Small, marginal farmers rue rising input costs & stray cattle menace

“A farmer is a farmer — big, middling, or small. His concerns and problems are similar. In this election, the kisan has crystallised into a distinct category, above caste, class, and region,” stated Anshu Sharma, a secretary of the Samajwadi Party (SP), camping at the Sidhauli headquarter (Sitapur district) to Lucknow’s west in Uttar Pradesh. While the long-drawn farmers’ agitation against the Centre’s disputatious laws was largely confined to the western region abutting Delhi and garnered support from the better-off Jats, it resonated in the other parts as well. “The protests gave us a context to reflect on our own problems and seek answers to why they arose even if we didn’t gather on the streets to agitate,” said Atul Verma, a small cultivator from Ramnagar (Barabanki district).

Small and marginal farmers are typically characterised as those owning two or three acres of land and dependent on the local markets for selling their produce. According to a NABARD All India Financial Inclusion Survey (2016-17), in UP, 63 per cent of the households are engaged in agriculture. The average size of the land holding is 0.80 hectare compared with 1.15 hectare, the national average. Around 23.3 million farmers have a combined landholding of 176.22 lakh hectares, but the breathtaking figure camouflaged a worrisome fact: 92 per cent are small and marginal farmers with an average holding of 0.40 to 1.43 hectares. They earn an average monthly income of Rs 6,668 which is 25 per cent lower than the national average of Rs 8,931.

As one travelled across parts of central and east UP, it was impossible to escape the hard realities that bore down on the farmers: Increasing land fragmentation, uneven irrigation spread (the major sources are wells and canals), lack of micro-irrigation, cattle on the rampage after the government brought in a stringent law proscribing their sale to the abattoirs, a ban on fencing fields, a fertiliser and urea crunch that delayed sowing last November, higher power tariff, enhanced costs of agricultural inputs, and GST on agricultural implements. Would these circumstances impact electoral preferences? To contextualise, in the last Assembly election in 2017, farmers — irrespective of their economic status — voted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in a big way, both to acknowledge the party’s “commitment” to Hindutva and in anticipation of better monetary times. A major promise held out by the BJP was that of doubling farmers’ incomes in five years.

Among the snapshots etched in the mind, a telling one played out at Aliganj village (Isauli Assembly, Sultanpur). The Jaiswals, a trading community classified as a backward caste, are hardcore BJP voters. This time one family was at loggerheads. Ramji Jaiswal, a small businessman, was at peace with the Yogi Adityanath government as was his cousin Ramta Jaiswal, a retired government employee. “We have no land, and no worries. Twice a month we get the government’s rations. The PM-Kisan funds reach us every four months. We are more concerned with issues like population control and law and order,” said Ramta.

Another cousin, Ram Narain, had a different story to tell. “I own about 5 acres from the 24 acres that were divided between five brothers. Last year, I lost produce worth Rs 30,000 in one season because the cattle devoured everything, even young mustard saplings. On top of that, earlier 5 kgs of diammonium phosphate was priced at Rs 500, now it is Rs 1,350. I run a small hotel but the pandemic wiped out my earnings. I hoped that my land would save the family, but that hasn’t happened. No BJP for me.”

In Purvi Loniapur Tikri (Amethi Assembly), Ayodhya Prasad delineated the nocturnal regimen followed to keep the marauding cattle at bay. “Daytime, it’s ok because people are in and out of the fields. The problem begins at 7 pm. I have erected a machan with a light that’s on all night. I carry my dinner. Even then, when the cattle prey there’s little I can do except raise noise and wield a lathi, but that’s not enough. We’ve stopped growing daal, channa, and peas because these are their favourites. For the first time, we are buying vegetables. Agriculture has become unproductive.”

Which way will he vote? “Like Yogi ji, I am a Thakur. I won’t let him down,” asserted Prasad.

The growing unprofitability of farming is a major reason why alternate employment — or lack of it — is a major election issue in the villages. At Barabanki’s Girauli gram sabha, Paltu Ram, the deputy pradhan, a Jatav like Mayawati, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader, said he “spent sleepless nights” worrying over his sons’ future. “The fear that the BJP might scrap reservation if it returns is the biggest issue for us. Mohan Bhagwat (the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s sarsanghachalak) prepared his own constitution that says reservations will go. A private college will demand Rs 50,000 per semester from one son of mine. The earnings from my land are not enough.”

Ram said while he will remain loyal to the BSP, “I am not sure of the younger Dalits. They just want to vote out the BJP”.

However, arrayed against the fears, doubts and scepticism over the BJP was a “feel good” sense among large sections over the sops and freebies handed by the government and the “self-pride” the party infused in Hindus. “At midnight, my phone tells me the cash transfers have come to my account. There’s zero corruption. If there’s no Hindu-Muslim tension, it’s because we Hindus hold our heads high against the other side. Muslims have got the message,” said Ritesh Singh, who sells agricultural goods at Dariyabad’s Auliya Lalpur.

The writer was in Barabanki, Sidhauli, Amethi, and Sultanpur