People from different walks of life including poets, singers, actors and youth on Monday vowed to join the protracted struggle being waged by farmers seeking statutory backing by the Centre for the Minimum Support Price (MSP) regime.
At a meeting called by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella organisation of farmer unions, to broadbase the ongoing peasant movement, Indian People’s Theatre Association’s A.P. unit honorary president Nalluri Venkateswarulu said a remunerative price for farmers remained elusive even as food prices went beyond the reach of the common man. All sections of people should join the stir by the farmer organisations to achieve their just demands including immediate relief for debt-ridden farmers as the country’s food security was at stake, he said.
After paying tributes to former parliamentarian and farmer leader N.G. Ranga, farmer leaders led by SKM Prakasam district convener Ch. Ranga Rao declared that they would intensify their struggle as the Centre was delaying the introduction of legislation that would provide legal backing to MSP as per the formula evolved by noted agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan (cost of production plus 50%). Farmers were in an unenviable position now as they were not earning on par with even MGNREGS workers, they lamented.
Navyandhra Writers’ Association State president T. Aruna said that poets had a responsibility to espouse the cause of farmers who were either forced to quit their vocation or end their lives as farming had increasingly becoming unviable.. All farm inputs, including seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, became costlier year after year. In this backdrop, farmers are finding it difficult simply to break even, let alone make a small profit.
Playwright Patibandla Ananda Rao said farmers should make use of their collective bargaining power instead of resorting to distress sale or destroying their crops during times of adversities.
All sections of people should chip in with their contributions to secure a fair deal for farmers as civilisation is bound to collapse in the event of farmers losing the capacity to feed the country, Organisation for Protection of Democracy State vice president Ch. Sudhakar said.
