The Other Silent Wheat Revolution in Punjab.

For several years now, I know for sure that my parents have been buying Madhya Pradesh wheat for home consumption. They normally would purchase wheat grains at the end of the harvest, stock it in a storage bin and get the monthly requirement milled at the local flour mill. Last week, my father was travelling and so he asked me to ensure that since we have run out of the stored grain stock I should buy wheat flour from the market in a day or so other wise we will have to depend upon rice for our daily meals.

I live in Mohali in Punjab.

The next day I went to the local flour mill. I asked the owner whether I would be able to get wheat atta from Madhya Pradesh wheat. The man at the counter nodded his head. I got a 10-Kg package priced at Rs 32/Kg, a lot higher than what I would have paid for the normal wheat. Atta from Punjab's wheat is sold at Rs 23/kg.

This wheat is not from the fields of Punjab, the food granary. The Sharbati variety comes from Madhya Pradesh.(Pic from web)

To get an idea as to what percentage of his customers were having a liking for MP wheat, I asked him if he could tell me if there are any more buyers for the expensive MP atta. He smiled, and replied: "Well, roughly 60 per cent of my customers buy MP atta from me. Also, a number of those who bring wheat grains for milling also carry MP wheat." I came back and thought of doing a random sample check. I asked a dozen of my neighbours and friends as to what kind of atta they consume at home. At least ten of them responded saying they were eating MP atta.

I don't have the statistics to tell you how much of wheat from Madhya Pradesh is being imported into Punjab, but what I know for sure is that traders are importing a large quantity of wheat at a much higher price -- anything between Rs 2,600 to Rs 3,100 per quintal. Local wheat from Punjab is available at Rs 1,400 per quintal. Besides, the local flour mills, MP wheat atta -- which is actually from a desi sharbati variety is being marketed by a number of companies

What makes the general preference for Madhya Pradesh wheat is that it is chemical free. According to a report in India Today (way back in Oct 15, 2007. http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/Grains+of+gold/1/1561.html) entitled Grains of Gold: "India's granary Punjab still produces the lion's share of the country's wheat. But when it comes to taste, quality and other attributes, Madhya Pradesh's Sharbati tops the charts in demand in the metros. The lustrous, golden-hued grain commands premium price, being re-christened golden or premium wheat in wholesale and retail markets of Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad or simply, MP wheat in major North Indian markets like Delhi.

Grown mainly in eight districts spread across three agro-climatic zones, the wheat has slowly carved a niche for itself because of its shine, big grain size and a reputation for its flour producing the tastiest rotis by far. And the formula has been perfected through a combination of traditional practices and some unique soil and climatic condition."

What about the wheat farmers? Don't they prefer the MP wheat? Do they not know that chemical fertilisers and pesticides are harmful for their health? Well, they have always known this. I remember when I was reporting for the Indian Express way back in the 1980s from Chandigarh, I had seen many Punjab farmers keeping a separate patch of land in one corner of their crop field for growing wheat for their home consumption. To this plot, they would not add any chemicals.   

Whatever the scientists might say, not only farmers, the common people too have begun the realise the importance of chemical free foods. With health problems accentuating in the recent past, the trend is increasingly towards safe food. Over the years, the preference and intake for non-chemical farm produce is growing, and growing at a phenomenal pace. Interestingly, not all of them are banking on organic certification. The wheat that is being imported from MP for instance comes with no certificate. It is only through goodwill and faith that people are willing to pay a higher price for what they are told is a better quality produce.

This brings me to a related question of grain wastage. Every year, we witness huge stocks of wheat lying in the open for want of storage. Much of it rots. A significant proportion of the stored grains are also rendered unfit for human consumption. Wouldn't it therefore make economic sense for the Punjab (and also for Haryana) governments to encourage farmers to grow wheat without chemicals to cater to the local needs in both the agriculturally frontline States? This will not only reduce the burden of storing monumental wheat stocks but also make the environment safe? At the same time, the reduction in health expenses alone for the people as a result of this shift in production systems and the accompanying thrust on encouraging safe food consumption would be too economical.

If Punjab government can provide a subsidy of Rs 4,000 per acre for the paddy farmers to shift to cotton cultivation, I wonder why a similar subsidy cannot be provided to wheat farmers to shift from chemical farming to non-chemical farming? This will have multiple advantages -- for the producers, consumers and for the environment. #

India's Wheat Story: Produce more, destroy more.

 

 Wheat grains being  cleaned in Punjab mandis

This has become a usual irritant. Every harvest season, there is no place to stock the fresh arrivals in Punjab and Haryana (and now in Madhya Pradesh, the new entrant in wheat production). With harvesting delayed by over a fortnight in Punjab because of freak weather conditions, it is still a depressing site to see heaps of wheat grain lying in the mandis.

Despite all the hue and cry for some years now over the failure to provide adequate storage capacity, news reports say that on April 1, although Punjab has a stored grain capacity of 14.3 million tonnes but space for 12.1 million tonnes was occupied by the previous year crop harvest. With nearly 14 million tonnes of wheat expected to be procured this year from Punjab alone, roughly about 70 per cent will have to be kept in the open.

Even the CAP storage -- covered and plinth -- wherein gunny bags are placed on a raised platform covered by a black tarpaulin, the total storage space available is 11.4 million tonnes out of which 4 million tonnes is presently occupied. We are all aware that foodgrains kept in CAP storage is prone to damage.

In neighbouring Haryana, wheat procurement is expected to be around 8.73 million tonnes. The actual procurement maybe a little less than the target envisaged because as per reports pouring in the villages along the Rajasthan border are selling wheat across the border to take advantage of a bonus that is being offered.

Well, if you thought the problem of storage is becoming acute this year, let me share with you the headlines of newspapers for the past three years. "Punjab, Haryana fall short of storage space for bumper wheat crop," screamed India Today (June 22, 2011). "Punjab, Haryana face problem of plenty' -- Times of India (May 3, 2012) and  in 2013 --" Huge wheat stocks at risk in Punjab, Haryana" Business Line (July 14, 2013).

But have we drawn any lessons from this callous neglect? How long can India afford to let foodgrains be damaged and become unsuitable for human consumption?

Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh has emerged as a major wheat producer. It expects to surpass the production levels achieved in Punjab. But again, the State faces a big hurdle when it comes to storage. It has a capacity to stock 11 million tonnes in both covered and CAP storage but like in Punjab much of the space is occupied by the previous year's crop.

Overall, India is expecting a lower procurement of about 25 million tonnes of wheat against the target of 31 million tonnes. This will however not pose any problems on the food availability front considering that the country has a comfortable food stock of 48 million tonnes of wheat and rice already stacked from the previous harvests.

2013 Assembly Elections: It's a Verdict Against Economic Policies.

Sonia Gandhi thinks that failure to stymied corruption and check rising inflation cost the Congress party dearly in the state elections. Media analysts opine that the dominant Narendra Modi factor resulting in a 4-0 tally for the BJP actually catapulted stock markets to rally high. Markets love strong and powerful leadership.

But there is more to the 2013 elections than what is being seen on the horizon. The dramatic turnaround by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to the electoral fortunes of the Congress in Delhi, and at the same time the decimation of the Congress in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and to some extent in Chhatisgarh shows that the verdict was not only against corruption and inflation, but was more or less aimed at the overall flawed economic policies that the UPA has been aggressively pursuing for nearly a decade now. Big ticket corruption and inflation were merely a symbol of the growing inequality and economic injustice that people were fed up with.

After the 2009 Lok Sabha election results poured in I remember media pundits talking of the maturity of the Indian voters. They ascribed the returning back to power of the UPA to the widespread appreciation that people have for the market-friendly economic policies. Soon after UPA-II was back in saddle, it shifted its focus back to the GDP-centric growth model. Instead of focusing on the human capital, social capital and on natural capital, the ruling party was gung-ho on financial capital and ruthlessly pushed for more market reforms, which in simple words means more privatization.

This resulted in a massive land grab across the country, and also usurping of the natural resources that impacted the livelihoods of millions of people in the rural areas. While rural India witnessed a thousand mutinies every week, with a significant proportion of the people being forcibly displaced from their meager land holding, their only economic security, those who sat on the TV channels mistakenly considered this as a small collateral damage in the path towards development and growth.

The ‘tyranny’ of the markets as Pope Francis now calls it, actually witnessed food, shelter and education going beyond the means of the aam aadmi. While more and more people were being pushed out of agriculture every passing day, growing unemployment and under- employment had pushed the poor to the wall. Rampant mining of resources in Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhatisgarh had made life miserable for the locals. Migrating to the cities, these millions were being systematically uprooted with slums being gradually being demolished. Pushed out of the villages, and then being driven out of the cities, what do you expect these people to do? They can only exercise their vote to express their anger.

While the media pundits went on repeating ad nauseam that a higher growth was necessary for providing more employment and removing poverty, the reality was just the opposite. Between 2005-2009, a Planning Commission sponsored study showed that when the growth was over 8 per cent per annum, more than 140 lakh people were driven out of agriculture; and an additional 53 lakh people had lost their job in the manufacturing sector. In other words, while the GDP was on an upswing, unemployment too was rapidly growing. Studies have shown when GDP was 3 per cent, employment in the organized sector grew at 2 per cent. But when GDP grew at 7 per cent and more, employment fell to 1 per cent. Let’s be therefore clear. India is staring at jobless growth.

The thrust to reduce mounting fiscal deficit to 4.8 per cent of the GDP also had pushed for flawed economic initiatives that hurt the aam aadmi most. Again, pushed for by the media pundits and corporate economists on the TV channels, the emphasis was on doing away with subsidies for the poor. Calling it a wasteful expenditure, these economists had relentlessly campaigned for doing away with subsidies on petrol, diesel, LPG and even on food security. Withdrawal of fuel subsidies had a cascading effect on market prices, which burnt a hole in the pockets. This was completely unwarranted, as I had been saying. The reason is simple. Instead of taxing the poor, the better option would have been to withdraw the tax concessions of Rs 5.73 lakh crore that were given to corporate Indian in the 2013-14 financial budget.  This alone could have wiped out the fiscal deficit thereby enabling the poor to escape the bolt of price hike.

In Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh, what made people vote back the BJP into power was simply because the governments had very systematically launched social security measures that benefitted various sections of the society reducing the killing impact of the market economy. For instance, Chhatisgarh had laid out a very effective and well-maintained food security system that had insulated the bottom of the pyramid from food shocks. Chief Minister Raman Singh had ensured that it worked. In Madhya Pradesh, I must say that Shivraj Singh Chauhan had for some years now seen the writing on the wall and shifted the focus to agriculture. He provided an additional bonus to farmers providing more income into their hands, which in turn catapulted the State to emerge second on the agriculture map of India.

There is more to be done if the BJP has to sustain the momentum. At the same time, let’s be very clear. Following the same flawed growth-centric economic model will not take the BJP far. People have voted for BJP for two reasons: one, they didn’t have any other alternative (except for Delhi) and secondly, the anger is against the unjust economic policies. If the party fails to read the widespread discontent that prevails, visible more through the anger and frustration against corruption and inflation, the aam aadmi now knows there is a political alternative on the horizon. The emergence of AAP clearly shows that the vote is for sensible economics that benefits larger section of the public.

The continuing loot of resources – natural, social and human – in the name of growth must stop. This is the strong underlying message.  People are no longer impressed with high GDP figures anymore. They want food for all, health for all and education for all.