An organisation representing the farmers today criticised the government's agriculture policy and demanded a separate Central budget for the agri sector.
Slamming the Centre's agriculture policy, Bhartiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) president Anniruddha Murkute said, "FDI, WTO is driving us to slavery. Lakhs of farmers are committing suicide and farming has become unprofitable."
He was speaking at a rally at Ramlila Maidan, where farmers from different parts of the country had gathered.
The BKS demanded a separate budget for agriculture.
"There should be a separate budget for agriculture. Only Rs 14,000 crore has been allocated for agriculture in the budget while 70 per cent of the people in the country still rely on it for livelihood," said Prabhakar Kelkar, All India General Secretary of the BKS.
Murkute added, "The farming community is protesting today as to change the national policies to make it agro-centric so that crores are employed in agricultural sector."
The BKS urged that the economic model of the country should be "agriculture centric" and farmers be ensured remunerative prices for their produces on the basis of the production cost.
"Forty per cent of farmers are being forced to quit to farming because of the agriculture policy. Cost of farming has gone up by 100 to 200 per cent over the past few years. We want good prices for our products that includes 20 per cent of the profit," said BKS All India Organising Secretary, Dinesh Kulkarni.
The organisation also demanded that the Land Acquisition Bill should be reframed to Land Utility Bill and farmers have proprietary rights on land and also to rent out the land on lease.
