Spotlight

New Delhi, 11 June 2007

RURAL INDIA IN CRISIS ON FARM FRONT

NEW DELHI, June 12 (INFA): The agrarian crisis in the rural India has its routs in the collapse of rural economy, according to Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, the distinguished agricultural scientist.

Unemployment leading to out-migration of the assetless is growing. The minimum support price mechanism is not operating for most commodities. At every level of the livelihood security system, there is a tendency to make profit out of poverty. Something is terribly wrong in the countryside, says Swaminathan.

Today, finding themselves helpless in the face of adversities of various kinds, the peasantry in parts of the country is resorting to extreme measures.

Repeated crop failures due to unpredictable climatic variations, inability to meet the rising cost of cultivation, and the increasing debt burden are among the factors leading to frustrations.

In such a scenario, meeting the challenges of rural reconstruction becomes a formidable and priority task.

Agriculture being the mainstay of our economy, it is imperative that we have a comprehensive and time-bound programme to extricate the sector from stagnation, if not deceleration.

Larger irrigation facilities, better seeds and agri-inputs and fertilizers at reasonable costs will have to be provided to farmers, along with finance, infrastructural and marketing facilities.

Agriculture must become an income generating activity and farmers should not be left to the vicissitudes of weather, financial resources and markets.

To increase productivity and employment generation in the sector, there is a need to bring about structural changes, primarily based on land reforms, as support prices and provision of cheap credit do not help beyond a point. Experience has shown that providing the poor with access to land is not anti-growth. ---INFA

NEW DEGREE COURSES IN ANDHRA

HYDERABAD, June 12 (INFA): The Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University located in the heart of Hyderabad city will be offering a five-year integrated degree course in literature, BA Music in distance mode and a multi-media courses from the ensuring academic year.

It will also offer courses in Telugu Panguade for school-going foreign students and people living outside Andhra Pradesh. ---INFA