Dr Mandeep Singh Azad
“Jai Jawan Jai Kisan” given by Lal Bahadur Shastri ji : is kisan of India really in Jai position
Farming in India is always a gamble “Even if everything goes well, the rains are good, the crop is excellent, still farmers cannot get a good profit.Over three lakh farmers have committed suicide in India since 1995. A majority of them were concentrated in five major agricultural states of the country – Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh. Even Punjab recorded a high number of 449 farmer suicides in 2015, next only to Maharashtra. Farm suicides have been steadily increasing over the years. On an average, around 15,400 farmers ended their lives each year between 1995 and 2003. This number increased to more than 16,000 between 2004 and 2012. It is important to note that these suicides are happening on a decreasing base of farmers. Farmer count has fallen by 9 million since 2001, which makes the increased suicide rates that much more alarming.There is no doubt that our agrarian community is facing a crisis. But questions arise on the exact nature and reasons behind the deepening problem. Farmer suicides have largely been attributed to debt, drought, crop failure or poor returns. However, farmers have been taking the drastic step regardless of a good rainfall year or bad, a good price year or a disappointing one. Two-thirds of India’s 1.3 billion population depend on farming for their livelihood, but the sector accounts for just 14 percent of the country’s GDP.
Indian farmers are facing the dramatic fall in prices of farm produce as a result of the WTO’s free trade policies. The WTO rules for trade in agriculture are, in essence, rules for dumping. They have allowed wealthy countries to increase agribusiness subsidies while preventing other countries from protecting their farmers from artificially cheap imported produce. Four hundred billion dollars in subsidies combined with the forced removal of import restriction is a ready-made recipe for farmer suicide. Global wheat prices have dropped from $216 a ton in 1995 to $133 a ton in 2001; cotton prices from $98.2 a ton in 1995 to $49.1 a ton in 2001; Soya bean prices from $273 a ton in 1995 to $178 a ton. This reduction is due not to a change in productivity, but to an increase in subsidies and an increase in market monopolies controlled by a handful of agribusiness corporations.
Farmers’ suicides are the most tragic and dramatic symptom of the crisis of survival faced by Indian peasants.Rapid increase in indebtedness is at the root of farmers’ taking their lives. Debt is a reflection of a negative economy. Two factors have transformed agriculture from a positive economy into a negative economy for peasants: the rising of costs of production and the falling prices of farm commodities. Both these factors are rooted in the policies of trade liberalization and corporate globalization.In 1998, the World Bank’s structural adjustment policies forced India to open up its seed sector to global corporations like Cargill, Monsanto and Syngenta. The global corporations changed the input economy overnight. Farm saved seeds were replaced by corporate seeds, which need fertilizers and pesticides and cannot be saved.
Farmers, distressed over price fall following bumper crop this year, have been protesting peacefully in 162 districts in nine states, including Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, since 1 June. However, the protest turned violent in Mandsaur district in Madhya Pradesh, killing five persons in police firing. Sowing of kharif (summer) crops has already started in some places and will pick up pace in the coming days as monsoon progresses across the country.On key demands, of farmers is that the Modi-led Government had made a poll promise of giving 50 percent more profit on cost of production. “We want that to be implemented as farmers conditions in the country is very bad. They are throwing their produce on streets as prices have fallen sharply.”
Farmers also want the government to guarantee procurement of agri-commodities to ensure farmers get assured price. That apart, we want the Government to waive farm loan. If the government can waive crores of corporate debt, why not farm loans,” farmers said.
Farmer from Tamil Nadu, held a live mouse between his teeth to draw the Government’s attention to the plight of farmers in his native state of Tamil Nadu. They are demanding ample drought relief funds, pensions for elderly farmers, a waiver on the repayment of crop and farm loans, better prices for their crops and the interlinking of rivers to irrigate their lands.Wearing traditional sarong-like garments and turbans, these farmers have brandished human skulls that they claim belong to dead farmers. They have held live mice in their mouths, shaved half their heads, worn women’s traditional saris, slashed their hands and oozed “protest blood”, rolled bare-bodied on boiling hot macadam, and conducted mock funerals. These farmers have also eaten food off the road, and stripped near the Prime Minister’s office in the heart of the city after they were reportedly refused a meeting.
In Tamil Nadu, where more than 40% of the people make a living from farming, lack of water due to poor rainfall, low crop prices, and dwindling access to formal credit has created what is possibly the state’s worst agrarian crisis in decades.
As 43% of land in India, is used for farming but contributes only 18% of the nation’s GDP. The poor condition of agriculture in the country is the point of concern for Indians. The rural farmers in India suffer from poverty and most of them are illiterate so there is lack of good extension services. So we should all come forward and think of making life simple of these real feeders of such a large population who feed us but sleep with empty stomach. Government should start policies for making agriculture simple and high income generating enterprise so that these producers are not forced to commit suicide .There should be a policy to provide compensation to these farmers in time of these unexpected rains and climate change as it is alarming issue.
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