Reinforcing his party’s “deep commitment’’ to farmers, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday flagged the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sinchai Yojna aimed at ‘per drop more crop’ and Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojna (organic farming) as the two most important progammes in the farm sector to enhance productivity and production.
He announced an allocation of Rs. 5,300 crore for micro-irrigation, watershed development and the “sinchai yojna’’ and Rs. 300 crore for organic farming with a request to state governments to “chip in’’ for both.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently launched the Soil Health Card Scheme from Suratgarh in Rajasthan. Recognising that agriculture incomes were under stress, Mr. Jaitley announced that a Unified National Agriculture Market would be set up to increase farmers’ incomes with an “incidental’’ advantage of moderating increase in prices which has been the bane of many a government. “While farmers are no longer in the clutches of traders, his produce does not command the best national price,’’ he observed.
The 14.34 per cent reduction over the revised estimates for 2014-15 has been officially explained as being offset by more funds to states for better implementation.
“Farm credit underpins the efforts of hardworking farmers,’’ the Minister said raising the farm credit target by Rs. 50,000 crore to Rs. 8.5 lakh crore for 2015-16, which he expects banks to surpass.
At the same time to support the sector through effective and “hassle-free” agriculture credit with a special focus on small and marginal farmers, the Finance Minister allocated Rs. 25,000 crore to the corpus on small and marginal farmers.
However, funding for the UPA flagship programmes of Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna has been reduced and the National Food Security Mission, Extension programme and crop insurance schemes have been ignored. Former Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar did not seem impressed with the allocations to the farm sector but his successor Radha Mohan Singh said the budget has the stamp of Mr. Modi’s “commitment’’ to agriculture. Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur whose home state got a post-graduate horticulture institute, was happy with the tax exemption to cold chains and cold storages. “Thus will give a huge boost to savings on wastage of perishables,’’ she said.
