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Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
AKHIL BHARTIYA PRATINIDHI SABHA
7- 9 March 2003, NAGPUR Dt. 9.3.03
PRIORITY OF AGRICULTURE
It is well known that more than seventy percent of the population of our
country lives in villages and our economy is dependent on agriculture. Our
economic progress and prosperity depends on the purchasing power of the
common man, which in turn is dependent on agricultural production.
Therefore agriculture and agriculturists have become the most important
factors for our economic growth. They are the backbone of our economy.
Bharat, which was once an importer of food grains, has now become exporter
of food grains and a leading country in the field of production of milk,
fruits and vegetables due to the hard work of our farmers. Unfortunately,
elites and the governments have neglected this very backbone and the
result is frustration, desolation and anger among the farmers. At times
the farmers resort to violent agitation or even commit suicide.
The ABPS is of the opinion that our farmers, in the hope of improving
production, have taken to the use of G.M. seeds, chemical pesticides and
chemical fertilizers. They do not realize that these things in fact reduce
the fertility of the land. On the one hand the land is rendered more and
more unproductive and on the other the farmers' dependence on chemical
fertilizers and pesticides is increasing because for future crops they are
forced to use them in larger quantities with the result that agriculture
becomes more and more uneconomic.
The Pratinidhi Sabha urges the agricultural universities, agricultural
scientists and experts to direct their research towards producing
bio-fertilizers, indigenous seeds and pesticides and swadeshi instruments
locally with a view to produce more and better crops. Dissolution in soil
of poisonous ingredients contained in chemical fertilizers and pesticides
affects environment and public health adversely.
ABPS implores the state governments as well as the Central Government to
inspire, encourage, and patronize such researches and, simultaneously,
conduct such programmes of public awakening to encourage agriculturists to
use indigenous techniques. The governments should ensure special subsidies
for bio-fertilizers, indigenous seeds and indigenous pesticides and other
implements such as bullock-drawn
tractors. Rural population must get proper attention and care in the
matter of basic necessities of life like good roads linking the village to
the main roads, electricity, drinking water, education, health and
sanitation etc. Such moves will discourage exodus from villages to cities
and give a boost to agriculture-based village industries and farming of
herbal plants. Arrangements should be made to facilitate the farmers to
manufacture ethenol and bio-diesel, and for that purpose necessary
training and latest technical know-how should be imparted to them. Such
measures will improve and consolidate the economic condition of the
farmers, and simultaneously, enhance employment opportunities for the
rural youth. The farmers, too, on their part should realize these facts
and take initiative in this direction.
The ABPS urges the government to fix the prices of agricultural produce
after computing proper profit and the cost of production. It would be
advisable to involve the representatives of organizations of the farmers
in the process of price fixation so as to ensure justice to them.
Necessary measures should also be contemplated to compensate the losses
caused by the natural calamities.
The ABPS urges various farmers' associations, social organizations, and
the Swayamsevaks, to encourage such moves, personally and collectively and
to establish and maintain contact with farmers to awaken and organize
them. They should also assist in generating an atmosphere of rapport and
respect for the farmers so that the people are able to lead a happy and
prosperous life endowed with self reliance, confidence and competence.
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