Farmers Movement Archive

Farm laws stir: At Maharashtra’s Vidarbha, farmers wary of private traders

The Vidarbha region has been in the news for ignominious reasons for decades. The region’s farmers, predominantly cotton growers, have remained in distress, and many of them have been driven to commit suicide, essentially due to non-remunerative income for their produce. But the locals in the epicentre of country’s farmer suicides are completely oblivious to the provisions of the new farm laws which have triggered massive protests in the national Capital for over two months. Dabhadi in crisis-ridden Yavatmal district is one such typical dry land village where 18 farmers have committed suicide in the past few years after being unable to bear the perils of perennial losses either due to the vagaries of nature, pricing or policy paradigms. Dabhadi hit the headlines in the run-up to the parliamentary elections in 2014 when Narendra Modi, then the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Prime Ministerial candidate, held ‘Chai Pe Charcha’, a nationally televised conversation with farmers. Promises made during the election campaign remained unfulfilled, villagers said. The situation in the village has not changed a bit, though farmers are receiving the dole of Rs6,000 per year, under the Modi government scheme started in 2019. “Modi had promised us so many things…better prices for our produce, facilities for value addition of crops, efficient crop insurance, among others. But the promises remained hollow as none of them materialised,” said 80-year-old Rajeshwar Dabhodkar, a former panchayat samiti member who was present at the Chai Pe Charcha event with Modi on March 20, 2014, at his village. Former sarpanch Santosh Take, who had interacted with Modi during the event, said that situation is just a shade better, but grossly unsatisfactory. He insisted that farmers must get remunerative prices for their produce. “We have both the open market and mandi but farmers hardly get the MSP (minimum support price) as private parties purchase the produce from the needy farmers at throwaway prices before the government comes out with MSP. This must stop,” he said. Pushpa Ingle, a newly elected gram panchayat member from Dabhadi village appreciated PM for transferring Rs6,000 annually to her husband’s account. But she believes that Modi did not keep the promises made during the Chai Pe Charcha event. Though the farmers of the region are not agitating as fiercely as their counterparts from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, they claim to be equally unhappy with the government over the prevailing prices of agriculture produce in the market, the approach of the banks and the government’s attitude in the event of a natural calamity. Ingle pointed out that Modi had in 2014 promised that if elected, his government would function as “kisan mitra (a friend of farmers)”, and that agriculture would be a priority sector, where farmers would feel proud to be in the profession. “But the situation in the villages is rife with suffering, anguish and misery. No one in the village is proud to be a farmer. In fact farmers find it difficult to get a bride,” said Ingle. He, along with all other 10 gram panchayat members of Dabhadi, have a Congress leaning and were elected last month by defeating BJP-supported candidates. But Ingle, Dabhodkar, Take and other farmers also admit that they have no idea about the three new farm laws which are being contested by the Opposition parties and the protesting farmers in Delhi. One reason being that the farmers at Dabhadi are so neck-deep worried about earning a living that they feel the new contentious farm laws are not worth their attention. This is perhaps the reason that Vidarbha has not so far witnessed any farmers’ agitation over the farm laws despite the fact that farmers continue to end their lives amid agrarian crisis. The Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti floated by Kishore Tiwari, the chairman of state-run Agriculture Mission, which has been documenting farmers’ suicide since 2002, claimed that as many as 12 farmers have killed themselves in the region since January, while the figure was 278 last year. Former Shetkari Sanghatana chief Vijay Jawandhia from Wardha, who was once vocal against the Congress’s agriculture policies, is today a disillusioned man on Modi’s agriculture policy. His disappointment stems from what he terms as “unfulfilled” promises made by PM to the region’s farmers ahead of the 2014 elections. Now that the Modi government is into its second term, farmers are still doubtful of any meaningful and visible changes in their lives. The uproar over the new agriculture laws has only emboldened their doubt, said Jawandhia. Farmers get a raw deal from the government for the rising input costs that they face and the wildly fluctuating prices they receive for their produce. Jawandhia believes farmers’ incomes in real terms have remained stagnant or even declined in several years. A dole of a few thousand rupees a year does not make much of a difference if one takes into account factors such as inflation, he said, while justifying the agitation in Delhi for repealing the farm laws. Farmers from Punjab and Haryana are now in a grinding standoff with the Modi government, demanding calling for the repeal of the three laws. One of the biggest changes in the laws is that farmers will be allowed to sell their produce at market price directly to private players – agricultural businesses, supermarket chains and online grocers. Most Indian farmers currently sell a majority of their produce at government-controlled wholesale markets or mandis at assured floor prices. The reforms give farmers the option of selling outside the mandi system. Farmers at Vidarbha are mainly concerned that this will eventually lead to the end of wholesale markets and guaranteed prices, leaving them with no backup. If they are not satisfied with the price offered by a private buyer, they cannot return to the mandi or use it as a bargaining chip during negotiations, said Jawandhia, adding that the contentious reforms will loosen rules around the sale, pricing and storage of farm produce, which have protected India’s farmers from an unfettered free market for decades.Meanwhile Tiwari, a staunch Shiv Sena supporter, said he was in favour of the reforms. “In Maharashtra and particularly at Vidarbha, we have private mandis and farmers are being allowed to sell outside. But are they getting the remunerative prices for their produce?” he asked and insisted on a law for minimum guarantee price. He pointed out that Modi had promised that his government would ensure that it was always with farmers in every situation, provide quality seeds, fertilizers, crop credits, and crop insurance and formulate a progressive agriculture policy for the overall development of farmers during the Chai Pe Charcha event at Yavatmal. But in reality, farmers hardly got anything, he alleged. Tiwari says the banks are not farmers’ friendly. Over 40% of farmers from the region do not get crop loans from the banks on technical grounds and hence, they get trapped by moneylenders, agriculture traders and the mushrooming micro-finance institutions who charge exorbitant rates of interest. Unsurprisingly, for a large number of farmers, incomes are dwindling, he said and claimed that farmers end their lives because of the agricultural crisis in the region. The working president of Maharashtra Congress and former minister Shivajirao Moghe also said batted for a law on MSP, so that farmers have a sense of security instead of treading with trepidation about fetching remunerative prices for their produce. He also feels that there would be a monopoly on essential commodities, particularly on rice, wheat and pulses if the government allows corporate farming in the country. “The partial corporate farming and private trading of agriculture produce in Maharashtra totally failed and hence, the government should refrain from making a law in this regard,” he said, and announced that his party would , soon launch a massive agitation across the state against the new farm laws.

Hindustan Times

18-02-2021

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