Making Agriculture A Festival

We should appreciate and congratulate our Telangana Chief Minister Sri K Chandrasekhar Rao for his visionary thinking on Agriculture and his directions to the department and its officials recently to motivate the farmers for changing to the demand-oriented crops. It is not an exaggeration to say our farmers have been habituated to Herd mentality. No one dares to change and to be innovative in adopting the latest techniques and practices. 

Keeping the pathetic conditions of the farmers and the Agriculture in view A Former Chief Minister of combined Andhra Pradesh said: "Agriculture was waste"(Dhandaga) and he did not accept free electricity to the farmers, Later he changed his opinion. Dr Y.S Rajasekhar Reddy, Former Chief Minister of the combined Andhra Pradesh State initiated several irrigation projects extensively throughout the state describing as “Jala Yagnam”. Our Telangana Chief Minister continued the irrigation projects making some changes in the designing of some projects. But the Critics described Jala Yagnam as Dhanuja Yagnam and the Kaleshwaram project as a white elephant.The farmers in both Telugu states have access to water and electricity which resulted in bumper crops.     

The Nobel laureate C.V.Raman in his essay “Weather” said Agriculture had been a gamble. It still remains vulnerable to the vagaries of weather. In spite of the rapid progress in the Agriculture, the incomes of the farmers are not commensurate with the investments and the efforts they made. They have been facing lot of hardships from sowing to the harvesting and marketing based upon the mercy of the weather. The smallholdings of the farmers are another concern, 68 percent farmers hold less than one hectare and 18 percent farmers hold between one to two hectares.  

Formation of Self-Help groups consisting of the farmers or co-operative societies can facilitate and accelerate the desirable changes in the attitude of the farmers and lead to the sharing of the inputs, equipment and other resources. Co-operative Societies or Co-operative Farming are essential and inevitable to meet the increasing investment burden and adopt the technology and the machinery. In China, Twenty Millions of Co-operatives were registered. In our country, they are nominal and ineffective. In China the arable land is103.4 million hectares of land and 26% of the Chinese population involved in the Agriculture whereas in our country the arable land is 159.65 million hectares and 42% of the population involved in agricultural operations.The subsidies to agriculture in China are 212 billion dollars whereas in our country 37 billion dollars (2.83 lakh crores) are allocated in our Budget 2020-21 (including the flagship schemes of PMKISAN, MGNREGA and PMFBY).

Agroentreprenures, educated youth should be encouraged with the startup’s in the rural areas. Mr Mahipal Reddy who was a software engineer in Singapore with a salary of two lakhs of rupees every month left his job and came to his native place Karimnagar District of Telangana State. He has taken seven acres of land on lease.He has been practising innovative methods in the Horticulture and the Floriculture with the assistance of the Centre of Sustainable Agriculture, Hyderabad. He is very much satisfied with the yields and the returns in his farmland. In every village, such entrepreneurs can be groomed with the technical and financial assistance. Skill Development programmes should be held periodically to identify the unemployed youth.

The availability of the personnel like the Agriculture Officers and the Agriculture Extension officers is inadequate to meet the needs and demands of the farmers. Each A.E.O should be available to cover 1000 acres of land as they are covering 2500 acres of land. They should be accessible to guide the farmers and supervise their agricultural operations and solve their problems Interest-free Short -Term loans and subsidies should be given to individual farmers holding less than 4 hectares. Apart from Rice, millets and pulses Fruit Farming and Vegetables growing can be taken on a large scale depending upon the soil of the land. In Hyderabad, the marketing Department of Agriculture in tie-up with the postal department Mangoes are transported from the farmers to the customers during the Lockdown. It is a commendable initiative that can be extended to the Vegetables. The farmers would get a good price and the consumers are assured of the quality at a reasonable price eliminating the middlemen. Vegetables on wheels and Mobile Marketing Schemes can be introduced to link up the farmers and the customers.                                                                                                                         

Our farmers are Annadhatas(providing food) but the sad thing is some of the farmers have been committing suicides mostly due to the losses in Agriculture operations causing mounting debts. We should protect our farmers initiating innovative schemes to keep them happy and make the profession attractive. Agriculture is the only sector that can save us and our economy with abundant resources and opportunities. The allocation of funds under PMKISAN and MGNAREGA should be doubled. The stimulus package of 1.73 lakh crores is inadequate and the liberal stimulus package should be announced at the earliest. Minimum of Six lakh crores excluding the present allocation in the budget and the first stimulus package should be allocated for the Agriculture and the Rural Development. It will not create inflation problems as we have adequate resources and abundant supply of goods. The buffer stocks in FCI godowns the bumper crops would ensure the Food security to all our citizens. Let us be innovative and pragmatic to make our Agriculture more attractive. Let us hope our Agriculture Sector regain the more share as it was in 1950-1951 in Our GDP. Let us make our Agriculture a Festival.