This is happening in a country where
the Farm Bill 2014 makes a provision for $962 billion of federal
subsidy support for agriculture for the next 10 years.
In Europe, the
situation is equally alarming. Despite 40 per cent of the European
annual budget being devoted to agriculture, one farmer quits agriculture
every minute. In Canada, the National Farmers Union has in a study
shown that while the 70-odd agribusiness companies are raking in
profits, farmers are the only segment of the food chain incurring
losses. As I have been saying for long, more than 80 per cent of the
agricultural subsidies in America and Europe actually go to agribusiness
corporations.
Farmers are a dying breed. Writing
in Newsweek magazine, Max Kutner says: “For decades, farmers across
America have been dying by suicide at higher rates than the general
population. The exact numbers are hard to determine, mainly because
suicides by farmers are under-reported (they may get mislabelled as
hunting or tractor accidents, advocates for prevention say) and because
the exact definition of a farmer is elusive.” Well, what is happening in
America is not an isolated development; farmers are dying across the
globe.
According to news reports, nearly 80
per cent of the 2,800,000 rural people who take their own lives every
year in China are victims of farm land acquisition. In India, almost
300,000 farmers have ended their lives since 1995. Again, like in the
US, farmer suicides are also under-reported in India with some states
now trying to hide them by shifting these deaths to some other
categories. Even in Europe, which provides massive subsidy support under
the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the serial death dance continues
unabated. In France, 500 suicides have been reported in a year. In
Ireland, UK, Russia, and Australia farmers, are a dying breed.
In India, although we keep on saying
that agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, in reality it isn’t.
Employing some 52 per cent of the population, the share of agriculture
in the country’s GDP has been progressively on the decline. It is less
than 14 per cent now. I have been saying for long that small farmers
have to get into multiple jobs to keep their chulas burning. Such is the
pathetic state of Indian agriculture that some studies point to roughly
58 per cent farmers relying on MNREGA, which provides 100 days
guaranteed employment.
Still worse, the people who feed the
country actually sleep hungry themselves. More than 60 per cent go to
bed hungry every night. Nothing can be a worse illustration of the great
tragedy on the farm.
It’s not because of any unexplained
natural calamity or the attack of a virus that the farms across the
globe are dying. It is part of a global economic design to move farmers
out of agriculture, and by doing so to shift food production into the
hands of heavily subsidised and environmentally destructive agribusiness
companies. It is generally believed that for any country to grow
economically, the share of agriculture in the GDP must be brought down.
In US, agriculture is only 4 per cent of its GDP. In India, it is less
than 14 per cent now. By the end of 2020, I am sure it would be brought
down to less than 10 per cent. Small scale agriculture is, therefore,
deliberately being strangulated.
Such is the plight of Indian
agriculture that in six years — from 2007 to 2012 — 3.2 crore (32 million) farmers
have abandoned farming and moved into the cities looking for menial
jobs. According to census 2011, every day 2,500 farmers quit
agriculture. Some other studies have shown that roughly 50,000 people
migrate from a village (and that includes farmers) into a town/city
every day. As per a NSSO study, 42 per cent farmers want to quit if
given an alternative.
In Punjab, which is the frontline
agricultural state in the country, 98 per cent rural households are
under debt. Studies have shown that the average outstanding debt per
household is about Rs4.5 lakh per year which accounts for 96 per cent of
the yearly income. If farming is in such a terrible state in Punjab,
the state of affairs in the rest of the country can be well imagined.
In my understanding, the unwritten
economic prescription is to make farming non-viable so that farmers are
left with no other choice but to quit. In a quest to keep food prices
low, which comes in very handy to freeze the minimum support price for
farmers the predominant economic thinking supports large agribusiness
conglomerates. This is being made much easier by the growing demand for
amending the newly enacted land acquisition law. More and more land will
now pass on into the hands of industry and real estate, forcing farmers
to do menial jobs in the cities. The demise of the farmer therefore is
predetermined. It’s only a matter of time before the farmer as a species
goes extinct.
Devinda Sharma from here
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