In the viral video clip, the distress on the faces of the farmer family is clearly visible, who was trying to collect their soaked groundnuts after heavy rains. Viewers expressed great concern and sympathy for the helpless farmer. Perhaps Shivraj Singh also realized the helplessness of this poor farmer and decided to talk to the farmer to express his sympathy and assured the farmer that the state government would compensate him for his loss.
This wonderful sentiment is to be appreciated
Despite almost 8 decades of independence, the condition of farmers is very bad, farmers are facing all kinds of problems. There is no guarantee of sale of the crop at MSP, but there is humiliation, hunger and everything else that the farmer has to face. Governments should be sensitive to their problems. Dr. Srinubabu Gedela first shared a video of a farmer from Maharashtra on X, kneeling and trying to collect his soaked groundnuts with bare hands during unseasonal rains in a raw market premises, expressing the pain and agony of the farmer. The video depicts the harsh reality that farmers continue to work in all conditions. The sad video had also saddened me.
A few days later, I saw another video, in which another distressed farmer from Maharashtra was standing in the market and loudly requesting people to buy his onion crop at a price less than Rs 1 per kg, so that he could cover the cost of transporting his onions to the market. I was disappointed at the helplessness of that farmer and was angry that why this video did not go viral? Perhaps the Union Agriculture Minister would have felt the pain of this too and expressed his desire and ‘duty’ to compensate him too. During the same week, another video on the ‘News Potli’ web portal showed how a farmer from Kushinagar in Gorakhpur district faced devastation when strong winds devastated his banana orchard, which he had grown on leased/rented land after paying Rs 1 lakh. He was expecting an income of Rs 4 lakh if his crop had not been damaged by the storm. According to reports, the crop of about 300 farmers in this area was destroyed by the strong wind.
I read a tweet on Shivraj Singh’s timeline. In that video, the minister is seen happily driving a tractor, with a message written along with it – ‘Khet mein jab pasina behta hai, toh dharti sona ugalti hai’ (When farmers sweat in the fields, the earth produces gold). I don’t know why the farmers I mentioned above couldn’t grow gold in their fields? After all, you can’t produce crops without sweating. But why is it that many farmers suffer the consequences of the fall in crop prices? Recently, a retired agricultural scientist from Haryana Agricultural University Hisar came to meet me. He had a video of his tomato crop lying at home. He told me that he was ready to sell his crop for Rs 1 per kg, but he couldn’t find any buyer. His only request was that he should find a buyer who could at least cover the cost of picking and storing the tomato crop. Although his crop is not selling, we all know that the tomato crop is getting expensive in the retail market and its retail price is around Rs 20 per kg. I have been sharing the frustration and misery of farmers due to falling prices for more than a decade. Whenever the stock market crashes, the entire government machinery goes into a war mode and ‘war rooms’ literally spring up in the first few days to minimize the financial losses of investors. It is as if a nuclear attack has hit the country. But when it comes to the farmer, no one cares and no one is even remotely worried. As I have said earlier, I have been observing the poor condition of agriculture with regret for decades. Successive governments have failed to build and strengthen the existing agricultural infrastructure and all the attention has been focused on building highways, which is causing farmers distress. The priority of any economically sensible government should be to revive agriculture, provide adequate public resources to compensate farmers along with disaster relief. But I have not seen this happening for decades. Farmers’ interests are only considered when a political party is in opposition, when many well-meaning promises are made but forgotten once the party comes to power.
Although I do not see any ray of hope in the dark clouds over agriculture, I would still venture a suggestion. Instead of promising compensation to a single farmer for crop loss, why not save the entire farming community, which is facing repeated losses? The prices of perishable items like fruits and vegetables, which often fall due to constant fluctuations, need to be fixed according to Kerala’s unique ‘base price’ formula. Farmers must get at least 20 percent profit over and above their production cost.
Even the government can ensure that farmers are not ruined when market prices fall.
Kerala has started a price stabilization programme for fruit and vegetable producers since 2020. After determining the cost of production of 16 fruits and vegetables, a basic price is fixed, which includes a 20 percent profit. Whenever prices fall below the benchmark prices, the state government takes action and the procurement and marketing of fruits and vegetables has been properly organized to ensure price stability in the market. This approach of the state has helped 4 lakh farmers earn their livelihood. The initiative was started in 2020 with an expenditure of Rs 10 crore. In the last 5 years, the state has needed to help due to the fall in prices of some vegetables in some districts. During this time, although the budget allocation has increased slightly to Rs 32 crore. Even if there are some flaws in the system, these flaws can be addressed instead of waiting for a video related to a farmer to go viral and the next video clip to come out.
If Kerala can show the way, there is no reason why this program cannot be adopted at the national level. Instead of shedding a tear or two in front of the cameras, we should try to wipe every tear from the faces of farmers.
