project on government explore farmer

8/14/2019 project on government explore farmer

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HOW GOVERNMENT EXPLOIT THE

FARMER

Submitted by: Submitted to:

Mr. kamaldeep singh

Rahul bedi

CERTIFICATE


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This is to certified that Rahul bedi students of BBA

(III) ,GNA-IMT. Phagwara ,has undergone this

project of How government exploit the farmer

under the supervision of MR. Kamaldeep singh

(subject teacher) and submitted satisfactory project

report during session 2008-11.

This report satisfies entire practical fulfillment

for the Punjab technical university examination.

In the sincere efforts of the student hard-work, this report satisfies the practical study of them

certified by Punjab technical university.

Teacher sign

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT


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We are heartily great-full to Mr. Kamaldeep singh. They

have always been an invaluable source of inspiration, hard

work, sincerity and dedication.

It gives me immerse pleasure in submitting this

project on how government explored the farmer. I have

developed this project from GNA-IMT.

I would like to express my sincere ineptness to my

project guide Mr. kamaldeep singh for his constant

guidance and valuable support during the project work.

Encouragement and excellent guidance in this successfulcompletion of the project work.

Rahul Bedi

Content

1) Introduction2) The main problems occur for farmer by

government.


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3) Burden of debt4) Loan access

5) Area and electricity problem

6) Problems being faced by the farmer : Discussion inParliament

7) Research Outputs, Problems and Solutions:8) Survey9) Conclusion10) Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

After 200 years of British rule .when the country got independence on15 Aug 1947 .it was semi-Feudal ,Backward ,stagnant & disIntigratedeconomy .agriculture was extremly backward &Britishers exploited toindian farmers.the britishers govt. compelled indian farmers to changeover from the production of food crops to the production of commercialof crops like ,cotten,jute,etc. as a result of the land revenue system,like


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zamindari system,adopted by the govt. the indian farmers were obligedto sell large part of their commercial crops in the local market and thesame was exported to england.in the eve of independence several factors conspired to keep the farmers

steeped in heavy indebtness . these were excessive burden of land-rent,fall in productivity of agriculture , uneconomic size of holdings,etc.according to an investigation by mpc associates ,a u.k retail and leisureconsultancy practice nearly 180000 indian farmers have commitedsuicide in the past decade as a result of exploitation by british.the increasing debt of farmers and also of small artisans has been a causeof suicide.

but now currently years,farmers also exploited by govt. . poor farmerscould not got harvesting techniques and also could not get real price of

production because of exploitation of govt.flood in A.P 18 lakh people ,400 villages effected. mostly villagers

people are farmers .they depend on agriculture.After flood farmers bearvery loss on agriculture but govt .take no strong steps .farmers are readyto do work on less salary.govt avoided thier.......

THE MAIN PROBLEMS OCCUR FOR FARMERS

By GOVERNMENT

New Delhi - India is in the grip of its worst agrarian crisis, witnessing unprecedented

farmer suicides, at the rate of one death on the farm every 30 minutes.

The rising costs of seeds, pesticides and fertilizers have pushed peasants into mounting

debts, and led untold thousands of them to commit suicide by drinking the same

pesticides that created their liabilities.

India which has 600 million people engaged in agriculture and allied activities, ushered

its green revolution in the late 1960s. It was apparent two decades later that chemical-


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intensive farming had resulted in increased costs of cultivation and far-reaching

environmental damages.

The loss of topsoil, a drastic decline in soil fertility and water tables owing to the use of

fertilizers, pesticides and genetically modified crops, should have made a compelling

case for scientists and policy makers to restructure Indian agriculture.

Instead, impoverished farmers plunged deeper into debt through trade distortions

brought on by the country's economic reforms and the plummeting price of produce

seen in the past 15 years.

By the government's own admission, over 100,000 farmers committed suicide in the last

decade in the four states of western Maharashtra, central Madhya Pradesh and

southern Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

But some farmers are now escaping the debt trap by returning to traditional low-cost

farming, enriching the soil with farmyard manure or compost, using indigenous seeds

and returning to biological pesticides such as nee tree oil and cow urine.

In Andhra Pradesh 300,000 farmers are reaping increased yields and earning better

incomes without genetically modified GM seeds and chemical pesticides, and using

local pest management techniques.

'Farmers who mortgaged their Ramachandrapuram village recovered the entire land by

repaying the debts, merely by stopping use of pesticides,' food and trade analyst

Devinder Sharma said.

'Over the last three years, over 700,000 acres in the state have turned pesticide-free or

organic. The programme is going strong, aiming to cover 1.2 million acres this year and

2.5 million acres in two years.'

There is evidence of such success in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region, notorious for an

estimated 30,000 suicides over the last decade.

About 11,000 farmers, including the worst-hit cotton growers from five villages, have

pledged to practice chemical-free ecological farming under an initiative by Navdanya, an

organization that pioneered the organic food movement in India.

An organic cotton project by textile manufacturer Arvind in 33 villages in Vidarbha's

Akola district claims there have been no suicides in the area since farmers started

avoiding chemicals and using indigenous seeds last year.


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Not counting farmers in several parts of India who never shifted from traditional

agriculture, an estimated 1 million farmers are estimated to have reverted to traditional

techniques over the past years, some 200,000 in the last five years.

But agriculture experts contend that the solution is not as simple as going back to the

basics.

One expert, KSRK Murthy, argued that organic agriculture cannot guarantee the high

productivity assured by synthetic fertilizers that is necessary to feed the growing

population.

Murthy said crop yields in organic farms ere up to 50 per cent less, and required big

quantities of organic manure and more land under cultivation, to produce the same

amount of food.

But Navdanya founder Vandana Shiva said that argument ignores the true hidden costs

of industrial agriculture.

'Traditional farming seems expensive because there is a 1-trillion-rupee government

subsidy for chemical fertilizers. Our experience has shown that organic farming can

yield up to three times as much food as conventional farming,' Shiva said.

The UN International Fund for Agricultural Development, which carried out a recent

study in Vidarbha, suggested to the Indian government explore organic farming for debt-

ridden farmers.

Shiva, who also chairs the independent International Committee for the Future of Food

and Agriculture, said organic farming raises consumer awareness of both food quality

and the link between climate change and agriculture.

'Industrial farming and unnecessary global trade in food is responsible for up to 40 per

cent of greenhouse gas emissions. Organic farming contributes to mitigation and

adaptation to climate change,' she said.


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'Such farming can help small farmers survive, increase farm productivity, repair decades

of environmental damage and lead to better food security. When chemical farming has

led to a total collapse, traditional and organic farming is the solution, the way of the

future.'

Small farmers of Marthadu village gather to speak about their burden ofdebts.

But of course Padmamma was weighed down by her own share of worries. Like mostother small farmers, she was deeply in debt. She was worried about her husband whoneeded treatment. Her daughters were married in simple ceremonies and had movedout, but her wage was hardly enough to keep the family going. She planted groundnuton her land in July last year and hoped that her harvest would help pay back a part ofher debt of Rs.30,000 to the local agricultural bank and to private moneylenders.Midway through the season, the groundnut crop was hit by bud necrosis, a disease thatwiped out a large part of the kharif crop in Anantapur last year. She sprayed her crops

with monocrotophosphate, the pesticide that the government had distributed free of costto groundnut farmers, but it made little difference. One evening Padmamma came homefrom work, and as usual went into her fields. As she surveyed her lifeless crops,something snapped in this once strong and resilient person. She drank the pesticidemeant for her crops and died in hospital a few hours later.

For G. Ramanjineyulu, a small farmer owning 5.5 acres of land from Jakkalcheruvuvillage, the breaking point came when his motor pump burned out under low voltageconditions. Its repair would have cost him another Rs.3,000, so when it happened,


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Ramanjineyulu, who had a shared loan of Rs.1,00,000 with his brothers from theagricultural bank, plus an individual loan of Rs.60,000 from the village moneylender,decided he could take it no more. He returned home and drank pesticide. A day laterAnita, his 12-year-old daughter, distraught with grief at her father's death, alsoconsumed the pesticide and died. "His motor died, his bullocks died, the bank peopleand moneylenders were pressuring him to repay, and there was no expectation of acrop," said Irojamma, a resident of the village.

Rami Reddy, Padmamma's husband, does not work. The debt burden now falls on himand his sons. He got just two bags of groundnut valued at Rs.2,000 from his harvest,after investing between Rs.5,000 and Rs.6,000 on the crop. After Padmamma's death,the family got nothing from the government in terms of either ex-gratia payment or helpin kind. Mangamma, Ramanjineyulu's wife, was sanctioned Rs.10,000 from the familybenefit scheme, although she has received only half that amount. The government isalso financing the construction of a small house for her in the village.

Devarlu Balanna and his wife, from Marthadu village

in Anantapur district, with the photograph of theirson Devarlu Rajanna, who committed suicide last

October.

These two were among a rash of 41 suicides, 18 ofthem by women, in Anantapur district over themonths of September, October and November of2000, by the consumption of monocrotophophate,according to figures released by the Anantapurdistrict administration. This particular pesticide was distributed by the districtadministration as an antidote for bud necrosis, a virulent disease that spreads throughinsects and kills the crops. In addition, there were nine attempted suicides by

monocrotophosphate poisoning. Of these two were by women. The administration'sreport does not ascribe all the deaths to problems of crop failure and indebtedness,although an independent investigation of such cases by Frontline in the villages ofJakkalcheruvu (Gooty mandal), Marthadu and Penakacherla (Garladinne mandal),Ammavarupetta (Bukkarayasamudram mandal), and Maruru (Rapthadu mandal)showed that it was indeed for these and related reasons that a majority of these deathsseemed to have occurred.

The official report, such as it is, does provide some insights into what happened. Tobegin with, all 50 suicides and attempted suicides were by monocrotophosphatepoisoning. Of the 41 suicides, 34 were by farmers (including 15 women) who ownedland, mostly unirrigated and between 1.5 and 10 acres in extent. The pesticide was

distributed by the district administration to families who either held or leased land(leasing land is a common practice in these parts). A majority of the farmers were indebt to agricultural banks and moneylenders. A majority of the women (16) who diedwere in the 15-30 age group, whereas a majority of the men (17) were between 21 and50 years.

The other feature of what appears to have been an epidemic of suicides is that but forone village where three members of a family committed suicide the same day, there is


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not more than one suicide in a village, and the villages are in mandals that are in manycases far removed from one another.

It was pressure from an alert and conscientious local press in Anantapur, thathighlighted each case of suicide soon after it occurred, that forced a discussion of theissue in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly. The district administration's report on the

deaths was a sequel to that. What therefore is now information in the public realm isthat 50 persons, a majority of them groundnut farmers with small holdings of unirrigatedland, and all of them in debt of varying magnitude, felt that death was preferable to thelife of acute hardship that they were living.

Padmamma (at right), photographed at the marriage she arranged of ayoung woman in the village. Padmamma committed suicide unable to copewith the debts she had accumulated, following the failure of the groundnut

crop.

While the spate of suicides peaked in October-November last year, theyhave not ceased. Cases of suicides continue to be reported in the media

from different parts of the district. In March, two cases of suicides werereported - one by 33-year-old Krishna Naik, a peasant from MariampallyTanda in Gumagatha mandal and the other by 40-year-old Lakshmidevifrom Siddiramapuram village in Bukkaraya-samudram mandal. Bothcommitted suicide owing to a burden of debt they could not repay. InApril three cases of suicides were reported: 35-year-old Lakshmamma ofKonduru village in Lepakshi mandal; 20-year-old Dadvali, a weaver fromSinganmala mandal headquarters, and 18-year-old Rama Devi of Bandameedapallivillage in Rapthadu mandal. Rama Devi reportedly killed herself when she lost her goldear-rings and was scolded by her parents for her "carelessness". Parents hadreportedly told her that they could not get her married because they were so deeply in

debt.Drought is the catch-all phrase that is used by the officialdom to explain awayagricultural distress. In fact, most farmers themselves readily accept this explanation.There is no question that Anantapur is a rainfall-deficient district, with an averageannual rainfall of 520.4 mm. It is the second lowest rainfall district in the country (afterBarmer in Rajasthan). In 2000, the average rainfall was 540 mm, well above theaverage. The previous year was one of acute rainfall scarcity with Anantapur receivingonly 360 mm. Yet the severe drought in 1999 did not drive cultivators to suicide. In fact,groundnut production in the kharif 2000 season (April 1 to September 30), despite theravages of bud necrosis, was 9 lakh tonnes, according to the district administration.(The Oilseeds Growers Federation estimated the production at 7.25 lakh tonnes.)

Compare this with the production of the 1999 kharif season which was just 3 lakhtonnes, and it becomes clear that drought and falling production alone do not explainthe phenomenon of suicides. Further, in Andhra Pradesh last year there were suicidesamong cotton farmers in Mahboobnagar district, and among tobacco growers in Gunturdistrict. Never in the past has there been such a situation.

The immediate reason for the suicides was a mounting burden of debt that the familiesconcerned could simply not hope to repay, added to a widespread sense of despairwhen the bud necrosis attack broke out. Underlying this was a web of factors, some


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specific to the groundnut economy, and others related to the impact of liberalisationpolicies on the larger agricultural environment.

Anantapur district has the largest acreage under groundnut in the country. Last year thekharif crop, which is entirely rainfed, was sown on 7,35,000 ha. "Bud necrosis was seenin August, a month after sowing," said T. Yellamanda Reddy, principal scientist at the

Agricultural Research Station in Anantapur. "The disease is present in sunflower and inroadside weeds, and spreads through insects." According to him, the disease causeddamage ranging from 1 per cent to 80 per cent of the standing crops in a particular field."In Anantapur, the average yield of groundnut is 1,100 kg a hectare, although yieldshere can go up to 2,000 kg a hectare. This year, however, the average yield was only850 kg a hectare," said Yellamanda Reddy. The disease also coincided with the first oftwo dry spells in August and September. Monocrotopho-sphate turned out to be totallyineffective, partly because it was used too late as the crop had already been hit by thesecond dry spell which lasted between 12 and 23 days in different parts of the district.The rabi crop (October 1 to March 31) is an irrigated one and has been sown on 20,000ha. According to Yellamanda Reddy this crop too has been affected, but to varyingdegrees in different areas.

The inherent risks of rainfed agriculture have increased with the rather dramatic rise inthe costs of cultivation. In Andhra Pradesh, power rates were hiked in 2000 pushing upcosts for the agricultural sector by 25 to 70 per cent, while the duration of power supplyfor agricultural operations was cut to nine hours a day. This is usually during night. Inactual fact, cultivators find that their borewell pumps work for just six hours at night.

Electricity, or the lack of it, both for agriculture and domestic use, was a major issue ofconcern among the farming families this correspondent met. In Jakkalchiravu village, agroup of small farmers said that yields have fallen substantially in the last two yearsbecause of power cuts. "From six to eight bags of groundnut per acre, we got just threebags this year. If our pump fails because of voltage fluctuations, then it costs another

Rs.4,000," said J. Narayanaswamy, who owns five acres of land. (A bag takes 40 kg.)Viramma, a farmer from Jakkalchiravu village, owns 3 acres of irrigated land. She spentRs.10,000 on the land, which included the cost of seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, powerand labour. "I have a 5 hp pump for my borewell," she said. "I pay Rs.260 a month forelectricity. Just before the increase in power costs, it was Rs.60 to 70, and nine yearsago it was only Rs.7."

Power is only one component of the cost of cultivation, which has seen a sharp rise inthe last two years. Fertilizer prices soared after their decontrol in the mid-1990s. "A 50kg a bag of DAP fertilizer in 1994 cost Rs.180. In 1999 it cost between Rs.480 andRs.520," said Vishwesh-wara Rao, a large farmer. Pesticide costs have also risen.When bud necrosis broke out last year, the district administration distributed

monocrotophosphate to the value of Rs.6 crores in the district. The dealers make akilling by selling Rs.36 crores worth of pesticides. "The cost of cultivation is in the regionof Rs.3,500 an acre (Rs.8750 a hectare)," said Vishweshwara Rao. "Because of the useof pesticides last year, it went up to Rs.4,000 and even up to Rs.4,500 an acre."

Seeds cost more too. With the breakdown of the government seed distribution centre,farmers are dependent on private seed dealers, and this has affected both the price andquality of seeds. There has also been a breakdown of institutional safety nets, such as


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the public distribution system, procurement support, crop compensation schemes andso on, which in the past may have softened the blow of agrarian crises.

By the middle of the kharif season, there were fears among farmers of the entire cropgetting wiped out. But this did not happen, as the overall production figures cited aboveshow. However, each farmer was carrying the debts of the previous drought year and

had borrowed yet again to invest in the kharif crop. But the worst was yet to come.When it came to the sale of their crop, they found that groundnut prices had crashed."From Rs.1,400 a quintal in October 1996, groundnut prices peaked in September 1998at Rs.1,700 a quintal." said Vishweshwara Reddy, district general secretary of theAndhra Pradesh Raitha Sangham. "This year prices fell from Rs.1,300 a quintal inSeptember 2000 to Rs.1,250 in October, and it is now Rs.1,150," he said. "Thegovernment declared a minimum support price of Rs.1,220 a quintal, but procurementhas been inadequate. Of the total kharif production of 7.25 lakh tonnes, procurementhas only been one lakh tonnes." The fall in the cultivated area and prices of oilseeds inIndia is the direct consequence of cheap edible oil imports (Frontline, February 2, 2001).As long as cheap imports continue, there is unlikely to be any price stabilisation forgroundnut.

MEANWHILE, debts among farming families are on the rise. A family's debt is typicallydivided between the bank and the moneylender. There is not a day when the Anantapuredition ofEenadu, a Telugu daily, does not carry notices of gold auctions. These noticeslist the names of farmers, the quantity of gold they have pledged, and the outstandingsums. A cause for consternation among the farming families this correspondent spoketo was the repeated notices that banks send defaulters, asking for repayment ofinterest, and threatening the attachment of land and other forms of property.

Bandi Naganna of Ammavaripetta village who attempted suicide,with his wife Lingamma and grandchild. He owes a bank Rs.1.5

lakhs.Take the case of Bandi Naganna, a small farmer owning 5 acresin Ammavarupetta village, who survived a suicide attempt thanksto timely hospitalisation. He took a long-term loan of Rs.1.5 lakhsfrom the agricultural bank four years ago, which has now becomeRs.2 lakhs. He has also taken Rs.10,000 from the moneylender atan interest of Rs.2 a month for every Rs.100 (which works out to24 per cent per annum). When his crop was affected by disease,he decided to kill himself.

There is Venkatarama Reddy, whose 18-year-old sisterThulasamma committed suicide. He has 4 acres of orchard land, and made 10 attempts

in vain to dig bores. Each attempt cost him Rs.8,000. He also leased 10 acres of land togrow groundnut and lost Rs. 20,000 in that venture. He owes Rs.40,000 to the Marurprimary agricultural society and has received several notices from it. In addition, heowes a moneylender Rs.20,000 at the standard private interest rate of 2 per cent amonth. "We had fixed a marriage for my sister but would have needed Rs.50,000 and atleast 10 tolas (one tola equals 10 grams) of gold to get her married," he said.Thulasamma committed suicide soon after the crop failed.


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On April 3, Narendra Reddy, a 26-year-old farmer from Kallapuram village in Pamadimandal, was brought to the Praja Vaidyashala hospital in Anantapur in a critical state ashe had consumed monocrotophosphate. Reddy had seven acres of land and had loansamounting to Rs.1.27 lakhs. His life was saved by Dr. M. Geyanand. It is ironic that thetimely medical attention he received, which saved his life, may actually increase hisdebt burden, as it will be a few months before he can get back to work.

The Anantapur District Cooperative Central Bank Ltd is the major agricultural bank inthe district. According to its president S. Suryanarayana, the bank gave short-termkharif loans amounting to Rs.56 crores in 2000, up from Rs.51.81 crores in 1999. Underits long-term lending scheme it has advanced Rs.17.28 crores in 1999-2000. "Ourrecovery rate for both short-term and long-term loans was just 30 per cent in 1999-

2000," said Suryanarayana. "We have recovered 18.45 per cent this year and we arerunning at a loss of Rs.19.9 crores."

The mood is one of despair and frustration among the groundnut farmers. Goodagricultural practices and favourable climatic conditions are no longer enough to ensurethe farmer an adequate livelihood. With an import regime that now exposes agricultureto the uncertainties of global trade, groundnut cultivation and the lives of four and a halflakh farmers dependent on it are precariously poised in rural Anantapur.

Loan access


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Difficulty in accessing the incentive loans have been due to a variety of reasons, one of which isthe inability to pay within a short period of time.

Many farmers are saddled with old debts at high interest rates, and are reluctant to take out newloans, particularly those with a four per cent interest rate.

Dr Le Van Banh, director of the Mekong Delta Rice Study Institution, said the Bank of VietNam should encourage commercial banks to reduce the interest rate of old loans and extend theloan payment terms.

Some of the items on the Governments list of goods that can be purchased are not available onthe market, and farmers would prefer to buy foreign-made equipment.

Combine harvesters made in Viet Nam, for example, are designed for the local topography, andare favoured by farmers. But they must wait up to four months for a new supply.

Chinese companies can supply farmers with a machine within three or four days after an order,Banh said.

Another problem facing farmers is the lack of receipts for their purchases, particularly for seeds,fertilisers and pesticides.

Sellers of these goods rarely issue receipts and farmers cannot present invoices to loan officers.

AREA AND ELECTRICITy PROBLEMNoshehra Dhalla (Indo-Pak Border), Aug.9 (ANI): India and Pakistan has a long stretchof border where a barbed wire works as a fence to prevent any militant from sneakingin. But the same wire is also a major roadblock for Punjabi farmers who want to tend totheir own land.

Resident farmers living in the few villages, situated just a few metres from the barbedfencing in the Attari and Ajnala sector, today rue the fact that the Punjab Government

has not taken their livelihood concerns into consideration.

These farmers are now unable to cultivate their land which is spread beyond fencing.

These farmers can cultivate their land but only with the permission of Border SecurityForce (BSF) and the other state department officials.

The villages namely Noshehra Dhalla, Bidhi Chand Chhina and Haveliayan, Kakkarhave more than 1500 acres of land beyond the fencing. But the non-issuance of


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tubewell connections by the electricity board prevents the farmers from cultivating theirland, say border farmers.

Farmers like Harbhajan Singh, who has 10 acres of land beyond fencing, allege thatsome of them have already deposited the fee while others are ready to deposit it. Butthe department has not provided them with the connections.

He adds that they are not allowed free access to their land and there are only selectentry points. Some farmers have to cover a distance of two to three kilometres to reachtheir fields.

Besides, farmers say that it felt like a double set back to them when the governmentstopped paying them rupees 2,500 as compensation money that was paid 10 years agothe last time.

Farmers say they are not even allowed to grow crops and have to depend on traditionalcrops, wheat and paddy.

Kuldeep Singh, who owns nearly 30 acres of land beyond the fencing, says heharvested sesame for 20 years. Now, he says the security personnel are not allowing

him to harvest the crop.He contends that the sesame crop can be cultivated even when there is a shortage ofwater.

The farmers have urged the government to either acquire their land across the barbedfencing or take their land on contract. The farmers today fear low produce due lesselectricity supply and a delayed monsoon.

Perturbed by the erratic electricity supply, Kehar Singh, the village head of NoshehraDhalla, pointed out that farmers who are keen to take labourers for cultivation, also faceharassment. A major portion of the land across the fencing is not utilized due many

hurdles including the non-friendly attitude of the electricity department.

But State electricity officials deny having wronged the farmers.

Rajiv Kumar, Chief Engineer, Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB), Border Zone, saidthat those who had applied before 1990 were given the connections and none of theapplications was pending in the border areas.

Kumar said that normally throughout the year the PSEB supplies electricity either

between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or 10a.m. to 5 a. m. according the availability of the electricity.

Kumar informed that in the coming five years, the PSEB would provide a transformer toeach tubewell.

He, however, assured that if he received the representation from the farmers he wouldtry to rectify their problems in a better manner.


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India had fenced the Punjab frontier in the early 1990s by erecting barbed wire alongthe Indio-Pak international border to keep terrorists and smugglers at bay.

The 553-kilometres-long international border between India and Pakistan, which has300 gates along the electrified barbed wire fencing in Punjab, also involves thousandsof acres of land of the Indian farmers.

Problems being faced by thefarmer : Discussion in Parliament

SHRI BASU DEB ACHARIA initiating the debate, said: We have seen as to how the

farmers in this country have been committing suicide. Palakkad, known as the `RiceBowl of Kerala, is now being termed as the `Death Bowl of Kerala. These suicide offarmers is a grim reflection of the situation as it is prevailing in the various States of thecountry. Within a span of one year, the prices of rubber, copra, arecanut and coffeeetc. went down by 50 per cent. Same is the case in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh,Haryana, Gujarat and Rajasthan.

Jute is one of the important agricultural produces of West Bengal. About forty lakhfamilies are dependent on jute in West Bengal. The farmers of West Bengal and Bihargot a very less price from the Government of India. The JCA and the CottonCorporation of India did not come forward to save the farmers from distress sale. Thesituation is grim everywhere in the country.The reason for all this is the removal of quantitiative restrictions by the Government ofIndia. Now the Government is allowing import of palm oil to help the industrialists at thecost of farmers. We were told that after the removing the Quantitative Restrictions,there will not be a substantial import of agricultural commodities.In spite of that agricultural commodities are being imported in our country continuously.

It has been mentioned at Doha that there is a need to reduce subsidies as well astariff. But nothing concrete has been decided at the meeting. The international priceshave been further reduced by subsidies. But our Prime Minister is asking our farmersto be competitive. How can our farmers be competitive, if the subsidy is reduced?

The total amount of subsidy given to agriculture in America is about 343 billion dolloarsas per the 1996 figures. Besides this, they get certain other inputs at very cheaperrates than the Indian farmers get. Import tariff is also very important because one ofthe conditionalities of WTO is that the developed countries should not only reduce theirsubsidy but also should reduce their import tariff. The situation is alarming and for thefirst time, last year, there was a negative growth.

The Government has also decided to stop procurement of foodgrains by the Food


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Corporation of India. Now, the procurement will be handed over to the private tradersand distribution of foodgrains to the people will be handed over to the StateGovernment and Public Distrubiton System will be dismantled. Due to the crisis in theagriculture sector, not only farmers are affected adversely but also the agriculture-based industries, like jute in West Bengal and Bihar. If the interests of the farmers are

ignored and neglected, this Government has no right to stay in power.After fifty-three years of Independence, the farmers who have made our country self-sufficient in foodgrains production are committing suicides. Due to the policies of theGovernment in regard to fertiliser and in regard to subsidy, the capital investment isreducing. In order to save this country and to save the farmers, this Government has toreverse the policies. Otherwise, they have to quit.

SHRI SAHIB SINGH: It is indeed true that the lot of farmer has not improved for thelast 54 years to the desirable extent. Every suicide by the farmers in any part of thecountry is a stigma on the country. Its a matter of shame for the country. It is my firmopinion that the farmers have not been paid remunerative prices ever since the countryhas got freedom.

The prices of inputs required for agriculture are increasing constantly. Thoughnumbers of measures have been taken, like introduction of crop insurance scheme, yetthe dissemination of the schemes have not been to desired extent. Hence, the farmersfail to take advantage of the schemes launched for their benefit.The share of agriclture in the GDP has been falling continuously.The situation is too miserable to describe. The land reforms are outdated in thepresent context. This has added to the difficulties of the farmers. Hence, theGovernment should come out with an appropriate policy in this regard. The situation issuch the first the farmers are evicted from their ownership of lands and then the cost ofland is determined and paid to them. The farmers have to pay commissions when they

go to sell their produce in the market.It is the farmer who works hard and a share of his earning is taken away by thebrokers. This aspect should also be looked into. All round development of the farmersliving in the villages is must. So long there are jobless people in a farmers house, thetendency to commit suicide can not be checked. They will continue to commit suicideand they may even resort to indulge into crimes.

On one hand, the farmers feed the country and on the other defend the country on theborders. Even after 54 years of independence, we have failed to make water availableto the people of the country.The farmers do not get electricity. We have to take certain measures in order to upholdthe dignity of farmers. We have to make provisions to pay the difference between themarket price and the minimum support price to the farmers.As long as the farmers are unaware of what crop they have to sow to get remunerativeprice, their misery will not be minimized. We have to make provisions to give subsidyto the farmers directly and do away with the practice of giving subsidy to the mills. Wehave to adopt our traditional methods to increase the fertility of soil and have to usebio-fertilizers and manures.


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Today, the farmers are migrating to the cities. This is because there are no health andeducation facilities in the rural areas. Unless the people from among the farmers arethere in the bureaucracy, the difficulties of farmers can not be mitigated. Hence, weshould make arrangement to provide health care, education and other facilities to thepeople living in the villages.

The country can not march forward unless the condition of farmers is improved. Thecountry would prosper only when the farmers make progress. No farmer would commitsuicide and there will be smile on the face of the farmers.

The farmers are not self-reliant even after 54 years of independence. Today, there isno parity between the market price and the minimum support price. We shall have tounite to provide justice to the farmers. The Government has given benefit to about onecrore of farmers by providing them credit cards. It is certainly a commendable act.An agriculture policy has been framed. Certain steps have been taken by theGovernment in different directions, but there is a need to do much more in this sector.The farmers are not well informed about the different types of farming. TheGovernment has launched several schemes for the farmers, workers and for theirchildren, but they have not benefited due to lack of information. Therefore, there is aneed to create a T.V. Channel on agriculture to make them aware about all theinformation in this field.

SHRI LAKSHMAN SINGH: An agriculture policy should be only for the benefit offarmers. We must protect the environment if we want to compete globally in the field offarming under WTO. We must conserve the water resources and suitable environmentshould be created, then only we will be able to overcome this problem.Today India stands in the competition after signing the WTO and to win thecompetition, we must give due attention to quality as well as to the quantity.

Nothing is being said about the cooperative farming by the Government to save smalland marginal farmers. Rather contract farming and corporate farming are beingencouraged.Today Cooperative is linked with agriculture. Agriculture and cooperative cannot beseparated. Several financial restrictions are being imposed on cooperative societiesand on the contrary, no such restrictions are being imposed on multinationalcompanies and the industrialists.The Government of Madhya Pradesh has sent a proposal of cooperative farming inrespect of small and medium farmers. Other State Governments might have also sentsuch proposals to the Government. The Government must consider these proposalsseriously so that cooperative farming can be encouraged.

Today, there is a serious problem of unemployment. There is a need to provideemployment to the educated unemployed children of a farmer in the villages. Somesort of training should also be imparted to them. Agro-clinics should be set up andcommunication kiosks should be opened at panchayat levels so that educatedunemployed youths can guide our farmers.

Today, crores of rupees are being deposited by agriculture markets in the exchequer.


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There are several such State Governments which are giving this money to the financialcorporations and through them big industrialists are getting that money bymanipulation and that money is never returned.A legislation should be enacted to check the misappropriation of this money. Today,there is a need to increase the agriculture production. Government should mount

pressure on the FAO. The nutritious produce of the country should be added to the listof FAO so that their export is enhanced. As a result, the country will be benefited.

The pulses production in the country has a specific importance. In the year 1951, theannual per capita availability of pulses was 70.6 kilograms which has now reduced to36 kilograms. Oilseed production came down from a high of 256 lakh tonnes to lessthan 188 lakh tonnes in the year 2000. India has achieved a self-sufficiency of 97 percent in the oilseeds production, which today is around 50 per cent or less, thus forcingus to buy massive quantities of edible oils from abroad. Indias imports of edible oilshave primarily shot up because of the great neglect of the Indian oilseeds sector by theGovernment of India by allowing imports of edible oil at very low duties, much againstthe interest of the oilseeds farmer. Oil import should immediately be stopped and theoil seed farmers of the country should be given protection.

There is a need to link aqua-culture with the cooperatives. This year we have exportedto the tune of 1300 million US dollars. This is a big achievement in the aqua-culturefield. Today, there is need to strengthen the ICAR.The Budgetary support given to ICAR is not sufficient. The budgetary support to ICARshould be increased from 1 per cent to 2 or 3 per cent so that ICAR can pursue furtherresearch. The environmental issue which is linked with agriculture has not been givendue consideration.There is a need to form community grain banks. Five hundred crore rupees were givento FCI under Sampoorn Gramin Yojana to distribute free grain. But there is no account

of this money. Is this the way to protect the farmers? If no change is brought about inthe policy, the farmers will continue to commit suicides despite having godowns full offoodgrains. We have a large potential for sugarcane production.Today, vehicles are being run on Gassohole. The Gassohole prepared by sugarcaneand maize will be utilised for the purpose. There is a possibility of setting up 30 sugarfactories in the Tawa Command area of Madhya Pradesh. It is possible, if licences areissued to this effect.

PROF. UMMAREDDY VENKATESWARLU: Agriculture today is steadily losing itscharm. It is a paradoxical situation. The farmer toils for building up the food grainreserves of the country and the same farmer is suffering today. Their misery has grownalong with the growth in foodgrain.Their problems have remained unsolved. Several negative factors have beendisturbing the economics of the farmers right from the unpredictable monsoon trends,unproductive soils, substandard seeds, adulterated fertilizers, spurious pesticides,deteriorating public investment in agriculture, fury of the nature, inadequate institutionalcredit, mounting indebtedness, unremunerative market mechanism, onslaught ofintermediaries, inadequate Government policies and above all the complicated WTOregulations which are not widely known to the farming community.


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Government have not made any attempt to educate the farmer, who is the primarytarget of the WTO, on the implications of WTO.

All these factors have collectively broken the backbone of the farmer while he is busybuilding the fortunes of the country with increased production of foodgrains. We will

have to search our hearts and see whether we are really doing justice to the farmerwho is toiling in the fields for the sake of the country.Farmers took care of the country in regard to food security, but successiveGovernments did not take care of the security of the farmer. The Members ofParliament from Andhra Pradesh have raised the issue in the Parliament. Thedecisions with regard to farmer should be timely, accurate and pro-farmers ones. Theyshould not be pro-traders.

The food Corporation of India this year has procured about 80 lakh tones of rice fromAndhra Pradesh and about 7 lakh tones of paddy this year during this particularseason. Now, for 80 lakh tonnes of rice, they have opened only 110 purchasingcenters. I do not know how far these are going to meet the target to procure the entirequantiy in time when they could not procure the whole quantity last year? AndhraPradesh is having godown space to the extent of 32 lakh tones. More than 17 lakhtones of para-boiled rice is lying in our godowns. We approached the Government sothat this rice is lifted. But it is not being done so far.I only urge upon this Government to do this immediately so that godown space will fallvacant and fresh stocks can be stored. Timely action to procure foodgrains is verymuch necessary. We have got other very important crops where the farmers havebeen suffering. Cotton is there, for example. Now, around 25 lakh tones of cotton isbeing imported. As a result of indiscriminate imports, the domestic producer issuffering a lot. As against the MSP of Rs.1350, cotton farmers in Andhra Pradesh aregetting about Rs.1100 only.

There is a need to have a practical look by which the market will stabilize and a levelplaying field can be created between imported cotton and the cotton produceddomestically. Andhra Pradesh, particularly Rayalsema district, is one such State wheregroundnut production is sizeable. Owing to the long spells of drought, per hectare yieldhas reduced to even fifty per cent of the normal production.I would request the FCI to relax the norms for procurement of groundnut. Publicinvestment in agriculture is going down Plan-after-Plan. The flow of institutional creditto Indian agriculture is very meager. As against 18 per cent stipulated by the RBI, it isaround 13 per cent.

SHRI N.N. KRISHNADAS: The Government is not at all honest and sincere in solvingthe burning issues concerning the farming community of the country. Even as we arediscussing and debating this matter, the situation is worsening. I come from Palghat ofKerala State. Palghat is known as the rice bowl of the State. While the prices of cashcrops and other crops are coming down the prices of agricultural products are goingup.The price of rubber has reduced up to Rs.28. The price of tyre is going up. The price ofcotton is coming down. The cotton clothes prices are going up.What happened in Doha? The Government says that they done the maximum in Doha.


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But I accuse that this Government has totally failed to protect the interests ofagriculturists of our country. We totally failed to mobilize the support of third worldcountries. Within WTO agreement there is a provision to increase the import duty oncertain agricultural products up to 300 per cent. But what happened? The import dutyon palmolein oil has been reduced from 75 per cent to 65 per cent. What is the

difficulty in increasing the import duty on palmolein oil to 200 per cent?

Almost a year back, hon. Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, declared a specialpackage for Kerala. But till date not even a single step has been taken to implementeven one of the proposals of the special package. Very recently, last monsoon, anatural calamity occurred in Kerala.The Government of Kerala has estimated the loss at Rs.500 crore approximately there.We have made a request to the Union Government in this regard. The Chief Minister,Shri A.K. Antony met the hon. Prime Minister and all the other concerned Ministers.Shri A.K. Antony was satisfied with all these meetings. But till this date not even asingle paisa has been released to deal with this natural calamity.A holistic approach should be taken to deal with the farmers problems. TheGovernment has declared the minimum support price for copra this year very late. TheUnion Government asked NAFED to procure six oil seeds, including copra. But theallocation made for this procurement was barely Rs. 161 crore. Still the outstandingdues against last years procurement of copra and other oil seeds stand at Rs.400crore. I fail to understand as to why the Government declares procurement of copraand other oil seeds and does not release sufficient money for the same.

I demand from the Union Government to raise the import duty on palm oil at least up to200 per cent, ask the STC to procure rubber and give access for its export, declare inproper time the minimum support price for copra and start procuring copra in time. Iknow that the hon.

Agriculture Minister has asked NAFED to procure copra. But nothing has happened inthis regard. Four years back the real price per one coconut was Rs.6, but now it standsat Rs.1.5. How do you expect the farming community to survive in this country? Wehave been expressing our concern for the farming community of our countryrelentlessly, but the situation is going from bad to worse. I demand from the UnionGovernment to implement the special package for Kerala and save the farmingcommunity of Kerala.

KUNWAR AKHILESH SINGH: The farmers of the country have not only made it selfreliant in the field of foodgrains but also made it exporter of foodgrains sinceindependence. But the condition of the farmers has worsened during hese years. Invarious states of the country the farmers are committing suicide.The questions is why the farmers are resorting to commit suicide. The cost ofproduction of agriculture items has increased which affects their production. Thefarmers are not getting the remunerative prices of the products. There is a big gapbetween cost and market price of products.Today the situation is that the farmers are not getting the cost of their produce. Howmuch quantity the Government is procuring at the minimum support price which isfixed by the Government itself.


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The Government has fixed the support price of rice Rs.530. In Uttar Pradesh and Biharthe rice is not being procured at minimum support price by any procurement centre.The middlemen and traders are procuring rice from the farmers at the rate of Rs.350and Rs.375 per quintal. The farmers are selling rice at this rate because theGovernment procurement centres are not procuring rice at minimum support price.

It is a fact that no Government can procure the entire production. How the farmers beprotected from this problem. There is one option for this that cost of production ofagriculture should be reduced and production should be increased. The farmers shouldbe provided facilities to compete in international market. The European countries arecontinuously increasing subsidy for agriculture. We should also act in this direction.Our country and other developing countries are facing the restrictions imposed by theWTO. We have to provide more subsidy to the farmers to face this situation.

In the recent past the Food Minister said that the Government is not going to procurerice from procurement agencies directly but it would try to pay the difference betweensupport price and market price to the farmers. I have to say in this regard that in Biharand in Eastern and Central U.P. the farmers have sold rice to middlemen and tradersat the rate of Rs.3 and Rs.3.50 to meet their needs.The farmers of Uttar Pradesh have suffered a loss of Rs.15,000 crore. The target ofprocurement of rice fixed by the Government is to be achieved through the samemiddlemen. The farmers are not going to get any benefit. How the Government isgoing to made good of this loss of Rs.15,000 crore.

The Eastern U.P. and Bihar are facing devastation due to floods. The Crop InsuranceScheme has not been implemented so far. The Eastern U.P. and Bihar have sufferedloss of billions of rupees due to floods but the Government has not made a provision ofa single rupee to meet the loss.The Government itself is admitting this point. In Eastern U.P. and in Bihar all sugar

mills are lying closed. The Government had admitted that it does not have capital formaking investment in agriculture sector but it is continuously investing in other sectors.

Honble Prime Minister had said in this very House that we should switch over tovegetable and fruits from traditional farming.Paddy and wheat are most viable crops for farmers. When you are not able to provideprotection to these crops and support price to them, how you will be able to procurevegetables or fruits which start rotting within 24 to 72 hours. In such a situation, therewill be no option left with farmers except begging.If you suggest any alternative it should be positive one so that farmers are givenprotection. In 1998, when Gorakhpur was affected by flood Prime Minister visitedthere. There he had said that a concrete action plan would be formulated and farmersand people of the area will get rid of flood forever. But three years have gone by andpeople of Eastern U.P. and Bihar are still suffering from flood.

Today, the Government should seriously consider the anger prevailing among thefarmers. In order to reduce cost, subsidy should be given directly to the farmers. Thiswill give them more benefit and they will be able to produce more and compete in theinternational market. Farmers of Bihar, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have


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suffered loss and they should be compensated by the Union Government.

DR. JASWANT SINGH YADAV : Hon. Prime Minister has done commendable work byproviding credit card to farmers and introducing Crop Insurance Scheme. The crop ofmillet has suffered a lot in Rajasthan.

The Government of India provided money to Rajasthan Government but it has notprocured the crop of millet. It refused to procure the crop on the plea that the quality ofmillet was not good. We are talking about the interest of the farmers but farmers inRajasthan itself have suffered a lot. The crop of cotton as well as onion has got ruinedthere. We all know that the Union Government can not reduce thecost but the State Government can do so. New technology and seeds of high qualityshould be introduced in the agriculture.Today it is necessary to protect the interest of farmer. Farmers do not get appropriatereturn. We all should try to improve the conditions of farmers.

SHRI V.M. SUDHEERAN: I strongly feel that the Doha Summit has caused moreproblems and more difficulties to the farming community. So, WTO situation has to bediscussed in depth and all aspects have to come to the House very strongly, otherwisewe should not surrender ourselves to the interests of the foreign countries. We allagree that the backbone of the Indian society has been the farmers.We have been receiving reports through different parts of India including my own StateKerala, where farmers are committing suicides. Most of the agricultural commodities inour country, as a whole, and especially in Kerala, have been facing acute price fall. Asa result of this, the farmers are under severe financial stress and are not in a positionto repay the loans taken from banks and other financial institutions.It is highly protestable to note that even after the declaration of minimum price fornatural rubber, the price is far below the notified minimum price. Though the UnionGovernment had declared the support price for copra, NAFED has not entered the

market for procurement of copra so far.The plantation sector in Kerala especially coffee, tea, arecanut, etc., faces seriouscrisis due to decline in the prices of these commodities. Paddy cultivation is also on theverge of extinction as the cultivation has become uneconomical. Apart from this, theintermittent natural calamities also made the life of farmers extremely miserable. Maybe on consideration of political advantage, the Central Government has shownextreme generosity to certain States whereas Kerala has been totally ignored.I place on record the strong protest of the people of Kerala against the indifferentattitude of the Union Government. Skin deep measures will not solve theunprecedented serious situation being faced by the farming community.There should be national policy and a farmer-friendly approach to face the situationand save the farmers. Mere lip service will not do anything. So, let us find out theresources from various quarters and set up a National Farmers Fund to help thefarmers in their interest and for their existence. Steps may be urgently taken for theinclusion of natural rubber and coir as agricultural commodities under the WTOAgreement on Agriculture. Import of natural rubber to India should not be permitted.The tyre manufacturers may be asked to procure natural rubber ensuring declaredMinimum Support Price to the growers. NAFED may be asked to procure Copraimmediately. Steps may also be taken to ensure that the benefits of procurement


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reaches the real growers. Steps may also be taken to restrict the import of palm oil andthe import duty of palm oil should be increased. Now the tariff rate and the import dutyof the palm oil has been reduced against the interest of the farmers of our country.The people are totally disappointed and frustrated and they are protesting tooth andnail against this decision. The bilateral agreement between India and Sri Lanka has

adversely affected some of our agricultural products. Steps must be taken to increasethe basic customs duty of edible oil. Substantial help may be provided for the re-construction and rehabilitation of the plantation sector. Financial assistance should begiven for supporting paddy cultivation in this country.The floor price for coffee, pepper etc. should be declared and this should be procuredby the system as has been devised by NAFED. The Government has withdrawnsubsidy on diesel, fertilizer, pesticides and on other agricultural inputs. As a result ofthis, the price of diesel has increased from rupees five per litre to Rs.17 per litre.Similarly, the prices of LPG, fertilizer and other agricultural inputs have risen sharply.The wrong policies of the Government are responsible for the suicides of farmers. Thatis against the interest of our country.I would request the Government to come forward with some drastic and concretemeasures to save the farmers.

SHRI RAGHUNATH JHA: Last year the plight of farmers was discussed in the Housebut of no use. Last year FCI had cheated the farmers of Bihar. Today the farmers andlabourers are in very miserable condition in the country.Honble Minister has made a statement that Paddy will not be procured in Bihar, onlyrice will be procured. You yourself know that there is no rice mill in Bihar thenwherefrom you will procure rice. When Bihar was being divided, we demanded for aspecial package.At that time the honble Minister of Home Affairs had very generously announced thatthey were well acquainted with the situation in Bihar. We suffer losses every year from

the floods in rivers originating from Nepal.Every year land erosion takes place from Farakka to Pahalgaon by Ganges river. TheUnion Government have not done anything to help them. The Union Government haveset up new sugar mills in other states but not even a single factory has been set up inBihar.Our Jute industry is closed. Today sugarcane farmers are facing problem of sendingtheir produce to sugar mills. When factories were set up in other states, why they werenot set up in Bihar. We produce mango, Litchi, Makhana in our area. Arrangementsshould be made for cargo.In this situation the farmers need assistance of the Government. Why were the farmersnot provided with credit cards? If this discrimination with farmers continues, we willhave to reconsider about the continuance of our support to Government. Relief andassistance is provided to other areas if these become victim of national calamity butthis is not done in the case of Bihar.

DR. RAGHUVANSH PRASAD SINGH: The farmers of entire country are suffering andcommitting suicide. This situation prevails in every State of the country. Almost all theparties had demanded in this House for the constitution of a Standing Committee forsolution of the problems of the farmers because their problems are related to 18


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departments.

The Government claims that the condition of the farmers has improved but if it so, whyare they committing suicide? Who is putting hurdle on the way of constitution of thesaid Committee?

The farmers in Bihar are doubly sufferers.They are being discriminated. In this situation, how the farmers of the country canbecome self-sufficient? When the present Government came to power, it announced toachieve the goal of hundred per cent increase in agricultural production during the next10 years but the fact is that the production has decreased by 3 per cent.In India, 16 crore families have been covered by Public Distribution System. TheGovernment fixed the price of wheat at Rs.9 per kg. for 10 crore families living abovepoverty line. But this wheat could not be sold. Moreover, after decreasing the price upto Rs.6,10 per kg, there is not taker of wheat.The price of wheat for BPL families was fixed at Rs.4.50 per kg, even then nobody ispurchasing it. I would like to know as to how much money has been spent on thestorage and maintenance of six crore tonnes of wheat. Perhaps, the Government

would have incurred less expenditure on the distribution same quantity of wheat. Onthe one hand, the poor are starving for want of foodgrains and on the other hand, it isperishing.The Annapoorna Yojana launched by Government has failed totally. The Governmentis not even procuring the foodgrains.In Ninth Five Year Plan, the Government incurred an expenditure of Rs.5 thousandcrore but the share of Bihar was only Rs.55 crore and the actual fund received byBihar was merely 25 crore. Not a single penny was given to Bihar to meet the problemcaused by floods and droughts. I would like to know why the milk from Patna is beingtransported to Delhi? Why it is not being sent to Calcutta? What vested interest hasinspired the Government to do this? The Government should pay attention to all these

points.

SHRI PRAHLAD SINGH PATEL : The Government should seriously consider theproblems, like storage of crop and its sale, being faced by the farmers today. Duringthe last session, I had raised an issue regarding creation of a T.V. channel onagriculture. But, I do not understand if there is any effort being made in this direction.At present, the farmers do not get power or diesel. My area, Nasirpur is the largestfertile area in Asia, but the ground level of the water has gone down there.This Government deserve congratulation for increasing the minimum support price, butthe farmers are getting a support price not more than Rs. 360 to Rs. 362 instead ofdeclared support price of Rs. 522 to Rs. 540. The farmer has a large stock of grainlying at his disposal, but it is not selling in the market. Besides, interest at higher rate isalso being recovered from him.As a result, the farmer is compelled to commit suicide. On the one hand, the farmergrows paddy, but on the other hand, rice mills and traders purchase the same paddy atlower rates and sell rice instead. Moreover, the traders keep good quality of paddy withthem and they do not give due price to the farmers.Under the changed circumstances, we need to maintain some sort of communicationchannel with the farmers. If we are sincere about the welfare of the farmers, we should


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create a T.V. channel on agriculture soon.

Research Outputs, Problems andSolutions:Poormarketaccess is a major problem in poor rural economies. Farmerorganisations (FOs) are potentially important means for addressing critical problemsof market coordination and access and hence for stimulating supply chaindevelopment and economic growth and poverty reduction in poor rural areas.Experience with FOs is, however, very mixed as regards their sustainability andeffectiveness. Examples of success in some areas and activities suggest that it may bepossible for FOs to extend their scope, reach and effectiveness to include support for awider range of crops and farmers in more difficult areas. However, this requires betterunderstanding of the nature of the problems faced by FOs, and of necessary andsufficient conditions for their success, so that organisations working with FOs can

identify opportunities for sustainable pro-poor development of FOs, implement bestpractice to support such development, develop appropriate institutional innovationsand work for an enabling policy environment.

Outputs from the project over the period 2003-2005 include: Identification anddocumentation of elements determining success and failure of FOs.

Development and communication oforganisational lessons for the creation andsustenance of FOs.Development and communication ofpolicy lessons for thecreation and sustenance of FOs.

A database of Malawian organizations supporting farmer organizations, detailing theirinterests and resources FOs, NGOs, private sector and government agencies

concerned with agricultural production and marketing and with rural welfare betterinformed about the potential, limitations, challenges, opportunities and best practice inthe establishment and operation of FOs and in their relationships with them. Improvednetworking and coordination between Malawian NGOs, private sector and governmentagencies concerned with FOs, agricultural production and marketing and with ruralwelfare.

Engagement with stakeholders and promotion of outputs has been achieved through incountry stakeholder workshops, a newsletter, briefing papers published in Malawi andinternationally, a database of Malawian and international resources for FarmerOrganisations, and on ongoing engagement with stakeholders working in and withFarmer Organisations in the smallholder tea and cotton sectors in Malawi.


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QUESTION.1. GOVERNMENT TAKE ANY

STEP AGAINT THE HIGH COST LOANINTEREST ?


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A.AGREE 60%B.DISAGREE 30%

c. neither agree nor disagree10%

Question.2. agriculture doctor provideknowledge about the new seeds to the

farmer during time to time.

A.AGREE 20%B.DISAGREE 70%c. neither agree nor disagree10%

QUESTION .3. government give any


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explaination about the new policies tothe farmer?


Question.4. government take step tomaintain the cost of pesticides and

fertilizer ?



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Question.5. suicides cases increases dayby day due to loan access or otherproblems.


Question.6.goverment set up new plan to

make economy better for farmer.



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Question.7.government provide waterfacilities to the farmer is necessary troughelectricity.

A.AGREE

85%B.DISAGREE 10%c. neither agree nor disagree05%

Question.8.when we see last year status ,what do you think government are givingproper rate feedback to the farmer.



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Question.9.government should know aboutthe capacity of the soil per year to increasethe production of crop.


Question.10.you satisfy with the governmentcurrent policies means they provide all plansto make better the condition of farmer.



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Question.11. if your crop destroyed by anycase then government provide you any kindof insurance facilities .


Question.12. farmer think that high breed areusing to increase the production of crop.



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Question.13. government are making newpolicies to reduce the investment of moneyon the crop.


Conclusion

Under this project we have found various kind of


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difficulties seen by farmer. We detected most problemoccur for farmer through government. There are manyplans started by government for farmer benefit but

mostly plan fail because of misunderstanding b/w farmerand government. One main reason for failing the plan isuneducated farmer. The other reason of failing theseplans that the government do not give any explanationabout the new plan or policies to the farmer. If we wantto success the policies then both the government and thefarmer have good understanding b/w them.

bibliography

www.google.com

http://www.actionaid.org/kenya/index.aspx?PageID=%203594
http://www.google.com/http://www.actionaid.org/kenya/index.asphttp://www.actionaid.org/kenya/index.asphttp://www.google.com/


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http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/nov/agr-cidetrail.htm

http://fbae.org/2009/FBAE/website/false-propaganda_the_tragedy_of_farmers_suicides_in_india%20.html

http://www.ncap.res.in/upload_files/works

hop/wsp1/chapter2.htm

http://hindustan.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-3298.html

www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/2005/07/seeds_of_suicid.html
http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/nov/aghttp://fbae.org/2009/FBAE/website/false-propaganda_the_tragedy_of_farmers_suichttp://fbae.org/2009/FBAE/website/false-propaganda_the_tragedy_of_farmers_suichttp://www.ncap.res.in/upload_files/workshttp://hindustan.org/forum/archive/indexhttp://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/2005/0http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/nov/aghttp://fbae.org/2009/FBAE/website/false-propaganda_the_tragedy_of_farmers_suichttp://fbae.org/2009/FBAE/website/false-propaganda_the_tragedy_of_farmers_suichttp://www.ncap.res.in/upload_files/workshttp://hindustan.org/forum/archive/indexhttp://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/2005/0

project on government explore farmer

Documents

Transcript of project on government explore farmer