Killing Fields

There is excitement on a new-found prosperity in rural areas. Screaming headlines tell us of farmers finding new ways to prosperity. Is that the ground reality?
Devinder Sharma Delhi

At the height of the green revolution, the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) showcased a prosperous farmer in the outskirts of Ludhiana as the emerging face of agriculture. As a young reporter with the Indian Express, I remember visiting his farm a number of times, and every time I returned from his farm, I woke up with a heady hangover.

There was hardly an evening when Harmik Singh (name changed) would not empty a crate of Peter Scot, quite an expensive whisky those days. No wonder, scientists, industrialists, international visitors, journalists, writers and politicians lined up at his farm. As they devoured chicken with a never-ending flow of liquor, it looked as if farming had suddenly become economically viable; there was prosperity all around.

For 40 years now, ever since the green revolution began in 1966-67, the nation has eulogised the Punjab farmer. Newspapers have, over the years, reported about the visible prosperity ushered in through intensive agriculture. Magazine articles have featured the opulent life style of prosperous Punjabi farmers. It wasn't unusual to see cover stories of farmers driving a Maruti car and relaxing by the side of the pool in their sprawling farm houses.

Not many journalists tried to explore the reasons behind the new-found prosperity. Harmik Singh's rich lifestyle, for instance, had more to do with an agency of pick-up vehicles he had, and which he never talked about. Nor did we try to find out the source of the money flow. We believed what the mainline economists - who misled us all these years because of their own lack of grip over the ground realities - told us.

Punjab is now paying the price of such faulty projections. Agriculture is in distress. It always was. Punjab's underbelly was gradually caving in. We refused to see it. Agriculture not only became economically unviable but also highly unsustainable. Farmers were made to pump in more chemical inputs to maintain their crop harvests. Mining for water to artificially sustain a wheat-rice cropping pattern became a necessity. Intensive farming has finally destroyed the natural resource base.

The farm prosperity we were made to believe in has disappeared. Over the years, indebtedness began growing to phenomenal levels. A recent PAU study shows as many as 89 per cent of Punjab farm households reeling under debt. Debt per farm family today stands at a staggering Rs 1.78 lakh. In other words, for every hectare of land holding, the outstanding debt is Rs 50,140.

Forty years after the green revolution, isn't it a shame to learn that the average income of a Punjab farm family hovers around a mere Rs 3,200 a month? What happened to the rural prosperity that we all knew about? Aren't more and more Punjab farmers abandoning agriculture? Thousands have already committed suicide. With every passing year, more and more farmers are being pushed to
the edge.