STATE LEVEL CONSULTATION OF PUNJAB FOR FEEDBACK ON THE DRAFT NATIONAL POLICY FOR
6. Technology
i) Spurious Bt cotton should be checked and the SAU should help the farmers by releasing Bt varieties for increasing the productivity and income.
ii) Farmers should listen to the advice of KVKs and scientists as no revolution can take place through policy only.
iii) Bee keeping and Mushroom growers should be covered under the definition of the farmer and these activities should also be financed. Wolamite in bee keeping was similar to bird flu in poultry and attention be given to control in an effective manner.
iv) Environment and natural resources were precious but farmers committed mistake by over exploiting them. Therefore the policy should be area specific with emphasis on proper land utilisation and crop combinations to save precious resources and providing market with remunerative prices to the producer for various commodities.
v) There was an urgent need for contract servicing due to fragmentation of land since with small land holdings farmers can utilise only 25 per cent of the total capacity of the machinery available with them.
vi) Farmers were ready to go ahead with diversification but alternative crops must yield more or equal income to that from rice or wheat.
vii) Labour scarcity is a problem and there was a need for labour saving farm equipments.
viii) Bt vegetables were reported to be injurious for health. Europe and Canada had banned Bt vegetables. The SAU should ensure food safety of Bt. releases.
ix) Organic goods produced by the farmers fetched better price and income. This should be encouraged by the Government.
7. Credit & Insurance
i) Credit should be extended to women with the due share in the total credit allocated for agriculture.
ii) All interest dues should be waived as farmers were unable to service the interest.
iii) There was need to waive all the credit to the farmers, but this alone cannot solve all the problems of the farmers.
iv) Forty five per cent of the farmers were totally economically unviable and used credit for consumption because through agricultural activities from small piece of land as they cannot generate sufficient income to meet their basic needs.
Hence there was need to provide consumption loan without collateral security.
v) Kisan credit card must be provided to the farmers to check bribe at banks.
vi) Private money lenders have tried to build social and human relations with their customers. But this kind of behaviour was not observed in case of nationalised banks. Hence change in mindset of bankers is required.
vii) The interest rate should be reduced to 4%. How to pull out the farmers from indebtedness without giving more credit should be worked out.
viii) Instead of Block, individual farmer should be the unit on the basis of which insurance cover is given.
8. Market
i) Farmers experienced difficulties in marketing mushroom and other agriculture products.
ii) For diversification of crop, market was the biggest problem. Contract farming would not be effective unless the market prices were fixed.
iii) Better market facility be created where remunerative price was assured to the farmers.
iv) Niche market for crops like “Basmati” should be encouraged. Even organic
“Basmati” can be encouraged. “Basmati” should not be called as ‘Super Basmati’ as announced by some traders.
v) It was necessary to think about agriculture globally in the context of WTO.
Govt. should not abandon WTO. Zoning for different areas depending on strength/ weakness like grapes in Maharashtra should be done for improving global competitiveness.
vi) No MSP for crops like Sugarcane, Pulses etc. was available for the farmers.
MSP should be linked to wholesale price index. Procurement should be at market price higher than MSP and should be effected in time.
vii) Inadequate agro-processing capability was hindering diversification to oil seeds/pulses and other crops.
viii) Production of farm be planned and oriented as per market demand. In this context, food parks can prove effective.
ix) Level Playing field should be ensured in WTO regime. USA was giving high subsidy to agriculture compared to India. How can Indian product be competitive in international market should be indicated in the Policy.
x) Agricultural price and labour minimum wages were decided by Govt. of India. Pay Commission should also look into the living condition, income of farmers and suggest the minimum pay for the farmers also.
xi) Organic farming can give more yield and higher farm income as compared to the ongoing chemical Agriculture..
xii) Agriculture farming should be treated like enterprise, not as a way of life.
xiii) Farmer of Punjab could not transport surplus wheat outside due to stringent provisions in 9th Schedule of Essential Commodities Act. It had acted to the detriment of interest of the farmers in the past.
xiv) PM in his speech on 15.08.2006, mentioned that farmer must get appropriate remunerative price from the market. This must be implemented.
xv) Value addition to agriculture produce by farmers was discouraged. Provision of license for setting up rice mill/huller was cited as an example. Due to all these and lack of access to market, farmers had lost heavily. Hence all loans of farmers be waived.
xvi) When there was shortage in production, Government imports foodgrain at higher price – against the interest of farmers.
xvii) One TV/Radio channel exclusively for farmers should be commissioned both at the Central and State level.
xviii) In contract farming detailed guidelines should be specified to protect interest of farmers.