Mandate 2024: Farmers

On May 10, Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Shekhawat, who had come to oversee the Lok Sabha election campaign of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Subhash Sharma from Anandpur Sahib, had to face the wrath of protesting farmer unions in Punjab. The local police had to intervene to control the situation.

But this cannot be dismissed as a local incident. All 13 BJP candidates in the state are facing the wrath of farmer unions, who are hell-bent on taking revenge for the clashes at Khanauri and Shambhu barriers in Punjab in February this year.

At that time, the Haryana police had used force to stop a group of aggressive unions on tractors, earthmovers and a variety of vehicles from marching towards Delhi. They had several demands, including a legal framework for minimum support price (MSP) for all crops and a complete waiver of farmers’ loans (farmers in Punjab alone owe institutional lenders Rs 75,000 crore). Subsequent negotiations with Union ministers failed, leaving discontent simmering.

The anger of the farmer unions can also be seen in neighbouring Haryana, although its effect is limited to certain areas dominated by Jats in four seats Sirsa, Hisar, Rohtak and Sonipat. Here their demands go beyond issues related to agriculture and also want a share in the governance.

The agricultural Jat community has dominated the state’s politics since the formation of Haryana in 1966. But their alienation from the BJP and the corresponding anger began after Punjabi Khatri Manohar Lal Khattar was made the chief minister in 2014.

Apart from the protests against the now-repealed farm laws, there have been many incidents of outrage in the last decade. For instance, the violent Jat reservation agitation in 2016. Then, there was the wrestlers’ agitation in Delhi in which Haryana’s khap panchayats rallied behind female Jat wrestlers.

The community leaders are now rallying around former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and supporting the farmers’ unions, which are not allowing his opponents to enter Jat-dominated villages. Similar scenes are being seen in Punjab as well, where farmers are planning protests in areas where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to campaign.

Why farmers matter

Now, as the general election enters its final phase, Haryana goes to polls on May 25 and Punjab on June 1, both the BJP and the opposition have realised the alienation that exists among the farmer community across the country. An often overlooked fact is that farmers are India’s largest voter group, often overtaking caste, another deciding factor in Indian politics.

In fact, almost every caste is connected to land and cultivation. In this section, which is living on the brink of risk and financial insecurity, the promise of government help is relevant for everyone. Then it is not surprising that all the manifestos have many guarantees for the farmers.

The last available government data on farmer households, collected in the 77th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS) in 2019 for the period July 2018 to June 2019, shows that farmer households constitute 54 per cent of the rural households in the country.

In fact, 21 percent of rural families are completely dependent on agriculture. But even though the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6-7 percent in the last two decades, the average growth rate of the agriculture sector has been only about 4 percent.

Prime Minister Modi had committed to doubling agricultural income while addressing a rally during the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in February 2016. According to NSS data, the average monthly income of agricultural families increased from Rs 6,426 in 2012-13 to Rs 10,218 in 2018-19. This does not reflect the actual doubling of farmers’ income. Even when the Modi government has designed social sector schemes to increase rural income.

For example, the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, under which farmers are given financial assistance of Rs 6,000 per year directly. But data shows that about 79 percent of agricultural families are earning less than Rs 10,000 per month.

Yet the commitment to double farm income is now missing from political rallies or the BJP’s manifesto, and party leaders instead talk about promoting farm-to-farm sales infrastructure and increasing market access. This is certainly working for farmers elsewhere, but not in Punjab and Haryana, where government agencies are ensuring assured purchase of agricultural produce at a pre-determined MSP.

In the last 10 years, even though the BJP has made considerable efforts to reduce the input costs for farmers, the challenges of ensuring remunerative prices for the produce remain. Farmers of Punjab and Haryana, who are facing poor production in terms of both quality and quantity, are heavily dependent on government agencies for the purchase of produce at MSP.

The government announces MSP for 23 crops and this announced rate acts as a safety net when market prices fall. For example, in Punjab, about 85 percent of the agricultural produce reaching the mandis is purchased by government agencies at MSP.

The Modi government tried to bring structural reforms in the sector by pushing three farm laws in 2020. Those laws sought to give farmers more freedom to fix prices directly with private players and introduce a system of contract farming.

The intention was to increase competition and investment in the agricultural sector. But in the absence of legally assured prices, farmers did not have the confidence to enter into such an arrangement with big corporate companies. After massive protests by farmers, the government was forced to repeal those laws.

Having suffered a setback on that front, the government has moved to strengthen cooperatives and set up logistics and storage facilities. This is reflected in the promises being made by the BJP. Prime Minister Modi is talking about setting up new clusters for the production of staple food items, which is essentially an extension of the TOP (Tomato, Onion and Potato) scheme run by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries.

In rallies in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand, BJP leaders have also expressed commitment to focus on millet or coarse grain production and natural farming. The agriculture ministry is already planning ways to create the necessary market infrastructure and promote digital trading of commodities.

There is also a commitment to diversify crops along with a proper price support strategy. However, unlike the Congress, which has promised a legal guarantee of MSP, the BJP believes that assured procurement and fixed prices are not enough to create a strong market place for agricultural produce.

Who is their keeper?

In any case, there is no dearth of politicising farmers’ issues during the election season. In Himachal Pradesh, where voting is due on June 1, Congress Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu directly blamed the Prime Minister for approving the import of apples from the US, which has led to a drop in domestic prices.

The Congress, which opposed the three farm laws, is now promising to set up a mechanism for farmers to sell their produce at their farm gate or any other place of their choice, with an option to upload the sale and purchase agreement on a digital ledger. In alliance with the Sharad Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra, it has also promised an e-market run by an autonomous body representing progressive farmers and farmers’ organisations.

Down south, former Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has often said his concern for farmers’ welfare led his Janata Dal (Secular) to join hands with the BJP. The alliance proved to be a boon for coconut growers in Mandya and Hassan, JD(S) strongholds, when in mid-February the central government approved the purchase of 7,000 tonnes of bal copra (dried coconut kernels), an issue apparently pushed by the JD(S) in view of the impending elections.

In Odisha, where Lok Sabha and Assembly elections are being held simultaneously in four phases, the Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government has decided to extend the Krishak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA or KALIA) scheme for three years. This scheme, being run parallel to the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Yojana, provides farmers an additional Rs 4,000 annual assistance in two installments for farming. Apart from this, an annual assistance of Rs 12,500 is also given to eligible landless agricultural families.

BJP changed its strategy

Though the opposition may attack the BJP for not fulfilling some of its promises to farmers, it has adopted a pragmatic approach that focuses on things that need to be done. At his May 11 rally in Bargarh, Odisha, Modi said he was working tirelessly to empower farmers. The prime minister mentioned how poor and expensive supply of urea had been a bane for farmers under previous governments and how his government was providing it at less than Rs 300 per bag (50 kg).

Overall, over the past decade, the Centre has focused on reducing the pressure of input costs on farmers by facilitating access to seeds, good quality fertilisers, urea, and other chemicals, providing income support through PM Kisan, improving access to irrigation and electricity for farms, and deepening banking and insurance penetration in this crucial sector. Agricultural loans have grown from Rs 7.3 lakh crore in 2013-14 to Rs 21.5 lakh crore in 2022-23. Many BJP-ruled states have provided incentives beyond PM Kisan.

The farming community has not traditionally been a BJP supporter. This is why the party is struggling to get the support of farmers. But in the last decade, under the guidance of Prime Minister Modi, the party has established effective outreach to hitherto isolated communities and this has been achieved under a program that BJP leaders call holistic social justice. In such a situation, the BJP will be hoping that on June 4, it will reap a good harvest by overcoming the resentment seen in the rural heartland of the country.