculture and agrarian society. Such suicides have become ‘matrix events’, that is, a range of factors coalesce together to form an event. Many of the farmers who have committed suicides were marginal farmers who were attempting to increase their productivity, primarily by practising green revolution methods.…” “…Agriculture for many is becoming untenable, and state support for agriculture has declined substantially. In addition, agricultural issues are no longer key public issues, and lack of mobilisation means that agriculturists are unable to form powerful pressure groups that can influence policy making in their favour.” |