Economic Highlights
New Delhi, 6 February 2015
Agriculture
In Crisis
FOOD
SECURITY CRITICAL
By Shivaji
Sarkar
India may face a severe food
shortage. Agriculture is in acute crisis. Farmers are quitting for becoming
labourers in cities. Rural migration is taking menacing proportion. Neglect of
agriculture for decades and considering it to be a burden by economists is
taking a toll on the economy itself.
Agriculture is nowhere in the economic radar of the past many five-year Plans.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the country planned for 4 per cent
growth each year and settles for 2 to 2.5 per cent. Nobody has tried to correct
it.
The latest National Sample Survey (NSSO) survey has exposed the lopsided
development of the country. It points out that about 58 per cent of the farmers
starve every day. It says they get no more than one meal a day. Its findings
present an appalling picture that the farm sector has become a losing
proposition for most farmers. They are forced to leave it, sell their land and
look for alternative by migrating to the cities.
It is not surprising. In 1996, World Bank (WB) had predicted the dismal
picture. It had estimated that in the next 20 years – till 2015 – rural
migration to the cities would be about 20 crore, equal to the combined
population of France, Britain and Germany. However, the bank is not
giving a solution to improve the farm conditions. It somewhere endorses it. In
2008, its World Development Report pressed for land acquisition and said that for
improving the skills of the rural youth, training centres should be set up all
over the country so that they could become industrial labourers, something the
nation is talking now.
The WB design is simple. It wants to provide cheap labour to the world
corporate at the cost of Indian agriculture. Surprisingly, even RBI Governor
Raghuram Rajan endorsed the view. He had said that India would progress if we could
take people out of agriculture and to the cities.
This is a pernicious mindset. The official figures state that 54 to 58 per
cent of the population, over 70 crore, are still employed in the farm sector.
The latest NSSO figures say that of the 15.61 crore rural households (about 75
crore people) 57 per cent are dependent on agriculture. Since the 1991
Manmohanomics, the country leaps from one to the other crisis.
In mid-1990s, the “progressive” economists had been saying that India need not
produce food grain. It could take to cash crops, earn dollars and import food
grain. Now there are the new generation of economists, some are supposed
experts in foreign trade, who say that India should buy large patches of land
in Africa, produce food grain there and bring it back (import)! The land should
be utilised for industrial purposes to give the GDP a boost.
The mindset has harmed the entire economy and agriculture in particular.
The farmers are not only starving but also are forced to move out of the fields.
The 2011 census figures reveal that every day at least 2400 farmers are
migrating to cities. The estimated migration figures touch 50 lakh a year. In
addition, about three lakh farmers have committed suicide during the past 17
years. Many of them were unable to repay a loan of as low as Rs 50,000. About
42 per cent others are willing to leave farming if they get a better
employment.
How improperly the farmer has been dealt with is evident from the
growing numbers of farmers turning into MNREGA job card labourers. The NSSO
says that 40 per cent of farmers constitute this force. Even landholding is
becoming smaller. Over 70 per cent farmers have less than a hectare of land.
Quite often for the marriage of children or to meet other needs a part of the
land is sold out.
According to the NSSO survey, a five-member farm family earns Rs 3078
from sale of farm products, Rs 765 from dairy-related activities. If Rs 2069
earned from MREGA or other labour-related activities and Rs 514 from non-farm
activities are added, they have total household income of Rs 6426. It means not
more than 60 per cent of a farm family income comes from the core farm
activity. This is so after 45 years of the green revolution. If funds spent on
R&D do not yield result, it calls for introspection.
It is also a fact that public investment in agriculture has been
abysmal. The 11th Plan allocated Rs 1 lakh crore and the 12th
Plan 1.5 lakh crore for agriculture. In 2014-15, the farm sector employing
about 58 core people was allocated a mere Rs 24,000 crore. In contrast, the
incentives paid to corporate were a few lakh crore. (This is apart from the figure
of tax forgone stated in the budget papers).
There is another contrast. The incentives benefit each corporate house.
The Government farm allocations do not make the farmer richer by even a rupee.
Virtually agriculture does not get any public funding. The only aspect that is
said to be taken care of by public funding is the minimum support price (MSP).
During the past three years wheat and rice MSP have increased by about Rs 50 a
quintal a year.
This is not even neutralising the inflationary pressures on the farmer.
His seed, fertiliser and all other input costs have increased manifold.
Instead suggestions have been given for abolition of MSP and even
stoppage of government purchases. The critics of MSP want it removed,
to reduce an annual food purchase bill of about Rs 26,000 crore. Even developed
countries such as the US, Canada, and
European nations continue subsidising farmers, despite WTO negotiations. In India, we do
not have any subsidy for the farming class. Even the Agriculture Prices Commission
has echoed this. None of them say that the MSP benefits mere 8 per cent of
those employed in farm activities.
The rest of the 98 per cent are directly dependent on market forces that
includes large exploitative corporate. The MSP benefits Punjab farmers but it
does not benefit those in Bihar. If MSP is
abolished, Punjab farmers may face the distress of those in Bihar.
The latest sermon of the food ministry to States to stop payment of additional
bonus of over MSP is a step to add to the woes of the farmers.
If the Indian economy has to make strides it cannot do so hiving off
agriculture, ignoring the needs of rural labour markets and the dynamics that
add growth to the economy. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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