GOVERNMENT SPONSORED AGRICULTURAL CRISIS
The policies of globalization, liberalization and new economic policies in the name of reforms adopted by the government over one and half decades have pushed the agro crisis to its peak. Increasing number of farmers' suicides demonstrates the severity of the crisis. According to the government’s own statistics over 1.5 lac farmers have committed suicides so far after adopting new policies and the attitude of the government towards farming community continues to be indifferent. If the same situation continues the country might have many suicides in the years to come. The rehabilitation package announced by the Hon’ble Prime Minister could not give adequate relief to the farmers entangled in debt trap and the corruption of administrative machinery in implementing the package bears testimony to the insensitiveness of government. Lake adequate access to formal credit mechanism made farmers more dependent on informal credit and suffering its consequences.
SEZ A GOVERNMENT PROMOTED LAND GRAB CAMPAIGN :-
In the name of export promotion and development, the government had already approved 408 SEZ in the country and many more are in pipeline. For establishing these SEZs the Union and the State Governments are acquiring huge tracks of fertile and cultivable lands and transferring them to big corporate houses at throw away prices. Those lands which are treated as symbol of pride and also provide lively hood to millions of farmers are being forcibly taken away by the powers that be and in lieu of that the farmers are slapped with ignominy and even mortal persecution more often in the form of firing bullets. Nandigram is a classic example of a State sponsored terrorism to suppress the voice of the rightful owner of land for centuries with sentimental attachment to it. Acquiring huge tracks of fertile land for non-agricultural purposes is threatening the food security of the nation which is already in deep crisis.
INCREASING STRANGLE HOLD OF CORPORATE IN AGRICULTURE :-
Contract farming, genetically modified seeds, import of foreign seed. Futures trading in commodities, APMC Act., retail trade are some of the means through which the government had facilitated the big MNCs like PRO - AGRO, SINZENTA, MONSANTO, DU-PONT ect. to establish their strangle hold in agriculture. Because of the policies adopted by the government in agriculture with the abetment of big corporate houses, on one side the public investment in agriculture sector had sharply declined over different plan periods on the other side the government facilitated corporate investment into agriculture, resulting in unabated loot of farmers as well as consumers. The increasing presence of corporate strangle hold on agriculture had rendered farming as a non-remunerative vocation to small marginal farmers. The government’s documents disclose that about 40% of the farmers are willing to give up cultivation (farming) indicating alarming situation.
LOOMING THREAT ON INDIAN AGRICULTURE DUE TO WTO NEGOTIATIONS :-
Despite the stalemate in WTO negotiations due to the hard and strong positions taken by US and EU with regard to cutting down their farm subsidies, the developed nations are constantly demanding countries like India to provide them more agri-market access, and pressurize the third world countries to take forward the negotiations to suit their requirements. The undue interest shown by our Commerce Minister in building a consensus on the issue could be understood by the citizens. The farm bill, 2007 of US establishes beyond doubt the protective measures adopted by the developed nations to insulate their agriculture from external changes. The changes made to our laws in the form of new Patent Act, Farmers and Breeders Rights Act, Seed Act, etc. in accordance with WTO negotiations have already denied the Indian Farmer of all the rights enjoyed by him traditionally. On one side the developed nations are protecting their agriculture sector and on the other they are pressurizing the developing nations to import minimum percentage of their farm produce requirements, and government of India had willingly succumbed to their pressures due to which the import of agricultural products have reached record heights, worsening the agro crisis in the country. The developed nations have enlarged the agenda for negotiations to under mine Doha development declaration.
STEP MOTHERLY TREATMENT WITH WHEAT FARMERS-IMPORT OF WHEAT :-
For the second consecutive year the government of India had resorted to import of inferior quality of wheat at a very high price of around 400 dollars (2007) per tonne in the name of improving buffer stocks and paying not even half the import price to Indian wheat farmer, who produces superior variety of wheat only shows the extreme bias of government towards MNCs and step motherly treatment with Indian Farmer. When the wheat was imported in the past alongwith wheat came several viruses, weed, pest and fungus with telling effect on Indian farms and farmers had to face the challenge using different pesticides which not only increased cost of production of wheat in India and reduced incomes of farmers but also resulted in erosion of micro nutrients in several states. This time again the government further liberalized the quarantine laws in the country paving way for import of infectious and inferior variety of wheat. The policy of import of wheat had conferred windfall gains to MNCs like Glencore, Cargil, AWB etc. and the corrupt administrative machinery allowed unsuitable wheat throwing phyto sanitary measures to winds. The fact that even cattle refused to eat imported wheat in Maharashtra speaks volumes about the quality of that wheat. Same is the case with many other horticulture crops to cite an example the imported apples from US contained huge pest residue, SJM considers these aspects as instances of bio-terrorism from the west.
THE SJM STRONGLY RESOLVES TO DEMAND :-
plans/policies to promote the agriculture in general and farmers interests in particular. The government should enhance budgetary allocation to agriculture from present level of 6% to 25%.
02. To prevent the suicidal tendencies of farmers, the government should announce a package to write of their loans at the same time provide fresh loan to farmers at 3 or 4% rate of interest. Agriculture subsidy be given in the form of cash to farmers.
03. The farmers should be provided with the remunerative prices and mechanism should be evolved to enable farmers to reduce cost of cultivation.
04. SEZ act, 2005 should be repealed and the cultivable lands taken from farmers should be return to them with compensation for damages caused.
05. Ban import of wheat, pulses, oilseeds and other farm products and also implement special plan to increase their production in the country to ensure food security.
06. Promote organic and traditional farming methods with special budgetary allocation to support those activities.
07. Extensive social security measures like oldage pensions, health insurance etc. should be implemented for small marginal farmers and landless poor. Also extend crop insurance to all crops. Proposed Displacement and Rehabilitation Act should not be implemented without detailed survey and consensus.
(RESOLUTION NO. 1 swadeshi jagaran manch, 8th ALL INDIA CONFERENCE, 7 the TO 9 the DECEMBER, 2007
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