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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Farmers are being punished to keep food prices low -Devinder Sharma

Farmers are being punished to keep food prices low -Devinder Sharma

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published Published on Jun 21, 2015   modified Modified on Jun 21, 2015
-ABP Live

Some days back the death of Surjit Singh, who had met Rahul Gandhi a few days before he committed suicide, once again brought the focus on the tragic but unresolved issue of farmer suicides. A few days after Surjit Singh consumed sulphos tablets, another 36-year-old farmer, Baljinder Das Bairagi from Sangrur, hanged himself from a ceiling fan. He carried an outstanding loan of Rs 7-lakh.

A survey done by three universities in Punjab had shown that in the 10-year period between 2000 and 2010, a total of 6,926 cases of farmer suicides were recorded, which averages 2 farmers taking their own lives each day. But the recent spurt in farm suicides, with 11 suicides reported alone from Sangrur district since April, will surely push this rate to a still more discomforting level. If this is the tragic situation in Punjab, the frontline agricultural State, imagine the agrarian distress all around.

Recall the death of Gajendra Singh who hanged himself before the TV cameras at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was forced to acknowledge that he is shattered and disappointed, and in a subsequent tweet wrote: “At no point must the hardworking farmer think he is alone. We are all together in creating a better tomorrow for the farmers of India.” While the Prime Minister feels concerned, I find a concerted effort being made to ensure that farmers do not receive an economic price for their produce.

Raghuram Rajan, Reserve Bank of India governor had while releasing the latest credit policy cautioned against raising MSP saying that this will once again increase inflation to 6 per cent or more. Earlier, the government had in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, made it abundantly clear that it cannot raise MSP because that would lead to market disruptions. On top of it, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) too wants India to dismantle the price support mechanism. This shows that all efforts re to keep the farmers marginalized.

Farm suicides have unfortunately failed to shake-up the callous and indifferent policy planning, and at the same time failed miserably to make agricultural scientists and economists think afresh. Agricultural Universities across the country have continued to emphasise on increasing crop productivity as the solution to the continuing agrarian crisis.  The answer however does not lie in raising crop productivity as much as in providing a remunerative and assured monthly income to farmers.

I have repeatedly been saying that the primary and the most significant reason behind the continuing farmer suicides over the past two decades are the declining farm incomes. While all sectors will continue to get a salary hike, farmers are being deprived of an economic price. They are being deliberately kept impoverished. None of the 53 Expert Committees that have been constituted at the national and the regional levels to look into reasons behind the agrarian distress and farmer suicides has come anywhere near in admitting that the primary reason for farer suicides is the deliberate policy to keep farm incomes at the starvation level.

Delivering a talk on “Why are farmers committing suicide?” at the Panjab University the other day I made a simple illustration. In 1970, the MSP for wheat was Rs 76 per quintal. Forty five years later, in 2015, wheat procurement price is Rs 1450 per quintal. In other words, in 45 years, wheat price has been raised by approximately 19 times.

In the same period, the average salary of central government employees has risen by 110 to 120 times; of school teachers by 280 to 320 times; of college/university teachers by 150 to 170 times; and of mid to high class corporate sector employees by 350 to 1000 times. I am sure if the university teachers/professors had their salaries still fixed at the pre-5 Pay Commission levels, many would have committed suicide by now. Farmer therefore is bearing the burden of keeping food prices low. He is being penalized for growing food. Unless this grave historic injustice is corrected, I see no end to farmer suicides. 

ABP Live, 18 June, 2015, http://www.abplive.in/author/devindersharma/2015/06/18/article623040.ece/Farmers-are-being-punished-to-keep-food-prices-low?fb_ref=Default


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