The Prime Minister has his finger on what needs to be done. He has rolled out his focus areas via catchy slogans and vision statements viz: Swachh Bharat, Digital India and also Doubling Farm Income. In this commentary the focus will be his idea to improve the lot of farmers.
He has not just said double farm income, he has innovatively connected this statement to exports. He says “the vision to double farm income by 2022 is driven by a focus on increasing exports”. This why it is innovative, normally every politician worth his salt makes motherhood statements like improve the lot of farmers but there is never any direction.
In this case not only is it linked to exports but the PM also goes ahead and talks about specific direction, value addition by way of food processing and to do this, he says the government is already working on or has set up food parks, and many cold chain projects are in the pipeline.
As a Prime Minister he has given the direction and the plan on the way forward. Now the question is who will take this mission forward? Are we expecting the PM to do the job or can we expect the local administration in each State to understand the PM’s mission and direction and begin working on making the dream a reality by 2022?
If this dream is to be realised in 2022, ground level work has to have started yesterday or latest today. This ground level work is to be done at two levels, the farmer and the other the administration. The farmer is “sandwiched”, a position that not many want to be in, and this is reflected by the propensity of the younger generation moving away from this key and necessary profession. He has to buy all his supplies at retail prices and sell all his produce at wholesale prices. This itself means his cost is higher and his selling price is lower, squeezing his already thin margins, nowhere close to doubling for sure. Add to that bad weather and spoilage and the farmer stares at an even bigger loss in income. So clearly the twin focus of value addition and cold chain will help in improving the income of farmers. Clearly, steps in right direction.
Consider this, we see cucumbers or many varieties of local vegetables being sold across the hinterland by local ladies along the roads, yet none of these local vegetables find a place in the scheme of the horticulture departments vegetable stalls. The department is buying huge quantities of fruits and vegetables from across the border and none from within the State. A farmer once took a pickup full of chikoos he had grown on his farm in Goa, to the market. The retailers said that he could not sell his fruit in the market, but they would buy it for him at 0.25p a piece, this was when the same fruit was selling at around Rs10 each. There is a case for the CM to act against this market mafia as he has done with the taxi mafia. As one can see there is no support for local farmers from the Horticulture department at the selling end. This surely needs to change.
At the other end we have the Agriculture Department that can play a key role. They can organise the farmers into commodity interest groups. These groups can come under umbrella organisations or Farmer Producer Organisations, (FPO). Once organised, they will be able to negotiate better rates for seeds fertilizers. They can organise training programmes to improve yields. Driving across the hinterland one can see many green houses that the Government has subsidised, unfortunately they are not functional. The key reason, after production there is no market. Given the higher quantities one does not expect the farmer to sit on the road and sell his crop. The second reason is crops get harvested at a time, if they are not consumed or sold they can become compost at best. The agricultural department could have connected with the Vibrant Goa delegation to Israel where food production using green houses and technology is cutting edge. The farmers could have benefited.
So the government spends money subsidising green houses which result in more yield, where is the next level of support, the cold chain? The Modi Government has already put this plan in action, why are the local agriculture department authorities not pushing for the same in Goa? A facility to store farm produce will reduce wastage due to spoiling and also allow some holding time. This will result in better realisation and possibly better prices as more quantity can be transported at a time. In Malayasia they produce large quantities of fruit and vegetables in green houses and these are exported to the Gulf and South East Asia. This implies that Goa, which has good access to the Gulf and even South East Asia can surely tap these markets if the quantity and quality can be improved.
Then there is the focus on improving yield, the Central government has created the Agriculture Technology Marketing Agency (ATMA) for driving reforms in agriculture sector. Under this the State government would have set up autonomous offices to help farmers understand their needs and then ensure these are met. They are supposed to be dedicated to ensuring that farmers are helped, they why is it not happening in Goa? If it is, why are the green houses empty?
To sum up, the Central Government wants to do something for farmers, the State Government has to get its act together otherwise they are going to have to show “0” achievement when the results are compared. Doubling Farm income is doable and necessary. Will the horticultural and Agriculture department accept the challenge?
(The author prefers to write rather than chat in a balcao.)
