ગુજરાતી
English
Ahmedabad, May 3, 2024
In the Gujarat election campaign, Modi is talking about advancing farmers and agriculture in every rally in the third term government. So the question is what was done for farming in 10 years. In 2014, Swaminathan’s recommendations for farmers guaranteed their welfare. But six months after coming to power, the BJP-led Modi government told the Supreme Court that it is not possible to implement the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission.
When Modi is in Gujarat, farmers are asking questions to his candidates.
Farmers are getting Modi’s guarantee. Then why did 1 lakh 74 thousand farmers commit suicide in 10 years in Modi Raj? This means that on an average 30 farmers are committing suicide every day in the country.
The BJP-led Narendra Modi government had promised farmers to give at least one and a half times the cost of production of agricultural produce as per the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission. Farmers’ income will be doubled by 2022. Farmers’ loans will be waived. It will provide interest-free loans up to Rs 1 lakh to each farmer family.
Sadly, Modi has not fulfilled even one of these commitments. Brought three black laws to crush farmers. Farmers protested against it for 16 months and 752 farmers lost their lives.
Out of 59 lakh rural families in Gujarat, 67 percent families are engaged in agriculture. 39.31 lakh rural people are engaged in agriculture. Out of 39.31 lakh farmers, 16.74 lakh are in debt.
Modi has betrayed the farmers twice before. The situation is that sacrifices are being sought from farmers to protect corporate interests.
This government has cut the annual agriculture budget allocation by 30 percent. The reduction in agricultural subsidies by the central government has led to an increase in the prices of other agricultural inputs like seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and diesel.
This government is gradually weakening the employment guarantee scheme. The annual expenditure required for the project is ₹2.72 lakh crore, but only ₹73 thousand crore has been allocated in the 2023-24 budget.
Farmers’ loans were not waived. A total of Rs 5 lakh crore is needed to waive the loans of all the farmers of the country. But, the government claims that this is not possible due to lack of funds.
Loans of about Rs 30 lakh crore of corporate companies were waived.
The condition of farming is such that the debt on farmer families has also increased by 30 percent. They are trapped in a vicious cycle of debt.
The central government has also misused the ‘National Relief Fund’. No assistance is given to farmers who lose crops due to floods, drought or similar disasters.
On the other hand, crop insurance of farmers has been stopped in Gujarat. In other states, agricultural crop insurance is completely in the hands of private companies. Due to which farmers are being exploited more.
Extremely low prices of agricultural crops, unemployment in rural areas and lack of other means to repay loans are accelerating the migration of farmers from villages to cities.
Four crore people have migrated from rural areas to urban areas in the six-year period 2016-2023.
The central government is trying to implement three anti-farmer agricultural laws. Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs) set up by the government to help farmers are being closed down by the Unethical Reforms Act. The law has allowed the creation of private APMCs in Gujarat, which are occupied by BJP leaders.
The government in Gujarat is going to bring a law that will allow people to buy land even if they are no longer farmers.
Amendments to the Land Act are creating opportunities for companies to easily grab farmers’ land.
Eight farmers were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh, after BJP MP Ajay Mishra Theni’s son deliberately drove a car into a peaceful protest. This well-planned move happened in front of everyone, but Ajay Mishra was not removed from the cabinet nor any strict action was taken against him.
Many other tactics were adopted to scare and disperse the farmers, but they did not budge. Later, when the elections in Uttar Pradesh came near, Modi suddenly came on the TV screen and apologized to the farmers. He also promised to withdraw all three laws and meet other demands of the farmers.
The farmers returned to their homes after the central government gave a written guarantee.
A year has passed since then, but the Modi government has still not shown any sign of fulfilling its promises.
The farmers of Gujarat have taken a loan of Rs 54,277 crore. The term loan in 2014-15 was Rs 10,597 crore which has increased to Rs 20,412 crore in 2016-17. There has been a huge increase in this in 2024. Out of 34.94 lakh farmer families who took the loan, 29.50 lakh families took crop loan. In Gujarat, 62% of the crop loan of Rs 33,864 crore has not been repaid.
The production obtained by using 100 kg of urea is not even possible by using 500 kg of urea.
From July 2012 to June 2013, the income of farmers in Gujarat was Rs 5773 while the average monthly expenditure was Rs 2250. By 2017, the average monthly income of a farmer in the state was Rs 3573. The total annual income of 53.20 lakh farmers is around Rs 25 thousand crore. The total income of farmers has not doubled in the three years 2018, 2019, 2020. Income has decreased. Farmers’ income has not increased compared to the GDP of Rs 16 lakh crore. (google transletion from gujarati)
