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India's continuing agrarian crisis (Friday, July 2, 2004 -- CropChoice news) -- Devinder Sharma, ZMag, 06/28/04: The spurt in farmers suicides, which unfortunately has failed to move the
state as well as the Congress-led Coalition at the Centre, is the outcome of
the utter neglect and apathy of the erstwhile Chandrababu Naidu's government
in Andhra, voted out after nine years in power. The situation in several
other states, including the frontline agriculture states of Punjab and
Haryana, and even in the left-ruled West Bengal and Kerala is no better.
Thousands of farmers have ended their lives in the past few years. What has
meanwhile baffled the new government is that the spate of suicides shows no
signs of ending even after it announced a series of routine packages - free
electricity and more credit -- aimed at relieving farmer's misery. The package also includes an ex-gratia payment of Rs 1 lakh each to the next
of the kin of the deceased, and Rs 50,000 for a one-time settlement of the
loans of indebted farmers. The erstwhile government too had started paying
an ex-gratia grant of Rs 1 lakh to the affected families after suicides were
initially reported in 1997-98. After giving the assistance to some 250
farmer families, the payments were stopped on the plea that such an
ex-gratia would prompt more farmers to take their lives. The Congress, then
in the opposition, had stepped in by collecting donations for providing
assistance to the grieving families. Although the newly-elected government of Andhra Pradesh (and followed
closely by Tamilnadu) have moved in quickly by announcing free power to
farmers, what is more depressing is that the governments are clueless of the
reasons that forces farmers to commit suicides. Nor is there any effort from
the so-called distinguished agricultural scientists, economists, and social
scientists to come out with proposals to put an end to this shameful blot on
the country's image. The reason is obvious. No one has the political courage
to point a finger at the real villain -- industrial farming model that
shifts the focus on cash crops and thereby plays havoc with sustainable
livelihoods. Mr N Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh was swept away by a tidal wave of
the angry farmers. The small and marginal farmers, in tandem with the
landless labourers, who constitute nearly 80 per cent of Andhra's 80 million
people, gave their verdict: the industry-sponsored economic reforms are
anti-poor. In Karnataka too, where the farmers suicide rate is equally high,
the over-emphasis on technology had only alienated a large percentage of
farming populations from economic growth and development. Both the States
had relied heavily on the British consultancy firm, McKinsey India Ltd., to
draw the blueprint for economic reforms. In adition, McKinsey's services are
also being utilised by West Bengal for re-designing the economic model of
growth. Blindly aping the World Bank model of agriculture (as suggested by McKinsey
India Ltd.), Karnataka and Andhra had pumped in huge finances to push in an
industry-driven agriculture that has not only exacerbated the crisis leading
to an environmental catastrophe but also destroyed millions of rural
livelihoods. The biggest tragedy being that both the States had turned into
a national capital of shame for farmers' distress, visible more through the
increasing rate of suicides in the rural areas. Making available cheap
credit to these marginal farming communities, as has been announced by the
Finance Minister, will not be helpful. What these poor and marginalised need
immediately is income support. In reality, Andhra as well as Karnataka were only making it smoother for the
industry to move into the rural areas. APs Vision 2020 document talked of
reducing the number of farmers in the state to 40 per cent of the
population, and did not have any significant programme to adequately
rehabilite the remaining 30 per cent of the farming population. The
objective was to promote the commercial interests of the agribusiness
companies (read foreign financial institutes and international bankers) and
the IT hardware units. All benefit would have accrued to these companies in
the name of farmers. In fact, these two sectors, along with biotechnology,
were being heavily subsidised in the name of efficiency and infrastructure
whereas the poor farmers were being divested of the their only source of
income - their meagre land holdings. Andhra in reality was fast turning into a BIMARU state (an euphemism for
backward states). Thousands of farmers were migrating every season looking
for menial jobs in the urban centres. Mofussil newspapers in the heartland
of the cyberstate - that's how Mr Naidu wanted the state to be called - were
full of advertisements inviting people to mortgage their gold and silver
belongings. Livestock deaths and the plight of dalits and other landless and
marginalised no longer adorned the headlines. Farmers were asked not to
produce more rice (the staple food) as the State had no place to stock it.
Farmers suicides had become so common that Mr Naidu had actually sent team
of psychetrists to convince them against taking their own lives. Believe it or not, daily wage workers in AP can still be hired at a price
that their counterparts in Bihar would scoff at. And yet, the ignorent media
despised the maverick political leader Laloo Prashad Yadav for taking his
state - Bihar - to economic backwardness whereas Mr Naidu was showered by
all kinds of accolodes. Such was the extent and level of poverty that AP
also topped the country in the percentage of women entering prostitution and
trafficking. Mr Naidu on the other hand ignored the writing on the wall and
went about holding web conferences with his bureaucracy much to the chagrin
of the national media, which painted him as the poster boy for economic
reforms. The Naidu model has failed. It also means failure of the McKinsey's model of
economic development. To talk of 'Naidu Plus', as some economists have said,
indicates the level of arrogance among a school of economic thought that
refuses to see anything except the industry. No wonder, newspapers have already quoted the secretary general of the
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Mr Amit
Mitra as saying "economic initiatives in the IT and services sector should
be extended to the rural areas and to such industries as food processing and
rural industry". Unfortunately, the industry refuses to accept that it was
because of its own over-indulgence that Mr Naidu paid a heavy price. In
addition, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the newly emerging
biotechnology industry, were the beneficiaries of the state's largesse in
the name of improving agricultural productivity and enhancing rural incomes.
The new government has focused on agriculture but refuses to look for the
real causes behind farmers distress. All its efforts are directed towards
convincing the markets that sensex will not be allowed to slip any further. The tragedy is that while the farmers have delivered their verdict, the
economists and policy makers are not willing to accept it. The nation is not
only clueless but doesnot even want to know how to resurrect agriculture and
farming. This is where the politico-economy equations have gone wrong, this
is where the Indian democracy has reached superficial heights. The CII and
FICCI have already ensured that their breed of economic thinkers and
supporters are in each political party. The tragedy therefore is that the
policy directions between the ruling party and the opposition has blurred.
Both follow the same economic prescriptions that have no connection with the
ground realities. The Congress-led coalition too will easily fall into the
trap of pushing for more economic reforms, and provide the same direction
for the agriculture sector that Mr Naidu falsy banked upon. The ground realities are far removed from the rhetoric and the statistics
that have bred immunity against compassion. We are all part of a global food
system, which perpetuates poverty and deprivation. The food industry makes
tall claims of nutritious diet that it churs out, and millions are dying of
obesity and related problems. We make tall claims of improved technology for
agriculture by pushing stark realities of increasing indebtedness, growing
poverty, resulting human suffering and hunger from the public glare. We are,
therefore, in reality, the cause behind hunger and the resulting farmers
suicides. Behaving like an Ostrich is surely not going to eclipse hunger and
death from the politico-economic radar screens. It requires policy makers, agricultural scientists, academicians and even
the civil society groups to first accept the fundamental flaws that force
farmers to the gallows. And then it needs determination - both political and
scientific -- and there is no reason why farmers distress cannot be turned
into a scourge of the past. Economic gimmicks like announcing free
electricity and enhancing bank credit will otherwise continue to force
farmers to take the fatal route by drinking pesticides. Devinder Sharma is a New Delhi-based food and trade policy analyst. Among
his recent works include the book In the Famine Trap. Responses can be
emailed at: dsharma@ndf.vsnl.net.in) Source: http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=32&ItemID=5790 | |
