Farming looks mighty easy when your plough is a pencil, and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field,” 34th US President Dwight D Eisenhower once said. One may feel that agricultural laws in India have been devised by such pencil-pushers, citing reforms. The real issue lies in efficient procurement and distribution of foodgrains, growth and security for the farming community, and ensuring adequate nutrition to the population.
Karnataka has been the main South Indian state to witness farmers’ agitation in solidarity with those protesting on the borders of Delhi against Union Government’s three farm laws. The Karnataka government’s own Land Reforms (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020, and Karnataka Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation and Development) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020, carry enough fodder for resentment among the farming community to agitate.
However, the protests against Central farm laws at Delhi’s gates gave a boost to the state farmers to “express solidarity” with their brethren near Delhi. Karnataka farmers are against the Karnataka Land Reforms (Amendment) Ordinance scrapping Sections 79 (a) and 79 (B) to throw agricultural lands open for sale to those from non-agriculture background — going against he Swaminathan Commission recommendations and spelling a death knell for marginal farmers owning small landholdings of 1-3 acres and those in joint families.
Manohar Shetty, state secretary, Raitha Sangha and Hasiru Sene, says, “The recent Land Reforms Act will result in corporate farming instead of cooperative farming. There are chances of misusing the land for non-agricultural purposes by corporates. Already half the properties in Dakshina Kannada have become industrial areas. Through the new APMC Act, there is a hidden agenda to weaken APMCs.
We demand the government to repeal these laws or else we will intensify our protests.” They fear the glistening sword of corporate invasion into the agriculture sector, which is likely to throw procurement, distribution and efforts to increase nutrition among the population into a tailspin. This, at a time when the Global Hunger Index 2020 ranks India at 94th position in a list of 107 countries measuring undernourishment, stunting, wasting, and mortality rates among children — a stark reminder of how deep this crisis is in our country.
Dr Veena Shatrugna, former Deputy Director, National Institute of Nutrition, says, “For easy, sustained access to nutritious food, focus should be on locally-available, low-cost food. We can’t expect the Ambanis to give us a cheaper price. We don’t even procure millet, so how will we expect it to be distributed? Rice is a staple food in the state.
But the government should ensure they distribute more than 5 kg of rice (per family), because with that quantity you get only 600 calories per day — which is almost one-third the expected nutrition per day.” She suggests that the food basket under National Food Security Act move away from its overemphasis on cereals to more diversified nutrient-rich food to tackle malnourishment.
Former vice-chancellor of University of Agricultural Sciences Prof S A Patil says the only solution to the problem is that the State Government directly procure jowar, ragi, wheat, paddy, red gram and groundnut. It should distribute jowar in North Karnataka along with wheat and tur dal and in rest of the State, it should distribute ragi along with wheat, groundnuts and tur dal in sufficient quantities at affordable prices so the farmers can get remunerative prices.
The government should distribute groundnut oil, safflower oil and sunflower oil through the public distribution system to address malnutrition, he suggests. But to ensure such a system, laws need to be more protective rather of farmers rather than rendering them vulnerable to the corporate sector, which is the reason for the agitation.
Kodihalli Chandrashekar, president, Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, says farmers across the country are demanding the implementation of Swaminathan Commission report on minimum support price, but the government has fixed it unscientifically. “We are agitating not just to show our solidarity (with North Indian farmers). We have our own demands,” says Manu Somaiah, president, Kodagu district Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha.
“The farm bills have been amended claiming to end the reign of middlemen within APMCs. When the government cannot curb middlemen within government firms, how can privatisation solve the problem of middlemen in the agriculture sector,” asks Somaiah. “Instead, import and export policies must be changed to benefit the farmer. Instead of privatisation of agriculture sector, the government must implement the Swaminathan report, which states that cost of production of different crops must be considered and MSPs fixed at 1.5 times the production cost.
The amendments will result in privatisation, forcing farmers to give up agriculture,” he says.
The Swaminathan Commission recommends setting up of a National Land Use Advisory Service linking land use, considering marketing and ecological parameters on region and geography-specific basis; prohibiting non-agricultural use of farmlands; making wastelands available for farmers; grazing rights for tribal communities in forests; reforms in irrigation and water distribution among farmers; rainwater harvesting; and groundwater recharging to increase water availability.
Besides, and importantly, it recommends extending institutional credit by reducing crop loan interest rates, and moratorium on debt recovery, agricultural risk fund and a separate Kisan Credit Card for women farmers. Raitha Sena Karnataka president Veeresh Sobaradmath says if the government sets permanent procurement centres to purchase the produce directly from farmers, a majority of farmers’ problems can be solved.
“Of course, reforms in the sector are necessary, but they should not prove detrimental to farmers by creating a monopoly of the corporate sector.” An agriculture economist, who heads a government agency, requesting anonymity, says a uniform agriculture policy by the Centre for the entire country is against the mandate of the Constitution. However, the federal structure has been disrespected over the years irrespective of which party is in power.
However, Dr RS Deshpande, former Director, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru, who also served as head of the Agricultural Development and Rural Transformation Centre, says there is a lot of misinformation about farm laws. “Agriculture is not just a state subject. As per the third amendment of the Constitution, agriculture commodities are under the concurrent list. These agri laws are related to trade and commerce, too. There is a lot of politics here which is affecting farmers and common people.”
Inputs: Ashwini M Sripad & Chetana Belagere/Bengaluru, K Shivakumar/Mysuru, Prajna GR/Madikeri, Ramkrishna Badseshi/Kalaburagi Pramodkumar Vaidya/Hubballi, Divya Cutinho/Mangaluru, Prakash Samaga/Udupi