Shubham Mehta
There has been a spurt of activities in the recent past in quick succession albeit they were not stand-alone or let’s say unique but rather a peculiar feature of Indian democracy. Just a few days ago, a group of infuriating, discontented and agitated adults held a long march from Nasik in Maharashtra to state capital, only to be joined soon by fellow professionals from different parts of the state. In the second instance, Supreme Court delivered a verdict delineating the distribution of Cauvery river water amongst the respective upper and lower riparian states in a more holistic manner. The most notable and perhaps a significant aspect that would act as footnote to such future judgements in inter-state river water disputes is the consideration of groundwater along with surface water in making the distribution. The verdict has met with varied reception from different stakeholders and unfortunately Parliament had to face the brunt of these hostilities via logjam. In an another instance, a true Satyagrahi who once fought bravely to pursue authorities to introduce Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, has once again took the centre stage at Delhi. But this time with an additional demand(other than appointment of Lokpal) to take up the issue of distress of farmers on priority lest many more throw themselves in the pyre of loan default and subsequently end up taking their lives. And one can also not forget the protests of farmers from Tamil Nadu with skulls, bones and dead skeletons at Delhi last year. Now if we look closely at these movements, we notice a common thread that binds together all these protests. Unequivocally, the farmer is the protagonist with his uncertain farm productivity and dependency on rainfall, which during lean season is sufficient to push him into debt trap and eventually, poverty. Period.
The PM’s vision of ‘New India’ has a prime objective of doubling the income of farmers by 2022. Certainly if India has to move from low middle income group to higher middle income group and reduce the level of poverty in the country vis Ramesh Tendulkar’s poverty line estimates, the country needs to provide enough to the 60 per cent population of the country dependent on agriculture. Nonetheless the government had set up a committee under Ashok Dalwai to suggest ways to double the income of the farmers. It has recently submitted its report and calls for a holistic approach to serve as a panacea to the ills faced by the farmers by adopting ‘farm gate to fork’ development policy.
The foremost challenge that the farmer of our country are facing is with respect to irrigation facilities. And indeed very appropriately put forth by an eminent expert that India has created sufficient number of dams but not provided for adequate number of irrigation channels to draw this water to the farms. And rightly so that even after 70 years of our independent existence, we have been able to provide limited irrigation facilities such that 60 per cent of our famers are still dependent on rainfall for irrigation. Given that 70 per cent of the total rainfall is received through south-west monsoon, any climatic change due to El-Nino or other factors, put these dependent livelihoods in jeopardy. In addition, the economic survey 2017-18 has thrown the policymakers in a fix as it mentioned that well-irrigated areas are less prone to reduced productivity but are more prone to inundation during floods. And hence we need two pronged approach, where on one side we work to ensure farm connectivity to irrigation canals, and simultaneously develop such infrastructure to reduce the vulnerability of these farms to floods. The government has launched PM Krishi Sinchayee yojana along with Accelerated irrigation benefit program to work on the former aspect. In addition, creation of small check dams, farm ponds and embankments by taking the services of MGNREGA to reduce the catastrophic effect of floods. The farm ponds would serve as reservoirs during floods, help in recharging of groundwater and supply water to the farms during dry spells. And to augment the personal individual farm infrastructure, govt announced KUSUM yojana in this year budget I.e. Kisan Urja Suraksha exam Uthhaan Mahaabhiyan. This scheme would promote solar power production and operationalisation of solar water pumps while ensuring that excess electricity is bought by DISCOMs.
One other problem in this sector is the indiscriminate extraction and exploitation of groundwater which is continuously receding to record low levels. And this unchecked extraction is disturbing the environmental balance also because soil nutrition and its fertility is eroding, runoff water with high nutritional content is reaching waterbodies impinging on the aquatic ecosystem and causing eutrophication. This coupled with indiscriminate use of fertilisers and pesticides on the unfound premise that higher usage of fertilisers results in greater productivity is potent for human health. Realising this, the govt has come up with Soil health cards to enable farmers to understand the appropriate crops which are best suited, appropriate fertilisers and its quantity and irrigation requirements of their respective farm fields. In addition, the idea to coat the urea with neem is a laudable step to enable slow diffusion of nitrogen in the soil and prevent the diversion of urea, meant for farmers, to the industries. And keeping in tandem with rising per capita income and the ability of the consumers to purchase Organic farm produce which provides them safety against synthetic fertilisers, the govt is aggressively pursuing ParamParagat Krishi Vikas Yojana to promote organic farming in the country. Furthermore, the Gobardhan scheme-Galvanising Organic bio-agro resources Dhan- will ensure that farm waste, municipal waste and cow dung is put to an appropriate use by catering to the energy needs and manure requirements of the farmers.
A startling characteristic of USA’s agriculture is that only 2 per cent population is committed to agriculture and it not only produces sufficient food grains for the food security of the nation but also surplus to enable it to export to the world market. How does it achieve so? It has become possible due of the mechanisation of the farm sector which increases the rate of sowing, harvesting and threshing while reducing the labor requirement on the field. But India presents an altogether different story since 93 per cent of our farmers are marginal, small and medium farmers with landholdings less than 4 hectares which is further reducing due to inter-generational bifurcations of family property. These marginal and small farmers do not have enough incentive to invest in heavy machinery and their produce is primarily meant for subsistence or, if possible, for sale in the local market. Only 7 per cent farmers are able to buy heavy machinery to improve productivity of their fields and be able to produce sufficient for exports or for entering into contract with retail and e-commerce entities. Hence as a way out to this menace, small and marginal farmers can pool their land, enter into cooperative farming and congregate enough sum to enable mechanisation of the fields. Later such cooperative approach will benefit them at the time of marketing their produce by leveraging their bargaining power in the Mandis. Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) can come forward to lend sufficient credit for long-term to enable mechanisation and assuring dignified purchase price for their produce. Govt has announced sops for FPOs in this year budget as well, keeping this in mind.
So now after having put in a lot of hardwork, drenching themselves in sweat under scorching sun and braving the rains and storms to work in the fields, farmers are now ready to harvest their crops and sell it to the prospective buyers. But what if some untimely rainfall, flood or hailstorm plunders their crops when they are about to harvest it? Perhaps that was a dilemma many farmers were facing earlier and therefore preventing themselves to take additional risk of investing in mechanisation or sowing more area than what they would usually do lest they find themselves fishing in the turbulent waters. And therefore government realised it opportune to come up with Centrally sponsored PM Fassal Bima Yojana which stands unique vis earlier such schemes. Under this, farmers are supposed to pay only 2 per cent, 1.5 per cent and 5 per cent of their estimated production value respectively for Kharif, Rabi and commercial crops. The remaining premium is paid by the govt and there is no cap on the amount of sum insured. It covers both pre and post harvest losses.
On the other hand, if everything goes as planned, but unknowingly there might be a bumper production of the crop which a particular farmer has grown. So a natural followup consequence would be lower return on the harvested crop, sometimes even lower than the cost of the production. And so govt announces Minimum Support Prices(MSP) before every sowing season on the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices(CACP). This, while preventing farmers from distress sales, also helps govt in procuring necessary food grains for public stockholding-to be sold later through Fair price shops. In this year’s budget, govt has assured farmers MSP which would be 1.5 times the cost of their production. Also when farmers leave out for sale of their produce, they can sell it to nearby warehouses registered with Warehousing regulatory and development authority and receive Negotiable Warehousing Receipt (NWRs) for their crop. This helps them to raise credit form commercial and cooperative banks in addition to the fact that these receipts remain transferrable. The govt has also come up with e-National Agriculture market allowing farmers to get better return on their produce by selling it to any buyer located in any part of the country by linking approx 450 agriculture produce market committees(APMCs) and not necessarily to the nearby APMC Mandi only. Changes have also been brought out to model APMC Act to allow farmers to directly sell their produce to big retail outlets and corporate entities without necessarily routing their produce through registered agents of APMCs. And most urgently, to protect the farmer from competition from the imported crops, the Indian govt has arrange for Special Safeguarding Mechanisms (SSMs) along with other developing countries. This allows them to adequately raise import duty on some crops to save indigenous farmers from undue competition from export-subsidy availed crops from developed countries.
The challenges at the time of marketing the crops are two-pronged: on one side, these are the farmers who needs to be safeguarded while on the other hand, the consumer needs to be protected from price volatility and peak in crop prices. The govt ensures this through administrative controls and other policy mechanisms. It prevents hoarding of food grains by dealers by invoking suitable provisions under Essential commodities act, 1955. The govt had also set up price stabilisation fund in 2014-15 to check the price volatility of potato, onion and pulses. It, in addition, utilises this fund amount to procure the aforementioned crops for buffer stock. And at the time of urgency, govt also conducts Open Market operations of all the buffer food stock including wheat and rice, in domestic market to maintain optimum level of supply in the regular market. And when the production for any given season remains low and the prices show an upward tendency, the govt imposes export restrictions by setting in place minimum export prices, below which no produce could be exported. The Indian govt has also signed MOUs with various countries like Mozambique to ensure optimum flow of pulses and other food crops in the domestic market.
Furthermore, Food Processing Industries have an important role to play in providing higher return to farmers, improve nutritional value of the food crops and in reducing wastage of farm produce. In an attempt to double the income of the farmers, govt has launched SAMPADA scheme-Scheme for Agro-marine processing and development of agro-processing clusters-that serves as an umbrella scheme for this sector by subsuming all important schemes like Mega Food Park Schema and cold storage facilities et al. The Mega Food Park Scheme is based on “Cluster” approach and envisages creation of state-of-the-art support infrastructure in a well-defined agri/horticultural zone for setting up of modern food processing units along with well-established supply chain.
But an important questions that needs to be raised upfront is that if plenty of schemes and welfare measure are already underway and existing today, then why do our farmers face difficulties during different stages of their production and marketing process? The answer stands readily available that they don’t have adequate knowledge about these schemes or the process involved in availing the benefits of these schemes. So what is the way forward? PM Modi has mentioned in his last Mann ki baat that DD Kisan Channel is an important resource platform for farmers along with Kisan Call Centres. In addition, we can take the services of NCC cadets, NSS workers and National Youth corps and call them our foot-soldiers or civil-infantry brigade, in promulgation of necessary information to the targeted farmers. It is completely alright to come to terms with the fact that state or per se, district administration might not be endowed with enough human resource and manpower to be able to provide information on the frequently tweaked govt policies to the farmers in person and this is where our foot soldiers can take the necessary lead. An innovative idea is to print these schemes on the last page of the notebooks given to the school kids under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan(just like Classmate Notebooks with facts). This would enable easy dissemination of objective of the schemes at the doorsteps of farmers.
Having said and discussed the necessary means to double the income of the farmers, it is important to realise that we cannot allow 60 per cent of the population to rely in perpetuity on low-skilled sector like agriculture, if India were to improve its standing from low middle income group to upper middle income and subsequently rich income countries. Many researchers have been putting forth their ideas on how to reduce this dependency and recently International Food Policy and Research Institute (IFPRI) chief said that India needs to adopt “move out, move up” scheme for its farmers. Hey dded that it is important to address farmers’ problems. Most of the hungry people in the world are farmers. The first response is to increase productivity and production. But there is a problem there. When every one is producing more, the prices will go down and we have seen that in India, China and everywhere. For India, some farmers have to move to cities and urban centres. Those who stay behind will be able to increase the holding and move to producing high value food, that will create new opportunities. That is the ‘move out, move up’ approach. In addition, the govt needs to come up with model contract farming legislation to ensure that farmers can enter into contract with big corporate entities without losing their rights and ownership over their landholdings. Meanwhile they can move to manufacturing sector, acquire necessary skills and gain an additional income.
Furthermore, the govt should consider the family as the unit instead of focusing on the individual farmer only. Hence SHG-bank linkage program can be given necessary impetus which would provide for easy credit availability. Here women folks of the family can take the lead. In order to keep the demand of products in rural areas at optimum level, the govt needs to push forth for establishment of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) industries in rural areas. Schemes like MUDRA Yojana or standup India have a significant role to play here. The youth in the rural areas can be provided employment opportunities through Deep Dayal Upadhyay-National Rural Livelihood mission.
Further, MGNREGA is here to stay to augment family income and provide women with employment opportunities. And as economic survey also mentions that feminisation of agriculture is underway and so we need to digitise the land records and allow for availing credit through rent agreements. PRAGATI scheme is also ensuring that records are digitised on a mission mode under the direct supervision of Chief Secretaries of the states. Incorporating the suggestions of B. Meenakumari committee on deep sea fishing to further augment the farmer’s income is also worth considering. Livestock rearing, aquaculture and dairying are also some of the means to provide succour to the distressed farmers.
(The author is a graduate of Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences, Pilani)
