Farmer suicides began getting attention in the late 1990s, in the cotton belt of united Andhra Pradesh. Cotton prices nosedived globally, and the farmers there did not have a cotton monopoly procurement scheme like we in Maharashtra had. Our suicides, which continue even today, started around 2003, when the state government ended that scheme, which used to pay farmers Rs500 to Rs600 bonus, per quintal, above the MSP (minimum support price). With the scheme being revoked, our farmers became exposed to free market price trends and stopped getting the assured sum of money from the government.
Suicides kept increasing every year and, in 2008, the government led by prime minister Manmohan Singh began thinking about the issue seriously. It was Singh who had introduced the free market economy in 1991, which led to the widening of the gap between the rural and urban economy. With the fifth pay commission, the income of one class rose rapidly and people started buying fridges, microwaves and scooters at no interest.
Singh, taking cognisance of this, visited my village Waifad in Wardha and another village in Yavatmal district. He then took three measures to increase money supply in villages. He made Maharashtra’s employment guarantee scheme a national scheme in the form of MNREGA; at a time when our national budget was around Rs10 lakh crore, he sanctioned Rs40,000 crore for the scheme.
He also announced a Rs70,000 crore loan waiver package for farmers across India, but Sharad Pawar―then a Union minister―did injustice to Vidarbha farmers. He said the complete loan waiver would be for up to five acres of land holding; for those who had more land, the waiver would be 25 per cent of the loan amount. In Vidarbha and Marathwada, the land holdings are big. We protested and demanded that loans up to Rs50,000 be waived. Instead, they waived loans up to Rs20,000.
Singh’s third important decision was to increase MSP of all crops by 28 to 30 per cent. Since then, agricultural produce has never received such an increase in MSP, even during the past 10 years of the Narendra Modi government. For instance, cotton MSP did not increase for three years and remained stuck at Rs3,000 during UPA 2. We wanted the MSP to be Rs4,500, but Modi, then Gujarat chief minister, did not put any pressure on the Centre. So, in my experience, BJP leaders just keep shouting but do not act.
During the 2014 election campaign, Modi claimed that his government would give an MSP that would be 50 per cent more than the comprehensive cost, or C2, which includes all the costs―direct and indirect―incurred by farmers. But when he came to power, the Centre filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court saying it could not give such rates. Modi even made chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, both BJP-ruled, stop giving bonuses to farmers on crops like wheat and paddy. The past two terms of the Modi government have been spent in creating big slogans for farmers, but no action.
Current rulers say they have done so much for farmers, but it is not true. Devendra Fadnavis had taken out a protest march to demand a rate of Rs6,000 for soyabean farmers. Did the farmers get it? No. Similarly, Maharashtra Minister Girish Mahajan had launched an agitation for cotton farmers; what happened to it? They could not even impose tax on imported cotton. Even today cotton and soyabean farmers are dying.
Two years ago, cotton farmers got a rate of Rs9,000 to Rs10,000 per quintal. But this year, it will not cross Rs7,000 because the price of cotton in the US has fallen, which affects our prices. I wrote to Prime Minister Modi on this issue but there was no reply.
Everyone is talking about crop insurance, but there is no qualitative difference between the crop insurance schemes of Manmohan Singh and Modi. The only difference is that farmers can now get their crops insured for a token sum of Rs1. My question is, why are they charging even Rs1 when there is no difference? Farmers have to take so much effort to get registered. There is a need to make crop insurance farmer-friendly.
Also, why is no alliance promising to buy cotton from farmers by paying a bonus on MSP? If Modi can announce bonus on ‘dhan’ crops to win Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh elections, and also announce Modi guarantee additional price on MSP for wheat, then why can’t he give a similar promise for cotton and soyabean prices? This would go a long way in helping farmers in Maharashtra.
The biggest challenge is to not let the farmer face the vagaries of world markets. Both alliances in Maharashtra must promise in their manifesto that farmers will get C2 plus 50 per cent price, as mentioned in the M.S. Swaminathan commission report. This must be applicable to all crops on the MSP list.
If the government is not able to do this, then it must increase the subsidies for farmers because, in any developed economy, agriculture is not sustainable without state support. This has been proved in the US, Europe and China. Similarly, wages of a farm labourer should increase on the lines of the pay commission.
The state government can give bonus on and above MSP; they have that right to do so and they are expected to bear the burden.
The Maharashtra government should exert pressure on the Centre to not import any farm product at a cost lower than C2 plus 50 per cent. Also, subsidy should be given for exports. This is done for sugar. If those farmers can get various subsidies, why not farmers in non-irrigated areas like Vidarbha and Marathwada? Only if they get per-acre subsidy will they be able to withstand the vagaries of nature and market forces.
―As told to Dnyanesh Jathar
Vijay Jawandhia is a senior farmers’ leader from Maharashtra.