Can Karnataka save its farmers?

The JD(S) made a blanket promise in its election manifesto to waive all farm loans, amounting to more than Rs 50,000 crore. It remains to be seen how much of the promise they will be able to keep.

Across the country, farmers, the silent sufferers, have decided not to remain quiescent anymore and are demanding that governments pay attention to their crisis. Their key demands have been a complete loan waiver, remunerative prices through implementation of the Swaminathan Commission recommendations, compensation for crop failure and pensions for farmers. But what have been the reactions of the governments to this massive upsurge of our ‘Annadatas’? It has been tantamount to biting the hand that feeds us.

Farmers from Tamil Nadu made headlines in March 2017 with their unique method of protests in New Delhi. They ran naked near the PM’s office, held skulls — supposedly of farmers who had committed suicide —
and reportedly even drank urine and ate their own excreta to draw the attention of an uncaring government. But, the result? Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had promised to waive farmers’ loans and double their income in the BJP manifesto, did not deign to even meet them.

In June 2017, farmers in Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh held a 10-day protest demanding better prices for their produce. Result? Six protesting farmers were shot dead. BJP chief Amit Shah reportedly claimed that no government can meet the Swaminathan formula for calculating the cost of production.

Around 15,000 farmers took part in a ‘mahapadav’ (mass sit-in) for 13 days in Sikar district of Rajasthan in June 2017 and took out a mock funeral procession of the Vasundhara Raje government. The state government had agreed to form a high-level
committee to look into their demands, but farmers felt betrayed when the government waived up to Rs 50,000 only for small
and marginal farmers on loans taken from cooperative banks.

In March 2018, 40,000 peasants and labourers took out a historic 180 km week-long march from Nashik to Mumbai. Their desperation was evidenced by the fact that the soles of the feet of one woman, who had walked the entire distance barefoot, had got detached, like those of a worn-out chappal!

The government in Maharashtra labelled the marchers as “urban Maoists and Naxals” with whom it would not talk. However, the Maharashtra chief minister later met the farmers and announced a Rs 34,022-crore loan waiver scheme. But farmers felt cheated as many of their demands remained unresolved.

To mark the first anniversary of the firing on farmers in MP, and to protest against the poor treatment being meted out to them, farmers in 22 states announced a 10-day long ‘Gaon Bandh’ (village shutdown) from in June. They shut down their villages, stayed away from wholesale markets and dumped vegetables, milk and other farm produce on roads and blocked supplies in several states. But, will they be heard?

Benefits for the rich

Most governments announce some waivers of loans from government and cooperative banks. But experts point out that this mainly benefits the rich farmers. It leaves out the majority of small and marginal farmers owning less than two hectares of lands, who take loans from local money lenders. It is mostly these farmers who are indebted and are committing suicide.

To reach this section of farmers, experts recommend copying Kerala’s Farmers’ Debt Relief Commission Act of 2006, which provides a model to address even small farmers’ indebtedness. The commission fixes a fair rate of interest and an appropriate level of debt it considers just and reasonable to be paid by a farmer declared as distress-affected. It also fixes fair prices for their products.

The need to go beyond one-time loan waivers and find ways to make farming itself viable is being increasingly recognised. If Dr Kurien could cooperatise all milk producers, ensure them fixed remunerative prices and build brand ‘Amul’ for their value-added products, the need of the hour is to do the same for farmers growing food crops.

Initiatives, such as the one by the Centre for Collective Development (CCD), founded by Prof Trilochan Sastry of IIM-B, are showing the way. In 2005, farmers from Gunipalli in Andhra were looking for ways to overcome their problems. CCD helped them set up cooperatives which pool and sell their produce and get them fair market price by avoiding middlemen and establishing direct marketing links to buyers. Federations of the village-level cooperatives have been set up to voice farmers’ problems at district level.

Ramana Reddy of Satya Sai Rythu Samakhya in Anantpur says that the federation of 13,000 members is now self-sufficient for funds, does not take loans and, in fact, gives out a bonus to its members. He is proud that the federation has its own mill to shell and grade groundnuts, their chief crop. ‘

Farmveda’ is the brand name given to the value-added products being made from farmers’ produce, on the lines of Amul. All profits go directly to the farmers. Can Karnataka emulate this to save its farmers?

(The writer is Executive Trustee, CIVIC Bengaluru)