Low output, rising debt: Supreme Court panel flags Punjab, Haryana farm crisis | India News

NEW DELHI: Stagnancy of agricultural production for three decades, coupled with spiralling debts, in Punjab and Haryana has created a distressing situation for farmers, a Supreme Court-appointed high-powered committee has stated in its interim report. The panel said it will examine whether giving legal sanctity to MSP could boost productivity.
The committee, tasked to find a solution to the ongoing farmers’ agitation on the Punjab-Haryana Shambhu border, in its preliminary report on Friday said the agricultural crisis in the two states has been visible for the last three decades. “In recent decades, the institutional debt of farmers has increased manifold – in Punjab, it was Rs 73,673 crore, and in Haryana, it was Rs 76,530 crore, in 2022-23,” it said.
“Declining net farm productivity, rising production costs, inadequate marketing system and shrinking farm employment have contributed to the deceleration in farm income growth. Small and marginal farmers, along with farm workers, are the most affected and vulnerable segments of this economic squeeze,” it said.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan praised the committee for framing issues for examination and its attempt to involve the agitating groups of farmers in the discussion. “It has framed core issues which require deliberation,” the bench said.
When Punjab advocate general Gurminder Singh sarcastically said the issues need “to be taken to the right quarters”, solicitor general Tushar Mehta said the committee is an arm of SC and is acting to resolve the issues. “Let us not politicise it,” he said.
The report said Punjab has not escaped the “suicide epidemic”, evident among farmers in some other states. As per the report, Punjab witnessed 16,606 suicides by farmers, mostly small and marginal, and landless farm workers, between 2000-2015.
It said the growing debt crisis needed special attention to provide relief to debt-stricken farmers and farm workers. The panel said it will examine the demand of farmers for providing legal sanctity to MSP.
Another issue flagged for in depth study is the “review of the budgeting norms, credit policies, agricultural research priorities, allied sectors that include horticulture, livestock, fisheries and forestry and also look into institutional architecture that will eventually bring in an ease of doing farming.”