Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today sought direct intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bail out the beleaguered farming community of the state from the current agrarian crisis.
In a letter to Modi, the Chief Minister said farmers are suffering huge financial distress due to unenviable prices of foodgrains because of the central government's efforts to keep consumer prices affordable for the poor.
He said that while the state supports this goal, the sole reason why the government has been able to afford this was due to the massive contribution made by Punjab's farmers.
The Chief Minister said that the policies of successive governments at the Centre have led to the country's bread winners going hungry.
This was largely because of the huge mismatch between the prices of agricultural produce such as foodgrains and costs of agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, machinery and labour.
This was not even counting the cost of the farmer's land as capital investment.
The Chief Minister said prices of agricultural produce like foodgrains have been increasing 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.
Badal said accounting for inflation, the changes in MSP actually work out to be in the negative zone.
Badal further said that the weather aberrations during the
last two years such as 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 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 suicides by farmers for economic reasons have 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 politicised 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," he said.
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.
Badal said the state has consistently approached the central government to request that in order to solve this alarming problem, the Centre must either adopt the formula forwarded by the Chairman, National Farmers Commission, M S Swaminathan, under which farmers are assured MSP which accounts for the basic costs incurred on production plus 50 per cent 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 and cotton 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," he said.
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 such as wheat and paddy has never been more than 10 per cent.
As such, a new Comprehensive Plot Based Farm Insurance Scheme should be formulated and implemented with central funding.
Likewise, Badal 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 Centre's estimates, Rs 52,438 crore of banks were outstanding towards farmers in March, 2013.
In addition, the farmers have availed themselves of credit from the non-institutional sources such as commission agents and money lenders 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 farmers and agricultural labourers.
As a matter of fact, the problem can be neglected only at 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.
