New Delhi: Opinioning that the loan waivers is not a permanent solution for country’s distressed farmers, vice president Venhaiah Naidu today stated that there is a need to make agriculture sector economically viable and for that gaps in the policy formulation need to be identified.
Naidu was present as a chief guest at the inaugural function of two days national consultation on agriculture at Vaikuntha Mehta National institute of cooperation management in Pune on Thursday. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, former union minister and NCP chief Sharad Pawar and agriculture scientist MS Swaminathan also shared the dais with the vice president at the inaugural function.
Speaking about the improving the conditions of farmers in the country, Naidu said, “Loan waiver is not a permanent solution. At times, it can be a temporary solution to give some relief to distressed farmers. If waiver is given for one term, what will happen in the next term.”
Indicating that loan waiver is more of political demand, Naidu said, “Farmers have self-respect and the demand for loan waiver has not come from them. Past record suggests that most of the farmers try their best to repay the loan in time which suggests that they do not want loan waiver but they want sustainable development in agriculture.” Naidu appealed the government to work for identifying gaps in policy formulation. “Our policies should be more pro-farmer and we should streamline the implementation process keeping the farmer in view,” he said.
Naidu also cautioned that the country cannot be complacent about the food security situation as it exists today. “The growing needs of our country’s increasing population requires homegrown food security strategy,” he said. Before Naidu, Pawar in his speech also stressed the need of wealth creation in the field of agriculture. He said, “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 the agriculture products. The experts should give valuable inputs to make improvements in these sectors.”
Chief minister Fadnavis in his speech stated that Maharashtra government has increased its investment in the agriculture sector but he stated that the market linkage of the agriculture product has remained a big challenge. “The productivity in the field of agriculture has increased but its market linkage is the major problem before us. We have our warehouses full of agriculture products but we do not know how to sell them. We need to work on this challenge.”
Fadnavis also stated that the government has taken up an initiative of end to end approach for integrating agriculture sector in nearly 5,000 villages. “Through this approach, we are integrating the sector right from soil testing to crop planning and linking them with market. It will benefit the farmers of these villages, especially the farmers from Vidarbha and Marathwada,” he said