The Hindu : National : AICC plenary seeks review of farm strategy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 23, 2006

National

National

AICC plenary seeks review of farm strategy

W. Chandrakanth

Action plan calls for land reforms, social security for workers and more public investment

Hyderabad: The AICC plenary has suggested a comprehensive re-examination of the agricultural strategy to overcome problems plaguing the compounded agricultural economy growth.

A draft resolution on "Agriculture, employment & poverty alleviation through panchayati raj" stated that the Government should opt for beneficial intervention in favour of farmers, farm labour and the rural poor in general through participatory development and self-governance. Public investment in agriculture, irrigation and rural infrastructure should be enhanced to reflect the State's role.

The action plan suggested by the plenary covers land reforms, including computerisation of records at the village level, guaranteed maintenance, inspection and updating of land records and complete elimination of any residual traces of the zamindari system. The plenary sought full implementation of legislation relating to wages and social security for agri-labour from State funding.

Top priority

According top priority to the effective implementation of the National Employment Guarantee Act, the resolution said rural employment should go up at all costs.

Reiterating the Congress party's commitment to the farmers at a press conference earlier, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said the target for institutional credit to small farmers would reach new heights next year.

At present, the total credit to the farm sector stood at Rs.1.15 lakh crores because the UPA Government could achieve a 32 per cent growth over the earlier NDA regime lendings, which stood at Rs. 80,000 crores.

The target for 2005-06 was set at Rs.1.42 lakh crores to increase the security of the farmers to a large extent. Mr. Chidambaram said out of nearly 12-crore farmer families in the country, only four-crore families were receiving institutional credit now.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail