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‘Farm sector holds key to development’

Focus on farm crisis: P. Sadasivan Pillai, president of the Bank Employees Federation of India, inaugurating a seminar in Kozhikode on Friday

KOZHIKODE: The urgent need to address problems in the agriculture sector was underlined at a seminar on ‘Agriculture Crisis and Paradigm Shift in Credit Policy’ organised by the Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) at Kozhikode Town Hall on Friday.

Speaking at the function, K. Nagaraj of Madras Institute of Development of Studies remarked that sufficient attention was not being given to problems in the farm sector even though it had been acknowledged by all concerned that the sector was in the grip of a serious crisis.

He did not agree with the view that the crisis was because globalisation and liberalisation had not yet had the desired impact on the sector unlike on the industrial and service sectors, which had registered impressive growth in recent years.

Emphasising the need for ensuring growth in the farm sector, Mr. Nagaraj said it was vital to the health of the nation’s economy since a major chunk of the workforce depended on it for its livelihood. Moreover, it was a fact that no country had been able to achieve modernisation without achieving growth in the agricultural sector. He quoted government statistics which indicated declining foodgrain production, difficulty in accessing foodgrains because of scarcity, rising prices and a weakened public distribution system. He pointed out that up to 87 per cent of rural people were not getting the desired level of nutrition from their food.

Mr. Nagaraj was also of the view that the reforms introduced in the banking sector had resulted in a drastic decline in the availability of institutional credit to the agricultural sector.

Institutional credit on easy terms, which had a major role in the growth of productivity and production earlier, dried up and in its space came unregulated, predatory private sources of capital.

Prices received by farmers declined owing to trade liberalisation and scuttling of public procurement of farm produce. He also found it disturbing that the affected people were not putting pressure on the government to make policy changes to improve their condition. “Such social movements were seen in the 1980s. Today, such movements seem to have dried up,” he said.

Rana Mitra of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) blamed neoliberal economic policies for the crisis in the farm sector.

He remarked that trade unions in the banking sector should reject all attempts to depoliticise working people and development debates as it was necessary to motivate its members to engage in struggles to improve not only their own lot, but also contribute to improving the condition of millions of disadvantaged in the country.

Trade unions in the financial sector had to strive to end financial exclusion of small and marginal farmers, which was taking place in a big way because of the new financial policies which, he believed, helped only big players in the agriculture and industrial sectors.

P. Krishnaprasad, MLA; P. Sadasivan Pillai, president, BEFI; and T.P. Ramakrishnan, chairman, seminar organising committee; also spoke.

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