Farmers keep losing confidence in administration

As 2019 comes nearer, the lip service in favour of greater benefits for the farmers has come to the forefront. Whether it is rallies or advertisements, suddenly the farmers have taken the centre stage. The

critics of the Central Government allege that it has actually harmed the cause of the farmers in their time of crisis and this feeling is spreading fast at the grassroots level.

There has been a tendency towards lack of appropriate political will in enforcing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to benefit the rural poor, including the farm labourers. There was an unsuccessful attempt to undo the MGNREGS by drying up funds and erratic release of funds. This led to an undesirable situation of unpaid wages even to cases covered by the MGNREGS.

The promise, held out by the Government during the election that brought them to power, was one to ensure a 50-per cent profit over and above the farmers’ cost of production. Strangely, the Government of India submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court refusing to implement this promise on the ground that it would

“distort” the agricultural market. Under the pressure from organisations, including those of farmers, the Government shifted the goalpost in the Budget of 2018 by altering the definition of cost of production for the purpose of computing the Minimum Support Price (MSP).

 The alterations were against the farmers’ interest and took away the cushion that the recommendation of the Swaminathan Committee had, after deliberations, carved out. The recent hike in the MSP is on the lower side compared to the year-on-year increase as per the disclosures of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government in 2008-09. Non-implementation and inappropriate implementation of MSP compelled the farmers to undertake distress sale of Kharif and Rabi crops in 2017-18 to the tune of Rs 50,000 crore.

These are illustrative of the plight of farmers in the hands of the national policy makers and enforcers. In its 2014 election manifesto, the BJP held out an assurance of “highest priority to agricultural growth, increase in farmers’ income and rural development”.

It is interesting to note from the Government of India’s Economic Survey of 2018 that farmers’ real income has “remained stagnant”, the growth having been as low as 1.9% over four years. In terms of GDP share, investment in agriculture has not materialised and has rather declined. 

The Much-publicised Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana does not increase the proportion of farmers entitled to the benefit. It does not also ensure a fair deal to them. In yet another illustration, there was a promise of “welfare measures” for farmers above 60, small farmers and farm labourers.

The laws relating to marketing of agricultural produce were not reformed inter alia incorporating suitable built-in measures to ensure due diligence in delivery of agro products. It is also alleged that the policy of National Land Use was never formulated. The “welfare measures”, therefore, were not implemented.

The Union Government has been a little sloppy and callous during the droughts of 2014-15 and 2015-16. Strangely, its action was limited to a revision in the eligibility cap for compensation and, alongside, there was a routine rise in the compensation amount, which includes cuts in the contribution to States from the National Disaster Relief Fund. We are grateful to the Supreme Court for giving a necessary boost to the Government, but for which the Government was not taking any active steps in terms of declaration of drought, improvement in ration delivery or response to drinking water needs. These items clearly figure in the drought manuals of the concerned departments. This occasioned the Supreme Court reprimanding to Centre for an obviously neglectful conduct.

If looked from another angle, there was no MSP for potato in 2014. Similar is the situation regarding the import of sugar from Pakistan. The Government’s policies were against the interest of farmers. Farm exports have received a cold shoulder leading to a decline in agricultural exports from $43 billion in 2013-14 to $33 billion in 2016-17. The insensitive import of lentil, wheat, chana and milk powder has caused crashing in crop prices. This worked contrary to the interests of local farmers.

Adivasi farmers receive a step-motherly treatment in most of their activities. There have been a persistent attempt by the Central Government to dilute the Forest Rights Act and other environmental and forest conservation laws. This has resulted in transfer of common land and water resources of Adivasis to corporate industries.

A bolt-from-the-blue and haphazardly-implemented policy of demonetisation had a serious negative impact on agricultural markets, including vegetable and fruit. Having suffered the consecutive years of drought, the farmers faced a cash crunch caused by demonetisation. Needless to say that agro product transactions are dominantly through cash. The cash crunch further occasioned demand contraction leading to fall in prices.

This has its adverse effects on the farmers. The Union Government has made several attempts to bring in an Ordinance in order to nullify certain key provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013. The attempt has been to snatch away the minimal concessions granted to the farmers after lapse of more than a century. The deviations from the law have been manipulated for land acquisition from the National Highways Authority of India; and some State Governments have been allowed to annul the contents benefitting the land-owning farmers of the 2013 Act. This has not been a pro-farmer move on the part of the Central Government.

The Government’s assurances and acts are belied by the implementation in real terms. Suicide by farmers has not attracted sufficient attention to remedy the defects in the rural debt structure. The social

security granted to the farming community is utterly inadequate. Proper irrigation facilities are still a far cry in most of the states like Odisha.

The fighting over existing water is boiling and has gone to the streets and the courts. The farming community feels betrayed by the powers that be. It is disheartening that there is an increasing lack of confidence on the part of the farming community in the present administrative setup.

 Well-packaged policies require proper implementation and, in the absence thereof, the lofty ideals of the policies will remain in paper. A social change requires political grit and will. There is enough grit at the moment, but the will towards the condition of the farming community does not have sufficient force.

The issues discussed above are matters of concern for all of us, for the provider of food, which, if ignored, can lead to maladies in the social order. The youth power must now fan out and devise an agenda for agriculture, which must be implemented with proper vigil and due diligence.

(The writer, a Senior Advocate, is a former All India Service officer, a former diplomat, a former editor, a former President of Orissa High Court Bar Association and a former Advocate General of Odisha. jayantdas@hotmail.com)