FCTC - The imposed treaty

Recently the Tobacco Institute of India has given awards to the tobacco farmers on their achievements. I met some of the farmers who attended the awards function , in  casual chat one of the prospective farmer mentioned  that he doesn't know  what FCTC (Framework Convention on Tobacco Control) means until he attend the award ceremony. Most of the  tobacco growers don't know about the FCTC which was  ratified by Indian government in  5th February ,2004. The world Health Organization ( WHO) adopted the FCTC in May 2003 to reduce the tobacco consumption to protect the global public health and this is one of the most quickly ratified treaties in United Nations history. FCTC formulated the policies for the member countries to adopt the better strategies for  tobacco control, those might be mandatory and some of them are provisional.

India is so active in FCTC treaty and was the one among the first signatory countries. Even prior to FCTC, India has been working on tobacco control by several  legislations like COTPA (Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act) i.e. ban on smoking in public places, ban on underage sales, prohibiting the tobacco sales within 100 yards of schools and hospitals and restrictions on tobacco advertisements & sponsorships. Proactively our Union Health Ministry proposed that all new films have to flash a static anti-tobacco message during a smoking scene. The government initiatives are not only with consumption part but also in production and distribution, government is enforcing the heavy taxes  to control the tobacco consumption. The tax on tobacco products in India is are complex and vary for tobacco products, cigarettes taxes are calculated by the length and the process of manufacturing which accounts approximately 38% on retails price and the Bidis (tobacco rolled in a leaf) are taxed very low averaging 9% on retail price.

India is the third largest producer and second largest  group of smokers, over 120 millions of Indians smoke which counts 10% of the total world's tobacco smokers and over 250 million people across the country use tobacco products like gutka, cigarettes , bidis and other kinds. Tobacco will be responsible for 13% of all deaths in India, it counts around 900,000 deaths per year. Worldwide, every 1 in 10 adult deaths  are caused by tobacco and it kills more than 5 million people per year. The World Health Organization warned that if the same consumption patterns continue, more than 8 million people will die per year by 2030. Everybody has the same questions, why farmers are growing tobacco even that is harm for human health and why governments are allowing tobacco cultivation even lot of health organizations and social groups are advocating a ban on tobacco. Tobacco cultivation is a part of Indian agriculture system, it is legally cultivated agriculture crop and globally trading commodity. Tobacco is the best cash crop among all cash crops… in terms of high value returns and suitable to most environments, on top that it’s a labor intensive crop which helps to improve the rural employment .Indian Tobacco Industry is providing livelihood to more than 25 million people in the country, the tobacco contribution to India’s GNP is about 10%.

Consuming tobacco is a fatal addiction and social problem, it keeps the health in hazard. The problem should be dealt with public awareness, anti smoking campaigns by government and other advocacy groups  have not much influenced the tobacco farmers neither threaten to tobacco cultivation nor encourage them to leave the crop. But the FCTC regulations are simple forcing ban farmers from cultivating tobacco. Indian government never consulted and asked the tobacco farmers' opinion before ratifying the treaty in 2004, it's an autocratic decision. The Indian tobacco farmers were not against  to our national tobacco control law like COTPA or any legislation which prohibits tobacco consumption, they do concern about public health but imposing FCTC regulations on tobacco farmers without consulting them is unacceptable, FCTC planned to force all the governments to keep the tobacco farming industry in jeopardy. Indian farmers are opposing  several articles of the FCTC like  9 and 10 which are dealt with regulation, testing, measuring and disclosure of contents.

FCTC proposals will affect our tobacco farmers and industry, more than 30 million of Indians livelihood will be devastated. Especially in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, tobacco growing is the main source of livelihood for farmers and moreover India is the place where the tobacco grow year-around. AS per FCTC  articles 17 and 18, the government should provide technical and financial aid assistance for economical transition to all stake holders whose livelihoods are seriously affected as a consequence of tobacco control programs, but after so many research and field trials they identified that it takes so many years. However,  now the working group abandoned its original mandate and came out with new set of recommendations like restrict/stop all financial and technical support for tobacco farming; mandate the seasons when tobacco can and cannot be grown; limit, then reduce, the land area where tobacco can be grown, dismantling all tobacco governing bodies  and reduce tobacco production. These irrational destructive proposals are going to be destroy the million lives of tobacco dependents by not offering economically viable alternative crops and livelihood.

I think the FCTC treaty is autocratic  and imposed one, because the veto powered nation- United States of America haven't ratified the same and other large tobacco production countries like Argentina, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Indonesia were never signed the treaty. If India implements these guidelines, then non signed countries may dump their tobacco products ,they will increase their production and it may lead to contraband trading, then Indian tobacco farmers livelihood will be in trouble and the Indian economy will go down i.e. almost Rs.13,500 crore of excise revenue and Rs 4,160 crore of export revenue. I am not against to tobacco control, government is spending millions of tax payers' money towards public health and creating awareness on tobacco consumption risks but  I request our Indian government to refuse these unreasonable, imposed FCTC proposals and think in a pragmatic approach to help tobacco farmers for their smooth economic livelihood transition.

Indian farmers need a restructured CACP

The well know basic economic principle for the marketable produces is : Cost of production +  considerable percentage of margin= Price of the product. But this basic principle is not applied to Indian farmers, their farm products are sold at horrible losses. The government and the government  advisory commissions are forcing the farmers to sell their produces with very less prices which are not even matched to the cost of production. The government fixes the Minimum Support Prices ( MSP) for major agriculture commodities  by the  Commission for Agriculture Cost and Prices (CACP) recommendations. The CACP considers various valid  points to determine the support / remunerative prices for the agriculture produces. Nevertheless, the CACP has not been recommended the  remunerative price for farmers from past  ten years.

Based on the " Cost of the production theory of value",  each and every product or service price can be decided by the  cost  for producing  the same. CACP has been considering  the Cost of Cultivation (C2) while  assessing the agriculture commodity prices, but there is some serious flaws in  calculation criteria which causes the underestimate of  actual costs and moreover the MSP doesn't even equal to the actual Cost of Cultivation.  As we know that how the input costs have been increased from past few years such as fertilizers, labor cost, diesel, fodder and cattle feed. The average labor wages have increased by 75% in past three years and the fertilizers are more than doubled. But the CACP has announced the MSP hikes for  2012-2013 crops are ranging  from  16% to 53% on 2008 -2009 data. CACP has been using the old data ( 2008-2009 )for assessing the current crops support prices and also the data of 2008-2009 itself had contested by the farmers organizations  in terms of number of samples and calculation mechanism. 

CACP usually depends on Department of Economics and Statistics (DES) of Department of agriculture for data collection and the data contains the information of Area/Production/Yield (APY). But there are some controversies on interpretation of the data among the determining of MSPs and other purposes like  calculating GDP, planning commission and economic indicators. Sometimes CACP also collects the data on its own but it's not collecting ample number of samples and also while computing the cost of production there is no consideration for crop insurance, marketing and transportation cost paid by the farmers. Still, the CACP's recommended MSPs are faulty and unfavorable to the farmers and they are losing  Rs.240,000 of crores every year for just because of underestimated MSPs by CACP. 

All farmers organizations have been reiterating  for National Commission on Farmers recommendations  for fixation of the remunerative price i.e. C2 +50% profit margin on C2, but the CACP is computing the prices on the obsolete data of 2008-2009. It has to take previous year data for computing the consecutive year prices and it should consider all prescribed 12 factors while formulating the price recommendations.  Not only 12 aspects but also other issues like inflation, cost of living for farmers, and losses due to import - export  policies. However, Indian farmers need a revived CACP since it fails to protect their best  interests, it should be dismantled and restructured with new terms and references.

Subsidy CUT, Rupee DIP, Fertilizer prices UP

India uses low quantity of  fertilizers against the global average, the monsoon plays major role on consumption pattern in India, a  good rainfall makes  higher usage of fertilizers for enhancing crop yields. Due to Euro zone crisis the world  markets are volatile, Indian economy  also experienced the same negative impact. India has been depending on imports for its major soil nutrient needs and the Rupee value has gone down with new record level so the fertilizers prices are expected to raise. The components for making fertilizers like naphtha ,fuel and natural gas prices  have been increasing year by year and if the fuel price increases, invariably it is going to affect on fertilizer prices.

Indian farmers are already suffering  from high input costs and  the steep increase in fertilizer prices are going to be more burden for them. India imports a quarter of urea, 100% of potash and almost 70% of DAP (Diammonium Phosphate).  DAP  is widely used by Indian farmers, the price has gone up to Rs.987 per bag( 50 Kilos)  and it is expected to be increased more with rupee dip. similarly  Potash has increased to Rs.720 per bag( 50 Kilos). Not only the fertilizers and also the pesticides, insecticides and herbicides prices  have affected  by  rupee slide. Acetamiprid (ACE) and Imidacloprid (IMI) are widely used pesticides in India, their prices have also increased by Rs.100.

The price of fertilizers and pesticides  may increased by 30% due to rupee value decline and subsidy cuts. The government has  decreased the subsidy on DAP and other NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potash) fertilizers by 27% since April 2012, the subsidy for DAP was Rs 19,763 in last fiscal  year now it is  Rs 14,350 per tonne similarly the subsidy for  MOP (Muriate of Potash)  has been fixed at Rs 14,440 per tonne against Rs 16,054 last fiscal. The subsidies for nitrogen, phosphate and potash nutrients have also been lowered by 11.6%, 32.6% and 10.3% respectively. The raw materials for producing fertilizers prices have also increased due to rupee depreciation. so invariably, the kharif crops going to be very expensive for  farmers with raised input costs.

Every Farmer need subsidies since they have been incurred losses without remunerative prices, non availability of credit ,high input costs and many more adverse reasons. If the government feels the subsidy on fertilizers must be reduced  then it should allow the farmers to fix the prices for their produces on their own like other industries and also the government should not intervene in agriculture exports. The UPA government has randomly  increasing  the petrol prices to save the Oil marketing companies from their losses, why can't the government do the same thing for the farmers by fixing the  remunerative prices for farm produces. In fact, the government reduced the fertilizer subsidies as part of their austerity measure to match the fiscal deficit  but the government is claiming that the reduced subsidy funds are going to be diverted to organic manures and bio fertilizers. Actually the organic farmers are very less, organic farming is picking up  but reducing the subsidies on chemical fertilizers are ridiculous since 90% of the farmers are depend on the same.

Ministry of chemicals and fertilizers has intended  to give the subsidies directly to the farmers, it's a welcome move because the retailers are misusing the subsidies and it's not reaching to the real beneficiaries.  At this point of time the government officials should ensure the  fertilizers are sold at MRP prices and most of the retailers might have the old stocks which they got with old prices, they are trying to sell the same stock with new increased prices, the government officials must control the traders not to sell with increased prices. At least it will give little relief to farmers against the increased input costs.

Connecting the rivers is a great idea

Over 60% of Indian agriculture is dependent on rains which is very complex, risk prone and low productivity. The problems with rain fed farming is multifaceted; difficult to adopt modern technologies, uncertainty in output and low income which affect  to  livelihood of farmers  that leads to rural poverty and suicides. Being an agriculture dominant country India should have proper irrigation systems to distribute and manage the river water and floods. Supreme Court of India has impelled the mega project which will link the major rivers in north and south for optimum utilization of water.  As we know that our Indian farmers have been suffering with crop losses due to droughts and floods and also their villages were destroyed in floods. The Inter- linking of rivers (ILR) project assures to manage the water from surplus to lacking and mitigates the flood havoc.  The project expands the irrigated land that can increase the food production and able to feed 1.20 billion of Indians. The increased irrigation land will help to adopt modern technologies in agriculture for higher yields.
 
The river linking project involves on Himalayan and peninsular rivers, the design consists of 30 proposed links i.e. 16 in Himalayan component and 14 in peninsular component.  The grand design of ILR project will add 40 million hectares of irrigated land to India, generates the 34000 million kilowatts of electricity and the navigation controls the floods and mitigates the droughts.  Government of India (GOI) has been implementing the traditional methods like small water tanks, ponds, watershed schemes and lift irrigation schemes which are helpful… but very little, so India needs a durable river management system to fulfill water needs. As we know that how the city dwellers of Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore are in fresh water stress for their daily needs and at the same time 60% rainwater is going waste in seas. To avoid the wastage and proper management of water can be possible through river and canals channeling only.
 
There are many positive results with ILR but the other end the project is being criticized on various reasons and making controversial for their vested interests and political prospects. They are arguing on environmental, ecological consequences, international disputes and resettlement & displacement of the project- affected people. We have new Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill to accomplish such issues and India need to learn from our neighboring countries like China, Pakistan and Brazil, how they completed the prestigious dams successfully for their national interest.  Interlinking the rivers is an economic development process; most of the countries are constructing dams and channels for their national benefit and progress and ILR is same kind for our national energy, irrigation and drinking water needs of growing population. Population displacement and resettlement is a tough task, the projects disrupts the lives and lifestyles of the people who live in the affected areas. However, the government authorities must focus on methodologies and processes to involve all stake holders and civil societies to smoothen the process.
 
The arguments of the organizations who are opposing this project are baseless and vested, all these organizations are urban based, non-farm communities and they can’t understand the farmers’ perils. They live in air conditioned rooms, using magnificent and spectacular words to grab the public attention, they are failed to understand the farmer’s agony on water scarcity (so many farmers committed suicides for their crop failures due to drought & floods and unable to repay loans they had taken to drill bore wells) The can’t understand the perils of rural women who walk miles together to get bucketful of drinking water. Some of the political leaders are confusing and exasperating the people by giving the false interpretation i.e. this project is going to divert their own water to other areas. But all these arguments are unjustifiable and their electoral prospects only, because the ILR is a national project and this is for entire nation’s benefit and progress not for particular state.
 
In spite of these critiques and arguments, the ILR project is the only option to fulfill the water needs of growing population. India has been experiencing the floods & droughts and the sufferers used to get ex gratia payments from Prime Minister Relief Fund or Chief Minister Relief Fund, etc. from past 60 years. Instead of that if this gigantic project is completed… all disasters can be prevented, but it requires lot of money and time. As per Millennium Development Goals by UNDP, safe drinking water and sanitation is a human right and our central government should not consider the political limitations for water resources. The central government should take the control on inter-state rivers, the project must be included in five years plan as top priority, make involving all stake holders efficiently and this should be completed in a time bound manner.

The quest for water

Water is one of the five elements, Water is life and everything. The availability of water is drastically decreasing and so many developing countries are facing water crisis. There is a connection between water, poverty and hunger; developing countries in Asia and Africa are facing water stress, malnourishment and poverty, coincidentally these countries are closely with arid and semi-arid ecosystem. Urbanization has been increasing in developing nations which push to change in water consumption pattern and demand for water has been increased. The United Nations' FAO states that by 2025, 1.9 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions.

The main share of water is taken by agriculture which accounts globally 70%, rain fed agriculture is most common method and some of the countries have been using massive ground water for agriculture. The population growth usually increase the demand for water, we already more than 7 billion and by 2050 we will be 9 billion, we need to face heavy water scarcity especially in agriculture production. The main task for developing countries is to utilization of water resources productively and efficiently i.e. How to produce more food with less water, how to recharge the ground water aquifer, how to reuse the waste water for agriculture.

Over 60% of Indian agriculture depends on rains, monsoons are very important to Indian economy, if the predictions go wrong or monsoons fails the GDP share of agriculture will be negative. Uncertainty of the monsoons and drought conditions make the farmers’ life miserable. To overcome rain- fed farming and drought, our Indian farmers are investing heavily on tube wells and high powered motor pumps… but water tables are dropping dangerously and the farmers are being dragged in to debt traps. Lot of irrigation projects were commenced by the state governments which are still under construction, huge finance investment must be required to complete these ongoing projects. According to Indian policy the Irrigation is a state subject, the state governments don’t have enough budget to complete them unless the financial support given by central government. As of now 400 irrigation projects are pending in nationwide.

Government of India should take preventive measures in agriculture to face water stress, since most of the Indian population depends on agriculture and need to feed 1.20 billion people. Recently Supreme Court of India has impelled the mega project which will link the major rivers in north and south as optimum utilization of water. This is the better way to manage the water from surplus areas to lacking but the project requires huge investment and takes long time. India needs to improve its agriculture by implementing scientific applications in irrigation system like drip, sprinklers and sprayers and also government needs to promote the low cost methods to harvest and conserve the rainwater. There is still great need of research on drought resistant and climate resistant crops, our agriculture scientists must focus on developing such verities, and Africa is the best example for such innovative crops and practices. India must take inspiration from Israel by their customized irrigation methods and reuse of waste water for agriculture.

Most recent US intelligence report says that in next ten years, water is going to be a bargain chip and as a weapon too... growing demand for water leads to wars. As we know... India has been experiencing many international river disputes like Ganges, Sindhu and Brahmaputra linked with other countries of Nepal, Pakistan and China, and inter-state river disputes like Babli, Almatti, Mullaperiyar, Kaveri etc. Privatization in the urban supplies makes more diversion of irrigated water to cities and Industrial purpose. Private corporations like Coke and other bottled water companies are taping the public water and excessive pumping the ground water which caused to water table aquifer fall. Since the available water is limited, allocation of the water to irrigation, domestic and industrial purposes shall be based on proper methodology, otherwise it leads to clashes among the people within India only not with neighboring countries. I don’t wish the quests and crusades for water; let us all together preserve the fresh water.

My understanding about a fascinating plant

When Columbus and his crew encountered the Native Americans inhaling the smoke of burning Tobacco, they introduced the same to Europe and the rest of the world. Tobacco was the first plant exported to a worldwide market from Americas from 1500s and it has been grown by Native Americans for more then 5000 years. Global tobacco Industry sells around 6 trillion cigarettes every year, China is the biggest consumer of cigarettes about 45% of the global total. After China, the ten countries that consume the largest number of cigarettes are Russia, the U.S., Japan, Indonesia, India, Brazil, Ukraine, Turkey, Korea and Italy. India is the second largest producer of tobacco in the world and ITC limited is the pioneer for India’s tobacco crop. India has different types of tobacco verities i.e. Virginia, Burly and native /oriental tobacco. Tobacco board of India is a government organization which involves in regulating the crop and developing the tobacco Industry.

Tobacco is the hungry man’s food, chilly man’s fire, sad man’s cordial, bachelor’s friend, lonely man’s companion, busy man’s repose: it’s a generic complimentary statement by tobacco lovers. Matter of  fact, Tobacco is responsible for 1 in 10 adult deaths and it kills more than 5 million people per year. The World Health Organization warned that if the same consumption patterns continue, more than 8 million people will die per year by 2030. Smoking tobacco is a fatal addiction; it keeps the life at risk…. not only the one who is smoking but also every one around. Everybody has the same questions, why farmers are growing tobacco even that is harm for human health and why governments are allowing tobacco cultivation even lot of health organizations and social groups advocating a ban on tobacco smoking.

Smoking is a social problem; the problem should be dealt with public awareness. But tobacco cultivation is a part of farming system; it is legally cultivated agriculture crop and globally trading commodity. Tobacco is the best cash crop among all cash crops… in terms of high value returns and suitable to most environments, on top that it’s a labor intensive crop, so it definitely improves the socioeconomic conditions of rural areas and the quality of farmers’ life. Sale of the crop is also assured and it’s sold by negotiable price through government operated auction floors. As per economic surveys, the tobacco farmers monthly income is higher than the non – tobacco farmers. Almost 15 million people are involved in Indian tobacco industry, the tobacco contribution to India’s GNP is about 10%.

Indian tobacco farmers have not influenced by the anti smoking campaigns, neither threaten tobacco cultivation nor promote them to leave the crop. They simply grow the tobacco as a part of the cultivation and more over its high return cash crop.In spite of Indian government has been implementing ban on smoking in public places and a ban on underage sales, tobacco consumption and production has been increasing. The consumption pattern in India is: 85% share goes to tobacco products like Bidi, Snuff and chewing and rest of 15% is cigarettes consumption. Despite the just 15% cigarette consumption generates 75% of taxable tobacco revenue and 25% from the other forms of tobacco products which is 85% market share, since the taxes are more on cigarettes comparatively on traditional tobacco products. Major Indian tobacco market is occupied by traditional products which are unorganized sector and cottage industries, so the government authorities are difficult to enforce the taxes on them.

As per my understanding, young &urban population is consuming the cigarettes and adults & rural population is consuming non-cigarette form of tobacco products and worldwide the non – cigarette form of consumption has been increasing. Tobacco consumption is dangerous to health; no one is going to deny that but the government should educate the citizens about the risk factors and at the same time it should protect the poor farmers’ interests and economic strength of the country; we need lot R&D in tobacco in the direction of  low –nicotine and organic tobacco crops. The taxes on cigarettes should not be increased because the consumption pattern will be shifted to non- cigarette form which is more harmful to health. I hope they won’t increase in coming budget.

India needs reinforced Met Dept

 

Monsoons are very important to Indian economy because 60% Indian population is depend on agriculture and agriculture share is around 15% in total GDP. Most of Indian farming is depending on monsoons only…. that’s why historically Indian economy used to be called as “Monsoon economy”. Generally Indian monsoon season starts from June to September, but this year southern part of India has heavy deficit in rainfall and Andhra Pradesh has experienced the drought condition. The Estimated yield loss in Andhra Pradesh was 40 lakhs of acres and some of the other regions information yet to be received. Andhra Pradesh government recently announced drought ridden mandals at about 450- 500 which were identified with 50- 60 percent crop losses.

As per official figures there was 60% deficit in North-East monsoon rains in Andhra Pradesh and the loss was 2000 crores of rupees to farmers. India’s 60% farming depends on rains and almost 40% food grains come from these areas only. If the monsoon fails, it’s going to be negative impact on national GDP through agriculture share, Inflation goes up and food prices will be volatile. We can’t blame the Mother Nature but we have Meteorological department to predict the rains, therefore the farmers may select the crops according to that. If the predictions go wrong the farmers will in trouble, that’s what happened in 2009. In 2009, The India Meteorological Department (IMD) was forecasted the monsoons as normal, few months later it revised the earlier predictions and announced that the rains would be a little lower than normal but actually there was terrible drought.

This year also same as 2009, IMD’s initial predictions were normal, second forecast was below normal but finally Andhra Pradesh has witnessed a drought and ultimately cost paid by the farmers is millions of rupees. Why the Met department is unable to give accurate predictions, what kind of technology they are using?....... I have no idea.

Seven years ago, when I first browse the weather website (http://www.weather.com/) to know the weather forecast in New Jersey… that’s so accurate. I admired and dreamt that one day our Indian Met department will give weather forecast as accurate as US Weather report. But still our Indian meteorological department is inefficient in accurate long term predictions.

Yes…. it’s too difficult to predict the weather in long range, but if the predictions are continuously wrong that means something wrong with the Met department technologies, It must update its technology to correct the failures. As India entered into a deal with USA on Nuclear technologies, why can’t the Ministry of Earth Science approach USA for weather related technologies for better predictions? I hope that the Met department will modernize the equipment to serve better since most of Indians are agriculture dependents. If they were informed accurately about the weather they can plan the crops and at lest they can mitigate their losses by cutting down the farm investments. 

To encounter the drought, our agriculture scientists should focus on developing the climate resistant crops which are helpful to reduce the risk and food prices instability.

Our governments have been experimenting cloud seeding and artificial rains but those are all nonsuccess models and very expensive. If any drought conditions exist, the governments need to have contingency plans like special budget allocations, subsidies and maintaining buffer stock of food grains to encounter it. However, we hope that IMD will give accurate weather forecasts and such forecasts will give guidelines to farmers to select and plan the crops according to anticipated weather conditions.

Direct cash transfer for farmer’s family welfare

We have been discussing various farmers’ issues from past few years i.e. remunerative price, simple interest loans and all kind of subsidies… no favorable progress in this direction. The conclusion what do farmers expect is a stable income to lead their quality life just the same as others in the society. Each and every profession has its own remuneration for their service and the same way all kind of products have their own market price, but farmers don’t have stable remuneration for their hard work or remunerative price for their produces. Government has been intervening in crop production and marketing issues but still no righteousness for farmers and still they are agitating for all kind of supports. Now the time is up… no more jokes (false promises), no more time killing committees, farmers need a constructive permanent policy with economical reforms which gives care to get out of the agriculture crisis.

I strongly feel that the direct cash payments to the farmers is the best alternative option to support them, government has been giving all kind of subsidies in the form of seeds, fertilizers and so on which are actually going to manufacturers not direct to the farmers. If the direct payment goes to the real farmers; they can use the money wisely creatively for not only on fertilizers or pesticides but also for other farming activities. The government should provide direct cash payments to the farmers to assist in labor wages for farm operations, every body knows that farm labor cost has increased due to expensive cost of living and they have got great bargain power with several social welfare schemes. It’s the best way to integrate the NREG schemes to agriculture. I am very glad about Mr. Nandan nilekani’s proposal on direct cash transfer model for fertilizer subsidies but the implementation methodologies shall be discussed.

Farmers need a fixed amount of crop based cash assistance when the crops don’t reap by natural calamities; direct cash is a security from drought, floods and rising diesel prices. As we know that small farmers and land less farmers can’t survive simply on agriculture, they used to do animal herding but still they are in low socio economic status. They need some fixed amount of cash for reasonable standard of living and away from the poverty. The government should examine the real incomes and living costs while recommending the direct cash assistance every year; the money should go to every agriculture family including share croppers. The direct cash payment program shall be designed to encourage women farmers, organic farming and sustainable agriculture.

In recent survey conducted by India's National Sample Survey Organization showed 40 percent of Indian farmers would like to quit agriculture. If it really happens, the government face huge burden to provide alternative livelihood for all of them and country unable to feed its own population. Nevertheless, what the farmers need is… a substantial income and economical security to restructure their farming activities. The practice of directly giving money to the poor is a popular one in developing countries which has given positive results; I hope the same will be implemented for our Indian poor farmers.

FDI in Retail industry

As per Indian Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP)that FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) is inevitable in multi brand retailing. India has been implementing 100% FDI in single brand(Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Nike, Mcdonald , KFC etc) retailing from past couple of years and trying to get the approval in cabinet for FDI in multi brand retailing (Wal-Mart, Tesco, Carrefour, Metro) with 51% since we have accepted the economic reforms in G20 Canada summit. India is the fifth largest retail destination globally; it has been recognized as a lucrative market for foreign investors in the retail industry.

India is a great retail democratic country, we have plenty of neighborhood kirana stores, traditional, and unorganized retailers who are serving the nation from past several decades. The Indian retail market can be divided in to two categories i.e. Organized and Unorganized with market share of 5 % and 95% respectively, the total turnover is $395 billion and it is expected to grow up to $785 billion by 2015. India has been leaning towards organized retail system from past decade and it’s going to reach up to 20% by 2015. Large Indian companies are entering in to the retail business since there is lot of potential to grow i.e Birla More store, reliance fresh, Bharti Easy Day.

India is slowly emerging as a world class market with high value products; growing middle class incomes, urbanization and changes in consumer behavior which are ideal for super markets or hypermarkets. Our agriculture also need large investments to improve our infrastructure in terms of seed supply, agrichemicals, processing, machinery, storage facilities, rural transportation and value chain management. Experts and economists say that there is lot of prospective benefits to consumers and farmers by FDI in retail.

I believe that unrestricted FDI in multi brand retailing is going to affect badly on micro and small retailers. The multinational retailers are going to fill their aisles with international brands with competitive prices and the micro and small retailers are absolutely not in a position to compete with them. The biggest challenge is how to synchronize the harmony between organized and unorganized.

My recommendations on FDI- Retail

1. Indian retail sector contributes 15% to total GDP and providing 8% of total employment which is the biggest employer after agriculture, so the retail sector should be recognized as an Industry and need to be controlled by a separate ministry.

2. Any kind of corporate owned markets shouldn’t interfere in Public distribution system (PDS) because more than 50% of Indian households are depending on this welfare system and most of them are below poverty line.

3. Ministry of commerce and Industry should fix the limit on foreign Investing amount though they have 51% eligibility. If there is no cap on amount, it’s going be a huge threat to Indian retail companies.

4. The Ministry should initiate the kind of business model; i.e. FDI retailers should deal with all kind products like Fresh produces, dry foods and non food items uniformly in the startup itself. If they don’t consider fresh farm produces, I don’t thinks that they won’t set up the value chain for farm produces.

5. The FDI retail outlets should be allowed on socio economic and demographic factors. Geographical radius must be fixed to set up the stores to mitigate the competition among the local retailers and multinationals’.

6. Stringent policies are required for harmonious trade and to control the multinationals aggressive monopoly trade practices. The Government needs to promote the micro, small and medium local retailers and should take necessary steps to grow them.

7. The new jobs created by the multinational retail chains should be reserved for rural people and the FDI retailers should not destroy the existing unorganized retailers’ distribution setup.

Mass starvation in Somalia

There is no food, no water, kids are dying and adults are tumbling, heart breaking pictures and heart wrenching incidents… this is the brief portrait of Somalia. I used to feel sad about Somalia where the place of pirates, private armies and poverty and now it’s experiencing severe famine. I will make known to you some pathetic famine incidents …

A mother walking, arrives at the clinic, takes her baby off her back and finds it has died without her knowing.

Her five children were with her, but the youngest ones - aged two years and five years - died on the way. She said she abandoned their bodies along the roadside because she was too weak to dig graves.

“We were hungry and couldn't get work. We traveled as a family but soon after we arrived my husband died, leaving me a widow and my children without a father. I just need help — anything."

The UN declared famine in Somalia and some other east African countries like Ethiopia and Kenya and it estimates that it’s going to effects millions of people. Nearly 400000 of people are leaving their homes, traveling to camps in search of food and water,some of them are crossing the borders to reach the survival camps which are located in Ethiopia and Kenya and still 80% of people are unable to access the humanitarian aid. The militant groups are blocking the aid organizations' food deliveries, so the survival aid camps are held at secured regions. thousands of people are being raped,killed by militant groups, bandits while journeying to refuge camps. The country is already lawless and now became chaotic due to famine, the aid food has been looted and sold in markets for profits. Humanitarian organizations are not willing to work directly in Somalia because some of their workers got killed by the clan war groups.

Basically Somalia is arid environment,year around severe hot conditions and irregular monsoons, agriculture is very limited and most of the lively hood is on nomadic herding.The problem with Somalia is the unstable government, militants groups which are keeping the country miserable, THE TRANSITIONAL FEDERAL GOVERNMENT(TFG) doesn't have total control over the country and some clan's militia groups like Al-Shabab are dominating in most of the region.

This drought is not the first time and it has been repeating for every few decades, I think 20 years ago Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya have experienced the same kind of famine but now they are not as bad as Somalia. Ethiopia and Kenya have some sufficient investment in agriculture and foreign food grants which were helped them from starvation, as we know that some Indian agriculture companies also invested in Ethiopia and Kenya. Adequate investment in agriculture is the long term solution for famine and better agriculture practices, capacity development, economic developments are path to peace and prosperity.

The United Nations has made an emergency appeal for $2.4 billion,United States has contributed $580 million so far and other African and gulf countries are helping. I have an Idea that India has been holding excess wheat/rice stocks above the Strategic reserves I.e around 70 million tons and upcoming crop season is going to add another 20 million tones. Especially in Wheat, India harvested bumper crop and the current stocks were two seasons old, the Government is not allowing exports since 2007 and wheat prices are not so attractive in international markets. So the best way is to give the old wheat stocks to UN aid for Somalia on humanitarian grounds instead of rotting in FCI warehouses. It's not only going to help to Somalia's starving but also for Indian farmers to get the support price for their upcoming harvest.

However....I wish all Somalians will have better living conditions, peace and democracy.

Pic courtesy: news.com.au

A nexus between land and food

Prime minister Mr.Manmohan stated that we need second green revolution to feed our people despite the nation produced record level of 241 million tones of food grains in this year and he said that 2% of growth per annum is required to meet the food needs of growing population. Indeed, we should preserve our agriculture land for the same what prime minister said, ironically the Indian farm land has reduced by 0.43 percent to 182.39 million hectares in last five years and we know that the government has been forcibly acquiring the farm lands in the name of development. If India loss its cultivable land for non agriculture purpose… imagine how the 1.20 billions of people grapple for food, we already importing the pulses and oil seeds for our needs. A typical Indian family is spending 30-60 percent of their income for food alone; if we don’t conserve the farm lands then the food expenditure will be more for Indian house hold.

Recently Mr. Rahul Gandhi protested against NOIDA, Agra Highway farm lands acquisition, he said that he is going to introduce the revised land acquisition act in parliament which is going to favor for farmers. Personally I welcome his substantial statement. He should visit more villages, meet more farmers to get more knowledge on farmers’ perils. The policy makers’ talks a lot about farmers’ issues in accordance to the situation and events… but we know the UPA 2 government’s economic model i.e. fast industrialization….the people income levels will be increased, eventually the living standards and purchase power will be more. Yes of course, being a progressive thinker, I too support industrialization but agriculture is important too. The thing is who is going to cultivate the land and where is the land to cultivate if the cultivable land is being transformed to industrial purpose?? A recent study says that a typical Indian family is spending 30-60 percent of their income for food alone, if we don’t conserve the fertile farm lands, definitely the food is going to be very expensive for Indian house hold.

As we know that governments are forcible acquiring thousands of acres of land for industries in the name of development 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. When the governments are trying to convert the fertile lands to non agriculture usage, they should have a responsibility to develop or conserve the fertile lands elsewhere as part of replacement which is not happening, where as in USA… being a largest agriculture land holder; it’s still spending millions of dollars to conserve the cultivable land. Being a developing a nation and having a large population, we need to develop and secure the farm lands.

The proposed land acquisition bill must be included with not only the resettlement and rehabilitation of the displaced public but also the developing and securing the agriculture lands and environmental resettlement. The existing National Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy is not giving full fledged support the affected people, it’s failed to restore the lives of dislocated people and they are not receiving the decent, sufficient compensation for their lands, farmers voices have stifled and the governments are using police power to restrain their demands, for that’s the reason only the rural India become violent. The practical studies are not conducted in scientific manner, the government officials are corrupted and the reports are being prepared in favor of construction / power companies. When ever the superior courts intervened then only the feasibility studies are conducting in democratic and scientific manner. (Ex. Court intervention is Sompet -Andhra Pradesh wetlands issue).

I hope the future Land acquisition bill would be beneficial to displaced farmers, let us see how Mr. Rahul Gandhi stands on his promise.

AP farmers want to take a brake

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Women in Indian agriculture

We know that most of the developing countries depend on agriculture for livelihood and food security. Agriculture needs manpower, if the manpower split into gender wise, amazing fact is that the women contribution is greater or equal to men. The rural women are very active in cultivation, dairy, fisheries, crop processing and other allied areas. Nearly 70% of Indian rural women are employed in agriculture and they are responsible for 60-80 percent of food production. They play major role in animal husbandry, horticulture and poultry which are their main source of income and it is noticed that they always involved in labor and tolerance intensive works like transplantations and weeding operations.

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

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.

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.

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.