Sustainable livelihood for farmers should the focal point of reforms in the agriculture sector, said farmer rights activist Kuruganti Kavitha.
The agriculture sector certainly needs reforms that are country-specific to ensure a decent return for the growers, who now find the going tough and end up displaced from agriculture, but not getting absorbed either in the industry or service sectors in the absence of adequate job opportunities at a time when the size of landholdings is shrinking at an alarming rate, feels the founder convenor of Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture. As a result, the growers are reduced to mere farm labourers, she observed in a conversation with The Hindu .
Advocating bottom-up strategy as against the top-down approach mooted by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre through the three controversial farm laws, she says policy makers should take note of diversity, the main character of the farm sector, including production systems and that of markets, and evolve farmer-centric policies to ensure a dignified livelihoods for not just farmers but also for a large number of farm workers, a majority of them women and tenants who till the land.
Remunerative price for farm produce had remained elusive for farmers for long, thanks to consumer-centric approach of the successive governments for several decades, and it was time the growers were given their due. The onus was on the government to legalise the MSP regime and ensure that the ryots were paid the difference between MSP and prices realised by them, she emphasised.
Reforms should be initiated to eliminate middlemen in agri-products trade, investments stepped up in Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and the mandi system should be strengthened, she feels. In this context, she called for replication of ‘Rythu Bazaars’ in twin Telugu-speaking States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and ‘Uzhavar Santhais’ in Tamil Nadu elsewhere in the country.
Farmers who stored their produce in cold storage units expecting the prices to improve in the future quite often end up incurring heavy losses when the market goes southwards. They should be given the right of forfeiture of their stored produce and compensated by the government by providing MSP plus interest on warehouse charges, she feels.
There should be no adhocism when it comes to EXIM policy, which should in fact encourage import substitution by providing incentives to the growers of crops such oilseeds and pulses to save foreign exchange.
The cost of cultivation could be reduced by adopting best agro-ecology practices and eschewing excessive use of chemical fertilizers which has proven to be a bane for farmers, she added.
Published - December 25, 2021 12:17 am IST
