As India marks 50 years of green revolution, a look at the report of National Commission on Farmers becomes essential.
What is NCF?
The National Commission on Farmers was chaired by Prof. M. S. Swaminathan.
It submitted five reports through the period December 2004 - October 2006.
The report focused on causes of famer distresses and the rise in farmer suicides.
It proposed "faster and more inclusive growth" as the goal.
What are the major recommendations?
Land reforms - Distribute ceiling-surplus and waste lands.
Prevent diversion of prime agricultural land and forest for non-agricultural purposes.
Grazing rights and seasonal access to forests to tribals and pastoralists, and access to common property resources.
National Land Use Advisory Service to link land use decisions with ecological, meteorological and marketing factors.
Irrigation - Increasing water supply through rainwater harvesting and making recharge of the aquifer mandatory.
"Million Wells Recharge" programme, specifically targeted at private wells should be launched.
Substantial increase in investment in the irrigation sector.
Productivity - the per unit area productivity of Indian agriculture is much lower than other major crop producing countries.
A national network of advanced soil testing laboratories with facilities for detection of micronutrient deficiencies is recommended.
Promotion of conservation farming to conserve and improve soil health, water quantity and quality, and biodiversity.
Increase in public investment in agriculture related infrastructure such as irrigation, drainage, land development, water conservation, research development, etc to ensure increased productivity.
Credit and Insurance - Expanding the outreach of the formal credit system and reducing the rate of interest for crop loans with government support.
Establishing an Agriculture Risk Fund to provide relief to farmers in the aftermath of successive natural calamities.
Cover all crops by crop insurance with the village and not block as the unit for assessment.
Developing an integrated credit-cum-crop-livestock-human health insurance package.
Creating a Rural Insurance Development Fund to take up development work for spreading rural insurance.
Institutional development services by strengthening producers' organisations such as self-help groups and water user associations can be taken up.
Food Security - the decline in per capita foodgrain availability and its unequal distribution have serious implications for food security in both rural and urban areas.
Eliminating micronutrient deficiency induced hidden hunger through an integrated food cum fortification approach.
Formulating a National Food Guarantee Act and continuing the useful features of the Food for Work and Employment Guarantee programmes.
Farmers' Suicides - State level Farmers' Commission with representation of farmers for ensuring dynamic government response to farmers' problems.
Low risk and low cost technologies to provide maximum income to farmers to cope with the shock of crop failure.
Price Stabilisation Fund in place to protect the farmers from price fluctuations.
Village Knowledge Centres (VKCs) to serve as guidance centres on all aspects of agricultural and non-farm livelihoods.
Public awareness campaigns to make people identify early signs of suicidal behaviour.
Agricultural competitiveness - Promotion of commodity-based farmers' organisations such as Small Cotton Farmers' Estates.
This will combine decentralised production with centralised government services for leveraging institutional support and facilitating direct farmer-consumer linkage.
State Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee Acts [APMC Acts] should work for the development of domestic and international markets for local produce, and move towards a Single Indian Market.
Employment - Despite structural change in the workforce, agriculture still provides the bulk of employment in the rural areas of India.
Creating productive employment opportunities and improving the quality of employment in several sectors such that real wages rise through improved productivity.
The "net take home income" of farmers should be comparable to those of civil servants.
Emphasizing on relatively more labour intensive sectors.
Encouraging non-farm employment opportunities by developing particular sectors and sub-sectors.
Bioresources - Rural people in India depend on a wide range of bioresources for their nutrition and livelihood security.
Preserving traditional rights of access to biodiversity and encouraging community-based breed conservation.
Finally, the NCF recommends that Agriculture which is under the State List be inserted in the Concurrent List of the Constitution.
