This has reference to the editorial “The right farm support” (April 29). The MSP model has been a paper-driven one and the farmer is deprived of rightful benefits due to various obvious reasons.

Few realise that our farmers are capable of producing any kind of crop with effective, home-grown technologies. This should be encouraged.

The US has named 2015 the ‘year of cereals’ to promote such crops, as the government is aware that by 2020 the predicted food shortage may actually happen.

We are still at the stage of pampering farmers as a vote-bank with no practical solutions for their progress.

With the IMD forecasting a below-normal monsoon, further gloom is going to set in.

The MSP will apply only when there is adequate produce. If water is going to be scarce, farmers should be exposed to alternative cropping patterns and allied agricultural activities.

Israel, which has an arid climate but is today one of the largest exporters of agricultural produce, is a model.

If the government is serious about the survival and progress of farmers, it should actually procure whatever the farmer produces at the farmgate with prices that match the shelf prices in retail stores.

With growing disposable incomes in the hands of the urban populace, demand for quality food is bound to increase.

Farming should be a viable business and proper source of livelihood for a huge chunk of the agrarian population.

In a country where cars worth crores are financed on a simple signature, it is pathetic that a farmer has to mortgage everything he owns to get a tractor loan.

When will those in power stop using farmers for political ends?

S Veeraraghavan

Madurai

Narrow role

This refers to “Priyanka livens up one-sided contest” (April 29). I do not agree with the view that Priyanka Gandhi has changed the contest with her charm, as she has mostly confined herself to her brother’s and mother’s constituencies as far as campaigning goes. So it would not be right to judge her generally.

Yes, there are glimpses of Indira Gandhi but first, she will have to agree to a larger role in the Congress as Rahul Gandhi has largely been a failure so far and there is little chance of his role in the party’s revival, at least for the next few years.

Any die-hard Congress supporter would believe that Priyanka Gandhi remains the last resort, as her mother has taken a backseat and it is only of late, when she saw her brother Rahul not being able to inject life into the campaign, that she has pitched in. So it is still too early to decide how Priyanka Gandhi would be able to make any impact on Congress’ prospects in the country; more so, when her husband has been involved in a controversy. We all know how long it took for Gandhi family to come out of Bofors’ shadow.

Bal Govind

Noida

Labour rights

This refers to “Rise of contract workers in manufacturing”. We need to amend our labour laws to ensure we do not encourage contract labour in manufacturing. We have been forced by other nations to be competitive in businesses and, like many of our neighbouring South-East Asian countries, we have chosen the ‘labour’ route. We need to find ways to protect this valuable labour base by ensuring labourers’ rights and a fair wage to our workers. If discussing these critical issues with neighbouring countries will help, it may pay to take them on board for such talks. We are not alone in this world and every nation is inter-dependent as far as trade matters are concerned.

CRArun

e-mail

Act productively

Let the political leaders Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi suggest five steps each to improve the nation’s growth and bring about peace in the country. The steps must be such that they would be firm in implementing them. This is the least that the citizens of India would expect, even demand, of these two public figures.

S Ramakrishnasayee

Ranipet

(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Send your letters by email to bleditor@thehindu.co.in or by post to ‘Letters to the Editor’, The Hindu Business Line, Kasturi Buildings, 859-860, Anna Salai, Chennai 600002.)

Related Topics