Reports of farmers killing themselves are disturbing. The alarming increase in the recent times in the frequency of such reports particularly from Maharashtra is even more disturbing. The nation comprises of a vast majority of farmers who keep us well fed and clothed; and we as a nation are somehow missing the point in these suicides. We interpret the death as a reaction to a failed crop or a series of failed crops. Yet the malaise runs a lot deeper.
Farmers in India are not well paid for the job of growing food and clothes for the nation. The government does not have a mechanism to arrive at the right Minimum Support Price (MSP) and is lax in implementing the low MSP it arrives at. Further, successive governments have worked towards reduction in subsidies indirectly paid out to the farmer by reducing the subsidies in inputs like fertilizer and diesel. European governments pay out huge subsidies to keep their farming community afloat and interested in agriculture. Some countries are known to map crops and areas through satellite and disburse the subsidy electronically into the farmers’ bank accounts. Why are we so unconcerned?
Another problem is shrinking acreages available to the farmer for growing crops. Industrialization, urbanization and building of infrastructure have fed heavily on fertile lands. Also socialistic rural ceiling laws have ensured that land holdings are small. Numerous successors have made those small holdings yet smaller. Can we not encourage new industry in unfertile non-agricultural lands? Can we not do away with land ceiling laws and instead bring in reverse ceiling laws so that agriculture remains viable?
Now, with micro-sized holdings and virtually no support from the government in the form of subsidies or in the form of purchase of his produce at remunerative prices, the farmer is left in a no-win situation. He is offered loans against mortgage of his land by banks which he is forced to take in order to make ends meet. Consumerism is everywhere in India. Farmers are not untouched by it. Inability to afford things like phones, higher education, electronics and better homes leads to frustration. Being saddled with loans he cannot pay back, he borrows more to keep his farm, home, hearth and of course bank account going.
If we do not support the farmer with better policy, he is likely to migrate to cities looking for a job, just as it is happening in states like Uttarakhand where in the remote hills either villages are deserted or have only women, children, the infirm and the old; and live off money-orders sent by their men in cities, government jobs or the military. Worse still, if the farmer does not migrate, he could kill himself as he is increasingly doing in many states in the country.
And whether he migrates or commits suicide, we will lose a good farmer. And the food he grew for us.
