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budget

of Comprehensive Cost of Produc- silent on the demand for loan waiver by ‘gaurakshaks’.
tion (C2) while calculating MSP. and debt relief mechanisms for the Meanwhile, the government’s
The Government announced crores of indebted and distressed support to dairy farming and animal
the PM-AASHA scheme with major farmers. husbandry has been scanty. In Budg-
fanfare, promising to ensure that Prime Minister Modi endorsed et 2017-18, with a lot of applause, a
all farmers will be able to sell their in one of his interviews in Janu- Dairy Infrastructure Development
crop at or above MSP. This is a com- ary, 2019, “There is only a very small Fund was announced with 10,881
bination of expanded procurement segment of farmers who take loans crores allocation, to support and
under Price Support Scheme, Price from banks while a majority of them finance dairy units across the coun-
Deficiency Payment System on the take loans from moneylenders.” try within three years. Two years
lines of Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana Contrary to the expectations, the have completed, and only 440
of Madhya Pradesh, and Private government has not announced any crores has been disbursed so far,
Stockist and procurement scheme. steps to make sure that the majority assert farmers. Similarly, in Budg-
However, the total Budget allocation of farmers start getting bank loans. et 2018-19, an Animal Husbandry
for PM-AASHA is only 1500 crores The Finance Minister in Budget 2018 Development Fund of 2430 crores
in this budget. In order to fulfill the speech assured that tenant farmers was announced but it has not yet
mandate of PM-AASHA, a minimum and sharecroppers would be iden- been set up after a whole year.
of 50,000 crores to 1 lakh crore tified and extended crop loans and Though an Output Framework
was required, told the farmers. was announced two years ago, no
The success of the implementa- Outcome Budget has been present-
tion of the proposed scheme can Farmers consider ed based on the output framework.
be evaluated from the fact that the proposals made It may be for good reason, because
expenditure of Madhya Pradesh the performance is poor in many re-
government on Bhavantar yojana in the Budget spects — as seen above in Price Sup-
for just 5 crops was 1800 crores in port, Dairy and Animal Husbandry,
2017-18, that too when they reached as only empty and below in several schemes. In the
only around 20 per cent of the farm- announcements Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana,
ers who cultivated those crops. It the target output was coverage of 50
was calculated that if the scheme of new offers or per cent of farm holdings but the ac-
covered all farmers who cultivated dressing up of old tual coverage fell from 29 per cent in
those crops, the requirement would 2016-17 to 24 per cent in 2017-18 and
have been 8400 crores (Dr.Ashok schemes, without this has further decreased in 2018-19.
Gulati and Siraj Hussain).Hence, the much change on Converting 22,000 rural haats
government has effectively given into fully equipped agricultural
up on ensuring MSP reaches farm- the ground markets (GrAM) was declared as a
ers. The reality is that in most crops, priority in Budget 2018-19. But so far
the farmers got much below MSP in only 85 are complete and 180 are in
Kharif 2018-19. institutional credit. No progress on progress. In NREGS, 61,000 crores
Framers assume that the Inter- that, and no reference in this year’s was spent last year, but the demand
est Subvention announcement is of Budget speech or any allocation in from states was more than 80,000
minor significance because it applies the Budget has been made. crores. The pending payments itself
only to loans which are rescheduled The government declared that runs to more than 16,000 crores.
during calamities. With most natural the government “will do anything But the allocation is lowered to
calamities not even being declared for protection and promotion of 60,000 crores this year (compared
by the government and poor imple- the cow”, and set up the National to Revised Budget 2018-19).
mentation of loan rescheduling, this Kamadhenu Ayog — a Commission The Interim Union Budget has
benefit would hardly go to 1 per cent to ensure the welfare of the cow, but plethora of announcements on
of the farmers. there is no statutory Farmers’ Com- farming sector, apparently to woo
While farmers in several states mission for the welfare of farmers the voters engaged in farming but
are already getting interest-free who nurture the cows. He did not the report card of last four and a half
crop loans, there was expectation even acknowledge the huge prob- years and the tight fiscal road-map
that Union government will expand lem of stray cattle that have become for the government leaves many
interest-free crop loans across India, the scourge of the farmers in villages questions unanswered.
but it proved to be a disappointment. across India, due to the irrational
The government was completely policies on cattle trade and the havoc letters@tehelka.com

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