Ahead of the state going to polls on December 7, a Moneycontrol team visited the district farmer's market to interact with traders as well as farmers
Bikaner district, in the western part of Rajasthan, is famous for its bhujia and namkeen all across the world. But what not many people may be aware of is that the district is also known for its production of chana and groundnut crops. More than 33 percent of chana production in the state comes from Bikaner alone.
Ahead of the state going to polls on December 7, the Moneycontrol team visited the district farmer's market to interact with traders as well as farmers. There is happiness over the new minimum support price, but most complained about the lack of infrastructure for procuring crops and corruption of government officers.
A middle-aged farmer, Rameshwar, who came to sell groundnut at the mandi, told Moneycontrol, “The government has increased minimum selling price of commodities, which is good. However, they have put a limit of 25 quintals of groundnut per farmer, which is creating problems. Since the average acreage of each farmer is not less than 100 to 200 quintals, farmers have to either sell their remaining produce to local traders or get a government certification for the crops, and officials seek money for the same."
Sanjay Padiwal, who is in commodity trading for the last two decades, told Moneycontrol, “The government has introduced favourable policies for farmers in the last five years. However, farmers are not able to reap the benefits due to lack of infrastructure and conservative ways of selling the commodities. Since a lot of them have already taken advances for their crop from local traders, which is known as 'arditiya’, farmers are not able to sell their crops to government agencies, which gives higher rates compared to these traders. However, it takes 2-3 months for money to arrive from government sources while local traders make payments in a week’s time. However, all said and done, increasing MSP increases rates of commodities, which is good for farmers."
A veteran trader, during our conversation with Padiwal, told Moneycontrol that after this MSP increase move, farmers at least come at the level of break-even.
Another farmer, who wished to remain unnamed, spoke at length about corruption in government offices — from the village level to government offices. He told us that it starts right from the patwari level, when farmers go and ask for “girdawari”. Girdawari is a certificate about area-wise crops they farmed last year. "After taking the certificate, we come to the mandi for selling, but our commodities are not accepted, not without bribes to officials. If we refuse to pay, we have to wait for 2-3 days, but it is a costly affair to stay in Bikaner for that long," the farmer said.
He added that the government tried to rectify this problem, but online processes make it difficult and most farmers are either unable to register or come to the mandi on the allotted day.
Jay Dayal Dudi, a young trader at the mandi, spoke about the real issues of farmers and traders. He told Moneycontrol, “The government should implement 'bhaavantar' scheme in Rajasthan, just like they did in Madhya Pradesh, which allows farmers to sell to anybody. The government can also use the direct benefit transfer scheme for sending money. Another way is the government sends money to electricity department or banks directly to clear farmer dues. On one hand, farmers will get proper prices — MSP is Rs 3,000 and farmer sells at Rs 2,500. The remaining Rs 500 can be transferred by the government via DBT. Farmers just need sale buy-sell deed." He added, "We raised this issue and shut down the mandi for seven days. However, no fruitful results came out," he added.
Moneycontrol wanted to find out more about the condition of farmers in Bikaner district. The team moved to Jamasar village, which is on Sri Ganganagar Road. The Indira Gandhi canal passes by this route.
In this village, farmers have small acreage and most are happy with the increase in MSP. They are happy that they have got toilets at home, courtesy government schemes. One Muslim priest told Moneycontrol, “We are happy with the work of Narendra Modi ji and farmers also acknowledge the government's move to increase income of farmers via MSP." He added that other facilities had also improved in the last five years, including electricity and water conditions.
However, some villagers are not happy with the mob-lynching activities by BJP workers in the state. One farmer said, “Sometimes, bulls enter our farms and destroy crops. But now, the atmosphere is such that we are scared to even chase them away. We don’t know what action will be taken against us, since we belong to the minority community." However, he did add that income had increased over the last five years.
Bikaner is also known for political pundits and the tradition of ‘patta'. Our team interacted with some pundits who said, "The condition of BJP has improved now and the party could easily win four out of seven seats in the district. The remaining three seats may also witness a neck-and-neck fight."Assembly Elections 2018: Read the latest news, views and analysis here
