Indian Farming and Farmers must be Saved from the Clutches of Corporate Takeover

ALL India NABARD Employees Association (AINBEA) commemorated the first death anniversary of its former general secretary, V K Bhosale through a memorable programme held at the NABARD head office, Mumbai, on July 5, 2022. The programme included a seminar on the subject, “Current agrarian crisis and the role of NABARD”, and a donation from the Trust named ‘AINBEA for social welfare’ to three small farmer families from Vidarbha, Maharashtra, who have unfortunately lost their principal bread earner due to tragic suicides arising out of the current agrarian distress.

The two main speakers in the seminar were P Sainath, renowned journalist and founder of
‘People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI)’, who has been engaged in deep field research of India’s agrarian crisis for the last three decades; and Ashok Dhawale, president, All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), and one of the leaders of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM).

In his presentation, P Sainath dealt with each aspect of the current agrarian distress faced by the country with all its attendant consequences like tragic farm suicides of more than four lakh farmers as per National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data. He analysed, with data support from official sources including from NABARD, that the current crisis is multi-faceted, viz., it encompasses problems of credit crunch faced by the farmers due to growing ‘urbanisation of agri-credit’. In a state like Maharashtra, just three cities like Mumbai, Pune and Nashik have cornered more than 50 per cent of agri-credit disbursed in the state. The credit for farmers is cornered by big corporate houses engaged in agri-business, seriously depriving the genuine farmers, especially, the small and marginal ones.    

He said that crores of farmers in India are denied minimum support price (MSP). He outlined the importance of the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission. He said that in Vidarbha, for example, in his own field-level research, he found that the farmers were merely getting a fraction of the official MSP for cotton. The defenceless farmers had no other option than to go in for distress sale of their products, resulting in huge losses. This made their re-payment of dues of loans from banks and sahukars (moneylenders) difficult, forcing them under duress, to commit suicide. He said that in India, the women farmers, who carry out the main burden of sowing and harvesting, are hardly recognised as farmers, as they are not given pattas and land rights. So, the feminisation of agriculture mostly remains unrecognised.

He strongly pitched that NABARD, being a unique institution, created in 1982 to protect and nurture the ‘soul’ of India, viz., farmers, our annadatas, should never be allowed to get deflected from the historic mandate entrusted on its shoulders by the nation, through the NABARD Act, 1981. Sainath came out with certain valuable suggestions on how NABARD can be better shaped today to respond to the current challenges. Some of these are, directing and mentoring field-level research on alternate sustainable, equitable agriculture (as per the mission statement of NABARD) that can be very well handled by our farmers with their vast knowledge pool of sustainable agriculture. This can also go a long way in addressing the problems of climate change faced by agriculture, with disastrous consequences for landless, small, and marginal farmers of the country. Simultaneously, the success of the Kudumbashree model of sustainable agriculture, nurturing group mechanism like SHGs of women having deep roots in agriculture, rural development, and forward linkages with effective marketing as done in Kerala, can be easily replicated by NABARD at the all India level to uplift the poor, especially women farmers. On the whole, this can be a unique contribution by NABARD to remain faithful to its mandate in the 75th year of Indian independence.

Paying rich tributes to the farmers who have lost their lives in the recent historic farmers’ struggle to repeal the three draconian farm laws of the country, he said the path shown by the recent success of the farmers’ struggle has a lesson to all sections of the toiling masses on how to defeat the neo-liberal conspiracy to sustain unbridled exploitation for generating super profits and wealth for the handful of rich. He also paid tribute to V K Bhosale, and he praised the role of AINBEA as a vibrant trade union that always remained steadfast with a clear focus on purpose and stood beside the families of poor farmers in distress, especially from Vidarbha.

Ashok Dhawale focused on the current agrarian crisis and analysed its root cause - the disastrous anti-peasant and pro-corporate policies of the BJP regime as regards MSP, loan waiver, crop insurance, credit and massive increase in input costs. Drawing on the experience of the Statewide United Farmers’ Strike of June 2017 and the AIKS-led Kisan Long March of March 2018, he explained how the demand of waiving off farm loans to the tune of Rs 40,000 crore for farmers was won through these farmers’ struggles in Maharashtra. He also illustrated the equally significant Left-led struggle for five years of the valiant farmers of Raigad district in Maharashtra, which succeeded in denotifying the 30,000-acre Mahamumbai SEZ that was given to Reliance Industries of Mukesh Ambani and thus saved the peasantry in 45 villages in three tehsils.

He dealt in graphic details on the challenges that were faced by the farmers’ organisations in sustaining the historic unity of more than 500 farmers’ organisations in the country under the banner of the SKM, and mobilising lakhs of farmers, workers, students, youth and women throughout the country, in defeating the three anti-people farm laws. This has delivered a body blow to the government’s attempt to corporatise Indian agriculture. But one should not be complacent, he said, as licking their wounds of defeat at the hands of the farmers, the present ruling dispensation, which is committed to serving the interests of its corporate masters, is out to attack the people by dividing them in the name of religion, caste, creed and language. An all-around unity of the toiling masses, to defend democratic and secular values, and defeat the neo-liberal policies, was the need of the hour.

Dhawale too paid tribute to V K Bhosale and praised the role played by AINBEA in breaking barriers of traditional thinking to fight only for the rights of NABARD employees (which are no doubt very important), but also to stand beside the real clientele of NABARD, viz., farmers, in their moments of distress and to protect the development institution status of NABARD.

Rana Mitra, general secretary, AINBEA, presented a brief note on the subject of the seminar and the role played by AINBEA in defending the basic mandate of NABARD, its DFI character, and its mission of sustainable and equitable agriculture. He informed how AINBEA, fully committed as a vibrant TU in the financial sector, not only has always been steadfast in fighting for the rights of NABARD employees including its current struggle for a wage agreement (which has been hanging fire even after the signing of the draft memorandum of settlement with the Management of NABARD since February 2022 due to lack of government clearance), its role as a conscience keeper for the soul of NABARD, i.e. its mandate given by the people of the country through our Parliament. He promised that with this aim in mind, AINBEA will always be with the mainstream TU and democratic movement of the country, while struggling to defeat attempts toward privatization of PSUs including Banks.

Yashwant Zade, vice-president, AIKS, Maharashtra, in his brief address on behalf of the small farmer families, who unfortunately committed suicide and were given financial donations by AINBEA from its Trust, thanked AINBEA for this unique gesture and dwelt upon the farm crisis faced by farmers in Vidarbha.

On this occasion, Komal Madhukar Ghode, Manisha Dilip Tenpe,  Vishveshwar Chintaman, three small cotton farmers from Wardha, Vidarbha, who lost their principal bread earners due to suicides arising out of farm distress, were given Rs 25,000 each from the Trust of AINBEA. The programme was presided over by Jose T Abraham, president, AINBEA, and M K Phale, secretary, AINBEA did the compering and conveyed the vote of thanks. Many employees and officers of NABARD enthusiastically participated in the programme even in very inclement weather in Mumbai due to heavy rain that day.