Why Indian farmers are in distress? Does Reservation agitation associated with farming crisis?

Indian farmers are in great pain and it is not a secret anymore. The recent Indian government's budget also indicates that Indian farmers need immediate attention; therefore, the Government of India has come up with many schemes for the rural infrastructure and farmer's welfare; though, many critics still believe that lots of more are required to be done to address the distress among farmers.

Not only Indian farmers are in distress, the farmers across many nations are facing difficult situations which are forcing them to abandon farming. A few days back, I was watching a show on the Aljazeera channel about a shortage of food items in Venezuela. In this study, I found that Venezuela exports 80% of its essential food and due to a decrease in oil prices, it has become very costly for Venezuela to continue with older pattern.

Such stories are going to become common in most of the nation who will ignore their farmers. Today, we are able to eat well in India only because of the Indian farmers who is producing most of the essential food items at home and at an affordable rate. If these farmers stop growing food and shift to other jobs then there will be a scarcity of food and most of the food items will become very expensive out of the reach of most of the people.

Already, we are witnessing food inflation and many people are not able to eat a good daily meal. Recent, Jat and Patel reservation agitations are also seen associated with a decrease in the income from farming. These two castes traditionally in farming are finding it hard to continue the same work of farming because of decreasing income and increasing input cost. In the last three years, fertilizer prices have increased three times in India and similarly, prices of seeds and other input for farming have increased.

I have come across many farmers who say that farming is becoming very risky day by day because of decreasing income and uncertainty of good food production. Therefore, they do not want their children to do the same job. However, simultaneously they do not find themselves competitive enough to get high paying government jobs without reservation. In my last article Worst Condition of Indian Farmers, I showed some data which highlight the poor condition of Indian farmers.

So far, thousands of Indian farmers have committed suicide in the last few years and this number is likely to increase as more and more farmers becoming the victim of loans at a higher interest rate. In this whole setup, big companies, middlemen, and governments are making profits in the name of poor farmers. Farming matters come under the state government; however, many state governments don't do much for the welfare of farmers.

We need to create an improvement where Indian farmers find it easy to continue with farming. Our governments need to take measures which decrease the cost of input for farmers. Second, it is very important for the government to provide cheap loans for farmers so that they don't become a victim of loans at higher interest from the moneylenders. We still have time to save Indian farmers from leaving farming and making farming again a profitable work. Industrialization alone can't solve all of our problems and we need to make some balance between industrialization and farming.

Also read- Why the condition of Indian farmers is so Bad?