The recent spell of agrarian troubles – erratic rainfall, drought, hyper-inflation – has indicated that agriculture is in trouble. But how deep does the rabbit hole go? I sat down with farmers’ leader Rakesh Tikait to understand what he thinks about the current agrarian crisis. And going further, how did he see the last ten years for agriculture?
It was around 8:30 pm when I got the chance to speak to Tikait. It had been a long day for him. And even before my questions began, Tikait told me, “Today I met a dairy farmer from the area. A company had made a contract with him, for his land. He did not get the rent or any such benefit, and now the company has put a case against him and is also putting pressure on him using the police. These incidents are becoming common all over rural India.” The tone for the interview was set.
And how were the last ten years for agriculture? “Even if go beyond ten years, earlier the land provided sustenance and people lived off the land. But then the market started to get bigger, along with inflation, but the our crop prices remained the same. Land prices also increased, while harvests’ got lesser incomes,” Tikait answered.
“The traders bought the land. And even today many farmers are selling away their land. This is a scheme to steal the farmers’ land. Does India want to become a labour country, because of disposed farmers? Will we follow the Brazil Model? Or will the US model will come to India? With big farms and labourers who go and work there?” Tikait asked.
At this point we broken into a conversation, at the end of which Tikait explained, “In 1977. wheat was Rs 76 per quintal and a primary level teacher’s salary was Rs 70 per month. In another way, one quintal wheat bought you 2,000 bricks. Just compare the prices now.”
He quickly followed up, “The primary teacher’s salary is Rs 60,000-70,000 now and the wheat rate is Rs 2,000. The same teacher can buy 25-30 quintal of wheat now, and the (wheat) production hasn’t increased so much. But the market value has increased and inflation is up, hence other professions get market-linked salary, but farmers are considered to be labourers. All governments have the same anti-farmer policy.”
Now Tikait mentioned “a scheme against farmers”, so I had asked him who is in charge of this? “Laws are being changed and fair crop prices won’t be given to farmers. If the agriculture sector is destroyed, can you get one year of grain from outside? Since Covid, farmers have kept the country up, yet your policy is pushing them down. The government wants to keep food prices low, but that doesn’t mean you have kill the farmers for it,” he said and in the same breath explained a potential solution.
“You can give farmers the benefits through other means, support in seeds and fertilisers, like the Telangana government gives Rs 10,000 per acre. The electricity and water is free too. They have given the farmers benefits and then the farmers sell the crops at market rate, keeping the price stable. Yet the farmer is not disadvantaged,” he added.
But in the current times, food inflation is an issue, so what should be done? Tikait answered, “We are not saying make the wheat rate Rs 10,000 per quintal – but you can support the farmers through other ways like medical insurance, free education to our children, etc. Right now the wealth gap is increasing very much. And we must try and decrease it.”
So what did he think of the Modi government? How has been their performance so far? “This is a government of traders, big houses control the government. They (the BJP) have captured the entire system and are now dividing the nation on communal lines only to get votes. Our Constitution is such that the party with maximum votes wins. In this democracy, constitutionally speaking, even a person from a village can be a high ranking politician. So (BJP) took advantage of this voting and by polarising people got control of the nation’s resources and now is selling them away,” he remarked.
This was a very serious statement. I wanted him to elaborate. He explained, “Whenever there is religion in politics, like they (BJP) have done, they are playing around with people’s emotion and capturing the system. In Pakistan also similar thing is happening. Religious leaders and the army have total control, they don’t even listen to the incumbent government.”
“They (BJP) don’t believe in any court or any election commission or any police rules. All the rules are non-existent to them. They don’t believe in the Constitution of the country. They just believe that its only them and there is no one else. If a BJP candidate loses, they have the power to change the result. No losing (non-BJP) candidate has gone to the EC and reapplied or has gone to court. BJP threatens everyone and controls everything,” he said.
So what happens with the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (umbrella body of farmers’ organisations) then, which is also facing an uphill task? Tikait said, “The government is trying to break the SKM and replace leaders with government-backed farmers’ organisations. Soon you will see the caste-based and communally aligned farmers’ organisations. People may be distracted, but SKM will continue its works,” he said.
To end matters on sugary note, I asked him about the sugar export ban and the state of sugar production, especially as Tikait comes from the sugar belt.
“Even now India can export sugar,” Tikait said and I cut him off, because the government is saying that there is less sugar available – the reason for the ban. “There is no shortage of sugar. There are godowns filled with sugar. Export should be allowed as farmers will get some extra money because of it. But the government doesn’t want that,” he said.
Indra Shekhar Singh is an independent agri-policy analyst and writer. He was the former director, policy and outreach, at NSAI. He also hosts The Wire’s agriculture talk show, Krishi ki baat/Farm Talks. He tweets @indrassingh.
