The announcement of the state government to procure C-grade fruit and offer crop insurance cover to the growers should be welcomed by the farming community in Kashmir valley where they have suffered extensive losses due to continued rains this year and unprecedented floods last year. In fact the successive governments in Jammu and Kashmir have been promising insurance cover for the farmers but none of the promises have been fulfilled till date. If such steps are initiated by the state government in Kashmir valley, they should be extended to all sorts of farmers in whole of J&K to provide respite to the farming community, who have suffered crop losses second time in the last one year. This will go a long way in restoring the faith in the government of the farmers and also bring cheers for both the landless and landed farmers in the state.
Unfortunately, the issue of crop insurance to the farmers has been pending for a long time and different governments at the centre have been discussing it but no concrete action has been taken so far. Apart from this, the farmers in J&K also do not enjoy like their counterparts in other parts of the country, the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their agriculture produce. The government also needs to introduce this measure and fix MSP for all the crops and fruits grown in the state. Apart from procuring the C-grade fruits in Kashmir valley, the government should introduce MSP for the fruits also so that the farmers do not suffer on account of marketing their produce in different parts of the country. The export-oriented fruits also need marketing support which has been missing for the past many decades and the organizations set up for this purposes are more than defunct and hardly serve the purpose for which they were created by the government. Instead of helping the farmers and fruit growers, such organizations have become a nuisance for the producers, who have go all the way to different markets in the country for selling their produce. As a result of this, the farmers and fruit growers do not get appropriate price for their produce.
Apart from marketing support, the farmers are also in dire need to small term loans as per the cropping pattern on different occasions in various parts of the state. Because of lack of loan facilities for the farmers, they are forced to obtain loans from the money lenders, who fleece them at the end of the crop season and charge high interest rates. Moreover, most of the commercial banks and even cooperative banks which have been set up for helping the farming community refuse to extend loans to them as a result of which they have nowhere to go except for the money lender or whole sale business persons, who lift their crops from the fields themselves. Such practices have made farmers bankrupt in the event of failure or low yield of the crops from their fields.
The landless farmers are the worst hit because they have no property to mortgage to the banks for getting loans, they ultimately land in the grip of money lenders, who make them bankrupt with high rate of interest charged on small term loans. Various governments at the centre and the state have been toying with the idea of providing small term loans to the farmers and rural workers but no such initiative has been made so far. It is worthwhile to mention that a decade back, such an initiative was taken by the centre for opening rural and cooperative banks in far flung areas for helping the rural population but no such measure has been taken in J&K. In fact, fruit growers and farmers in J&K need these loans more than anybody else. The banks do extend loans for consumer goods but no loans are advanced to the farmers. Keeping in view these factors, the state government should launch a major initiative on this front for helping the fruit growers and farmers. Time is also now ripe for the government to provide compensation for the failed crops of both the previous seasons and encourage free distribution of seeds and fertilizers for rescuing them from being bankrupt.
Source - http://www.kashmirtimes.in
