We used to see several ways of mass protests; the employees pen down, workers general strike, business men shutdowns, and factory lockouts so on... Sometimes farmers also organize protests on their issues like lack of farm inputs and better price for their produces, but this time Andhra Pradesh farmers want to protest by stopping the cultivation and they want to take crop holiday. This is not according to their wish or whim, the market conditions and the government impudence drag them to take such disgraceful decision.
Crop holiday is not new to Andhra Pradesh, in the year of 2000-2001 tobacco crop season, the Tobacco board also taken the same decision to clear the accumulated inventory. Indeed, the tobacco crop is commercial one and it doesn’t impact on farmers since they shifted to other commercial crops and a few farmers only depend on the tobacco crop. But paddy is a food crop and widely grown by large number of farmers; despite they want to go for crop holiday because of the distressed conditions by market price crash, heavy input and manpower costs and accumulated inventories at FCI warehouses. It seems to be no choice for farmers to overcome the crisis except the crop holiday
India has been lacking with agriculture infrastructure facilities, our food corporation storage houses are bulging with grain stocks of 65.6 million tonnes which the actual storage capacity is 62.8 million tonnes and there is no space for upcoming Khariff crops harvested by September and October. We have lots of grain going rot due to non availability of storage facilities and there is no progress in the issues even after Supreme Court intervened. UPA Government is still in dilemma to take decision on export of excess food grains since they want to support the prestigious National food security bill.
The government agencies are not procuring properly because they don’t have enough storage facilities and some millers are exploiting the farmers and take chance by not paying the prevailing prices since the farmers are in rush to pay their bills and they want to get rid of their debts. The farmers need to have a permanent solution on minimum support price, every time the government announces the price and the millers are not implementing the same. The Food Corporation of India and Civil supplies departments should introduce different kinds of procurement procedures instead of millers’ pride, i.e. promoting IKPs (Indira Kranthi patham) or any self help groups for grain procurements, Inviting private organization for grain collection, storage and necessary terms have to be initiated to control the millers.
Market efficiency depends on marketing infrastructure, there is a massive investment required in storage and processing of agriculture produces, the government has to encourage Public Private Partnership model in grain procuring and storage. We need to apply scientific applications in grain storage to reduce the rotting and wastage and we need to construct innovative storage facilities rather than conventional. I welcome the Andhra Pradesh farmers’ move for taking brake on paddy cultivation; technically it will balance the demand and supply position and it’s a kind of warning to government to fix the farmers’ demands. Let us see how the government respond and negotiate with farmers because the profound Food security bill is on the way.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Direct cash transfer is a safety net for poverty
The media and politicians were lampooned on direct cash transfer scheme which was incorporated in Telugudesam party’s manifesto in 2009 assembly elections and political rivals make this scheme as controversial and named Mr. Chandra babu Naidu as ALL FREE BABU. Honestly speaking, I too failed to understand the scheme that direct cash transfer to the poor make the poor become lazy and refuse to work if they get cash for doing nothing. I realized my thoughts were short and the small amount make a lot of difference in their economic lives.
Indeed this is an innovative social policy, it has been in practice from past six years in South American and African countries and some international aid organizations also implementing the same. Providing welfare and social security is the state’s responsibility and the governments have to design the development paradigms to poor people. Economic reforms and liberalization policies are serving their part to eradicate poverty but the change takes lot of time, in the meanwhile welfare schemes are necessary to reduce the pressure on poor and the National rural employment guarantee scheme is the best example for such kind of schemes.
Direct cash transfer to poor households is not like a donation or aid or sanctity or the government is not going to throw the money at crossroads or money is not distributed as handbills. It’s a kind of social security program, identifying the social class and pick the responsible person in the family (mostly homemakers) and transferring the money through banks in certain intervals. It’s a kind of investment to the poor people to support themselves, end to poverty. They can buy good protein based food, can buy medicines, they can send their children to school, they may invest and generate income and small farmers can buy fertilizers or seeds and so on…
In developed countries most of the people are working class, employers or government will deduct the some portion of the amount in their earning and the same will be distributed as social grant. But in developing countries most of the people are working in unorganized sectors and agriculture, they are poor and middle class people, eventually they don’t have choice to get the social grants from their earnings. So governments have responsibility to allocate some money for the welfare of economically poor sections.
According the millennium development goals, reasonable standard of living is became a basic human right and the governments have been working on that direction through reforms or welfare schemes. In developing countries like India, it’s too burden to implement social security grants but eliminating the poverty is our priority. Spending on health, education, infrastructure is important but people need money to access those facilities, so there is a need of social grants for poor.
Poor people are also partial responsible for their own poverty, they should to come out from their dearth and need to improve their standard of living. Ofcourse the welfare schemes are inevitable to reduce the poverty and direct cash transfer is the best among them. I don’t think the little money don’t make the poor people lazy and reluctant to work, everybody has desire to well being and respected, they know how to manage this little money wisely and creatively. Thus, direct money transfer is better for poor, it will help the poor to keep away from their poverty and to lead a gentle life.
Indeed this is an innovative social policy, it has been in practice from past six years in South American and African countries and some international aid organizations also implementing the same. Providing welfare and social security is the state’s responsibility and the governments have to design the development paradigms to poor people. Economic reforms and liberalization policies are serving their part to eradicate poverty but the change takes lot of time, in the meanwhile welfare schemes are necessary to reduce the pressure on poor and the National rural employment guarantee scheme is the best example for such kind of schemes.
Direct cash transfer to poor households is not like a donation or aid or sanctity or the government is not going to throw the money at crossroads or money is not distributed as handbills. It’s a kind of social security program, identifying the social class and pick the responsible person in the family (mostly homemakers) and transferring the money through banks in certain intervals. It’s a kind of investment to the poor people to support themselves, end to poverty. They can buy good protein based food, can buy medicines, they can send their children to school, they may invest and generate income and small farmers can buy fertilizers or seeds and so on…
In developed countries most of the people are working class, employers or government will deduct the some portion of the amount in their earning and the same will be distributed as social grant. But in developing countries most of the people are working in unorganized sectors and agriculture, they are poor and middle class people, eventually they don’t have choice to get the social grants from their earnings. So governments have responsibility to allocate some money for the welfare of economically poor sections.
According the millennium development goals, reasonable standard of living is became a basic human right and the governments have been working on that direction through reforms or welfare schemes. In developing countries like India, it’s too burden to implement social security grants but eliminating the poverty is our priority. Spending on health, education, infrastructure is important but people need money to access those facilities, so there is a need of social grants for poor.
Poor people are also partial responsible for their own poverty, they should to come out from their dearth and need to improve their standard of living. Ofcourse the welfare schemes are inevitable to reduce the poverty and direct cash transfer is the best among them. I don’t think the little money don’t make the poor people lazy and reluctant to work, everybody has desire to well being and respected, they know how to manage this little money wisely and creatively. Thus, direct money transfer is better for poor, it will help the poor to keep away from their poverty and to lead a gentle life.
Sunday, June 05, 2011
www.farmersindia.com
I have a dream that one day our Indian farmer hook up the computer and directly market their products on internet. In pursuit of that objective, I developed a free agriculture classifieds portal (http://www.farmersindia.com/) for everyone who ever associated with agriculture. Please look into that and I appreciate your valuable suggestions.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
RURAL INDIA_ FOR SALE @ INDIA.CO.IN
Our economists are stating that India is vibrant and it’s going to be one of the super powers by 2025, I am confused… what kind of super power it’s going to be, is it in software, defense power, Industrial development or agriculture? Being an agriculture enthusiast, my hopes and horizons are diminishing due to violent economic reforms. While the governments are grabbing all the farm lands in the name of Economic reforms, how can we expect the India as super power in agriculture? When all the farm lands are diverting to non agriculture usages like Industrial corridors, Special economic zones, It industries, Airports, Power plants and sea ports, how can we ensure the India’s food security?
Now the rural India turned violent during the protests over the forcible acquisition of farm lands i.e. in Noida & Agra in Utter Pradesh, Ambala in Haryana, Mansa in Punjab, Singur in West Bengal , Jaitapur in Maharashtra, Mangalore & Sullia in Karnataka, and Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh. Thousands of acres of land being forcibly transferred to industries in the name of development by devastating the fertile lands and the government is promising that it will provide the employment to the displaced farmers as resettlement. I have a big question that what kind of employment positions will be given to the farmers in SEZs, Industries and power plants? Most of our Indian farmers are qualified with mediocre education and they are not technocrats, so…. imagine that these refugee farmers should work as porters, gardeners, scavengers or peons. Nevertheless, why should farmers dispense their hard earned or ancestral profitable fertile lands and why should they work for some others in their own lands?
The governments are saying that massive industrialization will improve the quality of life, I strongly agree with the same, provided that shouldn’t be harmful to other occupations. But this is a forced migration from agriculture, farmers are already self sufficient, they are creating rural employment, feeding the country and they are contributing to GDP. Why should leave their lands and change the profession... I don’t know what kind of economics these are? There are some critics in compensations of resettlements which are not transparent not reasonable to the farmers and the policy makers are favoring to the Industrialists for their personal gains by allotting the thousands of acres of farm lands. Some state governments are forcible acquiring the lands by lesser rates and reselling the same lands to Industrialists for better price. Sometimes these lands are sold and resold for higher prices changing hands to real-estate companies. It seems to be that the Governments are operating like REAL ESTATE COMPANIES and the Chief Ministers are functioning as a PROPERTY DEALERS for Industrialist by SELLING the RURAL INDIA.
Before independence most of lands were acquired by few land lords (Zamindars), after that the Government initiated land reforms and lands were distributed among landless farmers. Now the history is repeating and the lands are going to few industrialists in the name of vicious economic development. Now the farmers are very vigilant, they don’t want to loose their fertile lands and don’t want to become beggars by filthy economic policies and politicians. They are strongly protesting against forcible acquisitions and the audacious governments are using police force to restrain them which eventually turned to violence and the farm fields are becoming battle fields in all over the places in India i.e. Noida or singur or Srikakulam.
As Indian population grows, crop production need to be increased to feed them, the World Bank estimates that 1 hectare of land will need to feed 5 people in 2025 and ironically the Indian farm land has reduced by 0.43 percent to 182.39 million hectares in last five years. Indian agriculture also provides opportunities for growth, jobs and significant contribution to GDP. I strongly support the industrial development which leads to progress but protecting agriculture is important too. Governments should restrict the usage of farm land for Industrial purpose and if necessary, the land owners must be allowed as partners in the upcoming projects by allotting share or some stable income. However, we need mutually beneficial economic policies which can ensure the agriculture and industrial growth then only the agriculture and Industrialization can flourish evenly.
Now the rural India turned violent during the protests over the forcible acquisition of farm lands i.e. in Noida & Agra in Utter Pradesh, Ambala in Haryana, Mansa in Punjab, Singur in West Bengal , Jaitapur in Maharashtra, Mangalore & Sullia in Karnataka, and Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh. Thousands of acres of land being forcibly transferred to industries in the name of development by devastating the fertile lands and the government is promising that it will provide the employment to the displaced farmers as resettlement. I have a big question that what kind of employment positions will be given to the farmers in SEZs, Industries and power plants? Most of our Indian farmers are qualified with mediocre education and they are not technocrats, so…. imagine that these refugee farmers should work as porters, gardeners, scavengers or peons. Nevertheless, why should farmers dispense their hard earned or ancestral profitable fertile lands and why should they work for some others in their own lands?
The governments are saying that massive industrialization will improve the quality of life, I strongly agree with the same, provided that shouldn’t be harmful to other occupations. But this is a forced migration from agriculture, farmers are already self sufficient, they are creating rural employment, feeding the country and they are contributing to GDP. Why should leave their lands and change the profession... I don’t know what kind of economics these are? There are some critics in compensations of resettlements which are not transparent not reasonable to the farmers and the policy makers are favoring to the Industrialists for their personal gains by allotting the thousands of acres of farm lands. Some state governments are forcible acquiring the lands by lesser rates and reselling the same lands to Industrialists for better price. Sometimes these lands are sold and resold for higher prices changing hands to real-estate companies. It seems to be that the Governments are operating like REAL ESTATE COMPANIES and the Chief Ministers are functioning as a PROPERTY DEALERS for Industrialist by SELLING the RURAL INDIA.
Before independence most of lands were acquired by few land lords (Zamindars), after that the Government initiated land reforms and lands were distributed among landless farmers. Now the history is repeating and the lands are going to few industrialists in the name of vicious economic development. Now the farmers are very vigilant, they don’t want to loose their fertile lands and don’t want to become beggars by filthy economic policies and politicians. They are strongly protesting against forcible acquisitions and the audacious governments are using police force to restrain them which eventually turned to violence and the farm fields are becoming battle fields in all over the places in India i.e. Noida or singur or Srikakulam.
As Indian population grows, crop production need to be increased to feed them, the World Bank estimates that 1 hectare of land will need to feed 5 people in 2025 and ironically the Indian farm land has reduced by 0.43 percent to 182.39 million hectares in last five years. Indian agriculture also provides opportunities for growth, jobs and significant contribution to GDP. I strongly support the industrial development which leads to progress but protecting agriculture is important too. Governments should restrict the usage of farm land for Industrial purpose and if necessary, the land owners must be allowed as partners in the upcoming projects by allotting share or some stable income. However, we need mutually beneficial economic policies which can ensure the agriculture and industrial growth then only the agriculture and Industrialization can flourish evenly.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Sci-Tech farming
Being the highest agriculture dependent country, Indian agriculture needs to adopt automation, science and technologies for better yields, those would be hand tools, farm equipment, heavy earth equipment or modern scientific technologies which need to help the farming process more efficiently. In olden days, the generic farm equipments are including Diesel engine, electric motors, Power sprayers and tractors apart from traditional equipments. The agriculture has been transforming with modern science technologies from past two decades which are helping to increase the farm productivity and reducing the human drudgery, but still lot of technologies are in research and development stage, if those are available in the market then the agriculture practices will be flexible and robust. Now the modern trend in agriculture is Information technology Satellite technology, Nano technology and Robotics.
I have some imaginative technology concepts in agriculture those might be in research or in experiments stage. Our farm equipment companies and researchers have developed a lot of small and heavy farm equipment for traditional farming needs but some kind of robotic and pneumatic mechanism are required in precision farming. If the robots are being used for weed control, that will help to reduce the herbicides usage and the produces will turn into an organic, the same way robots can be used for transplanting the seedlings to avoid intensive labor. Pneumatic technology is useful for sowing the seeds that can plant the seeds very precisely in a calculated depth according to crop variant and the pneumatic technology should be a major technology in farm equipment as hydraulics, so it requires lot of research and development.
We used to read in newspapers on few impressive innovative technologies by rural inventors i.e. electric motors can be operated remotely by cell phones, it’s very helpful to farmers in summer time since the power supply is irregular. If we think advanced intelligent machines in farming, Sensors or readers and hand held PDAs are going to be great helpful in computation and accuracy in farming. The sensors or readers can be used for measuring the fertility in the soil, so that the fertilizer input can be regulated according to the level of need, same way the potency of the pesticides on the crop. Consequently these technologies will help farmer to minimize the chemical application which leads to help in environment and economic perspectives.
An Ariel remote sensing technology also plays a major role to identify the soil properties, I wish the farmers could have the GPS kind of hand held device which is connected to satellite and render the information on soil texture, soil moisture, water resources and so on. Nano technology contribution will be more in future agriculture and food production, the Nano sensors in the field are enable the application of pesticides, intake of nutrients and water by identifying the crop pathogens and soil ingredients. Nano technology application are being used in food storage and packaging to avoid spoilage and future food products will be enhanced with color, flavor and nutrients. In developed countries, many kinds of software packages are available to track the crop harvest, fertilizers usage, planting, tillage, Inventory, expenses and so on, I wish… One day our Indian farmers may have that software and manage their farms.
I hope all these technologies will promote sustainable agriculture, food security, health and safe environment, the government must encourage private partnership to identify the new technologies in agriculture and training should be provided to the farmers.we must have an open discussion that is informed by a clear understanding of how these products are being developed and how it will be healthy and safety to the people. However, we should appreciate all the efforts of agricultural scientists and researchers for sustainability of agriculture, food security and will see how they can, should, and will do for long-term solutions.
Pic courtesy: netafimusa.com
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Women in Indian agriculture
Among the rural women workforce, most of them are agriculture labor and some of cultivators. There are lot of variations in involvement of women in agriculture which is based on their culture, economic status, regions and crop selection. While the men are moving to cities for better occupations the women are taking care of cultivation and some times they used to work as farm labor to support their family needs. The weaker section of the women used to market their produces such as selling vegetables and other food crops in farmers market or door to door. Most of the women cultivators are involved in food crops rather than cash crops since cash crops need more marketing efforts which are traditionally taken care by men. The women in higher socio economic sections are not involved directly in cultivation or live stock and they used to help in labor administration, supporting activities and accounting.
Ironically, we often define the men as farmers, in fact the women also equally involved in agriculture in all phases. If we think beyond the conventional definition of “FARMER”, most of the rural women should be considered as farmers but they are ignored. Still Indian society has some gender boundaries, but the rural women involve in multiple productive roles and it is necessary to give equal opportunity in agriculture. Most of the women farmers are marginal or small farmers, landless tenant farmers and farm labor, they don’t have enough land to cultivate, less knowledge, limited access to innovative technologies, low capital and less credit facilities.
In order to empower and improve the women farmers’ productivity, they need to have proper farm training and capacity building programs to compete various challenges in their rural livelihood. Women land ownership plays a major role in their credit worthiness, if they have right on the agriculture land they will have access to financial resources and savings. New legislations have to be taken place in farm land reforms like allocating the wasteland to women self help groups (SHG). Rural women have been acknowledged as the core food producers and processors, banks should recognize them as entrepreneurs, loans and Kissan credit cards have to be approved for them. Special support and market connectivity has to establish for rural women artisans to sell their agro based handicrafts. The farm labor wages should be the same without gender differences and the equal employment benefits have to be given in all rural schemes like NREG. Sufficient political representation must be required by rural women in local level councils, it directs them as an equal partners in political, economical and legal decision making.
We must appreciate Government of India for implementing various rural women welfare schemes and also the NGOs who are working on women empowerment for poverty alleviation. I want to say kudos to Deccan Development Society because they are promoting the small scale women farmers in various aspects like cultivation, seed management, biodiversity conservation, marketing knowledge and media. Click for DDC Videos
Pic Courtesy: guardian.co.uk
Thursday, April 07, 2011
Manpower trend in agriculture
Agriculture is a labor intensive production process, it depends on huge manpower and draft animal power. Nearly 55% of Indian labor force is engaged in agriculture who are contributing to the development of rural economy. Over the past couple of decades the farm labor has been decreasing in agriculture which was caused by occupational change, people mindset, government policies and reforms. As the share of agriculture to GDP has been declining the agriculture work force is also moving to non agriculture sectors.
The Labor scarcity is the biggest threat to Indian agriculture due to urbanized life style, low farm wages, irregular employment in villages and laborious nature of work. Lot of unemployed rural youth moving to other well-paid occupations since farming is a physical drudgery, also the farm work has prejudiced as low profile profession. So the traditional farmers are forced to discard the food crops due to non availability and high wages of farm workers, farmers are switching to less labor intensive farming like short term commercial crops and social forestry plantations.
The intention of rural employment schemes are good, they have been creating employment to rural work force with prevailing wages. But the small and marginal farmers are incapable to pay such a bargain wages which are equal to government schemes, sometimes the availability of the farm labor is less in the crop season since all of the rural work force have engaged in the scheme works.
I am not going to blame the NREG and Food for work programs for diverting the rural labor to public works or non farm work, but the works schedules should be planned according to village priorities. The rural employment schemes should be halted whenever the work force is required for agriculture needs, especially in Kharif and Rabi seasons, Grama panchayath intervention must be required to synchronize the rural labor force.
Farm equipment is also necessary to overcome the labor shortage problem. Large scale farmers are able to adopt the new technologies and equipments since they have large crop area and strong financial power, but the small and marginal farmers are still depend on manpower. The farm equipment manufacturers should produce small scale farm machines, technology awareness has to be created among the farmers. The banks have to give the long term loans to farmers to buy farm equipment and the government should promote the innovative farm equipment, subsidies should be granted to the farmers on such equipments.
Some people often think that the farm labor is dirt cheap, now it’s very expensive. May be in near future the Indian farm labor is also going to be organized by companies like how the security professionals or industrial labor supplied on contract basis in cities. In Americas and Europe, lot of agencies are offering farm services like planting, chemical spraying, harvesting and haying with modern equipment. We never know... it could happen in India also.
The Labor scarcity is the biggest threat to Indian agriculture due to urbanized life style, low farm wages, irregular employment in villages and laborious nature of work. Lot of unemployed rural youth moving to other well-paid occupations since farming is a physical drudgery, also the farm work has prejudiced as low profile profession. So the traditional farmers are forced to discard the food crops due to non availability and high wages of farm workers, farmers are switching to less labor intensive farming like short term commercial crops and social forestry plantations.
The intention of rural employment schemes are good, they have been creating employment to rural work force with prevailing wages. But the small and marginal farmers are incapable to pay such a bargain wages which are equal to government schemes, sometimes the availability of the farm labor is less in the crop season since all of the rural work force have engaged in the scheme works.
I am not going to blame the NREG and Food for work programs for diverting the rural labor to public works or non farm work, but the works schedules should be planned according to village priorities. The rural employment schemes should be halted whenever the work force is required for agriculture needs, especially in Kharif and Rabi seasons, Grama panchayath intervention must be required to synchronize the rural labor force.
Farm equipment is also necessary to overcome the labor shortage problem. Large scale farmers are able to adopt the new technologies and equipments since they have large crop area and strong financial power, but the small and marginal farmers are still depend on manpower. The farm equipment manufacturers should produce small scale farm machines, technology awareness has to be created among the farmers. The banks have to give the long term loans to farmers to buy farm equipment and the government should promote the innovative farm equipment, subsidies should be granted to the farmers on such equipments.
Some people often think that the farm labor is dirt cheap, now it’s very expensive. May be in near future the Indian farm labor is also going to be organized by companies like how the security professionals or industrial labor supplied on contract basis in cities. In Americas and Europe, lot of agencies are offering farm services like planting, chemical spraying, harvesting and haying with modern equipment. We never know... it could happen in India also.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Japan battles food crisis
The Japan’s socio-economic structure was destroyed by the earthquake, tsunami and the nuke disaster. The thousands of people were died, millions of hearts were broken, dreams shattered, their lives distressed and still they are fighting with earthquakes and nuclear catastrophe. The terrible disaster brought horrific changes in people lives, they are moving miles together from their homes to shelters to defend from profound nuclear debacle. In the viewpoint of food, Japan is not self sufficient and 60% of its food requirements are fulfilled by the imports even though it has some domestic agriculture production. Now the country is in deep crisis in agriculture and food security by tsunami and ongoing nuclear catastrophe.
Rice is also an important food staple for Japanese and the most rice growing crop land (Miyagi prefecture) was destroyed by the tsunami. The Sendai region is suffering with extensive destruction of grain warehouses, fishing ports, food processing and livestock facilities. The second problem is ongoing nuclear radiation leakage in Fukushima nuclear plant (Fukushima prefecture), the nuclear plant radiation exposure may damage to humans, soil, land, agriculture, forests, fisheries and livestock. The government halted the sale of all foods from the farms near ruined nuclear plant since they found high level of radiation in milk and spinach. Some of the major ports were closed due to disaster that is also caused to disruption of food supplies and delays in shipments.
Japan’s food security is in critical point, Japan is one of the biggest food importers and it buys lot of wheat, corn and pork from USA, China and Australia. Japan may want to import more food to meet their demand since its own agriculture facilities are in turmoil and that could have a significant impact on worldwide grain prices. Indeed, the Japan shouldn’t face any food crisis, all nations should stand united and they need to take a global action on emerging food crisis in Japan. Some of the countries extended ban on grain exports to protect their population against the food shortages, but they should be generous and flexible towards crisis in Japan.
As per data 2009, 4 percent of the people in Japan are engaged in agriculture and the farm contribution is only 1 percent of their GDP. Japan should focus on self sufficient in food grains and huge investments must be required in agriculture and live stock production to prevent food vulnerability. I hope all developed nation and organizations will respond immediately with all kind of necessities and technical assistance to reinstate the Japan.We wish that Japan will be normal and emerge stronger than before.
Rice is also an important food staple for Japanese and the most rice growing crop land (Miyagi prefecture) was destroyed by the tsunami. The Sendai region is suffering with extensive destruction of grain warehouses, fishing ports, food processing and livestock facilities. The second problem is ongoing nuclear radiation leakage in Fukushima nuclear plant (Fukushima prefecture), the nuclear plant radiation exposure may damage to humans, soil, land, agriculture, forests, fisheries and livestock. The government halted the sale of all foods from the farms near ruined nuclear plant since they found high level of radiation in milk and spinach. Some of the major ports were closed due to disaster that is also caused to disruption of food supplies and delays in shipments.
Japan’s food security is in critical point, Japan is one of the biggest food importers and it buys lot of wheat, corn and pork from USA, China and Australia. Japan may want to import more food to meet their demand since its own agriculture facilities are in turmoil and that could have a significant impact on worldwide grain prices. Indeed, the Japan shouldn’t face any food crisis, all nations should stand united and they need to take a global action on emerging food crisis in Japan. Some of the countries extended ban on grain exports to protect their population against the food shortages, but they should be generous and flexible towards crisis in Japan.
As per data 2009, 4 percent of the people in Japan are engaged in agriculture and the farm contribution is only 1 percent of their GDP. Japan should focus on self sufficient in food grains and huge investments must be required in agriculture and live stock production to prevent food vulnerability. I hope all developed nation and organizations will respond immediately with all kind of necessities and technical assistance to reinstate the Japan.We wish that Japan will be normal and emerge stronger than before.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Tobacco crop is injurious to AP farmers wealth
Tobacco is one of the best cash crops in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, the Tobacco crop is less perishable and the yield and value is high per acre. The Tobacco auction system is one of the best among the agriculture produces markets in India. The sale is guaranteed, the price is negotiated and determined among the traders and farmers in supervision of Tobacco board. Every year the Tobacco board fixes the crop size to protect the interests of traders, growers and public health.
Normally Tobacco board arranges the convention with growers and traders to discuss the market related issues before the market opens. In this year meeting, the farmers demanded their remunerative price shouldn’t be less than Rs.150.00 per kg for higher variety. As per my understanding… this year tobacco crop quality is good, the yields also lesser than the fixed crop size and the traders have enough quantity of export orders, so the farmers have justified reason to ask for remunerative price of Rs.150.00. The markets were opened on Feb24th and the traders bid their price not more than Rs.120 per kg for higher grades. The farmers were stopped the auction and they have protested for better price since the plantation and processing expenses have gone up by 20% in this year.
Recently the Tobacco Board reopened the auction centers by the force of traders to continue the market with the same low price. Farmers are in misery and they are inescapable condition to sell their crop with the lower rate of Rs.120 per kg. The traders turn into a syndicate and they want to maximize their profits by convincing with fake reasons that the global tobacco yields are high and the buffer stock are still on hold (as usually... they are misguiding the farmers). Tobacco board is showing over enthusiasm to protect the traders by ignoring the farmers’ interests and also the Board has failed to negotiate the trader for getting better price to farmers.
Government of India needs to take necessary steps to help the tobacco farmers in this crisis situation since GOI is getting lot of revenue from local tobacco markets and foreign exchange from exports. The Government has to finance the State Trading Corporation of India or any Tobacco growers’ societies to help the farmers for better price. I strongly support the FDIs in tobacco trade because the farmers will get fair price in the competition of increased traders and manufacturers. If the Government doesn’t curb the traders’ deceitful practices, then the farming tobacco crop is injurious farmers’ wealth.
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
Andhra Pradesh Agriculture Markets go online
Andhra Pradesh made a congressional acceptance for E-Trading on Agricultural and livestock produces by amending the Agriculture produce market committee act (APMC). This is a good trend, to integrate the farmers to electronic markets with transparency in prevailing prices. The E- Trading has been implementing in Delhi, Gujarat, Madhyapradesh, Utter Pradesh and Tamil nadu markets. Some of the big horticulture markets like Azadpur mandi in New Delhi and Apple markets in Himachal Pradesh also have been in online trading since several years. Most of the state governments have APMC act to regulate the agriculture produce markets in terms of transparency in transactions, coordinate the demand and supplies and encourage the farmers to produce more. In India, we have 7557 regulated markets consist of 2428 principal markets and 5129 sub yards.
Reforms in agriculture marketing are inevitable process for restructuring the agriculture sector, it’s necessary to upgrade our marketing systems and infrastructure to connect with nationwide markets in the liberalization of our trade policies. Setting up an electronic network among the physical markets is certainly improves the linkage between farmers, food processors and retailers and that can mitigate the mediators’ involvement. Some of the corporate companies have taken the initiative to create the market awareness in farmers i.e. ITC limited has been working with e-choupal Kiosks over 40,000 villages which give the information on weather, modern farm practices and market information. Multi Commodity of Exchange India ltd (MCX) has started the Gramin Suvidha Kendra (GSK) kiosks in 3 northern states which provide the information on warehousing, quality testing, expert advices and MCX spot and futures prices of agriculture produces.
The E-trading system shares the nationwide commodity exchange information to the farmers, so that they can sell their produces according to their choice of market/price and the buyers also can choose the products from different markets with specified quality /quantity. In the E-trading, the regulated markets are connected with National APMC and the trading operations are conducted by the APMC’s licensed traders. Ticker boards would be placed at APMCs which display the current prices of different commodities in different markets and the farmers can select their choices. Some of the markets are supported by the bankers’ online banking facility to manage the trading among the buyers and farmers. The National APMC has to take the trade approval from respective state government on selective commodities. So far, the trading in existing APMCs is on spot basis only and in future the markets may go on forwards trading.
Government needs to give importance to both the farmers and industry equally, when ever the market infrastructure improves then the market efficiency gets progress. If the trading system goes on pace….the storage, transport and processing facilities have to be in the supporting standards but our markets are lacking with modern agri-infrastructure. There is a massive investment expected in the post harvest facilities, the government has to encourage Public Private Partnership model in agriculture marketing and extension activities. Nevertheless, E- Trading is an impressive reform in agriculture markets in Andhra Pradesh but the main drawback of Indian farmers is that they are qualified with mediocre education. I hope, one day the Indian farmer hookup the computer and market his produces directly on internet.
FYI: Agricultural Marketing Information Network & National Agriculture Produce market Committee
Please do comment :YashwanthX@yahoo.com
Thursday, February 10, 2011
A Profitable Proposition
Yetiketham batti yei putlu pandinchi yennadu metukerugadanna- cherabanda raju
(He grapples to pull the bucketful of water from lake and harvested bountiful crop with immense strive but he never had even one grain) I used to memorize the above poetry when I think about the farmers’ income. National sample survey speaks about the farmers monthly income was an average of Rs.2115 in 2003 but positively it could be Rs.2700.00 in 2011. We have been in the regimes of lot of parties from past 60 years, too many budgets and many 5 years plans, no improvement in farmers’ income level except green revolution which was aimed for national self sufficient in food grains. Every government has been chanting that they want to make farmers as kings and the UPA government aimed the growth of 4% in agriculture and proclaiming that the policies and budgets are in the same direction. In fact, are these policies really going to help the 600 millions of Indian farmers from their agrarian crisis? However, the key point is how to maximize the farmers’ income and make the agriculture as a profitable proposition.
The increased cost of cultivation dragged the farmers into distress and the farmers are not getting remunerative price for their produces. The Swami nathan committee recommended the Minimum Support Price should be the cost of production plus 50% profit, but presently the cost of production perpetually increasing in terms of inputs, farm labor wages and land rent. If the farmer receives 60%-70% of the share which the price paid by the consumer, it really helps the farmers get out of their burdens. The government needs to try on some selected produces for remunerative prices which are a percentage on the prevailing market prices paid by the consumer.
The agriculture Insurance Scheme is still in experimental phase since 1985 and that has been connected with crop loans by banks since the banks want to be safe against their loans (Insurance companies are protecting bankers interest not farmers). The small and tenant farmers have limited access to the banks and most of the farmers don’t have awareness on crop insurance schemes. The Insurance company agents and agriculture extension officers have to make the farmers known about the insurance policies and have to form the units with group of farmers. The crop insurance schemes are covering the pre harvest crop only and we have been talking about the 40% loss of post harvest, does it make sense to insure the post harvest? Of course the modalities have to be defined….
According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the farmers’ suicides were reported 16196 and 17000 in 2008 and 2009 respectively despite the government waived off the crop loans. It clearly explains that most of the farmers were not beneficiaries of the loan right off scheme since they borrowed the money from private money lenders because they don’t have access to bank credit facility. The government or Reserve bank has to formulate the strict guidelines to the commercial banks on extending credit facilities to the small and marginal farmers with low interest rates. In fact some commercial banks are extending the low interest loans to agribusiness people in the veil of agriculture sector and these things should be curbed. Government and local bodies have to make the special provisions to the tenant farmers to avail the loans from the banks. Asper National Commission on Farmers recommendations, 4% of the interest rate on crop loans would be suggestible and helpful to small and marginal farmers.
According to National Sample Survey Organization, more than 45percent of farmers would like quit farming. There is a need of direct income support to farmers as fixed monthly income, at least to some small farmers based on their land holding. The subsidies whatever the government has been giving to farmers are very low which compared to the incentives for corporate houses. In the last budget the Government written off Rs.500, 000 crores of tax amounts for corporates and the government named the budget as Pro- Farmer budget. Government is spending lot of amount on fertilizers subsidies which the total amount goes to the industry not to the farmers. Giving direct subsidy to the farmers is best alternative since the farmers will get the real benefit, fair distribution of subsidies and it stops the illegal trading.
Agriculture is a life science, modern technologies are indispensable for better farming. Using mechanical engeenering, Information technology and Bio technology are required for agronomic and social growth. Biological solutions are necessary to replace the chemical applications in agriculture and safeguard the soil ecology. Organic farming is going to be vital in future agriculture and government has to promote the Organic farming among the small farmers. Public Private Partnership is required to promote agro-processing, agro-industries which can prevent the post harvest losses, Value addition to produces and farmers will get remunerative prices.
India has lot of young people who are looking for employment and if everybody prefers IT or White collar jobs then who are going to feed us. We need large number of people to choose the modern agriculture as their profession, the government has to promote the youth in farming and agriculture allied services to ensure that can provide a decent income. Farmers and farm laborers are working very hard to produce food for us and enriching our economy, it’s our responsibility to make sure their lives should be cherished with good quality. I have a dream that one day the agriculture will recapture its fortune as mainstream of the economy and I hope it would be a profitable proposition.
(He grapples to pull the bucketful of water from lake and harvested bountiful crop with immense strive but he never had even one grain) I used to memorize the above poetry when I think about the farmers’ income. National sample survey speaks about the farmers monthly income was an average of Rs.2115 in 2003 but positively it could be Rs.2700.00 in 2011. We have been in the regimes of lot of parties from past 60 years, too many budgets and many 5 years plans, no improvement in farmers’ income level except green revolution which was aimed for national self sufficient in food grains. Every government has been chanting that they want to make farmers as kings and the UPA government aimed the growth of 4% in agriculture and proclaiming that the policies and budgets are in the same direction. In fact, are these policies really going to help the 600 millions of Indian farmers from their agrarian crisis? However, the key point is how to maximize the farmers’ income and make the agriculture as a profitable proposition.
The increased cost of cultivation dragged the farmers into distress and the farmers are not getting remunerative price for their produces. The Swami nathan committee recommended the Minimum Support Price should be the cost of production plus 50% profit, but presently the cost of production perpetually increasing in terms of inputs, farm labor wages and land rent. If the farmer receives 60%-70% of the share which the price paid by the consumer, it really helps the farmers get out of their burdens. The government needs to try on some selected produces for remunerative prices which are a percentage on the prevailing market prices paid by the consumer.
The agriculture Insurance Scheme is still in experimental phase since 1985 and that has been connected with crop loans by banks since the banks want to be safe against their loans (Insurance companies are protecting bankers interest not farmers). The small and tenant farmers have limited access to the banks and most of the farmers don’t have awareness on crop insurance schemes. The Insurance company agents and agriculture extension officers have to make the farmers known about the insurance policies and have to form the units with group of farmers. The crop insurance schemes are covering the pre harvest crop only and we have been talking about the 40% loss of post harvest, does it make sense to insure the post harvest? Of course the modalities have to be defined….
According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the farmers’ suicides were reported 16196 and 17000 in 2008 and 2009 respectively despite the government waived off the crop loans. It clearly explains that most of the farmers were not beneficiaries of the loan right off scheme since they borrowed the money from private money lenders because they don’t have access to bank credit facility. The government or Reserve bank has to formulate the strict guidelines to the commercial banks on extending credit facilities to the small and marginal farmers with low interest rates. In fact some commercial banks are extending the low interest loans to agribusiness people in the veil of agriculture sector and these things should be curbed. Government and local bodies have to make the special provisions to the tenant farmers to avail the loans from the banks. Asper National Commission on Farmers recommendations, 4% of the interest rate on crop loans would be suggestible and helpful to small and marginal farmers.
According to National Sample Survey Organization, more than 45percent of farmers would like quit farming. There is a need of direct income support to farmers as fixed monthly income, at least to some small farmers based on their land holding. The subsidies whatever the government has been giving to farmers are very low which compared to the incentives for corporate houses. In the last budget the Government written off Rs.500, 000 crores of tax amounts for corporates and the government named the budget as Pro- Farmer budget. Government is spending lot of amount on fertilizers subsidies which the total amount goes to the industry not to the farmers. Giving direct subsidy to the farmers is best alternative since the farmers will get the real benefit, fair distribution of subsidies and it stops the illegal trading.
Agriculture is a life science, modern technologies are indispensable for better farming. Using mechanical engeenering, Information technology and Bio technology are required for agronomic and social growth. Biological solutions are necessary to replace the chemical applications in agriculture and safeguard the soil ecology. Organic farming is going to be vital in future agriculture and government has to promote the Organic farming among the small farmers. Public Private Partnership is required to promote agro-processing, agro-industries which can prevent the post harvest losses, Value addition to produces and farmers will get remunerative prices.
India has lot of young people who are looking for employment and if everybody prefers IT or White collar jobs then who are going to feed us. We need large number of people to choose the modern agriculture as their profession, the government has to promote the youth in farming and agriculture allied services to ensure that can provide a decent income. Farmers and farm laborers are working very hard to produce food for us and enriching our economy, it’s our responsibility to make sure their lives should be cherished with good quality. I have a dream that one day the agriculture will recapture its fortune as mainstream of the economy and I hope it would be a profitable proposition.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Not only Onions, serious food crises is on its way
The soaring Onion prices have severely effected on monthly budget of Indian consumers. Onions and Potatoes are mainstays in Indian diet, the cost of Onions increased by more than 60% in the past year. Not only onions, the prices of Milk, eggs, fruits, vegetables are also gone up, Indian food staples prices have raised by 18% in December 2010.This is the highest level in recent years, it reflects that the Indian poor class people are spending 50% of their household income on food only. The UN Food and Agricultural Organization stated that global prices have exceeded the levels of during the 2007-08 crises. Sugar, Corn, Soya bean and edible oils prices have risen by 50% since 2009. This adversity is caused by crop failures, broken distribution system and so many reasons.
The demand for the food has been increasing by world’s growing population. Primarily the extreme weather conditions and climate changes have caused to crops failures. Some other factors also pushing the food prices high i.e. growing demand from developing countries, increasing the usage of food crops (sugarcane, Corn) for ethanol fuel, raise in fuel prices and some times the US dollar value fluctuations also impact on food grain prices since the most of the commodities are denominated in dollar currency only. The agriculture commodities future trading also drives the food prices up, the non traditional investors are pumping their money to making profits which leads to further food inflation. Increased fuel prices lead to higher cost in food transportation and high input cost in agriculture like fertilizers, pesticides. Agriculture lands are being lost due to severe degradation, urbanization and industrialization that effects less crop production and price hikes.
If we focus on world food grains, Russian wheat crop was devastated by drought and wild fire, Pakistan crops were failed due to heavy floods and India lost its paddy and other food crops by excessive rains. The price of wheat has reached highest in United Kingdom and Europe, drought in Argentina and Brazil caused less yields in corn and soya bean. Presently in Australia, the disastrous floods are affecting badly on wheat, Sugar and vegetable harvests. Food riots were witnessed in Mozambique, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Haiti and Egypt due to price hikes of basic food commodities. When the world is facing such a stressful food crisis and I wonder about our Indian food grains distribution system, more than 320 millions of Indians are going bed hungry everyday and ironically the food grains are rotting away in storages. Some parts of the world are wasting the food and some parts are starving, some people in developed countries are clinically obese and the people in under development countries are malnourished.
The global food turmoil may put pressure on Indian food market. Indian government has taken immediate steps to manage the onion crisis, such as banning the export, importing onions from abroad and the government announced Rs.10.00 subsidy to traders on each kg of onions. Temporarily, this might be good but the government has to take stable measures to control the food inflation. Most of the Indian food chain system is under control of small traders and middlemen, the government should take necessary steps to avoid the traders’ speculation for effective distribution with fair price. Food security is the fundamental welfare of the state, government has to provide the basic food at reasonable price. The proposed food security bill is still pending, I hope it will get approved soon and the poor will get the food grains cheap and easily.
Monday, December 27, 2010
A super farmer in Indian farmers
Yes, you are reading it correctly and we used to visualize the Indian farmers are always distressed and debt- ridden. But this time I am stating about a big farmer Amitabh Bachchan, a Bollywood's premier action hero, and super star in Indian cinema. Superstar turned to farmer in real life after long journey of his reel life, I don’t want to dig deeper that what kind of circumstances dragged him to become a farmer. However we should appreciate him to be a part of the farmers’ community and farmers also have to be proud such a biggest celebrity chooses his profession as agriculture.
In so many media interviews, he himself insisted that he has right to be called as FARMER. The Superstar recently came in to news which symbolically plowing his agriculture land and trying to prove that he is a farmer. I don’t think that this twitter addicted super star is familiar with the farming practices, crops and agriculture related subjects. I never see his comments on agriculture or farmers’ issues in any social networking websites or his blog in spite he proclaimed as a farmer. In the movies, we used to see the hero eventually bash the bad guys and save the people in critical situations. I expected the same thing from this Super Farmer that he can do something for the farmers towards his social responsibility.
This super farmer is a brand ambassador for Gujarat state…Can’t he look at the perils of Gujarat farmers? This so-called farmer has been living in Mumbai…Can’t he think about Maharashtra cotton farmer’s suicides? The assessment of Bachchan brand was estimated at Rs 700 crores. He used to collect Rs.3-4 crores for each advertisement and Rs.1-2 crores for each episode of TV programs. I would like to state some of the generous persons who shared their earnings for public interest i.e. Azim premji, Shiv Nadar, Narayan murthy and so on. Of course…..this is not about the monitory contribution, it’s all about the mission. As per my knowledge if a celebrity really works towards the society that definitely make an incredible help to the people.
Being such an inspiring and an influence person, Mr. Amitabh can do a lot to the farmers. He can organize the fundraising events to help the farmers or he may work with any farmers’ welfare organization to uplift the farmers or he can adopt a village to implement good agriculture practices or not the least he can carry out a nationwide message campaign against suicides of distressed farmers which shall create courage and hope. I would like to appreciate Mr. Ameer khan since he produced the movie Peepli [Live] which depicted the farmers’ plights and also he joined in Narmada Bachao Andolan for poor farmers’ water rights and fair compensation for land loses.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
December 23rd- KisanDivas
Entire India celebrates Farmers day every December 23rd which was Chaudhary Charan Singh Birthday.Kisan Divas is recognition of his valuable services rendered to the farmers of India. Chaudhary Charan Singh is credited to formulate and implement the famous Zamindari Abolition Act. His passionate appeal and magnetic persona united all the farmers against the moneylenders and landlords. He was also a very effective writer and penned his thoughts on farmers and their problems and solutions. Charan Singh passed away on 29 May 1987.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Heavy rains whipped the Farmers
The depression in Bay of Bengal turned into disaster for Andhra Pradesh farmers, their crops were badly affected with intensified thunderstorms. Heavy showers and thunderstorms all over the districts damaged the crops so much that nothing of the crop remains. The paddy heaps were completely submerged in the flood drowns fields, and the Cotton, Chilly, Corn, Sugarcane which were ready to harvest have gone waste and tobacco was severely damaged in the plantation stage. Total 25.06 lakhs of acers of agriculture crops affected in the rain-hit districts, paddy is 17.84 lakhs of acers and Cotton is 5.83 lakhs of acres among the total. The farmers were shocked to witness their hard grown grain was sinking in floods and the ready-to-be-harvested crops have been spoilt. All the farmers are in tears, frustration, misery with the floods havoc and some farmer’s suicides were reported.
In the 11th 5 years plan, our government set a target of 4% growth in agriculture but this year the agriculture is in retrograde motion. Andhra Pradesh farmers have been facing cyclones in recent months with “Khaimuk”, “Nisha”, “Laila”, “Jal” and most recent heavy rains have caused damage to their crops. Andhra Pradesh has recorded the highest number of floods in 2010 during the last 30years, it will take another 5 years to farmers to recover from all kinds of losses. The government estimates that paddy loss is approx to Rs.2000 crores and farmers have no hope that the mill owners will buy the wet and black colored paddy. Farmers have to spend again to clean the fields from the flood water.
Crop Insurance became a futile exercise, the Agriculture officials are failed to convince the farmers to get the insurance coverage for their crops. Lending Banks are used to endorse the crop insurance while giving the crop loans to the farmers but the most of the loans have given to the land owned farmers. 60% of the farming has been undertaken by the tenant farmers who are not able to get loans from banks since they are not land owners and eventually no insurance coverage. Government has to enumerate the tenant farmers while assessing the crop damages since most of the victims are tenant farmers.
Government has to help the farmers to recover from their perils by paying the compensation by each cropwise. Government should take the steps to buy the paddy which was discolored and soaked in rain water. Fresh loans have to be given for next crop season and the moratorium should be ordered on existing loans. Government has to provide the subsidized seeds, fertilizers and pesticides for upcoming crop season. Government has to come up with a paradigm for crop insurance plan to the tenant farmers since the majority of agriculture land is under lease of them. Government has to support small and marginal farmers otherwise they are unable to bare losses and they can’t keep doing agriculture.
In the 11th 5 years plan, our government set a target of 4% growth in agriculture but this year the agriculture is in retrograde motion. Andhra Pradesh farmers have been facing cyclones in recent months with “Khaimuk”, “Nisha”, “Laila”, “Jal” and most recent heavy rains have caused damage to their crops. Andhra Pradesh has recorded the highest number of floods in 2010 during the last 30years, it will take another 5 years to farmers to recover from all kinds of losses. The government estimates that paddy loss is approx to Rs.2000 crores and farmers have no hope that the mill owners will buy the wet and black colored paddy. Farmers have to spend again to clean the fields from the flood water.
Crop Insurance became a futile exercise, the Agriculture officials are failed to convince the farmers to get the insurance coverage for their crops. Lending Banks are used to endorse the crop insurance while giving the crop loans to the farmers but the most of the loans have given to the land owned farmers. 60% of the farming has been undertaken by the tenant farmers who are not able to get loans from banks since they are not land owners and eventually no insurance coverage. Government has to enumerate the tenant farmers while assessing the crop damages since most of the victims are tenant farmers.
Government has to help the farmers to recover from their perils by paying the compensation by each cropwise. Government should take the steps to buy the paddy which was discolored and soaked in rain water. Fresh loans have to be given for next crop season and the moratorium should be ordered on existing loans. Government has to provide the subsidized seeds, fertilizers and pesticides for upcoming crop season. Government has to come up with a paradigm for crop insurance plan to the tenant farmers since the majority of agriculture land is under lease of them. Government has to support small and marginal farmers otherwise they are unable to bare losses and they can’t keep doing agriculture.
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
Hopeless Telecom Minister - Hapless UPA Government
Indian political and economical structures have been trembling with scams from past few years i.e. IPL, Commonwealth games, Adarsh housing and 2G Telecom. A bunch of corruption scams have been popping up in the country as a part of global economic reforms and development. The culprits for these organized corruptions are mostly politicians, bureaucrats and corporates. The biggest financial and economic crime in India till date is 2G spectrum (Rs.1.76-lakh crore scandal) which was reported by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). The allegation on Ministry of Telecom is that the allotments of 2G spectrum licenses were not justifiable. The former telecom minister A. Raja misused his authority in issuing the 2G licenses to the telecom operators with very minor fee and without transparent method of auction which has caused huge revenue loss to the Indian exchequer.
India has huge telecom market in the world i.e. more than 650 millions of telephone connections. In 2008, the Telecom Ministry issued airwave licenses to some telecom companies for second generation (2G) mobile phone services at Rs1,658 crore for a pan-India (Presence Across Nation) operation in the controversial manner without calling for competitive bids. Later, the auction of airwaves for third generation (3G) services, which got nearly Rs. 63,000 crores and that for broadband access, which fetched over Rs. 35,700 crores. Finally, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India reported that the allocation of 2G spectrum was undertaken in an arbitrary manner and the estimated loss to the exchequer due to under pricing of 2G spectrum was Rs. 160,000 crores.
Everybody used to chant the honesty, nobility, credibility and good governance of Mr. Man Mohan sing, but his clean image got diminished when he was trying to give clean chit to A.Raja. Few months ago, Mr. Man Mohan sing was agonized on crony capitalism in the press meet. If Prime minister wants to act against crony capitalism, then why can’t he sack the scandalous minister whenever the scam confirmed? Why UPA chairperson Ms. Sonia has not taken quick action on Raja scam, as she took the fast decision on Maharashtra chief minister dismissal on Adarsh housing society corruption. The UPA government is reluctant to set off Joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe on 2G spectrum scam. All these tricks on 2g scam seem to be suspicious that Congress party also has its share in this dirty money conspiracy.
The worst thing is that the supreme court of India has doubted about the UPA government legitimacy and asked the government to produce an affidavit to explain why the Prime minister did not act on CAG report. Ironically, Mr. Raja got re-appointed as a Union telecom minister by the UPA-2 government despite the financial crime committed by him in 2008. Recently the CBI revealed the tapes of Nira radia (Corporate PR consultant- http://www.vccpl.com/ ), how she lobbied to reappoint the culprit Raja as a cabinet minister in UPA-2 government. These tapes clearly indicate that how the lobbyists and corporates (Sunil Mittal – Anil) are organize the governments.
Click for RAJA – RADIA Tapes: http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?268064
However, Mr. Man Mohan and Ms. Sonia are both together have to take the responsibility on this scam. The solution is not simply replacing or dismissal of the minister. The prim minister has to initiate the prosecution on Raja and the money has to be recovered from the culprits and the licenses should be void. Being a UPA Chairperson Ms. Sonia should not suppose to spare dishonest ministers and the coalition partners for simply to remain in power. She has to look for substitute alliance party to get the support for the stable alliance government. Of course, these are all coalition politics.
I used to read about the scams on natural resources like lands, Mines, forests and rivers and now the trend is AIR. I mean that Airwaves also part of the natural resources.
Please do comment :YashwanthX@yahoo.com
India has huge telecom market in the world i.e. more than 650 millions of telephone connections. In 2008, the Telecom Ministry issued airwave licenses to some telecom companies for second generation (2G) mobile phone services at Rs1,658 crore for a pan-India (Presence Across Nation) operation in the controversial manner without calling for competitive bids. Later, the auction of airwaves for third generation (3G) services, which got nearly Rs. 63,000 crores and that for broadband access, which fetched over Rs. 35,700 crores. Finally, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India reported that the allocation of 2G spectrum was undertaken in an arbitrary manner and the estimated loss to the exchequer due to under pricing of 2G spectrum was Rs. 160,000 crores.
Everybody used to chant the honesty, nobility, credibility and good governance of Mr. Man Mohan sing, but his clean image got diminished when he was trying to give clean chit to A.Raja. Few months ago, Mr. Man Mohan sing was agonized on crony capitalism in the press meet. If Prime minister wants to act against crony capitalism, then why can’t he sack the scandalous minister whenever the scam confirmed? Why UPA chairperson Ms. Sonia has not taken quick action on Raja scam, as she took the fast decision on Maharashtra chief minister dismissal on Adarsh housing society corruption. The UPA government is reluctant to set off Joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe on 2G spectrum scam. All these tricks on 2g scam seem to be suspicious that Congress party also has its share in this dirty money conspiracy.
The worst thing is that the supreme court of India has doubted about the UPA government legitimacy and asked the government to produce an affidavit to explain why the Prime minister did not act on CAG report. Ironically, Mr. Raja got re-appointed as a Union telecom minister by the UPA-2 government despite the financial crime committed by him in 2008. Recently the CBI revealed the tapes of Nira radia (Corporate PR consultant- http://www.vccpl.com/ ), how she lobbied to reappoint the culprit Raja as a cabinet minister in UPA-2 government. These tapes clearly indicate that how the lobbyists and corporates (Sunil Mittal – Anil) are organize the governments.
Click for RAJA – RADIA Tapes: http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?268064
However, Mr. Man Mohan and Ms. Sonia are both together have to take the responsibility on this scam. The solution is not simply replacing or dismissal of the minister. The prim minister has to initiate the prosecution on Raja and the money has to be recovered from the culprits and the licenses should be void. Being a UPA Chairperson Ms. Sonia should not suppose to spare dishonest ministers and the coalition partners for simply to remain in power. She has to look for substitute alliance party to get the support for the stable alliance government. Of course, these are all coalition politics.
I used to read about the scams on natural resources like lands, Mines, forests and rivers and now the trend is AIR. I mean that Airwaves also part of the natural resources.
Please do comment :YashwanthX@yahoo.com
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Barak - The bilateral salesman
US President Mr. Obama completed his three-day visit in India with a bunch of US merchants. India honored the esteemed guest with great state banquets. Obama praised that India is not simply emerging…India has already emerged world power. He made magnificent statements on Indian heritage, culture, science, civilization, Father of nation and so on. Everything went well, everyone was happy. The big question of normal Indian is what was the purpose of his visit? As usually many of them are in the notion of Indo-US strategic partnership and better trade relationships for prosperity. But Mr. President successfully played a role of a salesman to close lucrative deals to USA.
He made splendid statement On India that has an emerged global power. Has India really emerged, Shall we need to believe the same since Obama praised? According to Human Development Index, India has ranked low of 119 among the 169 countries and India is lowly 67th among 84 vulnerable countries in the Global Hunger Index. If we still in the notion of emerged nation that’s absolutely foolishness, Obama is simply demonstrating his selling skills by praising the customer (India).He clearly revealed his strategy in Mumbai that his purpose of visit to India is to generate the 50,000 employment opportunities in USA. He closed $10 billion worth of commercial deals with job opportunities like
30 no’s of Boeing 737 aircraft to Spice Jet Airlines (12,970 Jobs),
10no’s of Boeing C-17s military transport planes to Indian air force (22,160 Jobs),
107no’s of GE F414 jet engines to the Indian military (4,440 Jobs),
$917 million worth of Mining equipment and services from Bucyrus International to Sasan Power in Madhya Pradesh (3,460 jobs),
6 no’s heavy duty gas turbines from GE to Reliance Energy (2,650 Jobs) and so on…
No doubt, he has a mission with an organized TODO LIST and strategies to market his products and services but our leaders don’t have the TASK LIST except MENU to arrange the banquets. Our political leaders are simply shaking hands, applauding the Obama’s speech because he praised that India is great and they don’t know what we need to obtain from USA. If the US corporations’ are making such profitable deals with India, why our politicians can’t propose the Dow Chemicals (Successor Company of Union Carbide) to arrange the compensation to Bhopal Gas disaster victims and cleaning the chemical wastage in Bhopal. No politician has pressurized the issue of Business Process Outsourcing from USA which has been providing lot of jobs to India and some of the Tech business men have asked inconsequential questions like H1 fees issue rather than unique Software solutions propositions. Our leaders didn’t mention to waive the US farm subsidies especially on cotton which is very badly effecting to our cotton farmers due to subsidized cotton dump from USA. When we open our markets for US agribusiness for the companies like Monsanto, DuPont and Cargill… why can’t we propose cotton textile, apparel exports to US since we have sufficient cotton stocks.
Mr. Obama has also failed to talk about Pakistan connection in 26/11 attacks and Kashmir issue to pursue the peace. He mentioned that Indo- US strategic partnership is going to be WIN-WIN relationship to both countries but he never committed on outsourcing which gives employment to Indian professionals. United States is pushing India to remove all trade barriers to export their products and India liberated most of the policies according to USA pressure. Some of them are…
Allowing American Food Giants (McDonalds, KFC, Pizzhut ….)
Indo-US Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture (Monsanto, Cargill, DUPONT...)
National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority bill (Genetically Modified produces)
India is going to accept foreign direct Investments (Welcome to Wal-Mart)
Indo-U.S. civilian nuclear agreement
As usual defense deals of Fighting Jets, warships, Military Aircrafts
Automobiles (FORD, GM, Harley-Davidson)
No import tariffs on food grains, Pulses and edible oils
I don’t know... what further more Obama expects from India, Does he want to make India as a DUMPSTER for US products ? I can’t understand the logic in his WIN-WIN concept.
Please do comment : YashwanthX@yahoo.com
He made splendid statement On India that has an emerged global power. Has India really emerged, Shall we need to believe the same since Obama praised? According to Human Development Index, India has ranked low of 119 among the 169 countries and India is lowly 67th among 84 vulnerable countries in the Global Hunger Index. If we still in the notion of emerged nation that’s absolutely foolishness, Obama is simply demonstrating his selling skills by praising the customer (India).He clearly revealed his strategy in Mumbai that his purpose of visit to India is to generate the 50,000 employment opportunities in USA. He closed $10 billion worth of commercial deals with job opportunities like
30 no’s of Boeing 737 aircraft to Spice Jet Airlines (12,970 Jobs),
10no’s of Boeing C-17s military transport planes to Indian air force (22,160 Jobs),
107no’s of GE F414 jet engines to the Indian military (4,440 Jobs),
$917 million worth of Mining equipment and services from Bucyrus International to Sasan Power in Madhya Pradesh (3,460 jobs),
6 no’s heavy duty gas turbines from GE to Reliance Energy (2,650 Jobs) and so on…
No doubt, he has a mission with an organized TODO LIST and strategies to market his products and services but our leaders don’t have the TASK LIST except MENU to arrange the banquets. Our political leaders are simply shaking hands, applauding the Obama’s speech because he praised that India is great and they don’t know what we need to obtain from USA. If the US corporations’ are making such profitable deals with India, why our politicians can’t propose the Dow Chemicals (Successor Company of Union Carbide) to arrange the compensation to Bhopal Gas disaster victims and cleaning the chemical wastage in Bhopal. No politician has pressurized the issue of Business Process Outsourcing from USA which has been providing lot of jobs to India and some of the Tech business men have asked inconsequential questions like H1 fees issue rather than unique Software solutions propositions. Our leaders didn’t mention to waive the US farm subsidies especially on cotton which is very badly effecting to our cotton farmers due to subsidized cotton dump from USA. When we open our markets for US agribusiness for the companies like Monsanto, DuPont and Cargill… why can’t we propose cotton textile, apparel exports to US since we have sufficient cotton stocks.
Mr. Obama has also failed to talk about Pakistan connection in 26/11 attacks and Kashmir issue to pursue the peace. He mentioned that Indo- US strategic partnership is going to be WIN-WIN relationship to both countries but he never committed on outsourcing which gives employment to Indian professionals. United States is pushing India to remove all trade barriers to export their products and India liberated most of the policies according to USA pressure. Some of them are…
Allowing American Food Giants (McDonalds, KFC, Pizzhut ….)
Indo-US Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture (Monsanto, Cargill, DUPONT...)
National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority bill (Genetically Modified produces)
India is going to accept foreign direct Investments (Welcome to Wal-Mart)
Indo-U.S. civilian nuclear agreement
As usual defense deals of Fighting Jets, warships, Military Aircrafts
Automobiles (FORD, GM, Harley-Davidson)
No import tariffs on food grains, Pulses and edible oils
I don’t know... what further more Obama expects from India, Does he want to make India as a DUMPSTER for US products ? I can’t understand the logic in his WIN-WIN concept.
Please do comment : YashwanthX@yahoo.com
Thursday, October 28, 2010
35 kilograms of Food Security
India is ranked 67th among 84 vulnerable countries in the Global Hunger Index by the International Food Policy Research institute.Our National advisory council (NAC) recommended the food security act to 75% of Indians through public distribution systems (PDS) on 23rd Oct, 2010. The proposed food security bill has to be approved in the legislature which is going to be started in next financial year and completely covered by 2014 in all over India. NAC suggested the two broad categories of beneficiaries’ i.e. Priority and General instead of Below Poverty Line (BPL) norms and both these categories will have to be defined by the government.
The 75% of Indians will get the food grains on the subsidized prices who are 90% of rural and 50% of urban.
The Priority category is defined as 46% of rural poor and 28% of urban poor.
The General category is defined as 44% of rural below middle class and 22% of below middle class.
The Priority category household will get 35 kgs of food grains (Rice, wheat, millet) per month with subsidized prices of Rs.3, Rs.2 and Re.1 sequentially.
The General category household will get 20 kgs of food grains (Rice, wheat, millet) per month with the price which is not exceeding half the current minimum support price for the grains.
The scheme would cost the government an additional Rs 15,000 crores in the first phase and it’s going to be Rs 23,231 crore additional cost after the implementation of the final phase. The country would be requiring 58 million tones food grain annually to fulfill this legal commitment.
I believe that some amendments are required in the proposed Food security act. Food security means that not only providing of 35 kilograms of subsidized food grains but that should ensure the nutrition security and health also. Is 35 kgs are enough to feed the family? As per some research norms, the average consumption of food grains in India is 178 kgs/ year/ person (15 kgs /month/person) and the average Indian family size is 4.8 members. So each family must requires the minimum quantity of 65 kgs of food grains. Edible oil and pulses are the good sources for nutritional values and calories. The per capita consumption of edible oils is 13 kgs per year (1.08kgs per month) but it is still less than what nutritionists recommend and lower than world average of 16 kgs. Each household needs 5kgs of edible oil for the nutritional values. The per capita availability of pulses is around 15 kg a year (1.25kgs per month), far below the nutritionists' recommendation of 20 kg per capita. So each family requires 6 kgs of pulses.
The Government is implementing several food schemes to provide the supplementary nutrition values among the people i.e. Mid day meals in schools, anganwadi, Nutrition programme for adolescent girls. All these schemes are meant for children, adolescents, pregnant women and lactating women. But, the working class poor people are still in calorie deficient and they definitely need the nutrients to get strength, endurance and productivity at their workplace. As I fell, the comprehensive food security means nutritional security. The edible oil and pulses are essential for human beings to sustain proteins, vitamins and minerals. Inclusion of the both of them with food grains list under PDS is good for unconditional food security or else the hunger will be perennial.
The public distribution systems is not functioning efficiently, it’s all corrupted and controlled by the politicians. The PDS food ration is going to the black markets instead of welfare of poor. Ration cards are the main documents to avail the PDS ration, there is a lot of corruption in issuing ration cards. Take this serious example of Andhra Pradesh… as per Chief Minister’s statement, 2.04 crores of white ration cards were issued to the BPL families. The average family size in Andhra Pradesh is 3.9 per sons. So… the Andhra Pradesh has (2.04 crore families * 3.9 per sons) 7.96 crores of people who are in below poverty line out of 8.0 crores of total population. Is it Andhra Pradesh completely in below Poverty line??????? That’s how the corruption in issuing ration cards to ineligible people.
Simply distributing the food grains with subsidized prices is not going to be end of the hunger. The Government has to focus on production, procuring, preserving and proper distribution of food grains. As everybody knows that the Supreme Court intervention on millions of tonnes food grain wastage due to insufficient storage facilities, the judicial body recommended the government to distribute the starving people instead of letting rotten. The government has to concentrate on food grains storage facilities, infrastructure and supply chain. Food security act will not only serving the poor but also encourages the production of food grains which is direct benefit to the farmers since the consumption pattern is going to be more. India needs to be self sufficient in food grain production to meet this new demand by utilizing the science and technology.However, we welcome the food security bill and wish this legislation is going to fill the empty stomachs of starved poor.
Please do comment: YashwanthX@yahoo.com
The 75% of Indians will get the food grains on the subsidized prices who are 90% of rural and 50% of urban.
The Priority category is defined as 46% of rural poor and 28% of urban poor.
The General category is defined as 44% of rural below middle class and 22% of below middle class.
The Priority category household will get 35 kgs of food grains (Rice, wheat, millet) per month with subsidized prices of Rs.3, Rs.2 and Re.1 sequentially.
The General category household will get 20 kgs of food grains (Rice, wheat, millet) per month with the price which is not exceeding half the current minimum support price for the grains.
The scheme would cost the government an additional Rs 15,000 crores in the first phase and it’s going to be Rs 23,231 crore additional cost after the implementation of the final phase. The country would be requiring 58 million tones food grain annually to fulfill this legal commitment.
I believe that some amendments are required in the proposed Food security act. Food security means that not only providing of 35 kilograms of subsidized food grains but that should ensure the nutrition security and health also. Is 35 kgs are enough to feed the family? As per some research norms, the average consumption of food grains in India is 178 kgs/ year/ person (15 kgs /month/person) and the average Indian family size is 4.8 members. So each family must requires the minimum quantity of 65 kgs of food grains. Edible oil and pulses are the good sources for nutritional values and calories. The per capita consumption of edible oils is 13 kgs per year (1.08kgs per month) but it is still less than what nutritionists recommend and lower than world average of 16 kgs. Each household needs 5kgs of edible oil for the nutritional values. The per capita availability of pulses is around 15 kg a year (1.25kgs per month), far below the nutritionists' recommendation of 20 kg per capita. So each family requires 6 kgs of pulses.
The Government is implementing several food schemes to provide the supplementary nutrition values among the people i.e. Mid day meals in schools, anganwadi, Nutrition programme for adolescent girls. All these schemes are meant for children, adolescents, pregnant women and lactating women. But, the working class poor people are still in calorie deficient and they definitely need the nutrients to get strength, endurance and productivity at their workplace. As I fell, the comprehensive food security means nutritional security. The edible oil and pulses are essential for human beings to sustain proteins, vitamins and minerals. Inclusion of the both of them with food grains list under PDS is good for unconditional food security or else the hunger will be perennial.
The public distribution systems is not functioning efficiently, it’s all corrupted and controlled by the politicians. The PDS food ration is going to the black markets instead of welfare of poor. Ration cards are the main documents to avail the PDS ration, there is a lot of corruption in issuing ration cards. Take this serious example of Andhra Pradesh… as per Chief Minister’s statement, 2.04 crores of white ration cards were issued to the BPL families. The average family size in Andhra Pradesh is 3.9 per sons. So… the Andhra Pradesh has (2.04 crore families * 3.9 per sons) 7.96 crores of people who are in below poverty line out of 8.0 crores of total population. Is it Andhra Pradesh completely in below Poverty line??????? That’s how the corruption in issuing ration cards to ineligible people.
Simply distributing the food grains with subsidized prices is not going to be end of the hunger. The Government has to focus on production, procuring, preserving and proper distribution of food grains. As everybody knows that the Supreme Court intervention on millions of tonnes food grain wastage due to insufficient storage facilities, the judicial body recommended the government to distribute the starving people instead of letting rotten. The government has to concentrate on food grains storage facilities, infrastructure and supply chain. Food security act will not only serving the poor but also encourages the production of food grains which is direct benefit to the farmers since the consumption pattern is going to be more. India needs to be self sufficient in food grain production to meet this new demand by utilizing the science and technology.However, we welcome the food security bill and wish this legislation is going to fill the empty stomachs of starved poor.
Please do comment: YashwanthX@yahoo.com
Friday, October 15, 2010
Micro Credit – Macro crisis
The Father of Microfinance and Nobel peace prize winner Mr. Muhammad Yunus would never expect that the social mission of microfinance is going to be bad in India. He is the founder of Grameen Bank and he developed the concept of Micro credit model In Bangladesh to eradicate the poverty in rural community. The fundamental of microfinance / Micro credit is to empower the poor people by giving the small loans with low interest rate. In the past few days, 24 number of rural Micro finance borrowers have committed suicides in Andhra Pradesh who are harassed by the Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs).
The Andhra Pradesh state government has been following the best model of Indira Kranthi Patham by Society for elimination of Rural Poverty (http://www.serp.ap.gov.in/) which arranges the loans from nationalized banks to the Self help groups with subsidized interest rate. In the early 1990s, the Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) model was also very successful one in Andhra Pradesh. From the past few years, the micro finance sector is growing massively. Most of MFIs are forcing the poor women to enroll and majority of them are already members in self-help groups who are well nurtured by the Government schemes. They indulge in very unethical practices in collecting their loan money. The MFIs are humiliating and dampen the self respect of the borrowers, those deeds are pushing them to suicides. The MFIs are charging very high interest rates i.e more than 30% per annum from the poor borrowers and enjoying this money with high paid salaries and perks to their CEOs. They are just like private money lenders in corporate way by utilizing the Self Help groups.
On October14th, the AP state government came out with legislation to control the MFIs. That is a good sign to help the poor rural borrowers from the clutches of fraudulent MFIs. As per new ordinanace, the government is going to help the MFI’s victims by debt-swapping through commercial banks by providing new loans with low interest rates. We hope the new ordinance will control and regulate the Micro finance system and Reserve Bank of India intervention must be required to formulate the guidelines for MFIs. The ordinance is here:http://bit.ly/drkdQS
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Solidarity to 490 Millions of Small farmers
Agriculture in India has long history, India ranks second worldwide in farm output. India is a land of 490 million small farmers of total 600 million and having the average land size of 3.2 acres (1.3 hectares). They are cultivating their small farms with the support of their family members and local labor. Small Farms have always been the most efficient for sustainable and bio-diversified way of agriculture. Small farms have tremendous scope for increasing productivity because the natural capital - the soil, the water, and the ecology can be improved through conservation and rejuvenation.60% of the farm produces comes from the small farms only which are assuring food security, rural employment, generating the revenue in the form of taxes, cess and foreign currency through exports. But India lost her 200,000 of quality farmers from past 15 years who are committed suicides and around 100 million of farmers are living on less than a dollar per day. 40% of the small farmers are being forced to leave the agriculture and migrating to towns and cities.
Farmers are dragged in to such kind of plights due to various reasons like spurious seeds, poor quality pesticides, non availability of fertilizers, delayed monsoons, ineffective irrigation system, mounting debts, exploitation by private money-lenders and banks, lack of insurance, Government polices and so on… The main problems for the ill-fated farmers are their Indebtedness and credit crisis, because the income from their farms is not sufficient to their farm investment and their generic living expenditure. The farm incomes are connected with the farm produce prices which are not remunerative and farmers are getting very less share for their produces paid by the consumer. Commercial Banks are also responsible for farmers’ perils, they are not extending enough agriculture loans to farmers. Some small farmers are not qualified to avail the credit facilities due to bankers’ abusive norms which are forcing them to turn to private money lenders with exorbitant interest rates. The government improper models of industrialization are pushing the rural communities off the land. The small farmers are migrating to cities as construction labor, apartment watchmen and positively they don’t want their children as to become farmers. Very few young people are coming into farming … If this situation continues, India can’t expect food security and it’s going to be the REPUBLIC OF HUNGER.
In fact, India needs small farmers because her peace, her land sovereignty, her food sovereignty is in their hands. They are the pillars of the country’s development. There is a need to encourage the small farmers by providing easy access to credit facilities, Reserve Bank of India has to control the rural banks/commercial bank to extend the agri loans to small farmers and Tenant farmers. The government has to make sure the supply of quality seeds, prompt distribution of fertilizers, extension support, marketing, and insurance to small farmers. Public Private Partnership is required to promote organic farming among the small farmers. Government should provide subsidized for farm equipment, proper training and techniques to use innovative tools to avoid physical drudgery. Basic literacy and women farmers’ encouragement programmes should be evolved to their family and rural community development. The government should enact the collective farming / Contract farming with the modality of merging small farm land holdings under farmers cooperatives, make the farmers as independent share holder and collectively utilizing the supply chain/value chain with farmers operated marketing societies or private processors. (Just like dairy cooperatives). Government should reinforce the rural communities by providing basic welfare amenities like drinking water, electricity, transportation, primary health and sanitation.
We hope…all the small farmers avail the modern technologies and market opportunities to strengthen their economic status as well as nation’s prosperity. This is a part of campaign to get the United Nations to declare International Year of Family farming. Please Visit: http://www.familyfarmingcampaign.net/
Farmers are dragged in to such kind of plights due to various reasons like spurious seeds, poor quality pesticides, non availability of fertilizers, delayed monsoons, ineffective irrigation system, mounting debts, exploitation by private money-lenders and banks, lack of insurance, Government polices and so on… The main problems for the ill-fated farmers are their Indebtedness and credit crisis, because the income from their farms is not sufficient to their farm investment and their generic living expenditure. The farm incomes are connected with the farm produce prices which are not remunerative and farmers are getting very less share for their produces paid by the consumer. Commercial Banks are also responsible for farmers’ perils, they are not extending enough agriculture loans to farmers. Some small farmers are not qualified to avail the credit facilities due to bankers’ abusive norms which are forcing them to turn to private money lenders with exorbitant interest rates. The government improper models of industrialization are pushing the rural communities off the land. The small farmers are migrating to cities as construction labor, apartment watchmen and positively they don’t want their children as to become farmers. Very few young people are coming into farming … If this situation continues, India can’t expect food security and it’s going to be the REPUBLIC OF HUNGER.
In fact, India needs small farmers because her peace, her land sovereignty, her food sovereignty is in their hands. They are the pillars of the country’s development. There is a need to encourage the small farmers by providing easy access to credit facilities, Reserve Bank of India has to control the rural banks/commercial bank to extend the agri loans to small farmers and Tenant farmers. The government has to make sure the supply of quality seeds, prompt distribution of fertilizers, extension support, marketing, and insurance to small farmers. Public Private Partnership is required to promote organic farming among the small farmers. Government should provide subsidized for farm equipment, proper training and techniques to use innovative tools to avoid physical drudgery. Basic literacy and women farmers’ encouragement programmes should be evolved to their family and rural community development. The government should enact the collective farming / Contract farming with the modality of merging small farm land holdings under farmers cooperatives, make the farmers as independent share holder and collectively utilizing the supply chain/value chain with farmers operated marketing societies or private processors. (Just like dairy cooperatives). Government should reinforce the rural communities by providing basic welfare amenities like drinking water, electricity, transportation, primary health and sanitation.
We hope…all the small farmers avail the modern technologies and market opportunities to strengthen their economic status as well as nation’s prosperity. This is a part of campaign to get the United Nations to declare International Year of Family farming. Please Visit: http://www.familyfarmingcampaign.net/
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