Confidence building measures for Vidarbha ryots

The National Commission for Farmers (NCF) has proposed a programme for instilling confidence among farmers, burdened by mounting debts and crop failures in the Vidarbha region.

Under the programme, "Hope generation," teams would be set up by agricultural universities, which would visit "suicide hot-spots" and guide the farmers to overcome their financial woes, official sources said here today.

Similarly, establishment of village knowledge centres, managed by widows and sons and daughters of farmers from Vidarbha, who have committed suicide, would help to spread the right information at the right time, especially in the areas of credit, insurance and trade literacy, the sources said.

The programme is being launched on May 1, on the occasion of 'Maharashtra Day', they said.

The NCF in its latest report has stressed the need for ending the trend of suicide by farmers, adding that it must be the foremost task of the government. NCF has been providing both generic and location specific recommendations to end the crisis.