The 4th biennial Kisan Swaraj Sammelan ended on Sunday in Ahmedabad, resolving to re-build Indian agriculture in a sustainable and equitable fashion.
Participated by more than 1,000 delegates from across India, including women farmers, those who participated included farmers, scientists, academics, researchers, innovators, media representatives, NGO personnel, farm union leaders, activists and senior bureaucrats.
Adopting a “comprehensive alternative plan” for environmental sustainability in order to address issues such as climate change, nutrition security and food safety, a statement adopted at the meet decided to adopt initiatives like universalization of natural farming in Andhra Pradesh and large scale millets mission in the state of Odisha.
Eminent political analyst Yogendra Yadav, speaking at the three day meet, emphasised on the need for a “holistic and comprehensive” policy for the emancipation of farmers, saying, farmers’ movements will be successful only if they can make farmers’ issues as the main agenda for the upcoming elections.
Agriculture scientist Dr GV Ramanjaneyulu of the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (Hyderabad) pointed out that many experiences around agro-ecology around the country show that the potential for scaling up solutions certainly exists and governments have to move towards this path in a more ambitious way while civil society should equip itself to support governments in such a scaling up effort.
Well known farmers’ leaders of Gujarat like Ambubhai Patel and Prafulbhai Senjalia of the Bhartiya Kisan Sangh and Badribhai Joshi of the Gujarat Khedut Samaj emphasised that sustainable farming should be a priority for governments.
Noted rural journalist and founder of People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), P Sainath, highlighted the need for non-farming sections in our society stepping forward to support our anna daatas. Eminent environmentalist Ashish Kothari emphasised about the need for comprehensive alternatives including radical ecological democracy for true Swaraj for rural communities.
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