New Agricultural Policy Of The West Bengal Government - Another Further Right Turn Of The 'Left'!
(The present author is indebted to an article of Prof. Subhendu Dasgupta, which appeared in two parts in Ananda Bazar Patrika of September 4, and 5, 2002. The article was a critical appraisal of the new agricultural policy of the West Bengal Government. Prof. S. Dasgupta teaches in the department of the South and South East Asian Studies of the Calcutta University.)
The birth of a new agricultural policy of the West Bengal Government was indeed troublesome. The first draft (dated 12/04/002) was greeted enthusiastically by the pro-globalisation wallahs. The CPI (M) leaders started arguing for it strongly. But unfortunately three other partners of the Left Front (CPI, FB, RSP) were unhappy with it, particularly with the proposal of 'contract-farming'. The CPI (M) leaders failed to pursue the other three partners to give up their opposition. Moreover, its own rank and file started to grumble. As a result of all these, another draft was prepared (the date of which is not known, but it can well be assumed to be prepared sometime in the end of July or early August.) There were many cosmetic changes in the second draft and to understand the nature of these changes one has to start from the first draft. So let us start from the very beginning.
(1)
The first draft, in its memorandum, stated that the tasks to be formulated to meet the future challenge in the agricultural sector were discussed in a seminar organised on 12th and 13th September 2000, where the ministers of the related departments along with the CM, the directors of these departments and some members of the State Planning Board were present. Later on a meeting was organised on 30/11/2001 where Dr.Swaminathan of the green revolution fame was also present. The third step was the writing of the draft that was done by the departmental executives. But nothing was mentioned in the draft about McKinsey, the foreign management consultant of the present government, although the bourgeois press who lauded the draft agricultural policy, saw and felt the direct influence of McKinsey in the first draft.
In the first chapter entitled 'Present Scenario' it has been stated that (for the benefit of the readers we are following the draft): —
# In spite of the marked progress of West Bengal's agriculture the rate of rise of total production and productivity are stagnant and in some cases deteriorating during the last decade, the reason behind being the present property base and the limitation of the technology available at hand, and
# The present agro-scenario of West Bengal is facing a number of problems/ contradictions/obstacles. To give examples it has been stated that: —
(1) West Bengal is at present a food deficient state;
(2) There is no more land available for agricultural usage;
(3) Due to excessive use the soil fertility has deteriorated alarmingly;
(4) The amount of water available for irrigation is insufficient;
(5) The agriculture is still dependent on the mercy of monsoon; etc.etc.
Over and above the West Bengal's agriculture has some special characteristics which are: — (a) 94% of the peasants are small and marginal; (b) These peasants till 72% of the total land; (3) The land utilisation index (i.e. the use of land for agricultural purposes more than once a year) is 1.71, far ahead of the all India average; (4) The use of fertiliser is maximum in West Bengal (134 kgs/Ha, whereas the all India average is 97 kgs/Ha). But we find a 'non-functional' characteristic (in the sense it is a 'future possibility') in the list: it has been stated in the list that there is a big possibility of developing horticulture (flowers, medicinal and auromatic plants, spices, orchids and decorative plants) in the state! The government is really in a hurry.
The second chapter then enunciates the government's 'total outlook and aims'. There are sixteen of them. The first one assures us that our food security (as an explanation it has been stated that 'it means nutritional security') will be guaranteed. Rightly so! Because, in spite of being the number one rice-producing (and the number two potato-producing) state of India, here the daily per capita production of chawl is nearly 230gms (and of atta is only 25gms). Again on point 4 it has been restated that the task is to make West Bengal self-sufficient in food. But on point 6 we find the proposal for diversifying the agriculture towards export agriculture and changing the production pattern, which is now mainly based on food production towards the production of commercial crops! And not only this! On proceeding further we will find the "arrangements to get maximum benefit by evaluating the tendencies of the international market"! In actual terms this means that steps will be taken to 'get maximum benefits out of the WTO arrangements'. Even the BJP-led central government's agricultural policy speaks more cautiously in this respect.
The draft then emphasised, among other things, on increasing irrigation facilities. This is also mentioned in the 3rd chapter entitled "Policy Guideline". We already know that the ground water level of West Bengal is falling down rapidly. This has led to Arsenic and Fluoride poisoning in many districts of West Bengal. Already innumerable cases of shallow tube-well failures are taking place in every place in the cropping season. The canal and the river irrigation systems are deteriorating every year and this continuous deterioration is, at times, causing severe floods. The draft evaded all these issues. It also evaded the question of falling productivity of land due to increasing (and increasingly imbalanced) use of chemical fertilisers, though the draft takes pride for the latter. (The imbalance in the use of fertilisers or the disproportion of N: P: K was evident here within just 3 early years of Narashima-Manmohan regime.) The draft has several other glaring contradictions that we are not looking into because of the limitation of space.
In the last part of the policy guidelines there is a section dealing with the agricultural/horticultural marketing. Surprisingly here one will find, after points 3 and 4, another set of points numbered 3 and 4. And only after that you can move to point 5. More surprisingly one will find the clause of "contract farming" here (in this marketing section)! How surreptitiously the government has tried to smuggle this clause into the draft (which the C.M. has referred at a much later date to be 'just a slip of pen'! A slip indeed, but not of pen, but a reflection of the general downward slipping of the CPI (M) itself!) ! !
Now it has become clear why 'the present property base' and 'the presently available technology' have been pointed out to be the main factors behind the stagnation and in some cases, the deterioration of the rising rate of production and productivity. Commercial agriculture is 'not viable' in the 'poor and marginal' peasant dominated rural scene—and so the 'present property base' has to be changed. The process of change in this direction can be accelerated (easily) through 'contract farming' and similar other stern measures. Even if 'contract farming' has been 'a slip of pen', then also further commercialisation of agriculture will not stop short of forcing the 'poor and marginal' farmers to slip down into the rank of paupers. The experiences of the so-called 'Green Revolution' have proved it beyond doubt. A report published in The Statesman (25/03/1996) fully confirms this. In that report the chief executive of agro-executive of Bardhaman District (once known as the 'granary of Bengal') confessed that 60% of the peasants who had received land from the government's land reform programme (the average size being a paltry quarter of an acre) were forced to sell their lands during the previous two years (i.e. during 1994 and 1995). Capitalist development in the agriculture sector in this present set-up can only accelerate the de-peasantisation process without the accompanying process of the formation of the 'labour army' which we had seen in the early days of capitalism. In an underdeveloped country like ours the capitalist development in agriculture produces only paupers, 'submerged unemployment', so on and so forth. The Left Front Government of West Bengal has been pursuing a policy of developing capitalism in agriculture (in the 'Junker' or 'Prussian' way) since its inception in 1977. The new thing is that they are now openly and loudly preaching this ideal and shamelessly running after ripping profit from imperialist 'globalisation'.
(2)
The protesting partners of the CPI (M) in the Left Front might or might not have smelt this. But make no mistake; they 'are on the same boat'. So all their much publicised protests were limited only against 'contract farming' (although according to some news paper reports, the FB Food Minister of the Left Front Government agreed to this too, but 'to start with', 'on an experimental basis' and 'on a small scale') and all their 'criticisms' amounted to asking for a 'guarantee' against the dissolution of the small peasant holdings (and that too within the present economy and present set-up! Mind you, they are not joking; they are serious about it!) For nearly a couple of months the CPI (M) defended the sacred draft in Toto, but later on they thought it to be prudent to appear a bit more sane, with a bit more 'human face' and to preserve, at least, a tint of red and changed the draft.
The second draft washed all the 'ugly stains' like 'stagnation, deterioration' and the causes behind these; 'obstacles, problems, contradictions', 'commercialisation', 'world market orientation'. But all these washings and cleanings could not fully wipe out the 'stains' of their real intention. For example, look at these gems from the second draft: — (1) "Improved yields in rice production... will thus release a significant proportion of the cropped area...for diversification of production... and in particular (for) oilseeds... fruits.... flowers and other non-food products " (in the 'Objective And Perspective' section); (2) The "only way for generating more income''... is to formulate "policies for rapid progress in agro-diversification and value addition." (Same section); (3) "... a wonderful case of agro-arithmetic to 'release' about 20% of the rice producing cropped area for the production of commercial crops (page-6); (4) "The working people of our country are thirsting for more information and advice on... prices, markets and post- harvest technology". (!!) (Page-12); (5) Though at present a "single agricultural extension officer is expected to serve...more mouzas than can be effectively be served by a single person", the task is to "re-skill" them (pages-12& 13); (6) Both drafts speak of food processing industries for processing packaged pre-cooked/cooked/semi-cooked food items and the need to serve the demands of this industry etc, etc. All these have been presented after a lengthy introduction severely criticising 'economic reforms', 'new trade regime', 'globalisation' and all such things.
At present, though these 'lefts', particularly the CPI (M) boast of their achievements in West Bengal in general and in the agricultural sector of the state in particular, what do the facts tell us? Let us have a glance at the facts.
# The state is not yet been able to attain self-sufficiency in food production.
# From the much-publicised land reform programme 2.5 million households have received land with each of the households receiving only 0.25 acre.
# The super-hyped Operation Barga ensured the right of cropping of 1.4 million sharecroppers in an average land-size of less than one acre per tenant It was observed as early as in 1993 (by renowned bureaucrats who were also in the good book of the Left Front) that the land reform programme had already slowed down considerably (The Statesman, 16th and 17th May, 1993). In terms of the percentage of the cropped land that the poorer section of the peasantry received from the surplus lands of the rich section, the achievements of the land reform programme of the past 55 years or so had been only one-fourth of what the land reform programme of post-second world war Japan achieved within just 5 years and that too through an U.S. imperialism-guided policy which was drawn with the aim of combating 'communist threat' (!).
# The silent process of de-peasantisation and accompanying pauperisation in West Bengal's countryside has intensified considerably in the last couple of decades.
# The 'contract farming' has silently come back through the 'dadan' system (the advance taken by the peasants from the lenders/input sellers, forcing them to sell their products at a price fixed by 'mutual contract')
# More and more peasants are being forced to take recourse to distress selling. Previously this phenomenon used to touch up to the level of the middle peasants generally. But in the last two years the rich peasants were also partly affected by the falling prices of paddy... (We shall elaborately deal with such aspects in the coming issues of the journal. We are restricting this article within the boundaries of immediate reactions and comments.) A model state indeed!!
Now perhaps even the 'mad hatter' will hesitate to call these parties "left"; nothing left about them is left now.
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