The issue of agricultural income tax was raised and debated in the 1980s in the aftermath of the Green Revolution but was dropped altogether. When it was found inadvisable and impractical during the 1980s, how can it be pertinent now when agricultural growth is decelerating? During the IX and X Five Year Plans, agricultural production grew at the rate of only 2 per cent and 1.8 per cent respectively against the target of 4 per cent. Production in most of the agriculturally advanced States of the Green Revolution era is stagnating or declining. In States such as Bihar, according to the data of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), the per hectare net income from rice cultivation has declined from Rs.60 in 1981-82 to minus Rs.1,264 in 2003-04 and of wheat cultivation from Rs.1,894 to Rs.985 during the same period.

About 96 per cent of the farmers in the country own less than two hectares of land. With further fragmentation due to population pressure and division in the family, farm holdings are becoming smaller. Small and marginal farmers are hardly able to make both ends meet. A majority of the farmers are compelled to take loans from non-institutional sources at interest rates ranging from 30 per cent to 170 per cent. The mention of farming today conjures up images of farmers’ suicides stalking the countryside. The central package for Vidarbha and other distressed areas has failed to halt the spate of suicides by highly indebted and hapless farmers. By dint of their hard labour, farmers transformed this country from a food-deficit country to a marginally surplus one. The neglect of the agriculture sector and wrong policies of the last couple of years have resulted in a decline in production.

The country has been forced to import foodgrains at double the prices paid to our own farmers under the Minimum Support Price (MSP) regime. Global food prices have skyrocketed and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations has sounded an alarm on the prospect of dwindling global supplies. The poorest are the hardest hit in times of scarce supplies and for them, food security remains just a dream.

Have we forgotten the grim realities of the pre-Green Revolution era when faced with famine and food shortages, India lived from ship to mouth and depended on imported grains to stave off starvation? History teaches us that food has in many cases been used as a political weapon by the powerful nations. We should always remember that food sufficiency and food security for all are a sine qua non of national sovereignty. It would be foolhardy to tax those who, despite all odds, feed us and whose survival itself is at stake. Agricultural income varies from one year to another and precise determination of agricultural income will be a Herculean task. Do we want farming to be subjected to the ‘Inspector Raj’?

(The writer is Chairman, Bihar State Farmers Commission.)

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail