Open House: Will 'Sarkar-Kisan Milni' help in making the agriculture sector sustainable and profitable?

Great step to win over farmers

Advertisement

The Punjab Government’s move of holding the first-ever ‘Sarkar-Kisan Milni’ (an interaction between the government and farmers) is laudable. The initiative will definitely provide an instant platform to understand the problems of farmers in a better way and help prepare short-term and long-term strategies for transformation of agriculture and its allied activities in the state. Punjab is primarily a farming state which employs roughly 36 per cent of its inhabitants in agriculture and its allied activities. No economic prosperity is possible without making the state financially viable on a self-sustainable basis. Presently the farming community feels disillusioned and is aimlessly on a warpath with the government. The step as a confidence-building measure can win the trust of the farming community to proceed further to pursue much-awaited reforms. There is a tremendous scope for large-scale diversification through streamlining rabi-kharif patterns and ensuring guaranteed minimum support price of all commodities. Allied agriculture activities can be further strengthened with the government’s support in the field of technology and marketing. Agro-based industrialisation is the need of the hour to boost employment opportunities to the farmers. The government should continue periodically holding such meetings at block levels on a regular basis to achieve the objectives.

Jagdish Chander

Milnis must focus on diversification

Efforts are always being made by the government of the day to reach out to farmers so that their fate could be improved. However, the betterment of the agriculture sector depends on various factors like the fertility of the farming land, latest machinery and technology, underground water table, new variety of seed, pesticides, etc. Farmers have been trying hard and adopting various measures to make the profession sustainable and profitable. The ‘Sarkar-Kisan Milni’ recently held at Punjab Agriculture University will certainly bring positive results. The direct interaction between the stakeholders will bring forth the problems faced by the agriculture sector and help in framing realistic policies to manage them. Such more interactions between the government and farmers should be held frequently throughout the state. Through these interactions, farmers can be educated about the crop diversification and its benefits. Many progressive farmers have already proved that diversification is the way forwards. The ‘Sarkar-Kisan Milni’ in future can focus more on promoting diversification across the state.

Rajat Kumar Mohindru

Govt, farmers must revise strategy jointly

The government-farmer interaction is a good initiative by the Chief Minister to address the issues pertaining to the agriculture sector. No doubt Punjab is the food bowl of the country, but many states have also increased the production of cereals like wheat and rice. This calls for the review of the strategy to keep the position of Punjab intact as the leading agrarian state of India. At the same time, the government must take farmers into confidence to diversify from paddy to other crops in order to arrest the depletion of water table and bring the agriculture sector out of the crisis. Many experts are of the view that in about 20 years or so, Punjab may turn into a desert. Let us hope the future interactions between the government and farmers will find the solution to such pressing problems.

Dr JS Wadhwa

Talks will provide long-term solutions

In the late 1960s, when our countrymen were starving even for one meal a day, the nation had to depend on the US aid. To overcome the challenges of scarcity, Punjab came forward as the harbinger of Green Revolution to fulfil the country’s requirement of staple food. With sustained efforts, farmers of the state not only met the demand, but also made the country’s food bowl brim of wheat and rice. However, in the process water table and fertility of land were adversely affected. Today, we are staring at a crisis, which threaten to go out of hand. There is a dire need to sensitise farmers towards advanced irrigation techniques while opting for crop diversification without further delay. With this objective, the Punjab Government recently organised the first-ever ‘Sarkar-Kisan Milni’ at PAU to promote the cultivation of water-saving crops by reducing the area under wheat and paddy. This new initiative will ensure a direct dialogue between officials and farmers to facilitate the framing of farmer-friendly agricultural policies. Also, the interaction between experts, agriculture officials, research scientists and progressive farmers would help to chalk out measures to diversify the state’s agriculture, making it profitable and carry out the much-needed policy reforms. The sharing of knowledge by experienced farmers, agriculture-related entrepreneurs, farmer clubs, self-help groups and cooperative societies would provide suitable inputs relating to agriculture and allied activities. Thereby, constructive solutions to preserve water and soil fertility can be involved through crop diversification by ensuring stable marketing of alternate produce. Under the prevailing scenario, it is certainly a plausible move by the state government to draft innovative and viable plans for uplifting the plight of farmers and peasantry, as a whole.

Nirmaljit Singh Chatrath

Such events will make farming profitable

The recently organised mega ‘Sarkar-Kisan Milni’ (government-farmer interaction) at PAU in Ludhiana to frame a new agricultural policy of the state is an appreciable move. It has brought progressive farmers, leaders of various farm unions, women farmers belonging to self-help groups, cooperative societies and officials of the department on a common platform to share their experience and expertise with others. The setting up of booths to impart knowledge about vegetables, sugarcane, medicinal and aromatic plants, poultry, fish and goat farming, dairy, bee-keeping, forestry, pulses, oilseeds, organic farming, etc., was another highlight of the event. The basic purpose behind the initiative was to discuss and formulate new policies for the diversification of the state’s agriculture, make it profitable and bring about radical reforms in the much-ignored sector. The government should display strong political will to carry the programme forward. It should keep a tab on the sale of spurious fertilisers, seed and insecticides and pesticides, and ensure that the market is not rigged to protect the interests of the farming community. The authorities should also promote agriculture-based industry in the public and private sectors. Once agriculture becomes viable, it will stop student migration abroad for greener pastures, check drug addiction and farmer suicides, and make the state prosperous.

DS Kang

Response positive, plan more meetings

The agriculture sector across the country, including Punjab, has perennially been in dire straits due to the apathetic attitude of successive state and Central Governments since Independence. Reiterating its strong commitment to uplift the agriculture sector, the ruling AAP dispensation’s initiative of holding the first-ever direct dialogue between the government and farmers at the Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana, has elicited a massive response from farmers. It is aimed at promoting water-saving crops by reducing the area under the wheat-paddy cycle and encouraging farmers to choose other agricultural occupations. The introduction of new crops, agricultural implements and spreading awareness about modern techniques among farmers will increase the income of farmers and help improve their condition as well as of the agriculture sector. As assured, the government should sincerely implement this much-hyped programme properly to restrain farmers from the excessive use of fertilisers, insecticides and irrigation, and burning of wheat and paddy straw. It should also reduce the ever-escalating input costs and ensure remunerative prices for their crops, should press upon the Centre to provide minimum support price (MSP) on alternative crops, improve electricity supply and boost agro-industry. All said and done, the success of these efforts will protect the fast-depleting groundwater level, check air pollution and make the environment sustainable.

Tajpreet S Kang

One-to-one talks will lead to solutions

Insights into the public needs forms the cornerstone of good governance and such ‘Sarkar-Kisan Milnis’ can contribute immensely in ameliorating the lives of diligent, still poor farmers in particular, and the efficiency, productivity of the agriculture sector in general. One-to-one conversations or deliberations have proved to be effective in solving long-standing problems, even at the international level. Organising interactions of this kind can become a source of awareness about the genuine and adverse problems faced by the farmers regarding crop production, irrigation, machinery, stubble burning, electricity, MSP, waste management, etc., while the agricultural experts can provide them with solutions for the same.

ANSHIKA KOHLI

Need to understand agro climatic zones

To bring sustainability to agriculture, one must understand the agro climatic zones and the available marketing infrastructure there, for example in Punjab, it is mainly the wheat-rice rotation that grows and the marketing of these two crops happens through a minimum support price (MSP). Unfortunately, leaders of Punjab have never made any proper agricultural policy. Proper warehousing and cold storages are the need of the hour. Can farmers grow any crop others than wheat and rice? For diversification, spices like turmeric, chilies have a wider scope. Organic farming has a wider scope but the state government needs to ban spurious pesticides and seeds. Biopesticides production needs proper attention. Punjabis are fond of eating dal makhani but why do farmers not grow any pulses in Punjab. Punjab Agricultural University needs to do proper research on the package of practices for spices, pulses and organically grown crops so that a farmer can grow crops that require less water, pesticide-use and has local demand, too. To bring corporate for marketing, the state needs to make a proper contract farming law so that no corporate can exploit small farmers. There is a need to have crops insured against floods and foggy conditions. A dialogue between farmers and the state government on Punjab agriculture is welcome. Only farmers, end-consumers and environment-friendly policies can bring growth to agriculture and hence the economy of Punjab.

Harvinder Singh Chugh

QUESTION

Recently, supporters of a radical preacher stormed the Ajnala police station in Amritsar and created a ruckus there. The Punjab Police came in for much criticisim over the alleged inaction in the incident. What steps can the police take so as to avoid such incidents in future?

Suggestions in not more than 200 words can be sent to jalandhardesk@tribunemail.com by Thursday (March 2)