As the Lok Sabha elections are round the corner, the Consortium of Indian Farmers’ Associations (CIFA) has urged the political parties to give a promise to the farming community to the effect that they would get a say in policy formulation, and planning and implementation of the farm-related programmes.
To start with farmers should get representation in the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, said R. Vriddhagiri, State general secretary of the CIFA. The CIFA at its general body meeting held recently here passed a resolution in this regard. It alleged that owing to the apathy of the rulers and the political class the plight of the farmers remained unmitigated. Unlike any other sector the farming sector was devoid of any power to fix prices for their produce.
The farming community was at the mercy of the vicissitudes of nature such as floods, drought and other natural disasters which used to have heavy toll on farm yield and their livelihood.
Unremunerative prices and wrong import and export policies of the government too had driven the farmers to commit suicides.
Farm budgetIt was estimated that on an average about 30,000 farmers commit suicide, thousands migrate to other places in search of livelihood. The CIFA expressed the view that if such sordid affairs were to be reversed the Centre should bring out a separate budget for agriculture as in the case of the railways.
It should also remove agriculture from the State List and incorporate it in the Concurrent List. It suggested using of manpower deployed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme for increasing farm production.
It felt that formation of a national water way and giving priority to linking of the rivers and putting up a mechanism for amicable resolution of disputes relating to sharing of river waters would give a fillip to agriculture. The CIFA called for revision of the Minimum Support Prices on the lines of the formula advocated by the National Commission on Farmers.
The panel suggested a profit margin of 50% over and above the production cost.
Expressing abhorrence about the introduction of the genetically modified seeds the CIFA called for 40 per cent grant to promote nature farming. Ethanol mixing in fuel should be raised to 25 per cent and permission must be granted to produce ethanol from sugar syrup as was being done in Brazil, besides extracting ethanol from other sources such as tapioca, maize and molasses.
The CIFA sought bank loans for farm sector at 4 per cent interest rate and writing off the loans of the farmers affected by cyclones “Thane” and “Neelam” and sanctioning of fresh loans to them.
It urged the government to abandon the coal bed methane production project to safeguard the livelihood of the Cauvery delta farmers.
The GAIL pipeline should not cut across the farm land but instead it should run along the roadside. The CIFA also sought pension for the farming community, including women who have completed 55 years and men who crossed 60 years.
