Dr. Raghuram Rajan speaks to Brut on farmers’ protest

Brut India

Amid the ongoing farmers’ protest, Dr. Raghuram Rajan has some solutions that cut through the noise and addresses needs of both farmers and the government.

Transcript

00:00Punjab, which is a natural reservoir of water in the country, has to focus on, you know,

00:05other things than just the most water intensive crops.

00:10And it can have a glorious future there.

00:12You don't say my way or the highway on either side.

00:15In your book, you said that at the start of the century, Punjab was the richest state

00:20in India.

00:21It now doesn't win feature in the top 15.

00:23What is the economic solution at this point in time to what farmers are facing in Punjab?

00:30First, I think it all starts with dialogue, which is why I'm glad that dialogue is ongoing

00:35right now.

00:37You don't say my way or the highway on either side.

00:40What is also important is to recognize that the farmers themselves understand they have

00:45a problem.

00:47That we talk to, you know, some farmers who basically, you know, are saying that, look,

00:56you don't, don't you understand that we ourselves are concerned about the lack of diversification,

01:02that we are producing a really water intensive crop, for example, with rice and water is

01:09going to be harder to come by.

01:11We are digging deeper and deeper bore wells in order to get there.

01:14And the poor farmers can't dig those deep bore wells, and they have a problem.

01:19So we need to think about crop diversification, how we move away.

01:24And as Ashok Gulati, a very, you know, prominent agricultural economist has suggested, there

01:32are many crops which probably will produce more value than, say, rice or wheat.

01:40Agriculture has become a big factor.

01:44You know, milk is our most valuable agricultural or farm product, for instance.

01:52So we need to think about how farms can diversify away towards the more value added sort of

01:58instruments.

02:00And that needs technological support.

02:03That needs a certain amount of buffer.

02:06There are huge risks in moving from what is tried and tested, for which there's a, you

02:12know, an apparatus to buy, that's the MSP apparatus, to a crop for which there aren't

02:19as many supports.

02:20So we need to think about that process of movement.

02:23How do you give them reasonable alternatives?

02:26And I think a dialogue in which you provide these alternatives, and this is the alternative,

02:33and this is important for you, because you see as well as I do, climate change coming.

02:38Water is going to become scarcer and scarcer.

02:41Punjab, which is a natural reservoir of water in the country, has to focus on, you know,

02:46other things than just the most water intensive crops.

02:51And it can have a glorious future there.

02:53How do we, I mean, how do we protect farmer incomes, but in a way that also protects national

03:00strategy?

03:02And this is where a very sensible dialogue and offering, you know, listening and offering

03:11alternatives, talking to all the major political parties also, which, you know, have an interest

03:19in this, I think is a way of taking this forward.

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