Adopt Gandhian ideals for self sufficiency in food: Experts

NEW DELHI: India needs to adopt Gandhian principles in its policies for farmers to achieve food security, say experts.

"To achieve Gandhi's dream of hunger-free India, the efforts of farmers who toil to keep us alive have to be expressed in terms of remunerative price and assured marketing opportunity for their products," said Dr M S Swaminathan, eminent agriculture scientist.

As the country celebrates Bapu's 138th birth anniversary, farmers in India awaits a new policy for them, which is yet to be unveiled, that insiders in Agriculture Ministry say the policy has been cleared by the Union Cabinet more than a month ago.

The suggestion to government for a Policy on Farmers by the National Commission on farmers headed by Swaminathan had quoted Gandhi: "To those who are hungry, God is Bread."

Agrees former Agriculture Minister and BJP party president Rajnath Singh. "Gandhian economic policies were relevant then, when he spoke and even today," Singh said and warned that the country is heading for a food crisis as government has started to import wheat and other food items after seven years.

Singh pointed that the budget allocation for agriculture has come down, public investment in the sector has not improved. Importantly the farmers's investment capacity has not gone up because their revenues have been low, the revenues were low due to lack of remunerative prices. This was not the way to achieve food security, he said.