The Hindu : Front Page : ‘Cooperative farming in select villages’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 30, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

‘Cooperative farming in select villages’

Only where gram sabhas are willing to adapt to new system, says YSR

— PHOTO: P. V. Sivakumar

FARM ISSUES: Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy greets agriculture scientist M. S. Swaminathan in Hyderabad on Monday.

HYDERABAD: Amidst concerns expressed by the Opposition parties over farmers losing rights over their land, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy announced that the concept would be implemented in select villages where gram sabhas pass unanimous resolution expressing their willingness to adapt to the new system. Cooperative farming, with village as a unit, had been proposed in view of the highly fragmented land holdings in the State that were creating hurdles in extension of credit and technology for improving productivity to meet the ever-increasing demand. Dr. Reddy asserted that there was no involvement of corporates or big business houses in cooperative farming and the government would put in place all safeguards required to address the concerns over the new system.

“The issue has been thrown open for thinking by experts and other stakeholders and there is no finality as yet,” he said. The Chief Minister was responding to doubts raised by Opposition leader in the Legislative Council, Dadi Veerabhadra Rao, at the all-party meeting convened to discuss the proposal for cooperative farming here on Monday.

The all-party meeting was convened to elicit suggestions from political parties as well as experts in agriculture and allied activities before taking a final decision on implementation of cooperative farming. Experts led by eminent agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan welcomed the introduction of the new system, but warned the government to tread cautiously as it involved transfer of rights on land to societies.

Mr. Rao said past experiences of monopolistic practices in functioning of cooperatives were giving rise to fears about the interests of small and marginal farmers if the experiment failed.

Bt cotton seed

Lok Satta Party chief Jayaprakash Narayan said the concept envisaged by the government was likely to end in disaster as the ailments suffered by the sector had little to do with the size of the farms.

He pointed out that technology was scale neutral as was reflected in the Bt cotton seed experiment, but experts including Dr. Swaminathan set it aside.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page