By IANS,
Chandigarh : Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal Monday demanded waiver of all agricultural loans of farmers as a one-time measure to solve the problem of farm indebtedness.
“All the figures being quoted on the resilience of national economy are dependent on the performance of the farm sector. Therefore, the central government should treat farm loan waiver as an investment in pushing India into the top performing economies of the world,” said Badal, while taking part in a meeting of the “working group on agriculture production” here.
“These debts have assumed the proportions of grave human tragedy. The states did not benefit much from the debt waiver scheme offered by the union government. We want that all agricultural loans should be waived as one time measure regardless of the size of the land holding,” he added.
The central government has constituted the working group under the chairmanship of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Badal also asked the central government to recast the pricing structure of agriculture produce and offer liberal grants to the states to modernize farm technology, marketing and irrigation infrastructure.
“Centre must make heavy investment for revamping and rejuvenating the canal irrigation network, which was beyond the reach of the state government,” said Badal.
West Bengal Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta and Bihar Agriculture Minister Renu Kumari Kushwaha participated in the working group meeting, besides various other officials and agriculture experts from West Bengal, Bihar, Punjab and Haryana.
“To feed ever increasing population, our foodgrain production has to be doubled by 2040 with consistent 2.5 per cent annual growth. But the foodgrain production of the country has either declined or stagnated during the current decade,” said Hooda.
“There is a dire need of second green revolution to meet the additional demand of foodgrains which could be achieved through dynamic approach, focused strategy and application of new tools of science and technology in agriculture.”
Hooda also called upon the states which are having productivity much below the national average to adopt improved package of practices and technological intervention to enable them to reach the level of national average.
Similarly, some states which are harvesting above national average productivity and still have good potential for further improvement should also set a target to achieve the highest yield in the country, he said.
“If we follow these two approaches we could produce an estimated additional 83.56 million tones of foodgrains and additional 5.35 million tones of oilseeds,” said Hooda.
Hooda said he had written to members of the working group inviting their suggestions and recommendations. The next meeting of the group will be held in Patna where the recommendations would be finalized.