In the face of trying problems in Indian agriculture, there is also news that farmers in Eastern and Western Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh have decided to not sow paddy in an area of almost 5 lakh acres. This gesture is a last-ditch protest for a farmer, pushed to the wall by the rising cost of farm inputs, and declining yield.
The Andhra Pradesh government had earlier denied that farmers had taken to such a means of protest. The government held that farmers had merely changed sowing time, on account of strong winds in the month of November.
Growing pressure from opposition parties and the farmers’ organisations, however, led Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy to appoint the Mohan Kanda Committee to look into the issue. He assured farmers that their problems would be solved, on lines recommended by the committee.
According to farmers, the painful decision to leave their lands fallow was taken because of rising farm input costs, inadequate minimum support prices and harassment faced on account of marketing of crops. Farmers claimed that they get only Rs 21,000 per acre of paddy, while cost of producing it came to Rs 28000 per acre.
The expression of anger by farmers in Andhra Pradesh, which has become a model protest for farmers, should wake up the society and the government. For the last four decades, the Government of India has been following a negative policy for deciding minimum support prices.
During this time, just a little increase has been made in the minimum support prices, but the prices of products other than agricultural have seen a comparatively much higher rise. The prices of all inputs for agriculture, like HYV seeds, fertilisers, insecticides, herbicides, machinery, diesel and power have sky-rocketed.
The already negligible subsidies are facing more and more cuts. The government is curtailing its investment in agricultural research and development. The number and percentage of marginal and small peasants is on continuous increase.
Even today, the main sources of a farmer’s borrowing are non-institutional, which charge exorbitant rates of interest. The government is doing its utmost to popularise machine-dependent farming techniques.
Even though several natural calamities like droughts and floods have hit the peasants, the government seems hardly to bother. Non-farm employment opportunities do not exist to any large extent for small and marginal farmers.
Rural folk have been continuously neglected, in the provision of education and health services. If the government does not quickly solve the problems of farmers and if society does not stand on the right side of the struggling farmers, there will be extremely serious consequences on the economic, political and social fronts. And these will not be detrimental only to farmers, but to all of society.
The hidden agenda behind government policies in agriculture is to encourage corporate agriculture, which is not going to be good for our country in any way
On minimum support prices, farmers’ organisations have been demanding, as per the recommendations of Dr. MS Swaminathan, at least 50 per cent profit on input costs. If the government accepts this suggestion, agriculture will no doubt become profitable. But such a move could also increase the gulf between small and big farmers, leaving smaller farmers unable to meet even basic needs. For example, if the input expenditure of a small farmer is Rs 40,000, he will earn Rs 20,000 as profit. Is it possible for a small farmer’s family of five to make both ends meet for a year with only Rs 20,000?
This is the reason that the minimum support prices must be decided keeping in view the cost of production and consumption expenditure indices. But in this way, the increase in prices of agricultural products will take these outside the reach of ordinary consumers. Hence, it is necessary that the government should give substantial financial support to the agricultural sector, including R&D in it.
At the same time, subsidies should be increased to reduce the input costs, particularly in the case of small peasants. The public distribution system should be strengthened, to supply food grain and other goods to common people at reasonable prices. Provision should also be made to make available, the very poor people, food at very low prices or even free of cost.
The hidden agenda behind government policies in agriculture is to encourage corporate agriculture. While more than four-fifths of Indian farmers have marginal or small land holdings, there is no way that such corporatization can benefit them. What is worse is that the economy also offers few other opportunities for employment for those displaced from agriculture.
India should learn a lesson from Japan, which too has a high population density, and brought land reforms that favour small peasants. Non-cultivators should also be completely debarred from buying agricultural land.
As recommended by Dr MS Swaminathan, institutional loans should be arranged for farmers at an interest rate of not more than four per cent. The interest rate should be even lower for marginal and small farmers, or they should be given interest-free loans.
Small farmers are unable to use agricultural machinery because of its high cost. The government should provide financial support to co-operative societies so that farmers with small holdings are able to hire such machinery at reasonable rent.
The scheme for insurance of crops should be brought into operation on a large scale, in order to neutralise the impact of natural calamities. The premium should be paid by the marketing board, which earns good marketing fees by selling farmers’ produce. Moreover, the government should help the farmers directly after immediately assessing the losses incurred by them on account of natural calamities.
Long-term solutions to reduce the effect of such calamities are also required. The timely sale of agricultural produce and the payment thereof to farmers within a week must be ensured. The government needs to take the responsibility to make good the loss of farmers on account of their crops being discoloured or otherwise damaged, because of sudden changes in weather or agro-climatic conditions.
The farmers should also be provided work in processing and packaging in the agro-processing industry to be run by them under co-operative societies of agro-producers. This will enable farmers to get employment, besides provide value addition to produce Finally, the government should pay special attention to health and education services among farmers because good education and health can go a long way in bridging economic disparities.
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Dr. Gian Singh, ( Courtesy DAILY POST, September 08),
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