The Hindu Business Line : Farmers must ignore political squabble over remarks

By making a politically incorrect comment about Maharashtra cotton growers at a conference in Akola last week, Mr Shankersinh Vaghela has done little else than muddy the political waters. Cotton growers in Gujarat surely deserve eulogy for their excellent performance.

They have increased output, raised yields and improved quality, consistently in recent years.

It is a matter of record that today the State contributes to about a third of the national cotton output.

A large part of India’s cotton exports is from Gujarat. Maharashtra, on the other hand, despite immense potential to follow suit, has lagged.

Yield Improvement

The State’s monopoly procurement policy, despite good intentions and extra-ordinary financial losses, failed to truly empower the farmer to stay self-reliant.

But conditions are changing. The State is surely beginning to show signs of yield improvement.

A more focused attention to cotton cultivation and educating cotton growers in Vidharba about crop alternatives would be beneficial. But the extant difference in performance though real would hardly justify the Minister’s eminently avoidable contrast of the attitude of cotton growers in the two States.

No wonder, various political leaders have suddenly turned vocal and are condemning Mr Vaghela. Two issues need to be examined. Keeping aside misplaced chauvinism and looking at the issue dispassionately, politicians across the spectrum in Maharashtra must introspect. What has gone wrong with cotton cultivation in Maharashtra?

How have past policies affected present performance? What should be done to raise production, productivity and incomes of cotton growers in a sustained manner? These are questions that cry for urgent attention. It is likely, Maharashtra’s policymakers have something to learn from the neighbouring State.

Financial Challenges

It is likely the State’s cotton growers have something to learn from the growers in the neighbouring State. Importantly, for the woes of cotton growers in Vidharba region, it may be most inappropriate to blame cotton.

If cotton as a crop were the culprit (leading to indebtedness and suicides in Vidharba) then farmers from other cotton growing States too must be facing the same kind of agronomic and financial challenges suffered by Vidharba farmers. But that is not the case. Cotton growers in Gujarat or Punjab or Madhya Pradesh don’t end their lives. Andhra Pradesh is perhaps the only other State that witnessed cases of suicide by cotton growers. The issues are local.

Clearly, cotton is only incidental. It just happens that in regions where growers are in deep debt and are prone to ending their life cotton is the main cash crop. A deeper study of the socio-economic issues of cotton growers across the country merits attention. In making wholly inappropriate statement at a public meeting whether the Textile Minister had some motive — sinister or otherwise —is hard to imagine.

Negative Subsidies

To be charitable, he was merely playing the game of one-upmanship wanting to show his State of Gujarat in brighter light. But Central Ministers would do well never to forget that they represent the whole country. Lastly, there is a message for the cotton growers in particular, and farmers of the country in general.

“Do not allow such odious comparisons to divide the country’s farming community.” Politicians will after all be politicians. They will try to score political points at every available opportunity. Bharat ka kisan anpad hai, magar anadi nahi, loosely translated, an average Indian farmer may be illiterate but he is no one’s fool or is not naïve. Farmers are aware what politicians have done or failed to do over the last several decades.

While developed economies support agriculture with humungous amounts of subsidy year after year, in India agriculture is burdened with negative subsidies, although nearly two-third of the population is dependent on farm and related activities for livelihood.

Farmers as a community should completely ignore squabbles among politicians and concentrate on the tasks at hand. The harvest season is fast approaching. Farmers in Maharashtra are hardworking and have great pride in what they do.

They are sturdy peasants who fight many odds, natural and manmade. They must continue to fight policymakers for progressive growth-oriented policies.

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