I am not too sure about a Farmer Protection Act or FGRC ? Why not have Computer Programmer Protection Act ? Why not Computer Programer Redressal Cell ?
If pesticides/seeds/fertilizers have been faulty then screw the guilty with just Consumer Protection Act ? Why do we need special acts for just farmers ? Just another profession .. <!--emo&  --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
06-23-2004, 11:04 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-24-2004, 01:47 PM by prmadhura.)
When Computer Programmers, as a community, are driven to an extreme frustration, on account of short-changing by charlatans, I will definitely take up a case for Computer Programmers Protection Act. Presently it is only Indian marginal farmers - who have been driven to extreme hopeless situation - have been committing suicides in droves.
Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, Law of Contracts and Civil Procedure Code actually are sufficient to take care of any and all violations done against any Consumer. Still as Consumers constitute 100% of population and the trade ethics were going to dogs, day-by-day, Consumer Protection Act was brought in as a Comprehensive Solution to address the typical grievance situation of Consumers that can, inter alia, assure speedy and cheap redressal mechanism.
Similarly existing laws, even without Consumer Protection Act, are sufficient to bring the culprits to book; that is technically. But, as in the case of Consumers, Farmers also are unable to prosecute the offenders through costly and long drawn litigation. That is why, like Consumer Protection Act, Farmers Protection Act too should be brought in to protect marginal farmers, who constitute between 60-70 Crores of the total population; this should assure speedy redressal at affordable costs. And if Indian Farming Sector collapses, India will have to go to the days of pre-Green Revolution, meaning inadequate food supplies, starvation deaths, heavy dependence on imported food and finally enmass suicides of Indian farmers.
>AP - Punjab
Punjab , land terrain is plain , has cannals so proper irrigation is easier to implement, the part of AP I have seen is more of is beautiful boulders but I have not cris-crossed it.
One thing I can say is any abive average jathedar in Punjab gets more pesticide as "sample" than what some UP farmer buys in one season. So Punjab/Haryana being the winner so to say gets more commerical support , naturally the Pesticides/Bio-neutirnts selling companies work closely with institiutes like HAU and PAU.
Punjabi farmer is willing to experiment to , if you are from Okay Pesticide company and want to do demonstration you will easily get part of patta to do you demonstration for a season , but in places like UP land holding are so small at times that its terrible. Many still use ox for tilling , though Terai is different story with Pantnagar Agricultural Institue in Pithorgarh. That area is full of "Jugnoos" <!--emo&  --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> ( Fire flies ).
Punjabi farmers have one problem , next generation wants to go to Angland , Kanaadaa onlee, in many places entire manual workforce comprises of ppl from UP and Bihar . Many of these are actually educated and hold degrees like Master of Political Science!
Remember Punjab/Haryana has given us "Kinoo" ever eaten one ? its a version of Orange I guess.
> Have you ever been to Punjab?
I have , I have even watered the fieldis " Panni Lanaa hai , Aj Rati Sadi Bari hai" <!--emo& --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> ( if you know punjabi)
Good experience onlee. Easy going / fun loving / most humourous community I have ever come across , only Mallu's come near to them in being humourous .. is N3 mallu ..
City Punjabi is much different from the one from the Pind , guess pressures of Rat Race change everybhody!
One more thing abt Punjab is that , supporting industry is also in same area , so if you have rice production , then there are rice mills, cotton spinning mills , oil mills etc etc ..so things like "Bullet Enfields" , Marootis , VCD etc etc sell like hotcake.
May the Punjabi live happily and humourly!
Maharashtrian farmers can be divided between Vidharbh ( Good ) , Marathwada ( sorry state no water - depend entirly on Sugar Mill Mafia - no water - terrain is sort of plateu ) ,and are like Daun , Ahemednagar ( Grapes/oranges/Bananas.. ) , all in all Maharastrian farmer irrespective of hiss earning leads a very frugal life doesnt spend like Harayana/Punjab , still can see "Rajdoots" and the likes.
> once a cannal was built (ganganagar ?)
Indira Gandhi Canal renamed from Rajasthan Canal , it has *totally* transformed that area Place like Jalore etc are GREEN. Major corruption , contractor (OBC mostly) never paid the labourer ( farmers whose land only produces only when it rains (Barmer/Jaiselmaer/Bikaner) properly , grain ( wheat etc ) which was to be as part payments was divereted to Atta Mills and pvt markets
Construction was bad , seepage has resulted in vast portion of adjoing land being totally rendered useless.
There is simialr problem in Muktsar / Mansa / Bathinda belt , water table is so high that some state roads are like sitting in see saw while driving. 3 Feet digging brings water.
In AP I guess there is very big holding and then very small holdings.
Okay , will end here, my post has less data and more nostalgia.
AP is three geographic terrains: Deccan Plateau comprising Telangana region - mostly rocky and dry lands, Coastal belt - mostly fertile wet lands and Rayalaseema - mostly Hilly but greenish.
Yes, big as well as smallholdings exist. In Ananthapur District of Rayalaseema, there are scores and scores of villages that have not received rains for over three decades. And in case of Coastal belt, known as Coramandel, there is either scanty rains or floods or even delayed rains. Telangana region has the problem of less irrigation.
All the three regions have been suffering from bad mansoons during the past three years.
I wish that every state of India could adapt the techniques of Punjab, Haryana & Himachal Pradesh. But it's like a vicious circle, no money for large-scale capital investment into farming. Until and unless such investments are made and assure economy of scales, industry wouldn't step in to cash on it. In AP also, we have Rice, Pulses mills, sugar mills, tobacco mills and oil mills, wherever such crop is grown. But like I said, it's a long way to achieve economy of scales here.
<!--QuoteBegin-rajesh_g+Jun 22 2004, 11:57 AM-->QUOTE(rajesh_g @ Jun 22 2004, 11:57 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin--> I am not too sure about a Farmer Protection Act or FGRC ? Why not have Computer Programmer Protection Act ? Why not Computer Programer Redressal Cell ?
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Certain IT related US forums have been asking exactly that - why's US Govt continuing with farm subsidies for those rich farmers while programmers are getting laid off due to outsourcing.
In US if we see even 30 programmers committing suicide unlike the 3000+ farmers in India, the tide would change immediately.
In my old company we used to have company reorgs followed by grand statements of how the restructuring will do this and that - none of that did - its only when the economy improved. They were just restructuring just to show people and investor(s) that they were doing "something".
I hope such redressal cells are not along those lines. So far I dont see a good reason how these cells are going to help.
Viren,
Sure programmers have not taken to commiting suicides but see how they were resorting to activism etc. As the economy improves you can already see how everybody has a job and the decrease in activism.
If the current situation in AP is due to continuous drought then I am not sure what these redressal cells are intended for ? lipstick on pig ?
rajesh_g:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sure programmers have not taken to commiting suicides but see how they were resorting to activism etc. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Lot of these farmers who are committing suicide I think (guess) are not educated and don't have much means to resort to activism.
I used to argue benefits of gobalization, outsourcing and how solutions to it is re-training etc all this a lot with my networking group. But when someone asks you as how would it be to dip into your IRA funds to pay off mortgage and bills - all arguments go out of the window. On forums we can score lot of theortical points.
I don't support Govt dole, but govt's have been doling out people during whenever there are <b>extreme circumstances</b>. Maybe it's time to bring back Lal Bhadur Shastri's "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan" slogan and give these dying farmers some means to get back on their feet - might not be free $ but incentives to just get them one their feet might not be such a bad idea. Even a measely Rs 1000 goes a long way. Nobody says anything when multi-national corps are given tax subsidies, tax holidays or special tax free zones created for them.
Viren,
Hope the help goes out towards alternative employment. Frankly I dont have the expertise to give you a solution. All I am saying is extreme circumstances should not lead us to just "do something". I agree something needs to be done - I am yet to see a good reason why "redressal cells" are good ?
V,
Thanks for posting this link of Dr M S Swaminathan; Chairman, National Commission for Farmers Interview. This grand old man has clarity of his mission and solutions too. I hope our politicos would allow him to complete his mission of "Ever Green Revolution".
Farmers Grievance Redressal Cells are to render speedy and cheap justice to the Innocent, Voiceless & marginalized Farmers against the supply of faulty seeds, spurious fertilizers and substandard insecticides, et al, by the ever-greedy and base traders.
From Deccan.com on <b>AP agricultural crop patterns</b>.
State may move to short-duration crops
Hyderabad, June 24: The State Agri-culture department has asked officials to get ready to shift farmers to short-duration crops if the dry spell continued.
The instructions were issued after farmers took up agricultural operations in many parts of the State, mistaking for the monsoon, the rain induced by a cyclonic storm earlier this month.
Following the storm-induced rains, 11,40,608 hectare was cropped, almost double the 5,40,098 hectare as on date last year. The normal cropped area is 79,52,308 hectare. Officials fear that if the dry spell continues, the crops in the Telangana area, Nellore, Prakasam, Srikakulam districts could be hit by moisture stress. In these areas, a quarter to half the normal cropping area had already been crop-ped.
âThere will be moisture stress on dry corps like cotton, maize, gingely and
others. But a few good rains in the next week could save the crops,â a senior Agricul-ture officer told Deccan Chronicle on Thursday. In the event that there are no rains, he said, the department has asked officials to make available seeds for short-du-ration pulses like green gram to farmers and guide them wherever necessary particularly in the KC and Nagar-junasagar areas, Nalgonda.
âExcept the north coastal area, where some places received rains due to depression, many parts of the State are reeling under a dry spell. Compared to last year, the cropped area has increased this year because of farmers mistaking untimely rains for the monsoon.,â he said. Asked about the contingency plans, he said the farmers would have to change the crop pattern and go in for short-duration crops like pulses, use strictly regulated quantity of pesticides and follow good farm practices.
Officials said paddy cultivation was taken up only in the Godavari delta (about four lakh hectare out of 24 lakh hectare in the State) and was yet to pick up in other areas. âThe delay in monsoon is a blessing in disguise. When sowing is taken up slowly, it means the season is on,â another official explained.
The percentage of sowing of all crops against the normal was as follows:
North-coastal: Srikakulam 24 per cent, Vizianagaram 37, Visakhapatnam 21,
Coastal: Nellore 70, Praka-sam 36. West Godavari 9, Krishna 5, Guntur 4, East Go-davari 4 per cent.
Rayalaseema: Kurnool 6, Kadapa 6, Chittoor 6, Ananta-pur 2.
Telangana: Adilabad 46 per cent, Ranga Reddy 27, Medak 25, Nizamabad 18, Khamm-am 17, Nalgonda 11, Mah-bubnagar 10, Karimna-gar 7 and Warangal 6 per cent.
This post doesnt talk abt agriculture , but describes well the systems rot.
And perhaps whey things like "FARMERS PROTECTION ACT" are likely to FAIL and create one more problem , few more lobbies.!
Ideally anybody who talks abt SYSTEM , shld read this article.
A GOOD ANALYSIS BY SHRI K P S GILL
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?m...t&counter_img=3
Narrow coteries at work
KPS Gill
There is a lacklustre quality about much of what the Government is doing at present. Many announcements-including the commitment to far-reaching and fundamental reforms articulated by the Prime Minister-have generated little public enthusiasm. The general scepticism is understandable.
India has a long tradition of political leaders announcing extraordinary programmes for development, but the unfortunate truth is, the benefits have seldom percolated down to those who most need them. The only reforms that have succeeded in the recent past are those that have benefited a narrow segment of the population, largely as a result of the withdrawal of obstructive Government controls, and the concomitant release of private initiative from the crippling license interference.
But "privatisation" cannot feed India's impoverished millions. One of the lessons of the relatively rapid growth of the past decade is that very rapid growth can, unfortunately, coexist with rising levels of distress among a very significant proportion of the population. If the India that still continues to live overwhelmingly in her villages, is not only to be protected from such distress, but also to be lifted out of it into a dynamic and self-sufficient participation in the modern economy, the Government's role is, and will remain, pivotal.
This has been recognised in the public pronouncements of the new regime. The difficulty is that the mere reassertion of the centrality of the Government's role in the enterprise of national development does not ensure success. Indeed, it was precisely this centrality that, in the past, had systematically undermined developmental processes as the "steel frame" of the administration was allowed to rust and, in places, disintegrate, and as governmental intervention became synonymous with inefficiency and corruption.
In fact, the problem goes much deeper to the very processes and structures that have become embedded in the operation of Government sponsored developmental projects. The allocation and disbursement or "utilisation" of funds has long been established as the criterion of success in all Government programmes. Several central monitoring committees are set up, but even in the most "successful" programmes, they fail to ensure qualitative improvements in target areas and populations.
The reason is the psychological divide that has continuously widened between the state and the more hapless of its citizens. The complex feedback system, official, political and voluntary, has broken down, and flows of information to the multiplicity of central monitoring authorities are restricted to arid and falsified official reports, even as the resources of critical developmental programmes are hijacked by cartels of the corrupt.
Even in the high-profile "Golden Quadrilateral Project", personally promoted by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, monitoring implementation had become a growing headache for the Centre with the CVC looking into numerous cases of corruption and misappropriation. Less visible projects are infinitely worse off with many implemented only on paper: Funds are allocated, completion certificates are issued, payments are disbursed, but the work is never done.
A wide range of "rural development" works-particularly rural roads, irrigation and flood control-are the perfect vehicle for this systematic and recurring embezzlement, which has been near impossible to control through any system of centralised monitoring, given the collusion of local officials and political leaderships, as well as the perfection of paperwork that a corrupt contractor-bureaucrat nexus has worked out. There is usually a spate of expenditure on such "projects" just before the monsoons. Monitoring agencies regularly record their being regrettably "washed away" by the fury of nature in the very first showers.
I have, over the past two years, been working on a voluntary basis in Uttar Pradesh, spending about 150 days of the year in reaching medical and other services to the villages. The feedback from the thousands of people I have met over this period, in areas no further than a couple of hundred kilometres from Delhi, has been depressing. There was, for instance, supposed to be a programme for vaccination for foot and mouth disease in cattle.
There is, in fact, no effective foot and mouth vaccine in India. In village after village, we heard that this had been more of a publicity stunt than a programme. There had been little implementation on the ground. When villagers said this in the presence of an official functionary, he berated them and accused them of lying. After that, the poor villagers just shut up and it was impossible to get anything out of them further. And this, to reiterate, is just a couple of hundred kilometres out of the national capital.
The rot has been endemic, and despite the quantitative "achievements" of successive governments, the realities of the ground remain dismal in large parts of the country. States announce high percentages of "electrification" of villages, but there is no electricity, and in many places, electric wires have been stolen or were never really put up.
Despite the cheerful numbers on literacy in many States, the truth is that, for decades, there has been a continuous decline in the educational standards across the country; teacher absenteeism is endemic in rural schools; the educational infrastructure and teaching tools available in rural areas, are often, quite disgraceful.
This rot extends well beyond the rural educational and adult literacy programmes. It virtually comprehends the entire educational infrastructure, up to the highest levels, with the notable exception of a handful of technical and management institutions which have somehow remained substantially out of the sphere of Governmental meddling (though the last regime had made an unconscionable attempt at irrational interference in the fee structure and autonomy of the IIMs among this select group of elite institutions as well).
The causal dynamic of the decline of the state's institutional capacity to implement its own programmes is, no doubt, immensely complex. But if a single factor were to be identified as the most significant within this multiplicity of causes, it would certainly be the increasing influence of narrow coteries in governance. The institutional framework of governance has been systematically eroded, at times dismantled, as a result of the kitchen cabinets.
They are congregated on criteria, not of performance or connectedness with the ground and the masses, but on personal relationships and loyalties. In recent times, the PMO has become one such kitchen cabinet, exercising extraordinary power and influence on all Ministries and departments and under the last regime, had substantial power without even Cabinet accountability on certain critical issues. The PMO has, of course, now been completely overhauled. The truth, however, is that the PMO remains the PMO, no matter how many personnel you change. There is very marginal difference between the capacities and orientation of one desk officer and another.
A coterie remains a coterie, and it will not really matter if the coterie around Dr Manmohan Singh is better than the coterie that surrounded Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Or that there are, in fact, layers of coteries within the current dispensation, with a multiplicity of "monitoring committees" being appointed at different levels in the Government, the ruling alliance and the party.
Few, if any of the "eminent" appointees to these coteries can cause a stir among the common people, and the best among them-however much they may be lionised by the press-are known only within a tiny and incestuous circle of power in Delhi. They have no connection with India's villages. There is, consequently, no system in place to monitor or assess the impact of developmental programmes. The integrity of an efficient feedback mechanism, through official, intelligence, political and informal channels, will have to be restored, well before the possibility of the efficient implementation of developmental programmes can be established.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The integrity of an efficient feedback mechanism, through official, intelligence, political and informal channels, will have to be restored, well before the possibility of the efficient implementation of developmental programmes can be established<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
"integrity of an efficient feedback mechanism" is unfortunately a pipedream - it just aint gonna happen. Innovative methods should be thought of which have no "feedback" requirements or atleast ones that are localised.
Rajesh , you are right off course. But something needs to be done.
I think things like "computerisation" will go a long way in sorting out problems ... imapact may be lateral.
lots of orders are oral , once pc'ized things will be checked somewhat.
Some amount of corruption can be checked by allowing all new shops only in credit-card/debit-card payments mode.
WHat has happened to the promised <b>Kisan Credit Card ?</b>
What has happened to the <b>Crop Insurance schemes</b> ? Cant United India Assurance or whatever insurance company provide insurance against crop failure due to
1.Drought due to failure of monsoon,inter-state rivalry etc
2.Failure of seeds
3.Natural Calamities ?
What stops the government from carrying out these ?
<b>Where and how is the promised 70,000 crore credit going to the farmer ?</b>
We need answers for these questions...i say who is the Cabinet Minister for Agriculture ?
<b>Suicide by farmers in AP puzzle Manmohan </b> -Deccan
Hyderabad, July 1: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday asked the State government to carry out an indepth study into the causes behind farmersâ suicides in the State.
Reacting to the State governmentâs power-point presentation on farm-related issues, the Prime Minister wondered why farmers were committing suicides in the State alone <!--emo& --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo--> when the agricultural sector across the country was in distress.
The PM was believed to have <b>asked the officials study whether the suicides were a result of the lopsided policies of the previous government, <!--emo&  --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo--> faulty crop pattern or due to any other reason.</b> âYou have to make an analysis of the suicides,â he pointed out. Sources said, Singh assured the State government that the Centre will support the State to âbring back the glory of the rice-rich Stateâ.
Official sources told Chronicle that Manmohan had assured support to the State governmentâs initiatives in the farm sector. <b>Appreciating Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy for quickly responding to farmersâ problems, the PM said, âI will be with u.</b>â The State urged the Prime Minister to declare the multi-purpose irrigation project Polavaram as national project.
<b>The State also urged the PM to write off the accumulated Rs 2,000-odd crore losses in cooperative sector </b> <!--emo& --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo--> and allow the institutions to resume operations afresh with certain share capital.
<b>Thousand suicide deaths in 4 months</b>
New Delhi, Sept. 30: The UPA government has failed to check the spate of farmer suicides, with daily reports of such deaths pouring in from different parts of the country in the past four months. <b>The additional director of Navdanya, A Jafri, who is working with social scientist Vandana Shiva in the field, insists that the figure is close to 1,000 suicides, pointing out that approximately 300 deaths have been reported since the new government came to power from Andhra Pradesh alone. </b>
The suicides are being repo-rted widely from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, where the new governments have failed to address the problem despite initial promises, as well as western Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Punjab and Haryana and the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.
In Vidarbha, a recent incident reported is of a farmer who committed suicide because he could not clear a debt of just Rs 8,000. In Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh alone, 64 farmers have committed suicide in just four months. At least three suicides are being reported a week from Punjab and Haryana
Thanks Mudy,
For the latest post, 1000 (farmers) suicides in 4 months of Dr. YSR's rule. The governmental machinery is simply insensitive to the farmers' plight and the few who are sensitive are clue-less what to do. Third Green-Revolution is what can solve Indian farmers problems, for good. Political vision & will is what required to solve this chronicl problem, for good.
Dr. YSR made this election issue, now he is in power. It is getting worse.
Why he should care anyway, for next 5 years he safe. Before election he will announce some sop for people and clueless APites will vote for him.
Where is Sonia, who made such a big issue?
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