We are hearing the kisan's plight from
every nook and corner of Bharat. As a bhartiya it is our moral obligation to
look into the matter. The present Kendra sarkar has been following the same policy
as its predecessor. Our honorable Vitt Mantri has already lashed out at state
run banks that NPA are at unacceptable level. So at the end of the day what
went wrong? As far as agriculture is concerned it is employing a whopping 49%
of the population. At this juncture of time where the modern technology has
been implemented in the sector, still our kisan is unable to enjoy its share of
pie. British raj and princely states used the zamindar system for tax
collection. At that time the land used to be given to the kisan on a leased basis
and his name used to come in the land record as tenant ( patta) . Kisan was not the
owner of the land, instead he had to give the percentage of the produce as tax to the
zamindar and zamindar used to pay the tax to the local government body. After
the independence, the law of tenancy was passed which made kisan the owner of
the land and he started paying the land revenue to the government instead of zamindar.
When the constitution of tax is still the same, and moreover kisan is now the
owner of the land, then why the condition of kisan is deteriorating day by day?
We at Ethmos have tried to analyze the situation and here are few of the problems that are at the root cause of this situation.
Fragmentation of land
The lands are passed on from generation
to generation from father to son. The ancestral lands are usually divided among
the sons of the father. The overall land holding has been shrinking. Let's take
an example Mr. A has 10 acres of land. He has four sons and so ultimately every son
will get a share of 2.5 acres. So from generation to generation the landholding
is shrinking which makes agriculture quite a difficult proposition.
Crop pattern and
fertility of land
It has been observed that in order to
earn some extra money farmers have abandoned the mixed cropping pattern. For the layman readers, mixed cropping is very important to retain the fertility of the land. Many
farmers are only going for cash crops, and many of them are repeating it even after
completion of the cropping cycles. This is directly affecting the fertility of land which
will lead to low yield. It is just like going on milking the same cow multiple times a day without letting her rest or giving her proper feed. Let's take an example of Mr A who is a sugarcane farmer. After completion of three crop seasons, he is not going for any mixed crop such
as maize, wheat, tamarind etc. He is sowing sugarcane again after completion of
three crop seasons to earn money. He is not thinking about the fertility of the
land. He is actually on the losing front in a long term scenario since the loss of fertility of the land will lead to lesser produce and more overhead costs in the form of fertilizers and higher water requirement.
The
Middle-men problem
This is another big problem
in the bag of the poor kisan. The
middlemen are everywhere in the agricultural sector – from taking loans from banks or moneylenders to selling their
produce in the mandis or the APMCs as we
fashionably call it. The moneylenders
actually create inflationary pressure on the already crushed kisan in the form
of brokerage or commission. And in order
to earn more brokerage/commission, what these vermins do is that they increase
the selling prices of commodities and also unnecessarily make the poor kisan
take a higher loan which they will seldom be able to repay in their next seven
generations. We at Ethmos believe that a
Middlemen Control Act has to be enacted across the country for all sectors in order to remove this
scourge from the economy entirely.
Kisan's
household
The expenses of the farmer’s household are monthly, whereas the income is yearly. This time
gap is actually a big issue for the small and marginal farmers (farmers having
lands less than 5 acres) . Usually the small and marginal farmers go for dairy
business to suffice their monthly needs. Nowadays due to internet and telecom
kranti the mobile phones and TVs are available in the rural household. Apart from these
expenses, the kisan has to pay the school fees of the kids , medical expenses and
other household expenses. As we have discussed the land holdings are shrinking
and hence the incomes as the income is directly proportional to land holding. Farmers
usually borrow money from money lenders to meet their monthly expenses and repay
the same from yearly agricultural income. But here is the catch - the farmer borrows for monthly expenses and every month apart from the usual expenses, one more humongous expense is added which is called the interest expense - which can range from 2% to 4% monthly interest of the total borrowed some. For example, if he borrows say Rs. 1 lac from the money lender, he will have to pay Rs. 2,000/- monthly as interest to the moneylender and this interest is compounded by the end of the year leading to nearly 30% to 40% rise in the interest expenses. This whole thing forms a vicious
circle and hence to gain this extra income, cash crop will be planted by farmer even after
completion of crop cycle which will lead to lower fertility of land and higher
water requirement.
The question is - can we come
up with a unified agricultural policy ( UAP)? In the next article, we will discuss about UAP
in detail.
