Land reforms must to increase productivity: Somnath

Hyderabad, May 11 (UNI) Asserting that governments should take effective measures to transform agriculture into a sustained income generating activity, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today stressed the need to bring land reforms to increase productivity and employment generation in the agriculture sector.

Presenting the best Telugu Rural Journalist awards to the winners at a function organised by the Foundation for People's Journalism here, he said 'it is imperative to bring about structural changes of which land reforms are the primary needs, as support prices and provision of cheap credit do not help beyond a point.' Observing that the land reforms that were implemented by the ruling CPM in West Bengal and Kerala, he said 'such institutional reforms in ownership of agriculture land can really unleash the peasantry's productive forces, increasing the foodgrain production.' Expressing concern over the declining agricultural growth due to crop failures and increasing debt burden on farmers, Mr Somnath said ''the farmers and the agrarian sector as such, should not be allowed to be a victim of the politics of confrontation and intolerance''.

''The farmers should not be used as a pawn in their game of sectarian politics and the matters concerning them be viewed as vital national issues,'' he added.

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