"Gyan Chaupals" from May Day: Swaminathan

Hyderabad, Apr 19 (UNI) The MS Swaminathan Foundation along with corporates and research institutions will launch ''Gyan Chaupals'' at Nagpur for villages in Vidarbha region on May Day to rehabilitate widows of farmers who committed suicide.

Informing this to reporters here today, National Commission on Farmers Chairman M S Swaminathan said The Tatas and the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics here had come forward to involve themselves in managing the Village Resource Centres to train the widows and children of such farmers in market-driven skills, providing them the right information at the right time, enabling them to start farm and non-farm income earning enterprises.

Successive droughts had caused psychological stress in the farmers leading them to take the extreme step.

To begin with, ICRISAT had identified persons for counselling farmers in Adakkal Mandal of Mahboobnagar district which witnessed high incidence of suicides.

Referring to the strategy for saving peasants' lives and livilihood, Dr Swaminathan emphasised on the need for providing them technology choice according to agro-ecological conditions, market demand, quality and affordable inputs, credit and insurance, market tie-up and enhancement of soil health and water conservation.

He also underscored the need for providing peasants health care and insurance scheme for ending the 'era of farmers sucides' and revive the glorious days of the Green Revolution.

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