Random harvest: George Orwell’s Animal Farm is being replayed in India with an agricultural twist

In his Animal Farm, George Orwell succinctly summed up the basis of social and political injustice: All animals are equal – but some animals are more equal than others.

In the context of our ongoing farmers’ agitation, Orwell’s quote could be amended to ‘All kisans are equal – but some kisans are more equal than others.’

This point was brought home to us recently when a Facebook friend of Bunny’s posted a picture of a large, delectable-looking cauliflower which she said she had bought at a local vegetable shop for Rs 7.

Rs 7 for a whopper of a phool gobhi like that? It seemed like a steal. A steal from the farmer who grew it.

If you account for the mark-up of the wholesaler who sold to the retailer, and of the retailer who sold it to the customer, the farmer who grew the 7-rupee vegetable got precious little for it.

The farmers who want the government’s proposed agri reforms scrapped are, by and large, growers of grain who are assured of financial security by the MSP (Minimum Support Price) paid by the sarkar for staples like wheat and rice.

But there is no MSP, and no financial security, for the farmers who grow vegetables and fruits, and often have to sell their produce for throw-away prices, an example being the 7-rupee cauliflower.

The prices of non-grain food items, like onions, tomatoes and potatoes, skyrocket or plummet because of the manipulative control exercised by the wholesale mandis, which favour the big farmers who have political muscle, at the expense of fruit and vegetable farmers, who have no political patronage.

To make matters even worse, the wholesale mandis and the MSP system has resulted in government godowns bursting at the seams with surplus grain, much of which will rot or be eaten by rats.

In a ‘paradox of plenty’, India reportedly suffers a loss of $14 billion every year through food wastage, even as an estimated 190 million people go hungry each day.

One thing is tragically clear: When it comes to farm policies, we don’t know our metaphoric onions. Or our 7-rupee literal cauliflowers.