Dr. Ramesh Kumar Thusoo
Agriculture is the only business where you have both production as well as price risk. Agriculture is said to be India’s largest private-sector enterprise, engaging nearly 119 million farmers (“cultivators”) and another 144 million landless labourers, as per the 2011 Census. It is even considered the most respectable business, going by the oft-quoted slogan “uttam kheti, madhyam vyapar, kanishtha naukri (supreme is farming, mediocre is trade and most lowly is service)”.For the farmer, however, production risks are a practically daily phenomenon: There might be inadequate rains at sowing, germination and vegetative growth stages; pest attacks during pod or boll formation; and hailstorm just when the crop is attaining maturity. On top of these is the risk of price crash at the time of harvest. The co-existence and high probability of both production and price risks are what also render farm insurance commercially unviable. The tragedy with Indian agriculture is we don’t really have a farm lobby of consequence. That’s why onion and potato shipments are frequently subjected to minimum export price restrictions, whereas steel manufacturers have been bestowed with safeguard duty and even minimum import price protection.
Again, the contrast with other businesses is stark. We consider it our right to own the latest Apple iPhone 6S, have ACs in every room, and even envisage a not-very-distant future of driverless cars. Nobody considers the side-effects from them – accumulation of toxic electronic waste, increased carbon emissions, labour displacement, among other things equally revealing is the fact that no NGO has held demonstrations against administering of the Hepatitis-B vaccine, despite it being produced from culturing of a strain of GM yeast cells. There is also unlikely to be any strong opposition to the release of genetically engineered mosquitoes for combating Zika or Dengue. These standards apparently apply only to farmers planting transgenic mustard or herbicide-resistant cornwhere farmers would get better prices and incomes.
“The hard working farmer is our Anna Data. Our schemes and initiatives are aimed towards bringing a qualitative change in the life of the farmer, one that will play a key role in Transforming India” – Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said it but still we accept Inequalities, if we believe them to be fair. If the average person is rising he or she will not mind if inequality is growing .Inequality has become a problem in India the more affluent people are taking advantage of the worst off people. The elite class of urban population is enjoying the days very nicelyand are still crying for the food inflation. Even an ordinary person in India enjoy in a car for paying Rs 500 for going to his office or to his business shop and cry for food inflation , even for an outing by a middle class family who spend Rs 1000 for a cinema and other joy rides but if he has to pay Rs 30 for a tomato kilo he cries for inflation, a lady to beauty parlour spend Rs 1000 for her beautification but cries for potato to be rated at Rs 20 per kg .The food articles purchased if at slightest increase make them to cry and that also on the pretext of political interests of vested persons even they never talk about the inequalitybetween rural and urban India or the inequality within urban population.
Most of the Indian population lives in villages and are dependent on agriculture. The whole circulation of money from city to villages and from villages to metropolitan cities completes the circle but is unfortunate that people make loud cries about prices of agriculture produces .They feel it a birth right to have these daily consumable items like rice veg wheat to be at lowest prices even though a farmer incurs loss due its production.For an Indian the prices should be as lower as possible and expects rice at Rs one per kg wheat at two Rs per kg sugar three Rs per kg. What a mentality…….
If there is slightest increase in the food items it is an indicator of mis-governance and is debated in forums whether it is parliament,TV channels as prime time debate or at every nook of the panchayat. People have never to get insight of the story regarding cost of cultivation neither they are being educated at education level nor at social level they are being befooled for their political interests.Those who are at the helm of affairs never debate it on electronic or in print media . if we take cost of cultivation of principal crops in India the input costs have almost doubled during the decade .In a scientific study conducted during 2004-2005the gap between returns to fixed farm resources and input cost was almost rs 4000per acre and this gap has become half during these years due to increase in input costs . An average farmer having 20 kanals(1 hectare) of land is only able to have an income of rs 10000/ season or for six months whereas the farmer who cultivate cash crops and floriculture get higher incomes but are very low as compared to ,industrial or service sectors. Even a 4th class employee of state or centre gets a basic pay of 19000 per month and thus those who are totally dependent on agriculture and allied activities are subject to inequalities.
Our desire should be equality which is a natural human impulse but we ought to resist the temptation to react in a knee jerk manner. At India’s stage of development we should focus on creating opportunities and reducing extreme poverty and not obess over inequality.
India elected Narendra Modi in 2014 because he has assured people of opportunity than to inequality. If rural India is to progress we have to find out means and methods to earn more by the rural India and not to expect every time farmers to feed every Indian out of their own pocket for that we have to change our thinking and opportunity comes from having a good starting life and equality of opportunity is achievable through good education and health care which is a birth and constitutional right of every farmer and we cannot expect every time that cost of vegetables, and principal crops to be lower than cost of cultivation. If India has to achieve the growth rate of 7.4% for this year and 7.8% for 2017 there should be a strong consumption and investment revival throughout country and development of rural sector should be a priority for the Indian masses and Indian government. People should have an insight of facts and figuresabout the returns to fixed farm resources, cost of cultivation of different crops, marketing margins and other necessary parameters as to calculate profit of farmers and not to be swayed away due to false and hollow information recycled by the self-interested agencies.
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com
Follow our WhatsApp channel