The farm debt issue

Although the Centre makes budgetary allocations for agriculture, fixes minimum support prices (MSPs) for select farm products and has even introduced crop insurance, there is no national policy to compensate farmers for crop failure or indebtedness, the two chief causes that drive farmers to suicide, as the Supreme Court has discovered to its surprise. It is heartening to note that a Bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice NV Ramana has come to the rescue of farmers and taken up a petition earlier turned down by the Gujarat High Court. An NGO sought relief for some 600 farmers who had committed suicide between 2004 and 2012. A previous apex court Bench had refused to entertain a PIL petition seeking MSP for left-out farm products, saying “we are not supposed to go into policy matters”. 

Some well-meaning steps have been taken at the Central and state levels but the root causes of agrarian distress have not been touched. There is lack of political will to act. Agriculture is largely a state subject and states, barring a few, are perpetually short of funds. Agriculture that supports 60 per cent of the population has ceased to be remunerative. It cannot survive without government support but subsidies offered are usually grabbed by those well-connected. The system of loss assessment and compensation disbursal is leaky. Solutions to agriculture-related problems usually boil down to loan waivers close to elections. A loan waiver for farmers may be electorally attractive but it does not offer a permanent cure. After the Rs 52,000-crore loan waiver announced by the UPA ahead of the 2009 elections, the problem of debt and farmer suicides is back.  

What ails agriculture has been studied in detail by the MS Swaminathan commission. It has recommended a 50 per cent profit over input costs. The BJP promised to do so in the 2014 elections but backed out of it on gaining power. Instead of writing off loans or giving subsidies which do not reach the needy, the Swaminathan formula can be tried. An easy access to institutional lending and a clampdown on farmer exploitation by private lenders can help. These are governance issues; courts have only a limited role to play.