It prima facie seems that farmers protest is losing its popularity. As the time is passing, number of farmers are reducing at protest sites around Delhi. Though their leaders are trying their best to attract more farmers from different khaps/panchayat but the turnout is less than expected.
What can be the reason behind losing popularity? It is essential to enquire this strange behaviour because if the new land reforms would have adversely impacted the farmers’ interest then the farmers from all over the country would have continued the stir, even if they could not travel to the National Capital. Therefore, there are likely to be certain economic and other factors which may be having an impact on this diminishing interest.
It is pointless to discuss here the problems/challenges faced by Indian farmers as now they are well known to all, however, Before we focus on the new laws and its impact we need to understand in brief that why farming has become "घाटेकासौदा" and why the previous Govts could not address these problems in last three decades :
- The previous years governments did not focus on providing long term solutions for turning farming into a profitable industry .As their main focus was on giving subsidies on producing certain crops which resulted in shifting focus of farmers on producing certain crops which attracts subsidies i. e. Wheat, rice, soybean. Later on it became difficult for farmers to come out of this vicious cycle and shifting to other profitable crops like peanuts, fruits crops etc. Later on due to this cycle, the production was reduced while the production cost increased which resulted in increasing losses to farmers.
- Many governments in past primarily focused on giving doles ; free electricity, free water, loan waiver etc etc. It might have given temporary reprieve to farmers but in the long run made farmers more dependent on Govt which in turn failed to provide any Long term solution, as a result the farmers continued to suffer and the suicides increased.
The Current Government’s Approach.
The present government, on the other hand, has focused on these basic issues and started working on long term solutions
which resulted in Three farmers laws. Government has made these laws with a basic aim for modernization of farming by creating E- mandies /E platform where farmers can sell their products anywhere in India. It will reduce their dependency on local traders and enable them to get prices for their product..
Secondly, government is now transferring value of produce directly to the farmers’ accounts which is not acceptable to middlemen and brokers as they are losing their profits.
Apart from this government has also acted on some allied measures which will support farmers to increase their profits.
Recently government has allowed the use of ethanol in Petrol. Currently ethanol is produced mainly from molasses {sugar by product} and in small quantities from grain.
Government has announced production of ethanol by wheat, rice, Maize and other grains. Due to which the additional demand of these products will increase.
In 2014 only 38 crore litres of ethanol was purchased by petroleum companies, now every year they are purchasing 320 crore ltrs valued at Rs 21000 crore and major part of this amount is reached to farmers pocket. Looking into this the government has decided to use 20 % blending of ethanol in petrol by 2025.
As per the Nitiayog report published on 3rd June 2021, use of 20% ethanol in petrol will save Rs 30000 crore to government.
The expected demand of ethanol by 2025 will be approximately 1016 Cr ltrs. Currently ethanol production capacity is 426 Cr ltrs from molasses based distilleries and 258 Cr ltrs from grain based distilleries. The estimated demand will be 60 lakh mt of sugar and 165 lakh mt of grains. Which our country can easily manage.
Apart from that to push out the farmers from loss incurring crops, government has announced various schemes to promote farming of fruits, medicinal, herbs and other other horticultural crops to increase farmer's profits.
In current season government has procured record 418. 47 lakh mt of wheat valued at Rs 82848 crores on MSP. Out of which approxRs 50000 crores already deposited to farmers accounts directly.
Paddy is procured worth Rs 1.26 lakh crore among this ongoing protest of farmers and about 97.70 lakh farmers were benefitted. Roughly 31 %of above purchase from Punjab alone. Major beneficiary is MP also as 50 % of total wheat procurement is from MP.
Conclusion.
The silent efforts of the government to increase farmers income is in progress slowly but surely and it appears that farmers are now understanding its benefits, which is now being indicated on ground ; the reduction in numbers of protesters.. Hence day by day the number of farmers at protest site is decreasing.
It is therefore felt that these long term initiatives will result in turning farming to "फायदेकासौदा" From "घाटेकासौदा" and more employment in this sector will be generated.
Author ; Mr Pankaj Bhatnagar has a huge experience behind him, having spent almost 40 years in the Food and Agriculture Industry. He has served the industry for such a long period that he is well aware of its nitty gritties and the problems/challenges that Indian agriculture and the farmers face, consequently he is able to provide a Holistic view of the various aspects that have an impact on Indian agriculture and Food industry.