Time to respond to farmers Mann Ki Baat

Till the other day nobody had heard of Gajendra Singh. Today, he has become the national icon of India’s humungous agriculture failure. This 42-year-old farmer from Rajasthan committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree in full public glare at AAP’s farmers (sic) rally in New Delhi. Then started the political nautanki. Our netagan did what they do best --- pointing accusing fingers at each other, shouting their lungs out and created pandemonium in Parliament to show their heart-felt concern and solidarity with India’s kisan. Do they have a heart?

Undeniably all talk big about kisans, darlings they constitute a large vote-bank, but do little. Think.

Over 65% of the population lives and works in agriculture, or activities thereof. But, over the last 25 years the share of farming in the economy has shrunk from over 33% to 15%. The harsh reality is that unseasonal rains have destroyed crops in over 93.81 lakh hectares in northern India alone till date. In some regions drought-like situations prevail with too little rain resulting in over 40% crop failures due to lack of irrigation, while floods in others have lead to destruction of harvest.

See how sudden rains in February and March and unexpected cyclone in Bihar last week resulted in over 14 lakh hectares out of a total of 32 lakh hectares rabi and maize crops being damaged across the State and over 11 lakh hectares of wheat totaling 22 lakh tonnes damaged in 38 districts. Already five farmers have committed suicide and another three died of heart attack.

Shamefully, in the last twenty years alone over 346,538 farmers committed suicide, an average of 16,500 casualties annually or 45 deaths every day according to the National Crime Records Bureau. However, agricultural experts aver the actual number of suicides is treble of this. In Punjab, the country’s food bowl in 11 districts till three years ago almost 6,926 farmers and farm labourers committed suicide.

Further, the farm sector is crippled by high indebtedness. While the all-India aggregate rests at 51.9%, Andhra Pradesh has the highest share of indebted agricultural households 92.9% followed by Southern brethrens Telangana 89.1, Tamil Nadu 82.5, Kerala and Karnataka at 77.7% and 77.3%. Shockingly, Rajasthan is next with 61.8% and Punjab at 53.2%. Thanks to lack of vital reforms in this sector, be it in procurement, storage, crop insurance and marketing of produce. Add to this, unstable prices, fragmentation of land holdings and the farmers’ over-reliance on monsoons for a good harvest.

What is the way out? The Government should urgently expand formal financing routes for farmers by opening exclusive banks on the lines of the women';s bank to help tide over the agrarian crisis facing the country. The NDA could think of a one-time loan waiver. Besides, crops should be insurance whereby both the Centre and State Governments along-with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) procure all food grain, irrespective of quality, brought by farmers to the mandis.

By Poonam I Kaushish