‘IGNORE THEIR FARM SIZE, BUY POWERFUL TRACTORS ON LOAN’

HARKIRAT SINGH

Amritsar

Farmers in Punjab, as in various other parts of the country, have time and again protested over the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of crops but have made no effort to control their non farm expenditure, resulting in their falling in the debt-trap. “Without realizing that their land holdings are dropping, farmers in Punjab continue to spend heavily on weddings and social functions and on household items like television sets. washing machines, motorbikes and even cars. In the 70s a farmer with 10 acres of land could not think of having a car and at the most would buy a scooter or a bike,” says Prof S.S. Chhinna, senior fellow of the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi. Pointing out that farm incomes in Punjab fell as land holdings declined, he said that in the 1970s there were 37 per cent marginal farmers (up to 2.5 acres) and now this figure stands at 15 per cent. �is is not because they have purchased more land but due to the fact that most of them have sold land and moved to other trades or occupations as farming was no longer viable for them and supporting families became difficult. Suprisingly in Punjab the percentage of large-scale farmers (above 25 acres) is 7 as compared to the national figure of 0.7. In Punjab, 26 per cent of the cultivated area is with this category of farmers.

Farm expenditure

Referring to the farm sector expenditure, Prof Chhinna maintained that this too has rocketed in the last decade or so and added to the plight of the farming community, particularly the small (up to 5 acres) and marginal farmers. Even a person having 2 acres of land has a submersible tubewell which costs a staggering Rs 1.25 lakh to dig and install, he said while pointing out that in such a scenario the farmer will have no option but to seek a loan from an ‘arhtiya’ to whom he sells his crop. Another important factor that he pointed out was that there should be synchronization between the farm size and the tractor horse power. In Japan as the farm sizes are small, the farmers have low horse power tractors. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Punjab as here this important factor has been ignored. “In Punjab, a farmer with 10 acres of land buys a 45 HP tractor on loan when he can manage with a 10-15 HP tractor. He is unable to pay the loan installments in time and falls in the debt-trap. Marginal and small farmers and even those with up to 10 acres can get their land tilled on a rental basis as all farm implements are now available on hire or rent,” Chhinna, who retired as head of the Agriculture Department of Khalsa College, said and suggested formation of cooperatives by farmers with less than 10 acres. In Majha, the loan size per household (agricultural family) is lower than Malwa as the land holdings are lower in Majha. Due to this factor there are a lesser number of families who find themselves in a severe debt trap in Majha in comparison to their Malwa counterparts. Besides spending on tractors and tubewells, the high costs of inputs has led to fall in the profit margins of farmers. The soil has become exhausted and for this additional fertilizers, pesticides etc have to be added to maintain a good yield and this is incurring heavy expenditures which the farmers can no longer contain.

Lack of state support

According to Prof Chhinna, the farmers in Punjab will not move out of the wheat-paddy pattern until they get assured prices for other crops like oil seeds, maize, pulses, fruits and vegetables. At one point of time the area under sugarcane in the state was 1.73 lakh hectares and now it is just 88,000 hectares and may fall further if the state fails to rescue the cane growers. The main reason of farmers, particularly of the Majha area moving away from sugarcane was that they were not being paid for the cane sold to the mills. Even today, outstanding amounts running into crores are lying unpaid by the sugar mills in the state. “Diversification will be successful if the state government can assure the farmers that their veggies, fruits, oilseeds etc will be purchased at a good price and not just left to rot in mandis,” he said while pointing out that Central government’s new agri policy has made a mention of state support. Professor Chhinna feels that the only solution to the agricultural sector problems was diversification of livelihood. That is the government should create job opportunities for the rural youth and, if need be, train them in self-occupational courses. Then there are allied trades like poultry, piggery, bea-keeping and even dairy farming which need to be encouraged, he added.

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