Letters: Not good economics

With reference to the article “Farm loan waivers a fiscal threat” (December 28) — I think it is an understatement to say that farm loan waivers is a fiscal threat, but sadly that is the irony in our country where politics and economics are dangerously mixed. Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Karnataka put together have waived farm loans worth Rs 1,35,000 crore in the last year or so. It is a wrong precedence set by these states — whether it is part of their budget or not, it will hurt them some time.  

Waiving farm loan waiver is one of the most populist poll plank for any political party and since it catches millions of voters, it is a good political proposition for them. Sadly, it is not good economics. And the cost of such waivers are huge so what government does is cut the social sector spending. State governments need to think beyond farm loan waivers, as that is only a short term solution to the problem and start thinking on other critical issues like availability of cold storage houses, better Minimum Support Price and access to global markets to our farmers so that they are not dependent only on local consumption. And access to technology should not be restricted to rich and large farmers, it must reach small farmers also so that agriculture remains a viable and sustainable profession, otherwise we will keep reading about suicides and other farmer's distress across the country.

Bal Govind  Noida

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