Farmers in India did not have a great time in the last four years. "In the last four years, agriculture GDP growth was 2.5 per cent on an average, compared to 5.2 per cent in the four years of the UPA (UPA-II). And if you take the 10 years of UPA, it would average to around 3.7 per cent," said farm economist Ashok Gulati, who was the Commissioner of Agriculture Costs and Prices during the UPA era.
The distress in farm sector is evident as Delhi awaits another farmer rally, with thousands of farmers set to walk into the heart of the capital city on November 29 and 30. The reason for this discontent is a drastic dip in rural fortunes, thanks to wrong government policies.
"Having said that I would say that the government woke up in the last one-and-a-half years to the alarming distress of farmers and took some important steps," Gulati added as he addressed the audience during a panel discussion at the launch of academic-turned-politician Yogendra Yadav's book. The book, Farmers under Modiraaj: Double income or double jeopardy, is described to be a state-de-affaires of Indian farmers under the current Modi administration. Published in Hindi, the book draws from Yadav's experience and the lessons learned, of traveling across the country in last four years, to meet farmers during drought and in its aftermath.
Gulati, who is also the Infosys Chair Professor for Agriculture at Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), said that a disconnect exists between government trade policies and farm policies. This, he said, causes distress to farmers and taxpayers alike.
To explain, Gulati cited that owing to government support for pulses, Indian farmers have grown an excessive quantity of pulses in the last two years and hence, now holds an abundant stock of the same. He also cited that the country's buffer stocks of food grains stand at a humongous 75 per cent above the normal volume—leading to large expenses for storing these food grains—and billed to the public.
In this year's Union budget, the government had earmarked Rs 169,000 crore for food subsidy. However, Food Corporation of India (FCI), which acts as the custodian for government's foodgrain buying programme, has pending payments of Rs 134,000 crore from the government, on account of expenses incurred for purchase and storage of large foodgrain buffer stocks.
"Our policies meant for farmers are actually pro-consumer policies. Price control and export restrictions have kept farmers poor," Gulati, who did his doctorate in India's farm price (Minimum Support Price) setting policy, further said. Speaking to THE WEEK on the sidelines of the event, Gulati said he sees a solution only if food subsidies are converted to direct subsidy paid to farmers. "China has done it to evade a situation like ours (storing large food stocks). They paid paddy farmers on the basis of their land holdings to not grow paddy, and diversify instead. This led to less wastage of public money and less distortion to market prices," said Gulati, who claimed that an increase in MSP affects only 26 per cent farmers, and remains overrated as a measure for farmers' income.
"In India, Telangana government is paying farmers Rs 4,000 per acre as investment support to purchase farm inputs or seeds for any crop they want to grow. We must shift our farm policies from price-driven policies to farmers' income and investment support policies. Only this can provide relief to our farmers," he explained.
Farmer leader Ajay Vir Jakhar, also a farm policy adviser to the Punjab government, shared a similar view. "In Punjab, irrigation coverage is 100 percent, purchase of food grains is prompt and done in cash. Yet, the number of farmers' suicides are yet to come down in our large agrarian state," said Jakhar. He also raised doubts on the authenticity of a recent Union government data showing a dip in farmers' suicide numbers.
Jakhar, himself a large farmer, who would be participating in the Kisan Mukti Morcha farmers' rally, said the Modi-government failed to create enough income-investment support for farmers. "Very little off-farm jobs which can support the agriculture sector were created. And that, I think, is Modi government's biggest failure," said Jakhar.
