NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, MAR 31
Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday underlined the need for “much-needed” reforms in agriculture sector to improve the status of farmers and asked the governments to think beyond loan waivers, saying the farming community needs support in the form of infrastructure and power supply than just doles.
A radical shift in making agriculture profitable is the need of the hour.#agriculture pic.twitter.com/ur8KZ4rZ8k
— Vice President of India (@VPIndia) March 31, 2021
He also called for cooperative action to achieve this, and a dialogue with farmers and agricultural scientists to design a system that delivers tangible results to the farming community.
Expressing happiness over enterprising youth returning to villages and introducing advanced techniques in agriculture, the vice president said this is an encouraging trend and must be further accelerated.
He underscored that agri-entrepreneurship is an effective way to gainfully and sustainingly employ and leverage India”s demographic dividend.
Naidu also suggested top priority and coordinated action by both the Centre and the states to bring in reforms.
The vice president also suggested that the 4 Ps – Parliament, political leaders, policymakers and press – must proactively adopt a positive bias towards agriculture, an official statement said.
“In fact, a radical shift in making agriculture profitable is the need of the hour. We must also ensure that the growth is steady and sustainable,” he said.
He made these remarks at the release of a book on agriculture in India in Hyderabad.
Suggesting that the Centre and states should give a helping hand to farmers, he advised governments to think beyond loan waivers, the statement said. Farmers need timely and affordable credit, assured and quality power, infrastructure support like godowns and marketing facilities, more than just doles, Naidu remarked, according to the statement.
The vice president suggested that the problems that are holding back Indian farmers from realising their full potential must be identified, adding “we can’t continue with business as usual”.
Referring to key issues affecting agricultural productivity such as the decreasing size of land holdings, continued dependence on the monsoon, inadequate access to irrigation and lack of access to formal agricultural credit, he said “as a result of these factors, agriculture is not seen as a profitable venture”.
Naidu observed that many people are leaving agriculture and migrating to urban areas because it is not remunerative, because of rising input costs and unfavourable market conditions.
The vice-president called for long-term policy changes like governance and structural reforms to make agriculture viable.
Farmers to march to Parliament on foot in May: SKM
Announcing their plans for the upcoming two months, farmers, who have been protesting against the new farm laws at the Delhi borders, said they will march to the Parliament on foot in May, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha said on Wednesday.
“The Sanyukt Kisan Morcha met yesterday, and decided that the farmers will be undertaking a march to the Parliament. The date for the march is yet to be decided.
“It will be joined not just by farmers, but also by women, and unemployed individuals, and labourers who have been supporting the movement,” farmer leader Gurnaam Singh Chaduni said.
Addressing a press conference, he said that the march would be carried out in a “peaceful” manner, and special care would be taken that “what happened on January 26 is not repeated”.
The leaders also shared their plans of forming a committee to control protesters if there is police action in parliament march.
“We will form a committee to let the protestors know what to do in case there is police action during the march.
“It will also be made clear to them that SKM condemns all kinds of violence. So the protestors will know that if there is any damage of property by them, they will have to serve the penalty,” a farmer leader said.
Farmer leaders also announced their plans to block the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal expressway for 24 hours on April 10.
“We will be blocking the KMP expressway on April 10 for 24 hours, that is from 11 am on April 10 to 11 am on the next day.
“We will be doing this because the government has not been listening to us. It has been sleeping. This is to wake up the government,” another farmer leader said.
An event to honour the farmers who have lost their lives during the agitation will be organised on May 6.
“Soil from different parts of the country will be brought to these borders and a memorial will be created for all our brothers who have lost their lives while participating in this movement,” a farmer leader said.
Separate events will also be organised to commemorate Ambedkar Jayanti, and Labour Day.
Enacted in September, the three farm laws have been projected by the Centre as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove the middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country.
The protesting farmers, on the other hand, have expressed apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and do away with the “mandi” (wholesale market) system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.
