COMMENTARY "Agricultural sector has performed remarkably well," declared the proud Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram in Parliament as he announced the Interim Budget 2014-15. Statistically speaking, the estimated agricultural GDP growth for the current fiscal year had grown to 4.6 percent compared to 4 percent in the last four years as per the Budget.
While the figure highlights the support India's struggling economy is getting from the farm sector, the farmers themselves have little reason to share in this number-driven euphoria. As a new survey shows, the agrarian class today stands at a complicated crossroad where they are forced to choose between the urban and the rural, between staying on the land and abandoning it.
With the Lok Sabha elections 2014 knocking at the door, a first of its kind survey was carried out by Lokniti-CSDS for Bharat Krishak Samaj holding over 11,000 interviews and 5,000 of them specifically with the head of the farmer household. Among those interviewed were 4,298 women and 2,116 youths. The survey was conducted in 18 major states spreading over 137 districts.
Former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri had said long back -- 'Jai jawan, Jai kisan'. The Lokniti-CSDS survey shows that the kisan has very little to cheer about. Around half of the farmers surveyed said the overall condition of farmers in the country is bad while only 15 percent said farmers are doing well. What is a more worrying trend is that although 83 percent of the farmers consider agriculture to be their main occupation, 32 percent of the farmers are forced to do work other than farming for additional household income.
More heart-wrenching is the finding that in the past one year approximately one in every 10 farmers said that their family had to remain without food on a number of occasions. Add to this the fact that 67 percent of the women interviewed said that the income from agriculture is not sufficient to fulfill the livelihood needs of their family as opposed to only 20 percent who found it to be sufficient.
Thanks to the expansion of Green Revolution to east India, the country's food grain production is estimated to be 263 million tonnes compared to 255.36 million tonnes in 2012-13. Farming may be supporting India's growth rate and feeding the nation, but it is no longer sufficient to support the basic needs of the majority of India's farmers. So it isn't surprising that the survey also found that 76 percent would prefer to do some other work rather than farming.
Most significantly, 61 percent of the sampled farmers would quit farming if they get an employment opportunity in a city and only 20 percent young people said they would continue farming. As many as 60 percent of the sample said they want their children to migrate to settle in the city. This is not a overnight trend. Often neglected by the government, the distress on the Indian farm sector is finally showing up in survey results.
A BBC story Is India in the throes of 'distress migration'? published on 27 September 2011 pointed to the fact that 31.16 percent of Indians lived in urban areas, which was up from 27.81 percent in 2001. This is a clear indication that India is witnessing a major exodus from rural to urban areas thereby also putting pressure on the urban infrastructure. The government apathy to this sector is unfathomable as Indian economy is hardly in a position to foot the import bill for food grains -- or to accommodate this vast migration in its cities.
Falling market prices of food products, the avatar of the middlemen, weather challenges, outdated methods of farming, high cost of production and often low yields and poor income have plagued the country's farming sector. What is evident that showcase government programs have failed to help farmers on the ground.
Despite expensive advertisements on TV and print, awareness about pro-farmer facilities like the Kisan Call Centre or the minimum support price on raw produce, the actual impact is poor. While 70 percent of the farmers surveyed never dialled to a Kisan Call Centre, 62 percent has no idea that they are eligible for a minimum price. As with other Central schemes, implementation is the culprit.
As per the survey, most respondents felt only rich farmers got the benefits of government schemes and policies related to farming. Only a paltry 10 percent believe that poor and small farmers have got the benefit from farmer related schemes. The assessment of UPA's flagship programme like the MGNREGA speaks volumes about the actual situation. The survey found that although approximately 85 percent of the farmers have heard about MGNREGA, 51 percent said that their household did not get work under this scheme.
Urban migration is hardly a solution to farmer woes. Cities offer exploitation of a different kind, which is only likely to increase with the influx of migrant labour. The big question the survey poses for the nation is clear: Will future India have no farmers and be forced to go back to importing food grains once again to feed its burgeoning population? The alarm bells have been sounded, but is anyone listening?
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