Without a revitalised economic thinking, agriculture will continue to hang precariously by a slender thread

With agriculture not paying much, and with very limited job opportunities available in the cities, farmers are left with little choice but to sell off their land to send their children abroad

With rural wages remaining stagnant or declining over the past 10 years, and with farming continuing to be a loss making proposition, the disillusionment of farmers is certainly reflected in the electoral verdict. The ruling BJP suffered the consequences of not only the neglect and apathy towards farmers but also the high-handedness and police brutality with which it responded to their protests.

At least 38 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra have gone to the Congress.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi did acknowledge the farmers woes, when at the victory speech at BJP headquarters the other day, he said: “We will keep prioritising the task of modernising agriculture from the level of purchase of seeds to the level of sales in the markets. From pulses to edible oils, we will constantly work to make our farmers self-reliant.”

But before going any further, I think it is vital to first understand whether the farm crisis is because of inadequate modernisation or is it because agriculture has been deliberately kept impoverished. We cannot keep our eyes shut to the question of denying farmers a guaranteed price to first address serious livelihood issues.

To make it sound simpler, I take the example of Haryana. There is no denying that Haryana has definitely taken long strides to achieve an impressive performance when it comes to agricultural production. Not only being food self-sufficient, it has achieved record performances in various agricultural commodities. For quite a number of years, Haryana has remained as the second biggest contributor of surplus wheat and rice to the central kitty. Even now, its share in the supply of surplus food stocks to the central pool is 16 per cent.

Many experts will talk of crop diversification to be the answer. But what is very conveniently being brushed aside is that for diversification, the first need is to ensure that the net return from alternatives being offered are no less than what the farmers earn from wheat and paddy crop rotation. Although they receive MSP for wheat and paddy, it does not commensurate with the cost and expected profitability. The first step in any case should be to ensure price guarantee as per the Swaminathan Commission’s formula.

There is no denying that there is a crisis of sustainability in farming operations resulting from intensive farming practices, but increasingly a sharp decline in farm incomes over the decades has rendered farming unviable. It has been very conveniently pushed under the carpet.

The migratory bug that has hit Haryana’s youth bears testimony to the distress surrounding the rural landscape. Walk into any village, and you will hear stories of how land is being increasingly sold to fund the foreign dreams of children.

With agriculture not paying much, and with very limited job opportunities available in the cities, farmers are left with little choice but to sell off their land to send their children abroad. So much so, the craze to send children abroad has even picked up among Scheduled Caste families, many of whom have taken huge loans to send their children abroad. “Majority of our boys have gone. Only their parents have stayed back. Our village has 1,100 votes. And even if all turn up for voting, the number will not be more than 800. The rest have gone abroad,” Sewa Singh, a 70-year-old farmer from Dherdu village in Kaithal district had very proudly told the media.

Mushrooming of sign-boards announcing IELTS courses, and also billboards attracting the youth for prompt visa and employment opportunities, is a worrying trend. Such is the craving for greener pastures overseas that recently Haryana saw a large number of aspirants turning up for low-paid jobs in war-torn Israel despite being aware of the threat to their life. The desperation to hang on to even life-threatening jobs is clearly visible. One can certainly disagree, but this disturbing migratory trend could have been reversed if agriculture had evolved as an economically viable and a profitable enterprise.

As I had said earlier, while everyone talks of crop diversification as a way to emerge out of the crisis of sustainability and economic vitality, it isn’t working out for farmers.

Ramesh Panghal is a tomato grower from Tosham in Bhiwani district. He cultivates tomatoes in about 42 acres, much of it on land taken on lease. With the kind of entrepreneurship he has shown, he is popularly referred to as the ‘Tomato King’ of Haryana.

Only a few days back, he marketed 351 crates of tomatoes (each carrying 26 kg) in the Gazipur Sabzi mandi in New Delhi. In total, he sold 9,126 kg of tomato on that particular day. From the price he received, and after deducting the expenses incurred on plucking, transportation and the costs incurred at the mandi, the net return he ended up with was only Rs. 1.48 per kg.

At a time when the average price a consumer pays for tomatoes is around Rs. 40 per kg, Panghal is seething with rage.

“Tell me, how you expect a farmer to survive,” he asked me, and added: “It has become fashionable to talk about diversification. Government officials urge farmers to diversify from wheat and paddy to other alternatives, including tomato. But if this is the net return for me from cultivating tomatoes, why should farmers diversify? It is not as if other crops are more paying.”

Tomato is not the only crop where farmers are unable to cover the cost of production. But before I look at various other examples, let me give you an idea as to how non-remunerative farming has become.

A recent study by Dr. Vinay Mehla from CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, should serve as an eye-opener here. It clearly shows that agriculture continues to hang precariously by a slender thread. That farm incomes are the bottom of the pyramid was well-known, but this study comes as a shocker. Accordingly, small farmers end up with a debt averaging Rs. 1.31-lakh, every year.

This means that while the emphasis has been on increasing crop production all these years, farmers’ welfare did not receive the kind of attention and priority that it deserved. If agriculture is a loss-making activity, as the study shows, it is futile to announce new schemes or introduce sophisticated technology that can pull farming out of the deep crisis of economic viability.

Instead of bringing new schemes, the State’s emphasis must immediately shift to finding ways and means to raise farm incomes. The declining farm incomes are not because farmers are not hardworking and enterprising; it is simply because when they undertake cultivation they do not realise they are cultivating losses.

The new NDA coalition government needs to take a fresh look at the continuing debacle on the farm front. For over 75 years now, many permutations and combinations have been tried. While agricultural production has gone up, farm distress has only been deepening.

To realise the dream of a Viksit Bharat by 2047, there is no escape except to ensure that farming becomes profitable and economically viable.

(The author is a noted food policy analyst and an expert on issues related to the agriculture sector. He writes on food, agriculture and hunger)