Leaving urban congestion if you hit a highway or motorway one of these days you are struck by a stunning spectacle: golden fields of wheat shimmering in the heat. You cannot spot anyone around with his traditional sickle or a combine harvester. The crop is ready to harvest but no one is in the fields. The reason is that the wheat crop has become a liability.

At the start of sowing season the government had announced the support price of wheat and now when the crop is ready it has gone back on its promise of buying the wheat at the price it had fixed to encourage the growers to make a contribution towards ensuring food security. They have done their bit but the government has refused to buy the wheat to replenish its stocks. The growers are being forced to sell their produce at almost half of the expected price.

This makes them unable even to recover their cost. Now it`s a matter of loss all the way whether they let it rot in the fields or sell it after harvesting it. It`s not that they are being lazy or indifferent. It`s an unmistakable sign of their protest.

Gone are the days when tillers had a lotof leisure time to spice up their group conversations with hookah under bodhi or pipal trees as they used to have just two annual crops. Intervening period between the crops was a time of rest and recreation that created our folk lore; stories, fables, songs and music. But now they have little time for leisure.

The induction of machines eliminated their free time against all the logic-based expectations of Oscar Wilde who imagined that it would release the humans from the tyranny of drudgery leaving them with a lot of free time to pursue their creative ideas.

But quite the opposite happened. Sadly, he failed to realise that the socio-economic system encouraged the use of machines not for creating more leisure time but rather to have increased production for profit motive.

The consumer society created by capitalism advocated the unfettered and conspicuous consumption as the measure of man. It was only logical that in order to consume more one has to produce more which practically meant longer worlcing hours. Our growers have suffered the same fate; they are forced to have more than two traditional annual crops four in most cases which keep them on their toes round the year.

What has added to their woes is thedicey inner workings of the market and governments. The situation has been going on for decades at least. Growers have no option but to buy all the inputs for the crops from the open market which employs all the means, fair and foul, at its disposal to rip them off. One, inputs are highly priced without any justification with the tacit help of concerned government agencies. The grower incessantly complains that he is being robbed by the marl(et movers and shakers. He feels like a person described thus by a poet; `There speaks a man whom no one is listening: He speaks too loud / He repeats himself, ` but he is not taken notice. It seems he is somewhere in a wilderness.

Two, many of the costly inputs such as seeds, sprays and chemicals available in the market are either substandard or outright spurious. Such dubious stuff is openly sold in the bazaars without fear of law; the lawenforcers protect the sellers. Both make quick bucks at the expense of buyers. It is an open secret that the racket is protected by officialdom. Three, there is no check on the quality of the inputs in the market but when it comes to the growers` produce the market in cahoots with officialdom robs the producers by manipulating the prices.Strict standards are applied to determine the quality of grain to the advantage of middie men. Late payment or payment in installments is the norm. Growers are hit by a double whammy; they are at the mercy of market forces when it comes to buying inputs and at the time of selling their produce they are subjected to politically motivated price control mechanisms imposed by the government. What is required in the interest of justice and national economy is a level-playing field for both the growers and the market. Either market forces be properly regulated or both be given freedom to slug it out.

Wheat being the staple becomes a sensitive political matter for any regime because high prices of roti /bread consumed by urban people breeds resentment and anger leading to political agitation. That`s why wheat prices are manipulated. Such shenanigans break the backbone of our agriculture which directly and indirectly employs the largest number of hands.

Recentlyimposednew taxeshaveincreased the misery of the agri sector. Secondly, the government must have a consistent policy; the idea of support prices be abandoned as is currently being done to meet the goals of the IMF programme and also to elimi-nate subsidies or promises made be firmly kept. The uncertainty damages the economy and unnecessarily adds to the cultivators` woes. The net result is a politico-economic crisis which is avoidable.

Government`s expedient decision making exacerbates the situation; at times out of nowhere it decides to import wheat when it can buy it from the local growers or it arbitrarily exports wheat as well as allows it to be smuggled out. But there seems to be a method in the madness; some people somewhere line up their pockets with the money they get through such a devious process.In such a scenario it`s not difficult to understand as to why dhoti wallah shows no hurry in harvesting the wheat. The situation is hardly different from what Baba Farid vividly described in one of his couplets in the 12th century: `O Farid, these stalks in the pan though sugar-coated are plosonous / Some dropped dead cultivating the crop while some got away after having plundered it.` We come across a somewhat similar image painted by Waris Shah in the 18th century: `A peasant`s field is ablaze/ let`s see when he gets up and douses it.` As far as peasants are concerned methods may have changed but their Helds are still plundered.-soofiO1@hotmail.com