Save the farmers, save agriculture
“Farmers in Peril” described the plight of farmers as rice prices fall to new lows. They are losing hard earned savings day by day and with no prospect of financial gains this year. The prices of rice have long been dominated by middlemen with farmers now even unable to recover their production cost. They are demanding fair prices and also want the government to set up procurement centres in the markets.
Agriculture is the largest sector of employment in the country—with an overwhelming impact on major macroeconomic objectives such as employment levels, poverty alleviation, human resources development, food security, etc. It’s not just a matter of the farmers’ livelihoods, the exorbitant costs of production mean that villagers are losing interest in farming and as a result, every year hundreds of hectares of land are falling vacant and will soon be fallow. These farmers have no other options of survival if the government doesn’t come forward to save them by formulating an agriculture-friendly policy and a fair price commission.
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