Poverty is the worst curse for human beings. The curse is not confined to individuals alone but affects the entire family structure. Independent India has failed, especially in States like Odisha, to give purposive and adequate attention to ensure structural changes in the rural/agricultural sector. The tendency has been to tinker at the fringes and indulge in populistic window-dressing through the perpetually painful mode of providing “relief” and “special” dispensations.
In Odisha, during the pre-Independent era, for historic reasons, the agro sector or the food sector did not provide adequate return to the actual tiller of the soil. This scenario has not undergone any change. A large army of landless labour continues to increase. Migration to other States for mere survival has also flourished. The vast majority of farmers have marginal and small holdings. The average operational size of land holding of 1.25 hectare is uneconomic for a family. This indicates a failure of the land reforms and other related laws, which were meant to put agriculture at a level higher than mere subsistence. The commercial return from agricultural activity has been dismal. While land reforms and other complementary measures, including rural credit, consolidation of holdings, etc., have not achieved their social objects, the input structure has been subjected to continuous neglect. Government after Government have been swayed by the mirage of “industrialisation”, conveniently ignoring agro products as an “industry”, essential to the basic needs of food security. Talking of inputs, one is ashamed that farming under irrigation in Punjab is 98 per cent, in Haryana 85 per cent and in Odisha, it hovers around barely 28 per cent. The Government professed that the area under irrigation shall be increased to 35 per cent, but no significant investment in this regard has been undertaken. The operational size of landholdings being abysmally small, adoption of modern technology is rendered non-feasible. Shortage of electrical energy has led to pretentious promises of lift and other forms of irrigation. It is not unknown that rural Odisha very often suffers from power cuts for most of the day.
The protagonists of what is narrowly construed as “industry” have been erroneously identifying the declining contribution of agriculture in the context of the net state domestic product to be a sign of economic growth and prosperity. Such is the craze that it is ignored that the number of persons dependent on agriculture is not decreasing though the area under cultivation and productivity are steadily declining. This large segment of the population is economically dependent on uneconomic and marginal farms. This results in the farmer cultivating mostly for his own consumption at a survival level. This in turn perpetuates the emphasis on cultivation of rice for bare subsistence. No heed is paid regarding the concerned land being suitable for a more diverse utilisation, e.g., for vegetable, oilseeds and cash crops, etc. Added to this is the plight of the toiling sharecroppers exploited by a vast majority of absentee landlords or landowners. The sharecroppers’ rights are not adequately protected in economic terms and the impact of the governmental schemes does not really ensure their benefit. Rural industry, handicrafts and such other supplemental remunerative engagements during the idle periods now stand in the records of history. Seasonal underemployment persists with its inevitable adverse effects. Skill building for agro and allied activities, including food processing, is grossly neglected. Ironically, there have been complaints of distress sale with an admitted fall in the yield of crops. This has been occasioned by lack of adequate storage and marketing facilities. Coming to inputs, the mechanism for supply of quality seeds, fertilisers, manures, etc., is utterly poor, mostly untimely and often fraught with the crime of pick-pocketing through procurement of sub-standard inputs (the recent scandal of onion seeds procured by the Seed Corporation is a cruel example).
A legitimate local market for rice is hardly available; public procurement is haphazard and known to be plagued by concealed corruption. Added to this, there is a populist scheme, which harms the entire rural and urban sector. This is set in motion by supply of rice for Re 1 per kg. But this saps the initiative to at least produce a subsistence level of food on the available cultivable land. Agricultural labour becomes disinclined to work. The cycle of natural calamities provide a suitably lubricated channel so that the managers of the affair get their assured layer of cream.
In this background, by the end of first week of November, pretentious attempts have been made to project a sudden concern for the farming community. The Chief Minister has commanded his party soldiers to reach the farmers. This by itself affirms that there was no meaningful involvement with the problems of the farming community even when the situation was demonstratively disturbing. The Government has announced around fifteen prescriptions. In short, the important ones are supply of seeds and other implements by November 10 to the farmers (it is a matter of four days’ command period), provision of helpdesks, grant of compensation of Rs 13,500 per hectare of irrigated land where there is a crop failure of 33 per cent. Similarly, the marginal and small farmers, and for non-irrigated land, suffering similar percentage of disaster are to get Rs 6,800 per hectare. Some Rs 18,000 per hectare would the so-called long-term help. In areas with crop loss of more than 50 per cent, short-term loans would be converted to medium-term loans with continuing rate of interest at 5 percent. The Agro Industries Corporation would supply pump sets at concessional rates limited to a ceiling; nonfunctional lift irrigation points would be energised and the Energy Department would instantaneously provide electric connection. The MNREGA engagement period would be increased from 150 to 200 days with some extra drought relief facility for the poorest. The Government is geared up to spend Rs 100,00,000 for what is stated as “protecting the interest of” farmers.
Old wine in a new bottle! Similar assurances have been held out in the past but were not efficaciously translated into reality. This is an ideal example of window-dressing with cosmetic touches. The basic structural maladies of uneconomic holding, lack of quality inputs, lack of irrigation facilities, failure of land reforms and allied laws, lack of meaningful intervention to overcome the vicious circle of a debt trap continue to have their damaging effects. Constraint of space prevents one from exposing the apparently pretentious character of each one of the so-called lofty assurances. To cite only two examples, the plight of MNREGA in Odisha is well-known and has been subjected to the CBI and Supreme Court’s scrutiny. Expansion of that mal-administered arrangement would yield no fruitful results. Conversion of short-term loans to medium-term loans without any remission or moratorium in interest burden would substantially increase of the snowballing burden, which would further break farmers’ backbone. Not a word has been uttered regarding the basic structural changes to be effected through land reforms and allied laws.
In this “Everybody loves a good drought” situation, the suicides were inevitable because of the insensitive neglect of the rural food producer. The disastrous poverty coupled with what could be State-inspired plunder would have a direct impact on the youth power, which is already in disarray. They appear to have been converted into nonproductive tools of destructive political activities. They constitute the majority of voters and are the future beneficiaries of the social structure. It is for them now to at least bring the peasants, including the landless, under one banner in an organised manner so that they are not helpless but can meaningfully express themselves. Their voice, properly articulated, is bound to be heard. Persons they vote for could be capable of changing the fundamental structure of the agro economy. The need of the hour is radical alterations and ground-level rejuvenation. The situation calls for involvement of the youth and a reorientation of our sensibilities and priorities. The village must now be in the forefront; everything “rural” must turn beautiful. let the festival of lights brighten up this area of darkness, providing some food for thought in a drought-stricken scenario. And this concerns us all!
(The writer, a Senior Advocate, is a former All India Service officer, a former diplomat, a former editor, a former President of Orissa High Court Bar Association and a former Advocate General of Odisha. jayantdas@hotmail.com)