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"Urgent
measures needed to stave off agrarian crisis" |
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| The mid-term appraisal
of the Tenth Plan has come as a 'wake-up' call
for the economy and highlighted the need for urgent
steps to avert an agrarian crisis, M. S. Swaminathan,
Chairman, National Commission on Farmers, said
on Tuesday. |
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| The commission
would soon submit its second report to Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh, calling for a National Food Guarantee
Act to enSUl'e 'zero hunger'. The Act was essential,
as farmers were facing the gamble of markets and
monsoons and drought or flood, he said. |
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| Dr. Swaminathan
was addressing the second biennial convocation
of the Tata Dhan Academy. |
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| He said the appraisal
of the first three years of the Plan revealed
that progress in agdculture was slow and the growth
fell below four per cent. Food production was
below the population growth rate. Hence, the 'off-track'
performance had to be set right. |
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| Dr. Swaminathan
said reversing the decline would help to stave
off an agrarian crisis. The Food Guarantee Act
should facilitate creation of a de centralised
network of grain storage structures. It would
enlarge the composition of food security basket.
The commission's second report would suggest steps
to give relief to farmers. Brazil and Kenya had
announced 'zero hunger' programmes. |
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| The first report
suggested setting up of 50,000 farm schools covering
all States to facilitate 'farmer-to-farmer' learning
and promote role models in agriculture. It also
recommended digging one million wells under the
community water security system. |
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| Dr. Swaminathan
called for a comprehensive plan to eradicate hunger,
malnourishment, sanitation problems and infant
mortality. India could launch a 'Make Poverty
a History' campaign as in the Western countries. |
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| He lauded the
role played by movements such as Kalanjiyam and
Vayalagam for developing the self-help group network
and facilitating community banking! micro-credit
in villages. |
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| M. P. Vasimalai,
Executive Director, Tata Dhan Academy, said the
Dhan Foundation was working in 6,000'villages. |
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| Academy chairperson
A. Umarani and Kalanjiyam founder Chinnapillai
were present. |
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| Dr. Swaminathan
presented certificates to 25 students who completed
Post-Graduate Diploma in Development Management. |
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| "Outsource
works to rural areas" |
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| The country's
greatest challenge is to retain the rural masses
in villages. Outsourcing of works from urban places
to rural areas will help to solve the problem,
M. S. Swaminathan, Chairman, National Commission
on Farmers, has said. |
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| Addressing presspersons
here, he said that with e-governance, even the
transaction cost of outsourcing works" to
rural areas would be low. The challenge of food
security was caused not by the lack of food grains
but the lack of purchasing power among 'the rural
masses. The huge human resource in rural areas
could be utilised in post-harvest value addition
and marketing. The self-help groups were charged
with maintaining land records in villages in Andhra
Pradesh, he said. |
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| The private sector,
especially the chain stores, had a critical role
in outsourcing works. They could partially manufacture
their products in rural areas. China had developed
hi-tech rural township enterprises. Such programmes
would benefit the companies as well as the rural
people. |
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| The companies
would get cheap labour and the rural people employment,
he added. He advocated creation of opportunities
in villages for a job-led economic growth. |
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| Regretting that
the younger generation was not attracted to farming,
he said the intellectual challenge 'in ,biotechnology
and information technology was lacking in agriculture.
Farming technology should be upgraded to stimulate
the educated youth. The investment in rural areas
should be increased and infrastructure provided
to help rural literates have a reasonable earning. |
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| Source : The Hindu,
July 6, 2005 |
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