With a fierce desire that the deadly epidemic of the previous year won't recur, Indians are facing an angry face as we embrace the year 2021. Thousands of farmers have gathered in peace outside the nation's capital, asking that the government revoke the new legislation pertaining to agriculture. Who is correct and who is wrong is a topic of much debate. However, we should be challenged to consider as consumers of food that farmers grow, not as scholars, researchers, or as policy wonks, by this protest. It is imperative that we inquire as to why we require food subsidies for the food we eat. Why do farmers, not only the few who camp out in the freezing cold at the boundaries of the capital, but also the silent majority who have no voice, want price support? Why is Donation For Farmers important? Do they act lethargic and unproductive? It is a reality that governments everywhere, including in wealthy nations, significantly finance agriculture. The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental think tank, calculates the amount of support given to this industry as a proportion of total farming earnings, a measure known as producer support.
It indicates that between 40 and 60 percent of the gross farming receipts in 2019 went towards producer subsidies in wealthy nations including South Korea, Japan, Norway, and Iceland. About 12% of people in the US and 20% of people in the EU have this problem.
However, the producer assistance in India is really negative (-5%) as a proportion of farming revenue paid by the government. Put another way, the farming industry, which is controlled and owned by some of the world's poorest people, subsidises our food. However, that is not all. Wealthy nations are also acting quickly to help their agricultural industries in the face of mounting climate change dangers. Payment for agricultural output is contingent upon the industry using more sustainable methods.
Farmers will now get payments for ecosystem services under the EU's Common Agricultural Policy. Thus, additional subsidies under other titles. In this sense, the social and environmental welfare policies of nearly all major food-producing nations contain subsidies. The subsidy might be provided to farmers directly, through support prices for certain crops, or through investments in essential agricultural inputs like seeds, fertiliser, and water. Farmers from the developing world, especially those from India's wealthy provinces of Punjab and Haryana, must compete in this market. They are firstly at a disadvantage as they do not receive the funding required to make farming profitable.
The government intervenes to import less expensive food when their crops become expensive as a result of bad weather or other shortages. On both sides, our farmers are harmed thus needing donations for farmers. Farmers are requesting a minimum support price (MSP) in order to protect themselves from price volatility because of this. It is undeniable that the system is flawed right now. Although MSP is set for 22 crops, it is really only applied to wheat and paddy, for which the government has a procurement mechanism. Because of this, farmers in Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh are furious and worry that the system will be abolished. They cultivate rice and wheat, which are mostly purchased by the government.
MSP, however, is a hollow promise for the remaining crop. The market ultimately fails to provide the farmers with the necessary payment, as my colleague Richard Mahapatra examined in his most recent piece about agricultural subsidies. Almost 70% of market transactions for ten specific crops in 600 wholesale markets occurred at rates below MSP, according to statistics provided by the government itself.
It all comes down to how much meals should cost. The money for everything from labour to seeds and water is getting more and more expensive. And there's the reality that, as a result of climate change, there are increasingly hazards associated with extreme weather. Donations for farmers must be compensated for the higher expense of producing food as well as the higher danger of crop loss in this way. Unlike any commercial corporation or sector, Indian farmers invest massive sums of their own money to develop infrastructure for their activities. As groundwater is used to irrigate more than half of the land, they finance the construction of irrigation systems. Approximately 19 million wells and tube wells have been constructed using private funds. This is all the fault of the government, which has rigged the MSP calculation against farmers in order to keep food prices low enough to support its procurement system. Food inflation is every government's worst nightmare since it causes customers to get upset and angry.
At this point, the government imports food in an effort to lower costs; it is food from wealthy nations where farming is supported and our farmers are unable to compete. It's time we have a discussion about how to help the farmers who produce our food and how much our food actually costs. We can't afford to lose this company. The farmers who live next to us want us to talk about this. Don't let them down, with Search NGO your donation reaches the right door.
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