Agriculture is not only in a terrible crisis, but is fast decaying.
So it’s all working
according to the plan. The latest round of National Sample Survey Organisation
(NSSO) report on the “Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households”
for 2012-13 clearly shows what was largely expected. Agriculture is not only in
a terrible crisis, but is fast decaying.
I am not surprised. After
all, the demise of Indian agriculture is on the lines suggested by the World
Bank way back in 1996. The World Bank had estimated that in the next 20 years,
by 2015, the number of people migrating from rural to urban areas in India will
be equal to the combined population of Britain, France and Germany. The
combined population of these countries is 20-crore (200m), and the World Bank had
anticipated that 40-crore (400m) people would be moving out of the rural areas in
India by the year 2015.
This is only possible by
creating conditions that make farming uneconomical forcing farmers to quit
agriculture and migrate to the cities looking for menial jobs. In its 2008
World Development Report, the World Bank had wanted India to hasten the process
of taking people out of agriculture by going in for land acquisitions and
launching a network of training institutes across the country to train the
younger people in rural areas with skills that make them eligible to become
industrial workers.
With over 300,000 farmers
committing suicide in the past 17 years, and with 42 per cent farmers wanting
to quit agriculture if given a choice, the deliberate effort to keep
agriculture starved of public sector funding, and thereby help the exodus
process is finally becoming clearly visible. With no efforts to remove the
scourge of growing indebtedness, and with over 58 per cent farmers sleeping
hungry, there is not much that farmers can do but to migrate. The Census 2011
tells us that more than 2,400 farmers quit agriculture and migrate to the
cities every day. Many independent
estimates point to the number of people migrating to the cities is around 50-lakhs
a year. (1)
Raghuram Raman had echoed
the same sentiment when he took over as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
He had said that the real growth in India would be when we are able to move
people out of agriculture into the cities. He is not the only economist to say
so. Most mainline economists have been parroting the same argument for several
decades now thereby influencing the public policies to ignore farming. Agriculture has disappeared from the economic
radar screen of the country.
With 70 per cent of the
farmers owning less than one hectare of land, and with over 40 per cent of the
farmers in possession of a MNREGA (2) job card, it only shows how uneconomical
farming has become over the years. According to the survey report, an average
household of five people earns Rs 3,078 a month from crop cultivation, and
another Rs 765 from dairy. Add to it an
average of Rs 2069 from wages/salaries and Rs 514 from non-farm activities, the
total monthly income for a household stands at Rs 6,426.(approx $90)
In other words, crop
cultivation and livestock rearing brings a monthly income of Rs 3,843 to a
family. In other words, agriculture brings only 60 per cent of the monthly
income for an agricultural household. If this is what the Indian farmers earn
after 45 years of Green Revolution isn’t this a national shame? Does it not
mean that the intensive farming techniques that were aggressively pushed in the
name of technological development have failed to usher in economic prosperity
for the farmers?
Although, the NSSO tells
us that 57 per cent of the 15.61-crore rural households are engaged in
agriculture, which means they have at least one person who does farming or has
dairy animals, the number of farming families now stand at 9.02-crore. But even
these agricultural households are a victim of continuous neglect and apathy. In
the 11th Plan Period, the total budgetary support for agriculture
was Rs 1-lakh-crore. For the next five years of the 12th Plan, the
budgetary support was increased to Rs 1.5-lakh-crore. This year, in 2014-15, agriculture which employs
58 per cent of the population, received only Rs 24,000-crore. The industry
sector on the other hand got tax concessions of Rs 5.73-lakh-crores this year.
Incidentally, even MNREGA
gets a higher budgetary support than agriculture.
With agriculture being
deliberately starved of funding, the deleterious impact it has on the viability
of the farms was expected. The only saving grace being the Minimum Support
Price (MSP) being paid to farmers. But in the past three years, MSP for wheat
and rice has been raised by a paltry Rs 50/quintal every year. This is not even
enough to offset the rate of inflation that the country has witnessed. On top
of it, all efforts are now to dismantle the procurement system, which means
removing the MSP and leaving farmers to face the vagaries of the markets. The
Commission for Costs and Prices (CACP) itself has been demanding the removal of
MSP for farmers and letting the markets decide the price that farmers should be
getting.
What is however not being
spelled out is that only 8 per cent of India’s farmers get the benefit of MSP
every year. In any case, 92% of the country’s farmers remain depended on the
private trade which has been ruthlessly exploiting them. Punjab farmers for
instance get an assured MSP every year whereas Bihar farmers do not. Removing
the MSP would mean that Punjab farmers too are forced to resort to distress
sale as is the practice in Bihar. A beginning has already been made by the Food
Ministry directing the State governments not to provide any bonus over and
above the MSP that is announced by the Centre.
The deliberate destruction
of the food self-sufficiency that has been so assiduously achieved is being
attempted at a time when globally it is now recognized that food shortage will
trigger the next world war. Whether it is because of the impact of climate
change or the corporate control over agriculture, food is likely to be the
biggest political concern in the years to come. A warning was sounded in 2007-08 when a sudden
spike on food prices led to an unprecedented global food crisis resulting in
‘food riots’ in 37 countries.
1. 1 lakh = 100,000. 100,000 rupees = approx. $1,500
1 crore = 10,000,000. 10m rupees = app. $150,000
2. MNREGA Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act
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