3rd video-conference - Cafarnaum - Part 1
Patricia (Project coordinator – wearing a green t-shirt): Today’s theme is commercialization.
Patricia: The central Indian government fixes the prices of the season’s products. They also different federations that sell different products. In that season’s harvest, the government establishes the price for those products. Each federation specializes itself in a product or a group of products. It’s like Marcos mentioned in the case of Coopaf, that it is becoming more specialized in the commerce of oil seeds.
Patricia: They harvest peanuts, corn, onion, aubergine, ladies’ fingers…
Alan (translator – wearing a green t-shirt): They have a federation and, the main difference to us is that they government establishes the prices.
Marcos (technician from a cooperative – wearing a whit t-shirt): I would like to know if the farmers are subsidized. Whether the governments help the farmers or not. Because there has been a proposal here, not a government’s proposal, but farmers’. The proposal was that the government should invest in the small farmer with a condition. If the small farmer produces well, s/he has the obligation of selling the production to the government in order to produce biofuels. On the other hand, if he had a bad harvest, as it happened this year, s/he would be subsidized with the amount he borrowed to plant. I would like to know whether this process happens there.
Patricia: The kind of the subsidize they have is through seed distribution. They have branches of the State Agriculture Department spread all over. These branches take care of the seed distribution. But they have also explained before that if the farmers lose their harvest, the government pays “the day” for the farmers, a kind of insurance. It is quite little money, but at least they can sustain themselves.
Alan: Mr. Siddu (staff of Power – Indian NGO) reminds us that “the day”, paid by the government, happens during the off-season.
Marcos: In our region, the farmer only plant once a year. S/he plants in November with the prevision of harvesting in February. If s/he loses the harvest completely, EBDA (kind of State Agriculture Department) agents visit the farmer`s property and if it is seen that the production lost was more than 90%, the farmer receives the money of harvest insurance. The farmers receives a total of about US$ 240,00 divided in 5 monthly installments.
Marcos: In order to be insured, the person has to prove s/he is a small farmer. He applies, filling out a form. If s/he is approved, he can opt for being insured. S/he pays an unique fee of about US$ 2,40 for the year s/he wants to be insured. The municipality pays, for each farmer, a fee of about US$ 7,20.
Alan: He was explaining that there is a small bank, a medium bank (in the regional level) and a large bank (in the national level).
Patricia: It is a bank like a credit cooperative that lends to the farmers. The Directory of this credit cooperative (bank) is elected by the farmers. They define the credit policies, how it should be or not. Each season, the farmer pays between 30 and 40 rupies (about US$ 0,90) for each product they plant. Sorghum, for example, for each acre of land planted with sorghum, the farmer will pay 40 rupies. If the harvest is lost, they receive about US$ 17,40 per acre.
Alan: Mr. Siddu said he will invite one of the two senior farmers that are participating on the conference today.
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