Jagnath Singh Jat, 75 - Farms on 17 acres in Narsinghpura village, 25 km from Jaipur Grows wheat, barley, peas, mustard Owes Rs 7 lakh, borrowed in January to buy a new tractor, among other things Jagnath Singh Jat, 75 - Farms on 17 acres in Narsinghpura village, 25 km from Jaipur Grows wheat, barley, peas, mustard Owes Rs 7 lakh, borrowed in January to buy a new tractor, among other things

In his death, Gajendra Singh gave the political class much to outrage over. And outrage they expressed, but mostly over the wrong reasons. The middle-aged man from a farming family in Rajasthan's Dausa district hanged himself at a farmers' rally organised by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at Jantar Mantar on April 22. Almost immediately, the televised suicide was taken over by the opposition parties to rail against the Narendra Modi government's land acquisition ordinance, equating Singh's death, and those of other farmers, with the law.

There's very little, however, to suggest any connection between land acquisition and either the rising level of agrarian crisis or the overall number of farmers who took their own lives. And those numbers have in fact declined in the last 10 years until 2013, says the National Crime Records Bureau. But in their attempt to score brownie points, the politicians seemed to be barking up the wrong tree. Discussions in both houses of Parliament focused mostly on easy solutions to the crises, virtually ignoring deeper structural issues that need political solutions.

Not that agrarian crisis is a non-issue. Far from it. The 2011 Census estimates 168 million of India's total 247 million households are in rural areas. The "Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households", conducted during the 70th round of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) held in 2013, says only 90.2 million of those 168 million rural households are engaged in agriculturally productive operations. But that's not the problem. The assessment survey suggests that farmers involved in farming operations on land up to 2 hectares (ha)-the small or marginal farmers-cannot meet even their average monthly consumption expenditure from only incomes generated from farming (cultivation and animal husbandry). It says as many as 78.1 million of the 90.2 million farming households (86.6 per cent) do not earn enough from farming to meet their expenses. And that is where the problem lies.

FRAGMENTED OWNERSHIP

To supplement their income, most farming families take up employment or non-farm businesses. But the survey reveals even this is not sufficient for 62.6 million households that own less than 1 ha, which accounts for 70 per cent of total farm households.

The survey, in fact, gives a pointer to meet this challenge. It suggests that only households owning more than 2 ha farmland are able to earn more than their monthly expenditures. Lesson for politicians: larger landholdings are a viable farming proposition.

A NABARD paper released in February last year suggested that the average size of operational landholdings has reduced by half in the last 40 years-from 2.28 ha in 1970-71 to 1.16 ha in 2010-11. As a result, the number of landholdings in the marginal and small categories have swelled by 56 million and 11 million, respectively. NABARD's assessment of unviability of smaller farms, in a way, has been validated by NSSO survey results made public in December 2014, which say only farms more than 2 ha are yielding more income than farmers' consumption expenditure.

The solution then lies in arresting this fragmentation and consolidation of farms-a task the political class needs to take up forthwith. "The answer lies in farmers getting together to collectivise farmlands; not Soviet collectivisation but taking the shape of producer companies. (It requires a) limited form of cooperation where a farmer does not give his land away but cooperates for input purchases and selling of the produce," says noted agricultural economist Y.K. Alagh.

Ramesh Chand, director, National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research (NCAP), suggests a regulatory framework to facilitate legal leasing of farmland to ensure security and stability for farmers. India's land lease laws are based on conditions dating back to Independence, which makes many farmers unwilling to lease out land. "Or those who want to take farms on lease don't get it," Chand says. "Farmers prefer to keep land fallow rather than lease them out; they fear they would lose control."

Ram Sharan Yadav, 54- Farms on 0.75 acres In Akaunadih village, Nawada, Bihar Grows wheat, paddy, some vegetables Owes Rs 38,000 of Rs 50,000 taken from Kisan Credit Card three years ago. Ram Sharan Yadav, 54- Farms on 0.75 acres In Akaunadih village, Nawada, Bihar Grows wheat, paddy, some vegetables Owes Rs 38,000 of Rs 50,000 taken from Kisan Credit Card three years ago.

For the political class, the challenge lies in fragmentation of landholdings that are getting unviable. Agriculture administrators recommend proliferation of oral or informal leasing/renting of farmland to advocate a legal framework to protect landowners and facilitate consolidation of landholdings.

RACE FOR INSURANCE

If this was the winter of discontent for farmers in most parts of north India, the spring arrived with little hope. The unseasonal rain and hailstorm in patches ravaged standing crops on nearly 189 lakh ha of about 606 lakh ha of rabi acreage. The twin demands that arose as a result were of central relief by state governments and relaxation of procurement norms by farmers to ensure their spoilt crop is assured of a market.

As expected, the political rhetoric has hit the high notes: in Parliament, ruling NDA MPs were keen to highlight the Centre's call to relax relief disbursement norms, while the Opposition panned the government for its failure to release more funds to states promptly. Lost in this politicking was the fine difference between relief and compensation. Lesson for politicians: the Centre provides relief if crops fail, but the need of the hour is to insure them.

Jagjit Singh, 24,- Farms on 7 acres In Naulakha village, Fatehgarh Sahib district, Punjab Grows wheat (winter) and paddy (summer) Owes around Rs 4 lakh to commission agent. Jagjit Singh, 24,- Farms on 7 acres In Naulakha village, Fatehgarh Sahib district, Punjab Grows wheat (winter) and paddy (summer) Owes around Rs 4 lakh to commission agent.

Even the Centre has admitted that the NSSO survey results have indicated that a very small segment of agricultural households utilises crop insurance. To address the situation, NCAP's Chand stresses the need to educate farmers about paying insurance costs to qualify for compensation, though "marginal farmers' premium can be subsidised by the government". Alagh, however, warns against pandering to them too much. "You cannot destroy insurance companies by forcing them to lower premiums," he says while acknowledging the administration's role in subsidising crop insurance premiums for marginal farmers.

To his credit, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh has indicated the need to evolve a robust farm insurance system, initiated during Rajnath Singh's term as agriculture minister in NDA 1.

TO MARKET, TO MARKET

Farmers are hardly out of the woods once the yield comes out good and is harvested. The next part of the harrowing journey only begins then. And one merely needs to follow the Gangetic plain eastward to hear complaints of farmers in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal about their produce remaining unsold, or being sold below the minimum support price (MSP).

"Farm holdings are so fragmented in eastern India that farmers find little merit in incurring transportation cost to procurement centres. This allows aggregators, traders to purchase the produce at the farm gate instead of the mandi (wholesale), and that is usually below the MSP," says Ashish Bahuguna, former agriculture secretary.



While the political leadership of Punjab and Haryana, the original Green Revolution states, have institutionalised their procurement networks, political leaders elsewhere, especially in the Gangetic plain, need to learn a lesson from Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh Chief Ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Raman Singh respectively. The two CMs have given a sustained push to a sound procurement network for wheat (MP) and paddy (Chhattisgarh) farmers, and thereby good price for their crops.



Chand, in fact, warns against relying on only governments for procurement and suggests a role for private players. "Apart from institutional intervention such as MSP," he says, "the emphasis should be on increasing competition among buyers."

Not unlike the politicians, the prevailing laws also do not help much. Both the Agricultural Produce Market Committee Acts and the Essential Commodities Act have patronised traditional and entrenched traders and have not allowed modern trading, and need to be amended. Political leaders need to mull over how to modernise domestic trade to facilitate modern capital infusion to create logistics and storage facilities.

FIGHT FOR INPUTS

The entire political class may take pride in India's agricultural tradition, but most farmers still continue to struggle for basic inputs such as seeds, fertiliser pesticide, irrigation, power and credit. There was a large-scale disruption in fertiliser supply only last year, raising the political heat in several parts. "Inputs such as seed and fertiliser need to be available on time. Fertiliser requirements for kharif crops should be tied up at the end of the previous rabi crop," points out Gurbachan Singh, for-mer federal agriculture commissioner and now chairman of the Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board.

"The political class should be alive to the demand forecast rather than react to a crisis generated by (their) misgovernance. Political pressure should ensure proactive coordination between placing orders, ensuring movement (of fertiliser) and timely distribution," says Ajay Vir Jakhar, chairman, Bharat Krishak Samaj.

The political class also needs to learn from state governments such as Shivraj Singh Chouhan's to expand irrigation coverage to reach the benefits to farmers. Similarly, for power supply for irrigation and other operations they need to look at Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, which have demonstrated efficacy of separate agricultural feeders for farmers.

As for agriculture credit, though it has jumped to more than Rs 8 lakh crore, Ramesh Chand underlines the wide inequality in institutional credit between states.

There's a lot to be learnt for politicians to address the varied crises farmers face. As India looks at a year of below-normal monsoon, it's important that they show outrage over deaths such as that of Gajendra Singh's. But that fury has to be for the right reason for it to have any lasting effect.

with Asit Jolly, Amitabh Srivastava and Rohit Parihar



Follow the writer on Twitter @ravishkt



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