In the northern part of the country at this government’s first cabinet meeting outside the capital, the chief adviser assured local people that his government would provide all necessary support to the farmers for them to be able to increase agricultural production but that they would have to work to turn single-crop land into two-crop land and two-crop land into three-crop land. We agree, in principle, with the comments of the chief adviser and join in his call to the farmers to devote every effort to increasing the production of crops. However, we would like to point out to the government that it is not the lack of effort on the part of the farmers but the failures at different levels of successive governments that is primarily responsible for the slow growth of agricultural output in our country. Successive governments have failed to generate adequate electricity so that farmers in all parts of the country are able to irrigate their cultivatable land cheaply. The timely distribution of fertilisers has been another recurring problem, with farmers in some parts of the country lacking access to fertilisers when they need it most. As recently as last week, farmers in some parts of the country reportedly agitated for fertilisers. Even the agricultural subsidies handed out by successive governments have largely failed to reach the farmers, benefiting instead the hordes of middlemen who profiteer by cutting the farmers out of their margins. The odds, therefore, are heavily stacked against the farmers. Hence, before the farmers are asked to work harder, it is the government that should get its act together in the way of providing the right support at the right time to them. Although the chief adviser has promised that his government will do so, we cannot but point out that such promises have been made many times before, by this government and the ones that preceded it, without any of them following through with necessary action. For the chief adviser’s words to mean something to us and, more importantly, to the farmers, his government must follow through with immediate action. Therefore, the government must ensure that the 28 lakh tonnes of fertiliser that it plans to procure this year and distribute from some 12,000 to 14,000 points do reach the farmers properly. The mere setting up of additional distribution points is not enough if the process is not managed efficiently. Also, the government must do the needful apart from providing more electricity and diesel subsidies for irrigation.

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