Lets talk about the mainstay of India- AGRICULTURE

“The greatest satisfaction and joy came from the priceless reward that comes when farmers whose lives depend on your efforts appreciate what is being done for them.” - Verghese Kurien

As the clock turns around and the sun basks at its best heralding the arrival of noon, a hearty meal is set off at many a houses and offices. As we savour the taste of those long slender rice mixed with thick curry of the rajma, as the smell of the hot dal spreads in the air and greets our nostrils and those warm fluffy roti melts in our mouth, a smile  spreads on our face as our taste buds gets excited. FOOD!!! the most important necessity for people, something that we need at regular instances as the clock moves about round and forth. Yet the fact that we receive it regularly makes us disregard those people working day and night under the hot sky to make that food available to us. The irony of the matter does not end here as the very hands that toil hard to provide us food often die of hunger!!! These glaring issues of farmers suicide and poverty was what formed the crux of our discussion at the press conference in Nashik.

I informed the press people and other stakeholders regarding a new initiative planned by the Gujarat government to help the farmers and the industry. Under this scheme the farmers would enter into joint venture with the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC), who would acquire their land to develop industrial parks. The important point of difference here would be that the farmers would become an equity or profit partner in the whole endeavour and they could continue to own their land in some instances. The major issues which the government wishes to address through this is to prevent the increasing cases of farmer suicide, prevent the exploitation of farmers in the hands of the private money lenders and to provide them with a constant source of income. With this the house was opened for questions, suggestions and their opinions in this matter.

Press Conference at Divya Marathi Office, Nashik

The air of the conference room was rift with opinions and suggestions as this matter had struck a chord, with all present in the room. We received a mixed bag of opinions as there were some who lauded this idea as they felt that farmers would get a better price from this as opposed to the fair price method. The fact that through this we could utilise the barren land of farmers and provide them with fruitful remuneration for it would greatly benefit the farmer community was a sentiment that echoed out loud. Along with this but there was some concerns regarding the transparency of the entire process and that in due course of time this scheme may become more corporate friendly and have less benefits for the farmers at the end of the day.

“Utilise barren lands and not not fertile lands” was a suggestion that all echoed in unison. It was also suggested that the farmers should be a part in the profit sharing process but should not be made to bare the brunt of losses that the businesses incur. A very pertinent issue that was raised was that the growing level of barren lands in India was largely because of the excessive usage of chemical fertilizers so a shift towards organic farming is the need of the hour. Though the concept of joint venture is good it should be beneficial to both parties not just corporates in the due course of time was the identifiable feeling in the air. There were also some effective suggestions like universities should be set up to educate the farmers, the farmers should be made aware about what exactly does joint venture mean and efforts towards joint cultivation and formation of agricultural parks should be made . One of the stakeholder was of the opinion that 'AMUL' model of cooperative run by Tribhuvandas Foundation was the need of the hour for the farming community. There was also some who were quite sceptical about this initiative as they felt it would be more beneficial to other parties involved and not the farmers in general. “We need social leaders for farmers and not bureaucratic leaders” was the opinion of one of the stakeholder.

As the insightful deliberation of the day came to an end, there was a lot of dissemination of knowledge at both ends. The discussion opened a new avenue for us in terms of the suggestions we could make to improve this proposal of the government further so that it proves to be effective and acts as a beacon of hope for the plethora of farmers present in our nation.