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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