K R Sudhaman
Government takes pride in saying that India has one of the largest irrigation networks in the world. Yet vagaries of weather play havoc to Indian agriculture as vast majority of farmers are still dependent on rain god for their livelihood.
There may no longer be starvation deaths in the country but the plight of farmers even after nearly 70 years of independence is pathetic as agriculture is one area where successive Governments have provided symptomatic solutions to problems.
One is not belittling the achievements so far but it is regrettable that a holistic approach has not been adopted on a sustained basis resulting in periodical suffering of farmers. Share of agriculture has come down to 15-16 per cent in India’s GDP with progress but nearly 60 per cent of population still dependent on agriculture putting huge pressure on land, which is increasingly becoming scarce.
The agriculture policy in the country has been such that it benefits only rich farmers and the so called trickle-down effect has not happened to the poor farmers. One third of farmers are still landless and another one third small and marginal farmers. So weather plays an important role for their livelihood.
The so-called price stabilization mechanism like minimum support price, largely benefit big farmers even though it is meant to help poor farmers. To cite an example, 65 per cent of marketable surplus in food grains in the country is produced by top 10 per cent of the farmers as a result higher MSP for wheat and rice benefits only the rich and not the poor farmers. Also higher MSP results in high food inflation adding to the woes of marginal and landless farmers who buy food grain from the market.
Though rapid strides have been made by India in food security, new problems like climate change, depleting ground water, increasing population are posing new dangers to food security. February March unseasonal rains and hailstrom in several states are an eye opener.
There are also fears that El Nino effect may result in drought in many parts of the country with monsoon spoiling kharif prospects this year.
Already several debt ridden farmers have committed suicides due to recent unseasonal rains and the situation may become worse this summer if Government does not embark upon a long term strategy moving away from adhochism that is resorted to find immediate and short-term solutions.
Many States like Gujarat, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir and West Bengal were hit by hailstrom followed by untimely excessive rainfall. Now there are reports of unseasonal rains in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
State disaster response fund running into several thousands of crores of rupees are lying with several states to deal with this natural calamity but it is not yet clear if this amount would be adequate considering the extent of damage. As per the latest information received from States, the area damaged due to untimely rains and hailstorm has been reduced to 85 lakh hectares from 113 lakh hectares earlier.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already made two major announcements. He has increased the relief by 50 percent given to farmers from national disaster relief fund and reduced the minimum area of damage for relief to 33 percent from the existing 50 percent . Thes benefits would be applicable to states affected with recent hailstorm.
There may not be shortage of food grains in the country with godowns overflowing and stocks available is at least three mtimes that of buffer stock requirement of 26 million tonnes.
It is time Government takes a serious view and work out a long term and permanent solution for this perpetual problem of poor farmers. Currently, Indian agriculture has 190 million ha gross sown area (142 million ha net sown area), and 40% of this is irrigated.
There have been similar revolutions in the production of milk, fish, eggs, sugar, and a few other crops. India is now the largest producer of milk, fruits, cashew nuts, coconuts and tea in the world, the second largest producer of wheat, vegetables, sugar and fish, and the third largest producer of rice. This growth in agricultural production has also led to considerable surplus food stocks purchased by the Government.
The droughts of 1987, 1999-2000, and of 2002-2003 could generally be managed and did not lead to severe problems of food security because of these buffer stocks. But drastic steps individual farmers did occur as India is still considerably dependent on the rainfall quantity and its distribution despite progress on several fronts in the farm sector.
The summer monsoon (June through September) contributes to 78% of India’s annual rainfall and is a major water resource. it is important to recognize that the Green Revolution was largely confined to the irrigated areas. In the past 50 years, there have been around 15 major droughts, due to which the productivity of rain fed crops in those years was affected.
Limited options for other income and widespread poverty continue to threaten the livelihoods of millions of small and marginal farmers in this region. This is what is needed to be tackled and Modi Government will have to think out of the box to find a lasting solution.
This year’s budget made its intention clear to give new thrust to agriculture.
But a vast country like India needed a medium to long term plan hopefully the newly constituted NITI AAYOG should come out with some fresh idea. Drastic reforms are needed particularly in agri marketing, farm credit, cooperative movement, cold storage, creation unified market by dismantling APMC act, inter-linking of rivers to harness 85 per cent of the rainwater that go into the sea and opening up of multi-brand retail, politically unpopular move to reduce huge wastage of farm perishables and so on.
These are not easy reforms but if Modi Government had the political will, this can be done in the next five six years thereby minimizing farmers’ distress.
The recent damage to crops by unseasonal rains and scores of farmer suicides is a wake-up call to convert crisis into opportunity to put Indian agriculture on a higher pedestal. (PTI)
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