Mysore, April 26, 2013;
The major political parties have not made any attempt to fulfill the demands of the farmers particularly sugarcane growers in their manifestos, sugarcane growers association alleged.
The sugarcane growers association had submitted various demands to all political parties and their candidates explaining the problems facing by the agriculture sector in the state , but all the parties have neither mentioned it in their manifesto nor given assurance in this aspect.
The farmers in the state had been urging the governments for the implementation of the recommendations of the M S Swaminathan committee report on agriculture for the revival of the farming activities besides easy credit flow for farmers, according to Mr.Kurubur Shanthakumar, president of the association.
The report recommended farmer- friendly crop insurance policies, a national security scheme to cover farmers post-retirement, development of market infrastructure and expansion of institutional credit for farmers at a low interest rate, among others.
“This was part of a nearly 20-point agenda or wish list submitted by the association but so far, none of the political parties has agreed to it,” Mr. Shanthakumar lamented.
At present the sugarcane farmers were in dire straits owing to lack of financial support, crop failure and skyrocketing prices of farm inputs, which made farming economically unviable.
Despite several protests and agitations they had not been paid arrears due to them by sugar factories. The government is yet to announce sugarcane procurement prices for 2012–13 and 2011–12.
“Neither are political parties interested in raising these issues nor are farmers questioning the candidates and party leaders when they visit the villages during campaigning,” he said.
A few other demands include constitution of agricultural risk fund, fixing minimum support price for crop at a rate 50 per cent higher than the actual cost of production and waiving off all agricultural loans as a one-time relief.
“Though agriculture was among the single-largest occupation that provides employment to more than 60 per cent of the population, there was nothing by way of social security and hence we will insist on a pension scheme for farmers so that it can take care of them in their old age”, said a few farmers who are members of the samithi. While those in the organized sector retire by the age of 60 years farmers and agricultural labourers have no such safety net and this will be the first time that such a demand will be put before the political parties for their consideration, pointed out Shanthakumar
Some of their demands require a tweak in government procedures and policies, but none of the parties has displayed the courage to take it up.
A case in point is the demand for a corpus of Rs.10 crore in each district, with a mandate for the district administration to bring about stabilisation in procurement prices of crops during price crash. But parties have maintained a silence on the issue, he alleged.
