There is more to onion prices than what meets the eye. And it is time to peel the onion, layer by layer.
No sooner did the onion crisis erupt on your small screen last week, following the retail prices jumping from Rs 35/kg to Rs 60-80/kg, Minister for Commerce Anand Sharma was the first one to make a statement. Even before the Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar opened his mouth, Anand Sharma had told the nation that the onion crisis was because of hoarding, and that the country had enough stocks.
This year production of onions has been a record with at least one million tonnes more onion produced than the previous year.
I wonder how and why Anand Sharma made this statement. After all, agriculture is Sharad Pawar's beat and normally Cabinet Ministers tread carefully by not transgressing into the domain of a fellow colleague. Even if Anand Sharma commented because he looks into trade, the fact remains that he has never commented earlier when prices of sugar and dal for instance had touched the roof.
As the evening progressed, and the UPA government went into a tizzy, Nafed's managing director Sanjeev Chopra expressed surprise at the sudden price rise. He told the media that there was roughly 20 per cent more supply, and despite the rain damage to the standing crop in September when the sowing takes place in Maharashtra and Rajasthan, the price rise defies any logic. I agree with Sanjeev Chopra. He was being forthright and honest.
While all kinds of explanations were being tossed around, what became increasingly clear was that the trade -- middlemen, in this case -- had made a killing. But what remains hidden from public glare is that the entire onion price crisis is stage managed. It has been created to justify the need to bring in big box retail.
Within the next two days the government went into a massive salvage operation. Knowing well that onion prices have in the past brought down the government, not once but twice, UPA-II didn't want to take any chances. Exports were immediately banned, import duties were brought down to zero, crackdown against hoarders began simultaneously, and lo and behold the prices began to come down.
Meanwhile tomato and garlic prices began to rise. While tomato prices ruled high in Delhi (rising to Rs 40 a kg in retail markets), again there was no reason for tomato prices to rise. In fact, as metros witnessed tomato prices going out of reach, the irony is that Jharkhand farmers were dumping tomatoes on road for want of a fair price. http://bit.ly/hPvuHR
Coming back to onions, before the prices had even stabilised at Rs 50-60 per kg, Anand Sharma moved swiftly to talk to his fellow colleagues on Dec 23 about the need and possibility of opening up to multi-brand retail. In other words, in the midst of a crisis situation, Commerce Minister found time to 'discuss' with his Cabinet colleagues the possibility of inviting multi-brand retail into the country.
For the benefit of some of our readers, when we say multi-brand retail we are talking of big box retail like Wal-Mart and Tesco.
At a time when the Cabinet Secretary was monitoring the onion price situation on an hourly basis, Commerce Minister was confabulating with his ministerial colleagues about multi-brand retail. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Defence Minister A K Anthony had taken part in these discussions. Why the urgency? Anand Sharma replied: "Policy formation is a dynamic process, and we are very progressive and forward-looking."
Surely, Mr Sharma. We know what you mean by 'progressive and forward looking'.
In fact, he also met media persons the same day to tell them about the dynamics of FDI in retail. A journalist asked him about the link FDI in retail has with the soaring onion prices. According to The Hindu (Dec 24) "While Mr Sharma rejected the argument that there was a link between the soaring onion prices and the opening up of multi-brand retail to foreign direct investment, the demand for liberalising the sector has been intensifying, especially in the wake of the wide gap between wholesale prices and retail prices."
Now if you are wondering how can someone be planning (and succeeding) in raising onion prices across the country, I want you to remember the sudden eruption of dropsy several years back, which took quite a human toll. Dropsy was blamed on poisonous argemone seeds which had slipped into mustard oil extraction process. This was, as we now know, done to build a market for packed mustard oil. And surely, the sales of loose mustard oil has gone down drastically after that incidence.
Howcome, argemone seeds never found their way into mustard oil after that?
More recently, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks, in a January 2008 meeting, US and Spain trade officials strategized on how to increase acceptance of genetically modified foods in Europe, and among the measures included inflating food prices on the commodities market. Read more about Hike Food Prices To Boost GM Crop Approval In Europe: Leaked Cable by Rady Ananda http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/leaked-cable-bubble-gmo-eu/
Allowing big box retail into the country is no less a priority for Manmohan Singh government than the nuclear treaty. President Obama had pressurised India to open up when he visited India in November. Before that, British Prime Minister David Cameron had sought the opening up of Indian market for big box retail when he had made a visit. And more recently, French President Nicolas Sarkozy had also promised more investments if India opens up to retail FDI.
The G-20 has also directed member countries to remove all hurdles in accepting multi-brand retail. It was primarily to meet this directive that the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) had floated a completely flawed discussion paper on allowing FDI in multi-brand retail. Consultations with the stakeholders (?) have also been completed by the Ministry of Commerce.
Both Sharad Pawar and Anand Sharma are in favour of it. Since there is opposition to multi-brand retail FDI within the Congress party, the onion price drama had to be stage managed. While your tears have by now dried, let us wait and watch how soon the UPA-II gives us another breaking news.
------------------------------
Now, what FDI in multi-brand retail would do for Indian farmers, is something that I have been regularly talking about. You can read the paper below and judge for yourself.
FDI in retail is the beginning of the end for Indian farmers
It is being projected as a boon for the agricultural sector. In reality, it will spell a death knell for farming. It will be the beginning of an end for Indian farmers.
It has happened in the United States. Ever since big retail – dominated by multi-brand retailers like Wal-Mart, Tesco and Carrefour – has entered the market, farmers have disappeared, and poverty has increased. Today, not more than 7 lakh farmers remain on the farm in America. In fact, the number of farmers has come down to such a low level that America has stopped counting the farmers since its last census in the year 2000.
In Europe, despite the dominance of the big retail, every minute one farmer quits agriculture. According to a report, farmer’s income in France has come down by 39 per cent in 2009, having already slumped by 20 per cent in 2008. In Scotland, low supermarket prices are being cited as the reason for the exodus of dairy farmers. It is therefore futile to expect the supermarkets rescuing farmers in India.
Despite the destruction of farming globally by the supermarkets, the Ministry for Commerce and Industry is gung-ho about allowing foreign direct investment in multi-brand retailing, which means allowing the big players like Wal-Mart and Tesco to swamp the Indian market. “The agriculture sector needs well functioning markets to drive growth, employment and economic prosperity in rural areas,” says a discussion paper drafted by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion. I find a number of economists and researchers singing chorus of praise for the role the supermarkets can play.
But do the supermarkets really benefit? Since 2006, India has allowed a partial opening up of the retail sector. Has these retail units benefited the Indian farmers and for that the consumers? The answer is no.
The argument is that the supermarket chains will squeeze out the middlemen thereby providing higher prices to farmers and at the same time provide large investments for the development of post-harvest and cold chain infrastructure. All these claims are untrue, and the big retail has not helped farmers anywhere in the world. Even in Latin American countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia, where supermarkets, most of them owned by multinational giants, now control 65 to 95 per cent of supermarket sales, farmers have been forced to quit agriculture.
If the supermarkets were so efficient and provided dynamism, I would like to know why the US is providing a massive subsidy for agriculture. After all, the world biggest retail giant Wal-mart is based in America and it should have helped American farmers to become economically viable. But it did not happen. American farmers have instead been bailed out by the government, providing a subsidy of Rs 12.50 lakh-crore between 1995 and 2009, and this includes direct income support.
Let me illustrate. Till 1950 in America, a farmer used to receive about 70 per cent of every dollar spent on food. Today, it is no more than 3 to 4 per cent. And that is why the American farmers are being supported in the form of direct income support by the American government.
A latest 2010 report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a group comprising the richest 30 countries in the world, states explicitly that farm subsidies rose by 22 per cent in 2009, up from 21 per cent in 2008. In just 2009, industrialised countries provided a subsidy of Rs 1,260 billion. And it is primarily for this reason that the farm incomes are lucrative. Take the Netherlands; the average farm family income is 275 per cent of average household income. This is because of the farm subsidies, and not because of supermarkets.
We are therefore importing a failed model from America.
Regarding employment, big retail does not squeeze out middle-men from the food chain. Middle-men by definition mean someone who is between the producer and the consumer. Supermarkets claim that they remove middle-men and therefore are able to provide a higher price to farmers. In reality, what happens is just the opposite. Supermarkets are themselves the big middlemen. They replace the small fish in the trade.
Big fish is known to eat the smaller ones. Supermarkets exactly perform that function. They replace the plethora of small middle-men. The arhtiya clad in a dhoti-curta, is replaced by a smartly dressed up middlemen. An illusion is therefore created as if the supermarkets have removed the middlemen from trading. But in reality, the big boys now share the commission between them. The new battery of middle-men, who replaces the traditional middle-men, are the quality controller, certification agencies, packaging industry, processors, wholesalers etc.
Politics around farmer suicides. To whose benefit?
So former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Chandrababu Naidu has ended his indefinite fast on the eight day. Former Congress MP Jaganmohan Reddy too has finished his 48-hour hunger strike against “leaving distressed farmers in the lurch.” They are demanding an enhanced compensation package for farmers who lost their crops because of natural calamities.
While nine political parties forced Naidu to break his fast, the Congress rebel garnered support of many sitting Congress MLAs. CPM politburo chief Prakash Karat and his colleague Sitaram Yechury, CPIs AB Bardhan, Janata Dal's Sharad Yadav were among several of the Third Front leaders who called on Naidu. Several other political leaders from AIADMK, JD (S) and JD (U) have visited the fasting leader at Hyderabad. A delegation of party leaders had also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi this week.
Naidu has now announced a massive rally to be held at Guntur on Dec 30.
But before Naidu ended his fast, Prime Minister didn’t waste the opportunity. Knowing that the Andhra Pradesh elections are around the corner, the Centre promptly announced a relief of Rs 400-crore to the farmers affected by recent incessant rains.
With more political support pouring in, Chandrababu Naidu’s fast will surely take a political turn. It already has. While the political fallout will definitely boost Chandrababu Naidu’s electoral prospects, the bigger question remains whether his support for the farmers’ cause will finally bring an end to the great Indian farm tragedy.
The serial death dance in the crop fields across the country has already taken a heavy toll. More than 200,000 farmers have taken to the gallows in the past 15 years, and the nation is still counting.
First of all, let me acknowledge that Chandrababu Naidu is the only political leader who has taken this important step to draw the nation's attention to the plight of the farming community. Naidu succeeded where other farmer leaders failed. I have always wondered why have the farmer leaders (who claim to be non-political) failed to sit on a nationwide indefinite fast to demand better conditions for the farming community.
Nevertheless, there are lessons to be learnt. And I hope Naidu will be talking of policies and approaches that can be sustainable in the long run and also economically viable.
Chandrababu Naidu is essentially demanding Rs 10,000 per acre as compensation to farmers who lost their paddy crop and Rs 15,000 for commercial crops like cotton and sugarcane. While the short-term gain may win him accolades from the beleaguered farming community, this is unlikely to stem the tide. I am not sure whether he has learnt any lessons from the debacle that he had actually created on the farm front before his government was swept away by a tidal wave of angry farmers. Blindly aping the World Bank model of agriculture (as suggested by McKinsey), Andhra had pumped in huge finances to push in an industry-driven agriculture that has not only exacerbated the crisis leading to an environmental catastrophe but also destroyed millions of rural livelihoods.
Chandrababu Naidu’s much talked about Vision 2020 programme aimed at reducing the number of farmers in the State to 40 per cent of the population, and did not have any significant programme to adequately rehabilitate the remaining 30 per cent of the farming population. The objective was to promote the commercial interests of the agribusiness companies (read foreign financial institutes and international bankers) and the IT hardware units. All benefit would have accrued to these companies in the name of farmers.
In reality, Chandrbabu Naidu is only helping the rich kamma community which is keen to make investments in land and agriculture. Because of his faulty policies, which benefit the rich business class, rural-urban migration had reached its peak and livestock deaths and the plight of dalits and other landless and marginalised had worsened. Farmers were asked not to produce more rice (the staple food) as the State had no place to stock it. Farmer suicides had become so common that Mr Naidu had actually sent team of psychiatrists to convince them against taking their own lives.
The unending bloodbath in the Andhra Pradesh countryside has not only failed to evoke any political urgency so as to turn suicides into history but at the same time failed to move the intelligentsia and the academicians to point to the fundamental reasons that have led to the unprecedented agrarian crisis. In fact, what Chandrababu Naidu needs to realise is that his own model of growth what is popularly called the ‘Naidu model’ had failed. It also means failure of the McKinsey’s model of economic development. To talk of ‘Naidu Plus’, as some economists have said, indicates the level of arrogance among a school of economic thought that refuses to see anything except what benefits the industry.
Instead of only stroking the fire, I think here is an opportunity for Chandrababu Naidu to first accept that he committed mistakes, and then come out with a set of policy recommendations that may force the governments to enunciate radical measures that helps resurrect agriculture. It has to begin by providing farmers with an assured monthly income, and extending the non-pesticide management system of sustainable farming that Andhra Pradesh has created to the entire country. After all, with agriculture turning into a highly losing proposition, what is more startling is that over the years the farm earnings of marginal farmers have dropped to less than that of the daily wage labourers.
The only way to ensure economic viability for the farm sector is to set up a Farmers Income Commission on the lines of the 6th pay commission. Based on the minimum land-holdings, and the agro-climatic conditions, the Commission should work out an assured income per acre for the farmers. There is no reason why a farmer cannot earn equal to at least what the peon in the government service gets every moth. Isn’t it sad that while a chaprasi earns Rs 15,000 every month, a farmer does not get more than Rs 2400?
Chandrababu Naidu also needs to know that the future of farming remains hidden in the non-pesticides management of agriculture being promoted by the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty in Andhra Pradesh. At present, thousands of farmers are cultivating crops without the use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers in 28 lakh acres. Their incomes have gone up, and the soil health is being restored. The programme which began from Andhra Pradesh needs to be extended to the entire country if the aim is to wipe out every tear from the farmers face.
While nine political parties forced Naidu to break his fast, the Congress rebel garnered support of many sitting Congress MLAs. CPM politburo chief Prakash Karat and his colleague Sitaram Yechury, CPIs AB Bardhan, Janata Dal's Sharad Yadav were among several of the Third Front leaders who called on Naidu. Several other political leaders from AIADMK, JD (S) and JD (U) have visited the fasting leader at Hyderabad. A delegation of party leaders had also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi this week.
Naidu has now announced a massive rally to be held at Guntur on Dec 30.
But before Naidu ended his fast, Prime Minister didn’t waste the opportunity. Knowing that the Andhra Pradesh elections are around the corner, the Centre promptly announced a relief of Rs 400-crore to the farmers affected by recent incessant rains.
With more political support pouring in, Chandrababu Naidu’s fast will surely take a political turn. It already has. While the political fallout will definitely boost Chandrababu Naidu’s electoral prospects, the bigger question remains whether his support for the farmers’ cause will finally bring an end to the great Indian farm tragedy.
The serial death dance in the crop fields across the country has already taken a heavy toll. More than 200,000 farmers have taken to the gallows in the past 15 years, and the nation is still counting.
First of all, let me acknowledge that Chandrababu Naidu is the only political leader who has taken this important step to draw the nation's attention to the plight of the farming community. Naidu succeeded where other farmer leaders failed. I have always wondered why have the farmer leaders (who claim to be non-political) failed to sit on a nationwide indefinite fast to demand better conditions for the farming community.
Nevertheless, there are lessons to be learnt. And I hope Naidu will be talking of policies and approaches that can be sustainable in the long run and also economically viable.
Chandrababu Naidu is essentially demanding Rs 10,000 per acre as compensation to farmers who lost their paddy crop and Rs 15,000 for commercial crops like cotton and sugarcane. While the short-term gain may win him accolades from the beleaguered farming community, this is unlikely to stem the tide. I am not sure whether he has learnt any lessons from the debacle that he had actually created on the farm front before his government was swept away by a tidal wave of angry farmers. Blindly aping the World Bank model of agriculture (as suggested by McKinsey), Andhra had pumped in huge finances to push in an industry-driven agriculture that has not only exacerbated the crisis leading to an environmental catastrophe but also destroyed millions of rural livelihoods.
Chandrababu Naidu’s much talked about Vision 2020 programme aimed at reducing the number of farmers in the State to 40 per cent of the population, and did not have any significant programme to adequately rehabilitate the remaining 30 per cent of the farming population. The objective was to promote the commercial interests of the agribusiness companies (read foreign financial institutes and international bankers) and the IT hardware units. All benefit would have accrued to these companies in the name of farmers.
In reality, Chandrbabu Naidu is only helping the rich kamma community which is keen to make investments in land and agriculture. Because of his faulty policies, which benefit the rich business class, rural-urban migration had reached its peak and livestock deaths and the plight of dalits and other landless and marginalised had worsened. Farmers were asked not to produce more rice (the staple food) as the State had no place to stock it. Farmer suicides had become so common that Mr Naidu had actually sent team of psychiatrists to convince them against taking their own lives.
The unending bloodbath in the Andhra Pradesh countryside has not only failed to evoke any political urgency so as to turn suicides into history but at the same time failed to move the intelligentsia and the academicians to point to the fundamental reasons that have led to the unprecedented agrarian crisis. In fact, what Chandrababu Naidu needs to realise is that his own model of growth what is popularly called the ‘Naidu model’ had failed. It also means failure of the McKinsey’s model of economic development. To talk of ‘Naidu Plus’, as some economists have said, indicates the level of arrogance among a school of economic thought that refuses to see anything except what benefits the industry.
Instead of only stroking the fire, I think here is an opportunity for Chandrababu Naidu to first accept that he committed mistakes, and then come out with a set of policy recommendations that may force the governments to enunciate radical measures that helps resurrect agriculture. It has to begin by providing farmers with an assured monthly income, and extending the non-pesticide management system of sustainable farming that Andhra Pradesh has created to the entire country. After all, with agriculture turning into a highly losing proposition, what is more startling is that over the years the farm earnings of marginal farmers have dropped to less than that of the daily wage labourers.
The only way to ensure economic viability for the farm sector is to set up a Farmers Income Commission on the lines of the 6th pay commission. Based on the minimum land-holdings, and the agro-climatic conditions, the Commission should work out an assured income per acre for the farmers. There is no reason why a farmer cannot earn equal to at least what the peon in the government service gets every moth. Isn’t it sad that while a chaprasi earns Rs 15,000 every month, a farmer does not get more than Rs 2400?
Chandrababu Naidu also needs to know that the future of farming remains hidden in the non-pesticides management of agriculture being promoted by the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty in Andhra Pradesh. At present, thousands of farmers are cultivating crops without the use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers in 28 lakh acres. Their incomes have gone up, and the soil health is being restored. The programme which began from Andhra Pradesh needs to be extended to the entire country if the aim is to wipe out every tear from the farmers face.
Who says economists and scientists are not corrupt. They scam in the name of economic growth and development
This scam will never hit the headlines. It will never be the subject of a joint Parliamentary committee nor will it ever result in Parliament being blocked for days together.
It doesn’t matter if hundreds of poor people die and millions of livelihoods are destroyed. This is a just the collateral damage that the country must live with if it has to have economic growth. It is worse than any scam we have heard about. And it involves some brilliant minds — our economists and scientists.
As a nation we feel outraged if a patient dies due to a doctor’s neglect. We force the government to imprison the engineer when a bridge collapses. But we remain quiet when hundreds of people die from pesticides poisoning. For the past few weeks, Kerala is witnessing an unprecedented uproar over a human disaster that a potent chemical pesticide — Endosulfan — has caused. Approved for use in cashewnut plantations, the pesticide has killed close to 1,000 people, chronically disabled more than 10,000 inhabitants with neurological disorders, paralysis and deformities, but is still being pushed for commercial application. Endosulfan was considered safe for humans and the environment by the Kerala Agricultural University and the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR).
This reminds one of the Agent Orange gas used by the Americans to defoliate forest covers in the Vietnam War. Forty years after the war ended, an estimated 500,000 were poisoned to death, and another 650,000 continue to suffer from an array of baffling chronic diseases. Like Endosulfan, Agent Orange, too, was considered safe for humans. And 40 years later, none of the scientists who approved it have been persecuted nor has the company that manufactured and marketed Agent Orange been hauled up for war crimes.
This is the accepted story of the shameful nexus between politics, industry, economists and scientists to slowly poison the current and the future generations; to usurp the natural resources in the name of development, bringing the world close to a tripping point; and to destroy millions of livelihoods in the name of free trade. While engineers and doctors are often brought to book under consumer laws, there is no legal mechanism that holds erring economists and scientists accountable.
It all begins when economic policies and scientific decisions are taken in a ‘closed and opaque’ manner. These policies are often designed to suit the commercial interests of particular companies.
Take the case of the process to justify the approval for FDI in multi-brand retail. The ministry of commerce is working overtime to tailor reports/studies in order to give an impression that big retail will be beneficial for the farmers as well as the consumers.
In reality, it is a massive cover-up operation that involves some research institutes as well as pliable experts who are picked to be part of the expert committees. The fact that big retail has not helped farmers and has instead led to the exit of farmers, is simply ignored. Numerous US studies that clearly show how the big retail eats into the livelihood of small shopkeepers and hawkers, exacerbating poverty, are very conveniently pushed under the carpet.
And if you think scientists are holy cows, think again. Over years, scientists have, with exception, turned out to be more corrupt than the politicians. Institutionalisation of corruption in science, technology and economics has already taken a massive human toll.
If you thought Niira Radia was the only successful corporate lobbyist, you just have to trace the influence International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) has on Indian agricultural science and you are left wondering whether the biotechnology lobbying group is designing farm research in India. Private banks and consultancy firms like Mckinsey & Co are increasingly writing the farm and health policies for India.
Public sector science is now becoming subservient to private interests. Take the case of the Inter-Academy Report on GM Crops prepared by the top six academies — the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Academy of Engineering, Indian National Science Academy, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, National Academy of Medical Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. Submitted in September 2010, the report has been criticised for plagiarism and accused of blatantly siding with the commercial interests of the biotechnology industry.
That the top six distinguished science academies produce a report that is but a cheap public relation exercise on behalf of the biotechnology industry cannot be pardoned. It is time to stem the rot. We need to take a broom to clean the mess that has built up in the name of science and economics. This scam is much bigger than what the TV channels are telling us. And it involves human lives.
Source: Scammed in the name of economic growth and science. DNA, Mumbai, Dec 24, 2010. http://bit.ly/gx63ZE
It doesn’t matter if hundreds of poor people die and millions of livelihoods are destroyed. This is a just the collateral damage that the country must live with if it has to have economic growth. It is worse than any scam we have heard about. And it involves some brilliant minds — our economists and scientists.
As a nation we feel outraged if a patient dies due to a doctor’s neglect. We force the government to imprison the engineer when a bridge collapses. But we remain quiet when hundreds of people die from pesticides poisoning. For the past few weeks, Kerala is witnessing an unprecedented uproar over a human disaster that a potent chemical pesticide — Endosulfan — has caused. Approved for use in cashewnut plantations, the pesticide has killed close to 1,000 people, chronically disabled more than 10,000 inhabitants with neurological disorders, paralysis and deformities, but is still being pushed for commercial application. Endosulfan was considered safe for humans and the environment by the Kerala Agricultural University and the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR).
This reminds one of the Agent Orange gas used by the Americans to defoliate forest covers in the Vietnam War. Forty years after the war ended, an estimated 500,000 were poisoned to death, and another 650,000 continue to suffer from an array of baffling chronic diseases. Like Endosulfan, Agent Orange, too, was considered safe for humans. And 40 years later, none of the scientists who approved it have been persecuted nor has the company that manufactured and marketed Agent Orange been hauled up for war crimes.
This is the accepted story of the shameful nexus between politics, industry, economists and scientists to slowly poison the current and the future generations; to usurp the natural resources in the name of development, bringing the world close to a tripping point; and to destroy millions of livelihoods in the name of free trade. While engineers and doctors are often brought to book under consumer laws, there is no legal mechanism that holds erring economists and scientists accountable.
It all begins when economic policies and scientific decisions are taken in a ‘closed and opaque’ manner. These policies are often designed to suit the commercial interests of particular companies.
Take the case of the process to justify the approval for FDI in multi-brand retail. The ministry of commerce is working overtime to tailor reports/studies in order to give an impression that big retail will be beneficial for the farmers as well as the consumers.
In reality, it is a massive cover-up operation that involves some research institutes as well as pliable experts who are picked to be part of the expert committees. The fact that big retail has not helped farmers and has instead led to the exit of farmers, is simply ignored. Numerous US studies that clearly show how the big retail eats into the livelihood of small shopkeepers and hawkers, exacerbating poverty, are very conveniently pushed under the carpet.
And if you think scientists are holy cows, think again. Over years, scientists have, with exception, turned out to be more corrupt than the politicians. Institutionalisation of corruption in science, technology and economics has already taken a massive human toll.
If you thought Niira Radia was the only successful corporate lobbyist, you just have to trace the influence International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) has on Indian agricultural science and you are left wondering whether the biotechnology lobbying group is designing farm research in India. Private banks and consultancy firms like Mckinsey & Co are increasingly writing the farm and health policies for India.
Public sector science is now becoming subservient to private interests. Take the case of the Inter-Academy Report on GM Crops prepared by the top six academies — the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Academy of Engineering, Indian National Science Academy, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, National Academy of Medical Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. Submitted in September 2010, the report has been criticised for plagiarism and accused of blatantly siding with the commercial interests of the biotechnology industry.
That the top six distinguished science academies produce a report that is but a cheap public relation exercise on behalf of the biotechnology industry cannot be pardoned. It is time to stem the rot. We need to take a broom to clean the mess that has built up in the name of science and economics. This scam is much bigger than what the TV channels are telling us. And it involves human lives.
Source: Scammed in the name of economic growth and science. DNA, Mumbai, Dec 24, 2010. http://bit.ly/gx63ZE
Tiding over farm woes: Reaping the advantage
Farmers’ unions, who only organise protests demanding higher prices, have failed to educate their members.
As 2010 fades into history, I wonder whether the New Year will bring any hope for farmers. For several years now I have been silently praying and hoping that at least this New Year farmers will have something to cheer. But, unfortunately, it has not happened. With every passing year, their economic condition has further deteriorated.
Excessive use and abuse of chemical fertilisers has poisoned the soils; hybrid crop varieties being pushed at a subsidised price have destroyed the soil fertility and sucked the groundwater dry; drenching crop fields with all kinds of chemical pesticides has not only poisoned the food that we eat but have also brought in more pests; and finally the farmer is left high and dry with no income in hand.
There is no denying that much of the blame would rest with farm officials and university scientists for creating a bloodbath that we witness on the agriculture front. There is hardly a day when dozens of farmers across the country are not drinking chemical pesticides to end their lives. In the past 15 years, more than 2,00,000 farmers have committed suicide. Millions of farmers continue to somehow live in perpetual indebtedness.
Blaming the government is not without any reason. But somewhere deep down, farmers do know that they are equally at fault. The greed to make a fast buck has lured them to unsustainable farming systems. Over the years, farmers have become completely dependent upon what seems to be a well laid out trap by the agribusiness industry. No wonder, the profits of the industry grew whereas farmers were left to die.
However, much of the farm crisis has in many ways been created by farmers themselves. How long can you go on passing the buck to the government and the agricultural university? Why can’t you resolve to turn agriculture more income-generating and sustainable in the long-run? And don’t tell me it is not possible. If you had refrained from following the herd, and adopted low-external input sustainable faming systems you would have been the role model.
Here is a farmer who has shown the way. Meet Subhash Sharma, a farmer from Daroli in Yavatmal district in the heart of the suicide belt of Vidharba. At a time when thousands of farmers in Vidharba have taken the fatal route to escape the humiliation that comes along with increasing indebtedness, he provides his farm workers with bonus and leave travel concession. If this farmer can do it, there is no reason why others cannot live in eternal happiness.
Sharma is not a big landlord. He owns only 16 acres of farm land. And like most of the farmers in the country, he too was in the thick of a vicious cycle of external inputs and perpetual indebtedness. Fed up, he then decided to abandon the fertiliser-pesticides model of farming, and shift the organic cultivation, and the turnaround has led him to a new beginning.
He says that the only way to pull out farmers from the vicious cycle of indebtedness is to push them out of the Green Revolution model of farming. It is during the workshops that he is conducting in several parts of the country that he teaches them by practical training on how to shift to natural farming practices and thereby emerge out of indebtedness.
From 16 acres of land, if Sharma can demonstrate an economically viable model, with inclusive social equity and justice, you too can do it. Here lies the answer to agricultural growth and also to country’s food security. He has even built up a corpus, a Social Security Fund, of approximately Rs 15 lakh, for meeting any eventuality that the workers might encounter. Some death in their family or the marriage of the girl child does bring additional burden, and some relief comes from the Social Security Fund. He also shares the cost of education of their children and other health expenses. Isn’t this a dream that every farmer cherishes but is never able to realise?
Well, when was the last time you heard farm labourers being given an annual bonus and leave travel allowance? Now, don’t be startled, Sharma provides an annual bonus to his team of workers — 16 men and 35 women — who labour on his farm. They get something like Rs 4.5 lakh every year as bonus, which means roughly Rs 9,000 per person. How many farmers, including big landlords, in Karnataka and for that matter in the rest of the country provide bonus to farm workers?
The problem is that farmers’ unions have failed to educate their members. They only organise protests demanding higher prices or opposing trade policies, but rarely do you find them taking upon themselves the monumental task of reviving agriculture. Instead of spending energies to contest elections, ryot sanghas need to take on the responsibility of holding ryot pathshalaas to resurrect farming, bring in natural farming system which are not only sustainable but profitable. There is no reason why every ryot in Karnataka cannot aspire to be the new generation farmer like Sharma.
Source: Deccan Herald
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/122574/reaping-advantage.html
As 2010 fades into history, I wonder whether the New Year will bring any hope for farmers. For several years now I have been silently praying and hoping that at least this New Year farmers will have something to cheer. But, unfortunately, it has not happened. With every passing year, their economic condition has further deteriorated.
Excessive use and abuse of chemical fertilisers has poisoned the soils; hybrid crop varieties being pushed at a subsidised price have destroyed the soil fertility and sucked the groundwater dry; drenching crop fields with all kinds of chemical pesticides has not only poisoned the food that we eat but have also brought in more pests; and finally the farmer is left high and dry with no income in hand.
There is no denying that much of the blame would rest with farm officials and university scientists for creating a bloodbath that we witness on the agriculture front. There is hardly a day when dozens of farmers across the country are not drinking chemical pesticides to end their lives. In the past 15 years, more than 2,00,000 farmers have committed suicide. Millions of farmers continue to somehow live in perpetual indebtedness.
Blaming the government is not without any reason. But somewhere deep down, farmers do know that they are equally at fault. The greed to make a fast buck has lured them to unsustainable farming systems. Over the years, farmers have become completely dependent upon what seems to be a well laid out trap by the agribusiness industry. No wonder, the profits of the industry grew whereas farmers were left to die.
However, much of the farm crisis has in many ways been created by farmers themselves. How long can you go on passing the buck to the government and the agricultural university? Why can’t you resolve to turn agriculture more income-generating and sustainable in the long-run? And don’t tell me it is not possible. If you had refrained from following the herd, and adopted low-external input sustainable faming systems you would have been the role model.
Here is a farmer who has shown the way. Meet Subhash Sharma, a farmer from Daroli in Yavatmal district in the heart of the suicide belt of Vidharba. At a time when thousands of farmers in Vidharba have taken the fatal route to escape the humiliation that comes along with increasing indebtedness, he provides his farm workers with bonus and leave travel concession. If this farmer can do it, there is no reason why others cannot live in eternal happiness.
Sharma is not a big landlord. He owns only 16 acres of farm land. And like most of the farmers in the country, he too was in the thick of a vicious cycle of external inputs and perpetual indebtedness. Fed up, he then decided to abandon the fertiliser-pesticides model of farming, and shift the organic cultivation, and the turnaround has led him to a new beginning.
He says that the only way to pull out farmers from the vicious cycle of indebtedness is to push them out of the Green Revolution model of farming. It is during the workshops that he is conducting in several parts of the country that he teaches them by practical training on how to shift to natural farming practices and thereby emerge out of indebtedness.
From 16 acres of land, if Sharma can demonstrate an economically viable model, with inclusive social equity and justice, you too can do it. Here lies the answer to agricultural growth and also to country’s food security. He has even built up a corpus, a Social Security Fund, of approximately Rs 15 lakh, for meeting any eventuality that the workers might encounter. Some death in their family or the marriage of the girl child does bring additional burden, and some relief comes from the Social Security Fund. He also shares the cost of education of their children and other health expenses. Isn’t this a dream that every farmer cherishes but is never able to realise?
Well, when was the last time you heard farm labourers being given an annual bonus and leave travel allowance? Now, don’t be startled, Sharma provides an annual bonus to his team of workers — 16 men and 35 women — who labour on his farm. They get something like Rs 4.5 lakh every year as bonus, which means roughly Rs 9,000 per person. How many farmers, including big landlords, in Karnataka and for that matter in the rest of the country provide bonus to farm workers?
The problem is that farmers’ unions have failed to educate their members. They only organise protests demanding higher prices or opposing trade policies, but rarely do you find them taking upon themselves the monumental task of reviving agriculture. Instead of spending energies to contest elections, ryot sanghas need to take on the responsibility of holding ryot pathshalaas to resurrect farming, bring in natural farming system which are not only sustainable but profitable. There is no reason why every ryot in Karnataka cannot aspire to be the new generation farmer like Sharma.
Source: Deccan Herald
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/122574/reaping-advantage.html
Procter&Gamble to use Rajasthan health workers to sell sanitary napkins.
In this season of scams you will probably miss this. It may not appear as earthshaking as the Wikileaks or the Radia tape leaks, but it tells us how the corporates are using the official machinery for private commercial gains. In the name of public-private partnership, public services are planned to be used for the benefit of private companies.
Tata's can be accused of turning India into a banana republic, but Procter&Gamble has surely set a new trend. The multinational giant will now utilise the government machinery to sell its products, thereby opening up a marketing channel that the private companies had never thought of. Socialising the costs, and privatising the profits. Isn't this a remarkable marketing strategy?
It wouldn't surprise me if Pepsi and Coke, taking a cue from the precedence established by Procter&Gamble, enter into an agreement with the Rajasthan government to use the State official machinery (including school teachers) to sell cold drinks (at a commission) to quench the thirst of the people living in the semi-arid region of the Great Thar desert !!
It is well acknowledged that public-private partnership (PPP) in reality means that public resources are to be placed at the disposal of the private bodies. I see this happening everywhere, both nationally and internationally. With every passing day the real motive behind the PPP enterprise is becoming clearly visible, and is more blatant. With the weight of the United Nations, World Bank and the national government's behind them, business and industry is now becoming more daring.
Rajasthan's planned MoU with multinational giant Procter&Gamble is one such PPP initiative, and beats all records. Drawing from the success of a pilot project running in four districts -- Jaipur, Donsa, Tonk and Sikar -- Rajasthan government is likely to extend this project to the entire State (Rajasthan is the largest State in India).
As per a Jaipur dateline news report appearing the Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar (Dec 14, 2010), services of more than 46,000 workers of the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) programme under the National Rural Health Mission will now be used for selling sanitary napkins manufactured by Procter&Gamble. Each packet sold will bring in a commission of Re 1 for the ASHA workers.
Well, of course, this is being done with a pious incentive. More the sale of sanitary napkins means more the protection for the rural women. Each packet costing Rs 7 contains four napkins. If you are street smart and sell 30 napkins, you get an incentive of Rs 50. I am sure the poorly paid ASHA workers must be desperately looking forward to augment their income.
"An ASHA worker gets only Rs 950 per month and has to deliver basic health services and awareness to a large number of rural population. The government appreciates our work but provides less incentive," a worker was quoted as saying in an earlier report in The Times of India. On an average, an ASHA worker receives Rs 450 from the Centre while an additional Rs 500 is provided by the state government.
This is less than what the daily-wage MGNREGA workers can earn in a month.
No wonder, in July 2010, when thousands of ASHA workers had confronted the visiting Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, he announced that the Centre will soon bring two new programmes that will provide the workers with additional incentives. Among the programmes he talked about, he specifically mentioned about marketing of asha sahyogini kit (carrying the sanitary napkins).
According to a news report in The Times of India (July 18, 2010): "To promote hygiene awareness among the rural teens, Asha workers will be involved in social marketing of sanitary pads. The government will provide these low-cost sanitary pads at subsidized rates for rural girls aged between 10 and 19 years.
They will also promote the government schemes on family planning.
The new programme was announced by Azad. While addressing the health workers, the minister said that the workers will be provided with incentives to promote the use of these family planning and hygiene products."
Don't be surprised if your postman too starts delivering sanitary napkins. In the age of market economy, Kuchh bhi ho sakta hai
Tata's can be accused of turning India into a banana republic, but Procter&Gamble has surely set a new trend. The multinational giant will now utilise the government machinery to sell its products, thereby opening up a marketing channel that the private companies had never thought of. Socialising the costs, and privatising the profits. Isn't this a remarkable marketing strategy?
It wouldn't surprise me if Pepsi and Coke, taking a cue from the precedence established by Procter&Gamble, enter into an agreement with the Rajasthan government to use the State official machinery (including school teachers) to sell cold drinks (at a commission) to quench the thirst of the people living in the semi-arid region of the Great Thar desert !!
It is well acknowledged that public-private partnership (PPP) in reality means that public resources are to be placed at the disposal of the private bodies. I see this happening everywhere, both nationally and internationally. With every passing day the real motive behind the PPP enterprise is becoming clearly visible, and is more blatant. With the weight of the United Nations, World Bank and the national government's behind them, business and industry is now becoming more daring.
Rajasthan's planned MoU with multinational giant Procter&Gamble is one such PPP initiative, and beats all records. Drawing from the success of a pilot project running in four districts -- Jaipur, Donsa, Tonk and Sikar -- Rajasthan government is likely to extend this project to the entire State (Rajasthan is the largest State in India).
As per a Jaipur dateline news report appearing the Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar (Dec 14, 2010), services of more than 46,000 workers of the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) programme under the National Rural Health Mission will now be used for selling sanitary napkins manufactured by Procter&Gamble. Each packet sold will bring in a commission of Re 1 for the ASHA workers.
Well, of course, this is being done with a pious incentive. More the sale of sanitary napkins means more the protection for the rural women. Each packet costing Rs 7 contains four napkins. If you are street smart and sell 30 napkins, you get an incentive of Rs 50. I am sure the poorly paid ASHA workers must be desperately looking forward to augment their income.
"An ASHA worker gets only Rs 950 per month and has to deliver basic health services and awareness to a large number of rural population. The government appreciates our work but provides less incentive," a worker was quoted as saying in an earlier report in The Times of India. On an average, an ASHA worker receives Rs 450 from the Centre while an additional Rs 500 is provided by the state government.
This is less than what the daily-wage MGNREGA workers can earn in a month.
No wonder, in July 2010, when thousands of ASHA workers had confronted the visiting Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, he announced that the Centre will soon bring two new programmes that will provide the workers with additional incentives. Among the programmes he talked about, he specifically mentioned about marketing of asha sahyogini kit (carrying the sanitary napkins).
According to a news report in The Times of India (July 18, 2010): "To promote hygiene awareness among the rural teens, Asha workers will be involved in social marketing of sanitary pads. The government will provide these low-cost sanitary pads at subsidized rates for rural girls aged between 10 and 19 years.
They will also promote the government schemes on family planning.
The new programme was announced by Azad. While addressing the health workers, the minister said that the workers will be provided with incentives to promote the use of these family planning and hygiene products."
Don't be surprised if your postman too starts delivering sanitary napkins. In the age of market economy, Kuchh bhi ho sakta hai
Punjab farmers victim of sophisticated technology
In the past few days, at least four farmers have committed suicide in the frontline agricultural state of Punjab. In just two districts – Sangrur and Barnala – more than 3,000 farmers have taken the fatal route in the past decade to escape the humiliation that comes along with increasing indebtedness. If a more detailed and exhaustive study of agrarian distress was to be conducted, I am sure Punjab would emerge on the top leaving behind even the suicide-prone belt of Vidharba of Maharashtra.
Punjab is faced with a terrible agrarian crisis at a time when the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has signed agreements worth Rs 50-crore for the sale of sophisticated
farm technology and seed. This was announced at the end of a four day Agri-Tech fair that concluded in Chandigarh last Monday. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar was among those who attended, and lauded the role of agribusiness industry in boosting food security. Industry heads, senior bureaucrats and agricultural experts lined up to promote expensive technological products.
There can be nothing more paradoxical. Heavy-duty farm machinery being sold at a
time when farmers are grappling with the worst-ever crisis on the farm front. On top of it, Punjab’s deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had expressed his inability to help farmers in distress saying that the State has no finances left to take care of the farming community. After paying for the staff salaries, and making budgetary allocations for various sectors, Punjab is left with no money to help farmers, he said at the agri-tech fair.
This makes me wonder for how long Indian farmers will continue to be systematically looted, not only by the middlemen and money-lenders but also by the agricultural scientists, input suppliers like seed, fertiliser and seed companies, and of course by the government through the unjust procurement prices. It is time that the farmers throw away the yoke of economic slavery and emerge out into a new age of economic freedom. Why shouldn’t farmers’ be demanding a direct income support instead of being misguided to use all kinds of external inputs as a way out to increase production and in turn increase his income. This is a faulty pathway. It helps only the industry.
For some years now, I have been asking for direct income support for farmers. I strongly feel that direct income support is the only way to bail out the beleaguered farming community. It is also the correct pathway to pull farmers out of the cycle of indebtedness that he is reeling under, and to show him the bright future ahead. Punjab, being the food bowl of the country, has to show the way. I don’t know why Punjab government doesn’t realize that farmers deserve to be at least equated with a chaprasi in the government. This is the least we can do for the people who provide us with our daily bread.
Why chaprasi, you will say? Well, because an ungrateful nation is not even willing to pay him one quarter of what it pays to a chaprasi. I am often told that to ask the policy makers to provide an average farmer a monthly income equivalent to that of a clerk in the government would be asking for too much. This is not true. At least a beginning be made, even if that means bringing the farmer at par with a government chaprasi.
A government chaprasi (peon) receives a monthly income of Rs 15,000 under the 6th pay Commission. The average monthly income of the Indian farmer was worked out at Rs 2,115 in 2003-04 by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). That was the last time the NSSO computed the farm income. Compultation of farm income was stopped thereafter probably because the government felt too embarrassed by the existing ground realities.
For Punjab, the average monthly of a farming family comes to not more than Rs 3,200 per month. The only other two States where farmer’s income is more than the national average are Jammu & Kashmir and Tamil Nadu. In other words, farmers earn not more than what a NREGA worker get in a month. Isn’t it therefore shocking to see farmers of India, who feed the country, being paid less than a NREGA worker? But more shockingly, I don’t see any section of the intelligentsia, agricultural scientists and the policy makers ever talking about the desperate need to enhance farm incomes.
I have often said that Rs 2000 is what I pay to my maid servant who comes to clean my house and wash the utensils twice a day. She works one hour and walks away with Rs 2000 a month. The poor farmer works 24x7 with his family of five members and yet is unable to earn more than what a maid servant makes in one hour of daily work. This is how we treat our farmers, our annadata.
Punjab is faced with a terrible agrarian crisis at a time when the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has signed agreements worth Rs 50-crore for the sale of sophisticated
farm technology and seed. This was announced at the end of a four day Agri-Tech fair that concluded in Chandigarh last Monday. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar was among those who attended, and lauded the role of agribusiness industry in boosting food security. Industry heads, senior bureaucrats and agricultural experts lined up to promote expensive technological products.
There can be nothing more paradoxical. Heavy-duty farm machinery being sold at a
time when farmers are grappling with the worst-ever crisis on the farm front. On top of it, Punjab’s deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had expressed his inability to help farmers in distress saying that the State has no finances left to take care of the farming community. After paying for the staff salaries, and making budgetary allocations for various sectors, Punjab is left with no money to help farmers, he said at the agri-tech fair.
This makes me wonder for how long Indian farmers will continue to be systematically looted, not only by the middlemen and money-lenders but also by the agricultural scientists, input suppliers like seed, fertiliser and seed companies, and of course by the government through the unjust procurement prices. It is time that the farmers throw away the yoke of economic slavery and emerge out into a new age of economic freedom. Why shouldn’t farmers’ be demanding a direct income support instead of being misguided to use all kinds of external inputs as a way out to increase production and in turn increase his income. This is a faulty pathway. It helps only the industry.
For some years now, I have been asking for direct income support for farmers. I strongly feel that direct income support is the only way to bail out the beleaguered farming community. It is also the correct pathway to pull farmers out of the cycle of indebtedness that he is reeling under, and to show him the bright future ahead. Punjab, being the food bowl of the country, has to show the way. I don’t know why Punjab government doesn’t realize that farmers deserve to be at least equated with a chaprasi in the government. This is the least we can do for the people who provide us with our daily bread.
Why chaprasi, you will say? Well, because an ungrateful nation is not even willing to pay him one quarter of what it pays to a chaprasi. I am often told that to ask the policy makers to provide an average farmer a monthly income equivalent to that of a clerk in the government would be asking for too much. This is not true. At least a beginning be made, even if that means bringing the farmer at par with a government chaprasi.
A government chaprasi (peon) receives a monthly income of Rs 15,000 under the 6th pay Commission. The average monthly income of the Indian farmer was worked out at Rs 2,115 in 2003-04 by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). That was the last time the NSSO computed the farm income. Compultation of farm income was stopped thereafter probably because the government felt too embarrassed by the existing ground realities.
For Punjab, the average monthly of a farming family comes to not more than Rs 3,200 per month. The only other two States where farmer’s income is more than the national average are Jammu & Kashmir and Tamil Nadu. In other words, farmers earn not more than what a NREGA worker get in a month. Isn’t it therefore shocking to see farmers of India, who feed the country, being paid less than a NREGA worker? But more shockingly, I don’t see any section of the intelligentsia, agricultural scientists and the policy makers ever talking about the desperate need to enhance farm incomes.
I have often said that Rs 2000 is what I pay to my maid servant who comes to clean my house and wash the utensils twice a day. She works one hour and walks away with Rs 2000 a month. The poor farmer works 24x7 with his family of five members and yet is unable to earn more than what a maid servant makes in one hour of daily work. This is how we treat our farmers, our annadata.
Will Bihar be the future model of growth that is just and equitable?
Nitish Kumar is back in saddle. As he returns to Bihar, after generating a hope for the better for the average man on the street, I am reminded of what a former Finance Minister of Pakistan and a distinguished economist the late Mehbub-ul-Haq had once told me. As Pakistan’s Finance Minister in the 1960s he was able to generate a growth rate of seven per cent. “And still people voted us out,” he acknowledged.
“It was a rude awakening for me. I then realised that a high economic rate of growth is no indicator of human development." Mehbub-ul-Haq then gave me the memorable gem: “We were wrongly advised that we should take care of GDP and it will automatically take care of poverty. This is not correct. We need to take care of poverty and it will automatically take care of economic growth". This is exactly what Nitish Kumar did. And true to what Mehbub-ul-Haq had predicted, people of Bihar have voted him back to power. He invested in the people, and the people paid back.
A high growth rate of 11.5 per cent between 2004 and 2009 is not the reason why Nitish Kumar has been voted back. Restoring the right to freedom by demolishing the extortion industry was certainly the first step. Simultaneously he followed it up with various development initiatives, which mainline economists would wrongly classify as populist measures. Providing bicycles to school-going girls, and reserving 50 per cent seats for women in panchayats and local bodies was part of the social engineering that he undertook. With the foundations now well laid out, the challenge Nitish Kumar faces in his second term are not only formidable but if attempted in a more realistic and holistic manner can even chart out a new future for the country.
Unlike most other political leaders, I found Nitish Kumar to be more receptive and sensitive to the needs of the poor and marginalised. While the Bihar verdict amply demonstrates his willingness to improve the lot of the masses, I still recall the brief meeting when he asked me several years back as to what I thought was the major reason behind farmer suicides. I am talking of the year 2000-01 when he was for a short period the Union Agriculture Minister.
This was the time when farmers defaulting the banks and private moneylenders (with petty outstanding dues) were hauled up and put behind the bars. Thousands of farmers in distress preferred to commit suicide rather than to face the humiliation that comes along with indebtedness. When recovery agents come and confiscate the land or take away the tractor of a defaulting farmer, for instance, he feels let down in the eyes of the fellow villagers. Farmer’s pride goes for a toss, and he prefers to die.
When I explained that defaulting farmers are put behind bars is because we follow a draconian law that continues from the days of the British Raj, Nitish Kumar was taken by surprise. I told him that between 1904 and 1912 the British had framed a Public Demand Recovery Act, under which farmers could be jailed for defaulting the State for a paltry sum. So much so that even the jail expenses were to be borne by the farmers. The next morning, he shot a letter to the chief ministers (since agriculture is a State subject) to repeal the obsolete law. But such was the callous apathy that none of the State governments even cared to respond to the letter.
With 81 per cent of the population involved in farming, Bihar’s future revolves around agriculture. While Bihar has attained self-sufficiency in food production and produces surplus of milk, the fact remains that the BIMRU State has a large proportion of population living in hunger and faced with abject poverty and malnutrition. The challenge therefore is on how to bring a synergy between agriculture and food security; on how to turn agriculture economically and ecologically sustainable in a manner that it does not lead to farmers committing suicide and at the same time provide food and nutrition for the masses. A healthy agriculture is also the first line of defence against naxalism.
Bihar therefore needs to discard the Green Revolution approach. It has to stop poisoning its soils, contaminating the water bodies and the environment and pushing more and more farmers out of agriculture. Bihar needs to shun the industrial model of farm growth, and build an ecologically sustainable farming model driven by a futuristic vision. Agriculture has to be re-designed and linked with its own traditional time-tested public distribution system – better known as gola – where the communities have been in control and have managed the food needs in a village. Moreover, instead of providing its surplus milk to Assam grid, Bihar should encourage milk intake by integrating animal husbandry with farming. Improving the local cattle breeds by cross-breeding those with some of the best domestic milch breeds like Gir and Kankrej, and providing an assured income to dairy farmers is a sure way to pull farmers out of agrarian distress.
Instead of chemical fertilisers, vermi-composting as a cottage industry has to be encouraged on a massive scale. This will restore soil health, increase crop productivity, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It will also generate more rural employment. Chemically pesticides need to be eliminated. Bihar can learn from the ‘Non-Pesticides Management’ system of agriculture from Andhra Pradesh. No chemical pesticides are applied in over 20 lakh hectares in Andhra Pradesh, and yet the crop yields are very high. Driven by its increasingly successful adoption by farmers, Andhra Pradesh plans to raise the area under no-pesticides agriculture to one-crore acres by the year 2014. If this can happen in Andhra Pradesh, there is no reason why Bihar cannot learn from its success.
Bihar cannot repeat the mistakes that relatively developed States like Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu had committed. Once the role model for the country, these States are now faced with sickness and may soon slip to the BIMARU status. Bihar can create history by showing a development path that is not only sustainable in the long-run but also brings prosperity and happiness to the masses. Nitish Kumar can surely create history by showing the world what true development means. And his time begins now.
“It was a rude awakening for me. I then realised that a high economic rate of growth is no indicator of human development." Mehbub-ul-Haq then gave me the memorable gem: “We were wrongly advised that we should take care of GDP and it will automatically take care of poverty. This is not correct. We need to take care of poverty and it will automatically take care of economic growth". This is exactly what Nitish Kumar did. And true to what Mehbub-ul-Haq had predicted, people of Bihar have voted him back to power. He invested in the people, and the people paid back.
A high growth rate of 11.5 per cent between 2004 and 2009 is not the reason why Nitish Kumar has been voted back. Restoring the right to freedom by demolishing the extortion industry was certainly the first step. Simultaneously he followed it up with various development initiatives, which mainline economists would wrongly classify as populist measures. Providing bicycles to school-going girls, and reserving 50 per cent seats for women in panchayats and local bodies was part of the social engineering that he undertook. With the foundations now well laid out, the challenge Nitish Kumar faces in his second term are not only formidable but if attempted in a more realistic and holistic manner can even chart out a new future for the country.
Unlike most other political leaders, I found Nitish Kumar to be more receptive and sensitive to the needs of the poor and marginalised. While the Bihar verdict amply demonstrates his willingness to improve the lot of the masses, I still recall the brief meeting when he asked me several years back as to what I thought was the major reason behind farmer suicides. I am talking of the year 2000-01 when he was for a short period the Union Agriculture Minister.
This was the time when farmers defaulting the banks and private moneylenders (with petty outstanding dues) were hauled up and put behind the bars. Thousands of farmers in distress preferred to commit suicide rather than to face the humiliation that comes along with indebtedness. When recovery agents come and confiscate the land or take away the tractor of a defaulting farmer, for instance, he feels let down in the eyes of the fellow villagers. Farmer’s pride goes for a toss, and he prefers to die.
When I explained that defaulting farmers are put behind bars is because we follow a draconian law that continues from the days of the British Raj, Nitish Kumar was taken by surprise. I told him that between 1904 and 1912 the British had framed a Public Demand Recovery Act, under which farmers could be jailed for defaulting the State for a paltry sum. So much so that even the jail expenses were to be borne by the farmers. The next morning, he shot a letter to the chief ministers (since agriculture is a State subject) to repeal the obsolete law. But such was the callous apathy that none of the State governments even cared to respond to the letter.
With 81 per cent of the population involved in farming, Bihar’s future revolves around agriculture. While Bihar has attained self-sufficiency in food production and produces surplus of milk, the fact remains that the BIMRU State has a large proportion of population living in hunger and faced with abject poverty and malnutrition. The challenge therefore is on how to bring a synergy between agriculture and food security; on how to turn agriculture economically and ecologically sustainable in a manner that it does not lead to farmers committing suicide and at the same time provide food and nutrition for the masses. A healthy agriculture is also the first line of defence against naxalism.
Bihar therefore needs to discard the Green Revolution approach. It has to stop poisoning its soils, contaminating the water bodies and the environment and pushing more and more farmers out of agriculture. Bihar needs to shun the industrial model of farm growth, and build an ecologically sustainable farming model driven by a futuristic vision. Agriculture has to be re-designed and linked with its own traditional time-tested public distribution system – better known as gola – where the communities have been in control and have managed the food needs in a village. Moreover, instead of providing its surplus milk to Assam grid, Bihar should encourage milk intake by integrating animal husbandry with farming. Improving the local cattle breeds by cross-breeding those with some of the best domestic milch breeds like Gir and Kankrej, and providing an assured income to dairy farmers is a sure way to pull farmers out of agrarian distress.
Instead of chemical fertilisers, vermi-composting as a cottage industry has to be encouraged on a massive scale. This will restore soil health, increase crop productivity, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It will also generate more rural employment. Chemically pesticides need to be eliminated. Bihar can learn from the ‘Non-Pesticides Management’ system of agriculture from Andhra Pradesh. No chemical pesticides are applied in over 20 lakh hectares in Andhra Pradesh, and yet the crop yields are very high. Driven by its increasingly successful adoption by farmers, Andhra Pradesh plans to raise the area under no-pesticides agriculture to one-crore acres by the year 2014. If this can happen in Andhra Pradesh, there is no reason why Bihar cannot learn from its success.
Bihar cannot repeat the mistakes that relatively developed States like Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu had committed. Once the role model for the country, these States are now faced with sickness and may soon slip to the BIMARU status. Bihar can create history by showing a development path that is not only sustainable in the long-run but also brings prosperity and happiness to the masses. Nitish Kumar can surely create history by showing the world what true development means. And his time begins now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)