Page 72 - March EW PDF 24

Special Report

of them in the media is of wisened Farmers' latest demands
turbaned ryots supplicating urbanised
political leaders for hand-outs. he headline demand in the farm-
Urban liberals and lefties in par- Ters’ 12-point agenda is for a law
ticular, never tire of highlighting that to guarantee minimum support price
leaders of the current and former (MSP) for all crops, and determination
farmer agitations are ‘rich’ farmers, of crop prices in accordance with the
recipients of free electricity plus wa- Dr. M.S. Swaminathan Commission’s
ter and fertiliser at subsidised prices. report which calculated agri-produce
Yet the reality is that rich farmers are prices by adding all input costs plus
wealthy only when compared with farmers’ labour. The other demands
other farmers living in sub-standard are:
housing and struggling to put two 1. Full debt waiver for farmers and
square meals on the table. Accord- farm labour
ing to Anil Thakore, a graduate of 2. Implementation of the Land Acqui-
the Royal College of Agriculture, Ci- sition Act of 2013, with provisions for
rencester, UK and College of Tropical written consent from farmers before
Agriculture, University of West Indies, Sharad Joshi: single point agenda acquisition, and compensation at four
a rural rich farmer “cannot attain the times the collector rate
standard of living of a senior govern- zilla of Nashik district in the heart 3. Punishment for the perpetrators of
ment clerk”. of Maharashtra’s onion production the October 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri
A FTER GRADUATION, Tha- labour, Joshi founded the Shetkari 4. India should withdraw from the
killings
belt. After several years of fruitless
World Trade Organisation (WTO) and
kore returned to farm in
Sanghatana, a farmers’ movement
India. He purchased and
managed a 20-acre dairy with a single-point agenda — remu- freeze all free trade agreements
nerative prices for farm produce. An
5. Pensions for farmers and farm la-
and horticulture farm in Hesarghatta, economist fluent in three languages bour
20 km from Bangalore. “Despite ex- who had studied agriculture econom- 6. Compensation for farmers who
cellent yields, it was impossible to get ics while serving the UN, Joshi was died during the Delhi protest, includ-
above cost-of-production prices in the first farmers’ leader to articulate ing a job for one family member
the Bangalore market. All agriculture the India vs. Bharat divide and expose 7. Electricity Amendment Bill 2020
produce had to be compulsorily auc- “systematic exploitation of India’s ru- should be scrapped
tioned in government APMC (Agricul- ral majority”. 8. 200 (instead of 100) days’ employ-
ture Produce Marketing Commission) According to Joshi, suppressed ment under MGNREGA per year, daily
yards, where rock-bottom prices were prices for farm produce are inher- wage of Rs.700, and scheme should
rigged by a cartel of wholesalers. Sell- ent in the centrally planned Soviet- be linked with farming
ing directly to retailers was very ex- inspired heavy-industry development 9. Strict penalties and fines on com-
pensive because of high petrol/diesel model which necessitates low farm panies producing fake seeds, pesti-
prices. Moreover, there was always a produce prices to provide cheap food cides, fertilisers improvement
setback of either low rainfall or pest for the urban proletariat. Joshi was
attacks and produce theft. Crop in- perhaps the first peasants leader to
surance was difficult and expensive,” highlight the official policy of prohib- But Joshi paid a heavy price for
recalls Thakore, who after a decade of iting exports of cotton, pulses, onions moving from the comforts of New
“back-breaking effort” quit farming and other agriculture produce when York to Chakan village. His wife died
to establish a successful agriculture prices rise and dampening high do- by suicide and after over a decade
machinery manufacturing enterprise. mestic prices by resorting to imports of struggle for remunerative prices
“Profitable farming is impossible in to prevent farmers reaping windfalls. for farm produce, Joshi threw in the
India without MSP calculated at above In particular, through several highly towel, was co-opted into the estab-
input costs,” he says. successful mass farmers’ agitations, lishment by the Rajiv Gandhi govern-
This assertion was vigorously en- the Shetkari Sanghatana was suc- ment and appointed chairman of the
dorsed by Sharad Joshi (1935-2015) cessful in securing minimum support toothless Delhi-based Commission for
who resigned a senior position with prices for cotton and onion producers Agriculture Costs and Prices (CACP).
the United Nations in the early 1980s in Maharashtra from NAFED (Nation- In December 2015, Joshi (whom
and returned to India to cultivate an al Agriculture Cooperative Marketing your correspondent featured in a In-
inherited 40-acre farm in Chakan Federation). dia vs. Bharat cover story in Business-

72 EDUCATIONWORLD MARCH 2024