Guarantee : Neither purchase, nor support price, nor distribution
This time again the farmers of Haryana and Punjab are worried and distressed. The central government has announced the minimum support price for Rabi crops, with the claim that the declared price is more than one and a half times the cost. But it is silent on the question whether this support price is based on C-2 cost or A-2+FL cost. The farmers know that the Modi government is refusing to give them the C-2 cost based support price, for which they have been continuously agitating for the last 4 years. The minimum support price announced by the government is not only not profitable, but it is not even covering the cost of taking the grain to the market.
The procurement process has been in trouble since the beginning of the season. FCI is panting that it does not have space to store the grain, so where will it store after purchasing it! And why is there no space? Because last year the central government did not lift grain from the godowns for the states and even after this, the godowns that were empty were rented out by FCI to Adani and Ambani. The central government has already abolished the Central Warehousing Corporation, due to which there has been a massive reduction in storage facilities in the public sector. In fact, today private grain players have relatively more storage facilities.
There is indeed merit in the allegation that the Modi government wants to gradually and unofficially get rid of both the process of procurement of grains from farmers and its distribution to its citizens through ration shops. This is very clear from the budget allocation. In the last two years alone, fertilizer subsidy has been cut by Rs. 87,339 crore and food subsidy by Rs. 67,552 crore. In the year 2022-23, food subsidy was kept at Rs 2,72,802 crore and in the budget for the year 2024-25, it has been kept even less, Rs 2,05,250 crore. Similarly, the allocation for fertilizer subsidy for the year 2022-23 of Rs 2,51,339 crore has been reduced to Rs 1,64,000 crore in the year 2024-25. The amount allocated in the budget for these items is not even spent.
The impact of reduction in budget allocation for fertilizer and food subsidy is evident. Reduction in fertilizer subsidy increases the cost of agricultural production, but this increased cost is not compensated by the increase in minimum support price. As a result, farming is becoming a loss-making deal, farmers are getting trapped in the web of debt and are being forced to commit suicide to protect their honour. This is a major reason for the number of farmer suicides increasing by one and a half times in the one decade rule of Modi government.
Due to reduction in food subsidy, poor consumers are deprived of cheap food grains, their dependence on the market increases the cost of subsistence and ultimately they become victims of malnutrition. In India, a person needs a minimum of 2200 calories in rural areas and a minimum of 2100 calories in urban areas to stay healthy. But today this nutrition diet is not available to 80% of the people in rural areas and two-thirds of the people in urban areas. Due to the decline in nutrition diet, today half the children in the country are dwarf and underweight and two-thirds of women and children are victims of anemia. This is the reason why India is ranked 111th in the Global Hunger Index.
The only way to deal with the growing agrarian crisis and increasing hunger in the country is for the Modi government to refuse to follow the instructions of the World Bank and the World Trade Organization, due to which it is cutting food and fertilizer subsidies, refusing to buy grain from farmers at a profitable price and giving it to the poor people at cheap rates through ration shops. Overall, it will have to break away from those neo-liberal and pro-corporate policies that want to leave the people of our country at the mercy of the market and want to end the food grain self-sufficiency of the country.
It is worth noting here that thousands of varieties of crops are produced in our country, but only 23 crops (7 cereals, 5 pulses, 7 oilseeds and 4 cash crops) are declared as MSPs and are procured by the government. Thus, 70% of the total production comes to the market and only 10% of it is procured by the government at the MSP. The farmer is forced to sell 90% of his crop to middlemen and often gets only 50-70% of the declared MSP. Due to selling their crop at low prices, farmers suffer a loss of 15-20 lakh crore rupees every year. Loss of farmers means profit of grain crocodiles.
Agricultural produce markets were created to facilitate farmers to sell their crops at a profitable price, with the objective that the farmers’ crops would not be purchased here at less than the declared support price. But now there is no such market in the country where this is guaranteed. After the compulsion of grain traders to buy only from the mandis was abolished, these mandis have now become sick. Adani has now emerged as a big corporate trader of grain, who is buying the grain of farmers at throwaway prices and storing it in godowns rented from FCI or in his silos (which he has built in Ludhiana district and Amritsar district in Kaithunangal of Moga of Punjab state).
In the year 2023, the Modi government had set a target of purchasing 4.44 crore tons of wheat, but it purchased only 2.6 crore tons. Similarly, the domestic consumption of rice in the country is more than 10 crore tons, but it purchased only 4.63 crore tons. Thus, the Modi government is indirectly helping Adani by being lax in purchasing wheat and paddy from the farmers of the country including Punjab and Haryana.
The people dependent on the public distribution system have to bear the brunt of low food grain procurement and a huge cut in the food grain subsidy in the budget. Now the undeclared policy of the Modi government is to push the poor people to the market for food grain procurement. For this, it is taking various measures. The universal distribution system has already been abolished by dividing the ration system into APL and BPL. Now ration shops are not being allocated enough food grains, due to which the needy are not getting food grains on time. Now gradually ration cards are being linked to the direct transfer system (DBT). Instead of giving ration to the consumers, some amount is being deposited in their bank accounts so that they can buy food grains from the market. But this amount is not sufficient so that they can face the fluctuations of the market. So far 32 lakh ration cards have been linked to this system in Maharashtra and experience shows that as soon as these people enter the market, the prices of food grains have increased further, which has worsened the situation of malnutrition. Karnataka faced a severe drought, but the Modi government did not meet the state government’s demand for rice, while the grain lying in the godowns continued to rot. This is an inhuman policy that prioritizes corporate profits over human life.
In this context, the successful struggle of the common people of Pondicherry under the leadership of the left on the demand of reopening of ration shops is noteworthy. Pondicherry is a union territory with a population of 16 lakh, half of whose population lives below the poverty line. Here, all 515 ration shops were closed since 2016 by linking the ration card holders with the direct transfer scheme. Against this, public campaigns and public struggles were organized continuously for 8 years under the leadership of left. The political result of this was that in the recent Lok Sabha elections, the NDA candidate had to face defeat in 28 out of 30 assembly constituencies. After the political pressure created by this defeat, it has been announced to open all 515 ration shops here.
The country’s farmers’ movement and the left are fighting strongly against this destructive policy of the Modi government. In this context, the demand of the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha and Kisan Sabha is important that the government should give a legal guarantee of purchasing all the crops of the farmers at C-2+50% support price and the public distribution system should be made universal. Only this step can improve the lives of farmers and raise the nutritional level of the general public. ‘Patriotism’ demands that the struggle should be intensified to improve the lives of the common people and against the ‘anti-national’ government that denies it.