Farmers' body urge for viable policies
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, February 11 2014:
Emphasising on chalking out viable policies on agriculture and land use in the State, All Manipur Progressive Farmers' Association (AMPFA) said the agriculture sector could be effectively developed only when the implementing agencies are committed and sincere.
Regretting that compared to the global trend the agricultural sector in Manipur is lagging far behind, AMPFA president Joy Nongmaithem told newspersons that failure to work out a viable agriculture policy at the earliest would put the ever increasing population of Manipur in a perilous situation.
Speaking at its Keishampat Junction office today, Joy noted that from 24-25 lakh population some times back, Manipur's total population has jumped to about 27 lakhs contrary to agricultural activities concentrated on a meagre 2 lakh hectares out of the State's total geographical area of 22,327 sq kms.
Explaining that in the present situation there is shortage of about 2 lakh metric tonne food grains as the total annual requirement in the State stands at 6.36 lakhs metric tonnes compared to the yearly yield of only about 4.10 lakhs, he cautioned that if effective agricultural policy is not worked out at the earliest the demand-supply ratio would increase further as agricultural areas have been shrinking and human population increasing rapidly.
Expressing serious concern that vast tract of prime agricultural lands are being utilised for non-agricultural purposes such as school building construction, brick farms and other commercial ventures by private parties, Joy said imminent loss of more areas in laying rail tracks and recent Government decision to reserve 130 acres of land at Heingang area for Manipuri pony sanctuary will only aggravate the situation in the coming years.
As availability of land is a necessity for sustaining agricultural activities, the Government of Manipur needs to come up with an effective land use policy along with focusing on development of the agriculture sector, said the farmer activist who also opined that implementation of Food Security Act in Manipur will spell doom for the State farmers if local conditions are not taken into consideration.
In case the Government procures food grain from the local farmers there will be no cause for concern but if food grains for implementing the said Act if purchased from outside then the local agricultural workers would be compelled to rethink on their profession, Joy explained suggesting that the local farmers could reap benefit of their hard toil in the fields if viable marketing policy is put in place.