HARE KRISHNA

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CAUSES FOR FARM DISTRESS

The Swaminathan Commission identified certain causes for farm distress. These are:
 Unfinished agenda in land reform
 Quantity and quality of water
 Technology fatigue
 Access, adequacy and timeliness of institutional credit
 Opportunities for assured and remunerative marketing
 Adverse meteorological factors aggravate these problems
The commission concluded that farmers needed to have assured access and control
over basic resources including land, water, bio-resources, credit and insurance,
technology and knowledge management, and markets.
Monsoon and markets are the two major problems. Today governments talk about
announcement of the minimum support price (MSP). But unfortunately, procurement
is very poor. You have to have minimum support price. You have to have public
procurement and public distribution.
One of the major problems in India is the concentration of land in very few
hands. Except for a few states, land reforms are still incomplete. But you go
beyond the concept of land reforms and suggest reforms in terms of assets,
including water. How significant is that for a country like India?
Land reform was talked about even when I was student of at agriculture college. Two
states that implemented it somewhat are Kerala and West Bengal, mainly because
of the communist governments. In Kerala, I had some land that was gone. I did not
mind giving it up as long as a farmer took it. Even in the Farmers’ Commission
report, land reform was one among pending items. It does not mean just
redistribution of land, but also the surety of jobs for landless labourers, who should
not be thrown out. Because when we talk about agriculture, we do not talk about
landless labourers and women.
Asset reform is premised on the fact that agriculture requires not only land, but also
water, electricity, ground water utilisation, technology that is environmentally sound
and marrying of ecology with technology development. Usually, people think that
land reform means just giving land to the people. What will they do? They have given
land to Gujjars in Kashmir, for example. They do not know how to farm the land. So,
you should give them training. Ours is a holistic package. Land is just a fragment.
Land reforms should be expanded to asset reforms.
free trade agreements and deregulation of import restrictions affect farming?
You recommended an Indian trade organisation. What is the need for it?
officials want to whitewash the suicides.
A person commits suicide when he or she can see no other way. I wrote a lot about
it.
 Unfortunately, social protection has also gone down. We all know who is in despair
and who is likely to commit suicide. Yet nobody helps them, not even the
government. Everywhere there are only individual interests and private interests.
We need international trade agreements. there should be green box subsidies for
livelihood security, just as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has other green box
provisions. In 1992, I’d recommended a livelihood security box for those whose
livelihood is in agriculture. Ours is a livelihood industry. In America, it is a commercial
industry, money-making industry. There is difference in agriculture in India and in
some other developing country. In industrial countries, agriculture is one more
profession to make money. Here it is basic livelihood.
I recommended an Indian Trade Organisation because we should have our own
policies of trade that are based upon the viabilities of farming and food security. We
are a large country with a huge population. And we should have our own policies.
Influencing the WTO beyond an extent is not possible.
P Sainath has reported several painful incidents of women farmers, who have
committed suicide but haven’t been recognised as such because their names
are not there in the patta (land document). Against the background of ‘an
increasing feminisation of agriculture’, you introduced the Women Farmers’
Entitlements Bill in Rajya Sabha on May 11, 2012. How important is the legal
recognition of women farmers?
Legal recognition of women farmers is very important. Women constitute the major
part of our farmers. Without addressing the issues of women farmers, agriculture will
not be sustainable. Land title ownership of women is also very important.
One of the main ideas that inspired the Green Revolution was self-reliance. But

Managing food security

On July 1, the government may have about 24.8 million tonnes of rice and 46.3
million tonnes of wheat. So, extra allocation of wheat and rice to drought hit areas
can easily be made by the Centre.

Thus, food security of the drought-hit population will not be difficult to manage
through the public distribution system, arranging drinking water and fodder supply
in vast expanse of rural areas is not easy. In several districts, fodder will have to be
transported even from other states and we do not know what will happen to stray
cattle!

Low prices for most crops in the last four years were caused by demonetisation and
global downturn of prices. Private trade is reluctant to stock commodities as it sees
little chance of rise in prices. Keeping the Essential Commodities Act in abeyance
for three years may help in getting private trade back in mandis, which can help lift
prices there.

Surpluses in agriculture are not yet of permanent nature. In 2018-19, as a result of

drought, India had to import cotton and maize. If monsoon turns out to be deficient
in 2019 also, as predicted by Skymet and other global models, there is a possibility
of rise in prices of pulses and quantitative restrictions on their import may require
easing. A group of ministers must be ready to enable quick decision making on
import policy and tariffs.

Water woes

For the long-term, the new government will face three major challenges. First, how
to fix the water woes of perennially drought-affected regions. Pradhan Mantri
Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) was supposed to enable completion of 99 projects
by 2019, but command area works have been completed in only six projects.
How have government policies contributed to this crisis?

The government’s functions can be understood from its two roles – (1)
investing and incentivising activities or products required for the greater
good; and (2) regulating activities which may have negative impacts.
However, presently, it has failed in both.

There are no long-term policies on use of natural resources like land/water

or biodiversity in our country (these three being primary resources for
agriculture). Not many private companies or new technologies were in play
when the 1966 Seed Act was passed. Since then, there have been no new
regulations for seeds. Much later, the PVPFR (Plant Variety Protection and
Farmers Rights Act), the Biodiversity Act etc., came into existence giving
new rights to farmers and more responsibilities to the government, but
these are not accommodated in the regulations. The new seed bill has been
pending in the parliament for the last 14 years.

The current crisis in farming is also about farmers’ incomes. 85% of

farmers have low incomes (about 5000 Rs/month/family), which have not
increased for many decades. There have been talks about moving people
out of agriculture in the last 20 years but no sector has provided any gainful
employment to people.
As a result of all of these factors — the collapse of public institutions and the
failure of the government in meeting the changing needs of farmers and
establishing necessary support systems — farmers are caught in crisis.