New Plans for Farmers

We must realise that the real wealth creators of the nation are the farmers; they put together the power of the sun, the fertility of the earth, the pure water, and their hard labour to produce food for all. Their produce is procured, stored and kept as the wealth and security of the nation. Head of the finance ministry met a group of farmers today, to discuss their problems and issues. What are the hindrances that the farmers face in today’s turbulent economic climate? This is the true concern for the meeting with the farmers. When the major part of the Indian population is working in the farm, giving attention to these people will create a good impression that government cares for them.

The 12^th Planning Commission’s working group for disadvantaged farmers has come up with modern plans for creating better organisational makeover for the farming industry.  Insecurity of the farming tenants is due to land laws, due to lack of records, lack of institutional loans suiting their farming cycles, etc. The programme seeks to create ‘public land banks’ for marginal farmers, women, ‘dalits’, tribals etc. This might work out initially. These are weak individual people.Their attempts to farm would not enable them to survive in global markets. These programmes can help for a short period with subsidies; ultimately, the individual small farmer will have to face enormous problems. So big changes are needed; these small makeovers cannot yield large results on the long run. The farming community would be perpetually sunk in losses as yields would be subsistence. If the farmers could make a team or if they bond together and make big farms and modernise, then surviving in the world economy is possible.

In these plans, there is no provision for making of large cooperative farms. Unless farmers bind together and make big farms, and adopt modern machines for farming they will be held back in a ‘techno-cultural lag’ and will be left far behind farming people around the world. Small time farming  by peasants India has ended and the planners have to accept this fact. New efforts to revive the small-scale farming industry will be fruitless. It is a waste of time of government, of our resources and waste of energy and efforts of so many farmers. This political plan has to make economic sense to succeed. We will be creating new lower levels of existence by encouraging small scale farming.