Agriculture is a Political Activity not an Economic Activity in India

"Mere mann ki baat (Straight from Heart)"

Agriculture is a political activity, not an economic activity, in India

Question for you: What is the agriculture Policy of India?

Have you seen this document, if yes, please highlight the portion where it is written how to achieve food security of India. Pl. send me the copy of the same as well.

It is quite likely that my experience or source of information may be different from yours and we may have conflicting views on the topic.

Are you keen to remain hungry in coming years?

If you don’t agree with my views, please do write to me with your facts and figures. I will definitely go through them because I always believe that differences of opinion provide a learning opportunity and I don’t want to miss that.

Let us take this opportunity to express our views on the issues related to agriculture and agribusiness in India. Maybe collectively we can find some solutions to the issues that affect Indian agriculture and agribusinesses.

“Mann ki baat” – Kiske mann ki baat :  “PM ke maan ki baat”  ya “Kissan ke maan ki baat”.  

Now-a-days we all are listening and talking a lot about crisis in rural India and farmers’ suicides, food inflation, unemployment in rural India, make in India, land acquisition, etc.

Parliament is debating many issues related to agriculture and land acquisition issues. Latest is “Mann ki baat” from Prime Minister Modi.

When “Mann ki baat” was aired, I was with farmers in villages of Punjab in Nawanshahr district; it was very clear writers for “mann ki baat” missed Kissan ke maan ki baat.

Why PM not mentioned that farmers should get fair value for its produce as promised in BJP election manifesto? He has also not outlined his action plan.

They are not in touch with ground reality - Either they were hiding the facts from PM or they are ignorant about the fact.

The most important question which farmers in every village of India are asking why we don’t get remunerative prices for our crops. This question was skipped by PM. Why?

It means “Maan ki baat” was PM’s thought but definite not what is “maan ki baat” of farmers of India.

The most shocking thing is agriculture; majority of voters are related to agriculture, it is also of the oldest profession and activities, responsible for human civilization, but still struggling to find its rightful place in economic planning of India.

It seems that people involved in planning since independence and especially after economic liberalization, have been from well-to-do families and were treating farmers as second class citizens. For policy makers, food security was never an issue in their person life. That is why, since liberalization every other thing has been discussed, argued and liberalised except food production and trade.

It appears that for them talking about food security for masses was equivalent to waste of time and energy. The whole focus of liberalization was on how to improve the life style of urban citizens with a passion to join the league of developed countries. Food security for masses was not a part of life style and nor the ingredient of modern life style. That is why it was ignored or at the best it received lip service from each and every institution that was responsible for development of agriculture. But in order to retain political interest in agriculture, we were reminded about importance of agriculture and rural India at the time of elections and on important days like 15th August and 26th January.

The messages of policy makers were designed to keep reminding the farmers that we are here as your well-wisher and you have no option but to vote for us and we will give you what you want. Political parties were selling dreams to farmers in return of votes. The whole focus was on how to coin a new term in every election to sell dreams and confuse the farmer about what is good for them. If there was nothing tangible on the ground, the government in power decided to bribe farmers, to ignore their inefficiencies and non-performances, in the form of load waivers, grants and aids in the form of schemes and subsidies. This year we have assembly elections in many agriculturally important states, let us wait and watch we will have action replay by ruling parties.

On the other side, in the absence of a proper mechanism to monitor developments on ground, no government had any clue as to the fate of agriculture; the only parameter for success and failure of agriculture policies was the percentage of votes to the ruling party.

Based on the political outcome of the elections, the incoming government decides what should be the size of the carrot given to agriculture and to which state. Timing is based on upcoming election schedule in the country and political benefit to the ruling formation is the criteria of the incentive. It is also important to note that while offering financial incentives to the state, no one bothered to ask about the impact of such incentives on agricultural productivity and profitability, the sole consideration being to please farmers, in other words it can be called inducement or bribing them.

Policy Planning is not reflecting ground reality

At the same time, our planners and professionals were busy in proving their professional skills in writing reports based on secondary data. Most of these data are either fabricated or wild guesstimates. Classic example is In India we lose or spoil 30 to 50% perishables. Is there any survey or study on this? Can I have the copy of this report please, of just because some VIP made the statement and we all are following blindly without questioning the logic and source of information.

In short, most of the policy analyst prefers to use internet to plan agriculture.  They were trying improving output in agriculture through remote control. The fact remains that nothing has changed on ground because farmers are not getting fair price for their produce. In the post – liberalization era, in the name of better economic and financial management, we started giving tax incentives to well-to-do corporates by starving and reducing the funds to the golden goose i.e. agriculture.

Today, we have the outcome in front of us where farmers are committing suicides and selling land, corporate are buying agriculture land for non-agriculture activities and to feed ourselves we are importing edible oil, pulses, spices, etc. This year please observe wheat economy closely.

Where ever large corporates and MNCs are operating, they are keen to import and sell food items in India and not keen to process in India. Classic example is edible oils. Why government is not keen to raise customs duty to support processing of locally produced seeds. Keeping customs duty low is only benefiting imports and hurting local farmers and local industry. Is make in India just an eye wash or there is some other agenda.

During my visits to various parts of India and met many people in rural India. The worst part of the story is after, Land Acquisition Bill and “PM’s Mann ki baat’ broadcast, every one of them now doubts the motives of the central governments. People are asking why people is not talking about farers issue why he was talking about land bill.

Why farmers have less faith this time?

They are reminding about SEZs, and who got SEZs and what happned to acquired land. SEZs were created closer to cities where real estate prices are likely to go up, large portions of fertile agriculture land allocated to the big industrial houses, close to the ruling political parties in the states with no sensible commitment and restrictions on usage pattern. Farmers are extremely apprehensive about these moves and charged the governments for acting as “middleman” or “brokers” of corporate houses.

The Economic Survey, the Budget and now “PM’s Maan ki baat” current crisis has not only exposed the inefficiency of planning but also lack of ideas and vison to solve the problems of farmers and also the ineffective implementation methods adopted by the people involved in the planning process since liberalization.

PM should address farmers' Mann ki Baat

Modi was hope for farmers but now that hope is also fading. ‘Maan ki baat. has also exposed that there is no answer to problems of farmers except sympathy, this also raised serious doubts about the effectiveness of the policy plans and their intention in coming days.

It reinforces that agriculture is not an economic activity but a political activity in India. The fact remains that India is adding about 20 million people every year to its human population, 20 million to animal population, and land under cultivation has been stagnant during the last 40 years since 1970 i.e. approximately 141 million hectares. Who will feed theme.

Water availability and water tables are going down. No new technological breakthrough is taking place that can bridge the demand supply gap in food grains.

Extension system is defunct and shrinking every day. Farmers are still at the mercy of government-sponsored monopolies like FCI thru out dated policy like APMC Act. This year even FCI may also run away from farmers.

We are eager to sign Free Trade Agreements with other countries but free trade is not permitted within India due to various state laws like APMC Act.

Agriculture related infrastructure is non-existent but we are willing to waste Rs. 50,000 crore every year in food wastage.

New agriculture policies are now more often designed to please international trading partners at WTO instead of domestic farmers and consumers. With all these problems on hand and without any strategy in place to overcome them, our policy planners and negotiators are still hopeful that Free Trade Agreements with ASEAN countries and agriculture negotiations at WTO will benefit Indian agriculture.

I don’t know, how one can win a wrestling game with giants with our hands cut or tied?

With all the facts available on ground, it seems we were designing a suicide plan for Indian agriculture and farmers of India. When our farmers are committing suicide, our agriculture planners and managers of agriculture policy must be satisfied with their policy outcomes. because they have achieved what they wanted by controlling and regulating agriculture with outdated laws and policies.

As a concerned citizen, I wonder when we will realize that agriculture is an economic activity and not political one. Sooner we do that the better it will be for our country and for all of us.

What is your opinion? Keeping quite will never change India.