Farm Subsidies – Cause and Effect, Research Paper Example

How the policy came about

Farm subsidies are the assistance given to farmers, landowners and speculators. The government’s intention of starting this project a decade ago was to empower farmers to fully exploit their potential and feed the nation besides providing employment to thousands of unemployed lot.

Crisis behind farm subsidies

The crisis that led to introduction of this policy is the working farmers who were finding it hard to do any meaningful farming in the 1930s. The reasons for this included great depression, drought and perennial crop failure. This brought a lot of challenge to the nation’s food security. The government introduced this policy as a safe net for the working farmers. Since then it has grown to an extent that many individuals are taking advantage of available loopholes to extort taxpayers (Rosen, 102).

Effectiveness

This policy was effective in the first few years of its introduction. Currently it is not only ineffective but also day light extortion of poor taxpayers. To begin with, it pays to subsidies to individuals who have never even raised their hand to plant a seed! Secondly, it has become a source of income for landowners like Mathews to use the hard-earned taxpayers’ money for their own selfish gains. Additionally I can say this policy is ineffective because it has not assisted the people it was intended in the first place (Thompson, Ashok and Joe, 162).

Modification

If I were the president, the first modification is to make it illegal for anybody who is not involved in direct farming to gain from the kit. Secondly, I will demand that all absentee property owners are given strict deadlines to make use of their farms or else risk losing their titles. Finally, I will make annual audit on the situation on the ground a must. From such audits, the government can plan for the next period.

Works cited

Thompson, Wyatt; Mishra Ashok, Joe Dewbre. Farm Household Income and Transfer Efficiency: An Evaluation of United States Farm Program Payments. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, (2005).

Rosen, Harvey. Public Finance. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin. pp. 98–108. (2008).