Farmers from the region have come out with a 10-point agenda for the new coalition government in the State to ensure the welfare of cultivators and mitigate agricultural distress.
The Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) and Hasiru Sene have sought to remind the Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy of his pre-election promise of a loan waiver. They sought an immediate announcement in this regard and the implementation of others measures as long-term solutions to the crisis plaguing the agricultural sector.
Adequate credit-flow
Badagalapura Nagendra, General Secretary, KRRS, said a loan waiver was not the only solution and the need of the hour was a comprehensive study of the reasons for the crisis and evolving of permanent solutions. This includes ensuring short-term institutional finance without interest to be made available to the farmers.
While ensuring timely and adequate credit-flow to farmers was one aspect, what was equally important was to enable the farmers to be financial strong to repay loans. This calls for special socio-economic and educational programmes to empower the rural community as a whole, said Mr. Nagendra.
Agro-based industries
Adopting a holistic view of the agrarian crisis, the KRRS called upon the new government to encourage agro-based industries that will propel the demand for agricultural produce besides shoring up their prices so as to help farmers by ensuring an assured market and an assured rate.
This, the KRRS hoped, would also reverse the rural-urban migration pattern and encourage more youth from the villages to stick to agriculture. The value-addition to agricultural produce will not only help farmers but also the industry and shore up economic conditions in rural areas, it added.
Tweaking policies
Drawing the attention of the Chief Minister to the problems faced by sugarcane cultivators, the KRRS and Hasiru Sene called for tweaking the existing policies to benefit farmers.
“The government should ensure higher procurement rates for cultivators besides ensuring that the farmers also have a share in the profits accrued by the companies by selling sugarcane by-products,” he said.
The KRRS and Hasiru Sene wanted the procurement price fixed by the Karnataka Agricultural Prices Commission (KAPC) legally binding, failing which farmers would be forced to trade at lower prices below the input cost and continue to incur losses.
Irrigation facilities
Extension of irrigation facilities in the Cauvery and Krishna basins, implementation of the pending small and medium irrigation projects across the State, conservation and replenishment of lakes and other waterbodies, measures to recharge the groundwater table, a comprehensive plan for increasing green cover, emphasis on organic and natural farming methods, encouragement to horticulture, etc., were other measures suggested by the farmers’ organisations for their collective welfare.
