Price support is critical
Benefits are significantly higher than crop insurance programmes, even though the latter is vital
THE POLICY of price support based on minimum support price (MSP) is old, and there is no certainty of price support for commodities other than cereals.
As a result, the price of farmers' produce is often lower than the MSP announced for 24 commodities. For the remaining commodities, there is no benchmark to compare, and at times, the prices are lower than the cost of production. Often, it is onetenth the price a consumer pays in the retail market. Many times, state governments convince the Union government to procure a commodity
from certain markets to increase the price of a commodity. This ad-hocism, however, favours traders rather than farmers. Therefore, certainty of price support is important.
In the post-WTO regime, price support is perceived less important than other forms of support such as crop insurance. The Narendra Modi government's actions reflect this trend. Our development experience, however, suggests
that the benefits of price support programmes are significantly higher than crop insurance programmes. But this does not mean that insurance schemes, especially weather-based crop insurance, are less important.
The MGNREGA can be utilised to increase the irrigation potential of farm lands. The betterment of farmers requires development programmes beyond agriculture and rural economy. It requires the strengthening of industry-specific infrastructure, especially in small and medium towns. The specificity of industries must be linked with the local resource of the region. Thus, strategies to reduce the crisis of farmers requires consistent efforts not only in agriculture and the rural economy, but also in the overall economy of a region. No amount of sloganeering can change farmers' fate overnight.