Jaibans Singh
Punjab, the agriculture hub of India, takes pride for having fed the teeming millions of the country when there was a food crisis. Despite its pioneering role in the field of agriculture, Punjab has, in recent times, witnessed dissatisfaction with regard to the support provided by the governments at the state and the national level to farmers.
This dissatisfaction has manifest in large scale agitations. Since the last few years, Punjab has been reeling under massive agitations launched under the banner of the Kisan (Farmer) Unions. The first phase of this agitation from 2020 to 2022 was a reaction to the passing of three Acts by the Indian Parliament which the farmers of Punjab feel are against their interest.
Despite having their demands met in the agitation of 2020, two among the various unions again mobilised their cadre in February 2024 in what they termed as the ‘Delhi Cooch.” In military terms Cooch means mobilisation for war. The main demand this time round is legislation for a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP) on crops from the government. The agitators are now camping on the Punjab-Haryana border at Shambhu and Khanauri. The Government of India has remained open for talks with the union leaders. The list of demands is long and keeps increasing by the day.
Agriculture Related Statics of Punjab
The total geographical area of Punjab is 5.036 million Hectares. The cultivable area is 4.20 million Hectares (83.4 percent of the total geographical area) and the net area sown is 4.023 million Hectares (95.7% of cultivable area). The cropping intensity is 189.
More than 65 percent of the population of Punjab depends directly on agriculture, this shapes the thought, outlook, culture and economic life of the people. The total land holding family units are 10.93 lakh of which 2.04 lakh (18.7%) are marginal farmers and 1.83 lakh (16.7%) small farmers. 7.06 lakh (64.6%) hold land above three Hectares. Farmers of Punjab are ranked second in the country in average monthly income per agricultural household in a survey conducted by the central government. However, 89 per cent of them are in debt.
Due to enhanced agriculture dependency, the people of Punjab have resorted to maintaining maximum land under cultivation. This has led to reduction of forest cover to an alarming degree. The area under forest is only 2.93 Lakh Hectares.
They have also resorted to extensive use of ground water for purposes of irrigation. The net irrigated area is 4.019 million Hectare (by canals – 26.2%, by Tube wells – 72.5% and by others – 1.3%).
Depleting forests and extensive use of ground water for irrigation are harbingers of an environmental disaster in Punjab.
The average land holding of a farmer is Punjab in 3.62 Hectares against a national average of 1.08 Hectares. The average landholding of a farmer in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu, and Kashmir is 2.2 hectares, 0.95 hectares, and 0.59 hectares respectively.
A study of the reasons behind the current situation of distress despite a good income can be traced back to a number of factors. Of these, three reasons – the green revolution, increased burden of debt, the influence of Naxalism on the region and extensive migration to foreign shores are predominant.
The Green Revolution
The Green Revolution was ushered in Punjab in late 1966-67 by the then leadership to make the country self-sufficient in production of food grains. It was to be extended to other states also but Punjab took on the challenge first and foremost and emerged as an undisputed leader of the revolution.
Initially the revolution led to significant increase in the state’s agricultural output (primarily in wheat and paddy) and emerged as the greatest support to the Indian economy. Soon, Punjab was producing about 70 percent of the country’s total food grains and farmers’ incomes increased by over 70 percent. The area under wheat and paddy cultivation in Punjab in 1960-61 was 14 lakh Hectares (LHA) and 2.27 LHA, respectively, which increased two and a half times to 35.08 LHA and 29.20 LHA, respectively, by 2019-20.
Over time, other states have also increased production of wheat and paddy. Now, Punjab produces about 22 percent wheat, 10 percent paddy and 13 percent cotton of the total produce of these crops in the country. This is also a huge amount considering the small size of the state.
The green revolution, however, lost its sheen over the years mainly due to increased cost of production in terms of seeds, pesticides etc. and inability of successive state governments to enhance the irrigation system. Basically, the green revolution has outlived its utility but the Punjabi farmer is not ready to see the writing on the wall and opt for different models to maintain/enhance income levels.
Successive Union governments and even state governments have been attempting to give incentives for crop diversification to off-set the ill effects of the green revolution era. Strenuous efforts are being made to sustain cotton production. Integrated schemes of oilseeds, pulses, oil palm and maize (ISOPOM) are in place. Maize is being advocated as the third main Kharif crop for Punjab. Grants are being provided to incentivise organic farming. All of this pales against the lure of the Paddy-Wheat cycle and MSP.
Increased Burden of Debt
Increased production cost and the Punjabi proclivity to live beyond means by overspending on marriages, lifestyle etc. led to increased borrowing, mostly from private sources at enhanced rates of interest. A study conducted by the Institute of Development and Communication (IDC) between 1997 to 2008 showed that farmers were raising long-term loans for non-productive purposes like solemnising marriages, building houses, repairing social ceremonies besides purchasing consumer durable goods. Bad harvests added to the debt burden.
A report released by the National Statistical Office, Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation said that the average outstanding loan per agricultural household (PAH) in Punjab was about Rupees Two Lakh, which is the third highest in the country after Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. The current effective outstanding debt of Punjab stands at INR 2.63 lakh crore (2021-22 RE), which is 45.88 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).
Figures quoted by NABARD do not include the lending by private money lenders/commission agents called Arhtiyas in the state. A study conducted by IDC said Punjab farmers relied more on Arhtiyas than approved banks. The overall effect is that many farmers are now in a debt trap leading to a drastic increase in suicide rates.
The Naxal Challenge
Punjab was, and continues to be, a soft target for the spread of Naxal ideology since it has the basic parameters of unemployment, anti-establishment feelings, mob mentality, restiveness, farmer problems, etc. that are prerequisites for a revolution. In Punjab the Naxal movement found support in the late 60s and early 70s from the Dalits and other marginalised farmers, a majority of whom were Sikhs. Left wing elements created considerable hold in Punjab and especially so in the Malwa region. The movement elicited extensive support from the academicians and the intelligentsia.
The Naxal movement has frittered away in most places but has not completely died in Punjab. Pro-Naxal groups have infiltrated into farmer unions and educational establishments among other institutions. Farmer unions advocating Naxal ideology are said to be taking the lead in ushering unrest among the people and making them rise against the government, be it at the state or the central level. Growing disparity between the haves and have-nots, rapid urbanisation, agrarian crisis and breakdown of the redress mechanism in both the civil and police administration are the factors that are being used professionally by these elements in raising emotions towards civil disobedience and agitation.
The Issue of Migration
Agriculture has always been a low-profit occupation that needs to be supplemented with additional income. The post-Independence partition left Punjab in terrible turmoil. Migrant families picked up the piece and set themselves out in allotted lands that were much less than their earlier holding in Pakistan. Alongside the above activities, a large number of youth began joining the armed forces and civil service thereby increasing the income of their families. This helped in raising their living standard.
Land ceiling and increase in population resulted in division of land-holdings which put more pressure and resulted in migration to foreign countries to seek greener pastures. The migrants established themselves with sheer hard work and great sacrifices. New avenues opened in Canada, the USA, Australia, Italy, etc. attracting both white collared professionals and semi-skilled and unskilled labour. The migration route picked momentum at the cost of careers in the army and the services.
Year after year, the economic situation of the state, particularly that of the farming community, kept worsening under various state governments owing to their faulty policies and programmes. This gave further boost to the aspiration of migration.
Today, the rural youth is ready to pay huge amounts of money to obtain a visa and migrate to western countries. In most villages, the older people outnumber the youth. If the exodus continues at this rate, Punjab will soon be a land of the old and the infirm.
The Effects of Migration
The Sikh population in Punjab is about 10.5 million. The outcome of this huge migration is that Sikhs have a Diaspora of more than 50 Lakhs. A large percentage of the farmer families in Punjab have at least one or more members in foreign countries. In certain cases, whole families are settled abroad.
Sikhs have great attachment to their lands because of which they tend to retain their share of inheritance even when it is miniscule. Therefore, many of the so-called marginal farmers with less than three Hectares of land holding are actually multi-millionaires abroad. They give their land on Theka (contract) to farmers of their villages, who may be family members or others.
Farmers with large land-holdings have mostly shifted base to cities. They too give their land on Theka. Finally, many who continue to live in Punjab but have small land holdings (less than 3 Hectares) find it unviable to farm the land. They have also given their land on Theka and are pursuing other jobs in the urban or semi-rural belt.
The end result is that several farmers who have small land holdings of their own are farming large segments that they have taken on Theka. In accordance with data of 2015-16, about 40 per cent farmers in Punjab were lessors (leasing-out land). The average rental value is about Rupees 1.2 Lakh per Hectare annually. This amount is calculated on the Paddy-Wheat cycle. In terms of acres, the contract rate varies from INR 55000 to 70000 per acre annually.
Thus, while farmers across the country continue to farm shrinking holdings even when they become unviable, Punjab is witnessing an opposite trend by moving towards consolidation of holdings. Since such tenancies are informal and go unrecorded the real extent of this process is not known. Notably, Punjab has one of the lowest poverty ratios in the country standing at 7.7 percent for rural Punjab which is one third the level of poverty in the whole of India.
It is also quite apparent that by adhering to the Paddy-Wheat cycle, Punjab farmers manage to earn more than Rupees One Lakh per acre annually, only then can they pay the contract rate of INR 55000 to 70000 per acre, annually. Also, the Paddy-Wheat cycle ensures fool-proof purchase by the centre on MSP rates which makes clearance of the contract obligation that much more easy.
Conclusion
The data quoted in this article is open source information, it does not contain the latest figures. The objective was to give an idea of the reality on ground to support the derivatives.
There are many more factors that contribute to the present crisis that Punjab is facing.
Punjab farmers are following the path set out by their union leaders because of assurances of obtaining remunerative prices and ever increasing MSP for wheat and paddy through the medium of agitation. There are many external powers and pressure groups that are taking advantage of the situation and pursuing self-serving agendas.
While most farmers in Punjab are enjoying better remuneration for their land than that obtainable in the rest of the country there is a large segment, mainly with less land holdings and no other source of income, that is suffering immensely due to the ill-effects of the post-green revolution. They are unable to meet the costs of production and technological inputs due to small land holding, nor are they in a position to lease out their land for want of alternate skills and professions. The need of the hour is to identify such framer families and ameliorate their suffering. It is possible only through incisive surveys and data collection to get to the root of the problem. It is in this direction that efforts of the central and state government should be directed.
Guaranteed procurement or MSP regime, as well as the free electricity and input subsidies, are the very reasons why Punjab has been facing an agrarian distress. The existing rules and practices have trapped farmers in a vicious circle of Paddy-Wheat cultivation, which has depleted the state’s groundwater resources and reduced the quality of soil among many other ills.
The role that has been played by successive weak, ineffectual, self-serving and corrupt governments at the state level does not need much elaboration. The people have consistently attempted to change the leadership but have failed because of the unfortunate limitations in options available. The leadership crisis adds to the misfortune of the hapless region.
Ushering normalcy in Punjab requires a holistic assessment of the situation based on the existing realities on ground. All aspects need to be studied in detail and solutions worked out with the assistance of domain experts. The final plan will need support not only from the governments at the state and central level but also from civil society including the intelligentsia, the academicians, the role models, the ground level leaders, the Diaspora and all others who wish to contribute. The farmers, naturally, will be pivotal in such an exercise.
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