Budget 2018 : Address issue of MSP and Credit to tackle Agrarian Crisis- Farm Task Force Urge FM

Budget 2018 : Address issue of MSP and Credit to tackle Agrarian Crisis- Farm Task Force Urge  FM

Date -20th Jan 2018

Kishore Tiwari ,Veteran farm activist and chairman of  farm task force (LATE  VASANTRAO  NAIK  SHETI SWAVALAMBAN  MISSION(VNSSM)   working  on agrarian crisis has urged finance minister Arun Jaitly  their main demand related adequacy and timeliness of institutional credit, issue of  Farmers (NCF), chaired by Prof. M.S.Swaminathan that is investment plus 50% profit and functional mechanism for proper market intervention and the pending demand that   "Agriculture" be inserted in the Concurrent List of the Constitution.

Tiwari added that  Maharashtra is state which is started working on cores issues raised in NCF report  related to the areas land, water, bio-resources, credit and insurance, technology and knowledge management, and markets  aggressively as part your National plan and programme but the ground reality is that Government programs do not reach small and needy farmers ,this year  Maharashtra government has implemented mega agricultural debt. Waiver and debt. Relief scheme to benefit over 6 million farmers but as Maharashtra government has no direct control over hostile functioning PSU banks always failed to give timely and sufficient credit to needy and debt rapped farmers.

on the   prevailing agrarian distress and crisis ,Tiwari submitted  that This is the fact that the major causes of the agrarian crisis are due to unfinished agenda in land reform, quantity and quality of water, technology fatigue, access, adequacy and timeliness of institutional credit, and opportunities for assured and remunerative marketing.  Adverse meteorological factors add to these problems .

.No systematic institutional and organizational planning is involved in cultivation, irrigation, harvesting etc. Institutional finances are not adequately available and minimum purchase price fixed by the government do not reach the poorest farmer. Middlemen and economic exploitation of farmers Exploitation by the middlemen is the reason put forth for not getting the best price for the produce of the agriculturists. The government should promote the plan Farmers Market, where the farmers can directly sell their products at reasonable price to the consumers.

Issue  mono crop culture is till burning in dry land regions of agrarian crisis driven area as earlier all attempts of crop rotations failed to get success due to wrong import policies and very poor intervention of sate run marketing agencies ,Tiwari said .

Task force chief says that   Maharashtra has given mega farm loan waivers though it was  temporarily necessary for the revival of farming but as there is no legitimate binding for PUS banks to create  a secure credit system in the long term. The waiver of loans implies that banks will have to be compensated by the government for the amount involved. This means that large sums of money, which could have otherwise gone to strengthen the agricultural infrastructure and research - such as seed production, soil health enhancement and plant protection, will not be available which has started showing its impact. in order to mitigate the present agrarian crisis National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme can provide social protection to landless farmers but significant achievements in this area is till awaited similarly  Special efforts are also being made to promote market-driven skills for rural women who contribute to about 50 percent of the agricultural work but there is no serious impact at ground thanks to the poor involvement of the agricultural universities and the private sector, Tiwari added. 

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