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Notice (8): Undefined variable: urlPrefix [APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8]latest-news-updates/raising-farmers-plight-4681107.html"/> LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Raising farmers plight | Im4change.org
Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Raising farmers plight

-The Pioneer

Centre must come up with a national policy

The Supreme Court’s intervention for the lack of a national policy to help calamity-hit farmers is welcome. Regardless of what we have at the moment for them, the country's bread-earners must be offered all possible support to strengthen the economy. While taking up a number of public interest litigations, the apex court found that the Government had no policy to tackle the compensation of farmers due to crop failure and indebtedness. These are issues of national importance and of larger public interest, so the court argued for a central policy to support the calamity-hit farmers. Even the growing farmers suicide across the country has forced the Government time and again to relook at the issue.

The Government on its part, made the court aware that it had already introduced a comprehensive crop insurance scheme under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana that offers a certain sum of money for crop failure as a result of localised incidents and post-harvest losses. But then, there is no policy to cover the peasants, if crop loss comes from natural disasters. Amid this, the Niti Ayog's index on reforms in the farm sector offers a clear idea about the health of this crucial sector across all States. In a first of its kind exercise, the Ayog presented a ‘Agriculture Marketing and Farmer Friendly Reforms Index' of all States. This is based on the initiatives taken by the States in implementing farm sector reforms. Therefore, when the apex court is harping on having a national policy to rescue the distressed farmers, the Government is already on its way to address the decades-old problem. The concern of the court must be appreciated, but even if there is a national policy for the same, it cannot altogether prevent the crisis that is percolating the farming community since a long period of time.

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