JOIN USThe six-day, 180-km "long march" by thousands of farmers and tribals of Maharashtra from Nashik to Mumbai recently symbolised, as few other recent events have, the distress and the stark conditions in villages and far off forest areas not only in that state but in other parts of the country, too. There were protests and agitations by farmers last year in Ahmednagar in Maharashtra, Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh and Sikar in Rajasthan. Last week's march attracted special attention because most of the marchers were the poorest even among farmers, many were landless, and others were tribals whose lives are even worse. It was a rag-tag crowd, and many barefooted and blistered, walking under the scorching sun but peaceful and well behaved. It is not surprising that they evoked sympathy and understanding from the people of the cities they passed through and, indeed, of the whole nation.
The march showed that the agrarian crisis in the country is deepening and the governments at the Centre and in the states have not kept their promises to farmers. The Modi government has promised to double farmers' incomes by 2022, but their incomes have actually fallen since he took office. The government also promised higher prices for farm produce, but this will not help the farmers, given the complicated state of agricultural marketing involving middlemen and money lenders. Farmers' suicides have not abated. Agricultural growth has declined but farmers' plight is much worse than what the percentage fall in growth shows. The loan waiver schemes announced by some governments have not worked. They are not the right remedy for farmers' indebtedness. The Maharashtra government has accepted all the demands made by the farmers who came to Mumbai but has sought time to implement some of the assurances.
The government has promised land titles to the landless and implementation of the Forest Rights Act of 2006 to protect the interests of tribals. It has also promised implementation of the Swaminathan formula, which guarantees a 50% return over farm production costs while calculating minimum support prices. But there is confusion over how to calculate production costs. The problems and the solutions are, however, not special to Maharashtra. The Centre and other states should also take more effective steps to address farmers' problems. There is urgent need for reforms to liberalise the agricultural sector which is caught in vicious cycles of price control and inflation, subsidies and price controls and procurement for food security and income insecurity of the farmers. Only a coherent and comprehensive policy that goes beyond meeting individual demands will help the farmers in the long run.