Farmers across the nation are at the receiving end of governmental apathy. This is so even as the Union Government has come up with a promise to double their income by year 2022.
The hard fact is that farmers’ income across the country grew only by 5 per cent per year over the span of the past decade, while the cost of living shot up and the cost of farm inputs too rose substantially. According to some reliable sources, inputs shot up by nearly 40 per cent.
The disruption of the market mechanisms as a result of various governmental steps such as demonetisation added to their problems. Loan waiver announced by some state governments at the height of reports about farmer suicides, following crop failures and due to lack of rains and other causes, has helped them only to a small extent.
Past the green revolution, the white revolution, the yellow revolution and the blue revolution, all of them have had some positive impact on the agriculture sector but the plight of the Indian farmer has not improved substantially except in the cases of large farmers whose number is relatively small and region/state specific.
India ranks second in world farm output; and this sector engages over 50 per cent of the nation’s workforce. It is probably the largest private enterprise of this nation. It is also the largest contributor to the GDP roving around 15 per cent.
Nearly 60 per cent of the households across the country depend on agriculture for their daily sustenance. Hence, the agriculture sector’s importance cannot be under-estimated. As Mahatma Gandhi famously stated, India lives in its villages. Despite the large-scale urbanisation that resulted in mass migration to urban centres, Gandhi’s words still hold true. Rural economy is sustained principally, if not wholly, from farm income.
Against this backdrop, fact is also that over 12,000 farmer suicides take place in this country every year, as per official figures since 2013. All this on account of crop loss and resultant failure to repay agricultural loans. Governmental agencies have a provision to write off loans in the event of such calamities.
But, most low and medium-scale farmers do not get any government agencies to lend them the money they need at specific time frame. Thus they depend on loan sharks and end up either working as slaves themselves or ending their lives as and when they are unable to pay back the money they took to raise crops.
The governmental schemes to help farmers are riddled with problems. For instance, complaints are that the PM Fasal Bima Yojana has not been of much help yet as its benefits have not reached even 20 per cent of the small and marginal farmers. The Centre, it was alleged recently, had parked thousands of crores meant for the scheme with private insurance companies, and that these firms have not been coming to the help of the needy farmers.
Even when crop yields are good, marketing mechanisms are not being of help to farmers. Middlemen play spoilsport with the system and make hay as is the standard practice in every field of business in this country.
Middlemen are part of the system, and they cannot altogether be wished away. It is this group of people which was one of the worst affected by economic decisions such as demonetisation. When the middle man vanished due to shortage of cash, the farmer was thrown to the wolves.
Along with this, governmental efforts were found wanting in regulating the agriculture produce collection, supply and sale chain in ways as to reach substantial benefits to farmers. Agricultural produce marketing agencies set up at the initiative of the government in several states are also proving to be of virtually no help to farmers as they are overloaded with vested interests.
Hence the big difference between what a farmer gets for a produce and what a consumer pays for it in the market. Effective governmental intervention could make a big and positive difference but sadly that is lacking.
To just claim that India is the second largest country in the matter of farm produce alone will not be of help to boost the rural or farm economy. Loan waivers by itself will also not be of much help. Efforts at increasing the per-hectare yield for various crops, as is successfully done even in small nations such as Israel, are urgently needed.
Along with boosting production, there is immediate need to rethink on the policy of farm produce pricing. Unless and until the farmer gets a reasonably attractive income, development can never be ínclusive’.
Once the farmer has personal cash, the scenario is bound to change. Government need not bother with detailed infrastructure construction after that is achieved. Services such as top class medicare, education, transport, entertainment and all related urban facilities will be available at any place where there is wealth to spend. That has been the natural course of human economic development history.
Unfortunately, planners, politicians, bureaucrats and the benefited class in India have all, united and consistently, been trying to keep the farmer impoverished. It is incomprehensible as to how and why political agenda has always veered off from dealing with issues related to agricultural distress.
When a good crop directly affects the Sensex, we in this country prefer to believe the farmer is an unnecessary appendage on society. This is probably a major reason why most efforts at economic development of this country have failed miserably. It is, of course, important for a welfare state to take care and feed its poor. It is more important to teach the citizens how to work and earn for themselves.