Rethinking Globalization: Issues and Challenges of Indian Agricultural SectorOn December 14, 2019, Saturday at Hyderabad
Indian agricultural problems: Natural farming is the solution:
Natural farming is the only solution for all the problems Indian agriculture sector is facing, said
Venugopal Reddy, founder of Ekalavya Foundation. He was the chief guest at the inaugural
session of the symposium titled ‘Rethinking globalization: Issues and challenges in Indian
agricultural trade.
Awareness in Action, a non-profit think tank, organized the symposium at National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad. More than 140 delegates comprising farmers, farmers leaders, activists, academicians, journalists and policy makers participated in the deliberations.
Speaking on the occasion, he said the cost of cultivation has increased steeply due to overdependence on chemicals and fertilizers. He opined that natural farming will prevent the farmers from falling into the debt trap.
Vice chairman, Agriculture Mission, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Nagi Reddy, who was the guest of honour, said that Indian agriculture was facing problems due to WTO and globalization policies.
In her key note address, Prof. E. Revathi, Director, CESS, Hyderabad explained about the evolution of World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 from GATT, Agreements on Agriculture, intellectual property rights and recent economic treaty called Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and its disadvantages to the Indian Agriculture sector and why India has withdrawn from RCEP.
Director General, Export Promotion Council, Ministry of Commerce and Trade, Government of India, Sangeeta Godbole, Dr. S. Lingamurthy, Assistant Professor of Economics, Central University of Karnataka and Amaraiah, Senior Journalist and Programme Convenor were present on the dais for the inaugural session.
In the first technical session on Agricultural Commodities Trade Issues, Sangeeta Godbole explained the practical issues related to the export of agricultural commodities from India. She stressed on tariff and non-tariff issues, subsidy related problems in relation to agricultural sector. She made a point that due to heavy dose of chemicals and fertilizers, Indian commodities could not get promoted for desired exports.
Prof. J. Manohar Rao, School of Economics, University of Hyderabad made a presentation on Globalization and Agriculture Sector in India and challenges faced by the farmers. Senior Scientist Dr. Dinesh Bharadwaj moderated the second technical session.
Dr. Parakala Prabhakar, a noted economist and former advisor to the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh delivered lecture on the saga of globalization, farmers’ issues before globalization and how they could solve their problems with a unity in the form of farmer organizations before globalization in India.
He pointed out that after infiltration of CPI activists into the farmer organizations, formers got divided and their organizations lost the unity and they became the subject of suppression and exploitation in the country.
Senior IRS officer, Y.V.S.T Sai, who was the guest of honor for the valedictory session said that Indian researchers should focus more on solution oriented research to the practical issues rather than typical academic research. He also stressed that there is an urgent need to address the problems we are facing in WTO with our research at grassroots level.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Ashwani Mahajan, noted economics and Professor of Economics in Delhi University explained the disadvantages of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to the Indian economy.
He pointed out that if RCEP could have materialized, Indian market would have flooded with the New Zealand and Australian milk if RCEP was materialized. Indian farm and milk products would have lost their visibility in their own street market.
Chaitra, Director, Arohan Foundation, Bangalore gave the futuristic direction of AiA and how AiA aspires to take forward the development discussion through collaborations with think tanks and universities by involving more and more researchers and intellectuals for the development of Country.
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