Click to play videoNew Delhi: A real innovative idea has come from the man behind India's green revolution and Head of National Commission for Farmers, Professor M S Swaminathan.
He has suggested that the Government hand out a soil health card to farmers and tell them the fertility status of their land.
"We have a strategy for what we call a new vision for agriculture for 21st century. The problems and opportunities of 20th century was somewhat different," says Professor Swaminathan.
The card will be part of the Professor's final report on what should be done for the farmers.
The recommendations of the National Commission for Farmers may well become part of the National Agriculture Policy that is being drafted.
The report focuses on four areas: Land, Water, Credit and Insurance and Technological inputs.
- Land: The report wants an assessment of soil fertility in the country.
- Water: It proposes more efficient use of water and calls Bihar Indian agriculture's sleeping giant because of its abundant water.
- Credit and Insurance: The report makes a strong pitch for debt restructuring in drought-prone areas like Vidarbha.
It also proposed loan repayment time be extended to four or five years so one bad year does not force farmers to default.
They also want a comprehensive insurance scheme for the farmers' families.
- Technology: The report says different kinds of farmlands, dryland, rainfed and irrigated, need diffferent technologies.
They say farmers in drought-prone must use low-risk techniques which means they must rely less on purchased inputs so a farmer with a cow should use the cowdung as manure instead of buying chemical fertilizers.
The commission wants agricultural universities to develop low cost farming technology.
"Ecology, equity, economics and employment are the foundations of our report,” says Professor Swaminathan.
Sources in the Farmers' Commission say India cannot be shining for just thirty per cent of the population while the other seventy per cent is weeping.
So the message is loud and clear - the Government must intervene to make agriculture a profitable occupation.
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