"The farmer is the back bone of our country". How long has it been since we heard someone say this? I vividly remember my school days where our teachers would tell it pretty often. We had lessons on farmers, stating how important they were for the nation.
I dont know about the present day text books, but I can tell you that very few children know about farmers. Not one child would want to be a farmer. The child never understands the farmers' importance. Naturally, when he grows up, he wont have the slightest regard for them.
You may be wondering why I am suddenly so interested in writing about farmers. Believe me, I wanted to write this for a long time now. Recent happenings have only made my resolve stronger.
The nation seems to have realized its mistake. For the first time in a decade, India is importing food grains. Its a matter of national shame, given that we took pride in being a self sufficient nation. Needeless to say, we are paying the penalty for ignoring the farmer for this long.
Till ten years back, farmers were regarded as a core part of Indian economy. We had surplus food grains year after year. Then, once the services industry gained foot, it all changed. Agriculture was no longer the one contributing to the economy. All eyes turned towards the services industry, especially software industry. The farmer was grossly neglected for nearly a decade. The results are here for all of us to see.
For consecutive years, agriculture's contribution to the GDP has decreased. This year, it fell below the 2% mark. This, inspite of the fact that 2/3rds of our nation lives on agriculture. I read a recent report saying that in the last decade, 1 lac farmers have commited suicide due to loan burdens. Successive governments have failed to increase the living standards of farmers. Though they have ambitious plans, it all remains on paper with nothing being implemented fully. Needless to say, lot of money gets siphoned off. End result is that the farmer continues to live in dire straits. He cant repay the interest, let alone the debt amount.
India will suffer if the situation does not change in the coming years. If food grains production continues to decrease, India will have to import more and more from the outside market. This is going to burn a very big hole in our pockets. Therefore, the need of the hour is to give all possible assistance to farmers. We have made our manufacturing and services sectors self sufficient. Now, its time for the agriculture sector. The government must provide the farmers with easy loans at low rates of interest and a sufficiently large time period. It must make sure that there is no lack of water and dependence on rain water must be minimised. It must provide the farmers with quality seeds and fertilizers to get maximum yeild. Most importantly, the government must win back the confidence of the farming community. They must announce a substantial minimum support price so that the farmer dares to cultivate his land. Not to forget, these must be done at break neck speed with immaculate execution and minimum corruption.
The government at the centre has started to feel the heat. Inflation is raising rapidly. It doesnt have enough food grains to distribute in its PDS system. All these factors are acting as a wake up call for the government. As a result, 2006-07 has been announced as the Year of the Farmer. The government intends to bring about a 2nd green revolution.
But, the government must make sure that all these announcements dont end up at the usual place-- Political stunt. It must make sure that the 2nd revolution indeed takes place and takes all of the farming community with it.
Does the government have the courage, vision and the will to bring about this much needed change? It better have. The risk of not having is just too enormous to imagine.
I dont know about the present day text books, but I can tell you that very few children know about farmers. Not one child would want to be a farmer. The child never understands the farmers' importance. Naturally, when he grows up, he wont have the slightest regard for them.
You may be wondering why I am suddenly so interested in writing about farmers. Believe me, I wanted to write this for a long time now. Recent happenings have only made my resolve stronger.
The nation seems to have realized its mistake. For the first time in a decade, India is importing food grains. Its a matter of national shame, given that we took pride in being a self sufficient nation. Needeless to say, we are paying the penalty for ignoring the farmer for this long.
Till ten years back, farmers were regarded as a core part of Indian economy. We had surplus food grains year after year. Then, once the services industry gained foot, it all changed. Agriculture was no longer the one contributing to the economy. All eyes turned towards the services industry, especially software industry. The farmer was grossly neglected for nearly a decade. The results are here for all of us to see.
For consecutive years, agriculture's contribution to the GDP has decreased. This year, it fell below the 2% mark. This, inspite of the fact that 2/3rds of our nation lives on agriculture. I read a recent report saying that in the last decade, 1 lac farmers have commited suicide due to loan burdens. Successive governments have failed to increase the living standards of farmers. Though they have ambitious plans, it all remains on paper with nothing being implemented fully. Needless to say, lot of money gets siphoned off. End result is that the farmer continues to live in dire straits. He cant repay the interest, let alone the debt amount.
India will suffer if the situation does not change in the coming years. If food grains production continues to decrease, India will have to import more and more from the outside market. This is going to burn a very big hole in our pockets. Therefore, the need of the hour is to give all possible assistance to farmers. We have made our manufacturing and services sectors self sufficient. Now, its time for the agriculture sector. The government must provide the farmers with easy loans at low rates of interest and a sufficiently large time period. It must make sure that there is no lack of water and dependence on rain water must be minimised. It must provide the farmers with quality seeds and fertilizers to get maximum yeild. Most importantly, the government must win back the confidence of the farming community. They must announce a substantial minimum support price so that the farmer dares to cultivate his land. Not to forget, these must be done at break neck speed with immaculate execution and minimum corruption.
The government at the centre has started to feel the heat. Inflation is raising rapidly. It doesnt have enough food grains to distribute in its PDS system. All these factors are acting as a wake up call for the government. As a result, 2006-07 has been announced as the Year of the Farmer. The government intends to bring about a 2nd green revolution.
But, the government must make sure that all these announcements dont end up at the usual place-- Political stunt. It must make sure that the 2nd revolution indeed takes place and takes all of the farming community with it.
Does the government have the courage, vision and the will to bring about this much needed change? It better have. The risk of not having is just too enormous to imagine.
3 comments:
Whew.. too many important points crammed in that post.. dont know which one to comment on and which to leave out :)
ok.. here goes.. First of all, whatever u say the government "must do" in para 6, let me remind you that policies exist for almost all of those. Only as you point out, they remain on paper.. which is very sad.. cuz the govt is not realizing that revolutionizing the agro-economy is a win-win situation.
Secondly, there's an even sadder trend emerging because of successive govts' neglect of agriculture sector and bias towards services and mfg sector - and that is uncontrolled migration of farmers' children to cities. while 10 yrs back, there were enuf farmers but no land to till.. now we have a situation where a family has good fertile land, but none of the family youth are willing to cultivate it. Reason: the cities offer more lucrative oppportunities where the rewards are quick.. ( You know.. i can knida relate to this myself)..
This trend really hit where it hurts. farmlands being sold to the wrong hands (either for industry/housing or to inexperienced cultivators). if this continues.. well.. i dont know how to predict the result..neither do I want to..
Finally, I dont know if u were referring to the present govt when u set out the calls for action.. but if u were, i want to snap u back into reality. the present govt is nothing but a bunch of shameless hitlers who just want to expand their bellies and their humongous butts. expecting anything.. i mean ANYTHING worthwhile from this high-handed govt is ridiculous. we saw how they brushed aside the interest of the nation in the quota issue. then we saw how they sent out the "dont mess with us..we dont care about the country" message in the AIIMS-Ramadoss case. we are seeing how the great "Bharat ki bahu" Sonia Gandhi is pulling the puppet strings and running (or should I say RUINING) the nation showing scant respect for her late husband's values and principles. Do you really expect them to even start thinking about farmers and their plight? ? Naaaa...
We have to pin our hopes of the 2nd green revolution on future governments. and hope that DMK withdraws its support on the disinvestment issue so that there is hope of a fresh election. and this time.. we are going to vote.. me, u and all the youth..
Jai Bharath.
Kiran,
You can see how much was inside me... It all just got vented out in this post. :)
Just the thought of this country without farmers makes me shiver.
Regarding this goverment, it wont fall. They will somehow cling on to power for the full term. I just hope it isnt too late...
Hmm...pretty huge blog and lots of stuffs in it. As u said, successive governments have failed to help the farmers. All their stuffs end up just being on the paper. I haven't seen most of the decisions getting implemented. The implementation will be done for only those projects, which will assure them vote bank.
And if u expect the present govt to help the farmers, forget it. It is nothing but a bunch of drunk twits, who have no respect for the country and no respect for farmers. Forget respect to others, i don't think they have even an iota of self respect.
And coming to those leaders, who call themselves, sons of soil, gransons of soil and leader of farmers are nothing but a bunch of selfish twits, who care about nothing else but how to usurp the lands of htese farmers and make money. Wirth all these, even if they declare a 100 more year of farmers, it won't help
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