Keeping it Simple - Handling of Farmers' Distress

This comes from my close observance of farming since beginning of my second innings just over an year ago. A lot is being said and written about farmers' distress and then there is a huge pressure on NaMo govt to follow the stupid trend set by a grand corrupt party. This write up is beyond politics - for a change- and is not even considering professional video and photo-shoots that go in while making an issue out of farmers' conditions. And here it goes....

We may argue and differ but the fact remains that facilities - be it electricity or water or connectivity with markets or MSP or agro-related educational schemes and training or welfare schemes or crop insurance or support from quarters (both govt and non-govt) and such like vitals - are much more superior to what existed, say, 40 years back! Yes, impacts as well as developments have been prone to many factors and effects have not been uniform across the country's landmass but the bottom line is that a lot has been done and is being done! An ever increasing population does no harm to farmers nor does the spending power of consumers and ingress of MNCs who, despite all the noise, have been big procurers. And still, there are suicides and there is distress! The reasons, based on my own observations and experience, are as under...

1. Traditional agriculture in this country had been based on ancient wisdom handed down the generations till about three decades ago. The traditional wisdom advocates a composite agriculture that, itself, is a way of life. So, a farmer had some land, a few cattle, few birds and all (without exception) working hands of the family. Such a set up could produce enough to eat and live reasonably well in most of the cases. Over the years, however, land holdings have been shrinking (both due to our outstanding reproduction rate and temptation to sell the land to buy an Audi). Such a development creates a situation that is almost insurmountable by individual farmers.

2. Gone are the days of a family working in the fields together. Younger generation has own priorities and agriculture now has become labour (PAID) intensive. No wonder then that net profits after taking out all expenses are not worth a mention, let alone worth sending to the PMO.

3. Earlier we had indigenous cattle breeds that were immune to many sicknesses, had low maintenance and gave less milk but gave it consistently. While many countries took likes of Sahiwal and Gir abroad and replaced their livestock, we fell for Jersey and such like high maintenance and very expensive breeds that actually produce useless (if not harmless) A1 milk. The initial cost of buying and then regular cost of feeding and maintaining not only made us vulnerable to loans (and mostly from local sources at high rates) but also reduced margins due to higher operating costs.

4. One of the products of a cow, a bull/ox, would be used for ploughing and it would plough all of top 9 inches of soil (the soil that actually matters) with the long blade that was a given with wooden ploughs. Such oxen were considered as part of the family and were loved and kept with care. Over time, tractors and machines replaced them and made them a liability that no one has any use for. So, roads kept on filling with bulls discarded by many who would find it a wasteful expenditure to keep a calf or a bull. They are now a nuisance and a threat to lives of road users. At the same time, tractor drivers, despite availability of longer blades, prefer to use shorter blades to save time and stress on the machines. When that happens, only top 4 or 5 inches of soil get ploughed crop after crop and land gets stressed in turn. Low productivity then sets in. And owning a tractor (loans again) and using it (whether owned or hired) involve costs.

5. GM seeds are tempting but create a sad situation where a farmer has to buy seeds for every crop unlike earlier days when he would use produce of earlier crops as seeds for the next crop. GM crops are also high maintenance crops and are more prone to failures even though they give higher outputs if all goes well. In a country where dependence on rain is still a fact, all can never be well and for too long.

6. Fertilizers kill in two ways. Firstly, they are expensive and drive costs high. Such costs become too high when the crop fails! Secondly, chemicals are bad for all those who consume them. Cancer Express connecting interiors of Punjab with Bikaner (though it originates at Delhi) is a testimony to what such methods can do to us.

7. Organic farming entails more expensive organic fertilizers and has been found in-viable if adopted in isolation.

8. We have fallen for fancy crops and methods without scientifically analysing the feasibility. Agro marketing companies have been running own campaigns that misguide and exploit unsuspecting farmers.

9. Many states have good markets aka Mandis and yet middlemen eat up everything. As a result, farmer gets nothing and consumers pay through the nose for the same product.

10. A typical village life, till late 1980s, would consist of waking up early and sleeping early with two or three shifts of hard work in the fields. Life, however, is not the same now for obvious reasons. Farmers used to be producers earlier; now they are consumers (of material comforts and luxuries) too.

11. Many studies have proved that Indian farmers look at and take water as granted. Wherever water is available, it is used in plenty. Plants and crops don't actually need such amounts of water. Israel is an example of desert farming with huge successes. In addition to misuse of water, pumping of water means increased costs as also drain of underground water.

12. High produce-low demand regions see produce being sold at alarmingly low prices or simply being discarded because of lack of storage facilities. Such a situation also creates inflation in low produce-high demand regions for the same crop.

There are many more issues - both natural and man-made- that add on to stress but major and common ones have been summarised here. Anyone who still believes that measures like loan waiver can help, needs to do some re-thinking. Our common sense would tell us that addressing the causes that lead to such loans, would be a better way of handling the issue. Some of the measures that may help are listed below....

1. Co-operative movement stands defeated in India and needs to be revived with passion. A number of smaller land pieces, when looked at as a land mass through this concept, reveal something absolutely different.

2. Composite methodology of farming - a mix of dairy, bird rearing, honey bee farming- needs to be adopted. Two to three cattle in a house are enough to provide adequate organic fertilizer (dung), organic pesticide (cow urine based), cooking/warming cakes (dung) and ploughing. Even if a house has only one bull, co-operative method of sharing will help. In fact, smaller land masses don't need tractors at all.

3. GM seeds and chemical fertilizers (these are highly subsidized and are sold in black to industrialists who need these for different purposes) should be slowly taken out of the system and then banned may be over next one decade or so.

4. Like restrictions on purchase of agricultural land by non-agriculturists in many parts of the country, dealing with crops and agro products below a certain levels, say a co-op society, by non-agriculturists must be banned.

5. We need to develop cold storage facilities big time. Work is on as I write this, Dedicated corridors (railway based) will also help.

6. Local lending and borrowing at high interest rates must be checked and banned.

7. Education of scientific techniques and water management must go on and must become more meaningful.

8. There are various schemes from NABARD and such agencies that offer huge incentives to desi cow breeders but red tapeism needs to be cut since only rich and influential benefit from such schemes.

9. Artificial insemination is one way of ensuring a control over ox/bull population. Good genes must be preserved and made available locally. Nitrogen containers used to store such semen is too expensive as of now and co-op owning of such assets must be encouraged.

10. Walmart (Best Price) was made duty bound to procure locally through the contract. Big Bazaar buys directly from the farmers. Co-op societies, once empowered, can become huge sources.

Many of the above steps do exist on papers and are partially being implemented in some areas. The need of the hour is to just be sincere to what is on paper and then keep improving as the days pass.