The agriculture policy in the country has been such that it benefits only rich farmers and the so called trickle-down effect has not happened to the poor farmers. One third of farmers are still landless and another one third small and marginal farmers. So weather plays an important role for their livelihood. The so-called price stabilization mechanism like minimum support price, largely benefit big farmers even though it is meant to help poor farmers. To cite an example, 65 per cent of marketable surplus in food grains in the country is produced by top 10 per cent of the farmers as a result higher MSP for wheat and rice benefits only the rich and not the poor farmers. Also higher MSP results in high food inflation adding to the woes of marginal and landless farmers who buy food grain from the market.

Though rapid strides have been made by India in food security, new problems like climate change, depleting ground water, increasing population are posing new dangers to food security. February-March unseasonal rains and hailstorm in several states are an eye opener. There are also fears that El Nino effect may result in drought in many parts of the country with monsoon spoiling kharif prospects this year. Already several debt-ridden farmers have committed suicides due to recent unseasonal rains and the situation may become worse this summer if government does not embark upon a long term strategy moving away from ad-hocism that is resorted to find immediate and short-term solutions.

Many States like Gujarat, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir, and West Bengal were hit by hailstorm followed by untimely excessive rainfall. Now there are reports of unseasonal rains in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. State disaster response fund running into several thousands of crores of rupees are lying with several states to deal with this natural calamity but it is not yet clear if this amount would be adequate considering the extent of damage. As per the latest information received from States, the area damaged due to untimely rains and hailstorm has been reduced to 85 lakh hectares from 113 lakh hectares earlier. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already made two major announcements. He has increased the relief by 50% given to farmers from from national disaster relief fund and reduced the minimum area of damage for relief to 33% from the existing 50%. These benefits would be applicable to states affected with recent hailstorm. Subsequently, Reserve Bank of India said a new scheme for interest subvention is being worked out for farmers hit by damaged crops.

There may not be shortage of food grains in the country with godowns overflowing and stocks available is at least three times that of buffer stock requirement of 26 million tonnes. Despite the drought situation in many parts of the country and 12% deficit rainfall during last monsoon season, foodgrains production was 257.07 million tonnes in 2014-15, which is only about 3% lower than the record food grains production achieved during 2013-14. So there is no food shortage but the issue is debt burden of the farmers which become unmanageable in the event of crop failure or damage. Though a lot is talked about crop insurance, it is virtually a non-starter as farmers do not see it as a safety net, besides faulty insurance schemes and high premium made insurance an unviable proposition to farmers. Lately insurance companies have been asked settle expeditiously insurance claims of farmers but in reality there is hardly any crop insurance worth the name in the country. Year-after-year farm credit is increased. From a mere Rs three lakh crore annually, bank credit target for the current finance year is fixed at Rs 8.5 lakh crore. But needy farmers do not get these subsidized loans for farming forcing them to turn to money lenders and other informal channels. The high interest for such loans puts huge debt burden on farmers. A government study points out poor farmers on an average pay interest in double digit and the subsidized four per cent crop loans are not available in times of need adding to their misery. Also due to inadequate development of market, poor farmers seldom get remunerative price for their farm produce. With markets being undeveloped and huge restrictions on movement of farm products from one state to another, agri-commodity futures had only resulted in speculation by big farmers and the purpose for which they were set up that is to help in price discovery for the benefit of poor and marginal farmers has not happened. These problems get magnified in the event of natural calamity and unfortunately government response is invariably inadequate and not timely. Adhoc measures provide some immediate solace but problems surface again when crop failure or natural calamity recur unlike in the advanced countries where permanent solutions are found when a disaster strikes.

It is time government takes a serious view and work out a long-term and permanent solution for this perpetual problem of poor farmers. Currently, Indian agriculture has 190 million ha gross sown area (142 million ha net sown area), and 40% of this is irrigated. There have been similar revolutions in the production of milk, fish, eggs, sugar, and a few other crops. India is now the largest producer of milk, fruits, cashew nuts, coconuts and tea in the world, the second largest producer of wheat, vegetables, sugar and fish, and the third largest producer of rice. This growth in agricultural production has also led to considerable surplus food stocks purchased by the government.

The droughts of 1987, 1999-2000, and of 2002-2003 could generally be managed and did not lead to severe problems of food security because of these buffer stocks. But drastic steps individual farmers did occur as India is still considerably dependent on the rainfall quantity and its distribution despite progress on several fronts in the farm sector.

The summer monsoon (June through September) contributes to 78% of India’s annual rainfall and is a major water resource. It is important to recognize that the Green Revolution was largely confined to the irrigated areas. In the past 50 years, there have been around 15 major droughts, due to which the productivity of rain fed crops in those years was affected. Limited options for other income and widespread poverty continue to threaten the livelihoods of millions of small and marginal farmers in this region. This is what is needed to be tackled and Modi government will have to think out of the box to find a lasting solution. This year’s budget made its intention clear to give new thrust to agriculture. But a vast country like India needed a medium to long term plan hopefully the newly constituted NITI AAYOG should come out with some fresh idea. Drastic reforms are needed particularly in agri-marketing, farm credit, cooperative movement, cold storage, creation unified market by dismantling APMC act, inter-linking of rivers to harness 85 per cent of the rainwater that go into the sea and opening up of multi-brand retail, politically unpopular move to reduce huge wastage of farm perishables and so on. These are not easy reforms but if Modi government had the political will, this can be done in the next five-six years thereby minimizing farmers’ distress. The recent damage to crops by unseasonal rains and scores of farmer suicides is a wake-up call to convert crisis into opportunity to put Indian agriculture on a higher pedestal. (IPA Service)