A new pact to rebuild the nation’s food bowl
Agriculture is in a crisis in Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh. The land of the Green Revolution appears enfeebled. Chemicals have annihilated the natural nutrients of the soil. The aquifers are emaciated. Productivity is dipping.
But one cannot only blame the farmers for that. They were doing what the nation needed them to do: Be self-sufficient in food grains. Within a few decades of the Green Revolution, the farmers ensured that the nation was not just self-sufficient but also had a surplus in cereal production. This helped build huge buffer stocks, which helped the administration feed the poor through the public distribution system (PDS).
Both the nation and the farmers benefited in the process. The farmers improved their lives; the nation amassed so much food that it started exporting grains.
At the root of the distrust between some farm groups and the government is the question: Has the nation benefited more from farmers or the reverse? The government believes the farmers have benefited more. The nation subsidised their irrigation, electricity, fertilisers, and equipment. They received high returns on rice and wheat based on a minimum support price (MSP) regime that was revised year after year.
But, that is a blinkered view. Successive government policies encouraged the overproduction of rice and wheat by the farmers of Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh. Like the rest of us, the farmers wanted to make good money, and they did so by growing rice and wheat because the administration fixed an MSP, and procured their stock regularly. They could have grown anything, provided it fetched them good returns. Therefore, the solution lies in moving farmers away from grains.
The farmers of Punjab, Haryana and western UP were not overproducing rice and wheat before the Green Revolution. In 1960-61, only 30% of the gross cropped area in Punjab was under rice and wheat. In 2018-19, this stood at 85%, and is killing the fields in Punjab. The farmer is seeing the degeneration of his main resource and is desperate to get out of rice and wheat to ensure its regeneration. And, they are seeking the government’s help. They want to diversify.
But they cannot do so on their own. They are not in a position to decide to reduce the share of rice and wheat in their fields, and increase the share of other crops. There are risks. Market prices are not under their control. They may suffer losses.
It is here that the farmers hope the government will step in, to cover the risks of price fluctuations by fixing a legally guaranteed MSP for 23 crops. This means a reserve price, which, not only the government, but private buyers, have to pay the farmers. The farmers are not asking the government to procure all the produce of all the 23 crops. They are asking it to fix the floor price.
Take pulses, for instance. In the past, the nation had to import a significant quantity of pulses to meet domestic demand. Over the past several years, domestic pulse production has reached a level that the country may achieve self-sufficiency in a year or two. This happened because more and more farmers started growing pulses. And they did this because the government provided them support with a minimum price and procurement.
In the popular imagination, sarson da saag (a dish comprising mustard with greens) is a prominent feature of the Punjabi cultural persona. Regrettably today, sarson (mustard) remains insignificant there. The area under mustard cultivation has been shrinking in the state. Not just mustard, but other oilseeds too. In 1967-68, the total area under oilseeds in Punjab was about four lakh hectares. In 2019-20, it had fallen to 49,000 hectares — just 12% of what it was before the Green Revolution.
The nation imports much of its edible oils. If farmers can be encouraged to grow more oilseeds, the nation can also be selfsufficient in edible oils.
The farmers’ movement has provided the government with a golden opportunity to move them away from rice and wheat to pulses, oilseeds, and other crops. It must seize it.