Farmers tend to go by track records, not poll promises - and when it comes to that, the NDA's track record is better.
Come elections and political parties start wooing farmers who form the single-largest votebank in the country. Several populist measures have been mooted in the election manifestos of both the Congress and the BJP. Some of sops offered are, predictably, quite similar.
The Congress has sought to take forward the recent farm loan waiver move by offering interest relief to all farmers who repay their loans. It has also promised a further reduction of interest on bank credit. The BJP, not to be left behind, has proposed a fresh round of farm loan waivers, besides a ceiling of 4 per cent on interest rates.
Apart from this, while the Congress has talked about insurance schemes for crop losses, the BJP has proposed schemes for ensuring minimum income for farmers. The saffron party has also vowed to irrigate an additional 35 million hectares of farm land.
However, the reality is that such promises do not cut much ice with farmers who are more concerned with eking out a respectable living out of farming. For this, they want cheaper and timely availability of farm inputs, including credit, a suitable mechanism for hedging their risks, and hassle-free marketing of their produce at remunerative prices. Besides, they want easier and affordable access to the latest know-how and technology, not for maximising their production, but for optimising the returns. Significantly, most farmers do not expect dole though they may not mind accepting this if it’s on offer.
In any case, what is included in the manifestos is often forgotten by the political parties as well as by farmers once the elections are over. What really matters are the policies adopted by the parties after assuming power. That makes their past performance more pertinent than their election pledges.
In that respect, though the BJP-led National Development Alliance NDA that was in power between 1989 and 2004 was not as liberal as the UPA in hiking the Minimum Support Prices of crops, it did introduce several significant reforms in the farm sector. Significantly, the process of lowering interest on agricultural loans, which used to be more than double that charged from industry, was initiated by the NDA, though it was carried forward by the UPA.
In the key area of agricultural marketing, the NDA made history when it lifted a 40-year-old ban on the futures trading in farm commodities. It also sought to end the licence and inspector raj by abolishing licensing of traders and lifting stock limits and movement curbs on agricultural commodities.
The UPA government, on the other hand, has reversed many of these reforms. Not only has futures trading been suspended in key farm commodities, stockholding restrictions and other kinds of controls on agricultural trade have also been brought back. Interestingly, this is despite the UPA’s commitment, in its Common Minimum Programme, to liberalise agricultural marketing and make India a single common market for agricultural goods.
In the case of external trade of farm goods, while the NDA abolished most quantitative restrictions and other curbs, the UPA not only imposed bans on import and export of several commodities, it carried out frequent revisions in tariffs to manipulate such trade.
Of course, the process of amending the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee laws of the states, initiated by the NDA, has been continued by the UPA government as well.
As far as the agricultural technology transfer was concerned, many of the measures conceived and taken during the NDA rule have been negated or neglected. Though the concept of agri-clinics as a means of privatisation of agricultural extension and technology transfer has not been given up by the UPA, the priority accorded to it has been curtailed considerably. The dedicated krishi channels on television and radio, initiated by the NDA, have been shut down and the concept of kisan call centres, though not abandoned, have remained largely on paper.
However, the UPA government has launched some new initiatives that seem to be paying off. These include setting up of the National Food Security Mission to boost the output of selected food crops and the Rs 25,000-crore Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna to spur investment in locally relevant agricultural development programmes.
