The Cattle Slaughter Act makes cow rearing undesirable for farmers.
From failing to implement proper agricultural schemes to lacking commitment to ensure Minimum Support Price (MSP), the schemes implemented by the government for the farmers are pushing them into deep crisis,a report released by a civic rights group shows
Bahutva Karnataka, a civic rights group in Karnataka released a report on Monday on the poor performance of Karnataka government in the agriculture sector and its impact on farmers. The report stated that the state government has implemented the unscientific ‘One District One Product’ approach which has affected the crop diversity in several districts as it has caused an increase in production and fall in prices.
Gayatri V, one of the panelists at the press conference is working with farmers to help them get rid of loans and the burden they face due to mono cropping. “Everyone talks about farmer suicide and loans but no one is focusing on the root cause of this problem, with rain and severe climate change the debt increases due to mono cropping as there is no diversity within crops,” she said.
However, Assistant Director ofDepartment of Agriculture, Shobha Patil said, “Mono cropping is beneficial and will result in higher profits, we have decided about whichcrop will be grown in which district based on climate and demand of that crop, climate change is not really in our hands, and the government will help you to recover your funds if your harvest goes in loss.”
The report also says that the government has ignored the report of the ‘State Agricultural Price Commission’ on MSP and no action was taken to legalize it. Also, there is no commitment to ensure that the government announced MSPs are brought into effect. Alongside,the government has criminalized farmers by passing the Prohibition of Cattle Slaughter Act. As a result, there is a conflicting interest in rearing cattle.
The panelists also discussed the prices of crops, which have crashed. The government has failed to respond quickly leaving farmers in the lurch. Instead of promoting traditional oil seed crops, Karnataka is pushing for the alien palm oil, which needs huge amount of water and other agri inputs. Due to excessive government incentives for horticultural crops, food crop growing areas are shrinking.
Gayatri said that the natural calamities that have been happening in Karnataka for the past few years are due to the effect of climate changes.
“The Union government has also announced eight national level action plans (missions) to respond to climate change. The state government has not taken any action regarding its implementation,” she added.
Although the state government brought out the Climate Change Action Plan in 2021, there has been no extensive discussion of the same and it has not been implemented.
Work on promotion of sustainable agriculture, organic agriculture has been limited to announcements. “Government schemes to promote millets do not have adequate funding, they really need to stop the concept of mono cropping,” she explained.
