The pressure is on. And you have
heard about it repeatedly. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance
Minister P Chidambaram have time and again been saying what the World
Bank has been suggesting for quite some time: It is time to move 80 per
cent of the farmers out of agriculture.
While the prime minister says that it is time for a population shift,
Chidambaram has repeatedly said that the country needs only 20 per cent
farmers. This is what the World Bank had suggested some 20 years ago,
and even in its latest World Development Report 2008 it had called for
encouraging land rentals and training farmers in activities that
prepare them to undertake menial jobs in the ancillary industries. In
simple words, prepare the grounds for bringing in corporate sector in
agriculture.
Corporatisation of agriculture is not a new economic mantra. Ever since
economic liberalisation was unleashed in 1991, successive governments
have been pushing for corporate control over agriculture. Facilitating
the process has been a plethora of national policies - in agriculture,
seeds, APMC Act, food processing, food safety, biodiversity
conservation, biotechnology regulatory authority, genetic engineering
in farming, and water -- that have been suitably amended to lay
out a red carpet for the corporate sector.
The autonomous liberalisation comes at a time when internationally the
World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the Free trade Agreements (FTAs)
that are being signed at the drop of a hat, are all aimed at further
opening up the Indian farm sector turning it virtually into a dumping
yard for cheaper and subsidised agricultural imports. As if this is not
enough, the controversial Indo-US Knowledge Initiative in Agriculture
also brings the public sector research infrastructure directly under
the control of the US universities and the multinational corporations.
The fate of Indian agriculture is thereby sealed.
The argument is simple. Indian farmers have to be made economically
viable. Therefore what the country needs desperately is to bring in
economic policies that allow farmers to become competitive in a global
environment, and remove the state controls that have so assiduously
helped the country attain food self-sufficiency. Bringing farmers
directly in touch with the private companies will boost productivity,
remove middlemen, and thereby provide them with higher incomes.
Sops to industries Parroting this, the prime minister has justified the
need to have contract farming, encourage crop diversification,
dismantle food procurement systems, strengthen futures trading and
bring in food retail. All kinds of sops are being thrown in to lure the
industries to move into agriculture. Even the prevailing global food
crisis is being used to push in more trade liberalisation, and to
blindly promote genetically modified crops in the name of increasing
productivity.
Unfortunately, what is not being told is that none of these measures
have helped tide over the crisis in agriculture anywhere in the world.
Even in the US and the European Union, farmers have not benefited
directly from futures trading, and the invasion of food retail. And
that makes us wonder why is the government importing a failed model of
agriculture development? How will futures trading, food supermarkets
and the promotion of Second Green revolution help make farming
economically viable if it has failed to do so even in the rich and
developed countries?
Let me explain. In the US, which now has less than 1 per cent of the
population left in farming, futures trading is prevalent for quite some
time. Almost every farmer is linked to the commodity exchange. In fact,
the world’s biggest commodity exchange exists in the US in Chicago. At
the same time, world’s biggest supermarket dealing with food is also
the US-based multinational, Wal-Mart. If all these were working for the
benefit of the farmers you will agree there was no need to provide
farmers with direct income support. The reality is that despite
the existence of the agri-business model of farming that India is glued
onto, US farmers can only survive if they get federal support. No
wonder, the US provides close to US $ 75 billion in farm subsidies,
including direct income support to farmers, every year.
And let us not forget, the US farmers have been cultivating GM crops
for several years now and the crop yields have not gone up.
Productivity of GM corn and soybean has actually dropped. Why should
Indian farmers be loaded with such faulty technologies and flawed
market intervention instruments? How can the Indo-US knowledge
Initiative work wonders for the Indian farmers, with an average land
holding size of 1.3 hectares, when no MNC or US university has produced
any technology for such a small landholding?
In my understanding, these policies and programmes are all aimed at
forcing the farmers out of agriculture.
Coming along with a massive land acquisition drive whether in the name
of Special Economic Zones or for real estate or the IT sector, good and
fertile agricultural land is being bought over for non-agricultural
purposes. With fertile land being taken over by the industry and real
estate, and with the WTO knocking on the doors to allow flood of
cheaper imports, the dice is clearly loaded against the Indian farmer.
http://www.deccanherald.com/CONTENT/Jul62008/panorama2008070577188.asp
