The upcoming budget will be the last complete budget before the 2019 election. Keep it in mind, the focus has come to the farmer completely. At the beginning of his budget speech, every Finance Minister sings the citation of the farmers, often he is told the lifeline of the country’s economy and has often been the resolution of ‘Kisan’s Azadi’ but has been the victim of Indian agriculture hollow promises. Otherwise I don’t see why the farming crisis grows in so many years?
Budget Finance Minister coming to a February Arun Jaitley Going ahead of expectations, gives agriculture the opportunity to have a strong foundation of giving new life. In a country where 52 per cent of the population is directly or indirectly linked to farming, whether or not the way of ‘Development of Sabka with Sabka’ passes through cultivation. The old saying of the farmer happy is still applicable to our economy.
In 2014, the five primary areas that the Finance Minister Jitley had told the need to pay attention to were the top of the cultivation. But, in the next two years of 2014 and 2015, the income from farming in almost all crops came down in the next two years of 2016 and 2017, forcing the farmers to throw on their yield roads in many places. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, the fury in the farmers reached the unprecedented level. Farm protests were 628 in 2014. That increased by 4,837 in 2016, i.e. 670 percent growth, which is a matter of concern.
Therefore, the focus will be on giving more income in the hands of immediate farmers. But there is no hope in me by reading reports related to it in newspapers, which are the courageous steps to announce to the Minister of Finance to address the rural crisis of farming. This suggests that the bureaucratic farming of power corridors has not been understood. Bringing corporate agriculture from the previous door will lead to increased distress.
Instead, it’s better to take these steps:
After the four-year-old farmers have been killed, it has now come to time that they should package Rs 8 thousand per acre every year on the lines of declaration in Telangana. Once every season, this money should be put directly into the bank accounts of the farmers. All farmers are entitled to it, that is not dependent on how much they have the ground. The Centre has to make provision in the budget for this. As dairy farmers in Karnataka also need a strict incentiv of Rs.5 per liter of milk.
– Preference of investment will also be brought to the creation of immediate and more APMC driven pavilions. As per the scope of five kilometres where 42 thousand pavilions are currently only 7,600 pavilions. Allotment can be done easily to create 20,000 pavilions in this budget for the beginning.
Extension of E-Name (National Agricultural Market) is redundant until trading is at minimum support value (MSP). The ideal price used for everyday trading activities is actually the price of the sale in frustration. As long as the farmer does not get the right price, e-name will only help in commodity trading for traders.
The Commission for Farmers Income and Welfare should be made by new name to the Commission for Costs and Prices (CSPs) of the crops and to give the obligation to ensure a minimum of Rs 18 thousand per month income for all farmers.
– The contradiction between corporate loan right-off and farmer loan waiver should be eliminated. The industry and the farmers take debt from both banks but, the corporate right-off does not burden the states where they are industries. So far, the farmer’s debt waiver announced by different states, this year is largely Rs 75,000 crore. The States have to bear the costs of the declaration. But in the 2016-17, the banks quietly right-off the debt of Rs 77,123 crore of the corporate sector. A state did not bear this burden.
Devinder Sharma
Agriculture Specialist and Environmentalist
