Surprisingly, though a majority of MPs and MLAs come from rural areas and even get elected on the strength of the rural votes, they fail to serve as an effective voice of the farmers. The real issues that bother the farmers are rarely raised in the legislatures. Even at the time of Budget formulation, while the representatives of different industries and other sectors of economy are invited by the finance minister for consultations, the genuine representatives of the farmers are mostly overlooked. Those who are invited are either agricultural economists — many of whom base their opinions on dated statistics without taking the ground realities into reckoning — or politically active pseudo-farmers.

<p><table width='100%' border=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td style='FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 18px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: #0253B7;'><B>Surinder Sud:</b> For the farm, by the farmer</td></tr><tr><tr><td style='FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 11px; '>Farmers

Surinder Sud: For the farm, by the farmer

Farmers representatives need to be consulted so that schemes like the NREGS do not hurt the sector

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