Make MSP legally binding, empower landless farm workers to spread all-round cheer
Imagine if a report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) had shown that the Indian industry had in 2022 suffered a cumulative loss of Rs 14-lakh crore ($169 billion). All newspapers without exception would have carried bold headlines on the front page, and the TV anchors would have been shrieking 24x7 calling it as clear cut case of policy paralysis. The demand for an economic stimulus package to the industry would have grown by now. Just like what happens when the stock market is down, the Finance and Industry Ministers would be seen reassuring industry captains of adequate support. But nothing like this has happened. Not because there has been any change in the corporate media policy, but because the staggering loss that the OECD depicted was actually not for the industry but for Indian agriculture. Agriculture being a downmarket subject for the Indian media, it is often treated as nothing more than a filler. If there is nothing important happening that day, editors normally try to fill the pages with reports on agriculture. That’s how agriculture, where 70 per cent of the rural households remain dependent on for their livelihoods, is given a short shrift. However, this article is not about how the media treats agriculture but how the massive loss for agriculture that OECD has worked out further worsens the plight of the farming community. For several decades now, agriculture continues to be in a severe distress. My attention was drawn to a report in Down to Earth magazine (Oct 31, 2023) entitled: ‘Indian farmers taxed $169 billion via export bans or restriction in 2022: OECD report’. The report said that Indian farmers are being continuously taxed negatively for the past two decades, right from 2000, to be precise. The author had gone through the long report available on the web, and sieving through numerous charts and figures, brought out the salient features in a form that could be easily understood. Following the Russia-Ukraine war, India had imposed restrictions on export of wheat, wheat atta and subsequently on non-basmati rice. In addition, there were restrictions on pulses, sugar and a hike in onion and basmati minimum export prices. This may be important for stabilising the domestic price as also to ensure food security, but at the same time ‘exacerbate the persistent challenge of low farm incomes’.