People's Democracy

LAST July the ministry of agriculture announced the National Agriculture Policy. Even a cursory reading of the document will reveal the both the hollowness of their claim and its real motives behind this paper. The reforms being propounded by the document are nothing more than an updated version of imperialist agrarian policies under colonial rule.

The document, however, begins by showing great sympathy for the peasantry. It states

The pattern of grown of agriculture has, however, brought in its wake, uneven development across regions and crops, as also across different sections of the farming community, and is characterized by low levels of productivity and degradation of natural resources in some areas." Further, that "the growth of agriculture has also tended to slacken during the nineties." "The establishment of an agrarian economy which ensures food and nutrition to India's billion people, raw materials for its expanding industrial base and surpluses for exports, and a fair and equitable reward system for the farming community for the services they provide to the society, will be the mainstay of reforms in the agriculture sector."

Towards achieving this objective it sets the goal as

"The National Policy on Agriculture seeks to actualize the vast untapped growth potential of Indian agriculture, strengthen rural infrastructure to support faster agricultural development, promote value addition, accelerate the growth of agro business, create employment in rural areas, secure a fair standard of living for the farmers and agricultural workers and their families, discourage migration to urban areas and face the challenges arising out of economic liberalisation and globalisation."

Specifically for the next two decades, it sets out its aims to be to attain:

• a growth rate in excess of four per cent per annum in the agriculture sector;
• growth that is based on efficient use of resources and conserves our soil, water and bio-diversity;
• growth with equity, i.e. growth which is widespread across regions and farmers;
• growth that is demand-driven, caters to domestic markets and maximizes benefits from exports of agricultural products in the face of the challenges arising from economic liberalization and globalisation;
• growth that is sustainable technologically, environmentally and economically.

While this is no mere reiteration of what previous governments have been stating, what the new policy seeks to achieve is much more. It wants to accelerate and extend the economic "reforms" to the agrarian sector, meaning opening it up to wanton loot by private and foreign monopolies.

Instead of indulging in such glib talk, foremost question that the government must address is:

FIRST the issue of land reforms, a process which, whatever little has been achieved, the BJP government wants to undo.

Second, utilisation of cultivable land currently lying waste, but which the government presently records indicate as wastelands. Utilisation of such lands can help not only in development of agriculture, increase production, but ameliorate the conditions of the agricultural labour and poor peasants. They are the major force who rely upon the development of agriculture, and whose conditions even half a decade after independence have not improved but, on the contrary, deteriorated.

Thirdly, despite the recommendations and findings of various committees that 70 per cent of the cultivable land can be brought under irrigation, no serious effort has been made in this direction.

Fourth is the question of power to pump out ground water. In districts like Sikar in Rajasthan, it is ground water utilisation that has changed an erstwhile rain-starved region and its agriculture.

Fifthly, the use of man power. Agricultural labour and the poor peasantry hold the key to hard work for developing agriculture, increasing productivity.

Instead of following this direction, the government has come to an understanding with the WTO on agriculture, on the basis of which quantitative restrictions on imports have been completely lifted. The consequent fall in the prices of agricultural products this year has spellt ruin for the peasantry.

Instead of seeking a modification of the terms to protect Indian agriculture from the vagaries of the international market, the agricultural policy has only this to offer, that "continuous monitoring of international prices will be undertaken and appropriate tariff protection will be provided." Who is the government hoodwinking with such statements? Will they not be subject to pressure if tariffs are increased?

Singing the same tune, the National Executive meeting of the BJP at its January 4, 2001 meeting, adopted an economic resolution on the agricultural situation. It hereby claims that the BJP-led government has initiated some important measures to develop agriculture which includes: kisan credit cards, encouragement to set up cold storage facilities, crop insurance, measures to promote food processing industries etc. As a result, it notes,

"the country could witness record foodgrains production of over 201 million tonnes in 1998-99 and 204 millions tonnes in 1999-2000... "With this, the today, food stock position has crossed 50 million tonnes, that is, around 30 million tonnes in excess of the normal storage capacity and what is required for maintaining the public distribution system."

It claims that the country's first ever agricultural policy has been announced by the NDA government, predicting an annual average growth rate of four per cent in order to make the country self-sufficient within the next ten years. It had also to mention that in a few states farmers who failed to repay their debts had had to commit suicide. It however claims that within a couple of months of assuming power "the NDA government got a circular issued through the RBI to commercial banks with a clear instruction that no farmer should be arrested and put behind bars for default in repayment of bank loans".

It admits that it is due to the commitment made to the WTO that there has been a fall in the prices of agricultural products. Neverthless, However, the suggestions made to tide over the problems posed by this commitment are measures that would only strengthen the stranglehold of the private sector companies. It has sought the extension of "economic reform measures" to the agricultural sector -- specially in the direction of removing all controls such as movement of farm produces;

-limit the role of FCI to maintain buffer stocks.

-PDS operations to be decentralised;

• involvement of the private sector in procurement, storage, distribution;
• reduction in import duties of essential inputs such as fertilisers and agricultural machinery,
• raise in import duties on farm produce to the bound level so as to protect domestic agricultural goods;
• encourage upgradation of agricultural technology, private seed companies involved in the development and testing of seeds to be exempted from land ceilings.

The BJP's agricultural committee in its first meeting set up to study the policy and make recommendations, with Bhairon Singh Shekawat in chair has accepted the policy document of the government. As a political party, the BJP is expected to give the green signal to the government's agricultural policy. It may be noted that the government policy document stated that private sector participation will be encouraged by contract farming and leasing land. This would allow accelerated technology, and capital inflow and guaranteed markets for produce.

On the WTO, the BJP committee felt that the machinery for granting patents to ayurvedic medicines, and specific varieties of grain like basmati should be put in place by the government. The fallout of the removal of quantitative restrictions were also discussed by the committee.

When the policy is implemented the government will give large tracts of land to foreign companies or private parties on lease, for a song, on the plea that it was waste land. Some government owned waste land falls into the category of reserved forest land and there is no clarity whether it will also be deregulated.

The talk of handing over waste land to multinational corporations has been doing the rounds for the past 3-4 years. However, the government has not dared to take this step till now. It is known that after having opened up all sectors to the multinationals, the BJP-led government cannot spare waste land. The demand has been raised time and again by the peasant-agricultural labour movement for large tracts of cultivable waste land can be handed over to peasant-agricultural worker cooperatives for cultivation. But the bourgeois-landlord governments at the centre have refused to heed to this demand. It is only in the Left-ruled states that certain steps have been taken to distribute this land to the agricultural labourers.

Government report after report have drawn attention to the worsening plight of the agricultural labour and poor peasant. Unless their condition is improved, no socio-economic-political advance is possible.

The BJP government however, does not want to do this. Rather, it wants to divest the agricultural labour-poor peasants of the meagre little that they get now. The policy paper, if implemented will vest huge tracts of lands with foreign and private companies to whom it will be sold for a song under the ruse of it being waste land. Some government owned waste land falls into the category of forest land and there is no clarity whether this would also be deregulated. Though they have at the moment restricted it to government-waste land, it will not be long before land held by small and marginal farmers will be taken over in the name of developing agriculture.

This will only accentuate the problem instead of solving any. With the development of capitalism in agriculture, employment opportunities have shrunk further. The main hope of the poor peasants is this waste land which, if handed over to them, can give them a source of livelihood. Instead of doing that the BJP government is seeking to handover the land to the multinationals and big business houses in India. But the government should realise that handing over such economic levers to foreigners will cost dearly, for after all it is economic power that counts.

Already the opening up of the agrarian sector to the policies of free trade has ruined large numbers of farmers who see no alternative other than to commit suicide in hundreds, while mechanisation and commercialisation in agriculture has drastically cut the days of work available for agricultural labour, driving them to joblessness and starvation.

The free import of agricultural produce has resulted in sharp fluctuations and a fall in the prices of cotton, rubber, tea, jute, coconut, tobacco and even foodgrains. This has resulted in increasing hardship for the peasants and agricultural labourers who have to pay higher prices of inputs and see their days of work dwindling in the face of the change from food to cash crops, being forced on a hard-pressed peasantry by these policies.

Added to this are the changes proposed in the patent laws, and new seed technology like terminator seeds, tightens the stranglehold of MNCs and big business houses over agriculture.

To counter this situation, the government should

• impose import restrictions in the form of tariff protection, anti-dumping duties, quantitative restrictions and other measures, on all products that cause prices to fall, or change the cropping pattern, and ensure remunerative prices for all products.
• take immediate steps to tackle the problems of agricultural workers, ensure land to the tiller and provide guaranteed employment through rural development schemes, promoting small and cottage industries, agro-based industry, and other capital formation industrial projects for the rural areas.
• Agricultural labour must be ensured a living wage, equal wages for equal work, and an end to discrimination against scheduled castes, tribal people and women in agricultural practices and rural areas. To provide a machinery to implement these, a comprehensive central legislation is necessary to regulate working conditions, ensure payment of wages and provide social security to agricultural labour.
• Over and above all this, the process of land reforms should be completed by plugging all loopholes in land reform laws as has been done in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, and stop all steps for reversing land reforms. Waste land should be distributed to agricultural labour and poor peasants and adequate financial support be provided for them to develop it. Forest laws should be amended to allow forest-dwellers and the landless to be given the responsibility of protecting the environment and earning a living also. Tribal lands grabbed by moneylenders and landlords must be restored to them.
• Patent laws should not be changed against the interests of peasants, of agriculture and the country. Terminator type of technology and the indiscriminate use of banned pesticides should be prohibited. The operation of the multinational companies in agriculture, seed production and distribution, agro-based industries should be immediately controlled. A comprehensive crop insurance scheme should be introduced.
• There is still a lot of irrigation potential if ground water and canasl water is tapped. This would require a lot of power, and special attention will have to be paid to make power available topoor and middle peasants who form the bulk of the peasantry. Steps must be taken to free them from the clutches of the moneylenders. Paper schemes are not of any help in improving the lot of these sections; the task requires determined action.

As against this, the policy advocated both by the policy paper and the BJP national executive only benefits the interests of the landlords, rich sections of the peasantry and the multinationals. They do not talk of ameliorating the conditions of the small and marginal peasants, let alone the agricultural workers. The peasant movement in this context has to rise and fight against these types of machinations and come out with an alternative plan for distribution of waste land to the agricultural labourers by setting up cooperatives. On this slogan the unity of small farmers and agricultural labourers can be built to resist the government's policies. All peasant and agricultural organisations must be rallied together to take up this slogan and fight for its realisation.