Farm award to Madhya Pradesh? Time for reality check

Madhya Pradesh recently bagged the Krishi Karman Award 2016 for best performance in agriculture for the fifth time in a row. The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), however, says that between 2001 and 2015, 18,001 farmers committed suicide in the state. In 2016, from February to mid-November, according to the state Assembly records, 1,695 farmers had committed suicide. After adding the figures, it works out to 19,696 farmers’ suicides in the last 16 years in the state, three farmers every day. In this light, this award is not just cruelly dismissive of the plight of farmers in the state but also reflects the apathy of the state and Central governments towards the situation on the ground.

According to news reports, the major factors behind this high numbers of suicides are crop failure, inability of the farmers to sell their agricultural produce, inability to repay loans as well as other factors like poverty, property disputes, family problems and illnesses. ‘Bankruptcy’ and ‘indebtedness’ arising out of the above factors trigger most farmer suicides in the state.

On March 17, 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi awarded Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and State Agriculture Minister Gauri Shankar Bisen with Krishi Karman Award 2016 for the best crop production in the country. According to Bisen, in 2015-16, the state had produced more than 180 lakh metric tonnes of food grains while in 2016-17, the production reported a huge jump to register around 215 lakh metric tonnes.

Besides, scores of farmers’ protests have hit the state in the last couple of years due to the government’s apathy towards the pitiable condition of farmers. They have been demanding implementation of the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee. MS Swaminathan, an agricultural scientist, had released a report back in 2006, recommending that MSPs for crops should be at least 50% more than their cost of production.

The infamous Mandsaur farmers’ protest has not faded away from public memory. In June, 2017, during the protest, six farmers were killed by the police when they were demanding fair price for their crops. Its repercussions were felt across the state and the farmers’ issue has kept the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government on its toes ever since.

Calling the prize an ‘economic magician award’, Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia said the state government was mocking the plight of farmers by receiving such an award. While speaking to a news service, he said that it was nothing but data management. He claimed that the growth of MP’s farm sector was only on papers, based on reports prepared by officials behind closed doors.

“There are intermediaries from neighbouring states who collude with officials and illegally sell their crops here,” he said. In many instances, the produce lying in warehouses from last year and re-sent to the Mandis and procurement centres are counted ‘new production’, he claimed. “The reality is ugly,” he asserted.

The Madhya Pradesh government has claimed to have registered an 18 to 20% growth in agricultural production in 2016-17. Scindia questioned this claim, asking if these reports were real, how so many commit suicides during the past 13 years. Why has migration from rural areas of the state continued unabated, he further questioned. “In reality, farmers are reeling under debt, rising crop input costs, falling prices for crops, unfavourable weather conditions, pest damage, low or no insurance payout,” he told Newsclick.

“At a time when farmers are throwing their crops on the streets for lack of fair price, how can the CM accept this award? Is it not an insult to the state’s farmers who have been driven to commit suicide in the last few years? Has the CM already forgotten Mandsaur where the police shot six farmers who were demanding a fair price for their produce,” Scindia asked.

He said, “We have recently seen farmers leaving their potatoes to rot on the streets in Uttar Pradesh and high yield of tomatoes reducing price for farmers in Madhya Pradesh. What then is the point of bumper crop and who is benefiting from it? It is no secret that we are currently facing a severe agrarian crisis across the country, farmers are protesting, suffering, committing suicide in large numbers.”