Proposal
from the Convening Committee adopted by the Asian Agricultural Conference
The Asian Agricultural Conference
organized by the Convening Committee, composed of the All India Krantikari
Kisan Sabha (AIKKS), All Nepal Peasant Association (ANPA) and Bangladesh
Krishak Samiti (BKS) on 1st to 3rd April at New Delhi has
created much revolutionary enthusiasm among the various organizations and
delegates who participated in it. The papers presented and the deliberations,
debates and discussion which has taken place during the three-day Conference on
the theme identified have made it clear that in spite of differences on ideological persuasions, it is possible for
the peasant activists and organizations of Asia to come together and debate on
the crisis confronting agrarian sector in this part of the world. It is
definitely a significant step forward in the direction of arriving at a
concrete understanding of the agrarian situation in Asia, which will enable us
to arrive at practical steps in the direction of resolving the problem in the
coming days.
In this context, in the concluding
session of the Conference, the following proposals put forward by the Convening
Committee in order to nurture and carry forward these efforts further were
adopted unanimously:
1.The activities of the Convening
Committee shall be continued and expanded grasping the experience it has
gathered while convening this Conference and during the course of the actual
Conference including other like-minded organizations also in the effort from
the countries which already participated and from as many countries as possible
from the continent..
2. As a follow up action, the
Convening Committee shall compile and publish all the papers, presentations,
discussions and opinions presented to the Conference as early as possible.
3. The Convening Committee shall take
up the task of organizing a larger Conference in the near future ensuring the
participation of more organizations from the Asia-Pacific region with the
perspective of taking practical initiatives and putting forward an alternative,
people oriented path of development against the imperialist path of development
which is increasingly pauperizing the peasant masses and devastating, the
nature in the direction of resolving the agrarian crisis.
Com.R.Manasayya, Co-Convener, General
Secretary, AIKKS (India),
Com. Bharat Bhandari, Co-Convener,
President, ANPA (Nepal),
Com. Sajjad Zahir, General Secretary,
BKS (Bangladesh).,
Press Statement
Asian Agricultural
Conference successfully concluded.
The Asian Agricultural Conference inaugurated by
com.K.N.Ramachandran, General Secretary, CPI(ML) on 1st April, began
with the first session at 10 am discussing the perspective of the Conference which
include an attempt to make concrete
analysis of the Agrarian Scene in Asia and the orientation to be developed for
its people oriented transformation. 120 delegates including representatives of
peasant organizations from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Philippines,
agronomists, agricultural scientists and Marxist scholars along with two
comrades from MLP of Germany participated all through the three day Conference.
In the Second Session in the afternoon papers on the agrarian question in these
countries were presented leading to an active discussion with a number of
delegates participating. The papers presented by Prof.Manbahadur Khatri for All
Nepal Peasant Association, Prof. Akah for Bangladesh Krishak Samithi, Prof.
P.J.James for AIKKS, com.Rajesh Kumar Raju for AISKS, com.Narendra Khadka for
All Nepal Peasant Organization (Revolutionary) and Dr. Ram Kavindra of
Navjanavadi Lokmanch, in spite of ideological differences and theoretical
positions of CPI (ML), RSP and other organizations from India, CPN (Mashal),
UCPN (Maoist) and CPN(Marxist) from
Nepal, NDPF from Sri Lanka, CP of Bangladesh and CP of Philippines to whom the
different agricultural organizations are linked, were emphatically pointing out
the need to focus on the struggle against the neo-liberal policies and the need
for a people’s centric alternative to the imperialist dictated ‘development’
which is pauperizing the masses and devastating the nature.
The third session on 2nd April morning, dealing
with the Asian Agricultural Scene During
the Post- Second World War period, in which Prof. K.R.Chowdhry and
Sharmistha Chowdhry presented the papers, once again there was active
discussion by the delegates on the various aspects of imperialist penetration
in the agrarian sector including consequences of state-promoted land reforms
and ‘green revolution’. In the afternoon, during the forth session, Impact of the imperialist policies on the
agrarian sector was discussed after presentation of papers by com. P.N. Provint
for AIKKS and Prf. K.R. Chowdhry for Prof.Prasad Rao, which focused on the
neo-liberal agenda in the farm sector and how it has led to large scale peasant
suicides.
In the fifth session on 3rd morning dealt with Impact of ecological changes, technological
intervention and WTO policies on the agrarian sector. Various aspects of this question were
presented in the papers presented by Dr.
Abdul Khader presented the paper on “Impact of climate change and imperialism:
a case study of Kerala”, com. Indra Varma on “Global environmental crisis,
neo-liberal trade policies and their impact on Nepal’s agricultural sector”,
com. Krishna Prasad on “Agricultural practices-impact on environment and vice
versa”, and com. Asit Das on “Sustinable agriculture in the age of changing
climates”. The presentation of papers was followed by a lively discussion with
the authors of the papers answering to the various questions raised. The
unanimous opinion that emerged was that unless the neo-liberal policies under
international finance capital” domination is not thrown out the catastrophic
consequences of the climate change cannot be resolved.
The discussion in the concluding session was on the Approach to agrarian revolution in the
present context.Com. Sankar Das presented the paper “On agrarian revolution
in Asian countries”, Dr. Vijayachandran on “Development of India Agriculture:
Search for an anti-imperialist and patriotic alternative” and com. Gred Zitzner
of MLPD on “On the orientation of the Asian Agricultural Conference”. The
papers as well as all the comrades who participated in the discussion that
followed agreed that in order to arrive at a revolutionary restructuring of the
society in each country the path of agrarian revolution should be pursued based
on worker-peasant alliance and according to concrete conditions. All
participants agreed that this Conference has created a new platform for the
first time to take up this question forcefully and this effort should be
continued.
Before the conclusion, com. R.Manasayya presented a proposal
for discussion calling for continuing the functioning of the Convening
Committee, for publication of all papers and contributions and for convening
another Conference to continue the process initiated by this Conference.
Representatives of all organizations and the prominent intellectuals who
participated unanimously congratulated the Convening Committee for this
initiative and accepted the proposal. The Asian Agricultural Conference
concluded at 5.30 pm amidst an enthusiastic atmosphere with the determination
to continue the process at continental level initiated by it. For the delegates
who came from six countries and ten states in India it was a new experience.
Thus the Conference was a big success and the Convening Committee congratulated
all the participants who made it so.
R.Manasayya, Co-Convener, Convening Committee,
Asian Agricultural Conference.
4th April, 2012.
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