Farm reforms need a new imagination
Agriculture’s future cannot be redeemed by demands such as guaranteed MSP for all crops or repeatedly asking for farm loan waiver
Protests are an important component of democracy. but sometimes they can lose salience and appear bereft of logic. The mobilisation by some farmers’ organisations in Punjab, which has achieved next to nothing except a quasi-closure of the national highway section that connects Punjab and Haryana for more than a year, fall in this category. The protesting farmers are now being forcibly removed by the Punjab government.
Indian agriculture faces a serious viability crisis. This is true in even the relatively more prosperous states such as Punjab and Haryana. In fact, the crisis in these regions is more complicated because of sustainability concerns, which have become worse because of counter-productive policy nudge. This calls for urgent discussion and resolution.
Farmers prevailed when the government tried to push pro-market reforms in the farming sector during the pandemic. This victory should have been used to start a more open-minded and broad-based dialogue on the rejuvenation of farming in the country. The subsequent obduracy around guaranteed minimum support prices by protesting farmers was the exact opposite of what was required. It is no wonder that the so-called movement has made more news about the health of hunger strikers than content (an agricultural policy that benefits everyone). Meanwhile non-NDA parties have been happy to use this as a prop against the government rather than engage in a much-needed debate on agriculture.
Agriculture’s future cannot be redeemed by demands such as guaranteed MSP for all crops or repeatedly asking for farm loan waivers. This is in the realm of impractical and the equivalent of popping pain killers without curing the disease. Our farmers deserve better than this. Imagining a new farmers’ agenda requires political honesty and foresight on all sides.
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