MUMBAI: A panel of farmers on Friday presented a “10-point program” to stop land crises in Maharashtra and end the saga of farmer suicides in the state, a senior official said here.
President of the Vasantrao Naik Shet Swavlamban (VNSSM) mission, Kishore Tiwari, obtained the status of Minister of State, officially submitted the 10-point charter to Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte.
For his part, Kunte ordered the Agriculture Department to take the necessary action on the matter as a matter of priority, Tiwari told IANS after the meeting.
The parched areas of Vidarbha, Marathwada and Khandesh state have been in the grip of a severe agricultural crisis for nearly 25 years, forcing thousands of unhappy farmers to end their lives and the trend continues to this day. ‘hui.
“Despite the measures, the back-up plans or the loan exemptions worth more than five million rupees granted by successive governments, the fundamental issues remain intact and must be addressed as a priority to bring relief to the peasantry.” , Tiwari told Kunte.
The 10-point program includes: the state to address input cost reduction and intervention on output costs; shifting to the cultivation model based on local and global market demand; stop the frequent failures of the credit cycle in the new agricultural credit policy; livelihood management secondary income activity; fundamental issues of irrigation, water conservation, revitalization of soil health; good risk management with effective crop insurance and a climate change issue.
In addition, Tiwari called for an appropriate incentive for agroforestry, the promotion of legumes and oilseeds; professional quality rural health and education infrastructure; food safety; and improving the quality of local governance.
The VNSSM chief argued that the rural agrarian distress also remains unresolved due to a hostile administration, non-cooperation from bankers, ill-intentioned interventions and complex social engineering issues, in addition to the economic crises in the country, especially in the past. seven years.
Tiwari assured Kunte that the VNSSM has a detailed and ready plan to tackle all of these issues that can eliminate “relief packages without direction or loan waivers” and end the cycle of farmer suicides on a permanent basis.
In the past 25 years or so, Tiwari said more than 35,000 farmers, including several women, had resorted to the extreme stage of suicide because they could not bear the burden of pending loans, leaving behind large numbers. widows without resources. and orphans across the state.
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