When Farmville started becoming a craze on facebook there was a huge outcry with a huge number of number of netizens from india petitioning zynga to include INDIA as a country in the game….they succeeded and I am happy for them but what about these thousands of netizens thinking about the actual state of farming in INDIA… I was thinking about it and came across some astounding facts which really shocked me very badly
From 2002 to 2006 there have been 17500 farmer suicides and from 2006 to 2010 there have been 20000 farmer suicides and more than a quarter of it has been concentrated on the vidharbha area in Maharashtra. The government on being pressurized promised a package of Rs.110 billion (about $2.4 billion) specially for vidharbha .The families of farmers who had committed suicide were also offered an ex-gratia grant to the tune of Rs.100,000 by the government. This figure kept on varying, depending on how much criticism the government was facing from the media and the opposition parties for being uncaring towards the farmers' plight.
The surprising thing over here INDIA ranks second in the world when it comes to agricultural output and farming contributes to 16.6% of gdp ….. and agriculture still remains to be the most neglected sector during 4 years of the rule and just before the elections .. every politician just before the election remembers the plight of the farmers and sops are announced….
With huge amount of wheat rotting outside the godown...the farmers living a beggars life ...the moneylenders turning into evil villians so torturous that even bollywood villians are felt to be sweeter and more accomodating .. it doesn't help if a poltician goes and lives in their house for a day(yes rahul gandhi and a few jdu ministers have lived in a farmer's house for a day , not only dalits..)...we need quick and permanent measures to improve the present situation
Nowadays the so called cool sectors in INDIA like software and fashion are being given more importance when the basic backbone of the country’s self reliance has been grossly neglected…its time for us at least give a thought to it… It will at least turn out to be more satisfying than petitioning for a game where a person can farm in the comfort of his air conditioned bedroom. Farmville is not a prestige issue as people deem it to be but the Indian agricultural sector is something that has to be saved
In spite of all this, the recent appeal by our Agricultural Minister to our PM to lessen his burden surely adds more fire to this issue. !
ReplyDeletehmmm yeah you right he just washes his hand from the issues that come up regarding his ministry... but we are to blame we elected him although we knew he was the bcci president and has multiple work
ReplyDeleteWell, sai..there is no relation between the farmers suicides and minister's request to lessen his burden. He was actually asking to appoint few more ministers of state who can effectively work on the agricultural policies. Policies are infact framed more by the agriculturists and gets approval from the PC and the Ministry. Figures of death may be true, but reasons are many. Money lenders issue is one of valid ones you mentioned amongst the several issues. Farmers suicide is not just a national issue anymore. And Farmville , i am totally unaware of what exactly it goes on with. So cant comment anything about comparison with it or using it as a metaphor.
ReplyDeleteIf you are interested, I'd love to send you an essay which i will pendown from some sources on the farmer's problems in India, (causes and miseries) soon. A more understanding of the facts is required in discussing such topics.
ReplyDeletebasic reasons are money lender and irrigation problems and electricity...the latter 2 are politicians forte thats what they promise i wrote this article on the assumption that people will understand when i mention that politician sops ..yes as u say not only agriculture ministry but every department of the government has people with the know how about that particular field and the work of the minister is to approve it but when a minister is the actual person who is promising this stuff and is not implementing its the minister who has to be blamed ...just because his job is approval u cant tell that its ok if he doesnt take initiatives...and farmville was a metaphor
ReplyDeletei wud love to read the essays you send..waiting for it
See we have an inflation of more than 12 % in the country and still the govt increases petrol/ diesel rates and deregulate petrol prices. and our honorable agriculture minister Sharad Pawar who hails from Maharastra itself is insensitive to vidarbha region. and now as he is also ICC president he wants PM to releive him of his duties and wants his daughter Supriyta Sule to be agri minster. this all is just because of coalition politics,, u see mamta arm twisting GOVT and so is karunanidhi.,,.. similarly we lost 60,000 crore in 2G spectrum because of incapability of telecom minster A RAJA who is from DMK...and govt still doesnt sack him...sometimes i do feel that we shud have a bipolar party system just like as in US..
ReplyDeleteand other problem with our agricultural practice is that our agriculture is much dependent on monsoons... if we have good monsoons we have more output less inflation,,but when monsoons dont come in time we have farmers sucides.. so we shud search for alternate sources for water and depending less on monsoons.. are engineers and scientists from IITS and IISC listening?????