Farm distress and electoral outcomes

Agriculture is in the eye of the storm, and we must thank Gujarat elections for this turn of events. Agrarian distress is gaining eyeballs like never before. Farmers have tried all kinds of methods in the past, but to no avail. They committed suicide, but it didn’t matter. Manmohan Singh, then prime minister, visited Vidharba to promise succour to cotton farmers when their plight made news.

But that remained a promise, and the Congress doesn’t want to talk about it any more. Farmers across the country dumped their produce on highways, but no one cared. Tamil Nadu’s farmers thought they could shame the BJP by disrobing at Jantar Mantar. It didn’t work; ostensibly because agriculture is a State subject. By implication, they ought to have disrobed in front of Fort St. George and shamed the AIADMK instead.

Gujarat farmers have now rapped the BJP on its knuckles. The message that comes through loud and clear is that farmers can compel attention only if politicians are made to pay for their neglect of agriculture, with electoral disaster. With a slew of elections lined up for the next few years, we can expect long-suffering farmers across the country to latch on to the ‘Gujarat model’. They may not be able to defeat the Government, but they can cause severe embarrassment. That is what happened to the BJP in Gujarat, which is good enough for a start.

Political parties are not necessarily interested in solving problems. They look for a quick fix that will have electoral appeal. Every party has tried debt waiver. Politicians know waivers solve nothing, still they tout it as the silver bullet.

Crop insurance is another silver bullet that has failed to deliver. The Prime Minister has promised to double farm incomes and free farmers from rapacious traders. These promises continue to make media headlines, although we see nothing on the ground. There will be more such lofty ideas that make good headlines. But surely the time will come for real solutions.

For the farmer, the Government is indeed the biggest problem. It has no credibility because it cannot be trusted to deliver on its promise. Governments ask farmers to grow cotton, oil palm or pulses, but do not pay up when it comes to MSP.

This is now a familiar story. There are smaller stories lurking everywhere that don’t hit headlines. The country launched a bamboo mission to reduce its carbon footprint. Bamboo is a wonderful crop that takes care of itself, but the problem comes when it is ready for harvest. There are few buyers, and the government officials who waxed eloquent are nowhere to be seen.

Tamil Nadu launched a cocoa mission some years ago. When the pods are ready for harvest it turns out that there is exactly one buyer — a multinational. They fix the price depending on whether the cocoa growing regions of West Africa are at war or at peace. The farmer has to either accept the price offered or leave the pods on the trees.

The farmer is in need of extension services, especially when it comes to unfamiliar crops. But the agriculture department is filled with file pushers who know nothing of farming. Cocoa is a case in point. It attracts hordes of squirrels and red ants. Farmers don’t know how to save the crop from these marauding pests, and the government officials who pushed them into cocoa don’t know any better.

The officials, however, spring into action when there is gain in sight. There are all kinds of subsidies for farmers, but none of it can be got without a broker. When I call a dealer to buy a rotavator, he puts me on to a broker who will push through the paper work for a consideration. The farmer cannot transport his produce to the market without permission. If he wants to take his cow to the cattle market, the police have to be paid. If I want to cut a teak tree, the forest ranger whom I have neither seen nor heard of in all these years comes into play.

He has to be satisfied that the tree has not been stolen from a forest. Actually, most of the restrictions on cutting trees and transporting produce have been scrapped through gazette notifications. In practice, the village official, the beat cop and the forest ranger are the Government. Their word is the law, and they are willing to condone every infraction for a consideration.

There are other problems, of course; the most important of them being the army of middlemen who intercede between the farmer and the eventual consumer. But no problem is bigger than the Government. The Government is the oppressor, and there is nothing much to be hoped for until this changes.

The writer is a labour relations and HR consultant