It is time to reconsider the agricultural concept of India’s economy. Ashoka Stambh is evidence of this. Historically, India has been an industrial nation that developed the technology to build monuments and medical instruments one such intrument is MSP minimun support price for farmers.
In those days, there was a good balance between manufacturing, agriculture, and trade. As election interests have contaminated every sphere of government, farming-related policies have harmed more people than they have helped, perhaps not only the real farmers but also the ordinary taxpayer who funds the governments.
Protesting Farmers
The Left-leaning organizations have long tried to gain support from farmers and portray Bharat as agrarian, ludicrous at best and utterly baseless at worst. From an economic and employment perspective, rural India is no longer agrarian.
A study report by Niti Aayog member Ramesh Chand examined the rural economy’s transition. He concluded that since 2004-05, the economy is no longer dependent on agriculture.
Agriculture is being abandoned in favour of non-agricultural occupations. Since the latter earns more money, it’s purely a pragmatic decision with no emotional attachment. According to Chand, between 1993-1994 and 2004-05, after the economic reforms of 1991-92, this structural transformation amounted to a decrease in agricultural growth to 1.87 per cent and a rise in the non-farm economy to 7.93 per cent.
From 1993-94 to 2004-05, agricultural contributions to the rural economy fell sharply, from 57 per cent to 39 per cent. The rural economy became less dependent on agriculture by 2004-05 and became more dependent on non-agricultural activities.
MSP ( MINIMUM SUPPORT PRICE)
As long as the government sets the price at a profitable level for farmers, it is known as the minimum support price (MSP). In addition, it can refer to the price paid by government agencies when buying a crop.
Indian food shortages caused the program to be implemented in the mid-1960s. It’s only a government policy, though. CACP has recommended that the Centre set MSPs for 23 farm commodities: seven kinds of cereal , five pulses and four commercial crops. The government buys corn, wheat, and paddy at their MSPs.
The primary reason for this is political pressures and the National Food Security Act (NFSA), which mandates meeting the food grain requirements of the Public Distribution System (PDS). The only crop to receive MSP payments legislatively is sugarcane.
Since MSP is an administrative instrument, the government is free to increase the MSP when necessary. As a result, both its spirit and the practical implementation and revisions to MSP at regular intervals would be harmed. Private players should only be used by farmers who can obtain higher rates than MSP.
A significant number of farmers in water-stressed areas plant paddy and wheat solely for MSP benefits, even though other crops could provide greater productivity and yields. Even farmers in arid regions grow paddy purely for MSP. Paddy is a water-intensive crop.
It is here that Punjabi and Haryana farmers take control of the wheel. MSPs have influenced India’s agriculture industry to favour a select few crops. A member of the Supreme Court panel set up to study the contentious farm laws that have since been repealed, farmer leader Anil Ghanwat, said extending minimum support prices to 23 crops will drive the country to bankruptcy if agreed to. The central government or the state will go bankrupt soon if they pay for it (MSP).
It is a very precarious and unsustainable situation. The country will go bankrupt in two years if it is approved. The government will have to agree to 24 crops right now, and later on, other farmers will make similar demands for their crops if they agree to the government’s request. Each day, people would be agitating in other states to include crops not included in MSP.
It would be best if you gave MSP to all. Otherwise, a new set of agitations will erupt. The government also lacks the infrastructure for procuring or selling crops. The government had to buy 110 lakh tonnes of wheat and paddy to meet the country’s 41 lakh tonnes buffer stock limit. The government cannot store this amount of grain, so it gets wet in the rain and rots.
Now imagine if we expanded the list of MSP crops to include other crops. Where would the state store such goods? How would it procure them? he asked. Governments do not give MSPs to countries, and certainly not to such a wide range of commodities; subsidies are given, but not MSPs.
Despite their efforts to persuade the government to bend to their requests on the three farm bills, protesting farmers are not willing to capitulate now, believing that by caving on the MSP, the government will do so as well.
The government now bears responsibility for this; they made it happen. Instead of intervening and lowering agricultural food prices in response to rising costs, the government should refrain from doing so. The government imports and imposes export restrictions when domestic prices rise.
If the government continues to lower the prices artificially, how will the farmer make a living? Traders, not the government, should handle imports and export. MSP can also result in customers paying more than the cost of producing, which could reduce profitability for many farmers.
It is a fact that real farmers have pointed out time and again, but since they do not possess a propaganda machine, they do not receive the fair treatment they deserve.
The MSP system in India has become a disaster for every stakeholder, be it the farmers who need it or the government apparatus, which is forced to buy farm produce, most of which is unfit for consumption and only served to rot.
As taxpayers, we should be ashamed when we see the exchequer being subsidized for everything from fertilizers to drip irrigation schemes to even diesel up until recently. At the same time, substandard produce is procured to support VIP protestors and feudalist middlemen at the expense of the actual beneficiaries.
As one cannot buy farmland if they are not a farmer, the right to buy one comes from the bloodline. Thus, the government is forcing a large section of taxpayers to transfer money to agriculturists just because they’re entitled to it. And to top it all off, agriculture generates no taxes.
The government should not enable state-enabled looting by guaranteeing minimum support prices since neither India is an agrarian economy nor do the protestors pay taxes.
Taxes are paid to fund everything, from fertilizers to irrigation projects, from building roads to repairing those ravaged by political vultures. Although taxpayers may not comprise a large percentage of total votes, we shouldn’t be tested too much and shouldn’t be asked to pay more than our taxes.
edited and proofread by nikita sharma
