Topic - Farm loan waiver is no solution for farmers in distress

Role - Social activist

According to me, farm loan waiver is not a solution to ease the farmers in distress. It is just a
political gimmick to gain votes. Waiving off farm loans does not address any the grave situation
our farmers are in. Instead, it is wastage of the honest taxpayers’ money. These farm loan
waivers do not help farmers in any regard. Instead, such waivers make our farmers dependent
and helpless. I would request all the state Governments to not consider the demands for loan
waivers.

Having said that, I will also not forget my duties as a social activist. I extend my support to the
agitating farmers for their rights, given that they resort to a peaceful way of protest. I myself am
a farmer, and completely understand the grievances of my brothers and sisters. I am willing to
mediate between the state Govt and the farmers, if asked to do so. Peaceful way of protesting for
one’s rights, or Satyagraha is a birthright of all. Farmers must get an assurance on price of their
agricultural produce based on expenses incurred by them on production. This demand has
always been neglected by all the past governments. This country is an agrarian economy, and
the farmers’ issues need to be taken seriously by the Governments.

My argument against farm loan waivers is an opinion backed by facts.

Why is it a bad solution?

 Size of 67% of India's farms → below 1 hectare

 this size is not optimal for ensuring higher investment to raise productivity and income
=> endless subsidies cannot resolve farmers' problems
 For perspective,
o 25 lakh people employed in agriculture in the US produce enough for the US and
more:
o They have had a trade surplus in agriculture for at least the last 50 years.
o If Indian farmers’ per person output were similar to the US, India would need
only 88 lakh farmers (just 3.3 per cent of the 26 crore it has now).
 call for repeated farm waivers is a sign that farmers need to get out of farming when
they can → government’s duty to aid this change, not retard it. Politicians should stop
pandering to a diminishing vote bank.
o there has simply been too much concern for keeping unviable farm businesses
alive by extending unsustainable artificial support and subsidies instead of
hastening their demise and helping the victims move to paying jobs with a
future.
o For example : The Fadnavis government estimates the cost of a farm loan waiver
at over Rs 30,000 crore;
 Consider how many new jobs this kind of investment can create if
farmers and farm hands are instead coaxed to sell their land, learn new
skills, and move into rural and urban jobs in industry and services?
 Farmers selling land would not only get a good price in today’s
conditions, but also help create more jobs by enabling investments in
rural and urban infrastructure.
 Root cause for stagnation in farm incomes :
o slowing demand for food, rising agricultural { productivity ->access to markets
(roads), information (phones) and automation (electricity, machines) improving
substantially in the last decade }
o Vicious cycle creates other problems
 nearly half of India’s households seeing anaemic income growth →
demand for mass-consumption products like soaps and detergents
weakens
 60% construction jobs in rural areas → exacerbates the problem since
these households won't add more rooms to their houses
 As farmers are generally the largest buyers of farmland (a form of saving
they prefer), this is also likely to depress land prices, hurting wealth
perceptions.
o Very likely the common theme behind spate of protests by agricultural
communities in the last two years → Jats in Haryana, the Patels in Gujarat and
the Marathas in Maharashtra.
o They were all protesting for government jobs: Given that nearly two-thirds of all
salaried jobs in rural India are with the government or government-owned
organisations, this is not surprising.