The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Redefine farm dynamics: Minister

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Sunday, Oct 07, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

Redefine farm dynamics: Minister

Calls for farmer-friendly policies

Marginal farmers should benefit from technology development
Call to address States’ concerns while signing free trade agreements

Kochi: Minister for Agriculture Mullakkara Ratnakaran on Saturday called for redefining the relationship between farmers and market dealers.

Inaugurating a State-level workshop on comprehensive district agriculture plan organised by the Planning Commission, Planning Board and the Department of Agriculture, he said that the Union government’s polices on agriculture tended to be trader-friendly rather than farmer-friendly. As a result, farmers were not able to get remunerative prices for their produce.

He exhorted agriculture experts to formulate plans taking into account the realities faced by farmers and not to be influenced by the urban mindset.

He also said that more research should be undertaken in the field of agriculture so that the marginal farmer would be able to enjoy the technological progress.

He said that the newly developed technologies for making value-added products should be made available at a lesser cost to marginal farmers.

Presiding over the workshop, Prabhat Patnaik, Vice-Chairman, State Planning Board, said that State governments were not consulted when the Central government formulated various policies.

The Centre was very sensitive on this. He said that when the free trade agreements were concluded, the Central government never took into account the concerns of the State government.

Serious impact

The free trade agreements had very serous impact on the State. They had the potential of damaging the peasantry. The Centrally sponsored schemes should not be implemented on the dictates of the Central government, he said.

It would impinge on the right of the State. The implementation should be decentralised.

In fact, there had been a long-standing demand for decentralising Central government-sponsored schemes.

Creditable achievement

In his keynote address, Planning Commission member Ahijit Sen said that the State was ahead in formulating district agricultural plans.

The People’s Plan programme had done a lot in the social sector. However, it had not been able to do anything in the agriculture sector. It was the greatest weakness of the People’s Plan programme.

Minister for Food and Civil Supplies and Animal Husbandry C. Divakaran spoke. The workshop was attended among others by Teeka Rama Meena and Mridul Eapen, members of Planning Board, Anavoor Nagappan, president, Thiruvananthapuram district panchayat, K. Jayakumar, Agriculture Production Commissioner, M.V. Blakrishnan Master, president, Kasaragod district panchayat.

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