Farmers from Punjab Image credit X @_kulwinderr81
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, February 16: A Union Minister of State in recent years was furious at a Director level official in his ministry. He argued unsuccessfully with the official on rules concerning the sugar mills.
The minister said: “I am an elected leader of the people, and I am telling you that this be done in such manner.” This message was delivered in a nasty manner which could have angered a self-respecting official.
The official replied: “The government elected by the people only had framed laws and rules which spell out that the farmers need to be discouraged from growing crops such as sugarcanes. I am telling you the existing rules. If you don’t like the rules, you can get them changed by your government.”
The official held his ground. The minister was frustrated. Sitting along with was a former member of parliament, who also owned sugar mills. The minister hurled expletives after the official had left his chamber. But he also knew that the rules are justified, and his government would not be changing them.
Farmers’ protests on the borders of the national capital are being staged by those who mostly grow sugarcane, rice, and wheat. India is surplus in their production. In fact, it will do a world of good if half of the sugarcane farmers just keep their land fallow. It will also be a great service to humanity if farmers of Punjab stop growing paddy. Rice is also not a staple food of Punjab.
Dilpreet Singh is farmer from Sangrur in Punjab. He has become an exporter. He recently sent his first export consignment of 14.3 metric tonne of millets. The consignment was valued at $45,803. His shipment included ready-to-cook millets derived from Kodo millet, Foxtail millet, Little millet, Browntop millet, and Barnyard millet. He sourced flours also from Ragi, Jowar, Bajra, Foxtail, Kodo, Barnyard, Browntop, Little, and Proso millets.
The Minimum Support Price (MSP) is an administrative mechanism. It’s principally meant to give a signal to farmers and also to the agrarian market. It was never meant that the government begin buying all the crop productions. But politicians out of their timidity turned the MSP into a perpetual exercise to create a monster in the Food Corporation of India to institutionalize alleged illicit practices of grains transported from far off places such as Bihar for procurement in Punjab.
Haryana in the last 10 years is compensating farmers at the rate of Rs 7000 per hectare annually to keep the land fallow. Let the soil regain health before raising the next crop. This is the philosophy of the Haryana government. A large number of farmers are partaking the initiative. They are also abandoning cultivation of rice. In place, they are raising new age crops such as sweetcorn and selling them in the markets of the UAE, the UK, and other European countries.
At the same time, a good number of farmers in Haryana are now part of the scheme of the state government where the difference of the market price and the MSP for crops is compensated by the administration in the event of the crop prices crashing after the harvest. The farmers in Haryana agitate for inclusion of more crops in the scheme.
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