There is no doubt that there are serious issues of marketing and profitability of farming in the country in the midst of fragmentation of agriculture land holding as more than 86% of the farmers are small and marginal possessing 1 to 2 ha of land
(By: Dr VK Bahuguna)
The agitation of farmers of Punjab has once again assumed media headlines and had put the authorities of central and state governments under tremendous pressure and in an unviable situation in the midst of belligerence exhibited by the agitators with strong political tenor in it. Let us find out what are their latest charter of demands and if these are genuine and also implementable by any government at the helm of affairs. The First demand is to enact a law on Minimum Support Price (MSP) for all crops. The Second demand is Rs 10,000 pension for every farmer over the age of 60 years. The third demand is waive off all loans of farmers. The fourth demand is to insure all crops and all premiums for this to be paid by the government. The fifth is to increase the subsidy for all crops even if India had to quit WTO. The sixth is to put heavy import duty on all food items. The seventh is to pay farmers Rs 21000 for 200 days under the Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Scheme and also pay wages for work in their fields.
There is no doubt that there are serious issues of marketing and profitability of farming in the country in the midst of fragmentation of agriculture land holding as more than 86% of the farmers are small and marginal possessing 1 to 2 ha of land. Let us objectively analyse what the government has been doing for the farmers for the last few years. As for the MSP, it was initiated to protect the farmers from market aberrations. Earlier only wheat and Rice crops were covered but now 24 crops are covered. For the year 24-25 MSP for Kharif crop is determined as per the Budget announcement of 2018-2019 at 1.5 times of the All India weighted average cost of production so that farmers get fair remuneration i.e. Rs 2275. The President of India in her address to Joint sitting of Parliament recently had stated that the farmers in the last ten years since 2014 have received Rs 18.5 lakh crore as MSP. Similarly, the farmers producing oil seeds and pulses have received 1.25 crore as MSP. Apart from this good subsidy is given for horticultural crops like 50% subsidy for poly houses and horticultural mission provide back-ended subsidy up to 50 lakh. For purchase of farm machinery also good amount of subsidy is available.
The above figures look good indeed but since farming is affected by several factors like climatic vagaries, small land holding, market distortion etc, and many farmers still face the problem specially the small and marginal farmers of getting sold their price at the MSP due to several reasons. Yet another problem is like this year what has happened in Punjab with the bumper production of kinnow fruit. Last year when the farmers were getting per kilo Rs 25 to 30 at their farm (and the consumer at Rs 50 per kg) and hence made good money which prompted them to increase the area many fold. But this year many farmers are not even getting Rs 10 per kg whereas consumer is still paying Rs 50 per kg. Now the question is how to overcome it. If the government buys all as per their demand for MSP where will it store and is it possible for the government to become a trader which is not possible. As for storage even today a large quantity of wheat and paddy are kept in open for want of sufficient storage. The answer to such problem lies in the involvement of private sector for which the government enacted three farm Acts which many gullible people could not understand neither the government could convince the farmers and ultimately were scarified at the altar of politics. The government could negotiate with the farmers to bringing farm laws to free the farmers from several restrictions on sale, movement and storage of farm produce as also innovative ‘Bhawanter scheme’ to pay the difference of sale price and MSP to farmers. Large warehouses and cold storage need to be made all over India to help farmers to store their commodities. The private sector should be given subsidy to create such facilities and also how to innovate to bring private sector for increasing the productivity of farming of small and marginal farmers. Many private companies are already tying up with farmers for contract farming and they should be incentivised. Further like for oilseeds and pulses cooperative federations like National Agriculture Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) could be engaged with farmers directly.
The net sown area has decreased today to 139.9 million ha from 143 million ha in 2010 due to diversion of land but the population has increased to 140 crore. The government must think of bringing an Act on the line of Forest Conservation Act 1980 to prevent diversion of good agriculture land. In fact a land use policy should be framed and earmark land for other developmental purposes as many farmers are happy to give land for other purposes due to subsistence agriculture. The government must devise schemes for making these farmers productive. One of the schemes could be to bear 75 percent insurance premium for small and marginal farmers. As for stubble burning the govt should ask the industries to make changes in the harvesters so that the stubble burning is tackled.
The farmers’ problems are difficult but not insurmountable provided the government put all its energy, knowledge and wisdom in finding viable solutions and at the same time farmers’ leadership should talk logic and is genuinely interested in solving the problems. The country must see beyond MSP in sorting out farming conundrum and farmer leaders must understand that they should not lose the support of public by asking for unreasonable demands. The wheat and Rice MSP syndrome in Punjab introduced when India was reeling under food scarcity has neglected oil seed and pulses and heavy use of pesticides and ground water is rendering soil unproductive and the way ground water is being used due to free electricity is leading us to no production situation in not too distant a future in Punjab and Haryana as the ground water sources are drying up. The farmers’ leaders as well as administrators must think of this imbalance and Punjab must diversify the farming and the use of resources if the agriculture and food security has to remain sustainable in the long term. Farmers and negotiators attention is drawn to the proverb ‘where there is a will there is a way’ depicting the story of a parrot that got out of the cage due to sheer will power. Let us all jointly put farming back on track.
(The writer was Principal Secretary Agriculture and animal husbandry under govt of Tripura)
