HUNGRY AND POOR YOKED TO FARM POLICIES

Farmers are demanding a legal guarantee of MSP on crops. But MSP is not the silver bullet; over the past two decades, high food inflation has distorted not just the Indian economy but has also affected millions of poor, making India perform poorly on the global hunger index 

- Ayaan Kartik

 

The march by thousands of farmers from Punjab towards the National Capital last month threw up a déjà vu moment for the Narendra Modi government. Their protests brought back memories of 2021 when farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh locked horns with the government over three farm laws that it had sought to introduce for reforming the country’s agriculture sector. Their anger, fuelled by the fear of collapse of the minimum support price (MSP) programme and threat to their financial security net, forced the government to withdraw the three laws.

This time, the farmers want legal guarantee for MSP as per the formula of C2+50% suggested by M.S. Swaminathan, the father of the Green Revolution in India. Under this formula, farmers will get 50% margin on comprehensive cost of production which includes the input cost of capital and the rent of the land. However, heeding to this demand might not be as easy as repealing a law. The biggest consideration will be the burden their demand, if accepted, will put on the exchequer. But other, not often talked about, factor should be the reach of benefits being demanded.