|
|
The experts have dwelled on the issues like problems and
prospects of agriculture, its future development and
sustainability factors, environmental issues and overuse of
pesticides and fertilisers, deterioration in the health of soil,
unviable and unscientific mechanisation of the farming sector,
mindset of farmers and above all the cause and effect of the
World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement on agriculture. The
agreement has become a major challenge for India where
agriculture is a source of sustenance for the 70 per cent
population living in rural areas. The country at the moment is
facing a problem of surplus food. Maintaining huge foodstocks
has become more of a liability than an asset. Many states have
become self-sufficient in foodgrains. The movement of foodgrains,
especially rice and wheat, which used to be sent from the
food-surplus Punjab by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to
deficit states, has drastically declined. Most of the coastal
states in south are now getting supplies from abroad at much
cheaper rates, thanks to WTO-induced relaxations in the
international trade.
Diversification is
the answer often given by most of the experts when asked about
how to tackle the agricultural crisis in Punjab. The main
problem at hand is to come out of the paddy-wheat cropping
pattern. There is an urgent need to diversify into new areas
like vegetables and fruits, oil seeds, pulses and allied fields
such as dairy farming, poultry, piggery, etc. The book
enlightens all concerned about this.
However, the most
important part of the book, as has been aptly described by the
Director of the CRRID, Mr Rashpal Malhotra, is a chapter
carrying suggestions and policy recommendations. These can be
however subjected debate and discussion at a wider forum by
agricultural experts and even agriculturists who are supposed to
adopt and implement these at the filed level and also by the
government authorities concerned.
Among the
suggestions are retention of the FCI and the PDS by reforming
these institutions from within, strengthening of rural
infrastructure, suitable incentive for farmers for
diversification, check on ecological problems, better research
effort with a focus on improvement of production technology,
cost-effectiveness and quality of foodgrains for their sale in
the international market, induction of bio-engineering and bio
technology at the field level and framing of agriculture produce
markets act. The book should have also discussed why there has
been a crisis on the agricultural front Policymakers, whether
politicians or bureaucrats, have failed to deliver the goods. In
fact, they have no interest in tackling any of the problems.
Both these classes have only bothered to rule, without
addressing the concerns of the people. If those who governed
Punjab in the past had been sincere towards the people by whom
they had been elected, this crisis would not have been there.
|
WHAT
is the future of agriculture in Punjab? What should an
agriculturist do in future to survive in this age-old
profession? How should the crisis on agricultural front be
tackled? These and many other related questions have been
discussed at length in recent years by those who feel
concerned about the problems on the agricultural front. A
serious effort to document and debate the problems and
challenges pertaining to agriculture has been made by the
Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID),
which has published this book. S.S. Johl and S.K. Ray, both
well-known figures of the field, have edited the book. Eminent
experts have made their contribution in the book to discuss
various aspects, starting from the background to the crisis
point and concluding with suggestions and policy
recommendations to tackle it. The book is an outcome of a
two-day seminar held on the campus of the CRRID to discuss
agricultural problems and their solution.
