Article, Paragraph, Essay on “National Commission on Farmers – Recommendations” article for Class 10, Class 12, Graduation Classes and descriptive examination

National Commission on Farmers – Recommendations

National Commission on Farmers is constitute on 18 November in 2014 by the Government of India. The commission was formed under the chairmanship of Professor M.S. Swaminathan. From December 2004 to October 2006, it has submitted five reports. The composition of the reconstituted National Commission on Farmers is as under Chairman of M.S. Swaminathan.

REPORTS OF THE NATIONAL COMMISSION ON FARMERS

The reports of the National Commission on Farmers contain suggestion to attain the target of earlier and more comprehensive development as envisage in the Approach to 11th Five Year Plan.

The fifth report is the most important among the reports submitted by the National Commission on Farmers. It alert on causes of farmer’s distresses and the rise in farmers’ suicides.  Based on the recommendations submitted in 2006, a ‘National Draft Policy for Farmers‘was placed before the Parliament in October 2007. The National Commission on Farmers’ is commonly focused on issue of access to resources and social security entitlements. It contains suggestion for broad expansion of farmers and agriculture sector in India. It is intended at working out a system for food and nutrition security, sustainability in the farming system, enhancing quality and cost competitiveness of farm merchandise and also to recommend measures for credit and other marketing related steps. Most of the recommendations in the reports of National Commission on Farmers are not yet implemented.

Recommendations of the National Commission on Farmers

ASSET REFORMS

1. Land restructuring:

It is necessary to address the basic issue of access to land for both crops and livestock.  Land holdings discrimination is reflected in land tenure.  In 1991-92, the share of the bottom half of the rural households in the total land ownership was only 3% and the top 10% was as high as 54%. Reforms in tenancy laws, land leasing, distribution of ceiling surplus land and wasteland, providing adequate access to common property and wasteland resources, and the consolidation of holdings.

2. Water:

Water is a public good and not private property. The main distress should be given to developing just and equitable mechanisms to give access to water and to include local people in the management of water resources. The below steps are needed for supply augmentation and demand management of water resource

• Rainwater harvesting and aquifer recharge should be compulsory and farmers must be provided with financial support to invest in the replenishment of their renewable resource. This is the very important need for conservation farming.
• The Demand management through better irrigation practices, including sprinkler and drip irrigation.
• The water literacy movement is launch and policy should be developed for the sustainable use of groundwater.
• The land use system should place stress on the cultivation of high value low water requiring crops, such as pulses and oilseeds.
• A Pani Panchayat in every community can assist in receiving the accessible water distributed on an impartial basis.

3. Livestock:

Livestock is the second major land based livelihood contributing 26% of the agricultural GDP in 2004-05. It is clear that livestock and livelihoods are very closely related in our country and that crop livestock integrated farming is the pathway to farmer’s well-being. A National Livestock Development Council may be established to give integrated attention to all aspects of this important sector, such as breeding policy, feed and fodder, healthcare through Para-veterinary professionals, marketing, value addition, biomass utilization and efficient use of animal energy, for example, through improved bullock carts.

4. Fisheries:

 Fisheries provide employment and livelihoods to millions of families. There is substantial scope for civilizing the income of fisher families on an environmentally sustainable basis by introducing Integrated Coastal Zone Management and scientific fish rearing, harvesting and processing.

5. Bioresources:

Bioresources refer to the plentiful wealth of flora and fauna including soil micro-flora and micro-fauna. To preserve traditional rights of way in to biodiversity, which include access to non-timber forest products including medicinal plants, gums and resins, oil-yielding plants and beneficial micro-organisms. To conserve, ornamental and humanizing crops and farm animals as well as fish stocks through breeding. Genetic engineers working in public good institutions should perform the role of pre-breeding, i.e., development of novel genetic combinations for important economic traits, such as resistance to biotic and a biotic stresses. They should then work with farmers in participatory breeding programs so that genetic efficiency and genetic diversity can be integrated in an effective manner.

FARMERS OF THE FUTURE

• Cooperative Farming and Service Cooperatives: Cooperative farming will be ideal for small and marginal farmers since the cooperative can provide centralized services like tractors and other farm equipment as well as threshing and drying machines, to support small-scale decentralized production. This will bring down the cost of production and enhance the quality of products and thereby of income.
• Group Farming by Self-help Groups: promote the SHGs at the production end of the farming enterprise by encouraging groups to lease farmland.
• Small Holders’ Estates: The formation of Small Holders’ Estates, for example in cotton, horticulture, medicinal plants, poultry and aquaculture will help promote group cooperation among farmers living in a village or watershed or the command area of an irrigation project.
• Contract Farming: Symbiotic contracts which confer benefits to both producers and purchasers will be ideal for ensuring assured and remunerative marketing opportunities. A Code of Conduct for Contract Farming will have to be developed for major groups of farm commodities such as vegetables, fruits, flowers, medicinal plants, tuber crops, pulses, oilseeds, sugarcane, cereals and cotton.
• Farmers’ Companies: Small farmers and SHGs should be associated with such companies as stakeholders and not just as shareholders.

 “Jai Kisan”

Mahatma Gandhi preferred to be known as a farmer while signing the Visitor’s Book of the National Dairy Research Institute at Bangalore in 1927. Let us prove worthy of his trust that India will care for its farmers.