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Revisit Swaminathan Commission Recommendations for Rejuvenation of Agriculture in the State
Highlights
The unabated farmers’ suicides are continued in both states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh every day, it is reported that in one state it is more and in another state it is less, but farmers’ suicides has become a regular phenomenon.
The unabated farmers’ suicides are continued in both states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh every day, it is reported that in one state it is more and in another state it is less, but farmers’ suicides has become a regular phenomenon.
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In 2004, the United Progressive Alliance Government has constituted NATIONAL COMMISSION ON FARMERS under the Chairmanship of Prof. M.S. Swaminathan to suggest measures to end the menace of farmers’ suicides in the country.
The Commission inter-alia has recommended many measures, significant among them is the underlying one is to make the agriculture profitable and address the farmer suicide problem on a priority basis.
Agrarian distress has led farmers to commit suicide in recent years. Cases of suicides have been reported from states such as Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh.
The Swaminathan Commission has identified the major causes of the agrarian crisis are: unfinished agenda in land reform, quantity and quality of water, technology fatigue, access, adequacy and timeliness of institutional credit, and opportunities for assured and remunerative marketing.
Adverse meteorological factors add to these problems.
Farmers needs to have assured access and control over basic resources, which include land, water, bio resources, credit and insurance, technology and knowledge management, and markets. It also recommends that "Agriculture" be inserted in the Concurrent List of the Constitution.
This has to be attended by the Government on priority basis to provide Relief & Rehabilitation Measures to alleviate the distress and suffering of the affected families in the short term,
As the distress is sweeping to rural areas and affecting farming community, due to market failure and the gradual collapse of public services. The cost-risk-return structure of farming is adverse. Almost all the suicide and otherwise crisis-hit households record high health expenditures and are indebted to moneylenders.
Moreover, there is no address for the problems of tenancy farmers in the country for last ten years. The tenancy farmers are borrowing loans with exorbitant interest rates from the land lord since; the banks are not lending the loans to these tenancy farmers. The land lord it taking the loans from the banks with low interest rate and lending it to the tenancy farmers with high interest rates, resulting in high suicides rate from these tenancy farmers.
Coming to Telangana, the farmers in the state are facing severe problems from seeding to harvest of the crop. Added to woes of the farmers, as per the latest data, the state is facing deficit of 11% rainfall in 185 mandals as on 20-9-2015.
Though the Government is implementing loan waiver scheme in the State, but the farmers are not benefiting out of it in time. The farmers usually take the loan from the banks for purchase of seeds and fertilisers in the month of May and June for Kharif season, but the banks got second instalment of loan wavier amount in the month of August.
By that time most of the farmers in the State have borrowed the loan from private money lenders with exorbitant interest rates. In view of deficit rainfall, the farmers in the State have sown the seeds two to three times; as a result the farmers are burdened with mounted debts and the distress farmers committing suicides. It is high time that the Government should timely waive farm loans and open exclusive banks for farmers on lines of the women's bank, to help tide over the agrarian crisis facing the State.
Almost all the suicide and otherwise crisis-hit households record high health expenditures and are indebted to moneylenders. There is urgent need for both affordable health insurance, and the revitalization of primary healthcare centres.
It is the need of the hour to implement Swaminathan Commission Recommendations in the State to prevent suicides in the State.
Key Recommendations for prevention of farmer suicides in the State
The National Rural Health Mission should be extended to suicide hotspot locations on priority basis.
Set up State level Farmers' Commission with representation of farmers for ensuring dynamic government response to farmers' problems.
Restructure microfinance policies to serve as Livelihood Finance, i.e. credit coupled with support services in the areas of technology, management and markets.
Cover all crops by crop insurance with the village and not block as the unit for assessment.
Provide for a Social Security net with provision for old age support and health insurance.
Promote aquifer recharge and rain water conservation. Decentralise water use planning and every village should aim at Jal Swaraj with Gram Sabhas serving as Pani Panchayats.
Ensure availability of quality seed and other inputs at affordable costs and at the right time and place.
Recommend low risk and low cost technologies to provide maximum income to farmers because they cannot cope with the shock of crop failure, particularly those associated with high cost technologies like Bt. cotton.
Need swift action on import duties to protect farmers from international price.
Set up Village Knowledge Centres (VKCs) or Gyan Chaupals in the farmers' distress hotspots to serve as guidance centres.
Public awareness campaigns to make people identify early signs of suicidal behavior.
Credit and Insurance.
Timely and adequate supply of credit is a basic requirement of small farm families.
Expand the outreach of the formal credit system to reach the really poor and needy.
Reduce rate of interest for crop loans to 4 per cent simple, with government support.
Moratorium on debt recovery, including loans from non-institutional sources, and waiver of interest on loans in distress hotspots and during calamities, till capability is restored.
Establish an Agriculture Risk Fund to provide relief to farmers in the aftermath of successive natural calamities.
Develop an integrated credit-cum-crop-livestock-human health insurance package.
Expand crop insurance cover to cover the entire country and all crops, with reduced premiums and create a Rural Insurance Development Fund to take up development work for spreading rural insurance.
Promote sustainable livelihoods for the poor by improving
Financial services
Infrastructure
Investments in human development, agriculture and business development services and
Institutional development services.
The State should show large-heartedness to help farmers who have been hit by the vagaries of weather. This is the need of the hour to implement the recommendations of the MS Swaminathan Committee to provide much-needed succour to farmers.
To achieve higher growth rate in the agriculture sector more Government investments are needed for the development of infrastructure like irrigation, conservation and development of natural resources (water, land and biodiversity)”.It broadly recommended that the MSP should be at least 50% higher than the cost of cultivation. For inclusive growth, we have to address the issue of inequality towards farmers.
G.Rajendera Kumar
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