The Hindu : Centre needs to be more magnanimous: Patil

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 08, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Centre needs to be more magnanimous: Patil

Bangalore Jan. 7. The Minister for Agriculture, H.K. Patil, has urged the Centre to extend a special line of assistance to the State, which has been reeling under drought for the past three years.

Participating in the conference of State Agriculture Ministers on "Reforms in Agricultural Marketing and Land Policy for Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Rural Development" organised by the Union Agriculture Ministry in Delhi today, he said: "I am grateful to the Union Government for its continued support to the State Government for tackling the drought. However, I would like to emphasise that the Centre should extend its cooperation, financial and other support, more liberally to the State. The continuous drought has had a telling effect on the agricultural production and productivity and on the economic condition of the rural masses. Karnataka needs a special line of support to address these problems effectively."

Mr. Patil said an important measure that would help the farmers was futures trading and setting up of a forward trading exchanges. "Currently about seven crops are under the forward trading. There is a need for expanding the scope of forward trading for crops like cotton, paddy, groundnut, sunflower, sunflower, soyabean, maize, jowar, ragi, and red gram. Horticultural crops like chilli, garlic, onion, potato, mango, grapes, `sapota', apart from copra should also be brought under the umbrella of forward trading. Forward market exchanges should be set up in at least five to six locations in Karnataka to suit different crop zones," he said.

The Agriculture Minister, referring to the proposed reforms in agricultural marketing, said the issue that needed to be discussed in detail pertained to expanding the scope of private participation in marketing of agricultural produce. "Detailed deliberations should take place before we open this area to the private sector. In our anxiety to attract investments in agriculture marketing let us not attempt to dilute the existing mechanism to regulate marketing which in turn has safeguarded the farmers from exploitation over the years".

Mr. Patil said to enhance the income of farmers, value addition to the farm produce at every stage was essential and crucial. Therefore, facilities for pre-harvest, post-harvest, and processing must be created to add value to farm produce. "Our approach to marketing of farm produce should be to create a sellers market rather than a buyers market".

He said the banking sector should also bestow attention on providing loans to farmers at interest rates lower than those offered to other sectors. "Unfortunately, the banking system is leaning towards the haves rather than the have-nots in the lending policy. There is no perceptible reduction in the interest on farm loans while it had drastically reduced in the case of housing and motor vehicle loans," he said.

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