College’s bid to address ryots’ issues in seminar

Nagpur: In order to address farmers’ suicide issue, College of Social Work, Kamptee, organized a two-day interdisciplinary national seminar on the topic ‘Farmers in India: Issues, concerns and solutions’ in association with India Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi, at Guru Nanak Bhavan, University Campus. The inaugural ceremony was held on Thursday.
A number of activists working for the same issue were the keynote speakers of the first day and deliberated in the technical seminar on different ways to arrest farm suicides. The speakers believed that government should grant bonus to farmers just like the American government does. They emphasized on skill enhancement and upgradation of technology to help farmers attain better outputs and stand on an equal footing with the world. Speakers also recommended tips to increase the productivity of land and insisted on organic farming.

Students, academicians and principals from various other colleges of social works, representatives from various NGOs attended the expert talk to explore the issue for a better understanding. The event was also aimed at bringing like-minded resourceful people under one roof to seek solutions for the ‘grave matter’ as Vidarbha still tops in farmers’ suicide chart in state.

Convener Pranali Patil, former vice-chancellor of Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, Sharad Nimbalkar, registrar of NU Puranchandra Meshram, director of the college Rajshree Meshram and principal Ramesh Somkuwar were present.

The main objective of the seminar was to find out the status of farmers in India. To understand the nature, magnitude and cause of farmers suicide, highlighting the type of exploitation by the middlemen about agricultural produce in market, to assess the government policies and programmes for agriculture and its impact on farmers and suggesting plans for their growth.

Convener Patil said, “Agriculture holds the most important place in Indian economy. While almost 70% of the population have their life directly linked to farming for earning bread and butter, more of the populace is related to this sector indirectly. In this scenario, monsoon plays a vital role. Due to unseasonal rains, farmers have to suffer huge loss and government aid therefore plays an integral role here.”

“Droughts, crop failure, non-realization of prices for agricultural produce are some of the reasons which drive farmers to take the extreme step,” she added.

Around 140 research papers were submitted during the seminar. Renowned activists Amar Habib, Amitabh Pawade, Avil Borkar will speak on the second day.

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