The 8-member National Commission on Farmers, chaired by Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, was set up in 2004 by the UPA government to assess the extent of India’s agrarian crisis. It presented 5 reports.
Follow the thread to read its main points. #FarmersBill
This first report was to assist central and state governments in arresting the decline of farm incomes and abating farmers’ distress. It says that action must be taken immediately & that we must take Nehru’s advice from 1948: “Everything else can wait, but not agriculture.”
2/n
5 factors are central to India’s agrarian crisis: unfinished land reform agendas, quantity and quality of water, technology fatigue, accessible, adequate and timely institutional credit, and assured markets.
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The crisis in agriculture arose out of a lack of appropriate public policies and adequate public investment in rural infrastructure. Most of the central and state expenditure was on the salaries of government employees.
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Consequently, power, irrigation, markets, rural godowns and communication, as well as health and education remained grossly under-funded. The worst affected were small and marginal farmers, tenants and sharecroppers, and landless agricultural labourers and tribal farmers.
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The cost-risk-return structure of farming adversely affected over 80 million farming families operating small holdings of 1-2 acres or less.
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The report asked for initiatives like a ‘million wells recharge programme’ that would, with financial assistance, encourage farmers to channelise rainwater into their wells.
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The report calls for farmers to be regarded as partners in bringing about agricultural transformation and not as beneficiaries of government programmes.
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The report suggests that 50,000 farm schools should be established in the fields of successful farmers in order to share and educate others in effective farming practices.
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Women play a key role in all the four major components of farming: conservation, cultivation, consumption and commerce.
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The report demands a New Deal for Women in Agriculture where the concept of work is widened to include running crèches, preparing mid-day meals, undertaking immunisation of children and providing family planning services.
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The use of purchased inputs by farmers has multiplied 283 times from 1950-51 to 2000-01. To meet input costs, the rural poor borrow 84 % of their credit from non-formal sources.
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The report suggests that 50,000 farm schools should be established in the fields of successful farmers in order to share and educate others in effective farming practices.
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Lenindhasan, or Lenin– as he is called – and his friends, are trying to replace modern rice varieties and resist mono-cropping. Their plan is to restore lost diversity. And to germinate a rice revolution.
It's a different kind of revolution, led by another kind of Lenin.
Lenin cultivates 30 varieties of rice. He sells another 15 raised by fellow farmers. And he conserves 80 types of paddy seeds. All this, in his family’s six-acre farm in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvanamalai district.
It seems as if he’s been farming and selling paddy for decades. But it’s only been six years.
Before he became a farmer, Lenin was a corporate employee in Chennai, with two degrees and a good salary.
Life has only become harder in the last 10 years (A thread)
India's poorest homes continue to rely on minor forest produce like mahua and tendu leaves, along with the assured Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREGA) programme.
As they prepare for voting today in the General Elections 2024, Adivasi villagers here in Arattondi village say their lives have only become harder in the last 10 years...
MP govt is punishing "rioters" who had engaged in stone-pelting by destroying private property.
But the idea of Wasim pelting stores is difficult to digest. He had lost both his arms in 2005.
Then why was his house shop razed down too?
[read ahead]
In Wasim’s shop, customers would tell him whatever they needed and help themselves. “They would place the money in my pocket or the drawer in the shop and leave,” he says. “I had put whatever money I had raised into my shop. It was my livelihood for 15 years.”
But on a warm April day in Khargone, Wasim Ahmed watched in horror as a bulldozer ordered by the state govt crushed and destroyed his shop and the valuable material inside. That day, bulldozers flattened 50 other shops and homes in this Muslim-dominated locality.
A student once asked us:
"Why is inequality bad? The kirana owner has a small store & Ambani has a big business because of how hard they work. People who work hard, succeed."
PARI is hoping to address these misconceptions by showing the lives of hardworking Indians [a 🧵]
Unpacking the idea of ‘success’ is possible with a PARI story on unequal access to education, healthcare and justice.
We draw on them in classrooms to share the lives of hardworking people – on farms, in forests and the underbelly of cities, and more.
Students like Chennai high schooler, Arnav admit, “we view them [people below their socio-economic group] as statistics rather than an actual person who goes through things we often go through.”
Every day is Rural Women's Day here at PARI. Don't take our word for it. Browse our website to find stories of some of the most incredible women from rural India!
A thread to get you started 👇
#InternationalDayOfRuralWomen
1/ Seaweed is an essential algae to a wide array of industries, including the pharma industry. But who goes down into the sea to get it? @MPalani17304893 introduces you to the fisherwomen who spend 7-10 hours in the sea every day to harvest it.
2/ Shanti Devi is possibly India's first woman mechanic who has been working at a depot just outside Delhi for over two decades. She changes tyres, fixes punctures, repairs engines and breaks stereotypes. ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/a-…
In the 160 years since the British established tea production, Assam has become the largest tea-producing state in India, the largest tea-producing region in the world and the world’s fourth largest tea exporter.
Still, for every kilogram of packaged Assam tea sold, less than 5% of the cut goes to the workers.
850 million Indians consume tea daily. But who produces it?