Alarming fall in agricultural productions in Assam has been admitted by the Chief Minister in a press conference on April 24 last. Though the Chief Minister on the first day of his assumption of office had emphasised that agriculture would be at the top of his agenda, the present day performance level of this sector is agonisingly far below expectations. What then is the reason of present day crisis in productivity?
The onus is on the State government to effectively introduce measure to curb the price rice, Union Minister of State for Planning and Parliamentary Affairs V. Narayanasamy has said.
The news over the weekend that Punjab had crossed the 90-lakh tonne figure in wheat procurement was eclipsed by reports of at least five persons, including three women and one child, being killed and dozens, including six school children, admitted to various hospitals with serious burns as multiple fires destroyed thousands of acres of wheat fields in the State's south-western districts as well the adjoining areas of Haryana.
The farmers of Dhansiri subdivision have been maintaining their families by cultivation of rabi crops. More than 90 per cent people here are mainly dependent on agriculture. The areas of Assam-Nagaland border namely Nowjan, Beelgaon, Urinmghat, Sungajam, Tengani, Da-Pather, Doyang, are cultivating sugar cane, jute, mustard, potatoes, carrot, cauliflowers, onion, chillies, bringals and other green vegetables.
State BJP is organising a farmer's rally in Bhandara district of Eastern Vidharbha on May 3 to highlight the problems of paddy growers in the area. Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, state BJP chief Nitin Gadkari said that senior BJP leader L K Advani will be addressing this rally in Bhandara's Sakoli area. Advani, along with party General Secretary Gopinath Munde, other parties MP and legislators will address the paddy growers' rally to resolve their various issues.
Inflation continues unabated. In the last week of March it stopped at 7.14 per cent and swinging in April it reached up to 7.33 per cent. Government adopted several measures but it did not make any difference. Inflation lowered a little and again it started rising. Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday might take some steps in this direction. But only through mechanism it can not be checked. Because finding its root cause and effort to remove it necessary. Prices of daily consumable items are going up continuously and even after sufficient availability of food grains they are becoming dearer.
Now the question arises who is getting benefited by these measures and who is getting hit? We all know that about two third of our population is dependent on agriculture for its sustenance.
The escalating price rise and food crisis has put into focus the state of our agriculture yet again. Only a month-and-a-half back an estimated Rs 60,000 crore loan waiver for farmers hogged the headline for days together. The government's decision was on an unprecedented scale. And this aspect of Finance Minister Chidambaram's budget speech attracted widespread comment. Almost all political parties welcomed the move as most had been clamouring for such a step to relieve the farmers from debt.
After the failure of government in controlling inflation now there is hope on clouds. It is believed that if monsoon comes in time and rains properly , production of crop would be good and rates of food grains would lower itself. But the scientists of meteorological department said that normal rainfall is likely during monsoon. Inflation has hit commodities most and it has brought great concern before the government. Flour, pulses, rice and edible oil like commodities are out of budget. When the government efforts were not successful the traders have left hopes from government.
The inflationary process at the international level is pushed by factors that cannot be easily controlled.
THE chances are that people under the age of 30 in most countries of the world would never have experienced price rises of the extent and rapidity of the past year. Globally, the prices of many basic commodities have not risen faster than this for around three decades.
