Finding Parliamentarians spending more time on issues other than agriculture and related subjects, farmers are now planning to put pressure on Members of Parliament and the Government to hold an exclusive session on agriculture to discuss the farm problems and recommendations of Prof. M.S. Swaminathan committee that sought to resolve agrarian crisis.

The Consortium of Indian Farmers' Associations (CIFA), which has presence in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Haryana, has begun an exercise where its local members will be meeting Members of Parliament (MPs) to back their demand.

“We will go to New Delhi ahead of Winter Session of Parliament to rally MPs behind us. Issues related to agriculture are very crucial. But they are generally ignored as the two Houses are busy discussing scams and other issues. They deserve special focus keeping in view of the severe crisis agriculture sector is facing,” Mr P. Chengal Reddy, Secretary-General of CIFA, told Business Line .

“We will be focussing on easing norms to facilitate timely export of cereals and removal of sugar from the essential commodities list. Deregulation of sugar would help farmers discover better price,” he said.

“Buffer stocks of paddy and wheat are in the region of 55-60 million tonnes. And a fresh harvest from a bountiful kharif season will further put pressure on storage capacities. The Government should do something about this,” he said.

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