‘Our policies have been beneficial’
Why is there unrest among the farmers despite the Narendra Modi government implementing the Swaminathan Committee recommendations and raising the Minimum Support Price (MSP)?
In 2003, former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee set up the M S Swaminathan committee which gave around 201 suggestions. The National Policy for farmers was drafted on the basis of these recommendations. An article by Swaminathan in The Times of India said: “Although the report was submitted in 2006, very little action was taken until the present government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office. Fortunately, over the last four years, several significant decisions have been taken to improve the status and income of farmers.” He criticised the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
We have initiated substantial work in the agricultural sector. For example, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) is a protective cover for farmers’ income. The lowest rate of premium has been fixed for Kharif and Rabi crops, which is a maximum of 2 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively. In addition, risks associated with the standing crop before and after harvesting have also been included. Not only this, 25 per cent of the loss claims are being paid online immediately. Compared to the last two years of the UPA rule when only 66 million farmers were covered, we are covering 106 million farmers in 2016-17 and 2017-18. In Kerala, for example, the premium paid by farmers was ~31 million in 2016 for the Kharif crop and farmers got compensation amounting to ~180 million.
If you talk about farmer agitations, there are political people in every segment, everywhere. There are crores of landless, small and marginal farmers in the country who have realised the benefit of government schemes but they are not staging any protest. You need to visit rural areas to see how well our policies have done.
On the basis of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations, farmers were to be provided input cost plus 50 per cent but the government has announced partial cost only....
The definition of cost is quite clear in terms of rent, cost of human labour, land lease rent, seed, fertilizer, irrigation, depreciation value of agricultural equipment, interest on working capital, pump sets, etc. Diesel, electricity costs and family labour is also included. The UPA government did not give 1.5 times the cost according to this formula but we are doing it.
The Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA) scheme seems to have failed because cereals, pulses and oilseeds are selling below the MSP. Apart from Madhya Pradesh, no state has created proper IT infrastructure to implement cash payment. What’s your reaction?
Under the UPA, MSP was given for only three of the 14 kharif crops and it was 1.5 times of the input cost but we have given minimum 1.5 times of input cost for all kharif crops in 201718. Whenever prices fell below MSP, the state government sent us the proposal and also provided the agency’s name for which we gave approval. National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) does procurement under the Price Support Scheme (PSS). During the UPA regime from 2010-11 to 2013-14, procurement of oilseed and pulses was around 840,000 metric tonnes but in our government, procurement, has increased eight times to 7.5 million metric tonnes from 2014 to 2018 (August).
The talk about creating agriculture export zone was also on some time ago, where does it stand now?
We have focussed on agro export and are getting results. Compared to 2010-14, there has been a 95 per cent increase in marine products, 84 per cent increase in rice (other than Basmati), 77 per cent increase in fresh fruit and 43 per cent increase in fresh vegetables. The Modi government has initiated “Operation Green” in its budget. We were not self-reliant in the cultivation of pulses. During 2010-11 to 201415, the average pulses production was 18.01 metric tone. This has increased to 25 metric tonne in 2017-18, according to advance estimates.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government claims to double farmers’ income by 2022 but experts say it would require a growth rate of 20 per cent per year in real terms. Do you think it’s possible? Under the leadership of PM Modi, we are focusing not only on increasing agricultural production but also the farmers’ income. You can see the difference in the budget allocation -under the UPA in 2009-14, it was about ~12 million but in 2014-19, it has been approximately ~21 million. We have seen record production of not only food grains but also horticulture compared to the UPA regime. The performance of allied sectors of agriculture have been good and means more income for farmers. We planned to spend Rs 20 billion for 22,000 Grameen Haats. The ground reality is that we have increased the investment in agricultural sector and have tried to make it production as well as income centric. We have run income oriented schemes for it. To improve agriculture markets, we have launched an online trading platform eNAM (National Agriculture Market) and 585 mandis have been linked to it. The Model Contract Farming and Services Act, 2018 will link farmers and agriculture based industries.
The sugarcane farmers are suffering
because of their dues that reached to the distressing level of about Rs 232 billion in May…
Due to depressed market sentiments and a crash in sugar prices, the liquidity position of sugar mills was adversely affected in the sugar season of 2017-18, leading to huge cane price dues. In order to stabilise sugar prices at reasonable level and to improve the liquidity position of the mills to enable them to clear cane prices arrears of farmers, the central government increased custom duty on import of sugar from 50 per cent to 100 per cent to check any import. The central government has approved total assistance of over ~55.38 billion to support sugar sector. To ensure the payment of sugarcane dues of farmers, this assistance will be credited directly to the accounts of farmers on the behalf of sugar mills against the dues.
Don’t you think entrepreneurship in agricultural areas is still a big challenge?
Under National Agricultural Development Scheme, we are giving 8 per cent capital for agro entrepreneurs. We have given direct cooperation to more than 150 agro start-ups. Modi has directed the flow of entrepreneurship from laboratory to land, laboratory to entrepreneur and entrepreneur to agriculture. Around 10,000 soil testing labs have been set up where youth can get employment. If all this had started 10 years ago, you would have seen its impact now.
Is there any proposal to include farm activities in MGNREGA?
A committee has been formed under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. It will look in to this matter and give its recommendation soon.
Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh elections are on and the party doesn’t appear to be on top. Do you think the 2014 performance will be repeated? There is no doubt that agriculture sector has seen unprecedented growth under the leadership of Modi in the last four years. People have got toilet facilities in their home in remote areas. They are availing the benefit of electricity so definitely people are impressed with Modi’s work because they know he has good intensions unlike the UPA government. I think we will repeat the victory of 2014 in 2019 as well. The Congress has a record of cheating in coalition governments. They insulted Chandrashekhar, I K Gujral and H D Deve Gowda while being partners with them.
There is a dispute over seat allocation in NDA in Bihar. During the last Lok Sabha elections Nitish Kumar was not in the NDA, how do you assess his impact this time? Voters are not influenced by individuals. Whoever goes beyond a mainstream party (NDA and UPA) will find himself isolated. There are no differences over seat allocation. Our central leadership is looking in to this matter. We will win all 40 seats in Bihar.