Chandigarh (Haryana): India is an agrarian economy and agriculture contributes to nearly one-third of the country's GDP. It provides the livelihood for the major Indian population. Still, the plight of farmers has no parallel as they seem to be worst sufferers and even today, farmers face the problem of selling their crops.
The Indian agriculture sector is the most under-developed sector, technologically & policy-wise, which certainly have brought our feeders to the brink of extreme poverty and deprivation.
In an exclusive interview with ETV Bharat, Haryana Agriculture Minister Jai Prakash Dalal and Swaraj India convenor Yogendra Yadav talked extensively about the real problems faced by farmers and what is the government's plan to make their situation better.
The excerpts are:
Q.The condition of farmers is still bad. Meanwhile, some help has been provided by the Central government but how much of that help will actually reach the farmers?
Yogendra Yadav: I would say that if the country is still standing tall amid this coronavirus-induced crisis, it is only because of the farmers as our grain stocks are full. Otherwise, our situation would have been like in 1960. But, we can't negate the fact that farmers have problems and they are suffering.
The first problem is, as this was the harvesting season, the government did not notify in its first notification that farmers have to harvest. There was no mention of this, although somehow farmers did the harvesting. Then came the problem of selling the crop. The other problem was, those farmers who grew vegetables and fruits were left with nothing as their businesses got destroyed completely.
The announcements made by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman are the same that she made a month and a half ago. Farmers are getting the money only which they were entitled to.
The government gave Kisan Samman Nidhi in April, anyway farmers were supposed to get between April and June, and said that it is a great gift for the farmers. Interestingly, this announcement was made by the Finance Minister in the budget too, then what is the point of announcing the same now?
JP Dalal: The problem of farmers cannot be eradicated in a very short span of time. First of all, farmers will have to get out of the clutches of moneylenders. The moneylenders need cheap capital and they eat most of the farmers' money.
To avoid this, Kisan Credit Card (KCC) was made available to the farmers and due to that, today Haryana's farmers can avail a good amount of capital at the interest rate of only 4 per cent.
Second, farmers need good quality seeds and the right fertilizer at the right time. Since I have taken over the charge of the state's agriculture ministry, I am personally looking into each problem of farmers in order to make sure that they get good quality seeds and fertilizers.
Q. Yogendra Yadav's submission is that farmers are not getting help and support which they need at this point of time and what is the point if they get that assistance 4 months later? Will that be of any use?
JP Dalal: We have already given the money to farmers which they were entitled to. We also gave them the crop insurance money which was pending. Everyone speculated that at this time of coronavirus-induced crisis, farmers will not be able to sell their crops and opposition parties also tried to deceive the farmers. But, let me tell you, at least 66 lakh metric tonnes of grains have been sold in Haryana by the farmers within 20-22 days. Out of which, 6 lakh metric tons of mustard oil has been sold by them.
Yogendra Yadav: Farmers took the loan through KCCs which they had to repay in the month of April. You extended the repayment period but the interest of that loan will have to be bear by farmers only. No alternative measure was taken for that. Also, why farmers were not given any relief in diesel and why they are not being given a bonus?
JP Dalal: Giving money to someone depends on resources. The Haryana government gave a subsidy of 85 per cent for the water management in the state. Apart from this, we provided Soil Health Card to at least 86 lakh farmers. In the last 5 years, the production of coarse grains in Haryana has increased by 18 per cent. We have done a lot of work for milk production in the state. Due to which, today Haryana is second in the country in milk production. We have also tried to end the middleman system for the upliftment of farmers.
Also Read: Key takeaways: Eleven measures to help Indian Farmers
