The rising prices hardly offer succour to the farmer as the middlemen and traders mint money buying the produce from farmers at cheap rates. Even as the prices or vegetables and cereals rise to record levels, farmers become poorer. Living on the mercy of money lenders, many are forced to end their lives. The statistics are alarming — 17,368 farmers committed suicide in 2009 alone.

Maharashtra saw the largest number of 2,872 suicides.

INDUSTRIALIZATION

As India rapidly industrializes, the government and private firms are seeking large tracts of farm land to build factories, power plants and highways, sparking off violent protests by farmers and others.

Why is land a big issue?

For many Indians, land is the only asset or social security that they possess and is a mark of social standing. Nearly 60% of India’s 1.2 billion citizens depend on farming for a living and each hectare of farmland supports five people.
Most projects require huge amounts of land. Despite the seemingly attractive prices, farmers have few other livelihood options and land taken over for industrialization has been blamed for displacing hundreds of thousands of people.
Protests against land being taken over have become more visible as the economy expands and the rich-poor gap widens.

How does it affect farm output?

India’s food productivity is nearly stagnant and using farm land for other purposes means the country cannot raise farm output rapidly enough. This could leave it vulnerable to food shortages in times of a bad harvest, forcing it to go for costly imports.

REMEDY

During his visit to India, US President Barack Obama pointed out that India is fortunate to have over half of its total population of 1.2 billion under the age of 30. Out of the 600 million young persons, over 60 per cent live in villages. Most of them are educated. Mahatma Gandhi considered the migration of educated youth from villages to towns and cities as the most serious form of brain drain adversely affecting rural India’s development. He, therefore, stressed that we should take steps to end the divorce between intellect and labour in rural professions.

The National Commission on Farmers stressed the need for attracting and retaining educated youth in farming. The National Policy for Farmers, placed in Parliament in November 2007, includes the following goal of the new policy — “to introduce measures which can help to attract and retain youth in farming and processing of farm products for higher value addition, by making farming intellectually stimulating and economically rewarding”. At present, Over 45 per cent of farmers interviewed by the National Sample Survey Organization wanted to quit farming. Under these conditions, how are we going to persuade educated youth, including farm graduates, to stay in villages and take to agriculture as a profession? How can youth earn a decent living in villages and help shape the future of our agriculture? This will require a three-pronged strategy.

# Improve the productivity and profitability of small holdings through appropriate technologies and market linkages.
# Enlarge the scope for the growth of agro-processing, agro-industries and agri-business.
# Promote opportunities for the services sector to expand in a manner that will trigger the technological and economic upgradation of farm operations.

Young farmers can also operate climate risk management centres, which will help farmers to maximise the benefits of a good monsoon and minimize the adverse impact of unfavourable weather. Educated youth can help to introduce the benefits of information, space, nuclear, bio- and eco-technologies. Ecotechnology involves the blend of traditional wisdom and frontier technology. This is the pathway to sustainable agriculture and food security, as well as agrarian prosperity. If educated youth choose to live in villages and launch the new agriculture movement, based on the integrated application of science and social wisdom, our untapped demographic dividend will become our greatest strength.

LETS TRY SAVING INDIAN AGRICULTURE TOO…..