The Hindu, April 3rd 2015

Sanjay Kumar and Pranav Gupta

The unseasonal rains over the last few weeks have resulted in enormous loss of crop across many States of North India. This has shifted attention from the issue of land acquisition to the larger problems faced by farmers. While it is important to debate the various clauses of the Land Acquisition Bill — what might benefit the farmers and what goes against their interests — it is also important for the government to pay attention to the bigger problems that Indian farmers fight. The findings from a study conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies among farmers across the country help present the larger and rather dismal picture that agriculture is today.

More than just the Bill

Though farmers are anxious about the Land Acquisition Bill, this does not seem to be their biggest worry, as only a very small proportion of farmers — especially those who want money to get their sons educated or daughters married — buy and sell land. The important thing is that even as it is considered inappropriate for farmers’ land to be taken away by the government without discussion or consent, it is important that farmers also be consulted for improving the overall condition of agriculture in India. Income returns are very low, irrigation facilities are inadequate and supporting infrastructure is largely absent or of poor quality.

What adds to the problem is the famously unpredictable weather. Crops are destroyed either by drought or by floods. It is no wonder that the survey indicates that more than one-fifth (22 per cent) of the farmers dislike farming.

We don’t have to look far for the farmer’s increasing apathy towards his traditional occupation. Close to half the respondents in the survey (47 per cent) believed that their overall condition was bad. More than six out of 10 farmers (62 per cent) were willing to leave farming if they found jobs in the city. More than one-third (37 per cent) said they would not like their children to be farmers. But it is important to note that their disillusionment is driven largely by economic considerations, and not a dislike for their occupation. The survey figures provide a clear picture of the state of agriculture today. The need to reduce disguised unemployment in the sector by promoting alternative jobs or businesses does not negate the need for government action to revive agriculture. The sector has and will continue for many years to have the highest share in the country’s employment. A prosperous agricultural sector is absolutely essential for maintaining food security, and the government needs to actively address some of the emerging problems.

There is no lack of schemes for the farmer — the National Food Security Mission, the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana and the Gramin Bhandaran Yojana, to name just a few. The trick is to improve the delivery of these rather than to initiate new ones. Even Prime Minister Modi recognised this when he said in a recent speech that farmers hardly benefit from government schemes. The survey indicates that most farmers don’t benefit from these. The proportion of farmers who had benefited was less than one-tenth for each of these schemes.

The problems on ground

The scarcity of financial resources for farming is the other big problem. Unsurprisingly, the study indicated that one-third of the farmers had taken a loan in the last five years for meeting personal or farming needs. For non-farming purposes, most of them had to depend on either friends or moneylenders. Although more than half the farmers had heard about the Kisan Credit Card and the United Progressive Alliance government’s much-publicised loan waiver project, its actual impact was quite limited. Only 15 per cent of farmers had a Kisan Credit Card, while only one-tenth had actually benefited from the loan waiver. The proportion for the latter was higher among the big farmers (21 per cent) and much lower among marginal farmers (6 percent.) Access to cheap credit from formal sources for both farming and personal purposes is key to rural development.

The lack of expert advice is another nagging issue. Even as new kinds of seeds, fertilizers or farming techniques become common, large numbers of farmers continue to rely on their own knowledge and experience or what they learn from word of mouth. Only 15 percent said that they take information or help from agriculture department officers or other experts.

Thus, for instance, large numbers of farmers had never heard of crop insurance, with 67 per cent having never insured their crop. Thus, in the event of a flood or drought, they have no means to recover even a portion of their losses. In the survey, 70 per cent farmers said that crops had got destroyed in their area at least once in the last three years. The main reasons for this were drought/lack of rain, floods and unseasonal rains.

It is clear that adequate irrigation facilities remains one of the foremost concerns of the farmer. Less than one-third (28 per cent) of farmers said that public projects such as canals and wells had been undertaken by the government in their area in the last 10 to 15 years. One hopes that the newly launched Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana will kick-start the process of improving irrigation facilities.

Not surprisingly, farmers blame the both the States and the Central government for the massive systemic failure to address their concerns. The high level of dissatisfaction among farmers cannot be considered as an excuse for promoting other sectors at the cost of agriculture. Reviving the rural economy should be a major challenge for the Modi government. With the Bharatiya Janata Party in power in many States, as well as at the Centre, it is expected to show positive results. Mr. Modi spoke of some critical concerns of farmers in his speech, but the real test is whether his government will walk the talk. If the BJP hopes to retain the support it received in rural India in 2014, the government must ensure that it is able take Bharat on board the India growth story.

(Sanjay Kumar is Professor and Director at Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi. Pranav Gupta is a researcher at Lokniti, a research programme of CSDS. The views expressed here are personal.)