Farm Task Force Urge PMO to Relook in to Core Issues of Agrarian Crisis

Relook  in to Core Issues of Agrarian Crisis- Farm Task Force Urge PM 

Date -13th Jan 2018

Kishore Tiwari ,Veteran farm activist and chairman of  farm task force (Late  Vasantrao  Naik  Sheti  Swavalamban  Mission (VNSSM) addressing ongoing agrarian crisis has urged prime minister Narendra Modi to relook in to status of the present Govt's various programme as part of the recommendations such as providing improved seeds, soil health cards, agricultural credit reform, improved insurance, increasing the area under irrigation and the addition of Farmer's Welfare to the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture after ground reports of the prevailing farm distress in farmers suicide affected dryland region of india. 

In a letter to PM ,Kishore Tiwari recalled National Commission on Farmers (NCF), chaired by Prof. M.S.Swaminathan, submitted  report focusing on causes of famer distresses and the rise in farmer suicides, and recommends solutions  through a holistic national policy for farmers and 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 asking state to insert  "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 it’s right time to relook in to all NCF recommendations and reassessments NDA Govt.’s  major programme like PM crop  insurance Yojna, Nabard’s crop loan disbursements module ,existing market intervention module, availability of electricity and achievements irrigation and watershed activity under PMSY , functioning of MGNREGA , Nation food security, performance of National Health Mission functioning of public health, public education, public transport ,performance of MUDRA loan scheme for the creation of allied business activity in crisis driven rural area as state like Maharashtra where farm suicides affected region till lacks is areas  like in irrigation ,power infrastructure ,rural employments ,proper market and credit facility hence this submission that till Agriculture is unorganized activity today Indian agriculture is largely an unorganized sector. 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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