Agri growth falling, farmers suffering: Ex-minister hits out at Nitish Kumar

When asked about Singh’s charges that farmers were suffering in Bihar, the chief minister had on Friday said he (Sudhakar) did not know much and there was no need to take notice of such people

Former Bihar agriculture minister Sudhakar Singh on Saturday once again hit out at chief minister Nitish Kumar for not taking the farmers’ issue seriously even after he raised the matter consistently.

Former Bihar agriculture minister and RJD MLA Sudhakar Singh (File Photo)

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLA also dared the CM to select any constituency of his choice to get a feel of the public mood and opinion about his leadership.

When asked about Singh’s charges that farmers were suffering in Bihar, the chief minister had on Friday said he (Sudhakar) did not know much and there was no need to take notice of such people.

“How much we have done for farmers in different ways is for all to see. Some people keep speaking to grab headlines. People are the ultimate decision-makers,” Kumar added.

Responding to CM’s comment, Singh on Saturday in a letter hit back at Kumar saying he was not “all-knowing like him,” but would still present the ground situation of issues confronting the farmers, viz. their income, paddy procurement, development of agriculture area, the reality of agriculture road maps, compensation for land acquisition etc.

Regarding paddy procurement, Singh wrote that the farmers are given less than the support price. The procurement is done only to a limit and the payment is also delayed, forcing farmers to take recourse to middlemen at throwaway prices, he wrote.

“Average sale price of paddy in Punjab is ₹2,300, while it is just ₹1,600 in Bihar. The trend is similar for other crops,” he added.

The cabinet former minister also pointed out the consistently dropping agriculture growth rate in the state despite contributing 18-19% to the gross domestic product (GDP).

“The agriculture growth rate in Bihar was 5.4% in 2005-10, but it dropped to 3.7% in 2010-14 and now between 1-2%. In real terms, the agriculture growth rate has turned negative, which exposed the truth of agriculture roadmaps,” he added.

Maintaining that the agriculture production has dropped from 177.8 lakh tonnes in 2012, when the second agriculture roadmap was launched, to 176.02 lakh tonnes in 2022, Singh said that the production drop “reflected the actual benefit of spending ₹3 lakh crore on much-trumpeted agriculture roadmaps.”

He has also raised the issue of inadequate compensation to farmers in lieu of the acquisition of their land. “In the coming Budget session, I will again bring a private member bill for reviving agriculture Mandis and be ready for a discussion on the matter,” Singh added.

The RJD MLA has been batting strongly for the re-establishment of the Mandi system, which the government abolished over a decade and a half ago, and ensuring minimum support price for their produce to farmers.

In January, RJD issued notice to Singh over his statements against the chief minister, but his tirade has continued. Singh had earlier criticised Kumar’s government for “developing a unique model of state-sponsored loot and corruption”.

The Janata Dal-United, however, immediately retorted, accusing Singh of juggling with no statistics to suit.

“This is all fabricated data. Comparison with Punjab is misleading. The land holding size in Bihar is 0.56 hectares, while it is 3.6 hectares in Punjab. That way, incline should be six times in Punjab, but it is four times. Bihar is a densely populated state with 1,200 persons/km, while it is 550 in Punjab. Comparing chalk and cheese shows your malicious intent,” said JD-U spokesman Neeraj Kumar.