Brothers
I am gonna take a diametrically opposite view here, being a devils advocate. It may sound harsh, may sound biased so bear with me....
First of all, Agriculture in this nation is the holy cow that is subsidized to the hilt in form of fertilizer subsidy, seed subsidy, established minimum price.
This is not accurate, subsidy is not very high these days. If you see the prices of fertilizers, insecticides, and diesel, then they have increased manifolds in the past decades but the prices of farm produce did not in the same proportion. If you add the labor costs that a farmer puts in then you will realize that input cost is much more than the cost of end product. The minimum price you are talking about is not even 50% of what the product is sold in the end market. Most of the farmers are just struggling to survive and ending up selling their lands piece by piece.
Electricity and water is stolen at will by the same 'Kisans' of India. When was the last time any Kisan paid fair market price of utilities, transportation etc.
Bhai, again this is totally untrue. Kisans have to pay electricity at a fixed rate according to horse power of the motor and not according to actual consumption. In summers when the need of electricity is high, there is accurate shortage then and kisans have to still pay the bill. Aajkal yamuna sukhi padi reh, nehar mei paani nahi aata kai kai mahine tak. Kahin bijlee ka transformer foonk ja to usse kai mahine tak koi theek nahi karta. Things are really tough for Indian farmers. Give kisan electricity for 15 hrs atleast, let them sell their produce at market rates and you will see that kisan will be very happy to pay the fair price. Today, a UP farmer can not sell his sugarcane to any other mill (apart from the one that is pre assigned) or outside state.
When the times are tough they will agitate for loan forgiveness etc. Where do they think money comes from, borrowing from world bank, Asian bank, IMF adds to debt of this nation. It may sound harsh but Darwinian evolution is at work here, the weak, arrogant must perish for the survival of strong, adventurous and skilled kisaans.
Where you think money comes from, for public distributed ration schemes, free mid day school schemes, schemes like 2 Rs Kg rice / wheat for people below BPL. Bhai, govt kisan se cheen kar laati hai yeh sab. Market mei kimmat do-guni ho rahe hai par kisaan ka FAIR Minimum Price wohi hai... Kyun??
When was the last time new techniques used by the same kisan. Anytime Agri scientists come up with new idea that is developed and tested is ridiculed by simple words, 'en scientistan ney key bera, humney kheti karte zindagi bita di'.
Bhai, technique invent karna or baat hai or usse use karna kuch or. Most of these techniques are not for very fertile lands that is there in West UP, HR and Punjab. Yahan already kisaan saal mei kai fasal nikal leta hai. Ar bhai jab fasal ko paani nahi milega to technique kya karegi; pehle puri bijlee to de do...
There is rampant theft of power and utilities in Kisan Hinterland.
Bhai, kahin bijlee chori nahi hoti,,,, tubewell ke liye koi bijlee chori nahi karta, sabne proper connection le rakhe hote hain or fixed bill aata hai per month. Haan gharon mei jaroor chori ki bijlee use karte hain log. Bijlee log cities mei jyada chori karte hai in comparison to villages.
Now comes the politicians, most of them are barely educated, getting a BA degree from university by virtue of 'nakal maari aer pass ho gaya' does not develop analytical and problem solving reasoning. These politicians will give free utilities so they can get votes for election. Neither politicians nor Kisan's realize that there are no free lunches. Someone must pay for free utilities--resulting in huge deficits.
Every country provides subsidies on one thing or another; you will find the same trend even in developed countries like USA, UK, and also countries like China. Govt is not a corporate who works for profits. They have larger goals. Otherwise Why US govt was providing money like crazy to everyone during recession, they sent rebates to people in USA provided billions to financial institutions and came up all sort of projects. What was that?? They have I think close to 12 trillion $ deficit.
Now states have to go beg federal gov't for money that is loaded with Rangarajan's, Nagrajans, Murthy, Swaminathan, Rao's and Sharmas of this nation. They have no idea about the ground realities. Point an example is this Crippled Lunatic Prakash Singh Badal who gave free water and eletricity to all farmers, increasing the deficit of his state so high, if it was a corporation it may have to file bankruptcy.
Either you make Kisaan prosper or you dont. Farmers of Punjab are pretty prosperous in comparison to other states and they have very strong voice in govt unlike other states. You think Badal govt can survive if they dont take care of farmers interests??
Most people who are land owners for agriculture are secretly wishing and hoping that their land will get acquired by gov't or some big industry so they can get premium price and 9-5 job that will get them out of the daily grind of sweat and labor.
How many can wish for that? only those who has land next to cities and that percentage of land is very small.
Kisan hinterland of India is quick to give sermon and lectures to everyone, (taash peetan sara din while women are toiling all day) but stale and archaic in accepting new ideas. here point an example is Argentina, Brazil, Israel--especially Israel that country has done wonders in maximizing the use of minimal resources.
We did not even had electricity in our villages 30 - 40 years back and even now there are villages which do not have electricity, road connectivity and proper drinking water. How can you compare them with Israel which is much smaller than India, dont forgot that India has been successful with Green Revolution while several other countries failed. Dont forget that despite its enormous population India is still pretty much self sufficient in terms of food production.
