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Kochi, Nov. 12 Kerala-based Indian Farmer’s Movement (Infam) has suggested to the Dr M.S. Swaminathan Commission, which is conducting a study on the plight of farmers in Idukki, to declare it an “Organic District”.

In a letter to Dr Swaminathan, Dr M.C. George, Infam National Trustee, said that the future of farming was in organic farming and organic farm products and that Idukki had all the conditions required for this new concept.

Animal husbandry and dairy operations will have to be developed to help the new farm techniques. The organic products have already got a premium in the market and this trend will grow day by day, he said.

Therefore, “we have to make our farmers ready to reap the benefits of organic farming”. Cow will be a ‘manure factory’ and an energy source rather than a producer of milk in the future farming scenario, he said. Thus, Idukki has all the potential for being declared an “organic district”, he said.

Apart from this, he said, some other immediate steps are also needed on issues such as futures trade and bank loans. Futures trade should be made transparent and under a legal framework. The recent volatility in the stock market due to the Participatory Notes issue and the steps taken by SEBI to regulate it by making the system more transparent shall be a guide, he said.

He said the traders in the market “are subjected to so many licenses, returns and other paraphernalia but the traders in the ‘futures trade’ are obscure and nobody knows the dealers in person. They exploit and manipulate things to their advantage at the expense of the farmer”.

They should be brought under a transparent system of dealings under ‘know your client’ rules, he suggested. “It should be under the strict supervision and control of respective commercial banks,” he said.

Another area which needs immediate attention is the bank loans. He suggested that “all bank loans and other documented loans should be written off as the crisis and the resultant default in repayment has been due to reasons beyond the control of the borrower-farmer.”

Since the State is responsible in perpetrating this crisis it is duty bound to honour the liability, he said. “Inclusive banking rather exclusive banking should be the norm, and banks should make it a practice and evolve a work culture to suit the same,” he said.

Dr George suggested that the State be asked to examine thoroughly the legal validity of agreements made with foreign countries on subjects exclusively falling under ‘State subject’ in the Constitution. The diverse nature of the country and its farm sector has been the single vital reason for putting agriculture and related marketing activities under the sole jurisdiction of the State Governments, he argued.

Besides, farm gate prices of agricultural products should have some correlation to consumer prices. According to him the tendency in the market to hike prices at the consumers’ level even when the farm gate prices crash to low levels is the sure sign of foul play by vested interests.

Another demand put forward by Infam is that all forms of farm subsidies should be stopped as it would benefit only the input suppliers at the expense of the farming community such as fertiliser companies, farm machinery/implements manufacturing units, irrigation equipment makers and the like, he said.

According to Dr George, all incentives in the name of export promotion should be abolished “as the same has no relevance now due to the bulging level of foreign exchange with the treasury in contrast to the 1990-91 period”.

More Stories on : Cultivation | Agriculture | Kerala

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