Agrarian crisis in India

Over the past few years, I kept pondering over the issue of agrarian crisis in India. The enormous rise in suicides in this society is indeed appalling. I could never understand the exact reason underlying this cause. The booming of the economy has no effect on the status of agrarian society whatsoever, rather it is getting much deteriorated day by day. In India, this agrarian crisis is ubiquitous, including the frontline agriculture states of Punjab and Haryana, which were infact the center of the Green revolution and even the left-ruled West Bengal and Kerala is no better.

Currently, more than 58% of country's population depends on agriculture, a sector producing only 22% of GDP. In retrospect, the contribution of agriculture towards GDP was 56% in 1950s, while in 1988 it was only 30%. The decrease in contribution towards GDP is not only attributed by the rise in contribution from the service sector, but also due to decline in the net agricultural production, which is shielded by the rise in imports.

The rising costs of production and the falling prices of farm commodities, has led to the upsurge in suicides and selling of their kidneys. Since 1995 more than 1,26,000 farmers have committed suicides all over the country, most of them being the subsistent farmers or the land labourers, who constitute about 75% of the total farmers. The rest 25% are the affluent farmers whose production is about 60% of the total agricultural output.

One of the primary reasons for the upsurge in suicide rate is because of ‘dumping’, due to the free trade policies of the WTO. Since 1995, when India joined the WTO, there has been a surge in imports of agricultural commodities, which are being ‘dumped’ by the developed countries in the international market below their cost of production, eventually putting the local suppliers out of business. The production in most of the developed countries is more than their consumption, instead of decreasing their production, which creates unemployment in their labour, they just dump the excess products at a very cheap rate so as to maximize their net profits. (For example, the full cost of U.S wheat in 2001 was $6.24 / bushel, its export price was $ 3.5 / bushel.) This has led to a deep decline in domestic agriculture prices and has deepened the agrarian crisis in rural India. The price of coffee beans fell from Rs90-120 a kg in 1996 to Rs11-20 today, but the price of coffee powder rose from Rs450 a kg in 1999 to Rs900-1200 in 2002. At some places the minimum cost of production and the market price are almost the same. Numerous rallies were organized to protest against the WTO agreement, who demanded to take out agriculture from the purview of the World Trade Organization, but this has all gone to the deaf ears.

“The world bank and the WTO have consistently financed the massive expansion of government through the developing world. They have thus driven human atrocities, helped cripple the Third world economies, and degraded the environment”

~James Bovard

The second pressure Indian farmers are facing is the dramatic rise in production costs. In 1998, the World Bank's structural adjustment policies forced India to open up its seed sector to global corporations. The global corporations changed the input economy overnight. Farm saved seeds were replaced by corporate seeds which needed fertilizers and pesticides and could not be saved, and moreover they were sold at exorbitant rates. Seeds have to be bought for every planting season by poor peasants. A free resource available on farms became a commodity which farmers were forced to buy every year. The usage of pesticides and chemical fertilizers has led to the decrease in fertility of the soil in most of the areas, which resulted in decline of the output. The increase in resistance of the pests against the pesticides has urged the farmers to increase their usage. All these have led to an enormous rise in the production costs.

“In the years to come, chemical manures will be considered as one of the greatest follies of the Industrial epoch”

~Albert Howard

Rural India is also facing an acute shortage of water and power. With privatization, the cost of irrigation and the power tariffs have increased, this has further exacerbated the crisis in the agrarian society. According to a recent statement give by the Indian express, about 60% of the farmers in India are in debts. Increase in debts have compelled the farmers to sell their kidneys or even commit suicides. Some of the distressed farmers have even put up kidney sale centers. This has been mostly observed in the Vidarbha district of Maharashtra and in the Wayand district of Kerala. These two districts have seen a major suicidal rate over the past one year. This year, the death toll in Vidarbha has already reached 500 and about 380 are reported in the Wayand district. These reports are considered to be incorrect, the actual estimate is even much higher. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) does not count women as farmers, but as wives of farmers, who are not included the list of farmers suicide. The list also does not include the landless laborers, whose livelihood is dependent on agriculture.

“This is the largest recorded wave of suicides in human history in one single occupational group.”

~P. Sainath

Unless the govt. takes right decision on the WTO issue and the global corporations of the seed sector, the agrarian crisis can never be put to an end. Even the economic gimmicks like free electricity and enhancing bank credits will be of no use.

There is a common saying: ‘If you are not a part of the solution, then you are a part of the problem’. Not only the govt., but even we are also a part of this crime, who buy the cheap dumped products, knowingly or unknowingly. The concept of 'swadeshi' as propounded by Mahatma Gandhi seems a better alternative to tackle this problem.

“I sympathise, therefore, with those who would minimize, rather than with those who would maximize economic entanglement among nations. Ideas, knowledge, science, hospitality, travel – these are the things which should of their nature by international. But let goods be homespun whenever it is reasonable and conveniently possible, and above all let finance be primarily national… ”

~ John Maynard Keynes

Agreements such as that of WTO’s, always have certain fallouts. The beneficiaries are the major part of the urban working class. The unemployment in India is also another issue, the withdrawal of the WTO agreement might increase the unemployment in the service sectors. The govt. should think of an effective solution, which would benefit both the classes of India. The law-makers should try and enforce rules which would annihilate dumping.

In the 17^th century, the British govt. imposed a ban on the Indian garment and textile industries, when they captured whole of the British market. In a similar way, the govt. of India should impose ban on companies which dump the products and on the global corporations of the seed sector, which sell genetically deficient seeds, that obligates the farmers to depend on these corporations every year for new seeds. The lack of ethical knowledge, greed for money, and of course, selfishness makes people to embark on such vicious corporations. These kinds of problems can never arise when people start caring for others. One should realize the fact that in such a lunatic game ‘one man’s profit is the other man’s loss ’.

“A human being is a part of the whole, called by us the universe, a part limited in space and time. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of Nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation and part of the inner security.”

~ Albert Einstein

History gives examples of many countries who have risen from such situations, like Argentina and Brazil. I believe, there is no reason why we cannot tackle this issue and prevent our farmers from taking extreme steps. The only thing we require now is a good leadership, who care for every individual of the society; and the society that produces a good leader.