New Delhi: The farm loan waiver has been rejected by none other than Father of Green Revolution MS Swaminathan, who has opined that making farm loan waivers an agricultural policy should stop as it is not economically viable and will not help in stopping the agrarian crisis.
Crisis in agriculture is increasing day by day. Farmers are not given a reasonable price for their produce. But the politics of the land has made agricultural crisis a tool to win elections. It has become a winning mantra to the political parties. Last two years whichever party has promised farm loan waiver has won in elections, said MS Swaminathan in a conversation with the press.
MS Swaminathan in a conversation with press said “The agrarian crisis is an economic crisis. The monsoon and the market are two major determinants of the viability of small farmers. Political leaders should not promote economically non-viable policy just for electoral gains.”
The newly formed governments of Madhya Pradesh, Chattisghad and Rajasthan have announced farm loan waivers estimated to be between Rs 59,100 crores to Rs 62,100 crore. Farm loan waivers are no doubt populist measures meant to win favours and sentiment among the large voter base of farmers, they are also stressed on the state economy.
As lakhs of farmers descended on Delhi throughout 2018 to protest against the rising difficulties in farming, all of them had one demand in common: implementation of the MS Swaminathan report. The report says that every farmer must get minimum support price (MSP) for his crop which needs to be calculated by the “C2+50%” formula. This roughly translates into 1.5 times the cost of input.
MS Swaminathan also stresses the need to have a proper procurement policy for the agricultural produce as MSP will be effective only then. To have an integrated policy of pricing and procurement is the need of the hour.
The farmers are coming together as a political constituency; all the political parties will be going all out to appease farmers in the 2019 general elections. But will the government take the opportunity to put in place policies which improve the economic status of farmers and make farming an attractive occupation for young India is to be seen.
