Salt Sector Crisis

In News

• Recently, the crisis in the salt sector has hit almost 5 lakh people in Gujarat.

Key Points

• The salt industry is facing huge challenges in meeting the demand and in tackling the realisation crisis faced by salt farmers.
• Farmers initially were getting ? 17/per tonne, and the price went up in the first years to ?27 per tonne and touched up to ?70 by 1991. This was the expansion of cooperative development.
• Gujarat production: Gujarat produces about 28.5 million tonnes of salt per year, which is more than 80% of the country’s total production. 
• Salt is a Central subject listed as item No. 58 of the Union List of the 7th Schedule of the Constitution.
• Input cost and output: The input cost for labour is about ?1 lakh in a season. Moreover, projects such as the Ran Sarovar, a project to build a freshwater lake in 5,000 square kilometres of this area, will make about 50,000 people jobless.

Salt Industry

• The main sources of Salt in India are:
  • Sea brine
  • Lake brine
  • Subsoil brine 
  • Rock salt deposits
• Major Salt Producing Centers:
  • Sea water is an inexhaustible source of salt.  Salt production along the coast is limited by weather and soil conditions.  The major salt producing centres are
  • Marine Salt works along the coast of Gujarat (Jamnagar, Mithapur,Jhakhar, Chira, Bhavnagar, Rajula, Dahej, Gandhidham, Kandla, Maliya, Lavanpur), Tamil Nadu (Tuticorin, Vedaranyam, Covelong), Andhra Pradesh (Chinnaganjam, Iskapalli, Krishnapatnam, Kakinada & Naupada), Maharashtra(Bhandup, Bhayandar, Palghar), Orissa (Ganjam, Sumadi) and West Bengal (Contai)
  • Inland Salt Works  in Rajasthan using lake brine and subsoil brine viz. Sambhar Lake, Nawa, Rajas, Kuchhaman, Sujangarh and Phalodi
  • Salt works in Rann of Kutch  using subsoil brine viz: Kharaghoda, Dhrangadhra; Santalpur
  • Rock Salt Deposits at Mandi in the State of Himachal Pradesh

Issues

• Farmers are facing low price as there is no minimum support price, 
• Workers are also in distress due to a lack of a proper system for wages and social security.
• Cost of living has not changed much but pricing has changed for negative. About five lakh people work in the salt industry directly and indirectly. At the moment, a farmer earns about ?250 to ?300 for a tonne of salt he or she produces. The prices keep fluctuating.
• Political issue: Salt, being the cheapest commodity, was getting the least attention from the government. If the neglect continued, India could lose its position as the world’s third largest producer of salt.
• Mining or Agriculture: Britishers got salt from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh by mining. Therefore, the British put salt production as mining. 
  • Hardly 0.5% salt is produced by mining. 99.5% salt is produced either from the sea water or from the sub soil water and the entire process is done by seeding, cultivation and harvest. 
  • It is a seasonal industry and it should be considered as agriculture
• Laws imposed: The production units and farmers say that all the laws pertaining to the industries are applicable to salt production even though the production is done through simple solar evaporation as it is listed as mining industry.
• Subject: Salt is a Central subject and land is a State subject. Salt has two parents and no one is taking care of salt.
• Lacking documentation: Workers and farmers are being pressured by big salt producers to vacate the land. Most of them do not have proper papers, though the government allotted 10 acres for us to cultivate salt.
• Climate change: Unseasonal rains and floods are also creating problems here.

Way Ahead

• The demand is rising at the rate of 8% and the production increase is just 3%. In future, if the government doesn’t take care of this industry, the industry will definitely be in trouble. 
• There should be a nodal agency with common rules and regulations.
• Responsibility has to be fixed on governments and manufacturers. A new Salt Act as a common policy for the entire country is needed.
• To keep the farming alive, farmers must be given the access to the technology to make the final by-product of their effort. 

Source: TH