Farmers' access to marketing platforms must be addressed

No pan-Indian agricultural market can succeed without the active cooperation of state governments and farmers' representatives

- BHAVDEEP KANG

In 2015, the potato farmers of West Bengal were devastated — not by weather, but by a bumper crop. Prices hit rock bottom, traders refused to lift the crop and storage facilities proved woefully inadequate, leaving thousands of farming families destitute.

One likely reason for the crisis of plenty was West Bengal’s ban on potato exports to neighbouring states over the previous three years. The potato is a significant agricultural export, and a cash crop for farmers. But, having been repeatedly denied access to West Bengal’s potatoes, the other states no longer had as big an appetite for them.

The latest ban on potato exports — like all such bans — has been justified from the point of view of moderating prices; that is, it has been imposed for the benefit of consumers. What about the farmers, who will not realise better prices for their produce? Their losses will not be calculated, nor will they be compensated. Traders will suffer, too — small wonder they have called a strike.

Earlier this year, when the Centre lifted the ban on overseas export of non-basmati white rice, all the stakeholders — from exporters to rice mills to farmers — celebrated because they stood to benefit from higher prices. A few months prior to that, ahead of the Maharashtra elections, the ban on onion exports was lifted and state deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar offered a public apology to the onion growers of north Maharashtra, who were upset because the ban had led to falling prices.