‘Bt or no Bt, just give us remunerative prices’

Published in 'The Hitavada' on March 3, 2012 

‘Bt or no Bt, just give us remunerative prices’ 

■ By Kartik Lokhande
MAREGAON, Mar 2
IT was a rare occasion when farmers made clear that what they needed the most was ‘remunerative prices’ and not the debate on whether Bt was effective. Instead of being concerned
about winning acceptance to Bt crops, they should make available Bt and non-Bt variants in the
market and leave the decision to farmers, felt the ryots.
After a brief halt at Pandharkawda, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture proceeded to Maregaon (Son) to interact with farmers and villagers. As against total strength of 31, only eight members of the committee including chairperson Basudeb Acharia turned up for the visit to Vidarbha. These eight members included Satyavrat Chaturvedi, Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav, Prem Das, Upendra Kushwaha, Mohammad Ali Khan, Nripendra Nath Roy, and Nurul Islam. At Pandharkawda, they interacted with Nitin Deshmukh and Jayant Bapat of Shetkari Sanghatana
and discussed various aspects of dairy development in the district.
At Maregaon (Son), they were surprised to see that a good number of farmers, widows, and even Banjara women had turned up for the meeting in Maa Jagdamba Va Sevalal Mandir ground. Right from Bharti, widow of Pradeep Pawar from Saykhed who had committed suicide in 2002, to Vachchala Adey, everyone stressed on the need to make agriculture remunerative by way of
fixing prices for agriculture produce based on input costs and interest on loan taken.
While making a statement that Bt Cotton was unremunerative, former Sarpanch of the village Prem Chavan raised a valid point, “In the market, when we go to sell agriculture produce, grain merchants ‘know’ about quality of the produce merely by taking a handful from the bag and
taking a look at it. However, in the same market, 450 grams of Bt Cotton seeds are sold in packets without giving us a fair chance to examine quality of the same.”
The committee chairperson Acharia hurled many posers at farmers to cross check facts, but all got
angry responses. When Acharia said that Bt Cotton seeds had decreased input cost, Chavan promptly countered it by explaining cost incurred on Bt Cotton cultivation and price offered. “Then, why do not you opt for non-Bt Cotton?”, asked Acharia. Again, pat came the reply -- because non-Bt seeds are not available in the market. Farmers’ leader Vijay Jawandhiya added, “When farms around are planting Bt Cotton, even if I opt for non-Bt Cotton, it will mean giving open invitation to Bollworm attack only on my farm.”
When the panel members conducted a sort of voice vote to know how many were in favour of Bt and non-Bt, many members of the gathering raised hands in favour of non-Bt. Still, many farmers stressed that the Government should leave choice of Bt or non-Bt to farmers. It should just provide remunerative prices to farmers so that they were ready to sustain changes effected by any technology or new practice.
Even the women belonging to Banjara community were vocal about problems they faced. Savitrabai Chavan pointed out another aspect of the story -- though the Government was promoting self-help groups of women to extend agricultural credit, it was not extending benefit of
loan waiver to these groups. Vachchala Adey represented many women in agriculture. “I have five daughters, one is married. For her marriage also, I had to take loan of Rs 1 lakh. Now, two more have attained the age of marriage and two are still studying. What should I do from farm income
-- help two daughters study, or arrange dowry for marriage of two others, or feed myself and my
family?,” her question stunned all the members of the Parliamentary panel.

KBC-fame Aparna demands rehab of farmers’ widowsAPARNA Malikar, who shot to fame when she won a handsome amount in popular television show
‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’, also spoke before the Parliamentary panel and demanded to recommend to the Government to ensure rehabilitation of widows of farmers.
Aparna’s husband committed suicide in 2008. Farmers were ending lives as they were unable to
cope with negative changes sweeping agriculture sector. After them, farmers’ widows were taking care of agriculture and also looking after children. “However, the Government thinks that its responsibility is over once it pays Rs 1 lakh to kin of deceased farmers. It is inadequate help. The Government needs to think about sustainable livelihood options and education of children of deceased farmers. It needs to come up with a proper plan for rehabilitation of farmers’ widows,” she said in her brief speech.