After listing a host of measures that have been taken in the past, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her series of press conferences has come up with 11 specific measures on Friday, besides two measures she had spelt out a day earlier, to provide help to farmers as part of the Rs 20-lakh crore economic package for Covid-19. But it did not contain any special measure to provide direct cash transfer into the hands of farmers reeling under distress.
While most of these measures have already been listed in the budget proposals in the past, Sitharam also announced three measures to ease up agricultural marketing and remove the stock limits under the Essential Commodity Act, a move that will help processing industry and wholesale trade. Except for exceptional times when a disaster strikes or when the prices for perishables go up beyond 100 per cent or 50 per cent in case of cereal crops, traders have now been allowed to hoard. A central law to provide farmers with various options to market their produce and laws to facilitate contract farming will soon be formulated.
A fund of Rs 1-lakh crore to be created for strengthening post harvesting infrastructure like cold chains, storage was provided. Similarly there were proposals for developing marine and inland fisheries for which an allocation of Rs 20,000-cr was announced; another Rs 15,000-crore for dairy infrastructure, a continuing scheme; Rs 13,343-crore for control of animal diseases like foot and mouth disease, 100 per vaccination for all animals, which was approved by the Cabinet in may 2019; schemes for medicinal plants, honey bees, micro-food enterprises engaged in nutritional food, health and wellness etc. While I agree that these are important measures and are required to boost the rural economy, and help farmers, fishermen and dairy farmers but are steps that are part of a continuing process to improve agriculture activities in the long term.
But in these extraordinary times when the lockdown has severely restricted economic activity, it is only agriculture which served as a lifeline. Agriculture, in true sense, reinforced its image as the mainstay of the Indian economy. With urban demand collapsing, with hotels, restaurants and dhabas closed for almost 50 days now, agriculture took the brunt of the lockdown, and still continued to keep the supplies moving. Reports of farmers spilling milk on the streets, poultry birds being buried alive, flowers being re-ploughed, fish rotting in the markets, and agitated farmers throwing away vegetables before cattle and with prices of almost all crops crashing in the market because of supply chain constraints have regularly poured in. Several estimates have put the losses suffered by vegetable growers alone at Rs 25,000-crore; dairy farmers at Rs 10,000-crores; poultry loss at Rs 15,000-crores besides there were huge losses suffered by flower growers, plantation crop, fruit growers and a massive hit suffered by fishermen. In other words, across the country, farmers have suffered a huge loss.
Despite all odds, farmers have also harvested nearly 106 million tonnes of wheat, and have already sown more area under kharif crops and are also getting ready for paddy transplantings in the weeks to come. Adhering to the safety norms, which meant staggering of dates to bring produce into the mandis, procurement of wheat is heading towards a record. Agriculture being already in distress, the expectation was for an immediate relief package to partly offset the losses they have suffered, and provide an incentive for the sowing operations to be undertaken. Here was an opportunity for the government to stand with farmers in distress, and provide a stimulating economic stimulus package. Farmers are in need of an immediate relief package, and providing more cash in their hands would have also helped create more demand.
Even earlier, when the Finance Minister had announced a package of Rs 1.70- lakh crore for farmers and other marginalised sections of the society, the only commitment for farmers was to frontload an instalment of Rs 2,000 under the PM-Kisan scheme, benefitting 8.19-crore farmers, which in any case was due to them. Under the PM-Kisan farmers get a direct transfer of Rs 6,000 per year, in three instalments. The first instalment was in any case due for April-June quarter. In other words, farmers have so far been deprived of any direct support. My proposal therefore is to provide a direct income transfer of Rs 10,000 per farmer, including the tenant farmers, without disturbing the PM-Kisan scheme allocations. In addition, considering the enormous difficulties farmers faced at the time of wheat harvest and procurement, they need to be given a bonus of Rs 100 per quintal over and above the minimum support price (MSP) for wheat procurement. Considering that several lakh migrant workers have returned to their villages, agriculture needs to be strengthened so as to absorb the additional workforce.
The pandemic provides immense opportunities to realise the Prime Minister’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. Revitalising agriculture and turning farming into an economically viable proposition forms the basis of the campaign. The additional allocation of Rs 40,000-crore for MNREGA is a welcome step.
It’s also time to learn from other countries. The US has provided a support of $ 3 billion to purchase vegetables, fruits and milk directly from the farmers and supply it to consumers. A similar strategy can be worked out for perishable crops in India, wherein the government provides at least a support of Rs 10,000-crores (like it is providing for the purchase for pulses/oilseeds) to the state governments directing them to make purchases directly from farmers by using the official machinery, cooperative agency outlets, Mother Dairy outlets, FPOs, organised retailers and also activating the supply chain. Extra-ordinary crisis needs out of box solutions, and it is time the government ushers in steps that are beneficial to farmers. After all, farmers have demonstrated that at this difficult time, they are the real backbone of the economy. #
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