Page 30 - Tehelka Issue 15 August 2018

While farmers have
their concerns over
fair price of crop,
experts assess the
operating under a protective regime, present situation ation. Government procures close to 38
were suddenly exposed to face more per cent of total paddy produced and
advanced, global players. Liberalisation as precarious the largest chunk of this is procured
of imports of commodities at a cheaper where the politics from the states of Punjab, Haryana and
price pushed Indian farmer at an edge Western Uttar Pradesh” said Patil.
and his condition started deteriorating. has overshadowed He added that the MSP of Cotton has
Lack of awareness, education and been revised from 4,150 per quintal
financial strength denied the farmers economics to approximately 4600 per quintal for
from accessing the benefits, if any, of Kharif Marketing season 2018.
opening up of Indian economy. land, micro-nutrients, depletion of un- This is approximately 12 per cent re-
The languishing agrarian society had derground water has not been consid- vision over last year. This is far below
big hopes from the government elected ered by Dr Swaminathan. This is a bla- the estimated cost of 7225 per quintal
in 16th Lok Sabha as there was a lot of tant injustice to the farmers. of cotton cultivation calculated by the
impetus on worsening condition of The brainstorming sessions of the Agriculture Universities.
farmers and implementation of Swa- farmers have been planned in the next Maharashtra farmers are unhappy
minathan Commission’s report prior to month to mobilise the producers on and will take the feedback of the ffarm-
assuming power. the miscalculation of the remunera- ers and decide the future course of
Post elections, Modi government left tion of the crops so that political parties action.
the farmers in the lurch and disgrun- may not reap dividends over the false Farmers in Maharashtra have been
tled farmers resorted to protests. It is announcements in the upcoming Lok groping in the dark to deposit the pre-
again a political compulsion to harbour Sabha Elections, he informed. mium of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima
the favour of rural vote bank during the In the state of Maharashtra, farm- Yojna. While the deadline for premium
last leg of its tenure, that the govern- ers look beyond MSP and find MSP as is July 31, servers are down across the
ment paid some heed on the MSP of only a safety measure. Gunvant Patil state for the past many days. Making
crops. The revision in MSP may entail Hangergar, a farmer based at Nanded the procedures on-line have increased
an additional burden of an estimated in Maharashtra and Secretary of All the hardships of the farmers as most of
33,500 cr on the exchequer; it has not India Kisan Coordination Commit- them do not understand this and totally
been able to appease the farmers. tee told that time has come when the dependent on whatever information is
A large number of farmers; who are agriculture should be liberalised. “We provided to them.
teetering on the brink of a debt trap want to have an open market price and Even in so-called affluent states of
find it as a short-term relief. But their operate in a free market. The govern- Punjab and Haryana- hailed as the
problems are chronic and momentous ment intervention does not solve the
and the Government lacks the inten- problem rather aggravates it. Our farm-
tion to pull them out of the quagmire of ers start growing crops in expectation
distress. of assured return even if it disturbs the
Post MSP announcement, The NITI ecological balance and is a drain on our
(National Institute for Transform- natural endowments. Water guzzling
ing India) Ayog invited select farmers’ crops like paddy and sugarcane are
representatives to take their feedback not suitable for the states like Punjab,
on the proposal to engage Commis- Haryana and Maharashtra but we them
sion Agents on behalf of Government year-after-year. The volatility of price in
to procure the crops wherever there crops other than paddy and sugarcane
is a space constraint to store the crops. propels us towards these crops. If there
The farmer representatives disagreed. is a glut in the market, prices crash due
Talking to Tehelka, Bhupinder Singh to over-supply and farmer is hit. Ironi-
Mann, Chairman, All India Kisan Coor- cally, the farmer is a loser during scar-
dination Committee said that there is city too. If the crop fails due to a natural
an absolute callousness on the part of calamity and prices surge in the wake of
Niti Ayog. They want to put up political supply constraint, the government in-
agents in the garb of procurement front tervenes and prices are suppressed. So,
man dole out funds in the name of stor- the farmer would lose in both the situ-
age expenses.
Mann added that depreciation is • Farming future The volatility of price in
counted for in every production pro- crops other than paddy and sugarcane propels
cess. In agriculture, depreciation of us towards these crops

TEHELKA / 15 AUGUST 2018 30 WWW.TEHELKA.COM

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