Centre must not bow to WTO dictate
DH News Service
BANGALORE, May 18
Mr S Ramachandran Pillai, CPM politburo member and All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) General Secretary, today attributed the root cause of serial suicides of farmers in different parts of the country to the World Trade Organisation-dictated policy measures introduced by the Government in the agricultural sector.
Addressing a convention of farmers and agricultural workers, organised jointly by the Karnataka Rajya Raita Sangha, Karnataka Prantha Raita Sangha and Karnataka Pranta Krishi Koolikarara Sangha, Mr Pillai said under pressure from the WTO, the Government allowed free import of agricultural produce into the country, which hit the prices in domestic markets.
The corporatisation of agriculture under the new regime exposed small and marginal farmers to severe competition and they were forced to borrow very heavily at exorbitant rates of interest. With the Government expenditure on research and development steeply falling over the years, the private sector had taken over agricultural research. This had resulted in substandard seeds and spurious pesticides and fertilizers being released into the market.
All these factors, together with the vagaries of monsoon, had hit the poor farmers hard, and some of them resorted to the extreme step, he analysed.
Mr Pillai also said that by ensuring artificial price fluctuations in the international market, the WTO has been attempting to eliminate the multi-crop system being practised in India and, instead encouraged single crop system. This made the position of Indian farmers vulnerable as under the multi-crop system when one crop failed, they could depend on another crop whereas under mono-cropping pattern, farmers did not have this security.
While the WTO was for the removal of all quantitative restrictions on imports by India, the restrictions on Indias exports, especially that of farm produce, continued in one form or the other, he said citing how the European countries banned Indias marine exports on the pretext that the marine produce processing industry was not following hygiene norms.
He said that ever since the WTO dictated measures were introduced in Indian agriculture, the investment in the agricultural sector has come down by over two per cent. The new patent regime was threatening to take away from India, the traditional advantages it enjoyed in the export of turmeric and basmati rice, he pointed out.
The convention, attended by legislators K S Puttannaiah (KRRS) and G V Srirama Reddy (CPM), trade union leaders H V Ananthasubba Rao (AICTU) and S Suryanarayana Rao (CITU) later passed a resolution stating that the Government of India should not surrender its sovereignty to the WTO by bowing to its pressure to remove quantitative restrictions on imports and to amend the Indian Patents Act-1970.
By another resolution, the convention demanded that the State Government write off the loans in the districts where the farmers hit by crop loss were resorting to suicides. It also demanded that the Seeds Act, Pesticides Act and the Fertilizer Control order should be amended to make the supply of spurious farm inputs a criminal offence.
N-TEST FLAYED: The convention condemned the recent nuclear tests conducted by India and re solved that the progress in the relationship with the neighbouring states should be maintained. The farming community of the country was concerned with the abrupt change in the nuclear policy of India without consultation with the people and jingoistic language used by the Government, the resolution stated.
A memorandum containing these resolutions was submitted to Governor Khurshed Alam Khan.
DH News Service
BANGALORE, May 18
Mr S Ramachandran Pillai, CPM politburo member and All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) General Secretary, today attributed the root cause of serial suicides of farmers in different parts of the country to the World Trade Organisation-dictated policy measures introduced by the Government in the agricultural sector.
Addressing a convention of farmers and agricultural workers, organised jointly by the Karnataka Rajya Raita Sangha, Karnataka Prantha Raita Sangha and Karnataka Pranta Krishi Koolikarara Sangha, Mr Pillai said under pressure from the WTO, the Government allowed free import of agricultural produce into the country, which hit the prices in domestic markets.
The corporatisation of agriculture under the new regime exposed small and marginal farmers to severe competition and they were forced to borrow very heavily at exorbitant rates of interest. With the Government expenditure on research and development steeply falling over the years, the private sector had taken over agricultural research. This had resulted in substandard seeds and spurious pesticides and fertilizers being released into the market.
All these factors, together with the vagaries of monsoon, had hit the poor farmers hard, and some of them resorted to the extreme step, he analysed.
Mr Pillai also said that by ensuring artificial price fluctuations in the international market, the WTO has been attempting to eliminate the multi-crop system being practised in India and, instead encouraged single crop system. This made the position of Indian farmers vulnerable as under the multi-crop system when one crop failed, they could depend on another crop whereas under mono-cropping pattern, farmers did not have this security.
While the WTO was for the removal of all quantitative restrictions on imports by India, the restrictions on Indias exports, especially that of farm produce, continued in one form or the other, he said citing how the European countries banned Indias marine exports on the pretext that the marine produce processing industry was not following hygiene norms.
He said that ever since the WTO dictated measures were introduced in Indian agriculture, the investment in the agricultural sector has come down by over two per cent. The new patent regime was threatening to take away from India, the traditional advantages it enjoyed in the export of turmeric and basmati rice, he pointed out.
The convention, attended by legislators K S Puttannaiah (KRRS) and G V Srirama Reddy (CPM), trade union leaders H V Ananthasubba Rao (AICTU) and S Suryanarayana Rao (CITU) later passed a resolution stating that the Government of India should not surrender its sovereignty to the WTO by bowing to its pressure to remove quantitative restrictions on imports and to amend the Indian Patents Act-1970.
By another resolution, the convention demanded that the State Government write off the loans in the districts where the farmers hit by crop loss were resorting to suicides. It also demanded that the Seeds Act, Pesticides Act and the Fertilizer Control order should be amended to make the supply of spurious farm inputs a criminal offence.
N-TEST FLAYED: The convention condemned the recent nuclear tests conducted by India and re solved that the progress in the relationship with the neighbouring states should be maintained. The farming community of the country was concerned with the abrupt change in the nuclear policy of India without consultation with the people and jingoistic language used by the Government, the resolution stated.
A memorandum containing these resolutions was submitted to Governor Khurshed Alam Khan.
