A Raw Deal

Even after 25 years of economic liberalisation, Indian farmers continue to be let down by governments, policies, prices and markets.

It was yet another bountiful, but bitter, harvest for Indian farmers last year. The 2016-17 crop year (July 2016-June 2017) threw up an all-time high foodgrain production of 273 million tonnes (mt). Last year's rich harvest was further pushed up by a spurt in output of perishable horticulture crops, like fruits and vegetables, to 287 mt. During the same period, production of pulses, oilseeds and sugarcane grew to 22.14 mt, 32.5 mt and 306 mt respectively.

Ironically, the bounty across the country's farmlands only brought misery to farmers as prices of most crops crashed severely. Early this year, prices of pulses, including tur (pigeon pea), moong (green gram) and urad (black gram) plummeted below their respective MSPs - minimum support prices (the floor prices fixed by the government for 25 crops, including cereals - like rice and wheat - and pulses, among others, to protect farmers against price crash).

The gloom was not limited to pulses alone. The year 2017 began on a shocking note for growers of horticultural crops, especially volatile tomato and onion. Tomatoes and onions plunged to unbelievable lows of Re 1 and Rs 5 per kg respectively briefly at the beginning of the year.

Reasonably good monsoon in 2016 - though it was yet another dry year for most parts of south India - after back-to-back droughts in 2014 and 2015 pushed up farm output. The inevitable law of demand and supply did play its part in diminishing prices of crops. However, other factors were responsible for pushing prices of pulses and a few perishables, like fruits and vegetables, to abnormally low levels.