Relevance: GS-3: Agricultural produce and issues and related constraints.

Key Phrases: Farmers movement, 'knee- jerk reaction', Three farm laws, Farmer unions, Minimum Support Prices (MSPs), Farm loan waivers.

Context:

• The farmers movement last year succeeded in forcing the government to repeal the three farm laws passed in 2020.
• Neither did the farm agitation find mention in the political discourse in some parts of the electoral landscape in the recently-concluded state elections nor did succeed in generating any political consensus on most of the issues that farmers were protesting.
  1. In Punjab, a group of farm protestors also contested elections but failed to register their presence.
  2. In Uttar Pradesh, the agitation failed to mobilize farmers beyond the state’s western belt, which was the hotbed of farmer mobilization.
• It is too early to assess the impact of the agitation on Indian politics.
  1. The electoral outcomes are not the best metrics to analyse, given the multitude of factors at play.
  2. This is true that farmers ' movement did not seem to influence voters beyond a narrow geographical region.

What is the editor's analysis regarding changing dynamics of the Farmers' movement in India?

1. Mainly 'knee- jerk reaction' against Government policies :
   • The farmers' movement was largely a response to an action of the government rather than an organic mobilization over the concerns of a large majority of farmers.
   • The repeal of the farm laws, the very raison d’etre of the protest ceased to exist, proved this phenomenon.
2. Fragmented and lack of consensus:
   • Farmers deserve credit for a successful mobilization for a sustained period despite hardships, their political articulation failed to find resonance even in other parts of UP or neighbouring Uttarakhand.
   • The reason highlighted is the absence of a coherent and co-ordinated approach for their struggle.
3. Failure of farmer unions:
   • Farmer unions failed to find common ground is not only true of these but also of other farmer protests.
   • During the past five years, several states have seen strong farmer protests:
     1. Madhya Pradesh, where seven farmers were killed some years ago in police firing.
     2. Farmers in Maharashtra took out a ‘Long March’ to highlight their plight.
     3. Farmers from Tamil Nadu protested in Delhi for 100 days.
   • Despite spirited mobilizations in various states, these farmers unions have failed to build alliances.
   • They have also failed to reach common ground with workers in rural areas, including agricultural and non-farm casual labourers, even though their lives and livelihoods are also affected by agriculture.
4. Changing nature of agriculture:
   • In the last three decades, one change pertains to cropping patterns across states. Since the beginning of the last decade, horticulture crops have overtaken the total production of food-grain in the country.
   • This shift away from primarily cereal-based agriculture to a more diversified cropping pattern dominated by horticulture and commercial crops has implications for how the state supports agriculture and also the farm-market interface.
   • Unlike rice and wheat, which continue to enjoy state support by way of public procurement at minimum support prices (MSPs), no such protection is available to horticulture or other crops such as coarse cereals, oilseeds and pulses.
   • This increases not only the dependence of these crops on the market, but also their vulnerability to price fluctuations.
   • That is why agricultural concerns differ in states where MSP-led procurement is not dominant or state mandis are non-functional.
5. Increasing input cost and populist policies:
   • Growing trend of monetization of agricultural inputs. The need for large working capital is often met through loans.
   • Greater dependence on markets has led to increased variability in output prices and loan defaults.
   • Demands for farm loan waivers are now a recurring phenomenon, with political parties increasingly ready to grant them.
6. Increasing capital intensity and recourse to mechanization:
   • This led to a decline in the use of farm labour.
   • This has forced most casual-wage farm labourers to seek employment elsewhere, weakening the solidarity among wage workers and cultivators.
   • With the rising dominance of the non-farm sector, the challenge for agrarian politics is to go beyond the narrow demands of loan waivers and MSP guarantees.

Way Forward:

• At a time when India’s rural economy has been in distress for a long period amid declining agricultural profits and stagnant wages, agrarian mobilizations will require a broadening of the movement for it to have any political impact.
• The need is to build coalitions across different classes of farmers as well as wage workers who are impacted by the prevailing rural distress.
• In an agricultural environment that’s growing increasingly vulnerable to market vagaries, such a mobilization is necessary for farmers to attain a stronger bargaining position vis-a-vis the state, which has a duty to protect agriculture, farmers and the rural economy.

Source: The Hindu BL

Mains Question:

Q. Stagnant farm incomes present a strong case to modernise agriculture in India on the commercial line. In this context, critically examine how the farmers movements happening across India have jeopardised the government efforts of commercialisation of the agriculture sector. ( 15 marks).