The farmer unions in the state failed to sink their differences in 2024 for demanding a legal guarantee on MSP for all crops. This was in sharp contrast with the show of solidarity put up by them in 2020 while demanding the repeal of three farm laws.
As the protest by farmer unions under the aegis of the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha and the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) continued for over 10 months, during the course of which 34 farmers lost their lives, the other group owing allegiance to the Samyukt Kisan Morcha hesitated from joining them in their protest. The latter continued to hold its own protest programmes, demanding MSP on all crops and protesting against any “repression” of farmers.
The protesting farmers not just kept on waiting for the Centre to restart dialogue with them, since the last round of talks broke down in February this year, they and others also kept waiting for the implementation of the much delayed and long-promised New Agriculture Policy that would alleviate the economic hardship faced by the farmers, caught in the monoculture of wheat-paddy
It’s been a few months since the draft policy was shared with farmers, and the latter gave their feedback, but there are still no signs of the policy being implemented soon.
Even in terms of agriculture, paddy farmers in the state had to wait for several days in the mandis, because of lack of coordination between the state Agriculture Department that promoted use of hybrid seeds and the rice shellers who refused to mill these varieties
The state government deserves kudos for repeatedly taking up the issue of delayed milling of previous years’ paddy with the Union Ministry for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, which was another reason for millers’ refusal to mill paddy and thus leading to delay in paddy procurement and shortfall of nearly 11 LMT in procurement as compared to the target of 185 LMT.
As wheat sowing began in November, farmers also faced shortage of both diammonium phosphate and urea, because of erratic supply from the Centre.
As compared to the first year of the AAP government, when initiatives were taken to go in for crop diversification, no such steps were taken by the government this year.
Area under cotton crop shrunk, mainly because of the pest infestations last year, leading to huge losses to farmers. This year, the lesser area under cotton cultivation led to lower production. But the gap in demand and supply led to farmers getting reasonable price for cotton
It was purely because of economic concerns (higher prices being offered last year) that the area under maize and basmati had increased. With the state government offering the highest State Agreed Price (SAP) for sugarcane in the country, the area under cane also increased by 5,000 hectares.
The year is also ending on a worrying note for farmers, as the National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing was released by the Centre. This, allege farmers, is a covert attempt to bring back the contentious provisions of the three farm laws that were repealed after a long battle