Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today sought direct intervention of the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi to bail out the beleaguered farming community of the state from the current agrarian crisis.In a letter to Mr. Modi, the Chief Minister apprised the former that Punjab has always been in the forefront for ensuring food security of the nation and has been contributing about 40-50% of wheat and 30-35% of rice to the Central Pool from the last three decades. He said that such was the level of involvement and commitment of the farmers to their profession that with just over two percent of the country’s geographical area and even less as a percentage of the country’s population, Punjab contributes the heaviest share among all states to the national food kitty, earning them it the sobriquet of the country “food bowl and granary.
However, the Chief Minister bemoaned that this has been achieved at a huge cost to the state and its farmers as the Punjab farmer’s have bartered away their only two natural resources: soil fertility and water. Mr. Badal said that the farmers have also suffered huge financial distress due to unviable and totally untenable prices of food-grains because of efforts of Government of India (GoI) to keep consumer prices affordable for the poor. He said that the state and its farmers fully endorse and support this noble goal of the GoI and in fact, the sole reason why the government has been able to even afford this ideal was the massive contribution made by the Punjab farmers.The Chief Minister said that the policies of successive governments at the Center have led to the spectacle of the country’s bread winner going hungry and virtually reduced to the plight of a beggar. This was largely because of the huge mismatch between the prices of agricultural produce such as foodgrains on the one hand and costs of agricultural inputs such as, fertilizers, pesticides, machinery, labour etc. This was not even counting the cost of the farmer’s land as capital investment.
The Chief Minister said that they have been a witnessing a scenario in which the prices of agricultural produce like food grains have been increasingly arithmetically while the hike in the costs of inputs has been geometrical. He said that the MSP of farm products, even where marketing has been assured, has been rising in terms of percentages while the costs of inputs have been galloping with a huge multiplier. Mr. Badal said that accounting for inflation, the changes in MSP actually work out to be in the negative direction, which was that the real prices have actually been going down whereas costs of inputs have been mounting at alarmingly inflationary rates.The Chief Minister further said that the weather aberrations during the last two years i.e. drought like situation in Kharif 2014 and 2015 and untimely rains during Rabi 2014-15 coupled with failure of cotton crop have devastated the already distressed economy of the small and the marginal farmers.
Consequently, farm indebtedness in rural areas has been rising at an alarming rate and this has started manifesting itself in unrest in the farming community. He said that the farmers suicides for economic reasons has already lent a ghastly dimension to the problem. Whereas the farmers on the whole have been expressing their grievance in a peaceful, democratic manner, there are also instances of their plight being politicized and exploited for goals which run contrary to the ideals of peace and social harmony. Instances of farmers’ problems being deliberately distorted and given a violent form by vested interests are not uncommon. While economic justice and fair dispensation for everyone was a basic requirement for peace and stability in any society, the case for ensuring it with double the zeal for the bread winner of the country could hardly ever be over-stated.
Batting for the early resolution of the problems faced by the farmers, the Chief Minister said that the only solution to all these challenges lies in thorough conditions in which agriculture becomes a viable and profitable profession. He said that there was no way forward without ensuring remunerative Minimum Support Prices and Assured Marketing for farm produce. Mr. Badal said that they have consistently approached the GoI to request that in order to solve this alarming problem, the center must either adopt the formula forwarded by the Chairman, National Farmers Commission, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, under which farmers are assured MSP which accounts for the basic costs incurred on production plus 50% profit on that. As MSP, World Agriculture Watch (WAWs) effectively implemented in case of rice and wheat, it was suggested that a Deficiency Price Payment mechanism should be put in place in case of other crops like maize, cotton etc. so as to ensure viable returns to the farmers through rational fiscal pricing in the form of remunerative MSP.The Chief Minister also advocated the introduction of comprehensive crop insurance for compensating and rehabilitating the farmers for their loss due to natural calamities and climatic variations.
As you are aware, the Ministry of Agriculture, GoI has not formulated any rational and useful insurance scheme to adequately meet the needs of the farmers and farm sector, especially in green revolution states. To ensure the viability of farming in case of loss, they need to be compensated not only for their cost of inputs but also for loss of their income/livelihood. The premium rates, which by definition should be commensurate with the risk are considered to be high in most of the existing farm insurance products and the level of indemnity provided by various insurance products does not reflect the actual situation as in Punjab the loss in productivity of major crops i.e. wheat and paddy has never been more than 10%. As such, a new Comprehensive Plot Based Farm Insurance Scheme should be formulated and implemented with central funding.
Likewise, the Chief Minister said that the alarming mismatch of costs incurred by the farmers with the prices , including the MSP, of his produce has created a crisis like conditions for the farming community and for agricultural economy. When we add the inescapable and almost regular phenomenon of natural calamities to unviable prices of farmers and of agriculture sector on the whole is shocking indeed . This leads to a situation in which, the farmers were unable to repay the outstanding loans raised by them from financial institutions. As per estimates by Govt. of India, Rs.52438 crore of banks were outstanding towards farmers in March, 2013 i.e. Rs.38700 crore of public sector banks and Rs.13738 crore of cooperative banks. In addition, the farmers have availed themselves of credit from the non-institutional sources viz. commission agents and moneylenders etc. to meet their requirement for other domestic consumer and social needs.To address this alarming problem, the Chief Minister said that it was most urgent to provide relief to the beleaguered peasantry of the state in the form of one-time loan waiver to small and marginal famers and agricultural labourers. As a matter of fact, the problem can be neglected only the risk of playing havoc with the future of our national economy, completely endangering the country’s food security in the long run, he added.