The Hindu Business Line : `Farmers must be given right price for products'

If the agrarian crisis in India is to be solved, efforts to integrate the country's agriculture with the global agricultural sector must be stopped, said Dr Devinder Sharma, Chair, Forum for Food Security and Biodiversity.

Speaking at a seminar on `Agrarian crisis and the evergreen revolution in the context of agriculture sector planning in Kerala' organised by the city-based NGO Thanal, he said that the agrarian crisis in India would end only when the country's farmers are taken care of.

When the US and the European Union are protecting their farmers, India has no need to feel ashamed if it protects its own farmers and agriculture, he emphasised.

Right price, incomes

Indian farmers must be given the right environment and the right price for their products. The low incomes earned by them is the issue at the heart of the country's agrarian crisis, he said. Once their incomes go up, they will be able to take care of other issues. Similarly, agricultural research must be based on the country's needs and should not rest only on imported technology, he added.

According to Mr Vijay Jawandhia, a farmer and leader of the farmers' organisation Shetkari Sanghatana, market economics is not a solution for India's agriculture. Instead, what is required is Government intervention in areas such as helping farmers increase their capacity to repay loans by giving them the right prices for agricultural produce. An issue that complicates matters for the country's agricultural sector is that the Constitution treats agriculture as a State subject, but most of the major decisions on agriculture are taken by the Centre, he pointed out.