Opinion: Farmers are back, with more demands

Opinion: Farmers are back, with more demands

One can only hope that better sense prevails, and farmer organisations, agricultural scientists and economists and the government work together to achieve a practicable and most importantly, a sustainable way forward for the farm sector

Bhavdeep KangUpdated: Thursday, August 25, 2022, 01:20 AM IST
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PTI

Eight months after the year-long farmers’ agitation ended, they were back in the ‘protest capital’ of India this week with a laundry list of demands - some doable, others impracticable. Emboldened by the rollback of the Farm Laws last year, they are determined to bring the complex and longstanding problems of India’s agricultural sector to a head.

Subsidies, safety nets and public crop insurance schemes – in place since the early 1970s - have not addressed the low income-high risk nature of agriculture in India, as evidenced by farmers’ suicides. What can change that stark reality? Experts agree that farmers need some form of income guarantee, but differ widely on how this should be accomplished. Opinions span the spectrum from a wider role for the private sector (as envisaged by the Farm Laws) to virtual nationalisation of agricultural markets.

Meanwhile, the problems related to agriculture have changed. Food availability is no longer an issue, but environmental degradation, public health (as a result of pesticide-laden food), diminishing water resources and increasing vulnerability of crops because of ecological factors and climate change are major concerns. The existing framework does not factor in these new problems.

For example, power subsidies have led to water stress, but any attempt to rationalize irrigation or even monitor use of power for ground water extraction, so as to enable DBT, is met with protest. A key demand is that the Electricity Amendment Bill 2022 be withdrawn. Stubble-burning has led to widespread air pollution, but farmers maintain they have no alternative, if they are to clear their fields in time for the next sowing. Likewise, monocultures result in rapid spread of diseases, such as the dwarfism in rice noticed this year, but farmers are slow to change cropping patterns.

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha wants the government to double down on subsidies and safety nets. Indeed, it sees them as entitlements that must be enshrined in law. Hence the demand for the so-called legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP). Even if it is accepted, how would it be implemented?

The first method is coercive, ie, forcing the private sector to purchase crops at MSP. Maharashtra attempted to do so in 2018, when the BJP was in power, but backed off after traders boycotted agricultural produce and left farmers in the lurch. The only crop for which the centre mandates a minimum purchase price for private players is sugarcane, and this has proved problematic with sugar mills unable to pay farmers’ dues, as the government does not control the market price of sugar. Recently, farmers launched an agitation in Punjab for payment of sugarcane arrears, and withdrew only on an assurance from the chief minister that they would be cleared by September 7.

The second method is making it mandatory for the government to procure at MSP. The government already procures at MSP, so what is the difference? Should the quantum of procurement – already far more than buffer norms demand – increase even further? Is it viable for the government to procure 100 per cent of the food and cash crops covered by MSP? Experts have yet to agree on just how much of the total produce the government would have to procure to ensure that MSP becomes a benchmark price for agricultural produce. Estimates range from 25 per cent upwards.

Naturally, there are widely varying assessements of how much the exercize would cost the exchequer. Some economists say it is doable, others that it would sink the Indian economy. Even if the capital were miraculously available, problems of procurement, storage and distribution remain. Without solid data on production and price trends, enhancing the capacity of procurement agencies, adequate storage infrastructure and distribution channels to offload the produce, it would not be possible to go forward with the scheme.

The government could also simply institute price deficiency payments, that is, avoid physical procurement and pay the farmer the difference between MSP and the price received from the trader. Experts are at loggerheads here as well because the pilot scheme in Madhya Pradesh wasn’t particularly successful. Besides, detractors point out that it puts small farmers at a disadvantage and does not distinguish between poor and good quality produce, thereby disincentivizing good cropping practices.

Nor is the perception of the majority of farmers in India clear, as concerns vary from region to region. The SKM is dominated by farmers from Green Revolution states, who are dependent on the MSP system for their survival. The fact is that farmers of Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh are a highly vocal and visible section, and thus have the capacity to influence decision-making. But they have refused to join the 23-member committee on MSP constituted by the government, which creates a Catch-22 situation. If they do not engage, an acceptable solution cannot be found.

One can only hope that better sense prevails, and farmer organisations, agricultural scientists and economists and the government work together to achieve a practicable and most importantly, a sustainable way forward for the farm sector.

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