Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 03, 2008
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Online edition of India's National Newspaper Thursday, Jan 03, 2008 ePaper |
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Tamil Nadu
TIRUCHI: The country’s food security was at peril given the large-scale migration of farmers from rural to urban areas as agriculture was turning increasingly un-remunerative, said Devinder Sharma, who chairs the Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security, an independent organisation of agricultural scientists, economists and bio-technologists. The agriculture sector was facing a crisis and there was an urgent need to revitalise it. The focus must be on sustainable agriculture by turning back to traditional farm practices and steps to develop soil health as the Green Revolution has collapsed, he said speaking at a seminar on Indian Agro-Economic Scenario organised by the Farmers Forum of India and other farmers associations here on Saturday. Debt burden was forcing an increasing number of farmers to end their lives. This was the result of declining farm income. If given a choice, many farmers would abandon agriculture. There was a need to immediately provide farmers with assured income, based on their land holdings, he said. State executive president of the Farmers’ Forum of India D. Gurusamy; district president A. Nagarajan; president of Federation of Farmers’ Associations of Thanjavur and Nagai Arupathi Kalyanam and other farmers’ representatives attended the meeting. Raise MSPLater, in a resolution, the association expressed disappointment over the State Government’s failure to persuade the Centre to increase the minimum support price (MSP) for paddy to Rs.1,000 a quintal. Farmers would launch a non-cooperative movement and decline to pay taxes from January 31, 2008, if the MSP was not hiked by Pongal. The resolution also demanded that the MSP for paddy should be fixed at Rs.1,500 a quintal for the next season. A State- level coordination committee of farmers would be formed to carry on the struggle to press for the demand. On the crop damages caused by the recent rain, the meeting observed that at least Rs.500 crore would be required to compensate losses suffered by farmers. “Seek assistance”But, out of the Rs.1,510 crore of Central assistance sought by the State Government, only Rs.55 crore was meant for agriculture relief /crop damages. This would be totally inadequate and the State Government must get Rs.500 crore to compensate the farmers. Though the State Government sought assistance from the National Calamity Contingency Fund, only Rs.1800 crore had been allotted for the Fund in the Union Budget for the year. This was totally inadequate to meet demands from various States. The Centre should allot 50 per cent of the service tax revenue to the Fund, it demanded.
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