Deception again on support price and agricultural crisis
The mandate of the recent Lok Sabha elections has drastically reduced the size of
both the BJP and the NDA and it has suffered a crushing defeat in about 160 rural
constituencies. The mandate says that the people are against the communal and
pro-corporate policies of the BJP and is not ready to allow it to voilate the norms
of democracy, the Constitution and social justice. But the events of the last 15 days
and the decisions of the government are enough to tell that the BJP does not care
about this mandate and its ‘bonsai’ government will carry forward the same policies
that it has followed in the last 10 years and pushed the country into a deep crisis. It
is unexpected and shocking that the oath of office of the Prime Minister of this
country has been given to such a person who has not been even chosen as the
leader of his parliamentary group by his original party. Now the President is also
involved in violation of the Constitutional norms and democracy.
In this sequence, the latest decision is about the minimum support price for 14
Kharif crops of the year 2024-25, which has been announced by the Railway
Minister instead of the Agriculture Minister of this country and claimed that this
declared price is one and a half times of the cost. Once again the BJP government
has betrayed the farmers. The irony is that this ‘minimum’ price announced by the
government becomes the ‘maximum’ for the farmers’ crops, because whether it is a
mandi or an open market, the trader is not ready to pay more than this minimum
price and the farmers do not have any such security cover that can protect
themselves from this loot of the market.
Everyone knows about the nationwide farmer movement that developed on the
issue of minimum support price in the backdrop of ever-increasing farmer suicides
and agrarian crisis in the country. To turn the farmers’ discontent in its favour, in
the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had promised to bring ‘achche din’ to the
common people suffering from inflation, poverty and unemployment and to give
‘one and a half times the support price of C-2 cost’ to the farmers and waive off
their loans. Later, going further, it also promised to double the income of farmers
by the year 2022-23.
The ten-year BJP rule could not turn its words into action because the focus of its
policies has been ensuring profits for the corporates, not the common people and
farmers. It is putting all its efforts to end the traditional agriculture of the country
and corporatize Indian agriculture in accordance with the instructions of the World
Trade Organization. The three agricultural laws passed by the previous government
served this purpose, which were opposed all over the country. More than 600 small
and big farmer organizations of the country together gave birth to the Sanyukt
Kisan Morcha and after a year and a quarter of farmers’ struggle under the
leadership of this morcha along with workers and their organizations and the
sacrifice of more than 700 farmers’ lives in it, the Modi government had bound to
announce the withdrawal of these anti-farmer laws and had to enter into a written
agreement to give C-2 based support price. But later it backtracked from this under
the pressure of the corporate lobby.
In fact, the history of BJP under the leadership of Modi-Shah is a history of
betrayal of farmers and brutal suppression of their movements. Just after the 2014
elections, this government went to the Supreme Court and refused to give C-2
based support price on the grounds that it would distort the market. Since then, it is
giving A-2+FL based support price, which is much below C-2+50%. Due to this,
farmers have to suffer losses of lakhs of crores of rupees every year and farming
has become a loss-making deal. Look at the audacity of this government that it is
refusing to implement the basic recommendation of MS Swaminathan, to whom it
gave ‘Bharat Ratna’ to gain electoral benefits, and at the same time is also making
false promises that it is giving farmers a support price one and a half times the cost.
In the past years, illegal actions were taken to stop their financial resources and to
harass the opposition states that had announced bonuses to provide relief to
farmers.
Despite the claims of a huge increase in the support price of Kharif crops, the
reality is that compared to last year, this year the price of paddy has been increased
by 5.33%, the price of coarse grains (jowar, bajra, maize) by an average of 5.82%,
pulses (arhar, urad, moong) by an average of 7.16% and the price of oilseeds
(peanut, sunflower, soybean, sesame) by an average of 6.93%. This increase in the
support price is not attractive for the farmers, because it is less than the inflation in
the prices of food grains and vegetables in the open market, which is running at an
average of 8 to 10 percent. This increase is ridiculously less than the GST of 18 to
28 percent being imposed by the government on agricultural inputs (fertilizers,
seeds, pesticides and other agricultural equipment), whose continuously increasing
prices and on top of that the heavy burden of GST is increasing the cost of
production drastically and the structure of Indian agriculture is collapsing.
Swaminathan Commission has fixed the basis of minimum support price of crops
on the gross cost of production of crops (C-2 price), which BJP has criminally
refused to accept. Swaminathan Commission had recommended for giving
minimum support price of one and a half times the gross cost C-2, so that the
farmer family, who has made the highest contribution to the development of the
country, can earn their livelihood with self-respect and their standard of living can
increase as expected. Modi coming to power for the third time is again a disaster
for the farmers of the country, because he has again refused to give the farmers the
real support price based on C-2.
If we look at the support price declared by the Central Government for various
crops from the year 2014-15 to this year, then the annual average rate of increase
in the support price of these crops in the last ten years has been from 5.87% to
17.67%. In the case of paddy, this growth rate has been 6.91% annually, while in
the case of coarse grains it has been 11.92% on an average, in the case of pulses it
has been 7.85% and in the case of oilseeds it has been 9.20% annually. But this
rate of increase in the support price has been insufficient to compensate for the
increasing cost of crop production and give farmers a respectable life and the
strength to face the market inflation. As a result, in the last decade after the coming
of the Modi government, not only has the average indebtedness of farmers
increased, but farmer suicides have also increased. Today half of the farmer
families in our country are indebted and have an average debt of Rs 74,121. 44%
of this debt is non-banking and actually moneylender debt. When their dignity is
hurt due to this debt, they have no other option but to commit suicide. In Modi’s
rule, the rate of farmer suicides has increased by more than one and a half times
compared to earlier.
Despite the propaganda by the government and corporate media about a huge
increase in the support price of Kharif crops, the reality is that these prices are far
away from the actual support price based on C-2 : for example, it is 23.63% less
for common paddy, 24.03% less for jowar, 20.39% less for maize, 25.25% less for
groundnut, 23.80% less for cotton. How painful it is for a common man to think
that a farmer producing urad dal is paying a loss of Rs. 2344 per quintal, a farmer
producing sesame is paying a loss of Rs. 2961 per quintal, or a farmer producing
cotton is paying a loss of Rs. 2224 per quintal and investing in farming for ‘nation
service’! But this does not disturb the sleep of our Prime Minister.
We can understand the loss to farmers from this by taking the case of paddy. This
year, the support price of common paddy has been declared by the central
government as Rs 2300 per quintal, whereas the actual support price on the basis of
C-2+50% is Rs 3012. Thus, the paddy producing farmer is incurring a loss of Rs
712 per quintal. In the year 2022-23, the central government had purchased 570
lakh tonnes of rice across the country. This means that about 855 lakh tonnes of
paddy would have been purchased by the government across the country. If this is
considered as the basis, then the loss to the farmers comes to Rs 60,876 crore. This
calculation does not include the additional looting of farmers in the mandis and
markets and the deceit of the central government, through which the prices of
agricultural inputs are exaggerated to show less production cost. The losses
incurred by farmers producing other crops can also be estimated in a similar way
and if all this is included in the calculation, the losses incurred by farmers will run
into lakhs of crores of rupees.
This loot of farmers is the basis of the ruin of the entire farming community and
the prosperity and profits of the corporates. The debt of lakhs of crores of rupees
that the farmers have today, which this government is constantly refusing to waive
off, is the result of this looting of farmers. The corporate-friendly agricultural
policies of this government are also responsible for the suicides of farmers due to
this looting. The result of these policies is that the agricultural income of farmers
has decreased. According to a survey of the year 2019, a farmer family earns an
average of Rs 3798 per month from various crops and this shows a 5% decline as
compared to the year 2012. These farmer families survive on the additional income
from animal husbandry, small business and wages. Since then, the government
does not have any data on how much the income of farmers has increased in the
last five years and how much their livelihood has improved. Yes, on the basis of
human development indicators and hunger index, we can definitely say that our
farmer community, which provides food to us, has become more miserable today
than before, the level of hunger and malnutrition has increased among them and
children and women are the worst hit by these policies.
The terrible agricultural crisis in our country today is reflected in the continuously
falling income of farmers, their indebtedness and suicides. The only way to
overcome this can be by giving them a beneficial support price on the basis of the
recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission and by giving a legal
guarantee of government purchase of all the crops of the farmers. But this solution
is a path that hurts corporate profits and the Modi government has made it clear
through its attitude that it can put nails in the path of farmers, but it cannot pull the
carpet laid for the corporates. In such a situation, the people of this country have no
other option except to struggle on the streets along with the workers inside and
outside the Parliament with the unity of the opposition. In the coming days, a new
wave of mass struggles and mobilization will be seen on the basis of alternative
policies. Only such a united struggle of the common people can take the country
out of the crisis.
