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RESTORING FARMERS’ FAITH IN FARMING Print E-mail

RESTORING FARMERS’ FAITH IN FARMING

New Delhi, 11 November 2006

NEW DELHI, November 12 (INFA): The National Commission for Farmers (NCF) has recommended that the agricultural year 2006-07 (June 1 to May 31 2007) should be declared as the Year of the Farmers.

This recommendation has been strongly made in an effort to restore faith of the farmers in farming, which they have been slowly losing as increasing number of suicides by them show. The Union Agriculture Ministry has welcomed the recommendation and a final plan is being worked out.

The steps recommended by the NCF are simple, doable and affordable. They, however, need a change in the mindset from the one which regards farmers as “beneficiaries” of small government programmes, to that which treats them as partners in development and custodians of food security and national pride.

Integrated action on the following four points will help to get our agriculture back on the rails. First, undertake soil enhancement through integrated measures in improving soil organic matter and macro-and-micronutrient content as well as physics and the microbiology of the soil. Gujarat has already issued Soil Health Cards to farm facilities, and other States can do likewise.

Second, promote water harvesting, conservation and efficient and equitable use by empowering Gram Sabhas to function as Pani Panchayats.  Such Pani Panchayats should foster the establishment of community-managed water banks and the recharge of the aquifier.

A sustainable water security system should be put in place, particularly in rainfed areas lacking assured irrigation facility. This will be facilitated by mandatory water harvesting and greater attention to dryland farming.

Third, initiate immediately credit reforms coupled with credit and insurance literacy.  The Finance Minister has announced a reduction in the interest on short-term loans to 7 per cent, but this should be regarded as the first step in a series of measures, including the revitalization of the cooperative credit system.

Credit support should include attending to the credit needs of farm families for agricultural, health and domestic needs in a holistic manner. Also, in the chronically drought-prone areas, the credit repayment cycle should be extended to four or five years.

Credit delivery systems should be engendered since only a small proportion of women cultivators have been issued Kisan Credit Cards in spite of the increasing feminization of agriculture. Adequacy and timelines of credit availability are vital for institutional credit to be meaningful to small farmers.

Fourth, bridge the growing gap between scientific “know how” and field level “do-how” both in the production and post-harvest phases of farming, through a slew of measures. They include the training of one woman and one male member for every panchayat as Farm Science Managers; establishing farm schools in the fields of outstanding farmer-achievers; adding a post-harvest technology and agro-processing wing in every Krishi Vigyan Kendra; and organizing nationwide lab-to-land demonstrations in the areas of agricultural diversification, food processing and value addition. ----INFA

 

 

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