As of March 9, the Centre under premiership of PM Narendra Modi has not announced any relief for farmers so far, though he has been playing champion to the farmers’ cause ever since he became prime minister in 2014. He had announced “doubling farmers income by 2022” and then brought three farm laws purportedly for the benefit of the farmers in the country. “Doubling farmers income” miserably failed while he had to withdraw the farm laws after one-year long sit-in protest of farmers who did not agree to the PM’s bid allegedly of bringing Corporate to the farm sector, which they believed anti-farmer. The PM himself regretted that “his government could not convince the farmers about the benefits of the three laws.”

The heavy crash of prices this year are observed for potato and onion which affected all states but felt most severely by the farmers of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and West Bengal. Many farmers in Maharashtra have even burnt their onion crop in the field in protest alleging that the government has not been able to stop the free fall in the onion prices.

Gujarat is the only state so far that has announced a package of Rs330 crore for onion and potato farmers. The opposition MVA in Maharashtra created ruckus on March 9 over farmers’ aid and staged a walkout from the legislative assembly of Maharashtra.

The crash in fall in prices in India for agricultural produce is not new in India, particularly during the reaping or immediately in the following weeks due to a range of issues ranging from lack of storage capacity to faulty policies adopted by the government. There is no legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP) for all crops. Moreover, the levels of MSP is allegedly kept at such a lower level that they do not sufficiently compensate the efforts and investments of the farmers. Farmers organisations and unions in the country have been demanding a proper MSP and a legal guarantee for it, and they have already planned agitations across the country in 2023.

The Centre has all along ignoring the issue proper crop prices. For example, even in 2018, when the government think tank Niti Aayog had produced their 14 volume document on the behest of PM Modi to suggest ways and means for “doubling farmers income by 2022”, an onion-grower from Maharashtra had to sell his producer for a little over Rs1 per kg. He had sold 750 kg onion for Rs1,064 and sent the entire earning to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in protest.

However, even such a protest could not influence government decisions and policies. Farmers remained in precarious conditions even after five years of that incident. This year onion prices came down to Rs2 per kg. Worst case was reported from Sholapur district where a farmer sold 512 kg of onions and he earned merely Rs2.49.

The allegation of farmer who burnt his onion crop on one-and-half acre of land in Maharashtra in protest has clearly some truth in it that the Union and state governments have left the farmers to their fate. … they do not pay attention to whether the farmer survives or dies. It should be noted that farmers in the country have committed suicides in thousands in recent years.

Farmers are demanding that the government immediately declare Rs1500 per quintal grant for onions during the ongoing season are being sold in the range of Rs2 to Rs5 per kg, which should have been selling in the range of Rs15 to Rs 20 per kg.

The opposition MVA in Maharashtra continued their protest in the assembly on March 9 against the BJP-Shiv Sena (Shinde) government and demanded immediate compensation to the farmers not only for the crash in prices but also for the loss by unseasonal rains in the last few days.

There have also crashes in the potato prices across the country. Farmers of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, the largest and the second largest producer in the country respectively, were particularly affected. As on March 8, average prices of potato were in the range of Rs750 to Rs800 per quintal as against in the range of Rs1400 to Rs1600. At the beginning of the season the prices had come down to as low as Rs250 per quintal. West Bengal plans to procure 10 lakh tonnes of potato at MSP Rs6.50 a kg that has lost its meaning since it is now already selling at above Rs7 per kg. Centre has not announced any compensation for potato growers, Gujarat’s announcement is little and delayed, West Bengal’s announcement have become meaningless, and no other state has announced any relief.

Apart from untimely rain and storm in certain parts of the country, last one month have witnessed unprecedented rise in temperature which reached close to 40 degree Celsius at several places. It has severely affected all winter crops, vegetables, and fruits. According to an estimate horticulture, vegetables, and fruit productions are likely to suffer a loss in the range of 30 to 40 per cent, while wheat production is likely to decline in the range of 15-20 per cent. Farmers of Punjab and Haryana, which are major wheat growing states contributing in the national food basket, has already demanded compensation for the loss in this regard.

It is an additional demand while all the long-standing demands are continuing unmet, such as remunerative prices for agricultural produce and legal guarantee for MSP for all crops. Farmers are also demanding for reducing the input cost by reducing costs of fertilizers, seeds, pesticides, electricity and water for irrigation. Farmers have again become restive and their unions are planning to restart their agitation across the country. The present policies are against farmers while these assure more and more profit to the businessmen who purchase their produce at damn cheap prices and sell at exorbitant prices to the common consumers.

The situation has contributed to the rising food prices and inflation in the country in recent months which were the chief cause of average high inflation in India which remained around 7 per cent throughout 2022 above the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) tolerable limit of 6 per cent. RBI had to increase the interest rate to keep the inflation in check which increased the cost of investment and thereby adversely affected the entire economy worsening the jobs and cost of living crises of the people.