Addressing an election rally in the parched Jhajjar district of Haryana in 2004, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee promised to usher in a second Green Revolution. Referring to the late Devi Lal’s loan waiver scheme, he said that he “did not believe in such populist measures” as they were virtual invitations to default. The solution to farmers’ woes, he argued, lay in making their profession lucrative.
Such deviation from political expediency was echoed by RBI Governor Urjit Patel, who termed farm loan waivers a “moral hazard” and sought consensus among political parties in India to desist from announcing them. Further, expressing her concerns over the repayment culture among the farmers, State Bank of India Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya maintained that support to farmers should not be at the cost of credit discipline. It is, therefore, surprising why the BJP is encouraging recidivist tendencies among its State governments instead of encouraging state investment in agricultural backend infrastructure. It is time the government came up with a robust framework to mitigate agricultural distress and rural indebtedness and prevented State Chief Ministers from indulging in “cowboy banking” (Editorial – “ The rot in farming ”, June 13).
Shreyans Jain,
New Delhi
It is well known that farmers are the backbone of an agrarian economy such as ours. It is essential that we put the needs of farmers before anything else. In my view, farmers suffer a setback due to a lack of efficient mechanisms to make sure that the food is not wasted before it reaches the market. Ironically there is a lot of food wastage along with growing demand for food production. There seems to be little progress as far as foodgrain silos and cold storage chains are concerned. If we manage to produce high-quality foodgrains, we can increase exports and make the agricultural sector bloom.
Indu Kilaru,
Vijayawada
Why this total neglect of the farm sector? Why humiliate the farmer when officials look the other way when it comes to defaulters in the business and industrial sectors? Why are there no solutions when farmers try to migrate to urban areas to make a living? The need of the hour is for the government is introduce farm-friendly measures such as reasonably priced fertilizers, banning spurious seeds, liberalised farm and crop loans and a reasonable market price for farm produce. A strong political will backed by farmer friendly policies is essential for the Green Revolution to sustain itself.
J.P. Reddy,
Nalgonda, Telangana
Almost all political parties are resorting to loan waivers without proper analysis of its pros and cons or even confirming whether the benefits do go to the deserving sections of the farming community. A substantial amount would be drained from the exchequer and undeserving people would find a place to enjoy the benefits. Instead of initiating such a step — of waivers — why can’t the government think of giving free seeds, fertilizers and insurance cover to the fullest extent possible against any type of losses during a cultivation period to small and marginal farmers? This would act as an incentive to poor farmers to carry out agricultural operations during all seasons. There also needs to be a long-term vision drawn up by experts in the field. Financial institutions would also appreciate such an atmosphere with assured repayments in the normal course and hassle-free credit flows to the sector.
P. Gopinath,
Thiruvananthapuram
