New Delhi ’ s Twin Agenda in J & K – Control Land Use , Destroy Food Security
As a predominantly agrarian society , where social control over land use and rights for peasantry was institutionalised through rigorous reforms , the people of J & K stand to lose immensely .
In September 2020 , the government of India passed three highly controversial farm Bills – The Farmers ’ Produce Trade and Commerce ( Promotion and Facilitation ) Bill , 2020 ; the Farmers ( Empowerment and Protection ) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill , 2020 and the Essential Commodities ( Amendment ) Bill , 2020 .
These Bills , which have now become laws , have created a storm , with the farming community across India protesting and defying restrictions amidst the COVID pandemic . Since then , widespread criticism has poured in discussing the ramifications of opening up of the agricultural sector to predatory profiteering by private capital and consequential marginalisation and pauperisation of the farming community .
Economist Prabhat Patnaik highlights that in this entire debate , an important dimension that has been missed is of food security and the imperialist agenda of robbing the tropical regions off food security and self - reliance , pushing them to become foodimport - dependent . As a part of this agenda , agricultural land devoted to foodgrains is diverted to commercial crops – beverages , fibres , vegetables and fruits — that the first world cannot otherwise grow .
In pursuance of this agenda , the imperialist forces situated in the first world attempt to : 1 ) acquire
Oct-Nov - 2020 control over land use of tropical land-mass ; and 2 ) persuade third world governments to permit diversion of land-use from foodcrops to commercial crops , to throw open tropical agriculture to global trade . A movement in this direction directly undermines food-security and self-reliance of the Third World and opens up the arena for unbridled exploitation of its peasantry .
This shift from cultivation of foodgrains to cultivation of commercial crops is reminiscent of the colonial period when the cultivation of export crops , such as opium and indigo , were forced upon the peasantry by the East India Company , Patnaik points out .
It is not surprising then , that post-colonial regimes laid special emphasis on self-reliance and food security . ‘ Grow more food ’ and ‘ miss a meal ’ became rallying slogans as the post-colonial Indian state resolved to secure economic independence and feed its citizens without resorting to import of foodgrains .
The ‘ Grow More Food Policy ’ was also sincerely implemented by the government of Jammu & Kashmir ( J & K ). The government under Sheikh Abdullah was passionate about making J & K selfreliant in food to realise the twin objectives of economic development and safeguarding the political autonomy of the state , which was threatened in face of prospective economic dependence on the Centre .
Under the ‘ Grow More Food Policy ’, the then J & K government promoted peasants to cultivate all the cultivable land over which it had ownership rights . In a matter of one year , 1948-49 , 185,583 kanals
Shinzani Jain
( 1 kanal = 0.125 acres ) of land was allotted to landless peasants . This resulted in an increase in agricultural produce by 200,000 maunds ( 1 maund = 37.32 kg ).
In a speech at Ranbir Singh Pora in 1952 , Sheikh Abdullah announced , “ It would be better to die than submit to the taunt that India was our bread-giver .” This was an overly ambitious aspiration , given the paucity of resources and a financial crisis that the state was going through as a result of closure of highways and trade routes with Pakistan and Central Asia following the Partition of India .
Since arranging foodgrain supplies from outside was not an option the government was willing to follow , the leadership tried to persuade people to substitute their staple meal of rice with substitutes . To set an example , Sheikh Abdullah himself ate a meal of maize once a day .
Seven decades since , the social , political and economic situation of the erstwhile state has changed drastically . The autonomy of J & K , eroded for years , was eventually abrogated by the scrapping of Article 370 by the Indian government in August 2019 . Consequently , the new farm laws enacted in September 2020 are applicable to what is now the Union Territory of J & K . In this backdrop , it is important to assess the impact that the stormy farm laws will have on the paddy fields of J & K and what it means for food security in the region . SHRINKING PADDY FIELDS OF J & K Agriculture and allied sectors continue to be the predominant
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