You can’t waive a promise

The government has no choice but to step in with both an immediate sizeable relief package and sooner or later a loan waiver Farmers are staring at survival level distress after massive rainfall washed away swathes of crops across large parts of Maharashtra Immediate relief will give farmers cash support for now to keep them afloat and a loan waiver will help protect the fraternity from being branded as defaultersMost farmers survive on seasonal crop loans from financial institutions These loans are repaid after harvest But with crops damaged due to heavy rainfall repayment has become impossibleWhile the government has temporarily halted recovery it cannot be stretched for years or forever unless the government asks banks to restructure loans or defer recovery for a longer periodFarmers will soon have to start repayment of credit or get tagged as defaulters This means doors to fresh loans will be closed In that case many farmers will not be able to buy seed fertilisers and pesticides for the upcoming cropIn such a situation there will be no sowing no harvest and no income The farming fraternity already reeling under a crisis will be pushed into further debt and deeper troubleThis clearly indicates that farmers need immediate relief so that they can get back on their feet A loan waiver has become a survival necessity for two reasons one mdash as rain has washed away crops and two mdash because the ruling Mahayuti alliance BJP Eknath Shindeled Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawarheaded NCP promised during the 2024 assembly campaign to wipe out all farmersrsquo loan booksOver eight months after being voted to power the alliance has so far dragged its feet on implementing the loan waiver Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his deputies Shinde and Pawar keep reiterating that they have not forgotten their promise and the waiver will happen at the appropriate time which so far does not seem to have arrivedIdeally in the current crisis of lsquowet droughtrsquo a loan waiver as promised is the right timeBut many experts are of the opinion that a loan waiver may not offer immediate relief In reality it benefits banks more than the farmers The waiver money goes straight to lenders helping financial institutions to recover duesThis does not solve the underlying issue of farm distress as it does not put fresh capital in the hands of farmers who desperately need money for the upcoming crop sown in winter and harvested during March and April Without this the cycle of distress will continueAnother challenge is the unpredictability of the weather Due to climate change delayed or excessive or dry monsoon spells have made farming extremely riskyStatistics on crops damaged in the last few years are evidence of the fact According to state government records in the past nine years 519 lakh hectares of farmland across the state have been damaged due to unseasonal rainRecently during his visit to floodaffected areas of Marathwada and Solapur Fadnavis too admitted that climate change was taking a toll on the agricultural sectorLoan waiver is not new to Indian politics Back in 2008 the UPA government announced a nationwide loan waiver scheme which reportedly benefitted 70 lakh farmers from MaharashtraA few years later in 2017 the then CM Fadnavis rolled out a R34000 crore waiver The aim was to bail out around 67 lakh debtridden farmers Twoandahalf years later in 2020 Uddhav Thackeray who was CM then followed it with another loan waiverAgricultural scientist S Swaminathan famously warned ldquoIf agriculture goes wrong nothing else will have a chance to go rightrdquo The warning clearly highlights that farmers need financial support policy reforms and access to resourcesOn the other hand a wellplanned sizable financial package could make a real difference Direct support to farmers will ensure that the fraternity gets immediate assistance to regain lost ground and make an attempt at a comeback from the current crisisIf the government fails to meet the basic requirement one should be prepared to face consequences like rising debt cost of essential commodities and veggie prices going up which in turn will increase inflation levelsNonavailability of enough support may force some farmers to migrate to cities which can lead to social unrestThe human cost is stark Not all but many farmersrsquo suicides are linked to financial distress The latest report from the National Crime Records Bureau NCRB mentions that in 2023 10786 farmers and agricultural workerstook their own lives Maharashtra accounted for the highest share with nearly 39 of these tragic deathsIn 2025 767 farmers took their lives in Maharashtra highlighting a deepening crisis in the agricultural sectorAware of the gravity on Thursday in his Dussehra rally speech Shinde promised farmers every possible help by the government and his party to pull the community out of crisis Besides assurances Shinde even pleaded with farmers not to take extreme stepsFor now as interim relief farmers are being provided with Rs 10000 cash along with 10 kg of rice and 10 kg of wheat But what farmers need is not interim but sizeable and quick relief so that they can survive today and loan waiver packages to help them rebuild In its absence the same trap of debt will continue and change nothing in farmersrsquo livesSanjeev Shivadekar is political editor midday He tweets SanjeevShivadekSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper