BANGALORE: The State Government's new agriculture policy, which will be announced on November 1, is likely to set the growth rate for the farm sector at 4.5 per cent for the next five years. The current growth rate is 1.2 per cent of the State Gross Domestic Product. The new policy will address issues such as stagnation in production and low prices.

In the wake of continuing farmers' suicides, the policy will also chalk out a strategy to check the trend. Twenty-four farmers have committed suicide in the State so far in the fiscal year 2006-07.

The policy will focus less on increasing agricultural output and more on developing short-term and long-term strategies to increase prices of farm produce. It will seek to increase the area under cultivation as well as address region and crop-specific constraints to accelerate growth in the sector.

But unlike the 1995 policy, which was uniform across the State, the new policy will be district-specific to address district-level problems, sources told The Hindu .

The policy will spell out a strategy for market reforms and for revamping the existing agricultural extension services. "Direct marketing among farmers, traders, cooperatives and the public in Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) yards will increase real prices of farm produce and increase the growth rate from present 1.2 per cent to 4.5 per cent," an official said.

Committee formed

The Government has set up a committee headed by R.S. Deshpande, professor and head, Agricultural Development and Rural Transformation Unit, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore, to draft the new agriculture policy. The committee has already held a few meetings with farmers, farm organisations, scientists and department officials.

The major thrust of the policy will be on changing the functioning of the APMC yards by amending the APMC Act. It will propose amendments that will enable farmers to get the current price for their produce. The APMC yards will be thrown open to all farmers and the pubic for sale and purchase of produce. The present licensing system will be dismantled to ensure that farmers get a legitimate share in the final value of their produce. "Now traders are earning 20 times more than the farmers by cheating on prices, evading tax and flouting rules," a source on the committee said.

The previous Dharam Singh government had soft-pedalled the move to amend the Act in the face of objections from trade bodies.

Institutional and technological reforms in the sector will be other thrust areas of the new policy. It will take into account common constraints on higher growth, the gap between farm productivity and input cost, weak linkages between research and extension, access to credit and stagnancy in agricultural technology.

The policy will lay emphasis on strengthening Krishi Vigyan Kendras, Raitha Samparka Kendras and promoting farmers clubs, sources said.

Infrastructure bottlenecks

To address infrastructure bottlenecks, the policy will chalk out a mechanism for capital formation in the sector. Farm credit has not supported growth in recent years as it did during 1970s and 1980s. This has had a telling effect on capital formation and lack of infrastructure in the sector.

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