The Unsung Farmer

The unsung hero of 2008 is indeed the Indian farmer. While many may feelkisanomics is out of fashion, some agriculture production stats may be relevantgiven the global food crisis and rising crude oil prices. We Indians should behappy that grain (wheat and rice) produce went up from 217.28 million tonnes in2006-07 to 227.32 million tonnes in 2007-08. And with a good monsoon, theprojections for the the rest of this year seems comfortable. We may not have togo in for huge imports.

But let us not forget that we are in the comfort zone because our farmerscultivated their land. This they did going against currently accepted wisdom.Remember, for well over a decade our farmers have been repeatedly advised toquit farming. There has been no dearth of pundits who have articulated thisview. Chandrababu Naidu, when he was Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, had famouslydeclared that farming doesn't make sense in the IT age. The focus, he felt,should be on manufacturing. It is another matter that after losing the 2004elections Naidu now sings a pro-farmer tune. Other equally `sensible' expertsraised the all important question: Why farm when one can import food at lesscosts from the international market?

Journalists supportive of a globalised economy have frequently presented factsto prove that farming doesn't pay. The input-output ratio is not good enough.Labour is a problem. The yield per acre is poor. The conclusion: farming willonly lead the farmer to ruin and suicide. Simultaneously, success stories ofthose who have shifted to farming exotic vegetables (brocolli and the like)seemed to drive home the point that the days of cultivating crops like wheat andpaddy are over.

But now the global food scenario has undergone a sea change. Several studiespoint to an international food crisis. Blame it on the west, cultivating cornfor fuel or the rising price of crude -- whatever the reasons, everyone isagreed that India can ill afford to import foodgrains. It simply must haveenough stocks in its godowns to feed its people. And since neither science northe corporate sector has mastered photosynthesis, wheat and rice can only begrown using the time tested method of sowing and harvesting.

The farmers who have given us this year's harvest are a faceless lot. If farmingis non-profitable what is it that makes millions of people in rural India goback to their land year after year? One explanation is that it is the onlyvocation that the unlettered farmer knows. While many among them have beenpersuaded by experts and NGOs funded by the west to quit we are lucky that noteveryone has given up tilling their land.

So is it time that we at least recognise the kisan? For well over a decade hehas been a much ridiculed figure. Every sop given to him has been questioned.Every fertiliser subsidy has been described as a drain on the exchequer. Thefarmer stood guilty of hogging too much free power, grabbing loans he can'trepay and making demands that did not make for good economics. He was a monsterwho had to be humbled.

Indeed, we have now become used to equating any pro-farmer programme withpopulism. The jury is still out on whether Rs 60,000 plus crore farm loan writeoff by the Manmohan Singh government will actually benefit the farmer. It maynot, as reports in the press seem to suggest. But the initial response to thewaiver tells us of our attitude to our farmers. Questions about where the moneywill come from were raised. The government was accused of fiscal indiscipline.But no such concerns have been voiced about corporate loan waivers, which, from1999 onwards are close to double the write-off for kisans.

Now that it is becoming increasingly clear that India will have to depend on itsfarmers, the focus will now be on how little the government is doing tohelp/assist the kisan. This is a U-turn from 'don't do anything for the lazylot' position several experts took till recently. So we will soon be hearing ofhow low cost seeds are not being provided. How fertliser costs have gone up. Howdecline in acreage under cultivation is alarming. How the loan waiver hasprovided no relief. And how steps should be taken to provide "real andsubstantive" relief for the farmer.

Whatever the new prescriptions, the focus will be to better agriculture output.That alone will provide food security. And to that end, India will need the thehumble farmer.