Wheat procurement: FCI to credit payment directly to farmers’ bank accounts (interesting development on Govt. paying MSP)

Corporation says information of land records is must; farmers, commission agents term it ‘impractical’

The Tribune (Ruchika M. Khanna,  Chandigarh, March 4, 2021):

Food Corporation of India (FCI) has issued directions that it will go in for direct payment to farmers’ bank account for the wheat crop that will come in the mandis next month.

The practice as of now is to credit the payment to the agents, who in turn transfer it in the accounts of farmers.

The corporation will be procuring 130 lakh (13 million) metric tonnes of wheat in this year, and over Rs 24,000 crore (240 billion) is to be paid for the farmers for this.

A letter to this effect has been sent by the FCI to the department of Food and Supplies, Punjab, today. The letter also says that information of the land records of farmers is a must for this procurement season.

Though the government rationale behind demanding the details of land records is to account for each grain procured by the Government of India, and ensure that no wheat from outside the state is purchased on the Minimum Support Price (MSP), farmers and commission agents say that it is not practical for a state like Punjab, as almost 40 per cent of land has been leased out by owners to other farmers.

They maintain that this is another assault on the state, which is leading the charge in the protest against the Centre on the three farm laws.

Talking to The Tribune, Vijay Kalra, vice chairman of Federation of Arhtiya Association of Punjab , says these steps are being taken by the Centre to punish the state’s farmers and arhtiyas (middlemen and agents) for the farmers stir on the borders of Delhi, against the three farm laws.

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/wheat-procurement-fci-to-credit-payment-directly-to-farmers-bank-accounts-220530

At present, anyone (having money and even from outside) can drop in at harvest time and buy the produce from a farmer at low price.

Then the purchaser can take that produce (purchased at low price from the farmer) and "sell" it to Govt. (FCI) at MSP guaranteed higher price (intended originally to benefit the real farmer), thus making a quick profit for himself.

Meanwhile, the real cultivator / farmer of crop (who sold the produce at low price) gets nothing out of it and the Govt. still ends up spending money (through MSP).

Moreover, the Govt. can no longer afford to keep on subsidizing (including guaranteeing the MSP, while granting other subsidies) the cultivation of crops which,

(1) may be easy to cultivate (wheat especially) for the farmer and the Govt. continues to subsidize (including the MSP guarantees), but their (including wheat and rice) need now to the consumer and in the market is less critical;

(2) pollute badly the environment through post-harvest burning of hardy stalk / stubble (as in the case of wheat and rice), as their hardy chaff (stalk / stubble) can't be left in the field for quick and easy natural composting in soil and there are also now less number of animals (bulls etc.) used on the farm to consume the hardy chaff (stalk / stubble) because of increased farm mechanization currently;

(3) harm the soil (land) through excessive chemical fertilization as the animal manure (natural fertilization) is no longer available in sufficient quantities (due to the reduced number of farm animals), which eventually leads to the land becoming toxic, infertile and barren through excessive chemical fertilization; and

(4) use more water (as in the case of rice) than other crops, which not only costs more to Govt. on additional water subsidy to farmers to grow water needy crops (rice etc.) in insufficient rainwater regions, but it also leads to lowering, depleting and reducing the underground water table as the underground water is used to grow the high water-requiring crop (e.g. rice) in dry / arid areas.

Thus, farmers need to venture into growing other crops which are compatible with the natural environment (e.g. avoiding the cultivation of rice in areas lacking rain) and which strengthen the soil through crop rotation and by natural composting in soil their less hardy and easily degradable stalk / stubble.

The current situation involving the wheat and rice crops which produce excessive and hardier stalk / stubble which can't be naturally composted in soil quickly and easily to enrich the soil, thus needing to burn the stalk / stubble in air while producing much air pollution all around is no good.

Anyway, it was difficult to understand a number of environmentalists recently objecting and siding with the protesting farmers against new agricultural laws to bring improvements in farming policies and practices, considering the farming situation previously (under old farming policies and practices) would lead to the unwanted degradation of soil (land), overuse and rapid depletion of water (underground water especially) and pollution of air (atmosphere).