Agricultural Distress in India : A Dissection Though Gajendra Singh’s ( a farmer from Rajasthan) tragic death in Aam Aadmi Party rally on 22nd April 2015 in Delhi had nothing to do with agrarian distress of the country, it generated lot of political heat nationwide across the party lines. Each party claims to be the messiah of farming community. Then why there has been agrarian distress since last decades? Prime Minister Narendra Modi was honest in pointing out that the agrarian distress is a deep-rooted problem and has been there since years and we have to evolve a sustainable solution. Now amidst the political heat and debate agrarian crisis has been quintessentially tagged to the land acquisition legislation and therefore it is most likely to lose its direction. Amongst others, Ashok Gulati has critically analysed the agrarian distress by commenting that the farm sector is crippled with low viability and high volatility. By saying so, he has dissected two major issues – low viability comes from the small holding with per household 1.15 hectares, where 85 percent of the landholding being under two hectares and more than half of the land are cultivated in rain fed conditions. Low productivity and value of crops are two major determinants farmers’ net income. Unless, a farmer ( having 1-2 hectares of land) has all infrastructure to go for protected and high value crops, s/he cannot have a an income to have a decent living. In our country how many farmers have this privilege? Perhaps none, rather some rich people have that luxury, who have enough income to experiment in their farm houses. Therefore, every young person from the agrarian households tries to escape the farming activity and moves in search of non-farm jobs. That is why even in rural areas more than half of the income of a household comes from non-farm work. Those who still cling to farming have their own compulsions. As the structure of economy keep changing, we expect more and more people move from farm to non-farm activities. It has happened in many countries and so will in India. Of course this depends on growth of high productivity non-farm sector and skill development amongst the rural population. I have seen shifting from farm to non-farm has not significantly changed economic condition of many households. Some shift because of small holding and lack of cooperation and synergy within a joint family. There are other factors too. This does not mean the policy should focus more on non-farm sector than farm. When, we expect a GDP growth more than 7 percent, can we afford to sustain agriculture at less than 2 percent growth? It must grow at least at 4 percent to meet our food requirement as well as making it viable for farming households. There is no substitute to increasing agricultural productivity by efficient use of resources. There is no dearth of land, water and technology. I remember my college days during early 80s , Israel was very popular in using drip irrigation and modernising agriculture which became a demonstration plot for the countries across the world. Many of our bureaucrats and agriculture officers visited Israel to see that and back home did absolutely nothing. Lot of fund has gone into agriculture line departments which were siphoned off by the politicians-bureaucrats-officers nexus. I still remember two of my school seniors became agriculture officers and had the tallest building in our area after 5 years of their service. This is just an indication of how fund is swindled, though cannot be generalised. We do not have any third party/impartial assessment of fund utilisation and actual result on the ground. CAG audit goes by the procedures and papers, not what has translated into real benefit to the farmers. There must be
District Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Committee representing specialists from government, private and civil society sectors to oversee the affairs of agriculture development in the district Our agriculture graduates and post graduates employed with government are all officers/directors and so on, not agriculturist in true sense. So, extension of agriculture science has failed in our country to a large extent. How many small farmers have been able to change their economic landscape through adoption of scientific practices and how much resources have gone into that if calculated, will take us to the heights of frustration. All policies have good intentions and hardly have any loopholes, but the mechanism and the way our programmes are implemented are full of loopholes and encourage all kinds of wrong practices. For example, subsidy has never been considered a matter of entitlement either by the officials or farmers; it has always been looked at as a favour/charity being done by the officials for what they deserve a rent or share. Thus, it has always bred corrupt practices. Certain programmes have also created a culture of dishonesty amongst common people, who do not hesitate to share the pie with officials if they get some undeserved benefits. The deserved ones give up running after rent seeking officials. Who is to be blamed? The other important aspect of agriculture in India is its high volatility as vagaries of nature and market uncertainties make it more vulnerable. Unseasonal rain, cyclonic and hailstorms, lack of holding capacity of farmers, lack of storage, lack of aggregation, price crash, lack of processing infrastructure and others add to the woes. Then, there is a market of agri-inputs like seeds, fertilizers, pesticides which operates beyond the comprehension of average farmers. An ordinary farmer tends to buy inputs at cheaper prices where low quality and spurious products are sold to them by the unscrupulous retailers. Government agencies have not been able to provide a viable solution in this regard. As regards irrigation, farmers are increasingly depending on ground water thereby worsening the water table. The states like Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, and Telengana are experiencing depleting water tables. It is high time to harvest the maximum rain water by renovating the existing water bodies and creating new water bodies along with massive plantation. We need a paradigm shift in the cropping pattern by opting less water intensive crops. Besides, supply of seeds, real time technology, an affordable and robust insurance policy with hassle free system of claim settlement by dovetailing direct benefit transfer services through Jan-Dhan Yojana, and Aadhaar. I have not yet understood why income from agriculture has remained out of income tax purview? It has not helped the farming community in anyway except some big farmers. Rather, keeping agricultural income non-taxable has provided a safe haven for the corrupt officials, politicians, and businessmen to park their ill-got money. I have heard some officials and politicians show a sizeable income from the agricultural sources in their income tax return file. By doing so, they actually convert their black money to white! A bureaucrat showing 30 lakh as income from the agriculture source can be justified if s/he owns enough land. In reality, there might be very negligible or no income from agriculture. A politician friend told me he purchased an SUV of worth 35 lakhs by showing 40 lakh income from agriculture in his IT return. This must be very common everywhere across the country. I am not very sure, whether Income Tax Officials verify these facts matching with the reality. May not be, as they neither have manpower nor the competency to do that. Income tax rule should be applicable to all irrespective of one’s occupation. This can prevent a sizeable black money to be converted into white and state exchequer can be strengthened. By bringing agricultural
income under the purview of income tax, the dignity of agriculture as well as farmers is enhanced, which can attract more investment for growth. Let the farmers having more than 3 lakh as net income start paying 5000 rupees as annual income tax and income having more than 5 lakh pay 10000 rupees tax voluntarily. This may take some time, but I am sure people would gradually understand their responsibility towards the state and society. Law relating to tenancy should also undergo radical changes. A sizeable amount of land is cultivated by the tenants not the owners. In this case the tenants do not have any long term plan for investment in agriculture as the tenancy itself is uncertain and mostly regulated by oral commitments or at best by an agreement made in a non-judicial stamped paper. So, reaping the maximum within short span of time becomes rule of the game for tillers. This ultimately affects the soil health and productivity. Landowners have either to cultivate their own land or lease out to tillers at least for 10 years under a legal system. There cannot be third option like neither tilling nor leasing out (just keeping idle). A progressive legislation in this regard can be enacted with appropriate institutional designs at Gram Panchayat level to work like a land bank. Irony in this country is, people working in white collar jobs ( in government and otherwise) or having business possess the maximum land ! Can we at least initiate a voluntary scheme to facilitate that people working in government service should donate land (depending on their salary level) to the land bank, which in turn can be leased out to actual farmers? If there is strong political will amongst the parties a legislation to this effect can be enacted. Though Agriculture is a state subject , major policies and flagship programmes have been initiated by the centre whether it is green revolution, white revolution, Rashtriya Krishi Vikash Yojana or National Horticulture Missions. With 14th Finance Commission’s recommendation coming into effect on enhanced tax share of the states, its effect on agriculture is yet to be seen. Nevertheless, it is the centre to take lead in bringing radical reform in farm sector. The Prime Minister is advocating for cooperative federalism and agriculture should be number one agenda to work on. The second green revolution in eastern India should be a real revolution of people not as another programme of the government. States need agriculturists not agricultural officers. Thus, Agricultural Universities in collaboration with Agriculture Practicing NGOs should start a two year Diploma in Agricultural Practices, with specialisation in horticulture, dairy and livestock etc. to cater to the needs of technical persons for providing agriculture development services at Block and Gram Panchayat level. Today, SRI (system of rice intensification) has been popular because of dedicated work of NGOs. They are the ones who have done wonderful experiments in the fields. Agriculture inter alia requires massive investment, for irrigation, in creating efficient value chains between farmers and market players, storage, processing and so on..............
Dr Braja S. Mishra An academic & development practitioner, based in New Delhi Can be contacted on
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