ChandrababuNaidu fasting...

Farmers are super sufferrers in India at-least in Andhrapradesh. 6-10 suicides a day is very, very very common.. so much that news papers publish it in 4th or 5th page at some corner, some don't even do it. Farmers life is more like a gamble. They work very very hard all the year investing their life in the crop. They dont get a proper seed/ fertilizer or the government doesn't give a proper price to the crop or a cyclone sweeps away the harvest or the middle men exploit them... what ever be the case they are the super sufferers. I havent heard of atleast one case where a farmer really profited. Andhra pradesh is rice bowl of india and such a situation here is just un-digestable.

Not able to toil the situation recently the opposition leader Chandrababu naidu had sat down to fasting. At first i welcomed it as his demands can help the farmers in coping up. He is on fast since 4 days and the state and the center is deeply worried about it. With so much of effort and time going in are we getting to a permanent fix to the problem? I fear history may repeat again and what would he do then? again sit to fast? In my view fasting only compels the opposite person to listen to you and act in your favor and nothing more.

Isnt there a nicer solution?

• In my view farmers shouldnt be totally dependent on cultivation alone. They should be into multiple small scale business like Silk, paper, poultry, making of daily tiffins and exporting them to cities (more similar to the milk packets we get every day; and infact i had see it happening at station few years back) substitutes for polythene bags, tomato sauce, jam, etc. His investment on each of his work should be in such a way that loss/ bankrupsy in one business shouldnt end him up in suicides. This not only helps him but also avoids localization of employment to cities and the Side affect: lesser migrations of people form villages to cities.
• One more point. I dont like doing things for free. The best example is ration shop where the poor gets food grains for a huge subsidy and in return what does govt get? debts? Instead lets make it like this: I will give food grains for huge subsidy, but this year i see accumulation of tomato so buy 1 kg of tomato for every 4 kgs of rice. I see it perfectly valid deal. Side affect: Farmer is benefited, end user may buy less of subsidy food and less the burden on government.
• put a competition in Andhrapradesh/ india telling the best 10 ideas to fix the farmers problem gets 1 lakh rupees. We may put the ideas open online and let people vote against them as well.
• Highlight/ award extensively the farmer who innovatively overcame his issues and publicize extensively his works so that others can take him as an example/ role model.

All the above requires time, patience to do and see things happening after all that is for what the Government is meant for. Do you disagree?