Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

Farmers cautioned against dumping of grains

CHENNAI: Farmers should keep an eternal vigil against dumping of grains by international community in the name of free trade as it will wipe out Indian farmers, senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh said on Saturday.

Cautioning them against the lurking dangers of free trade, Mr. Singh said globalisation, especially in agriculture, was favourable to the Western nations, and not to Indian farmers. To drive home his point, he said the United States was pressuring India to open its peanut market, offering the grain at a throwaway price. This would result in peanut cultivation becoming unremunerative. Once farmers gave up cultivation, the U.S. would start dictating terms on the price. The same method would apply to all crops, he said, inaugurating an inter-collegiate national seminar on the ‘Impact of globalisation on Indian agriculture’ sponsored by Guru Shree Shantivijai Jain College for Women here.

Unlike in the Western countries where agriculture was considered an industry, in India it was a way of life. The country’s culture rooted in it. So farming had to be sustained by offering incentives and subsidies, Mr. Singh said.

Agriculture Secretary Surjit K. Chaudhary said the problem of farmers was that they did not practise farming as a business proposition. They were adopting pre-historic methods of cultivation. Over-use of fertilizer had spoiled the soil health, sapping productivity. Productivity could be increased only by adopting scientific methods, he said. Farmers in some areas in Tamil Nadu succeeded in getting 12 tonnes of paddy a hectare as against the normal four tonnes with the system of rice intensification. It was possible to increase the yield if the mindset of farmers changed.

At the valedictory function, M.S. Swaminathan, Chairman, National Commission on Agriculture, said the divide between urban and rural areas could be bridged only by agriculture. At present, only cities were prospering. “By increasing the income of farmers through improved agriculture practices, we could make rural areas shine.”

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