Guest Column: Time for Punjab to unveil its new agriculture policy

The then state agriculture minister opined that new agricultural policy will be drafted keeping in mind Punjab’s natural resources such as ground water and soil health, improving the economic condition of farmers, and that, special attention will be given to aspects such as value addition to the agricultural produce, export, and agricultural diversification.

After assuming power in Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government constituted an 11-member expert committee on January 17 last year to draft the state agricultural policy. The panel’s initial deadline for the submission of policy draft was March 31. The then state agriculture minister opined that new agricultural policy will be drafted keeping in mind Punjab’s natural resources such as ground water and soil health, improving the economic condition of farmers, and that, special attention will be given to aspects such as value addition to the agricultural produce, export, and agricultural diversification.

After assuming power in Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government constituted an 11-member expert committee on January 17 last year to draft the state agricultural policy. The panel’s initial deadline for the submission of policy draft was March 31. (HT File)

The committee got several extensions and still the report is not in the public domain. Interestingly, during this intervening period, in early June 2023, the government also engaged Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as a consultant, for six months, to guide the government and helping the state in its efforts for crop diversification and management of crop residue. The government also reportedly agreed to a hefty consultancy fee. Based on the BCG plan, the government was to take a call on whether to retain the group as consultant in the future, or not. Six months have passed since but there is no word on what BCG has proposed to diversify agriculture.

Punjab agriculture is facing an ongoing and deepening crisis since last four decades. Earlier too, several expert committees were constituted and expert groups formed to precisely pinpoint the problems/issues and suggesting the policy measures to ameliorate them. Noticeable among them were the Johl Committees in 1986 and 2002.

Several panels formed but no tangible result

In 2013, another agricultural diversification action plan was brought by the Punjab government with emphasised on shifting 12 lakh hectares of area from water-guzzling paddy to other crops with a budget of ₹7,500 crores. This policy counted on the fictional hope of financial support from the Union government for achieving the desired results in five years but nothing tangible was done to achieve the stipulated objectives. Yet two other agricultural policy drafts were prepared in 2013 and 2017.

The committees/reports suggested several sets of actions, but the irony is that the successive governments predominantly disregarded almost all the reports submitted by these committees, preferred status quo, indulged in competitive populism and with the result of a crisis turning into a disaster. The suicides by the farmers and the agricultural labourer, indebtedness, youth turning away from agriculture and overall, a persisting distress in the rural areas testify all this.

Lack of political will

The experience also shows that almost all the earlier reports/policy drafts, prepared by various committees, had a shelf life of few months. The reports were usually received with enthusiasm, remained drafts (not final policy documents), became headlines in the media, talked about at various platforms and then forwarded to departments concerned.

But action and monitoring plans were never put into place because of the lack of political will. The politics of vote bank and political convenience and the bureaucratic indifference preferred either the status quo, or it took years to initiate a small step. The imposition of ban on paddy transplantation before June 10 was recommended by experts in mid-eighties but the law, ‘Punjab Preservation of Sub-Soil Water Act-2009’, banning paddy transplantation before June 10, was passed in 2009.

Rationalising the electricity subsidy is another issue that emerged several times but was abandoned as it seemed politically inconvenient. Many other recommendations were also overlooked time and again.

The architects of these reports, though they were well respected renowned scientists, failed to move the government machinery to implement their suggestions, often vented their frustration in private talks but shirked away from posing any intellectually credible challenge to the power for its inaction.

The AAP, before coming to power, had been critical of the previous governments for their indifference and inaction, and promised aggressive approach allowing agricultural sector to regain the past magnificence. Agricultural policy, in fact, is a set of principles, guidelines, and rules framed by the government to guide the decision making and draw a road map for the future of agriculture. The policy appraises the ongoing challenges, learns from the past mistakes and crafts a pragmatic approach towards solving the persisting problems, paving the way for the growth and sustainability of agriculture.

Farm bodies frustrated

The long wait for the new policy, that will be showcase the present government’s approach towards solving the problems of agriculture, has frustrated the farmers unions. Few of them have asked the government to make the policy public by January 21, 2024. They have alerted on their plan to launch an agitation if new policy is not made public. The next Lok Sabha elections are round the corner and before that the Election Commission of India will impose the ‘code of conduct’ that may prohibit the governments to initiate new measures till the electoral process is over. This will further delay the implementation of the recommendations enshrined in the policy document.

This time, it was expected that the AAP government will deviate from the tradition, impress upon the committee to finalise the report in a time-bound manner, study the report in detail, and make a list of accepted recommendations and draw the roadmap to implement them at once or in a phased manner. But the long wait is wearisome.

bhullaramarjitsingh@gmail.com

(The writer, a former professor of economics at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, is with the University of Northern British Columbia, Canada. Views expressed are personal)