Unprecedented Agrarian Crisis needs special "Farmer Budget" -VJAS

Unprecedented Agrarian Crisis needs special "Farmer Budget" -VJAS

Nagpur-25th feb.,2007

Year 2006 has been year of admission when Indian Prime Minister Dr.manmohan singh admitted on 15th august 2006 in his speech to the national that

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New Delhi, Aug 15 (IANS) Distressed by a spate of suicides, poverty and hunger among Indian farmers, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday assured them of remunerative prices for farm produce and every possible assistance to redress their distress.

We need to understand if we want better prices for farmers so that they earn a better livelihood, the prices of what they produce and sell will have to go up,' the prime minister said in his Independence Day address from the Red Fort here.

'In order to ensure that the needy and the poor do not get adversely affected, our government is committed to ensuring adequate availability of essential commodities at affordable prices to them,' he added.

'We certainly cannot grudge our farmers better incomes when incomes of other sections of society are rising.'

The prime minister said he was aware of the acute distress the Indian farmer was facing on account of heavy debt burden, adding that an expert group had recently been constituted to look into this issue.

'I see that our farmers in many parts are in a crisis, not managing to eke out a decent living from their land. When I visited Vidarbha, the plight of the farmers there made a deep impact on me,' he said.

'The agricultural crisis that is forcing them to take the desperate step of committing suicide needs to be resolved. We need to think about how we can provide a decent livelihood to our farmers.'

'I am confident that in a few months, we will take concrete measures to help our farmers overcome the burden of crushing debt,' the prime minister asserted.

Reiterating his promise in his Independence Day address two years ago of a new deal for rural India, he said while much had been done in this regard such as doubling of farm credit, much more remained to be accomplished.

'Importantly, we must ensure that more people get employment in manufacturing and services so that the disproportionate burden on agriculture in providing a livelihood to two-thirds of our population gets reduced.'

The prime minister said the government was also reviving the cooperative banking system and would pay special attention to horticulture, animal husbandry, cotton, sugarcane and other crops.

'We are trying to reach institutional credit to each and every farmer so that they are out of the clutches of moneylenders,' he said.

'A National Fisheries Development Board has been set up to increase the livelihood of fishermen. Agricultural research is being improved and Krishi Vigyan Kendras will soon be functioning in every district of the country by the year end.'
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Indian Prime Minister's admission that in last 60 year agriculture has become richer and richer but farmers become poor and poor and to days unprecedented agrarian crisis is accumulated result of all wrong policies and budgetary allocation in the name of agriculture allocation .Even though prime minister promised nothing has been done in last 10 months on this front and more & more suicide reported in the country most hit was vidarbha which witnessed more than 1000 farm suicides after Indian Prime Minister announced Rs.3750 crore special package to bail out the farmers who are in debt trap and distress.Indian budget which is giving much more importance to corporate farming ,land garbing formulas of infra structure developments in rural sector will make farmers condition much more hostile and will increase more farm suicide in mass scale at national level.

"NATIONAL NEED FOR SPECIAL "FARMER INCOME BASE BUDGET"

Now this been proven experience that money provided in the Indian budget for Agriculture has not increasing the income of farmer in any way and budget that gives allocation for the farmer income hike should be separately announced as "FARMER'S INCOME " is core issue handled by the reports of NCF too.Introduction pay commission for farmers is need of the nation and Govt. should issued that fix net income should be generated by farm sector as individual income of farmer and this idea seems to be ridiculous at this stage but it's final that unless and until we cant grow the income farmer we cant grow INDIA too.The retardation in GDP due to retardation in Agriculture growth is matter of concern.Issues raised by INDIAN PRIME MINISTER can only be addressed and farm crisis can only resolved by providing special farmer income base budget.
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Kishor Tiwari
Vidarbha Jan andolan Samiti
vidarbha@gmail.com
andolan.blogspot.com
contact-09422108846