DECODE PUNJAB: ‘Wheat-paddy cycle suits Centre, wants Punjab to continue with it’

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 30

The Centre does not want Punjab to opt for crop diversification. Since the state continues to fulfil the staple foodgrain requirements of the country, the Centre wants Punjab to keep growing wheat and paddy. This was stated by former Director of Agriculture, Punjab, Dr BS Sidhu, and eminent farmer union leader Balbir Singh Rajewal during an interview with The Tribune, as part of the newspaper’s digital media show, Decode Punjab.

Launched Mann into politics: Rajewal

It was me who launched CM Mann into politics. But he now calls everyone but me to discuss issues concerning Punjab. This may be because initially, Kejriwal made me the offer to be the CM face of AAP before the 2022 polls. — Balbir Singh Rajewal, Farmer union leader

Both experts quoted numerous examples in which then Union agriculture ministers publically professed the need for crop diversification and weaning Punjab farmers away from the wheat-paddy cycle, but later sent letters to the state government, asking it not to curtail the area under the two crops. “But strangely, when their granaries get full, they start finding faults with us. I have copies of letters sent by the then Union Agriculture Minister, asking the Punjab Government to continue growing wheat and paddy. If the production of these staple foodgrain was to fall by just 10 lakh metric tonne, there would be panic in the country as it would lead to high food inflation, which could even lead to the fall of the Union Government,” claimed Sidhu.

Agreeing with him, Rajewal said farmers in Punjab wanted to go for other crops, but settled for wheat and paddy because of assured price and income. He recalled that during the tenure of the Barnala government in the 1980s, it was decided to set up a wheat processing plant with an investment of Rs 850 crore and use 10 lakh metric tonne of wheat in the plant. “But the Centre stalled the project by refusing to fund it because it feared for the country’s food security,” he said.

Sidhu, who also served as a member of the Punjab Farmers Commission, which has twice recommended tweaking the free power plan to all farmers, said this being the only direct subsidy to farmers, should continue. “But this should be given judiciously, as there is an urgent need to prevent Punjab’s groundwater from further depletion,” he said.

Expressing similar views, Rajewal said the biggest challenge before Punjab and all Punjabis was the state’s fast depleting water table. “We have reached the strata of aquifers where the lead, nitrate and arsenic content is high and the use of such water is linked to the spread of cancer. The water is neither fit for drinking purposes nor for irrigation. With cancer deaths on the rise, it is time the farmer unions — the Left ideology subscribing the SKM and the RSS ideology subscribing the SKM (Non-Political) — started a campaign on saving Punjab’s waters,” he said, adding he was going to start such a campaign in the coming week.

Asked about the regrouping of farmers over opposition to genetically modified crops, the two leaders said the opposition by farmers was because the seeds of GM crops were monopolised by the corporate sector and this would push them towards corporatisation of agriculture. “This said, the most important thing for the farmer is his economy and tomorrow if Bt brinjal is allowed, farmers will go for it purely for the profits,” they said.