C M Sharma
Wheat is the staple food grain crop of Jammu Division, J&K. It is also the principal Rabi season crop occupying about 280 thousand hectares of the cultivated area. A vast 200 thousand hectares, i.e. 71 percent of this coverage is rainfed (un-irrigated) and spread over all the ten districts of Jammu division. The remaining 80 thousand hectares, i.e. 29 percent is irrigated and mainly confined to lower plains of Jammu, Kathua and Samba districts. The major Kharif season crop of rainfed areas in Jammu Division is maize occupying about 220 thousand hectares area out of which just about 10 thousand hectares is irrigated.
Consequent upon the large scale introduction and adoption of improved inputs and new technology in recent years, many farmers of not only the irrigated areas, but also of the un-irrigated/ kandi areas have started producing sizable marketable surplus of crops. Over the years, production and productivity support to maize crop has been facilitating production of marketable surplus in different districts, especially Rajouri and Poonch. During Rabi 2020-21season too, the Department of Agriculture Production and Farmers Welfare (DAP&FW) has continued with its programmes of facilitating farmers in production of marketable surplus of wheat and other crops. The latest technology of weather forecasting is facilitating farmers in weather-based rescheduling of farm operations like sowing, hoeing, fertilizer and pest management, harvesting, threshing, storage of crops, etc. that could be otherwise hampered by bad weather, while the operations were under progress. Weather forecasting is saving the alert farmers much of the labour, time, money and crop yields that would have otherwise gone waste. In this scenario, the most important issue therefore is not of deficit crop production, but gainful disposal of marketable surplus. The higher production with limited marketing channels poses the problem of market gluts, fall in open market prices and unsatisfactory remuneration to farmers.
To prevent the crises arising out of higher agricultural production, the experts of DAP&FW are advocating a planned approach to diversified farming through demand driven production of food grains, oilseeds, vegetables, fodder, flowers, fruits, cash crops, aromatic and medicinal plants, condiments and spices, agro-forestry trees, organic and other high value crops, animal husbandry, honey & mushroom production, etc., though there are limits to crop diversification due to agro-climatic preference of specific crops for specific areas. Some key supplementary recommendations include: formation of producer organizations to strengthen bargaining power of farmers and improve their management efficiency in accessing finance & inputs; facilitation in sale of products; construction of rural godowns; establishment of food processing and other value-addition enterprises. To favour the economy of scale and for better remuneration to farmers, the concept of ‘One District One Product’ and throwing open of multiple marketing channels including e-marketing have also been mooted by the government.
Recently, Shri K.K. Sharma, Director of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Jammu while disclosing the marketing initiatives of the Department revealed that proactive extension and technical support by officers and staff of the Department has enabled the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to procure 53461 qtl. of wheat grains of prescribed quality valued at Rs. 10.56 Crores from 963 farmers of Jammu, Samba and Kathua dstricts at the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs. 1975 per qtl. as on 12th of May 2021. He expects the wheat grain procurement to be in the range of one lakh qtls to 2 lakh qtls during the season and affirms that payment to the beneficiary farmers shall be directly into their respective bank accounts through DBT mode (direct benefit transfer), leaving no scope for pilferage. He stated that ten procurement centres have been established in Jammu district at Arnia, Badrore, Bishnah/R.S. Pura, Channu Chak, Gajansoo, Gurha Manhasan, Jourian, Marh, Pargwal, Sohanjana; eight in Kathua district at Bhajwal, Chhan Arorian, Hiranagar, Kunde Chak, Marheen, Nagri, Padyari, Palli and one in Samba at Rajpura. The selection process took into account the logistics, feasibility and the crop catchments. K.K. Sharma was satisfied that such interventions were breaking the monopoly of unscrupulous traders and immensely helping in curbing exploitative tendencies.
It is observed that almost all the above mentioned centres fall in irrigated wheat catchments, obviously because of high crop productivity. The success of market intervention in irrigated areas have stirred up the desire of farmers growing marketable surplus of wheat and maize in rainfed/ unirrigated and kandi districts and clusters of Jammu division to have similar marketing facilitation. Poonch, Rajouri, Sunderbani, Bhalwal, Dansal, Kishanpur-Manwal, Katal-Batal, Purmandal, Samba, Billawar-Phinter, Pouni-Reasi, Majhalta are a few of such areas, but procurement centres are yet to be introduced in or near these potential areas. These hilly un-irrigated areas have a higher number of farming families. Farming is their only livelihood source. These farmers are under compulsion to sell their maize and wheat crop to the nearby private traders at very low prices. During the current season, it is learnt that farmers of Dansal area sold their wheat produce to private traders at less than Rs.1700 per qtl. – Rs. 250 less than MSP. The Kharif crop of maize is reportedly sold by farmers of Poonch, Rajouri, etc. at Rs. 1300 to Rs. 1400 per qtl. in private market though MSP of Rs. 1850 per qtl. was notified by GoI during 2020.-21.
Presently, the farmers of un-irrigated areas are eagerly looking towards the government with higher hopes and expectations because the Prime Minister and Union Agriculture Minister have repeatedly announced that MSP is here to stay in the country. Moreover, the distant road connectivity, higher cultivation costs, poor infrastructure issues and now, the Covid-19 scare have multiplied their marketability concerns. It is in the un-irrigated and Kandi areas that most of the farming population is concentrated and they are the most vulnerable to lower incomes. Added to this, the private traders who purchase their products do not feel the urge to own up social responsibilities and therefore, remain reluctant to pay them fairly. It needs to be noted that unless the government stands by the farmers and creates conditions for the private sector to own up social responsibilities, fair remuneration to them can’t be expected. Only if the farmer gets fair remuneration for his entrepreneurship, labour and produce which are the basic raw material for food, fibre, fuel and shelter for humanity, then tranquility and prosperity will be the outcome. Tradition holds that standing up of government sector in times of need is necessary in India. It must be ever-ready to step in as and when the private sector tends to falter. It is in this endeavour of the Government that the concept of MSP (minimum support price) took shape in 1966-67.
MSP, the most popularized during the recent months, is the agricultural product price, set by the Government of India to purchase directly from the farmer. This is not enforceable by law, but only to safeguard the farmer to at least a minimum reasonable level of profit for the harvest, if open market has lesser price than the cost incurred. The concept of MSP was first mooted to incentivize the Punjab farmers to use the dwarf ‘miracle’ wheat varieties imported from International Centre for Maize and Wheat Research in Mexico (American-controlled) and cross-bred in India, primarily at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi. The aim was to multiply the local wheat varieties with alien dwarf genes and to ensure that Indian farmers grew dwarf wheat varieties extensively. The resultant varieties, as compared to the traditional Indian varieties, were lodging resistant and their grains didn’t shatter easily in field under the impact of winds and rains at the maturity stage. These varieties responded favourably to the fertilizer application in terms of yield and thus, no wonder, enabled India to turn from a food deficit state to a food exporting state. The total food grain production of India has reached 295.67 million tonnes in the year 2019-20 as against a poor 89.36 million tonnes during 1964-65.
Focusing on the un-irrigated and kandi areas now, the government must use MSP as the tool to pull out the farmers from the consistent economic depression. The concerned departments and FCI must seriously look into the prospects of establishing procurement centres for wheat and maize in the potential crop catchments of un-irrigated and kandi areas, no matter how distant. The search for establishment of maize procurement centres for Kharif 2021 marketing season, in areas where surplus production is a tradition, needs to begin from now. FCI also shall have to act big and develop appropriate logistics for food-grain procurement in J&K.
Covid – 19 pandemic has inflicted grievous blow to most of the development programmes of the government. However, the silver-lining is that even in the midst of Covid – 19 fury, the farmers in Jammu region, with critical handholding support from government machinery, have stood the ground. May God deliver fruits to their hopes, expectations and efforts!
The writer is Dy. Director of Agriculture(Retd), Jammu; email: [email protected]
