Mysuru:  University of Mysore Registrar Prof. R. Rajanna urged the policy makers of the country to ensure scientific price for all farm products besides create marketing facilities, come up with farmer-friendly schemes, training, other programmes to end ongoing agrarian distress                                  in the nation.

He was speaking at the ICSSR sponsored two-day national seminar on ‘Agrarian crisis and farmer suicides in India: Causes, Consequences and Remedies’ organised by Centre for Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy at Vijnana Bhavan in Manasagangothri here this morning.

He said, though the farmers constitute the bulk of the population of the country, they were not getting suitable marketing, training, modern agriculture tools, motivation and encouragement from the Government. Distressed farmers have been committing suicide unable to get decent prices for their products and for various other reasons.

Blaming that the anti-farmer policies of the Government were responsible for present farm crisis, he said that the Government of India must come up with comprehensive policy that would improve the lives of the farmers, to ensure better seeds, fertilisers and subsidies. “Farmer’s children are moving out of agriculture as it is not a profitable profession and lucrative. They have been migrating to cities in search of alternative jobs after selling their land and cattle,” he added.

He said Israel which is one of the smallest countries in the world had achieved tremendous progress in agriculture, horticulture and other areas using modern methods.

Government must encourage farmer trips to Israel, China, Japan, Thailand and other countries which had revolutionised in the areas of agriculture to learn more from them on modern scientific method of cultivation to enhance crop yield, he added.

He regretted that the Indian research applications in the areas of agriculture and other allied areas have also failed to help the farmers of the region.

Special Officer to Raichur University Prof. Muzaffar H. Assadi, Professor of Economics of Gandhigram Rural Institute, Gandhigram, Tamil Nadu Dr. S. Rajendran, Dr. Siddaraj and others were present.