Government moves to give farmers their due

There is no doubt that the globalisation of the Indian economy in the 1990s has made it what it is now. Its modernisation, through a wide-ranging reforms process, has catapulted the once predominantly-agrarian weak country to the status of a nation that now proudly flexes its economic muscle across the world.

India's modernisation has also led to rapid urbanisation of its landmass, resulting undesirably in the delinking of the farmers from their primary source of resources, the earth. Cultivable land in India has declined from 183.14 million hectares in 2001-02 to 182.57 million hectares in 2005-06. Though it is a marginal decline, it has raised widespread concerns. Contrarily, during the same period, the area under non-agricultural uses has increased from 24.07 million hectares to 24.94 million hectares in the country. The reasons for the depletion of cultivable land has been attributed to their use for non-agricultural purposes such as urbanisation, roads, and industries.

Minister of State for Agriculture Kanti Lal Bhuria recently said that the government was implementing several development programmes. Under those programmes, 50.83 million hectares have already been recovered. A large part of it has been brought under cultivation since their implementation up to the end of the Tenth Plan. The government's efforts make us believe that it is trying hard to maintain the critical balance needed to ensure harmonious economic growth of a country that has crossed the threshold of modernisation, but has not forgotten its roots that are firmly entrenched in agriculture.

That, unfortunately, is half truth. The life of the Indian peasantry has gotten from bad to worse. The epidemic of suicide in the India's farming community is testimony to a harsh reality.

For thousands of years the country's farmers cultivated the land for marketable produce and for their own consumption needs. Their life changed drastically in the twenty-first century with the wide sweep of globalisation and the shift of agriculture's link with Mother Earth.

India's economic policies are now heavily tilted towards the industrial sector, specially the multi-national corporations. Profit-making is the core focus. So the lion's share of government's largesse is catered to the MNCs. That leaves the farmer craving for monetary resources.

It has been observed that the farmer's access to credit had been shrinking considerably. So they had no other option but to take loans. Institutional loans carrying interest ceilings of not more than 14 per cent, is usurped by 10 per cent of the farming community who have "connections". That leaves the remaining 90 per cent small and marginal farmers go to private money lenders who make profits of 24-72 per cent on the money lent. If the crop fails, many farmers become so lost in despair that they end their lives.

The government has been taking a close and calibrated look at the situation. Finally, it has extended its hand to pull a large percentage of farmers out of the debt trap. Low-interest farm credit rose to Rs2,032.97 billion in 2006-07, way above the targeted Rs1,750 billion. As much as Rs1,453.43 billion of the lending, or 85.34 per cent of the target for the financial year 2006-07 was completed by December 2006.

The lending in 2006-07 is Rs228.11 billion more than the Rs1,804.86 billion disbursed in the previous fiscal, according to the agriculture ministry. As many as 8.4 million new farmers received the government's low-interest finance in fiscal 2006-07, compared to 7.9 million in the previous year.

Though a lot needs to be done, the government's low-interest credit programme is expected to have the desired effect of preventing more farmer suicides in India. Finally, the son of the soil is getting his due.