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The agrarian crisis

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Vidharbha was significant as it helped him get a firsthand account of the agrarian crisis. It is clear that the crisis in the farming sector is mainly due to two reasons — escalating cost of inputs and falling prices of agricultural produce. Both have become acute in the last 10 years. Introduction of newer technologies such as genetic engineering, and trade liberalisation will only intensify the problem as seen in the case of cotton farmers. The Government should take steps to reduce the cost of production and the agriculture policy should be directed towards developing locality-specific technologies and practices.

S. Usha,
Thiruvananthapuram

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Poet Allama Iqbal once said if a farmer goes without food, we should destroy the world. We talk of nothing short of sending a mission to the moon. But farmers who produce food for the country live in abject poverty. For them jazzy automobiles and malls mean nothing. Dr. Singh's high-profile visit and the media hype over it will not help them overcome their problems. The Government should undertake long-term measures wholeheartedly to help them.

Syed Hasan Kazim,
Muzaffarpur, Bihar

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Farmer suicides in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Kerala catapulted the agrarian crisis to the national scene. The Hindu deserves praise for creating an awareness on the issue through its reports by committed journalists. Neither the plights of farmers nor the Prime Minister's Vidharbha visit got reasonable space in most of the media.

Siby Augustine,
Mangalore

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