By Dr. Gyan Pathak
Farmers have been demanding legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP), but the Centre has announced 7 new big schemes for farm sector worth Rs14,000 crore on September 2. Modi government said that the schemes intended for farmers welfare, but farmers have been saying that their well-being depend on the legally assured minimum price of their crops, which they have been traditionally compelled to sell on very low price, even at below their input cost.
Farmers want protection against this, but Modi government has been saying that farmers welfare can only be secured through the laws and policies they want to implement. Farmers reject them on the ground that government meant development of only agri-economy for business and corporate, while government says their schemes would boost farmers’ income. Farmers demanded legally assured MSP, but the Centre launched AgriSURE Fund on September 3. In brief, Modi government and the farmers are two poles apart – farmers focus on agriculture and remunerative price for their crops, but government focus is on agri-economy which boosts business and Corporate profitability.
Modi government has clearly neglected the agriculture and rural development, or how can we explain that both the departments don’t have even full time Union Cabinet Ministers? Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been assigned both the Union Ministries of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare as well as Rural Development. It shows the government’s low priorities for farmers’ and rural people’s real welfare. The allegation therefore prima-facie true that the Modi government is focusing chiefly on business and Corporate profitability in the name of economic development hoping that they would bring more investment and employment, in which they have been failing in the last decade. Conditions of farmers, rural people, and unemployment have been worsening day by day.
Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare and Rural Development, Shivraj Singh Chouhan launched the AgriSURE, which is an Agri Fund for Start-ups and Rural enterprises, which the government said is an innovative fund, a pioneering step towards revolutionizing the agriculture landscape in India. With a focus on technology-driven, high-risk, high-impact ventures, AgriSURE is designed, as per the government claim, to fuel growth and foster innovation in the agricultural and rural start-up ecosystem. A Blended capital fund of ₹750 crore with SEBI Registered Category II, Alternative Investment Fund (AIF), contributions from the Government of India is ₹250 crore, NABARD is ₹250 crore, and ₹250 crore is being mobilized from banks, insurance companies, and private investors.
In his keynote address, the Union Minister Chouhan said that the launch of the “AgriSURE Fund is a continuation of previous efforts of the government to ensure that every farmer in India has the technological support needed to thrive.”He further advocated that farmers’ prosperity will lead to a prosperous economy.
Modi government has always been emphasising on farmers’ prosperity but doing nothing substantial. Modi’s doubling farmers’ income by 2022 is a case in point which utterly failed because of government’s faulty policies and so-called farmers’ welfare schemes which contributed to huge profit of Corporate and businesses in agricultural produce and products, but failed the farmers. Government never listened to farmers, the very simple thing – that farmers should given guaranteed minimum price for their crops, that is MSP as per Swaminathan Committee report. For politics, Modi government conferred Bharat Ratna to MS Swaminathan, some months before Lok Sabha election 2024, when farmers were angry along with farmers’ leader Choudhary Charan Singh, but never cared for implementing Swaminathan report to eradicate farmers’ woes. It is a rank hypocrisy, in the name of welfare of farmers.
Only one day ago of the launch of AgriSURE, the Union Cabinet Committee chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved 7 new big schemes in the name of farmers’ welfare, worth Rs13,966 crore. It was purportedly to boost India’s agricultural sector, in the cabinet decision announced by Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. This decision of the Modi government has come only a week after the Centre had approved 12 industrial smart city projects worth Rs 28,602 crore. It seemed like a balancing act for many – the industry vs the agriculture sector, but they are only partially true, since the schemes launched in the name of the welfare of farmers better serve the agri-business interests that increasing the income of farmers. Had it not been so, why should government not assure minimum price to farmers taking account of the rising input costs?
Nevertheless, the 7 new big announcements for the agriculture sector schemes are: Crop Science for Food and Nutritional Security worth Rs 3,979 crore; Agriculture Education, Management worth Rs 2,291 crore; Digital Agriculture Mission worth Rs 2,817 crore; Sustainable Livestock Health and Production worth Rs 1,702 crore; Sustainable Development of Horticulture worth Rs 860 crore; Krishi Vigyan Kendra Management worth Rs 1,202 crore; and Natural Resource Management worth Rs 1,115 crore.
Digital Agriculture Mission is conceived as an umbrella scheme to support digital agriculture initiatives, such as creating Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), implementing the Digital General Crop Estimation Survey (DGCES), and taking up other IT initiatives by the Central Government, State Governments, and Academic and Research Institutions.
AgriStack, which has been conceived as farmer-centric DPI, will enable efficient, easier, and faster services and scheme delivery to farmers, the government has said. Farmers will be given a digital identity (Farmer ID) similar to Aadhaar, which will be a trusted ‘Kisan ki Pehchaan’. It is indeed a beautiful slogan, but much depends on how it will be implemented, and only thereafter farmers will known how much benefit it would bring to them. Nevertheless, Centre has said that the Mission will have a catalytic effect in creating both direct and indirect employment in agriculture sector.
It is a well-known fact that agriculture has been supporting even more unemployed, especially after COVID-19 crisis, as against the manufacturing or industry sector. Due to very low incomes, there was a migration from agriculture to other sectors of the economy, which reversed during 2020 lockdowns and economic halt in the urban and industrial areas. Millions of people never returned from the villages which further reduced the level of already low-income, and many employed in agriculture and rural sector are in fact unemployed in disguise. The newly announced schemes can certainly not eradicate this problem of very low-waged employment or unemployment in agriculture and rural sector, because the schemes are not focused on employment, but on something else, with employment as only a byproduct.
The newly announced schemes look good in themselves but the claim of the Modi government is false that these can secure farmers welfare, especially when the government is not even ready to give legally binding minimum price for the crops taking account the input cost as per Swaminathan recommendation, and the farmers’ demand. (IPA Service)
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