Need And Urgency Of Wealth Creation In The Field Of Agriculture: Venkaiah Naidu for more Farmer Policies

PUNE: Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday said loan waiver is not a permanent solution and in the long-term, it would affect the agriculture sector and "hurt" cultivators.

Claiming that farmers who work with allied activities such as poultry and dairy along with traditional farming methods, do not commit suicide, he said cultivators must be able to export their produce for better reasonable returns.

In many policies, consumers are given more importance because of their large number, but farmers' concerns can not be ignored, Naidu said, adding, "How do we balance the two conflicting interests in practical terms? That is a major challenge."

The Vice-President was there to inaugurate a national consultation on 'making agriculture sustainable and profitable' at the Vaikunth Mehta National Institute of Cooperative Management.

"Loan waiver is not a permanent solution and in the long-term, it will affect the agriculture sector and hurt farmers," the Vice-President said, and mentioned that a huge population of the country is dependent on agriculture for survival, increasing the income and purchasing power of this group is extremely important.

"We should make our policies more pro-farmer. Secondly, we should streamline the implementation processes keeping the end consumer -- the farmer -- always in mind," the Vice-President said.

It is important to encourage farmers to take up allied activities such as poultry, dairy, fisheries and aquaculture that can not only enhance their income but also comfort them against the adverse impact of failed crop season, he said.

Noting that selling of agricultural produce and getting a fair return was a big challenge for most farmers, the Vice-President said cultivators still rely on local markets and have to very often resort to distress sale.

Naidu appealed towards the scientists to work with the government's extension machinery, like Krishi Vigyan Kendras, to advice farmers on cropping patterns, post-harvest processes and food processing technologies.
The government is focusing on developing rural roads, supplying reliable power, setting up godowns, cold storage facilities, refrigerated vans and market yards, he said.
Admitting that agriculture today is dead dry and is facing many challenges, Naidu said, "We need to evolve a multi-pronged strategy to make it viable, profitable and sustainable. That is the purpose of this consultation."

"We cannot be complacent about food security situation as it exists today. The growing needs of our country's increasing population require our own home-grown food security strategy as suggested by Prof Swaminathan," Naidu said.

Stressing on the four 'I's -- irrigation, infrastructure, investment and insurance -- he said these sectors need to be strengthened for development of the farm sector.
"We have expertise in procurement of agri-produce and today our all warehouses are full of procured produces but we don't know how to sell the produce and we need to work on it."

He said a lot of technologies can be brought into agriculture by adopting Artificial Intelligence."We have started end-to-end integrated agriculture programme in 5,000 villages right from soil development to crop planning to market linkage and with this integrated approach, we can bring sustainability," he said.
On the occasion, Pawar said there is a need and urgency of wealth creation in the field of agriculture.

"Indian agriculture sector has a great potential but there is a deficit in terms of infrastructure, credit policies, knowledge-sharing, skill development and marketing of agriculture products. Experts should give valuable inputs to make improvements in these sectors," he said.