CLAIMS

Farmer incomes will be doubled.

Minimum support prices (MSP) of crops has been increased in recent years to help farmers.

Modi government is pro-farmer.

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) has made a major impact in the field of crop insurance and helped farmers.

Modi government has implemented several loan waiver schemes for farmers.

Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Yojana has benefited many.

Land acquisition policy in rural areas is pro-people. RECTLARR Act will benefit all.

TRUTH

In recent years, the claim of doubling of farmers’ incomes has disappeared from Government documents and the media. The Government’s Situation Assessment Surveys of 2011-12 and 2018-19 show that the monthly income of agricultural households from ‘cultivation’ fell in real terms from Rs 2,855 to Rs 2,816 (i.e., by 1.4 per cent).

MSPs are rising at a much slower rate under the Modi government compared to earlier periods. Between 2003-04 and 2012-13, MSPs of the major food grain crops rose by an average of 8 per cent to 9 per cent per year but between 2013-14 and 2023-24, MSPs of the major food grain crops rose by just about 5 per cent per year. This has happened at a time when input prices were rising very rapidly.

Modi promised in his 2014 campaign that he would implement the Swaminathan Commission recommendations i.e. MSP should be fixed 50 per cent higher than the C2 cost of production ( the sum of paid out costs, imputed value of family labour, interest on the value of owned capital assets, rent paid for leased-in land and the rental value of owned land). In fact, the Modi government fooled farmers by fixing MSPs at 50 per cent higher than the A2+FL cost of production, where interest on the value of owned capital assets, rent paid for leased-in land and the rental value of owned land are excluded. Due to such an erroneous method, farmers have been deprived of close to Rs 500-600 per quintal in the crops for which MSPs are announced.

Farmer Suicides

One important indication of agrarian distress is the fact that between 1997 and 2022 (after which no data is available from the National Crime Records Bureau) more than 3.5 lakh persons in the farming sector committed suicide.  Strikingly, about 1,00,474 of these suicides were recorded between 2014 and 2022. This is a major proportion of the total number of suicides.

The second term of the Modi government has been particularly disastrous for farmers. While 10,281 persons in the farming sector committed suicide in 2019, the figures increased to 10,677 in 2020,  10,881 in 2021 and 11,290 in 2022.

The Modi government also has a dismissive attitude in providing relief or compensation to the families of farmers who committed suicides. Many farmers who commit suicide are tenants and thus made ineligible for compensation. Women farmers who commit suicide are not even considered farmers since land is usually in the names of male family members.

Crop Insurance

There has never been a comprehensive crop insurance programme. In 2016, the Government introduced the PMFBY but its implementation has been a failure and its coverage has been shrinking over the years. Many States, including Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Jharkhand, have opted out of the PMFBY and are offering their own crop insurance schemes.

The PMFBY is not a comprehensive crop and income insurance scheme and a large proportion of small and marginal farmers are excluded from the scheme since they cannot afford the premium.

The area insured under PMFBY has declined from 570.8 lakh hectares in 2016-17 to 487.4 lakh hectares in 2022-23.

The paid claims under PMFBY have also fallen from Rs 29,337 crore in 2018 to Rs 18,043 crore in 2022. The number of pending claims under PMFBY have risen.

The PMFBY has also opened up the crop insurance sector to corporate profiteering by private insurance companies. These companies have together earned about Rs 24,350 crore between 2016-17 to 2020-21 as profits, even as the number of unpaid claims have been accumulating.

Loan Waivers

The last national level loan waiver scheme for farmers was announced and implemented in 2008. A study by the State Bank of India in July 2022 found that only 50 per cent of the potential beneficiaries of loan waiver schemes for farmers announced after 2014 have received any write-off. 

Farmers have the best record in repaying bank loans. NPAs in agriculture are significantly lower (only 17.4 per cent of the total) than in industry even though agricultural growth rates have been depressed and agrarian distress is widespread.

In the last 10 years, banks have written off 15 lakh crores of its loans while the total amount due from farmers to banks, 18 lakh crores, has remained unwaived.

Land Acquisition

Farmers were short-changed by the amendments to the 2013 Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RFCTLARR) Act.

To appease the corporate lobby, the Modi government passed an ordinance on 29 December 2014 amending the RFCTLARR Act. In 2015, it passed the RFCTLARR Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha but the Opposition blocked its passage in the Rajya Sabha, due to staunch resistance from opposition parties and farmers’ organisations. Many states have undertaken amendments to the RFCTLARR Act, 2013 to exempt land acquisition from consent and Social Impact Assessment requirements. As a result, lakhs of acres of land have been and will continue to be acquired by the States for non-agricultural purposes. The Modi Government is determined to allow the loot of land by corporate interests.

The Modi Government has been the most anti-peasant, anti-agriculture, and pro-corporate government in India ever since independence, which is why the farmers’ struggles against the government have been of such sweep and intensity. The iconic struggle led by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) for over a year in 2020-21 mobilised lakhs of farmers at the Delhi borders, and all over the country, and won a historic victory when it forced the Modi regime to repeal the three black and hated Farm Laws. The Modi regime, however, remains committed to its agenda of handing over land and produce to the corporate and continuing the immiserisation of farmers and labourers.  As a result, the struggle has resumed and will continue.

SAVE THE FARMERS, SAVE AGRICULTURE!  DEFEAT BJP!

Published by Communist Party of India (Marxist)