Will Shivraj Singh Chouhan bring back luster to the Ministry of Agriculture?

If the results of the Lok Sabha elections have taught the biggest lesson to the Bharatiya Janata Party, it is that the rural population and farmers are not very happy with their situation. The popularity of the BJP has declined in rural India. Therefore, the biggest political challenge for the NDA coalition government formed for the third consecutive time under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to change this perception. For this, a strong Agriculture Minister was needed, for which an attempt has been made to fulfill by giving the responsibility of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Ministry to former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Along with Agriculture, he has also been given the responsibility of Rural Development Ministry.

In the last ten years, the name of farmers welfare was attached to the agriculture ministry but its size was reduced considerably by separating several important departments related to agriculture. Ministries like food, fertilizer and food processing were already separate from agriculture while decisions related to agricultural exports are taken by the commerce ministry. Due to this, the importance of the Agriculture Ministry in the Union Cabinet diminished and the status of the Agriculture Minister in the policy decisions of the government decreased.

Apart from providing employment to the largest population of the country, the agriculture sector holds a strategic importance in the form of national food security. At the same time, the Agriculture Ministry also plays an important role in controlling inflation. But sometimes a contradictory situation arises between the interests of farmers, consumers and the fiscal situation. In such a situation, if the agriculture ministry is not with a politically strong leader, then decisions related to farmers and agriculture will not be taken in the same way as they have been done in ministries like finance, commerce and road transport.

Due to the political importance of the Ministry of Agriculture, this ministry has been held by powerful politicians like Dr. Rajendra Prasad, C. Subramaniam, Jagjivan Ram, Chaudhary Devi Lal, Parkash Singh Badal, Balram Jakhar, Ajit Singh and Sharad Pawar. The benefits of the green revolution and white revolution that we are seeing would not have been possible without these strong leaders who did not look to other ministries for big decisions. Not only this, in the first 13-month government of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee kept the agriculture ministry with himself and Sompal Shastri was Minister of State for Agriculture. In the same tenure, the first agricultural policy was brought and work on the crop insurance scheme was started.

As far as the last two tenures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi are concerned, there has been no strong leader as a minister in the Agriculture Ministry. Not only this, during this period, new ministries were created by separating the Department of Fisheries, Dairy and Animal Husbandry and the Department of Cooperation from the Agriculture Ministry. Whereas in true sense the Agriculture Ministry should be a super ministry in which along with agriculture, the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution, Ministry of Fertilizers, Ministry of Fisheries, Dairy and Animal Husbandry should be a part of it. It is worth noting that in the UPA government, the Agriculture and Food ministries were with Sharad Pawar. In such a situation, better coordination is possible in the decisions related to agriculture and farmers.

Now that Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been given the responsibility of the Agriculture Ministry, it seems that the status of the Agriculture Ministry will be restored. He has been the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh for 17 years and is among the most senior leaders of the current BJP team. During his tenure in Madhya Pradesh, the agriculture sector achieved a high growth rate. There, the average growth rate of the agriculture sector during the last ten years from 2014-15 to 2023-24 was 6.5 percent while at the national level it was 3.7 percent. During this period, Madhya Pradesh also became the second largest wheat producing state in the country after Uttar Pradesh. In the year 2019-20, Madhya Pradesh also left Punjab behind in government procurement of wheat.

All this happened during the tenure of Shivraj Singh Chouhan. These achievements were made due to higher investment to increase irrigation facilities in the state and improvement in agricultural marketing infrastructure. With all these achievements Shivraj Singh Chouhan has his own credibility and experience in agricultural development, which will be useful to him as the Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare at the Centre. Also, he has the ability to influence the policy decisions in the government in favour of farmers and the agriculture ministry. At the same time, this is also a big opportunity for him to prove his role in the central government because the agriculture ministry is the most challenging ministry for the Modi government.

As far as policy matters are concerned, the first task for him should be to give priority to enhancing farmers income. The demand for a legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops is on top of the agenda of farmers organisation and they are protesting for it.  Since the 13 month long farmers' protest on the boarders of national capital from Npvember, 2020 to December, 2021 MSP has become a nationwide issue and the aspiration of farmers across the country.

A big challenge is the decisions related to import-export of agricultural products. Export ban and restrictions in the domestic market, where he will have to take a stand for the interest of the farmers. In the last few years, consumer interests have been more dominant due to which farmers have suffered losses, as well as import dependence has increased in the case of pulses and edible oils and self-reliance has suffered a setback.

The situation of investment in agriculture is not much better. This cannot be judged only by the size of the ministry's budget because most of it is going into subsidies and direct benefit transfers.Actual investment in agriculture sector is very low. At the same time, the government does not have an effective policy that attracts private investment in agriculture in addition to public investment. This is the reason why we are lagging behind in productivity of most of the crops compare to global record in terms of crop productivity. The situation regarding new technologies related to the seed development crop protection is unclear. In this scenerio, the challenge before Shivraj Chouhan will be, how to move forward on the pending decisions in this regard.

Another big challenge is climate change. Frequency of extreme weather events has increased in the last few years and its direct impact on Indian agriculture is becoming visible. Not only this, farmers have also started feeling the heat of climate change. Therefore, there is still no major initiative and strategy to deal with this is visible on th ground. Problems on the climate front will increase in the coming years and major policy decisions are needed to deal with it.

Ministry of Agriculture is also a ministry with political risk. Assembly elections are also due in the next few months in three states of Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand, in these states farming and agricultural issues will decide the political outcome. In such a situation, the first political test for Shivraj Singh is very close. It will be proved in coming days that by using his political stature and experience, he will once again be able to put the Agriculture Ministry at par with other important ministries.