Independence has become far too cliched for us to think anything beyond 1947. To the common man it means freedom from foreign rule, the anniversary of which we celebrate every August 15th.
Independence is still quite elusive for the farmer who may not be taxed directly but has to bear the final burden of all taxes in the economy and who is also too dependent on banks as well other types of lending.
Rural indebtedness is as rampant and is on an ever increasing spiral making repayment difficult for the farmer and interest more often than not the farmer’s single biggest cost component.
The WTO is unfair to farmers of emerging economies like India and backward economies viz-a-viz the developed economies as it asks them to reduce subsidies being given to farmers even as it allows the big economies to dole out huge subsidies to its farmers.
Indian farmers are not competitive in the international markets with the result that Indian farmers cannot compete with European farmers when they try to sell their produce there. As an example, Dutch tomatoes and a host of other vegetables grown in greenhouses are cheaper than Indian vegetables when they land in the Middle-East because of the generous subsidies their government pays them.
Where Indians are competitive they are stopped from exporting commodities to protect domestic industry. An example. Not too long ago the Indian government banned maize exports for a few years. Maize prices were a lot higher in the west but Indian farmers were not allowed to sell abroad because the government had banned export as it sought to keep prices of poultry produce down, maize being a major component in the feed and therefore the cost of poultry.
Additionally, a lot of the Indian produce goes waste due to lack of storage and cold storage facilities. This cost is mostly borne by the farmer.
More proactive remedial measures like more subsidies, better pricing and administration of Mimimum Support Prices, rural storage facilities and cold chain for vegetables, better terms at WTO and removal of barriers for foreign trade should do the farmer more good than populist measures like waiving the defaulting farmers’ loans as the government did in 2008.
These would go long way in liberating the farmer and making the largest community of the nation truly independent.
