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Green Paper on Farmers, Farming & Rural Economy 2018: 4 Years - 4 Budgets: What Has This Central Government Delivered?

According to the document entitled Green Paper on Farmers, Farming & Rural Economy 2018: 4 Years - 4 Budgets: What Has This Central Government Delivered?, which has been prepared by Jai Kishan Andolan, Swaraj India, ASHA and Rythu Swarajya Vedika (published on 30 January, 2018):

Far from giving farmers and farming ‘the highest priority’ during a period when they most needed the governmental support, the present NDA government has tried to take away whatever little support different sections of farmers had. The most acute crisis in the farm sector was met by silence and indifference. Budgetary and other announcements were turned into nothing except grand standing, with little action or money to back up these announcements. Dressed up, ineffective schemes were used to garner publicity. Faced with the inevitable failure to meet its own targets and promises, this government shifted goalpost and covered its failure with propaganda. The only time this government showed political will and determination on the farm sector, it was about snatching away the meagre assets and livelihood opportunities of the farmers.

The following acts of omission and commission of this government since 2014 make this undoubtedly the most anti-farmer central government in the history of independent India:

1. The government reneged on its core and solemn promise of revising MSP on the cost plus 50% formula, by solemnly affirming in the Supreme Court that this formula suggested by the National Farmers’ Commission and also promised by the BJP Election Manifesto, as unworkable;

2. Far from enhancing the MSP to the level it had promised, this government actually brought down the routine annual increment in MSP to a level lower than the previous UPA regime which it rightly criticised for not addressing the farm crisis;

3. One of the first acts of this government was to try to stop the existing practice by the state governments of offering state-specific bonus on select crops to supplement the centrally announced MSP;

4. Faced with two consecutive droughts in the first two years of its tenure, the government failed to even match the drought relief effort in 2009-10; it did little except a routine raise in compensation amount and revising the eligibility cap, while trying to shrug off its responsibility in the Supreme Court;

5. In 2015, this government made repeated attempts to dilute the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 and take away some benefits accorded to the farmers after 120 years of enduring the British-era Land Acquisition Act; when it did not succeed in getting parliamentary approval, the government has effectively stalled the implementation of this Act and has encouraged the state governments to bypass it;

6. This government has systematically diluted different environmental laws that were protecting adivasis farm livelihoods where a continuum of forest-agriculture-culture-community exists, thus stripping the most vulnerable farmers from their hard-earned protection;

7. Initially, this government made a determined bid to dismantle Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme; when the attempt was foiled by public opinion and the Supreme Court, the government has choked the programme of adequate and timely funds and reneged on its legal commitment to provide timely wages and compensation for delayed payments;

8. Beginning with imposition of Minimum Export Price on potatoes in 2014, this government has consistently followed anti-farmer trade policies – exports were not allowed despite good harvest and large-scale imports that led to crash in domestic prices were permitted repeatedly;

9. Far from increasing public investment in agriculture, this government did not even maintain the existing levels; instead, the burden of expenditure has been passed on to state governments leading to an overall decline in public expenditure in agriculture in GDP terms;

10. The government’s ill-advised and shoddily implemented policy of demonetisation dealt a severe blow to the farmers who were recovering from double-drought, bringing the prices crashing down;

11. The Central government has shifted the debt relief burden to state governments which are doing a shoddy job of loan waivers announced. This, despite the fact that much of the agrarian crisis can be attributed to Union Government’s policies.

12. The government’s crude attempts to regulate livestock markets for the sake of unstated agendas, in the name of prevention of cruelty to animals, would have dealt a severe blow to livestock farmers in the country.

Please click here to access the full document.