Events
& Issues
New
Delhi, 27 April 2015
Farm
Sector Crisis
AID TO
SMALL FARMERS VITAL
By Dhurjati
Mukherjee
Several programmes have been
launched by the Modi Government, and some aggressively, but it has to be
admitted that the farm sector remains neglected. The crisis of our farming
community is an accepted fact today for which the previous UPA government is no
less responsible. According to latest reports, over 1000 farmers have already
committed suicides this year due to crop loss and non-repayment of dues. Besides,
between 1997 and 2013, an astonishing figure of over 300,000 farmers, have
taken their lives, as per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
While blaming the UPA for lack of
irrigation, the Agriculture Ministry has directed States to help farmers
affected by rains and hailstorms. They lost 93.81 lakh hectares of land across
14 States when the weather took turn for the worst from February-end till the
first week of April.
The crisis has affected mainly the
small and marginal farmers i.e. those owning less than one hectare of land. Although
such small holders make up over 80 per cent of cultivator households, their
average monthly income-expenditure shows that they are all in the red. This is
despite the fact that such cultivators supplement their incomes with others
like animal husbandry, wage labour in others’ fields and other non-farm
activities.
To add to the crisis, the Government
has so far raised the minimum support price of wheat by only Rs 50 per quintal
and that of sugar cane by Rs 10. This compares very unfavourably with that of
the previous Government, which had raised wheat MSP from Rs 640 to Rs 1400 per
quintal and that of sugar cane from Rs 73 to Rs 220. Undeniably, the UPA had
raised the MSP for grains, lentils, a variety of oilseeds and commercial crops
such as copra, raw jute and de-husked coconut almost every season to give
incentives to farmers to increase crop production.
Obviously, the desire to trim the
subsidy bill and control food inflation has been factors towards this end.
Corporate tax could be reduced but subsidies to poor farmers cannot be given!
Moreover, the logic of subsidizing the urban middle class at the cost of the
rural poor has been an accepted theory in many developing countries and this
has been explained by the well-known economist, Prof. Michael Lipton in his
famous book Why Poor People Stay Poor?
The main reason for the present
state of affairs has been the fragmented land holdings, non-availability of
cheap capital, inadequate storage facilities and poor agricultural marketing. The
average size of land holdings has been reduced to just 0.6 hectares, according
to latest NSSO survey. Another crucial problem that emerged in recent years and
accentuated the crisis is lack of adequate water availability due to delayed or
inadequate monsoon, declining groundwater table, climate change and other
attendant factors.
In the country, of the net sown area
of 141 million hectares, just 65 hectares is the net irrigated area. This
constitutes the biggest source of vulnerability for small farmers. Either they
pay to get water from tube wells or wait for the rains. Then there is of course,
the rising cost of agricultural inputs which the small farmers are unable to
cope with.
The present scenario can definitely
be changed with Government intervention at the lowest tier of the
administrative process. Firstly, Panchayats should set up tube wells, specially
in regions where water tables have not declined, and this should be a part of
the NREGA. Farmers should get water at a very nominal cost. Additionally, more
storage facilities should be set up at the block level.
Secondly, there must be a mechanism
whereby nationalized banks give loans to these farmers so they don’t go to
unscrupulous moneylenders, who charge exorbitant interest rates. However, there
is critical need for State intervention on forming cooperatives so that
productivity increases. The NGOs or private agencies should be roped in to help
form and manage these for two years or so – with say 8 to 14 farmers, all being
part of the cooperative board and involved in cultivation. When land holdings
of cooperatives are over 10 or 12 hectares, the induction of maiden technology
and mechanized operations would ensure higher yields. There shouldn’t be a problem
in getting 2 or 3 crops per annum.
While investment in various sectors
is improving, increase in public investment in agriculture is the key to
private sustainable livelihood to the farming community. Sadly, the concern for
the farm sector is neither a priority with this Government nor with the
previous UPA. The urban centric policy of our planners, economists and media
make us believe that industrialization – which is now totally mechanized – will
solve all our problems, i.e. under and unemployment, food production,
rehabilitation of farming community etc. Such theoretical and indeed absurd
suggestions, thinking that India’s
growth should emulate Western models – and even Singapore – has led to such a
deplorable situation of the farming sector.
With land and labour abundantly
available, a strategy needs to be adapted to make the country a food bowl of
the world. Apart from cereals, there should be dissemination of knowledge from
the laboratories of ICAR and agricultural universities to cultivate value added
crops, whereby the farmers would be able to make reasonable profits.
The resent launch of the National
Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, no doubt, is a step in the right direction
coming at a time when constraints of decreasing farm sizes and increasing cost
of inputs have become major problems. Significantly the Mission talks of integrated farming, which
means that a farmer with a small farm plot should take up diversified farming
along with staple cultivation. This may entail setting up fruit and vegetable
patches, beetle leaf and fish cultivation in ponds.
NMSA can also look into soil
salinity and water contamination problems, both of which impact production. The
practice of drip and sprinkler irrigation, practiced in many countries, would
also reduce water consumption by 30 to 50 per cent for different crops. It
significantly reduces fertilizer and pesticide wastage as the required dose can
be mixed with water and delivered right at the root. It would lead to reduction
in weed problems and tackling erosion substantially.
Recently, a political leader of the
ruling party has claimed that around 23 lakh acres of land acquired during
Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan movement is
yet to be distributed among the landless farmers. Modi has been urged to take
cognizance of the matter and expedite the process of land distribution. It
remains to be seen how serious is the Government’s concern over landless
farmers and the cry to good and efficient governance ensures that land along
with right technology is passed on to these hapless people to start cultivation
of the right type of crops.
The crisis is indeed challenging and
this has been further compounded by its first stage report of the Indian
Meteorological Department (IMD), predicting a 68 per cent probability that
rainfall will be below normal. This is bad news for agriculture as adequate
rainfall and its even distribution in all parts of the country is necessary for
good yields. It is now for the Government to take proper steps to revive the
farm sector and with it lakhs of poor farmers. Is it listening? ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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