Madhya Pradesh Agriculture Minister endorses Kisan Swaraj Yatra message

MADHYA PRADESH AGRICULTURE MINISTER DR. RAMAKRISHNA KUSMARIYA’S STATEMENT

The MP Agriculture Minister has noted that a Kisan Swaraj Yatra has set off from Sabarmati Ashram to draw attention to the deep crisis that our farming community is mired in. The Minister also believes that this is indeed another independence struggle, given that our agriculture is going into the hands of multi-national corporations which seek monopolies and control over our food and farming systems, raising questions on our food and seed sovereignty.

It is true that the crisis of farmers is not the crisis of just farmers but of the entire nation. Consumers are ending up consuming toxic food today because of the agricultural technologies that we have introduced in the name of “modern agriculture”. This is having impact on the health of our entire society. Our very productive resources are getting eroded or contaminated, whether it is soil or water.

In this context, the MP Agriculture Ministry also believes, like the ones who have organized the Kisan Swaraj Yatra, that ecological farming is the only “rambaan ilaaj”. Therefore, the agriculture ministry will be announcing an Organic Farming Policy very soon, where resources and institutional mechanisms will be set up soon to take the message of organic farming to all farmers of the state. MP will show the way to the rest of the country on how to save farmers and their farming.

“Being a farmer I personally feel that GM Seeds does not suit with Indian agriculture and farmers of country and state. GM Seeds will jeopardize our biodiversity and our poor farmers will dependent on MNCs for their seed need. In many areas of country farmers are shifting to their traditional improved varieties instead of GM Varieties. For this reason, I believe that enacting a state level legislation against GM seeds is very important. I also oppose current state of legislations like the Seeds Bill and the BRAI Bill as proposed by the Central government. All such legislations should have the main mandate of protecting the interests of farmers.

We also think that protecting the resources of farmers – land and water is important and this is something that the Kisan Swaraj Yatra is also seeking. We endorse this too.

We believe that the crisis of farmers has to be addressed since this is a great ethical issue in front of all of us. There is no time to be lost and I congratulate the organizers of this Yatra for taking up the issue of farmers in this country”.

DR. RAMAKRISHNA KUSMARIYA’S
Minister – Farmer’s Welfare & Agriculture Development, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh