Stating that systematic cultivation based on the market demand as one of the solutions to end farmers’ suicides, social activist and veteran journalist R.P. Venkateshamurthy said here on Saturday that the State government should workout a programme to bail out farmers. Mr. Venkateshmurthy, who was among the prominent leaders of the Karantaka Raitha Sangha in 1980s, said at a press conference, “When we began the movement, we were demanding remunerative prices for agricultural produce. Even today, the same demand holds good, as no government has fulfilled it”.
The growers would get remunerative or reasonable prices for their produce when they get sufficient demand in the market.“In Switzerland, there is a system where farmers cannot cultivate a particular crop in more than the area fixed by the government for that crop. The government fixes the maximum cultivable area for every crop, considering the demand in domestic and international markets. There, the chances of farmers getting a reasonable price for their produce are more. ,” he said. Mr. Venkateshamurthy said, he and a few of his like-minded friends, who were with M.D. Nanjundaswamy of the Raitha Sangha during its initial days, would soon meet the Chief Minister and appeal to him to bring in such a system in Karnataka. “Our politicians and officials visit foreign countries but they do not study good practices there and introduce them here,” he said.
In Switzerland, area for cultivation of each crop is fixed by the government, based on domestic and international demand for farm produce.
Venkateshmurthy,
Social activist and farmers’ leader
