Deception again on support price and agricultural crisis

The mandate of the recent Lok Sabha elections has drastically reduced the size of both the BJP and the NDA and it has suffered a crushing defeat in about 160 rural constituencies. The mandate says that the people are against the communal and pro-corporate policies of the BJP and is not ready to allow it to violate the norms of democracy, the Constitution and social justice. But the events of the last 15 days and the decisions of the government are enough to tell that the BJP does not care about this mandate and its ‘bonsai’ government will carry forward the same policies that it has followed in the last 10 years and pushed the country into a deep crisis. It is unexpected and shocking that the oath of office of the Prime Minister of this country has been given to such a person who has not been even chosen as the leader of his parliamentary group by his original party. Now the President is also involved in violation of the Constitutional norms and democracy.

In this sequence, the latest decision is about the minimum support price for 14 Kharif crops of the year 2024-25, which has been announced by the Railway Minister instead of the Agriculture Minister of this country and claimed that this declared price is one and a half times of the cost. Once again the BJP government has betrayed the farmers. The irony is that this ‘minimum’ price announced by the government becomes the ‘maximum’ for the farmers’ crops, because whether it is a mandi or an open market, the trader is not ready to pay more than this minimum price and the farmers do not have any such security cover that can protect themselves from this loot of the market.

Everyone knows about the nationwide farmer movement that developed on the issue of minimum support price in the backdrop of ever-increasing farmer suicides and agrarian crisis in the country. To turn the farmers’ discontent in its favour, in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had promised to bring ‘achche din’ to the common people suffering from inflation, poverty and unemployment and to give ‘one and a half times the support price of C-2 cost’ to the farmers and waive off their loans. Later, going further, it also promised to double the income of farmers by the year 2022-23.

The ten-year BJP rule could not turn its words into action because the focus of its policies has been ensuring profits for the corporates, not the common people and farmers. It is putting all its efforts to end the traditional agriculture of the country and corporatize Indian agriculture in accordance with the instructions of the World Trade Organization. The three agricultural laws passed by the previous government served this purpose, which were opposed all over the country. More than 600 small and big farmer organizations of the country together gave birth to the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha and after a year and a quarter of farmers’ struggle under the leadership of this morcha along with workers and their organizations and the sacrifice of more than 700 farmers’ lives in it, the Modi government had bound to announce the withdrawal of these anti-farmer laws and had to enter into a written agreement to give C-2 based support price. But later it backtracked from this under the pressure of the corporate lobby.

In fact, the history of BJP under the leadership of Modi-Shah is a history of betrayal of farmers and brutal suppression of their movements. Just after the 2014 elections, this government went to the Supreme Court and refused to give C-2 based support price on the grounds that it would distort the market. Since then, it is giving A-2+FL based support price, which is much below C-2+50%. Due to this, farmers have to suffer losses of lakhs of crores of rupees every year and farming has become a loss-making deal. Look at the audacity of this government that it is refusing to implement the basic recommendation of MS Swaminathan, to whom it gave ‘Bharat Ratna’ to gain electoral benefits, and at the same time is also making false promises that it is giving farmers a support price one and a half times the cost. In the past years, illegal actions were taken to stop their financial resources and to harass the opposition states that had announced bonuses to provide relief to farmers.

Despite the claims of a huge increase in the support price of Kharif crops, the reality is that compared to last year, this year the price of paddy has been increased by 5.33%, the price of coarse grains (jowar, bajra, maize) by an average of 5.82%, pulses (arhar, urad, moong) by an average of 7.16% and the price of oilseeds (peanut, sunflower, soybean, sesame) by an average of 6.93%. This increase in the support price is not attractive for the farmers, because it is less than the inflation in the prices of food grains and vegetables in the open market, which is running at an average of 8 to 10 percent. This increase is ridiculously less than the GST of 18 to 28 percent being imposed by the government on agricultural inputs (fertilizers, seeds, pesticides and other agricultural equipment), whose continuously increasing prices and on top of that the heavy burden of GST is increasing the cost of production drastically and the structure of Indian agriculture is collapsing.

Swaminathan Commission has fixed the basis of minimum support price of crops on the gross cost of production of crops (C-2 price), which BJP has criminally refused to accept. Swaminathan Commission had recommended for giving minimum support price of one and a half times the gross cost C-2, so that the farmer family, who has made the highest contribution to the development of the country, can earn their livelihood with self-respect and their standard of living can increase as expected. Modi coming to power for the third time is again a disaster for the farmers of the country, because he has again refused to give the farmers the real support price based on C-2.

If we look at the support price declared by the Central Government for various crops from the year 2014-15 to this year, then the annual average rate of increase in the support price of these crops in the last ten years has been from 5.87% to 17.67%. In the case of paddy, this growth rate has been 6.91% annually, while in the case of coarse grains it has been 11.92% on an average, in the case of pulses it has been 7.85% and in the case of oilseeds it has been 9.20% annually. But this rate of increase in the support price has been insufficient to compensate for the increasing cost of crop production and give farmers a respectable life and the strength to face the market inflation. As a result, in the last decade after the coming of the Modi government, not only has the average indebtedness of farmers increased, but farmer suicides have also increased. Today half of the farmer families in our country are indebted and have an average debt of Rs 74,121. 44% of this debt is non-banking and actually moneylender debt. When their dignity is hurt due to this debt, they have no other option but to commit suicide. In Modi’s rule, the rate of farmer suicides has increased by more than one and a half times compared to earlier.

Despite the propaganda by the government and corporate media about a huge increase in the support price of Kharif crops, the reality is that these prices are far away from the actual support price based on C-2 : for example, it is 23.63% less for common paddy, 24.03% less for jowar, 20.39% less for maize, 25.25% less for groundnut, 23.80% less for cotton. How painful it is for a common man to think that a farmer producing urad dal is paying a loss of Rs. 2344 per quintal, a farmer producing sesame is paying a loss of Rs. 2961 per quintal, or a farmer producing cotton is paying a loss of Rs. 2224 per quintal and investing in farming for ‘nation service’! But this does not disturb the sleep of our Prime Minister.

(All figures in Rs per Quintal)

We can understand the loss to farmers from this by taking the case of paddy. This year, the support price of common paddy has been declared by the central government as Rs 2300 per quintal, whereas the actual support price on the basis of C-2+50% is Rs 3012. Thus, the paddy producing farmer is incurring a loss of Rs 712 per quintal. In the year 2022-23, the central government had purchased 570 lakh tonnes of rice across the country. This means that about 855 lakh tonnes of paddy would have been purchased by the government across the country. If this is considered as the basis, then the loss to the farmers comes to Rs 60,876 crore. This calculation does not include the additional looting of farmers in the mandis and markets and the deceit of the central government, through which the prices of agricultural inputs are exaggerated to show less production cost. The losses incurred by farmers producing other crops can also be estimated in a similar way and if all this is included in the calculation, the losses incurred by farmers will run into lakhs of crores of rupees.

This loot of farmers is the basis of the ruin of the entire farming community and the prosperity and profits of the corporates. The debt of lakhs of crores of rupees that the farmers have today, which this government is constantly refusing to waive off, is the result of this looting of farmers. The corporate-friendly agricultural policies of this government are also responsible for the suicides of farmers due to this looting. The result of these policies is that the agricultural income of farmers has decreased. According to a survey of the year 2019, a farmer family earns an average of Rs 3798 per month from various crops and this shows a 5% decline as compared to the year 2012. These farmer families survive on the additional income from animal husbandry, small business and wages. Since then, the government does not have any data on how much the income of farmers has increased in the last five years and how much their livelihood has improved. Yes, on the basis of human development indicators and hunger index, we can definitely say that our farmer community, which provides food to us, has become more miserable today than before, the level of hunger and malnutrition has increased among them and children and women are the worst hit by these policies.

(All figures in Rs per Quintal)

The terrible agricultural crisis in our country today is reflected in the continuously falling income of farmers, their indebtedness and suicides. The only way to overcome this can be by giving them a beneficial support price on the basis of the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission and by giving a legal guarantee of government purchase of all the crops of the farmers. But this solution is a path that hurts corporate profits and the Modi government has made it clear through its attitude that it can put nails in the path of farmers, but it cannot pull the carpet laid for the corporates. In such a situation, the people of this country have no other option except to struggle on the streets along with the workers inside and outside the Parliament with the unity of the opposition. In the coming days, a new wave of mass struggles and mobilization will be seen on the basis of alternative policies. Only such a united struggle of the common people can take the country out of the crisis.

Sanjay Parate is the Vice President of Chhattisgarh Kisan Sabha, affiliated to All India Kisan Sabha.