“I just want the Budget to double up our compensation for the failed crops and adequate power supply during irrigation,” said Sudhanshu Shukla, a farmer from Chota Bangda village, which is about 40 kms away from Indore in Madhya Pradesh.
Sudhanshu, 42, had cultivated soybean in over 20 acres last year, 80 per cent of which got ruined due to heavy rains. Gaon Connection has endeavoured to find out his expectations from the budget 2020-21 over the phone. What does he want from the government?
“After the soybean crop got ruined, the officers came several times to assess the damage. In the name of relief, a few hundred rupees were given while the losses ran in thousands. After soybean, we now look forward to our crop of wheat but the power situation is very bad. We have a power supply only for four hours a day. I simply wish that the amount of compensation be increased in the Budget because now every year, some crop or the other gets spoiled,” Sudhanshu added.
The Union Budget 2020-21, is now a few days away. Like every year, this year too, about 10.07 crore farmers in the agrarian country look forward to the Budget in hope of their betterment. Last year’s budget was called a farmer-centric budget. What do the farmers distressed with the low price of crops and adverse weather conditions seek from the government in the upcoming Budget? To find out, Gaon Connection spoke to the farmers of different states of the country and tried to find out their expectations from the Budget.
Piyush Kumar, a 39-year-old farmer from Akhlora village in Charthawar block in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh, cultivates sugarcane. Talking about his expectations from the Budget, he said: “We fail to get the price for our crops according to the input cost that is increasing. Three years ago, a sack of DAP cost us Rs 1,050, which is Rs 1,450 today. Electricity prices have shot up. The price of weeding has doubled in the past three years, but the price of sugarcane that we got for a quintal was Rs 275, two years ago and it is still the same today.”
“We keep reading in the newspapers that the state and the central government are doing a lot of work to double our income, but how will our profits increase when the expenditure increases and the price of the crop remains the same? From the Budget, I want the pricing of our produce to be fair and the prices of fertilizers required for cultivation to be reduced,” Piyush added.
Releasing the Budget 2019-20, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that this Budget is of villages, poor and farmers. Let us then take a look at the announcements that she had made towards the farmers.
- Oilseeds will make farmers self-reliant
- 10,000 new farmer productive organizations to form in five years
- Dairy works will be promoted
- It will be made easier for the farmers to live and do business
- Zero budget farming will be promoted to make farmers self-reliant
“I say that the government should not make any new announcement for the farmers in this budget, only that the earlier announcements that have been made should be implemented. You talked about giving one and a half times the cost, which did not happen. Nothing has happened to promote zero-budget farming, too. The government has said many times that it is crop prices to the farmers based on the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission, but on the basis of C2 + FL the government is still not buying the crop from the farmers,” said Avik Shah, convener of Jai Kisan Andolan.
Farmer Nemraj of Khergaon Patalkoda in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal cultivates cotton. He has 18 acres of farmland. He said: “I didn’t even get the price of cotton this year that the government has fixed. I cultivate long fibre cotton whose MSP is Rs 5,550 per quintal, but I could sell cotton only at Rs 4,800. They refuse to buy crops by citing some quality issue or the other in Mandi. The price of Rs 5,500 is very low considering our input costs and we do not even get it. I want the government to increase the MSP in the Budget and relax the rules for crop procurement in the Mandis.”
Coffee farmers hopeful of a relief package
Troubled by weather and falling prices, Karnataka coffee growers are expecting a relief package from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Before the Budget 2020, the officials of the Karnataka Growers Federation, Karnataka Planters Association and Kodagu Planters Association had met the finance minister on behalf of coffee farmers and sought government help to pull the sector out of its current crisis.
Karnataka is the largest coffee-producing state in the country, but the farmers here have been suffering from low prices and climate change for the past few years. The situation is such that the price of coffee has reached its lowest of 26 years. Around 1.5 lakh coffee growers in Karnataka and 1.5 lakh people associated with it, therefore, face a livelihood crisis. A report by the Karnataka Growers Federation states that between 2001 and 2011, 150 coffee farmers of the state have committed suicide.
Coffee growers hope that they will be provided relief in the Budget 2020-21. They are also demanding a relief package from the government. UM Tirthmallesh from the Karnataka Growers Federation told Gaon Connection over the phone: “Simultaneous drought and floods are affecting our yields that are continuously decreasing. Coffee farmers are currently in distress. So, we have met the Union Finance Minister ahead of the Budget, and demanded that we be compensated for our loss and also a special relief package to bail out the country’s coffee sector from its ongoing crisis.”
The coffee production of Karnataka has gone down by 40 per cent. In the years 2002, 2005 and 2008, 2016, where the farmers of the state were reeling under drought, excessive rains in the years 2006, 2007, 2008, 2018 and 2019 ruined the coffee plantations. During Kharif season 2019, the government of Karnataka has declared 80 talukas in 17 districts of the state as flood-affected areas. These include three coffee-producing districts Kodagu (three talukas), Hasan (3 talukas) and Chikmagalur (4 talukas), that together produce 70 per cent of the total coffee produced in the country.
The farmer organizations have also demanded the government to reduce the GST on fertilizers (goods and services tax) and subsidy on MOP.
The cost of coffee cultivation per hectare has increased by 2.6 times in the last eight years. The price of fertilizers like DAP, urea, potash, rock phosphate, Suphala was around Rs 1,560 per sack in 2011 as a whole which is at present Rs 4,030. The price of fertilizers like potassium chloride (MOP) was Rs 250 a sack in the year 2011 which is now Rs 945. The most essential fertilizer for coffee plants is potash. Similarly, DAP was Rs 500 per bag in the year 2011 and is now Rs 1,440 a bag. Although the price of urea has gone down by Rs 15 in these eight years, Suphala has increased from Rs 290 a sack to Rs 1,030.
Coffee farmers have also demanded that just as paddy and pepper have been brought under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, coffee also gets the benefit of the scheme.
“The state government is not charging any interest on agricultural loans up to Rs 3 lakh whereas interest upon loans of Rs 10 lakh is up to 3 per cent. So, we have demanded from the central government that the interest rates of loans from national banks should also be reduced, because the loss-making farmers are now taking loans to keep afloat,” said UM Tirthmallesh.
Demand for Income Security Act
A few days ahead of the Budget, the Consortium of Indian Farmers Association (CIFA) has demanded from the government, on behalf of farmers across the country, to provide for income security act in the Budget 2020-21, as well as double the income of farmers by the end of the year 2022. CIFA advisor P Chengal Reddy, advisor at CIFA, through his website informed: “The economy of the country will gain momentum only when the sectors related to agriculture would progress. Improvement in the economy is possible only if the farmers’ incomes increase.”
These are the demands from the CIFA
- CIFA has demanded that the government sets the minimum support price of crops on the basis of the recommendation of the Swaminathan Commission. After adding the cost of cultivation, family wages, land price to the MSP, the farmers get a benefit of at least 50 per cent.
- Straw bank to be made. Collect the straw or hay and send it where there is a fodder problem. This can increase the profit of the farmers and also mitigate the risk of pollution.
- If better arrangements are made for upkeep and preservation of fruits and vegetables in the country, the income of the farmers can increase. It is imperative that in this Budget, the government should release more budgets for construction of warehouses.
- Further, vigilance should be maintained in the export policy. The decision to export pulses and oils should not be taken on the basis of speculation.
- A law should be passed to determine the income of the agricultural labourers and landless farmers.
- The farmers do not get the right price and the consumers have to pay a heavy price for the same produce. This is because middlemen hoard the stocks. Therefore, it is now necessary that under the Commodity Stock Act, the stock limits for the crops are fixed.
- Agricultural equipment and processed food should be excluded from the purview of GST.
- Rice and tobacco exports to be encouraged.
- To create commodity groups at the national level to promote horticulture cultivation.
