A loosing proposition

Farmers are the most exploited community by our politicians, every politician and political party shed crocodile tears for this extremely hardworking class and use them as vote banks. On an average a south asian farmer works around 3000 hrs/year doing hard physical work in the paddy fields. This is the highest in terms of hard physical work compared to any other profession. Yet this community which feeds the country is often taken for a ride by the government. Jai Jawan Jai Kisan (hail the soldier and hail the farmer) a slogan given by the late Lal Bahadur Shastri equates the responsibility of a soldier who defends the country to that of a farmer who carries the burden of feeding the country.

While nature, pests, insects pose unavoidable challenges in this profession, it is the policy, implementation and political issues that hurt the farmers most. Take for example the recent issue of paddy procurement and minimum support price for the farmers. When there was a bumper harvest of paddy this year, government did not or delayed procurement of the crop and at the same time set a minimum support price which is far below the real cost to the farmer, added to the insult they banned rice exports making life even difficult. Farmers in the Krishna and Godavari deltas (which are the rice bowls for the country) could not make a decent profit despite a good harvest. Most farmers sold paddy in a fire sale and the beneficiaries are the middlemen and export companies (their stocks are doing great) who are raking in the moolah due to the recent lifting of the export ban.

The farmer suffers either ways, during a drought and worse even after a good harvest. They are in a perennial debt cycle. Once in a while government throws some money on the poor farmers to keep their mouths shut but they never try to address the real problems affecting the farming community. Creation of supply chains, Mechanization for higher productivity, modernization of canals, creating markets, forming strong co-operatives and making exports competitive in the world market are issues that are addressed half heartedly.

The issue is closer home since I see my father going through the grind from start to finish year after year. The pain starts right from procurement of seeds and fertilizer for which government is directly responsible. With amazing irresponsibility year after year they make farmers life hell by not releasing the requisite seeds and fertilizers on time and in enough quantity. They seek pleasure in the pain of this hard working community.

India is still an agrarian economy with 60% of the population making a living on farming. India’s success in reducing poverty is deeply connected on how we tackle the agrarian crisis.

Anna Hazare was apt when he said “Naache bandar khaye madari” about the state of farmers during his recent fast. These folks are always on the loosing side.