Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the apple farmers’ forum in Himachal Pradesh is up in arms against the government and the Members of Parliament (MPs) for failing to address their long-pending grievances.

The Sanyukt Kisan Manch (United Farmers’ Forum) blamed the central government for not implementing policies in the interest of farmers and horticulturists in the last 10 years.

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At a forum meeting here on Thursday, various issues related to agriculture and horticulture in the state were discussed.

It was decided that to save the livelihood of lakhs of families associated with it in the state, it is necessary to highlight the increasing crisis in agriculture, and horticulture and the problems being faced by farmers and gardeners in the upcoming Lok Sabha (LS) elections.

SKM Convener Harish Chauhan said, “The forum has given memoranda and demands to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministers several times, but none of the demands have been accepted to date. Prime Minister Modi and the BJP had promised in the election campaign of 2014 and 2019 that farmers would be given the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops based on the Swaminathan Commission.

Other promises included an increase in import duty on apples, waiver of loans, subsidies on fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, agricultural equipment, and other input items. However, the government has drawn a blank in this regard, he added.

The BJP government did not implement the promises it had made to farmers and gardeners during the elections, he lamented, adding that due to this today, there is anger towards the government among the farmers and horticulturists of the state.

The incumbent MPs of the state have not raised any issue of farmers and horticulturists in the Parliament in the last 5 years, nor have they ever supported the struggle of the farmers, hence they will be forced to face the farmers’ opposition, said SKM, co-convener Sanjay Chauhan.

In view of the upcoming elections, the forum has decided to organise itself to get its demands implemented for which a demand charter will be prepared to garner the support of the farming community across the Blocks and Tehsils so as to place it before all the political parties contesting the elections and exercise pressure to get their demands implemented.

“Need was also felt for discussion on solutions to the issues due to the policies being implemented by the government. Today, there is a continuous decline in the production and productivity of farmers and gardeners. Despite low production, farmers and gardeners are not getting fair prices for their crops in the markets. Due to this, the farmers and gardeners in the state are facing a livelihood crisis. They have suffered huge losses this year due to less crop and it will have a widespread impact on the next year’s crop as well,” said Harish Chauhan.

During the meeting, it was also discussed that due to these policies of the government, the debt of farmers and horticulturists is rising today leading to a crisis in agriculture and horticulture.

On the one hand, the central government has waived off loans worth about Rs 15 lakh crore of big corporate houses in the last 10 years and farmers and horticulturists have been demanding loan waivers for a long time, but the government is not paying attention to their demand, said SKM co-convener Sanjay Chauhan.

Their main demands include MSP for all crops as per Swaminathan Commission, a 100% increase in import duty on apples and other fruits, restoration of Budget cuts for the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) by the central government, dues of apple farmers be paid immediately, immediate halt on subsidy cuts on fertilisers, seeds, pesticides, fungicides, agricultural equipment and other input items and end GST on all input items and packaging materials used in agriculture and horticulture, waiver of loans of farmers.