BKU to hold demonstration during Obama's visit
Gargi Parsai
Protest against ties with U.S. on agriculture
NEW DELHI: On the day U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to address the joint session of Parliament in Delhi, thousands of farmers under the banner of Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) will hold a demonstration here against the government's strategic partnership with Washington on agriculture and food security “that jeopardises indigenous farm research and allows multi-national corporations to set the agenda in the sector”.
“At the rate the government is going, the country will face a food crisis by 2020,'' warned Punjab BKU president Ajmer Singh Lakhowal over the weekend.
Call to scrap MoUs
Addressing a joint press conference here with Gurnam Singh (Haryana), S.S. Cheema (Uttarakhand), Rakesh Tikait (Uttar Pradesh) and Yudhjvir Singh, Mr. Lakhowal said the government policies are anti-farmer. “We will hold a massive demonstration on November 8 against the policies of the government that are hurting farmers, the indigenous research and the food security of the country.”
Demanding that the government scrap all memorandums of understanding signed by public agricultural institutes and universities with multinational corporations, biotech companies and agri-businesses, they alleged that through these pacts big corporations were taking over for their own profits the research, knowledge and resources of India's public agricultural institutions. “First our scientists were taken away by these corporations, now universities are being given to them for research and extension for their own benefits.''Criticising the Rs.20 per quintal hike in the minimum support price (MSP) announced recently by the government, the farmers' leaders said that when inflation was in double digits and government servants were given 18 per cent hike in dearness allowance, farmers were given only a two per cent hike in wheat prices. As per the estimates of Punjab Agriculture University, wheat MSP should be Rs.1,650 per quintal, they said. “And if the government were to implement the recommendations of the M.S. Swaminathan Commission on Farmers, then the MSP for wheat should be Rs.2,450 per quintal. By raising it by Rs.20 per quintal the government has played a joke on farmers,” they added.
The farm leaders did not buy the argument that higher wheat MSP resulted in a higher open market price. “How come when the prices of wheat products rise, there is no inflation but if the price of wheat MSP [payable to farmers] rises there is inflation? If the price of finished cloth goes up, nobody says there is inflation but if the price of cotton goes up there is hue and cry.''
Agreeing with the Supreme Court on issuance of free foodgrains to poor people instead of allowing it to rot, the agriculture leaders said if the government could distribute grains for Rs.3 and Rs.2 per kg (as proposed by the National Advisory Council) then why not give them for free? “The problem in the country is not foodgrains production but the purchasing power of the poor people,'' said Mr. Yadhuvir Singh.
Memorandum to PM
They have submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him not to enter into a strategic alliance in agriculture and food security with the U.S. and refrain from the speedy Free Trade Agreements with industrial countries like the U.S., the European Union, Israel and Australia that would provide market access to their agribusinesses and their heavily subsidised commodities. They also demanded that farm land not be acquired for development projects and SEZs
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
obama
कृषि समझौते के खिलाफ भाकियू का प्रदर्शन
Story Update : Tuesday, November 09, 2010 2:14 AM
नई दिल्ली।
भारतीय किसान यूनियन ने भारत-अमेरिका के बीच हुए कृषि समझौते के खिलाफ में जंतर मंतर पर प्रदर्शन किया। पश्चिमी उत्तर प्रदेश समेत हरियाणा, पंजाब और दिल्ली से काफी तादाद में आये किसानों ने अमेरिका केसाथ किए गए कृषि समझौते को जल्दबाजी में लिया गया निर्णय करार देते हुए कहा कि किसानों को विश्वास में लिए बिना यह समझौता किया गया है। किसानों ने सरकार को चेतावनी दी कि स्वामीनाथन आयोग की बात को दरकिनार किया गया तो 9 मार्च 2011 को दिल्ली के रास्ते को सिल कर दिया जाएगा। यह धरना अनिश्चितकालीन होगा। इस मौके पर किसानों ने फसल जलाकर अपना विरोध जताया।
प्रदर्शन का नेतृत्व भाकियू के राष्ट्रीय प्रवक्ता राकेश टिकैत समेत वरिष्ठ पदाधिकारी युद्घवीर सिंह, अजमेर सिंह लाखोवाला, धर्मेन्द मलिक ने किया। वक्ताओं ने कहा कि केंद्र सरकार किसानों को छलने का काम लगातार कर रही है। उन्हें कृषि का लागत मूल्य भी नहीं दिया जा रहा है। यदि सरकार की ओर से किसानों की उपेक्षा इसी तरह से होती रही तो किसान इसे कतई नहीं सहन करेंगे। किसान इतने आंदोलित थे कि सरकार मुर्दाबाद के नारे लगाने के साथ ही बैनर-पोस्टर भी लहराते हुए प्रदर्शन कर रहे थे।
Story Update : Tuesday, November 09, 2010 2:14 AM
नई दिल्ली।
भारतीय किसान यूनियन ने भारत-अमेरिका के बीच हुए कृषि समझौते के खिलाफ में जंतर मंतर पर प्रदर्शन किया। पश्चिमी उत्तर प्रदेश समेत हरियाणा, पंजाब और दिल्ली से काफी तादाद में आये किसानों ने अमेरिका केसाथ किए गए कृषि समझौते को जल्दबाजी में लिया गया निर्णय करार देते हुए कहा कि किसानों को विश्वास में लिए बिना यह समझौता किया गया है। किसानों ने सरकार को चेतावनी दी कि स्वामीनाथन आयोग की बात को दरकिनार किया गया तो 9 मार्च 2011 को दिल्ली के रास्ते को सिल कर दिया जाएगा। यह धरना अनिश्चितकालीन होगा। इस मौके पर किसानों ने फसल जलाकर अपना विरोध जताया।
प्रदर्शन का नेतृत्व भाकियू के राष्ट्रीय प्रवक्ता राकेश टिकैत समेत वरिष्ठ पदाधिकारी युद्घवीर सिंह, अजमेर सिंह लाखोवाला, धर्मेन्द मलिक ने किया। वक्ताओं ने कहा कि केंद्र सरकार किसानों को छलने का काम लगातार कर रही है। उन्हें कृषि का लागत मूल्य भी नहीं दिया जा रहा है। यदि सरकार की ओर से किसानों की उपेक्षा इसी तरह से होती रही तो किसान इसे कतई नहीं सहन करेंगे। किसान इतने आंदोलित थे कि सरकार मुर्दाबाद के नारे लगाने के साथ ही बैनर-पोस्टर भी लहराते हुए प्रदर्शन कर रहे थे।
OBAMA INDIA VISIT:Demands Market Access at the Cost of Indian Farmers
Headquarter: Kissan Bhawan, Village Sisoli,
Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh
Telefax: 0131 – 2621168
Email: bku.tikait@gmail.com
Press Release
8th November, 2010
OBAMA INDIA VISIT:Demands Market Access at the Cost of Indian Farmers
New Delhi: Mr. Barak Obama is in New Delhi today, to seek greater market access for the American agricultural goods in India. What the US couldn’t achieve through the Doha Round of WTO negotiations, Mr. Obama would try to get that through a bilateral deal with India. Today, the Bhartiya Kissan Unions staged a massive demonstration at the Parliament Street in Delhi protesting against Obama’s visit to India and his agenda to sign bilateral agricultural and trade deals to facilitate takeover of Indian agriculture by the US multinationals.
The United States is pushing India for removing all barriers in the way of US exports to India and we are quite sure that Mr. Obama’s would secure this today, without making any commitment towards reduction in US farm subsidies, especially in cotton, which India has been demanding during the 9 years of Doha negotiations. The increased market access to agricultural goods of the United States would be disastrous for the Indian farmers who had suffered a lot in the last 15 years of WTO regime due to the dumping of subsidized cotton from US which resulted in sharp fall in cotton prices and increased farmers suicide in the cotton belt of India.
We, the farmers of India, mainly from Bhartiya Kissan Unions, are also quite agitated and upset with the furthering of Indo-US cooperation in agriculture. Since 2006, when Mr. Bush signed the Indo-US Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture, we have witnessed a greater penetration of US agribusiness companies in our policy making on agriculture as well as in our agricultural research institutions, such IARI, ICAR and agricultural universities. This also resulted in different policy initiatives in agriculture, like the new Seeds Bill, the National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority bill 2009, Protection and Utilisation of Public Funded Intellectual Property Bill, 2008 to benefit US agribusiness mainly Monsanto, DuPont, Cargill and others. Moreover, the US retail giant, Wal-Mart, has been publicly lobbying for opening up India’s retail sector to FDI and in this visit the thrust of Obama’s engagement would be on opening up of the food retail, which would result in complete takeover of Indian small retail. We, therefore, fear that any kind of the Indo-US agricultural treaty, focusing on agricultural research, biotechnology, retail, would bring Indian agriculture under the direct control of US Corporate houses.
We therefore demand that the Government of India must not sign any kind of agreement on agriculture with the US Administration which would result in opening up of agriculture research, agricultural trade, retail sector, and other services for American capital and MNCs. We don’t want any bilateral agreement on agriculture with the US on the line of Indo US Knowledge Initiative of Agriculture, whether in the field of trade, biotechnology or irrigation. We appeal to the Prime Minister and the UPA Chairperson that they do not allow any market access in agricultural trade to United States, which the latter has been aspiring to gain through failed Doha negotiations, through a bilateral Indo US trade deal. We also demand that all the Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) signed by the Indian public agricultural institutes and universities with the multinational corporations, biotech companies and agribusiness must be scrapped. Through these MoUs, the big corporations are taking over the research, knowledge and resources of our public agricultural institutions for their profit.
We also demand that the UPA government must review the gains from the Free Trade Agreement it has signed with ASEAN, South Korea and others before entering into any FTA negotiations. We fear that the 30 odd FTAs which the government of India is negotiating with the highly industrial countries including the US, the EU, Israel, Australia and others would provide market access to their agribusiness and their heavily subsidized agricultural commodities. This is highly detrimental to India's rural food producers and production. We demand that agriculture and agricultural related activities must be kept out of any FTA negotiations India is engaging with.
We also demand that given the increased prices for agricultural goods in the international market, the government of India must provide a better price by increasing the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for all agricultural commodities, especially wheat, rice, pulses, sugarcane and cotton. We demand that the government of India
- Must implement Swaminathan Committee recommendations for MSP which should be at least 50% more than the weighted average cost of production.
- Must increase the MSP for wheat to Rs.2200 per quintal because the cost of wheat production comes to around Rs.1600 per quintal. We reject the mere Rs.20 increase in the MSP for wheat for this year.
- Must increase the MSP for Sugarcane crop to Rs.300 per quintal.
- Immediately expedite the procurement of rice crop in Punjab and Haryana.
We also demand that the state and the Centre governments must stop all land acquisition in the name of ‘public purpose’. There must not be any forceful acquisition of farmers land and selling of the land by the government, acquired on the pretext of “public purpose”, to Corporates for any development projects or SEZ. The government must stop to act like a ‘middle man’ in acquiring farmers land for Corporates. The government must soon amend the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 in consultation with farmers and the definition of “public purpose” in the Act should be clearly defined and specified. In case land is needed for public purposes like hospital building, defence purposes; market rates should be paid to the farmers.
The farmers of India have suffered a lot under the neo-liberal regime of the Manmohan Singh government which is determined to facilitate takeover of Indian agricultural by the multinational corporations at the cost of small and marginal farmers. Therefore, the Coordination Committee of BKU farmer Unions have declared today that if their demands for a Framers’ friendly Agricultural Policy; Increased MSP for agricultural commodities; Halting of all FTAs; and Withdrawal of all MoUs with agricultural corporations, are not met within four months, they would mobilize for a massive protests and blocking of all roads to Delhi on 9th March 2011.
Signed by:
Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, State President, BKU Punjab,
Gurnam Singh, State President, BKU Haryana,
S.S. Cheema, BKU Uttrakhand,
Rakesh Tikait, BKU U.P.
Yudhvir Singh, Spokesman, BKU (+91-9868146405).
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
BKU to hold demonstration during Obama's visit
BKU to hold demonstration during Obama's visit
Gargi Parsai
Share · print · T+ T+ · T-
Protest against ties with U.S. on agriculture
On the day U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to address the joint session of Parliament in Delhi, thousands of farmers under the banner of Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) will hold a demonstration here against the government's strategic partnership with Washington on agriculture and food security “that jeopardises indigenous farm research and allows multi-national corporations to set the agenda in the sector”.
“At the rate the government is going, the country will face a food crisis by 2020,'' warned Punjab BKU president Ajmer Singh Lakhowal over the weekend.
Call to scrap MoUs
Addressing a joint press conference here with Gurnam Singh (Haryana), S.S. Cheema (Uttarakhand), Rakesh Tikait (Uttar Pradesh) and Yudhjvir Singh, Mr. Lakhowal said the government policies are anti-farmer. “We will hold a massive demonstration on November 8 against the policies of the government that are hurting farmers, the indigenous research and the food security of the country.”
Demanding that the government scrap all memorandums of understanding signed by public agricultural institutes and universities with multinational corporations, biotech companies and agri-businesses, they alleged that through these pacts big corporations were taking over for their own profits the research, knowledge and resources of India's public agricultural institutions. “First our scientists were taken away by these corporations, now universities are being given to them for research and extension for their own benefits.''Criticising the Rs.20 per quintal hike in the minimum support price (MSP) announced recently by the government, the farmers' leaders said that when inflation was in double digits and government servants were given 18 per cent hike in dearness allowance, farmers were given only a two per cent hike in wheat prices. As per the estimates of Punjab Agriculture University, wheat MSP should be Rs.1,650 per quintal, they said. “And if the government were to implement the recommendations of the M.S. Swaminathan Commission on Farmers, then the MSP for wheat should be Rs.2,450 per quintal. By raising it by Rs.20 per quintal the government has played a joke on farmers,” they added.
The farm leaders did not buy the argument that higher wheat MSP resulted in a higher open market price. “How come when the prices of wheat products rise, there is no inflation but if the price of wheat MSP [payable to farmers] rises there is inflation? If the price of finished cloth goes up, nobody says there is inflation but if the price of cotton goes up there is hue and cry.''
Agreeing with the Supreme Court on issuance of free foodgrains to poor people instead of allowing it to rot, the agriculture leaders said if the government could distribute grains for Rs.3 and Rs.2 per kg (as proposed by the National Advisory Council) then why not give them for free? “The problem in the country is not foodgrains production but the purchasing power of the poor people,'' said Mr. Yadhuvir Singh.
Memorandum to PM
They have submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him not to enter into a strategic alliance in agriculture and food security with the U.S. and refrain from the speedy Free Trade Agreements with industrial countries like the U.S., the European Union, Israel and Australia that would provide market access to their agribusinesses and their heavily subsidised commodities. They also demanded that farm land not be acquired for development projects and SEZs.
Gargi Parsai
Share · print · T+ T+ · T-
Protest against ties with U.S. on agriculture
On the day U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to address the joint session of Parliament in Delhi, thousands of farmers under the banner of Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) will hold a demonstration here against the government's strategic partnership with Washington on agriculture and food security “that jeopardises indigenous farm research and allows multi-national corporations to set the agenda in the sector”.
“At the rate the government is going, the country will face a food crisis by 2020,'' warned Punjab BKU president Ajmer Singh Lakhowal over the weekend.
Call to scrap MoUs
Addressing a joint press conference here with Gurnam Singh (Haryana), S.S. Cheema (Uttarakhand), Rakesh Tikait (Uttar Pradesh) and Yudhjvir Singh, Mr. Lakhowal said the government policies are anti-farmer. “We will hold a massive demonstration on November 8 against the policies of the government that are hurting farmers, the indigenous research and the food security of the country.”
Demanding that the government scrap all memorandums of understanding signed by public agricultural institutes and universities with multinational corporations, biotech companies and agri-businesses, they alleged that through these pacts big corporations were taking over for their own profits the research, knowledge and resources of India's public agricultural institutions. “First our scientists were taken away by these corporations, now universities are being given to them for research and extension for their own benefits.''Criticising the Rs.20 per quintal hike in the minimum support price (MSP) announced recently by the government, the farmers' leaders said that when inflation was in double digits and government servants were given 18 per cent hike in dearness allowance, farmers were given only a two per cent hike in wheat prices. As per the estimates of Punjab Agriculture University, wheat MSP should be Rs.1,650 per quintal, they said. “And if the government were to implement the recommendations of the M.S. Swaminathan Commission on Farmers, then the MSP for wheat should be Rs.2,450 per quintal. By raising it by Rs.20 per quintal the government has played a joke on farmers,” they added.
The farm leaders did not buy the argument that higher wheat MSP resulted in a higher open market price. “How come when the prices of wheat products rise, there is no inflation but if the price of wheat MSP [payable to farmers] rises there is inflation? If the price of finished cloth goes up, nobody says there is inflation but if the price of cotton goes up there is hue and cry.''
Agreeing with the Supreme Court on issuance of free foodgrains to poor people instead of allowing it to rot, the agriculture leaders said if the government could distribute grains for Rs.3 and Rs.2 per kg (as proposed by the National Advisory Council) then why not give them for free? “The problem in the country is not foodgrains production but the purchasing power of the poor people,'' said Mr. Yadhuvir Singh.
Memorandum to PM
They have submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him not to enter into a strategic alliance in agriculture and food security with the U.S. and refrain from the speedy Free Trade Agreements with industrial countries like the U.S., the European Union, Israel and Australia that would provide market access to their agribusinesses and their heavily subsidised commodities. They also demanded that farm land not be acquired for development projects and SEZs.
BKUFarmers demands to PM
To,
Shri Manmohan Singh ji
Hon'ble Prime Minister of India
New Delhi
Dear Sir,
We, the farmers of Bhartiya Kisan Union, are writing to you in the backdrop of many disturbing developments such as the near completion of negotiations on FTAs with developed economies, like Japan and the E.U.; large scale acquisitions of agricultural land by companies; increasing domination of biotech firms in the Indian agricultural system and institutions; and most importantly, UPA government poor response to the increasing hunger and malnutrition among rural community while million of tonnes of food grains are rooting in our godowns. It is a matter of great concern for us that even after 60 years of India’s independence, more than 5000 children are dying every day in our country due to malnutrition. And in 2010, India has slipped to 67th position among 84 developing countries on the global hunger index released by the International Food Policy Research Institute. Despite this, the present UPA government under your leadership is completely non-committal on feeding poor people even though 67,000 tonnes of wheat had rotted this year alone and tonnes of wheat are still rotting in the open in Punjab, while farmers are ready with their next harvest.
Do Not subsidize Poor at the Cost of Small and Marginal Farmers:
We fear that the faulty policies of the UPA government towards poor Public Distribution System (PDS) as well as ban on exports of food grains would be detrimental for the Indian farmers especially the wheat and rice growers who have been offered slight increase in Minimum Support Price (MSP) even though prices of these commodities are quite high in the international market. The only excuse for the government to keep MSP low is to subsidize food for the poor at the cost of the farmers’ profit. And this is being justified on the pretext that there is lack of funds for paying higher price for procuring foodgrains which would increase cost of food for poor but the government has no shame in giving a subsidy of more than Rs.500,000 crore to corporate sector in the form of direct and indirect tax concessions, write offs etc in the 2010-11 budget alone. This kind of pro-corporate and anti-farmers policies of the Indian government are forcing farmers to quit agriculture.
We demand that government should divert the monitory benefits given to Corporates towards providing subsidized food to the poor as well as paying higher procurement price to the farmers who are struggling hard to feed the people of India despite high cost of production, high inflation and increasing food crisis. Given this, we demand that the government of India
- Must implement Swaminathan Committee recommendations for MSP which should be at least 50% more than the weighted average cost of production.
- Must increase the MSP for wheat to Rs.2200 per quintal because the cost of wheat production comes to around Rs.1600 per quintal. We reject the mere Rs.20 increase in the MSP for wheat for this year.
- Must increase the MSP for Sugarcane crop to Rs.300 per quintal.
- Immediately expedite the procurement of rice crop in Punjab and Haryana.
No to Free Trade Agreements (FTAs):
The BKU farmers are quite upset with the UPA-2 agenda for trade liberalization through speeding up of the FTA negotiations to liberalize agricultural imports to India. We fear that the 30 odd FTAs which the government of India is negotiating with the highly industrial countries like US, EU, Israel, Australia and others would provide market access to their agribusiness and their heavily subsidized agricultural commodities. This is highly detrimental to India's rural food producers and production. We are shocked that in a democracy like ours no consultations have been carried out of such FTAs and all the deals are being done behind closed doors, while our livelihoods, markets and biodiversity are being traded away. Such lack of transparency is unacceptable to us. We demand that agriculture and agricultural related activities must be kept out of any FTA negotiations India is engaging with.
No Trade/ Agricultural Ties with the U.S. during Obama’s visit:
We would also like register our strongest protest against signing of any kind of agreement during the forthcoming visit of the US President Barak Obama in India in early November. We don’t want any bilateral agreement on agriculture with the US on the line of Indo US Knowledge Initiative of Agriculture, whether in the field of trade, biotechnology or irrigation. We appeal to UPA that they do not allow any market access in agricultural trade to United States, which the latter has been aspiring to gain through failed Doha negotiations, through a bilateral Indo US trade deal.
No Acquisition of Farmers Land for Development Projects and SEZs:
We demand that the state and the Centre governments must stop all land acquisition in the name of ‘public purpose’. There must not be any forceful acquisition of farmers land and selling of the land by the government, acquired on the pretext of “public purpose”, to Corporates for any development projects or SEZ. The government must stop to act like a ‘middle man’ in acquiring farmers land for Corporates. The government must soon amend the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 in consultation with farmers and the definition of “public purpose” in the Act should be clearly defined and specified. In case land is needed for public purposes like hospital building, defence purposes; market rates should be paid to the farmers.
We demand that the proposed GAIL India pipeline project in Uttrakhand should be built alongside roads, canals and railway lines so that farmers lands are not disturbed. In case acquisition of farmers land is absolutely necessary for gas pipeline, we demand that market rates must be paid to the affected farmers.
Reduce Interest rate to 4% for all Agricultural Loans:
We would like to demand that the government, as per the recommendation of the Swaminathan Committee report of 2007, must fix a maximum interest rate of 4% on all agricultural loans. With the increasing cost of production and increasing food inflation, this would be a big relief for the Indian farmers and would help in preventing the farmers’ suicide in the country. We also like to reiterate our demand for a complete debt relief not only from institutional debt but also of private money lenders. Moreover, it is a known fact that most of the agricultural loans meant for small and marginal farmers are being diverted to big agri-corporations. We therefore demand that instead of providing credit facility to agribusiness, the UPA government bring policy to provide agricultural credit to small and marginal farmers at the nominal rate of interest.
Strengthen Extension Department of Agriculture:
We demand that given the poor state of our agriculture, the government of India must ensure increased public investment in strengthening the extension department of the Ministry of Agriculture, which was the backbone of Indian agriculture during the green revolution. The complete breakdown of the extension services of the agriculture department has resulted in farmers being completely dependent on the private agents or seed shops owner for any advice on agriculture practices.
Crop Insurance to Compensate Farmers in case of Natural Calamity:
We would like to draw your kind attention on the anomaly in the current Crop Insurance Scheme where a block or tehsil (not even a village) is considered as a unit and unless a natural calamity hit the whole block or tehsil, farmers are not compensated. We therefore demand that under the Crop Insurance Scheme, each farmer and his/her crop should be considered as a unit. In case of natural calamity like drought, floods, fire, hailstorm or frost which destroys standing crop of a farmer or groups of farmers, they must get compensation. The UPA government must also institute a policy for an Emergency Fund to compensate farmers (who don’t have crop insurance) in case of a natural calamity like drought, floods, fire, hailstorm or frost.
Medical Facilities and Insurance:
In a time of increasing liberalization and inflation, farmers are not able to cope up with the cost of living at the low income they receive. Getting access to medical services is increasingly difficult or impossible for many food producers. We demand that medical facilities and insurance are provided to farmers for free just as they are to other government servants.
Timely Provision of Fertilizers:
For the past years, farmers have not been receiving fertilizers in a timely fashion and they have to rely on the black market. We demand that fertilizer quotas and provisions are begun one month before the sowing season.
Impose Permanent Ban on GMOs:
The BKU farmers demand for a permanent ban on the research, production, and imports of all genetically modified seeds, crops and foods. Instead of promoting GMOs, we demand that the government must support ecological agriculture and provide proper incentives for growing toxic free foods through organic farming.
We also demand that all the Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) signed by the public agricultural institutes and universities with the multinational corporations, biotech companies and agribusiness must be scrapped. Through these MoUs, the big corporations are taking over the research, knowledge and resources of our public agricultural institutions for their profit.
Signed by:
Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, State President, BKU Punjab,
Gurnam Singh, State President, BKU Haryana,
S.S. Cheema, BKU Uttrakhand,
Rakesh Tikait, BKU U.P.
Yudhvir Singh, Spokesman, BKU (+91-9868146405).
Shri Manmohan Singh ji
Hon'ble Prime Minister of India
New Delhi
Dear Sir,
We, the farmers of Bhartiya Kisan Union, are writing to you in the backdrop of many disturbing developments such as the near completion of negotiations on FTAs with developed economies, like Japan and the E.U.; large scale acquisitions of agricultural land by companies; increasing domination of biotech firms in the Indian agricultural system and institutions; and most importantly, UPA government poor response to the increasing hunger and malnutrition among rural community while million of tonnes of food grains are rooting in our godowns. It is a matter of great concern for us that even after 60 years of India’s independence, more than 5000 children are dying every day in our country due to malnutrition. And in 2010, India has slipped to 67th position among 84 developing countries on the global hunger index released by the International Food Policy Research Institute. Despite this, the present UPA government under your leadership is completely non-committal on feeding poor people even though 67,000 tonnes of wheat had rotted this year alone and tonnes of wheat are still rotting in the open in Punjab, while farmers are ready with their next harvest.
Do Not subsidize Poor at the Cost of Small and Marginal Farmers:
We fear that the faulty policies of the UPA government towards poor Public Distribution System (PDS) as well as ban on exports of food grains would be detrimental for the Indian farmers especially the wheat and rice growers who have been offered slight increase in Minimum Support Price (MSP) even though prices of these commodities are quite high in the international market. The only excuse for the government to keep MSP low is to subsidize food for the poor at the cost of the farmers’ profit. And this is being justified on the pretext that there is lack of funds for paying higher price for procuring foodgrains which would increase cost of food for poor but the government has no shame in giving a subsidy of more than Rs.500,000 crore to corporate sector in the form of direct and indirect tax concessions, write offs etc in the 2010-11 budget alone. This kind of pro-corporate and anti-farmers policies of the Indian government are forcing farmers to quit agriculture.
We demand that government should divert the monitory benefits given to Corporates towards providing subsidized food to the poor as well as paying higher procurement price to the farmers who are struggling hard to feed the people of India despite high cost of production, high inflation and increasing food crisis. Given this, we demand that the government of India
- Must implement Swaminathan Committee recommendations for MSP which should be at least 50% more than the weighted average cost of production.
- Must increase the MSP for wheat to Rs.2200 per quintal because the cost of wheat production comes to around Rs.1600 per quintal. We reject the mere Rs.20 increase in the MSP for wheat for this year.
- Must increase the MSP for Sugarcane crop to Rs.300 per quintal.
- Immediately expedite the procurement of rice crop in Punjab and Haryana.
No to Free Trade Agreements (FTAs):
The BKU farmers are quite upset with the UPA-2 agenda for trade liberalization through speeding up of the FTA negotiations to liberalize agricultural imports to India. We fear that the 30 odd FTAs which the government of India is negotiating with the highly industrial countries like US, EU, Israel, Australia and others would provide market access to their agribusiness and their heavily subsidized agricultural commodities. This is highly detrimental to India's rural food producers and production. We are shocked that in a democracy like ours no consultations have been carried out of such FTAs and all the deals are being done behind closed doors, while our livelihoods, markets and biodiversity are being traded away. Such lack of transparency is unacceptable to us. We demand that agriculture and agricultural related activities must be kept out of any FTA negotiations India is engaging with.
No Trade/ Agricultural Ties with the U.S. during Obama’s visit:
We would also like register our strongest protest against signing of any kind of agreement during the forthcoming visit of the US President Barak Obama in India in early November. We don’t want any bilateral agreement on agriculture with the US on the line of Indo US Knowledge Initiative of Agriculture, whether in the field of trade, biotechnology or irrigation. We appeal to UPA that they do not allow any market access in agricultural trade to United States, which the latter has been aspiring to gain through failed Doha negotiations, through a bilateral Indo US trade deal.
No Acquisition of Farmers Land for Development Projects and SEZs:
We demand that the state and the Centre governments must stop all land acquisition in the name of ‘public purpose’. There must not be any forceful acquisition of farmers land and selling of the land by the government, acquired on the pretext of “public purpose”, to Corporates for any development projects or SEZ. The government must stop to act like a ‘middle man’ in acquiring farmers land for Corporates. The government must soon amend the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 in consultation with farmers and the definition of “public purpose” in the Act should be clearly defined and specified. In case land is needed for public purposes like hospital building, defence purposes; market rates should be paid to the farmers.
We demand that the proposed GAIL India pipeline project in Uttrakhand should be built alongside roads, canals and railway lines so that farmers lands are not disturbed. In case acquisition of farmers land is absolutely necessary for gas pipeline, we demand that market rates must be paid to the affected farmers.
Reduce Interest rate to 4% for all Agricultural Loans:
We would like to demand that the government, as per the recommendation of the Swaminathan Committee report of 2007, must fix a maximum interest rate of 4% on all agricultural loans. With the increasing cost of production and increasing food inflation, this would be a big relief for the Indian farmers and would help in preventing the farmers’ suicide in the country. We also like to reiterate our demand for a complete debt relief not only from institutional debt but also of private money lenders. Moreover, it is a known fact that most of the agricultural loans meant for small and marginal farmers are being diverted to big agri-corporations. We therefore demand that instead of providing credit facility to agribusiness, the UPA government bring policy to provide agricultural credit to small and marginal farmers at the nominal rate of interest.
Strengthen Extension Department of Agriculture:
We demand that given the poor state of our agriculture, the government of India must ensure increased public investment in strengthening the extension department of the Ministry of Agriculture, which was the backbone of Indian agriculture during the green revolution. The complete breakdown of the extension services of the agriculture department has resulted in farmers being completely dependent on the private agents or seed shops owner for any advice on agriculture practices.
Crop Insurance to Compensate Farmers in case of Natural Calamity:
We would like to draw your kind attention on the anomaly in the current Crop Insurance Scheme where a block or tehsil (not even a village) is considered as a unit and unless a natural calamity hit the whole block or tehsil, farmers are not compensated. We therefore demand that under the Crop Insurance Scheme, each farmer and his/her crop should be considered as a unit. In case of natural calamity like drought, floods, fire, hailstorm or frost which destroys standing crop of a farmer or groups of farmers, they must get compensation. The UPA government must also institute a policy for an Emergency Fund to compensate farmers (who don’t have crop insurance) in case of a natural calamity like drought, floods, fire, hailstorm or frost.
Medical Facilities and Insurance:
In a time of increasing liberalization and inflation, farmers are not able to cope up with the cost of living at the low income they receive. Getting access to medical services is increasingly difficult or impossible for many food producers. We demand that medical facilities and insurance are provided to farmers for free just as they are to other government servants.
Timely Provision of Fertilizers:
For the past years, farmers have not been receiving fertilizers in a timely fashion and they have to rely on the black market. We demand that fertilizer quotas and provisions are begun one month before the sowing season.
Impose Permanent Ban on GMOs:
The BKU farmers demand for a permanent ban on the research, production, and imports of all genetically modified seeds, crops and foods. Instead of promoting GMOs, we demand that the government must support ecological agriculture and provide proper incentives for growing toxic free foods through organic farming.
We also demand that all the Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) signed by the public agricultural institutes and universities with the multinational corporations, biotech companies and agribusiness must be scrapped. Through these MoUs, the big corporations are taking over the research, knowledge and resources of our public agricultural institutions for their profit.
Signed by:
Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, State President, BKU Punjab,
Gurnam Singh, State President, BKU Haryana,
S.S. Cheema, BKU Uttrakhand,
Rakesh Tikait, BKU U.P.
Yudhvir Singh, Spokesman, BKU (+91-9868146405).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)