 Welcome to NewsClick. We have with us Krishna Prasad, the Finance Secretary of All India Kisan Sabha, to talk to us about the budget and its impact on the farmer sector. All over the media you can see, especially in the corporate media, that this is a pro-farmers budget and the rural budget and this being an election year budget, every papers and the media houses are saying that farmers are going to benefit immensely through this budget. To talk to us on this issue, we have Krishna Prasad. Welcome to NewsClick. Thank you. First of all, you had seen the media reports and all. Is there actually anything in the budget for the farmers? Actually the promises of the Finance Minister regarding MSP, 150%, that is a big achievement as far as the farmers movement is concerned. Because this was a consistent demand of the farmer organization's agitation in the last three and four years after Modi government come to power. And the first and foremost promise made by Narendra Modi before coming to power also was that if elected to power then the BJP government will give 150% price to the above the cost of production as recommended by MSP. And now the entire media is saying that yes they have done it. But what is the allocation in the budget? How much money they have allotted for ensuring that farmers will get a higher MSP? This is the basic question. And actually in the last budget also and earlier budget also, the price stabilization fund that was a very meager 3500 crore rupees. And this year Arun Jayatliji has cut down that to 1400 crore rupees. So on one side he has promised 150% more MSP than the cost of production. And he has cut down the financial allocation for a price stabilization fund. What does it mean? Whether the trader will give the money to the farmer from his own pocket. This is the most largest betrayal which Modi is doing that without any financial allocation in a budget he is making a big promise. This is only a jumla. This is only a for the preparation for the next election. He is again betraying the farmer. And this is a very serious issue which the farmers and the farmer organization is going to take up very seriously. There will be very strong agitation on this issue in the coming day. Even reports have come that last curve season farmers lost about 35000 crore rupees. And that is less than 40% less than the minimum support price than the actual cost incurred by the farmers. So how do you think they actually are able to I mean fool the people then? You see actually we can consider the most what to say familiar one of the food products is the paddy, the rice, the chawai. And what the government is giving the price? The government is giving 1500, 50 is the per kindle price MSP which is announced by the farmer. But whether it is in Jharkhand, whether it is in Chhattisgarh where the BJP rules when we have gone there, farmers are complaining they were getting only 900 rupees, 1100 rupees. When the demonetization happened after 11th of November that has come down to even 700 rupees, 750 rupees. This is the plight. Only one government can claim that they are ensuring a better price to the paddy farmer is the Kerala government. They are giving 2350 rupees. That means above 850 rupees per kindle than the central government's MSP because the Kerala government is giving this much MSP. That way even in Kerala farmers are getting from the government procurement this much but in the public means in the market in the general market the Kerala farmers also is getting price of 1900 to 2000 or 2100. Even reports have shown that most of the farmers are even not aware of the MSP and there is no policy to actually ensure that the farmers benefit. So, what is the use of having an MSP and the traders do not follow this? Can you give your views on that? MSP means since the government is serious about the farming then the government should ensure that the export import policies will be in power with supporting the domestic price. This was a protection before neoliberal policies implemented in India. There was a protection in the domestic market for the farm products. So, farmers were getting a reasonable price at that time. But after the neoliberal policies all the taxes have been withdrawn. So, free of cost free of tax the import is taking place. So, in the domestic market the price of the agricultural products has come down and there is very large flexibility uncertainty and this has actually made the biggest problems for the farmer that whatever the cost of production even that is not realized when they are selling the products. This is the biggest problem in India. But after the neoliberal policies the government when they said the MSP we will be providing then that should be supported by a proper procurement mechanism. Whether the government is having any procurement mechanism this is the basic question. The government is declaring MSP without arrangement of any insurance that according to that MSP farmer will get the price means it is cheating the farmer. So, this is the problem that farmers are not actually getting the MSP and whatever the traders are giving and whatever the volatility in the local market. Accordingly the farmer are forced to sell the products because they are no storage facility they cannot keep the raw material with them because it will have further problem because of that and it will get wasted and it will lose weight. So, farmers will be more in trouble. So, without any procurement mechanism the government is declaring MSP also you say hogs nothing else. Coming also on to this the major thing is also about the credit facilities for the farmers. This budget has claimed that about 11,000 11 lakh crores is going to be given as credit to the farmers. Is it true and if that is the case who are going to be benefited from this? You see the credit from the government in the agricultural sector yes definitely they are increasing it. But the farmers means the 80 percent of the Indian farmers belongs to poor farmer and middle farmer who are below 5 acres of land. But these credit share mainly goes to the rich farmers agro processing industries and also even government employs by giving gold loan they are taking this agricultural loan from the banks. So, this is a there should be a white paper that who is benefiting out of this agricultural loan and another thing is that by enhancing this amount also actual impact of this credit to the farmers life is that they are just renewing it they are paying the interest and getting the renewed the loan this is what is happening they are not getting any fresh loan. So, and other side also whatever that loan they have taken because of the debt burden they are always at the receiving end. So, this is nowhere to help the farmer it is nowhere to liberate the farmer from the debt wrap. So, this also not going to help the farmer. See it is reported that around 12,000 farmers have committed suicide but there is no policy or any new package for the farmers you mean to say is it? The most important problem in India today is reflected to the suicide of the farmers and that is due to the indebtedness. And that indebtedness needs to be addressed by the government if they are sincere to the agriculture and the farm farmers. But what government is interested to is to bring a corporate agriculture instead of the petty production. They want to wipe out the petty producers let them make become unable to exist in the agriculture production and that way the large scale migration is taking place farmers are under indebtedness unable to keep farming and they are selling the cattle they are selling their land even and they are becoming a part of this large food plus migration taking place all over the country. So, this is a elimination of petty production is going on to facilitate a corporate recession of agriculture and this is what this government also is doing more than what the last UPA government under the congress rule was doing they have speeded it up they have first in the beginning itself they announced under percent foreign direct investment in agriculture and retail trade then they have announced that there will be e-electronic platform linking all the agricultural mandis so that they facilitating cheap procurement for the corporates now they are announcing now the contract forming means they all multinational corporates and large capital owners they will be able to come in a big way into the agriculture field and take over the land and have a centralized agriculture production system. So, this is a corporate source of agriculture this will bring very big havoc in the country and the rural economy so this policy of the BJP government is intensifying the agrarian crisis rather than resolving the indebtedness problem. I mean when you said that it still agriculture provides the largest employment about 50 percent of the population is employed in agriculture and part of that also is the large part of it is also agriculture workers so is there anything for the agriculture workers in this budget? The most important demand of the agricultural worker today in all over the country is they should get a minimum wage and there should be a enactment to assure that the agriculture will get a minimum wage and also other services including pension and all other social services and social welfare but that has not been addressed by this government in the last four years and most importantly the question of the land reform agricultural laborer and the poor landless person they will be benefited only out of the proper comprehensive implementation of the land reform. So, there is a question before Modi G and also Harun Jayad Ali G they are being in the power in many states for 15 years 20 years like in Chattisgarh like in Madhya Pradesh but they have been implemented land reform just the Kerala government have done in Kerala or in Bengal or Trubira or in Jammu Kashmir and also now the BJP has come to power in the central government that the four years they are uttering not a single word about land reform and in India 5 percent below 5 percent of the higher strata of land holders they are having 38 percentage of the total land hold still that much land concentration is there. So, this should be changed and also in the plantation sector there are big companies who are holding 50,000, 60,000, 70,000 hectares of land under one single company. So, this land centralization needs to be addressed then only the agriculture worker and the landless farmer will be benefited by owning the land and getting a minimum wage. So, this issue the BJP government has terribly failed to address the agricultural laborer's issue. Even for the allocations for Manrega it is not sufficient for the demand. So, do you think that there will be an agitation like Kisan Sabha with the other sister organizations have taken up the all India agriculture's issues do you think there will be more such agitations. The MNRAGA should have been very properly implemented then it would have been helped the rural economy because now the NDA's stagnation in India which is affecting the industrial class and trading class also that is because the purchasing power of the rural poor is going down. In the last one year out of the total wealth which was generated material progress 73 percent has been taken by 1 percent of the rich sections in the country. So, this is the inequality which is going on. So, the maximum 50 percent above the poor sections have got only 1 percentage of the total material progress we had last year. So, this inequality needs to be addressed through the projects programs like its act the MNRAGA is a not only a scheme it is an act. So, that act should be implemented fully with it through with its beds and spirit, but it was not implemented by this government and this government was trying to limit this MNRAGA to 250 25 percent of the blocks in the beginning and because of the court intervention and the agitations by the farmers and the agriculture workers they have taken a back and they have now somehow the parity they are keeping though they are not giving a proper allocation the parity is they are keeping because of the pressure. So, in the coming days we are planning higher level of agitations and struggles will be definitely will be built up on this particular issue of MNRAGA. That is all for today for a more actual analysis of the budget or even the government policies and the issues that affect the poor the marginalized and the working population of this country do watch and subscribe to NewsClick.