Battling the “anti-farmer government” narrative being aggressively pushed by the Opposition spectrum ahead of polls in seven states, the Modi government and BJP are making a sustained bid to reach out to farmers after having withdrawn a fortnight ago the three contentious farm laws that had led to a year-long agitation at Delhi borders.
Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to farmers at the valedictory session of the National Summit on Agro and Food Processing in his home state of Gujarat on December 16, the Centre issued a statement elaborating how “the government has been driven by the Prime Minister's vision for farmer welfare” and pitched for making natural farming a mass movement.
On Monday, Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Agrawal said that a committee on the minimum support price (MSP) and other farm issues, including the promotion of zero budget natural farming, will be set up soon.
Reaching out to the farmers in eastern UP, Modi inaugurated the Saryu canal national project on December 11. Not missing the opportunity, the BJP launched a huge campaign on social media around the step which is expected to give a fillip to agriculture activities in nine districts of eastern UP.
“Merely repealing the contentious farm laws won’t do. Substantial damage has already been done and hence, the BJP and the government have to go in some sort of overdrive to mollify the farmers and do it fast with just nearly three months left for the polls,” political analyst Rasheed Kidwai said.
The Opposition has kept the heat on the government on farm issues even after farmers suspended their 378-day protest at Delhi borders on December 11, nearly two weeks after the government passed a law on November 29, the first day of the Winter Session of the Parliament to repeal the three contentious laws.
Earlier, on November 19, PM Modi had announced withdrawing the farm laws without any warning.
The farmers' protest is believed to have substantially affected the BJP’s support base in the western part of poll-bound Uttar Pradesh where the Jat party, Rashtriya Lok Dal, has aligned with the main Opposition party, Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party. In western UP, BJP had won 106 of 136 Assembly seats and a good show in the sugarcane belt is key to the BJP’s victory in the state.
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“Government has initiated several measures to transform agriculture and increase farmers’ income. Efforts are under way to promote and support initiatives leading to sustainability of the system, cost reduction, market access and better value realisation to farmers,” the government said Tuesday, linking it with the summit that focuses on natural farming and is being attended by over 5,000 farmers.
It promised that farmers will be provided with requisite information detailing the benefits of adopting natural farming methods and stressed the government has been committed to ensuring an increase in productivity, so that farmers are able to maximise their agri-potential.
In the summit that began on Tuesday, the Centre emphasised that zero-budget natural farming is a promising tool to minimise the dependence of farmers on purchased inputs, and reduces the cost of agriculture by relying on traditional field-based technologies, which lead to improved soil health.
The Agriculture Ministry in a statement highlighted the steps taken by the government to increase the participation of women in farming.
“Under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY- NRLM), about 38 lakh women farmers have been trained under Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP). The learning of the interventions under MKSP has been expanded to various parts of the country under the Annual Action Plans of States/UTs,” an official statement said.
The government claimed that a total of around 1.44 crore women farmers have been covered under DAY-NRLM so far.
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