The full story of the agrarian crisis

Ramrao: The Story of India’s Farm Crisis

Author: Jaideep Hardikar

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pages: 266

Price: Rs 399

How does one understand the agrarian crisis that has been building over the years? There is the macro picture of fragmenting farm lands, unviable agriculture, broken credit system and inefficient markets that can be sorted out by market-facing “reforms” which takes the argument towards industrial agriculture. Will the same argument hold given our demographics of a large population dependent on agriculture? How do we understand the collateral effects on farmers, if the policy moves towards modernising and industrialising farming? Is that a problem?

Then there is the Palagummi Sainath style of writing. Mr Sainath looks at rural and agrarian issues through an empathetic (and sometimes a partisan) lens, in favour of the farmer. Even when there are larger issues of economic growth, Mr Sainath keeps the farmer at the core. He uses contrasting data of the polarisation of wealth in the hands of few with the pauperisation of the Indian peasantry. There is a certain flourish in Mr Sainath’s writing which is difficult to match.

Edmund Phelps in his book Mass Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge and Change talks about how the modern economy evolved post the industrial revolution arguing that growth and development brought prosperity. The collateral was urbanisation, displacement and rural distress. Mr Phelps says the growth parameters can be understood by looking at data. The trade-offs and tragedies are located in the personal stories — the literature of the time — Blake’s poetry; the ideas expressed in the works of Charles Dickens, Mary Shelley, Emile Bronte, Jane Austen, Balzac and Emile Zola. The tragic consequences of any policy are deeply personal and poetic.

Is there an alternative approach to understanding the problem? An approach different from the contrasts between polarisation and paupertisation; or data and poetry? Jaideep Hardikar shows an alternative — a quintessential journalistic way of dealing with the issue. Bring a face and a story — get a really personal story to connect to the macro picture. Through this, open multiple points for debate. This is a difficult balance to achieve but Mr Hardikar gets it right. His book is not overly academic; he uses data adequately to make a point but uses a personal story to seamlessly amplify it into a macro picture to connect with the policy and the markets.

Mr Hardikar traces the story of Ramrao who attempted suicide by consuming two bottles of pesticide during Holi in 2014. Mr Hardikar follows up and is in regular touch with Ramrao, documenting the ups and downs in his agrarian life. The life is intertwined with the personal and family issues at one level and at the markets and policy at another. Ramrao is not a caricatured stereotypical “poor” farmer — impoverished, looking at the sky for rains, and constantly harassed by moneylenders on one side and the commission agents on the other. He is a farmer who innovates, tries new crops, attempts consolidation by leasing in the farms of neighbours and is rational. He is open to ideas, open to science and constantly trying to find solutions. He is juggling on various fronts, with a dark sense of humour and a positive attitude. While Ramrao is a person who attempted suicide and failed, his second life is not despondent, it is entrepreneurial.

Let us look at the check boxes of readymade solutions for the agrarian crisis in the context of Ramrao. Modernisation of agriculture and use of genetically modified seeds, check; access to water, check; consolidation of land for better economies of scale, check; diversification of crops, check; ability to understand and see the patterns of the market, check; access to formal financial services, check (though there is ejection from the service due to past dues); access to solutions such as loan waivers, check; access to insurance services, check.

While all boxes are not checked at all times, these are issues with which Ramrao is deeply engaged. These check boxes are not working. Even if all the things work, it still does solve the inherent unviability of agriculture. 

Mr Hardikar’s narration of Ramrao’s story — micro as it may be —  constantly connects and traces it to the structural issues and touches the macro.

In Ramrao’s story we find the helplessness of India’s farm sector. It is a paradox of not having a developmental and growth narrative using data, but having lots of poetry to describe the personal distress of the farmers. This is a call for the policy makers. While the farm protests are manifesting in opposing the three farm laws, even a settlement of repealing them is not going to solve the problem. It is even more deep rooted. 

The sheer helplessness and frustration will at the personal level manifest in suicides and at the collective level result in protests. It is past the time to take note. If somebody needs to know how policies affect individual families and need a face to the policy, Mr Haridkar provides one. Ramrao is a difficult read. It is a compelling read. It is deadpan. Unemotional. Hard hitting.  

mssriram@pm.me.  The reviewer is faculty member, Centre for Public Policy, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore