Loss of GDP man hours of farmers on Delhi Borders .Responsible who ?

Loss of GDP man hours of farmers on Delhi Borders .Responsible who ?

The solutions to the unemployment and under employment in agriculture have to be found by the nation by involving farmers and not be antagonising them as they are agitating since months against new farm laws.

Passing of farm laws in haste by the Centre have seen the persistent resistance from farmers groups as the government did not start the dialogue in right earnest as it always does for industry people before making any policy changes.

We must admit that both the Central as well as States have failed to develop and give a boost to the diversification and other allied activities in farming besides agro processing in different clusters . In Punjab, the farmers mostly do not look beyond dairy farming as a supplementary vocation. Freebies  of electricity and water in farm operations have proved as opium for instilling inertia in innovation -thanks to the, the vote bank politics.

Unfortunately, even at the farmers’ rallies at Delhi borders, the farm leaders have never been heard to advocate innovative farm practices by the farmers except only criticising the farm laws. There is callous and colossal loss of productive man hours of the agitating farmers  .Had our farm policies been framed and were in  order in our own Indian context for farming, this loss of GDP in lost man hours could have been avoided by keeping the farmers engaged in gainful pursuits.

WTO constraints to open the sector completely to corporates are the real cause of worry for agitating farmers who see onslaught on their land ownership .

Farmers are heavily indebted to banks mostly private who have given much more credit than the norms of NABARD. Farmers have increased their consumption expenditure much more they earn from farming operations .Farm suicides are mostly from the very small and marginal farmers who are unable to pay their debt.

To help small and marginal farmers to form their own cooperatives in different clusters is the only solution .Cooperatives can help both in competitive buying of inputs as well as getting rates for the produce.  Costly mechanical agri operations will also help reduce costs to each member of such cooperative.

BRIJ BHUSHAN GOYAL , LUDHIANA   theglobaltalk1122@gmail.com

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