Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise move to scrap three contentious farm laws might not be enough to stem a year-long protest movement by farmers, with the two sides yet to close the gap on another crucial issue — guaranteed prices for crops.
The protesters plan to march to the capital, New Delhi, tomorrow, when parliament reconvenes for its winter session, to push ahead with their demands that include setting up of a mechanism to ensure farmers receive minimum support rates for all harvests.
India fixes the rates for two dozen farm commodities, including some grains and pulses, and procures limited volumes for its welfare programs at those levels. Private players buy agricultural goods at market-determined prices.
Photo: Reuters
The government has said it would form a group to find ways to make the system “more effective,” but that is not enough for the protesters. They demand a new law to make it illegal to buy crops below the state-set prices.
“We are not fond of sitting on the streets,” Samyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella group of farmers’ associations, said in a letter to Modi dated Sunday last week. “We too desire that after resolving these other issues as soon as possible, we return to our homes, families and farming. If you want the same, then the government should immediately resume talks.”
The farmers’ continued anger could carry a political cost for Modi, who announced his biggest policy reversal since assuming power in 2014 by scrapping the farm laws earlier this month ahead of some state elections. It could dent Modi’s image as a strong and decisive leader.
Analysts say that establishing a price guarantee system for agricultural goods would be impossible, both logistically and fiscally, given India’s annual output of food grains alone of about 300 million tonnes, the risk of inflation and the government’s stretched budget due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The real reason behind the farmers’ demand is their desire for some stability and certainty in their incomes,” said Shoumitro Chatterjee, assistant professor of economics at Pennsylvania State University.
Given India’s budget situation, providing such income certainty through a guaranteed price at the national level might be infeasible, he said.
Modi’s retreat on farm laws has already cast a shadow on the pace of reforms that his administration had promised. Farmers form a powerful voting bloc in the country, where agriculture supports about 60 percent of its 1.4 billion people.
“Our agriculture sector is crying for massive reforms,” said Atul Chaturvedi, president of the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India. “Current high MSP [minimum support price] can never be sustainable as it would hurt consumers big time.”
The government buys mainly rice and wheat for its welfare programs, mostly from states such as Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.
Any rise in government purchases would worsen an already wide fiscal deficit, seen at 6.8 percent of India’s GDP in 2021-22.
Buying more at government-set prices could cause the food subsidy bill, which might exceed US$33 billion in 2021-22, to balloon further. It could also lead to overproduction of crops in India, the world’s biggest grower of cotton and the second-largest producer of wheat, rice and sugar.
“Now we are in a phase where our problem with food is efficient management of surplus,” said Suyash Rai, deputy director and fellow at Carnegie India.
If more and more is bought through the public-procurement system, “how will we handle that?” he added.
Farmers say the government only buys from a few states that have good transport network. Price instability is the biggest concern in India, where 86 percent of farmers cultivate plots of about 2 hectares or less.
“The government procures only in Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh. That too only rice and wheat. So farmers everywhere sell to traders at a lower price,” said Ashok Dhawale, president of the All India Kisan Sabha, a group representing farmers.
“The MSP has meaning only when there is a government procurement machinery,” he said.
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