AIKS 30TH ALL INDIA CONFERENCE FOCUSSES ON  

The Unprecedented Crisis In Indian Agriculture  

Ashok Dhawale  

THE delegate session of the 30th AIKS conference began in the afternoon of March 6. The conference hall that was built in memory of the immortal Ghadar martyrs was tastefully decorated, with large portraits of towering AIKS leaders A K Gopalan, P Sundarayya, E M S Namboodiripad and Harekrishna Konar on both sides of the stage. The hall had relevant quotations of Marx and Lenin on the peasant question. It was in this setting that the delegate session began with the placing of the General Secretary’s Report by K Varadha Rajan. The 32-page printed report had been given to the delegates in both English and Hindi.

GENERAL SECRETARY’S REPORT

After briefly outlining the political challenges at the international and national level, the General Secretary’s Report consisted of four main parts: (1) Crisis in Indian Agriculture, (2) Review of Major Struggles, (3) Review of Organisation, (4) Main Weaknesses and Future Tasks. While placing the report, K Varadha Rajan touched upon all these four aspects.

Right at the outset, the report outlined the growing imperialist attacks in all spheres, with particular reference to the condemnable US-UK war drive against Iraq, solely to impose their world hegemony and to gain control over the vast Iraqi oil reserves. It then describes the imperialist attacks on agriculture, as follows, “The imperialist countries, making use of international institutions like the IMF, World Bank and WTO, are attacking the entire world, especially the developing countries, to ensure their domination of the world market. Some of the mechanisms for this new domination are policy and legal changes such as:

·        Privatisation of land, water, common pastures and jungles, so that these are removed from community ownership and given to private corporate interests to use and dispose off according to their wishes.

·        Removal of quantitative restrictions on all imports, including food, textiles and products of cottage and small-scale industries.

·        Allowing giant agribusiness corporations to control food and other agri-based production and distribution.

·        Dismantling of the public distribution system and ending procurement by government agencies, leaving both the peasants and consumers at the mercy of multinational corporations.

·        Changes in patent laws and plant variety legislation to allow multinational corporations to become owners of seeds, plants and biodiversity.

·        Allowing unrestricted import of hazardous technologies and seeds (without proper indigenous research), thereby using third world agriculture as a guinea pig for their research.

·        Reducing government investment in all fields like irrigation, power, market regulation, input production etc and cut in subsidies for both inputs and outputs.”

 However, the report underlines the fact that the last four years have also seen worldwide protests against globalisation as well as against US military interventions. Violent protests have derailed the sale of state-owned companies in many countries. Leftist political forces in several countries, especially in Latin America, are combining local issues and economic nationalism to great effect. This is dramatically seen in the recent Left victories in Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador. Along with this are the unprecedented worldwide demonstrations of millions denouncing the US-UK war drive against Iraq, demonstrations which also simultaneously target imperialist globalisation. 

The imperialist offensive is taking place in the background of a deepening world economic crisis. The latest annual report of the United Nations titled ‘World Economic Situation and Prospects 2003’ says that total world output in 2002 is estimated to have grown by only 1.7 per cent in real terms, which is one of the lowest annual growth rates recorded since the Second World War. GDP continues to decline in Japan and shows just 1 per cent growth in the European Union. The US growth of real GDP is only 2.4 per cent, and there has been deceleration in the last quarter. Summing up this section, the report says, “The world thus finds itself facing a new imperialist offensive in all spheres. That such an offensive is being mounted in the midst of a grave economic crisis, in itself sets in motion the process of greater resistance all over the world.”

Dealing with the national situation, the report comes down heavily on the communal agenda of the BJP-led central government and the Sangh Parivar and their drive to transform the Indian Republic into a fascistic ‘Hindu Rashtra’. This is clearly seen in the heightening of tension on the Ayodhya issue and the killings in Gujarat in the name of religion. The report calls for a massive campaign to defeat this communal agenda if India is to retain its secular, democratic, republican character. While resolutely defending the rights of minorities, the report reiterates that minority fundamentalism is also harmful to democracy and secularism and thus has to be countered.

CRISIS IN INDIAN AGRICULTURE

Attacking the economic policies of the BJP-led central government, the report says that the last four years have seen an accelerated pursuit of the economic policies of liberalisation and privatisation, which has increased the exploitation of the people and widened social inequalities. The economic situation in the country is worsening day by day. Privatisation of public sector units and large-scale closures are leading to massive unemployment. On top of this is the withdrawal of the State from vital sectors like education and health. The LPG policies have also led to unprecedented corruption, attacks on democracy and the federal structure and changing the country’s foreign policy in favour of the USA by the “BJP-led central government, which is the most pro-imperialist government in independent India.”

It is in this background that the report pinpoints the various aspects of the crisis in Indian agriculture. This crisis is the inevitable result of the implementation of the LPG policies like reversal of land reforms, removal of quantitative restrictions, entry of multinationals in the foodgrains market, disbanding the public distribution system and procurement, changes in patent laws, privatisation of the seed and fertiliser industries and also of water and power, reduced public investment in agriculture, crunch in credit facilities, disastrous ecological changes and attacks on agricultural workers, each of which is succinctly analysed in the report. On top of this is the worst drought witnessed by the country in 2002 and the utterly callous attitude of the central government to the plight of the drought-hit peasants and agricultural workers.

Space does not permit a detailed account of the crisis in agriculture as analysed in the report. But a few startling facts and figures mentioned in the course of the report itself would certainly serve to throw blinding light on the unprecedented crisis in Indian agriculture today.     

·        The growth rate in agriculture achieved in the seventh and eighth five year plans was 3.7 per cent and 3.9 per cent respectively, but the growth rate in agriculture achieved in the ninth five year plan (1997-2002) is just 0.2 per cent. This is a direct result of the implementation of LPG policies in agriculture.

·        The drought year 2002-2003 has been disastrous for Indian agriculture. This year the area sown with paddy is lagging behind by 57 lakh hectares, pulses by 17 lakh hectares, cotton by 12 lakh hectares and oilseeds by 9 lakh hectares. As against the state governments’ drought relief requirements of Rs. 35000 crore, the BJP-led central government has so far allotted only around Rs 2000 crore.

·        As per the second advance estimates of crop production, released by the union agriculture ministry on February 10, 2003, the total grain output will drop by almost 29 million tonnes to 183.17 million tonnes, which is a fall of 13.6 per cent.

·        Oilseeds production this year is estimated to fall by almost 25 per cent to 15.4 million tonnes, which is the lowest since 1987-88. Similarly, cotton production is expected to fall by 11.4 per cent to 8.94 million bales, which also is the lowest since 1988-89.

·        The maximum impact has been on coarse cereals like jowar and bajra, the poor man’s food, for which the expected output of 25.10 million tonnes will be the lowest since 1972-73. As per the NSS, the poorest 40 per cent in rural areas derive 75 per cent of their nutritional needs from coarse cereals.

·        Considering the alarming situation of the rate of growth of foodgrain production falling below the rate of growth of population during the last ten years, experts warn that India will become a net importer of foodgrains in 30 years, when the projected demand for foodgrains would be 260-264 million tonnes.

·        Recently the Tamilnadu government has come out with a scheme of handing over 50 lakh acres of government wasteland to multinational companies and private farms. Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and some other states are also planning similar schemes of reversal of land reforms.

·        The circular of May 2002 issued by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forestry, ordering state governments to evict all tribals and non-tribals from forest lands, will seriously affect the 8 crore strong adivasi population in the country, most of whom have no legal records of their lands.

·        Agricultural exports of India, which were worth 6.83 billion dollars in 1996, had declined to 5.67 billion dollars in 1999, a decline of more than 16 per cent in three years. During the last three years after 1999, the decline in exports is expected to be even steeper due to massive import liberalisation.

·        In the year 2000, the subsidies given by different countries to their agriculture were as follows, calculated in percentage of total value of their agricultural produce: Japan – 72.5 per cent, Columbia – 54, South Korea – 61, Europe – 37, China – 34, USA – 29, Pakistan – 26, India – 3 per cent!

·        Due to the lifting of quantitative restrictions on agricultural produce by the BJP-led regime and its refusal to impose adequate import tariffs, highly subsidised imported products like skimmed milk powder, edible oils, sugar, tea, coffee, arecanut, apples, coconut, silk, cotton etc have started flooding the Indian market. This has led to an unprecedented crash in prices for the Indian peasantry, driving it to further indebtedness and to a large number of distress peasant suicides in several states.

·        In the last three years, the BJP-led regime raised issue price for APL by 85 per cent for wheat and 61 per cent for rice. In 2001, BPL issue prices for wheat and rice were also raised by 66 and 62 per cent respectively. It was this that reduced the offtake heavily, with the result that foodgrain stocks in government godowns sharply rose from 21.7 million tonnes in 1998 to over 60 million tonnes in 2002.

·        The BJP-led regime, bowing to imperialist pressure, amended the patent act to allow private monopoly over seeds and plants. MNCs have now acquired patents on Basmati rice, Neem, Turmeric, Ginger, Pepper, Jeera, Karela, Jamun and other gifts of mother nature, developed by the Indian peasantry.

·        MNC giants like Monsanto and others are already holding more than 40 per cent share of the Indian seed market, which is having an annual turnover of Rs 2000 crore and a growth of 15 per cent per year. The pesticide industry is being dominated by 10 MNCs and 25 large Indian business houses.

·        Now the BJP-led central government has opened the foodgrain market to another MNC giant Cargil and is allowing MNCs to invade the fertiliser industry as well by closing down public sector fertiliser units like Durgapur in West Bengal, Barauni in Bihar and Sindri in Jharkhand.

·        Apart from the ongoing privatisation of power, of which the Enron fiasco in Maharashtra was the classic example, water is also being privatised. The Congress(I) state government of Chhatisgarh has privatised the Sheonath river, and the Congress(I)-led UDF state government of Kerala has approached London and Washington-based MNCs for privatisation of the Periyar and Malampuzha rivers.

·        The working days per year for agricultural workers came down from 123 in the eighties to just 78 in the nineties. Landless labourers constituted 24.94 per cent of the rural population in 1981, 26.50 per cent in 1991 and over 30 per cent in 2001, indicating increased pauperisation of the peasantry.

·        The agricultural sector, which employs 64 per cent of the total work force and contributes 27.4 per cent of the GDP, is the backbone of the Indian economy. Yet the agricultural sector which received 34.5 per cent allocation in the first five year plan, is getting only 18 per cent allocation now. One result of this is that, even after five decades of independence, only 35 per cent of agricultural land is under irrigation.

·        In 1970-71, 41 per cent of total irrigated land was dependent on government canals, while tube wells accounted for only 14 per cent. By 2000, tube wells were irrigating 35 per cent of all irrigated land, while canals accounted for only 30 per cent. This has meant a major drain of ground water resources, and this trend stems from a steady decline in public investment. Even if properly used, the amount in the central budget for agriculture is not sufficient even to maintain the existing irrigation infrastructure.

·        In sharp contrast to this bleak picture is the performance of the CPI(M)-led Left Front government of West Bengal for the last 26 years. The Mid Term Appraisal of the ninth five year plan explains the West Bengal situation thus: “ The rate of growth of crop productivity in West Bengal during 1977-95 was nearly 5 per cent, due to land reforms and spurt in shallow tube well irrigation. Security of tenure has altered the credit relations that had earlier trapped the peasants in debt cycles. With increasing access to institutional credit, the farmer was able to put more land under HYV (high yielding variety) cultivation. He also invested in shallow tube wells, thanks to easy availability of ground water. With assured irrigation, the cropping pattern during rabi also changed in favour of high value for non-food crops such as potato, oilseeds etc.”  

The report then took stock of the major struggles led by the All India Kisan Sabha during the last four years and their impact on the progress of the organisation.

(To Be Concluded)