From the Chairman's Desk

Hon'ble Chairman, Task Force on Agriculture
(Sh. Sharad Joshi)

The situation of the Indian Farmer, never very splendid, has reached the nadir. Reports are coming from all directions of farmers driven in desperation to suicides. The plight of the peasantry has become a subject of acrimonious debates both inside and outside the legislatures.

It is on old adage that the farmers are tyrannized by the Nature (Aasmani) as also the monarchs (Sultani). This devastating axe has worked over decades and created a situation where lands are fragmented, soils are losing fertility, ground-water is sinking, stock of capital eroding little coming in by way of new investments, farmers groaning under the burden of indebtedness. At this very critical juncture are appearing on the horizon forces of globalization and bio-technology and information technology which hold out a promise for humanity.

The farmers in rich countries are pampered with generous subsidies and have the benefit of large holdings and of access to sophisticated technology and advanced infrastructural facilities. How will the Indian Farmer face this situation. In a world split between the rich and the poor countries any Trade Agreement is bound to be skewed. Any agreement on Agriculture will be even more skewed since it brings together two extreme opposites of the world economy.

Indian farmers have only two options. One they can recoil back into a protectionist shell and continue with the socialistic environment or they could decide to pick up the gauntlet and lift themselves by the bootstraps to catapult into a world class Agriculture. Either decision is difficult and painful. As the pioneer in the farmers movement I was grappling with this nightmarish quagmire when I was invited by the Prime Minister to head the Task Force on Agriculture with precisely the same task : assessing impact of globalization and frontier technologies, work out safeguards and prepare plans for seizing opportunities presented by the opening up of the world and of new arenas of technology.

I am sure most citizens in India are concerned about the WTO debate and would like their views to be inputted into the exercise.

(Sharad Joshi)