Having worked on three projects in the area of agriculture spread through the country, i could not help noticing the condundrum that is our country.
It is acknowledged that over 70% of India’s population depends on agriculture. That should make them the largest votebank that exists in the country. Politicians should be bending backwards to make them happy. But that is not what is happening. The politician and the bureaucrat get together and support traders. So a farmer HAS to sell in specified markets at prices often rigged by the traders. Support prices are announced way after harvest, leading to distress sales by the farmer (who has no holding capacity) and a windfall for the trader who sells to the FCI. Imports are made late after the consumer is fleeced by the trader and when there is a bumper crop, export is not opened until the traders mop up the market at dirt cheap prices and then sell at higher profits in export markets.
In a span to one year, if I can spot the trend how is it that the farmers have not? Or if they have, why are they not protesting more vociferously? I do not buy the argument that the illiterate farmer in India cannot distinguish between good and bad. They have always managed to get rid of any politician that they wanted to. Bureaucracy is tougher.
So why is the Indian farmer suffering instead of making the politicians suffer? They are making rational choices in their crop selection, so why not in policy makers? Why has farmer leaders have limited circle of power? Why has no body managed to get all farmers and farming communities into a single powerful platform?
