Give a good price for a bag of paddy to save agriculture!

Give a good price for a bag of paddy to save agriculture!

It was a mild sadness for me when dad told me that the yield was good this year. I am not happy to hear that. I also know that the yield is good. However, when we talk about agriculture, we should talk about something like yield. Whether the yield is good or not, whether relief fund will be available this year or not, whether insurance will come or not this year, this is how we have to talk about the agricultural yield in recent times.

If the yield is good, happiness is only for a time. Where can you be happy now, If the yield is good, there is no insurance and no relief fund. If these relief fund or insurance do not come, then the investment amount in the field will not be returned. This is the cause of unhappiness and hopelessness of not even good yield.

If there is heavy rain and the paddy crops rot, then the expenditure on it will be over. They will give relief fund according to the cost. In case of crop damage due to pest attack or natural calamities, they will provide insurance. It will also cover the input cost.

A good yield means the cost of paddy from sowing till it is harvested and sent to the market. Even if it is sold in the government procurement stations, the matter should be achieved by bribing money. Sowing cost, planting cost, weed removing cost, fertilizer cost, herbicide and pesticide cost, harvesting cost, transportation cost and the addition of all the money spent on paddy does not balance the two pans of the scale. The costing tab always clicks down. The tray for credit always goes up. This disparity creates a cross-mindedness of getting relief or insurance, abhorring productive agriculture that produces good yields.

To be fair, the unfair price paid for a bag of paddy makes the joy of a good harvest less joyous.

Every year the price of seed rice increases, the price of fertilizer increases, the investment to be made for agriculture also increases, if you take a loan, the interest on that loan also increases, labor wages, machine wages, everything increases. As the price of paddy bag not only goes up, excessive expectation of relief fund and insurance is also created among the farmers who reject the good yield.

They give a lot of subsidies to agriculture. They give relief fund. In the name of agricultural grants, they pay into bank accounts every year. If you look at the bribes and corrupt practices involved in getting these, it is a multi-billion-crore theft business. Why not collate these sums and accordingly give a good and affordable price per bag of paddy? That will directly benefit the farmers.

When the price of petrol and gold are going up, how can the price of paddy bales remain the same year after year? The price of paddy bag should also be fixed in proportion to their price increase.

There are many opportunities for self-sustainable and organic farming in our country. Destroying agriculture's independence, changing its natural methods to make it dependent and artificial, has made agriculture an unprofitable profession.

There is no need for any agricultural assistance schemes or even credit assistance schemes if we ensure that we get the right price for a paddy bag. If the paddy bags get a good price, the farmers themselves will see how they can raise the investment for agriculture in cash. They will also decide how to do agriculture.

Unreasonable prices for the produce leave farmers reeling. They lose investment in agriculture by buying weed killer, spraying insecticides and using fertilizer as an input in the idea of how to make it profitable. The companies and traders who sell these products for agriculture are going rich and prosperity and the farmers who buy and use them are pushed into poverty and get tired.

What agriculture needs is no false hope or empty slogans of 'save agriculture'. No relief funds or insurance guarantees are required. There are not required subsidies, not even agricultural assistance schemes. A fair price for a bag of paddy is what agriculture needs. That is what will save agriculture.

*****