Support Farmers

Farming First

Interim Budget 2009

The India Budget places an importance on agriculture since most of the Indian population is dependent on agriculture. Budget continued the highest priority of rural development.
Highlights of Indian Interim Budget 2009 in agriculture and rural development are:
*Government has set the target for the agriculture credit flow for 2009-10 at Rs 3, 25,000 crore.
*Fertilizer subsidy to go to farmers directly which will be based on nutrients.
*Interest subvention scheme for short term crop loans up to Rs.3 lakh per farmer at the interest rate of 7 per cent per annum to be continued. Additional subvention of 1 per cent to be paid from this year, as incentive to those farmers who repay short term crop loans on schedule.
*Time given to the farmers having more than two hectares of land to pay 75 per cent of their over dues under Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme extended from 30th June, 2009 to 31st December, 2009.
*Taskforce to be set up to examine the issue of debt taken by a large number of farmers in some regions of Maharashtra from private money lenders who were not covered by the loan waiver scheme .
*Additional allocation of Rs 1,000 crore for Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Program (AIBP).
*Allocation under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) stepped up by 30 per cent in B.E. 2009-10 over B.E. 2008-09.
*Central assistance for storm-water drainage project increased to Rs 500 crore from Rs 200 crore provided by the interim Budget
*Allocation under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme increased by 144 per cent to Rs.39, 100 crore in B.E. 2009-10 over B.E. 2008-09.
*New scheme Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY) with an allocationof Rs.100 crore launched on pilot basis for integrated development of 1000 villages having population of scheduled castes above 50 per cent.
More Details:indiabudget.nic.in

Mayday Song for Farmers and Peasants

Elect pro-farmer representatives

2009 General elections need to bring relief measures to farmers. Farmers and Farmers organizations should come together to support candidates, who are work for agricultural and rural development. They should consider only candidature not the political parties. As everybody know that 60% of our population depends on agriculture and its subsidiaries. Now agriculture sector is facing crisis and decline phase. We need the support and growth in agriculture sector and protect the rural economy. The elected representatives must look in to the farmer’s issues like:
Minimum Support price, rural development, separate Budget allocation for agriculture, Marketing facilities, agriculture credit, irrigation, crop insurance, modernization of agriculture and implementation of Mr. Swami Nathan Committee recommendations.

I would like to request the Local farmer’s organizations to identify the MLAs, MPs based on their party’s manifestos and Candidatures and educate the farmers to elect them

Recession - Agriculture

Now recession is the trend and Buzzword. India is dependent on USA and other developed nations for its trade. Eventually developing nation’s economy affected by recession due to globalization. The services sector in India is facing some liquidity problems, industrial sector and financial sectors are largely affected by world recession.

Recession- Agriculture:
Indian agriculture has not impacted by global economy crises, except some export oriented crops. About 60-65% of India’s population and workforce depend on agriculture. Country’s agriculture sector will save the India from the huge impact of the global economic recession. Right now agriculture is the key for Indian growth in this difficult time. Agriculture is an absolute necessary, producing the basic human needs of food and clothing and exciting reason is Bio fuels. An Investment in agriculture is considered as a conservative and tangible Investment with consistent returns.Agriculture is the best solutions to maintain economic growth this year. Even in down markets agriculture companies performed very well in 2008 and will do the same in 2009. I wish that the agriculture sector will continue to provide support to our economy.

Appreciate APEDA

Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) is authorized to take measures for registration and protection of IPR (Intellectual Property rights) in respect of special products in India and outside. Lok Sabha passed the APEDA amendment bill 2008 on 12/23/08 aims to provide for the protection of IPR of a new category of” special" agricultural products, including Basmati rice. The new legislation would empower APEDA to safeguard IPR of our other special products and safeguard interests of farmers and traders. In this era of globalization and open market, it is imperative that India takes proactive measures to safeguard and protect IPR of its products.
APEDA has to focus on Geographical Indication (GI) to protect our special products like Basmati rice, Ponni rice, Darjeeling Tea, Nilagiri Tea, Alfonso Mangos and so on. APEDA has to work with Pakistan for protecting Basmati GI status for common interests of the two countries against Biopiracy. More Details:APEDA

Farmers to be blessed by Nanotechnology

"Nanotechnology promises immense possibilities for agriculture," said Prof Dr Basavaraj Madhusudhan of Kuvempu University. Dr. Madhusudhan, while addressing the Bangalore Nano 2008 conference said “Nanotechnology has immense possibilities of growth for Indian agriculture.Nano sensors in plants can detect disease and can provide nano medication. Nanotechnology can reduce agricultural waste and thus pollution. Nano lamination can improve the shelf life of fruits and vegetables. These applications should reach farmers in India in five years.” More details:Bangalore Nano-2008-PIB News

Nano Technology: Nano is a Greek Word, It means one billionth of something. Nanotechnology is the manipulation or self-assembly of individual atoms, molecules, or molecular clusters into structures to create materials and products with new or vastly different properties.

Nano Technology for Agriculture: Agriculture is the backbone of most developing countries, with more than 60% of the population reliant on it for their livelihood. Nanotechnology can improve our understanding of the biology of different crops and thus potentially enhance yields or nutritional values. Nanotechnology has the potential to revolutionize the agriculture with new tools for the molecular treatment of diseases, rapid disease detection, enhancing the ability of plants to absorb nutrients etc. Smart sensors and smart delivery systems will help the agricultural industry combat viruses and other crop pathogens. By using data to determine soil conditions and plant development, seeding, fertilizer, chemical and water use can be fine-tuned to lower production costs and potentially increase production- all benefiting the farmer.
We should pass the existing technologies to the farmers, afterwards we can think about creative technologies. There is lot of gap between Know-how and Do-how in the farm level.

IFPRI says "Don't Blame GM Crops"

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) conducted scientific study with evidence that Indian farmer’s suicides have not increased by the introduction of GM Crops. The new analysis suggests that if anything, suicides among farmers have been decreasing since the introduction of GM cotton by Monsanto in 2002. It also found that the adoption of pest-resistant BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) cotton varieties had led to massive increases in yield and a 40% decrease in pesticide use.
Although there were initially some catastrophic failures of BT cotton varieties for some farmers after their introduction the report said that conventional varieties did equally badly because of drought. By 2006, BT cotton covered 3.8m hectares or more than 39% of the total cotton area. Yields of the crop have nearly doubled since GM varieties were introduced and India is now the largest cotton producer in Asia and has overtaken the US to become the second largest in the world
The researchers analyzed the data from a variety of sources on suicide of the farmers and on the costs and yields from crops. The report identifies a lack of financial support for farmers as a key problem, absence of a safety net or any other insurance support, the ineffective irrigation systems, the presence of abusive banking systems, the wide availability of highly toxic pesticides, and the potential rewards for suicide likely all contributed to farmer suicides. This has nothing to do with the use of new technology.
Source:PTI NEWS
IFPRI Report:ifpri.org

Severe Fertilizers Shortage

India is facing severe fertilizers shortage problem which leads to downfall in agriculture output. Now food price inflation is high and decline in farm output would result in a further spike in food prices. A protests in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Punjab were resulted the death of farmers and injuries to several others.

The main types of fertilizers are three—Nitrogen, Potash and Phosphate and some complex fertilizers. In India, the government fixes the price at which fertilizers are sold; it also pays manufacturers the difference between price and their cost of manufacture plus a fair return. The fertilizer prices are up because most are made by energy-intensive processes, that the increase in production costs of fertilizers on account of soaring crude prices had begun to squeeze margins of domestic fertilizer firms and this would see the government’s subsidy burden touch an estimated Rs95,000 crore in 2008-09, 1.9% of India’s gross domestic product. The major public sector fertilizer company “Fertilizers & Chemicals Travancore Ltd” is also facing problems with spiraling price of inputs and working capital requirements.
The government should review the supply and demand of fertilizers in the States and the distribution shall be made through cooperative societies as well as private traders being made to ensure the smooth availability for kharif crops at the door step of farmers.

corporate Farming

Corporate farming is a modern agriculture issue, and encompasses not only the farm itself, but also the entire chain of agriculture-related business, including seed supply, agrichemicals, food processing, machinery, storage, transport, distribution, marketing, advertising, and retail sales.
There are corporate in the field like Ballarpur Industries, JK Papers and Wimco in eucalyptus and poplar trees, Green Agro Pack, VST Natural Products, Global Green, Intergarden India, Kempscity Agro Exports and Sterling Agro in gherkins, United Breweries in barley, Nijjer Agro in tomato, Tarai Foods in vegetables, M Todd in mint, and Namdhari Seeds in seeds. There are also various government and semi-government agencies involved. Financial institutions and banks assisting contract farming.
Several State governments, in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, are actively promoting corporate farming, changing laws to enable and support it, and providing companies interested in it with a variety of incentives, including lifting of land ceilings, subsidies and tax rebates.

In my view, the problem is that the Indian farmer is still illiterate to understand clearly that contract farming. The corporate farmer should not treat as Contracted Employee rather than implementation partner. The farm land should be controlled by the independent farmer and input costs like farm machinery, crop insurance,fertilizers,irrigation,pesticides, fuel, and seeds should be born by the corporates.If necessary the government should be flexible on land ceiling for Corporates.Farm Production management contracts between corporate companies and farmers should be transparent and mutual benefited, that should cover crop selection, provision of inputs, production methods, sales channels, buyers and minimum guarantee price. I am impressed of farmer’s partner model by CALYPSO FOODS PRIVATE LIMITED .

Rice shortage- Foord grain crisis

The world's most basic commodity is Rice. Now the headlines are everywhere...Global Rice Shortage, the cost of rice has doubled in the past five weeks. This problem is due to rice shortages in Thailand Vietnam and other Southern Asian Countries. There were so many causes; previous calamity which damaged some of the rice fields, High prices on Insecticides, fertilizer, another cause is the inflation of US dollars and Bio-fuel crops.
The crisis has its roots in four interlinked trends. The first is the chronically low productivity of farmers in the poorest countries, caused by their inability to pay for seeds, fertilizers and irrigation. The second is the misguided policy in the U.S. and Europe of subsidizing the diversion of food crops to produce bio fuels like corn-based ethanol. The third is climate change; take the recent droughts in Australia and Europe, which cut the global production of grain. The fourth is the growing global demand for food and feed grains brought on by swelling populations and incomes.
Modern agriculture techniques are required to overcome rice crisis. Water is the key for rice production, the scientists shall try to create new breed of rice that require less water, and resist disease and insects, that have plentiful harvests. Farmers also think about new improved irrigation and storage methods.

Second largest cotton producing country

India is likely to grow genetically modified (GM) cotton on nearly 70 percent of its total cultivated area in the next 2-3 years, a global research body said on Feb, 18, 2008."In 2007, (Bacillus thuringiensis )Bt cotton area went up to 6.2 million hectares from 3.2 million hectares in2006,"Clive James, chairman of theInternational Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, told a news conference. The country, the world's second-biggest cotton producer, hopes to produce a record output of 31million bales (1 bale = 170 kg) in the crop year to September as farmers plant more transgenic seeds.Indian farmers, who grow cotton on an average 9.06 million hectares, produced 28 million bales last year.The study said that 3.8 million Indian farmers opted for Bt cotton in 2007 compared to 2.3 million in 2006.
"Rapid strides that India has made in cotton production since the country embraced BT cotton and the fact that it has overtaken the U.S. speak volumes about the technology," he said.According to ISAAA, an international NGO working for promotion of genetically modified (GM) crops, the global area under GM crops rose by 12 per cent at 114.3 million hectares in 2007 compared to 102 million hectare in the previous year.
(TheHindu)

Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative

The Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative (IFFCO) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of the West African country Senegal for the revival of a 6.6-lakh tonne capacity phosphoric acid plant in Senegal, Industries Chimiques de Senegal, (ICS).ICS is a joint venture with the government of India holding a 6.97 per cent stake, IFFCO 19.1 per cent and the government of Senegal a dominant 47 per cent.
IFFCO will invest $100 million in the next three years for increasing the production to approximately 600,000 tonne. IFFCO will also provide a loan of 10 million dollars to the company repayable on priority. Under the MoU, IFFCO will handle the existing debt of the company to ensure its repayment to the Senegalese banks and international financial organisations in 15 years and those to the trade creditors in two years.
Restructuring of ICS will improve the availability of phosphoric acid in the country as IFFCO will import bulk of it. It is also expected to have a sobering effect on the international price trend which has been rising for sometime.
(For more details:iffco.nic.in)
(Source: TheHindu)

Minimum support price for Paddy

The minimum support prices are announced by the Govt. of India with a view to ensuring remunerative prices to the farmers on the basis of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) recommendations. The minimum support prices are perceived by the farmers as a guarantee price for their produce from the Government. These prices are announced by the Government at the commencement of the season,to enable them to pursue their efforts with the assurance that the prices would not be allowed to fall below the level fixed by the Govt. Such minimum support prices are fixed at incentive level, so as to induce the farmers to make capital investment for the improvement of their farm and to motivate them to adopt improved crop production technologies to step up their production and thereby their net income.

Now the paddy growing farmers are upset over the new minimum support price fixed by the governement.The MSP for common variety is Rs 645 a quintal and for Grade A variety Rs 675 a quintal compared to Rs 620 and Rs 650 during the previous season (2006-07). The increase is Rs 25, which is much below their expectation.On the other hand the Central Governement has increased the MSP for wheat Rs 150 a quintal compared to the last season.Increase in MSP for paddy in the last four years was just 17 per cent compared to 35 per cent in the case of wheat.The growing demand from paddy farmers for declaring Rs 1,000 per quintal as MSP, on a par with wheat. Farmers were incurring lot of expenditure to produce a quintal of paddy, due to rise in prices of inputs like power, fertilisers, labour and transport.
I strongly demand an MSP hike in paddy to do justice to millions of paddy farmers,and eliminate the “huge disparity” in the procurement prices of wheat and paddy by immediately enhancing the Minimum Support Price.There are more rice eaters in the country and the government should encourage rice farming by raising the procurement price, which will also contribute in reducing hunger.

SEZs VS Farming Lands

An economically booming India has approved proposals for at least 180 Special Economic Zones but has been hit by protests in several states because many of the approved sites are on prime agricultural land. India is a land of farmers, the land provides livelihood security for 65 per cent of the people, and the farmers provide food security for 1 billion. Economic development has resulted in loss of agricultural land to industrial projects. Policies driven by corporate globalization are pushing farmers off the land, and peasants out of agriculture. This is not a natural evolutionary process, It is a imposed process. The farmers are being forced to leave their fertile lands promising jobs in the concrete SEZ jungle but what the government fails to realize is that these farmers are already self sufficient and are in a way also helping feed others in the country.

Lands under cultivation are shrinking, as a result, India's food grains harvest is far from rising to meet the demands of a growing population.Wheat production has come down from 76 million tonnes (MT) in 1999-2000 to 74 MT this year. Substantially below the 76 MT target, it has impelled the government to import 5 MT of the grain for the second consecutive year.Majority of farmers of India is looking of their land sovereignty and food sovereignty. A food secured India is in the hands of the farmers.

I am not against industry and progress but please, spare our agriculture fields. It is stupidity to take over fertile lands for Industrial development.I strongly agree that industrial development is important and that SEZs can help in this cause. However government should plan the SEZ, where acres of land available which are not fit for agricultural.

U.S.TV Network Presents "The Dying Fields"

(source:PBS.org)Thanks to PBS.org
India has increasingly embraced free trade and, since 2002, has had one of the world's fastest growing economies. But only images of this new prosperity have reached the impoverished rural areas where two thirds of India's 1.1 billion people live. Left behind by India's soaring economic boom is Vidarbha, a region of hilly forests in the middle of India. It used to be known as India's cotton belt - but now captures headlines as its suicide belt. In 2006, 1,044 suicides were reported in Vidarbha alone - that's one suicide every eight hours.
Vidarbha farmers face a grim reality of crop failures, sinking global cotton prices and crushing debts. Farmers in default at the bank frequently resort to illegal moneylenders who charge up to 100 percent interest. And, the government safety net - that once kept cotton prices closer to the cost of production - has all but disappeared. Under India's new free trade policies, Vidarbha's 3.2 million cotton farmers - most of them small landholders - must compete in a global market that includes formidable, often subsidized rivals, including American cotton farmers.

Farmer's journalist wins Magsaysay award

Palagummi Sainath has won the 2007 Raman Magsaysay award, widely regarded as Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize, in recognition of his passionate reporting about the condition of India's rural poors.While announcing the award, the Board of Trustee of the Raman Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) said that Sainath, who has been writing on social issues like farmer suicide in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra is among the seven individuals being awarded for their contribution in various fields.
"In electing Palagummi Sainath to receive the 2007 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts, the board of trustees recognizes his passionate commitment as a journalist to restore the rural poor to India's consciousness, moving the nation to action," the citation said.. adding the award will be presented in a ceremony here on August 31.
(source:Hindu.com)

Sorrowful video on farmer’s fate

Farmers' widows

Farmers in India have been committing suicides due to  mounting debts and natural calamities . Now their families are helpless and hapless. The farmer’s widows are in extreme distress and suffering with serious problems. They have been harassed by money lenders who charge exorbitant interest rates. They often demand the partial repayment. Some of the places the moneylenders are forcing the widows for sexual exploitation. Their children are in high rate of malnutrition, high incidence of farm labor lack of proper education.
I trust these sorts of troubles may lead to suicides of farmer’s widows and orphanage to their children. I would like to suggest remedies that the Government should provide subsidized food, health and social security for the ill-fated farmer’s widows and their children. We should reinforce their lives to self-reliance.

Wonderful World Bank

The World Bank said on Wednesday(06.27.07)it had approved a $600 million loan for India to help it revamp thousands of ailing rural cooperative banks and fight village poverty through cheap loans.

"Better access to finance for India's rural poor is absolutely critical for higher rural growth, for reducing inequality and ultimately, alleviating poverty," Isabel Guerrero, the bank's country director for India, said in a statement.About 87 percent of marginal Indian farmers and 70 percent of small farmers have no access to credit from a formal financial institution, the World Bank said, adding they often have to rely on "extortionate" money lenders.
Thousands of farmers have committed suicide in recent years across India's sprawling western and southern plateau because they could not repay loans taken for their crops.The absence of cheaper credit prevents farmers from adopting the latest technology, or buying quality seeds and fertilizers.

A World Bank release said 12 states, which have signed the memoranda of understanding with the Government of India and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural development include, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar,Gujarat,Harayana,Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
(source:worldbank.org)