With only two days left for the presentation of the state budget, farmers on Wednesday demanded that the government should ensure them guaranteed incomes by setting up a farmers’ income guarantee commission.
But differing from them in terms of approach, the experts advocated the need to consider farmers as a “special social category” on the lines of oppressed sections like Dalits and backward classes so that they too would get support from the government for their welfare including reservation in jobs and education.
The views in this regard were expressed at a seminar on “farmers and budget” organised by the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) and Hasiru Sene here.
Expressing concern over the plight of farmers, KRRS President Kodihalli Chandrashekhar alleged that both the State and the Union governments were looking at the agriculture sector only from the point of food security of the country. “They look at farmers merely as producers of food crops who can tackle food security. But farmers too have their own lives as well as dreams. But the governments have never bothered to care for the welfare of farmers,” he alleged.
He felt that constitution of the income guarantee commission would go a long way in helping farmers. Alleging that the budget of the NDA government at the Centre had ignored agriculture sector and focussed only on corporate welfare, he said the farmers were now looking forward to some support from the state budget to be presented by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
He wondered how could the Centre claim that the country was marching forward when 65 per cent of people living in rural areas had been left out of development process.
However Economist Abdul Aziz maintained that it was better to consider farmers as a deprived social category like Dalits and extend various measures for their welfare. He was of the view that income guarantee proposal may not be a practical one.
University of Agricultural Sciences-Bengaluru Vice-chancellor H. Shivanna assured farmers of holding an exclusive meeting with their representatives to elicit their views on what needed to be done for them and conveying them to the government.
Dairy expert Dr. G.N.S. Reddy and Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture representative Kavitha Kuruganti also spoke.
