Need for unit of farmer bodies emphasised

Calling for united efforts of different farmers organisations, former Agriculture Minister Chaturanan Mishra on Tuesday said the current crisis in the farm sector, arising out of low productivity, would be solved if farmers put pressure on the government.

"The farmers organisations, irrespective of their party affiliations, should be united as happened in 1936 under the Kisan Sabha," Mishra said at the inaugural of a seminar on agriculture organised here by Bharatiya Krishak Samaj.

He also noted that the productivity of crops is not increasing due to falling standards of soil and absence of enough varieties from research organisations.

"If you treat your land wrongly, the productivity will not go up," he said referring to excessive use of particular chemical fertiliser in some areas.

Speaking on the occasion, another former Union Minister Sangh Priya Gautam opposed the agricultural land allocation to industries under the Special Economic Zone scheme. "You allot land to SEZ anywhere, but not on the fertile agricultural land."

He held successive governments in states and Centre, political parties and farmers themselves responsible for the curent spate of suicides in the country.

Senior Congress leader Harikesh Bahadur said the government should have paid domestic farmers higher price for procuring wheat rather than importing the foodgrain. He asked the government to think on the issue, whenever such a decision is to be taken.