Farmer Suicides and Unified Agricultural Policy - Mr. Nobody's perspective - II

Unified Agricultural Policy: Mr. Nobody’s Brain child

In our previous article we discussed about kisan suicides, how our kisan is fighting his battle singlehandedly? In this article we will be discussing about the unified agricultural policy [UAP], a brainchild of Mr. Nobody, a discussion which we initiated in our previous article.

Bharat - “one of the most prosperous nation” - every Bhartiya wants to hear these words whenever the international media refer to Bharatiya issues. International media is unable to take the name of Bharat in the same breath as its western counterparts such as USA, UK, etc.  The probable reason could be that we are unable to tap the potential we have and the greatest potential of all - human potential. We are a rashtra having large number young people and as a country, Bharat should show tremendous growth as it has huge mind capital.  Our kisan is also part of this large human capital.

As a nation Bharat is fighting on all the fronts - be it terrorism, economic meltdown, internal disturbances, inflation, and now a new one food scarcity. The question is “are we seriously fighting with food scarcity”? Kendra sarkar just now imported pulses to fight with inflation.

Imagine a hypothetical scenario where we are having sugarcane juice in morning breakfast, then sugarcane slices in lunch and sugarcane slices & juice in dinner. The way our agriculture produce has been shifting from staple food crops to cash crops this scenario will not remain hypothetical in near future. Our kisan is going for the cash crop in order to earn extra income; he/she is right in his own way. As he has family to feed and expenses to meet. Kisan is also struggling with the inflation like a normal salaried class person sitting in his plush drawing room in a metro.

This shift from staple food crops to cash crops is actually leading to food scarcity in india. Now days majority of the kisans are going for sugarcane as crop and are also protesting to increase the price of the sugarcane.

Sr. no	Crop	Area	Output/acre	Expense	Price	Net income	Net output
1	Sugarcane	3A	60 ton	30%	2000*	120000	84000
2	Maize	3A	30 quintal	30%	1400	42000	58800**
3	Wheat	3A	15 quintal	30%	1400	21000	14700

*As per the rates paid by the factories 

**Two crop season in one year

As per the data mentioned, it's quite economical for a kisan to go for cash crops like sugarcane as he is able to generate more income for household.  However if all the kisans will shift from the staple food crops such as wheat and maize to sugarcane then the food scarcity will happen in india. If government will increase the MSP rate of sugarcane then more and more number of kisans will go for it. Because of this reason Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare is unable to increase the MSP’s of certain cash crops.

In order to avoid the situation of the food scarcity and regulate the price of the food products of daily use the Kendra Sarkar should intervene in the agricultural sector. Mr. Nobody has come up with the solution – bingo!

APNA KISAN - CENTRAL GOVERNMENT INITIATIVE

The marginal kisans who are unable to generate enough income so as to continue with the farming activity should be encouraged to join this programme.

The main guidelines for this programme should be as follows:-
The kisan has to enter into a lease agreement with government of the state / country. 

He has to grow the commodity as per the terms and conditions of the agreement.

He will get a fixed monthly salary to work for GOI plus performance linked incentive.

Kisan will get incentive for producing more than stipulated output as mentioned in the agreement. This will encourage him to go for farm innovation to maximize the output.

Kisan should register himself with local agriculture office. He will get the seeds and fertilizer to produce the commodity. The fields of the kisan will be inspected by the agriculture officer on monthly basis to check the diversion of funds.

The food produce from the field will be directly transferred to the FCI (Food Corporation of India) warehouses and from there to the mandis and other government outlet so that the Bhartiya nagrik will be able to purchase the required food commodity at a pre-defined rate.

Depending upon the staple diet of the area, the sarkar can go for the food crop to be produced (like say rice in southern states and wheat in northern states).
The sarkar will decide what to grow, how much to grow, and in what area to grow.  That is to say, if a particular area is facing shortage of pulses, then the sarkar can decide to predominantly grow the pulses rather than wheat and thus regulate the supply in the market.  Since our kisan is paid a fixed monthly salary, he need not worry about the weather conditions or other market-related problems - he just needs to concentrate on his work, i.e. quality farming.

The sarkar need not import the food grains to fight the inflation, the kisan will happily produce the food grain irrespective of profit or loss as he will be getting fixed monthly payout. At the same time this will increase the farm innovation at the grass root level as kisan will get incentive for producing more than stipulated output.

Kisan need not go for the loans or borrow money from the money lenders as the inputs and small implements will be provided by the government itself.

As sincere citizen of the country it is the responsibility of everybody to come up with ideas like Mr. Nobody to help the Kendra Sarkar and improve the condition of Kisan.

After all, he also has a family to feed and expenses to meet.

Regards and happy Ethmos to All

- Mr. Nobody