Farmers Agitation: Government Must Listen to Farmers and then Bring in Reforms

While reforms in the agriculture sector are overdue, it cannot be done without talking to the stakeholders and keeping their interests over everything else, says VIPIN PUBBY.

———

Even the worst critics of prime minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party, and even the farm experts, agree that agricultural reforms are long due and that these are important to raise the economic status of the farmers. Similarly, even supporters of the ruling dispensation agree, of course privately, that the mishandling of the issue regarding the new farm laws should have been avoided.

We have come a long way from the days of starvation deaths and survival on food-grains from the United States of America when it was a "ship to mouth" situation in the country. Cargo ships bringing wheat from that country would make it to the front pages of newspapers even though the quality of grains was rather poor.

The green revolution changed all that and we have a situation now in which we have overflowing granaries. So much so that our buffer stocks are three times more than what is considered an optimum amount of national reserves.

There is the problem of plenty now as the nation is finding it difficult to find enough storage and large amounts of stocks are being eaten away by pests or getting damaged by the vagaries of nature.

All this has been possible due to the hard work put in by our farmers aided by the modern technology introduced in the country. Yet the plight of the farmers has only worsened even as the country has progressed in various fields.

Well known agriculture expert Devender Sharma points out that while farmers were denied their rightful income, huge salary jumps were provided to other sections of the society.

From a monthly salary of Rs 90 per month in 1970, the salary of school teachers for instance jumped by 280-320 times by the year 2015, during a period of 45 years.

In the same period, the salary of government employees went up by 120-150 times and that of college professors by 150-170 times.

However, the income of farmers increased by only 19 times during the same period. Then there is the problem of huge debts that the farmers are burdened with. The distress is reflected in the estimated 10,000 cases of suicide every year.

These shocking figures indicate why urgent agriculture reforms are required. While the green revolution boosted agriculture, particularly in the erstwhile greater Punjab, it has also led to several adverse side effects. These include the huge depletion of water table in some areas and heavy use of pesticides and insecticides besides artificial fertilisers.

Apart from the Green Revolution, which has adversely affected the economic status of the farmers is the continuous division of agricultural land among families. This has led to smaller and unviable farms. That's also one reason why an average farmer is not able to purchase modern pieces of equipment for agriculture and even dealing with stubble.

It has been suggested time and again that agriculture in the states of Punjab and Haryana must start moving out of the wheat-paddy cycle and diversification of crops including cultivation of cash crops must be given priority.

Successive governments have announced minor initiatives from time to time like the "farm to fork" scheme but no comprehensive strategy has been evolved to take the bull by its horns.

Haryana has introduced a good scheme but that too needs to widen its base. Under this scheme, any farmer moving away from paddy and wheat would be provided a compensation of Rs 7,000 per acre. It is inadequate but it is definitely a scheme that needs to be financed and encouraged by the Centre.

While it is believed that one of the major and immediate reasons for bringing in agriculture reforms was the pressure by the corporates and also the fact that the Food Corporation of India which procures wheat and rice at MSP was running into losses of Rs 3.5 lakh crores, there is no denying that the reforms were long due.

Yet, the manner in which the government used the opportunity during the COVID-19 pandemic without consulting farm experts and other stakeholders, has left much to be desired.

In its rush to get the bills passed in Parliament, the complete disdain shown by the government by not consulting with the farmers were some of the blunders that the government committed.

The current farmers' agitation has to be diffused amicably.

However, it is highly desirable that agricultural reforms must be ushered in not only for the benefit of farmers but for the country as a whole.

(Vipin Pubby is a former resident editor of The Indian Express, Chandigarh. The views are personal.)