Debashish Mitra
December 23 was Farmers’ Day. But between the Jharkhand elections and anti-NRC/CAA protests there was practically no coverage of the day on any mainstream medium. It was as though farmers exist in urban media only when loan waivers are discussed, or become unfortunate victims of desperation manifest in suicides. They are not the incredible secular army of more than half the country, which feeds the rest.
When the price of onion crossed `100 per kilogram in most states, the government’s response was on predicted lines: Protect the urban consumer by importing at costs significantly higher than those paid to farmers, or the prices that India exported at. Before the crisis emerged, India had exported onion at an average of `18 per kilogram, domestic prices were lower, the Urban Indian was happy, onion didn’t exist as an issue, neither did the farmers who sold at less than `5 per kilogram this May. When prices started rising, the government acted knowing well that in tandem with the new harvest, imported onions, purchased at over `50 per kilogram, will arrive, leading to a drop in prices for the crop at the cost of the Indian farmer. The probability of the government paying import price for local onions is negligible. Farmers of Turkey and Egypt can benefit, but not the Indian farmer.
Another example made the headlines recently — the burning of Kharif rice crop stubble to prepare fields for Rabi sowing. Farmers were blamed for causing pollution in Delhi in November by burning stubble. The allocation fixed to stop stubble burning through mechanised harvesting was about `5,000 crore. At the same time, income tax relief given to Corporate India in the last quarter was `4,500 crore.
Alternatively, if 1,00,000 harvester machines were purchased at the cost of `5 lakh each and made available for rent to farmers through state agriculture departments in each block office of major stubble burning states it would prevent stubble burning. That would require an outlay of only a quarter of the income tax relief given to the top 1,000 companies of India, and bolster SMEs in the region that are famous for producing agricultural equipment. Wonder why such an idea didn’t strike anyone in Lutyens’ Delhi? The farmer, even today, when the country boasts of Chandrayaan and its IT prowess, is symbolised by a man driving bullocks yoked to a plough. Not much has changed for the farmer, from the time of Mohenjodaro.
So who are these Indian farmers that grow more than a billion tonnes of agricultural produce each year, comprising more than 300 million tonnes of cereals, 300 million tonnes of fruits and vegetables, 150 million tonnes of sugar cane, 150 million tonnes of milk, fish, meat, poultry and anything else the 1.3 billion people of the country eat?
The farmers belong to all classes, religions and castes, across regions. They are truly secular, be they sugarcane and wheat cultivators next to the Deoband Seminary and in Muzzafarnagar, or mango growers in Saharanpur and sugarcane and dairy farmers in and around Meerut. Theere are large numbers of Muslim farmers living next to Jats, employing Dalits, linked with the banias, selling to mills owned by Marwaris for most of these crops.
Go to Himachal and Kashmir, and the same repeats. Dogras and Rajputs along with Brahmins and Thakurs grow apples, as do Muslims in the Kashmir valley. These are harvested by migrant labour from across India and carried in trucks owned and driven by members of different communities before reaching points of consumption, that is homes, primarily through the Muslim dominated fruit trade. No Hindu home refuses to eat an apple grown or sold by a Muslim, or to make curd from milk collected from buffalos or cows owned by Dalits. Nobody questions these.
What we are seeing today is, to paraphrase Marie Antoinette, “If you cannot give them onion, give them NRC and CAA.” There is a consistent lack of focus on agriculture, which if made the mainstay of the economy, could lift the boats of all communities to a better tomorrow, economically, socially and spatially well distributed.
After ignoring, obfuscating, and diverting attention from it, the government and Urban India — from Bandra Kurla Complex to Lutyens’ Delhi — has accepted that an economic crisis is looming. Big employers such as telecom and airlines are in the doldrums, and an efficient digital India is increasingly a dream.
We need to accept, that we are a below average urban and industrial country, and barring isolated stars such as space research, we have nothing really world class except for the secular agricultural sector. Most major crops and products, be they rice, wheat, milk, sugar, fruits and vegetables or fish, we rank among the top three in the world, despite all the handicaps the secular small and marginal farmer faces. Conversion to products, storage and an efficient mechanism for delivery to urban centres are where we have failed and it is the responsibility of urban and industrial India to create these.
Our Industrial sector NPA, equivalent of 10 per cent of all debt, is a frightening figure and rising along with NPAs the urban middle classes have on MUDRA, education and housing. It has eaten away capital of at least two future generations, if one adds investments made through equity and government tax breaks to select industries, and the allocation of vast tracts of arable land to industry.
Clearly agriculture has to be brought to the forefront to change its ‘sick’ular image. A determined focus on this sector can kick-start rural and urban consumption, revive the economy, change the balance of payments position with countries such as China and Japan with food exports, along with many multiplier benefits that cover all states and regions. It would be a truly secular and sustainable
outcome.
The question then is, why isn’t the government of the day doing it? Is it omission or commission?
–The writer is an agripreneur working with small, marginal and tribal farmers in remote areas.