New Delhi| Union Finance Nirmala Sitharaman has presented the general budget of the country and the government has made many important announcements related to the agriculture sector. The United Kisan Morcha has expressed anguish over this budget saying that, the budget showed that the government does not care about the welfare of the farmers despite the rhetoric of adding farmer welfare in the name of its ministry. In view of the budget, SKM has issued a statement while expressing its opinion that, the government has reduced the share of agriculture and allied activities in the total budget from 4.3 percent last year to 3.8 percent this year. At the same time, we condemn the budget and call upon the farmers of the country to be ready for another big struggle for the minimum support price and other burning issues.
According to SKM leaders, the farmers of the country were hopeful that the government, in the budget, would take specific effective measures to avoid getting remunerative prices, facing crop losses due to natural calamities, and deep indebtedness. But it is as if the government, upset by its defeat over three anti-farmer laws, has set out to take revenge on the farmers. Farmers were waiting for the news of their income doubling.
According to the government’s doubling of farmers’ income report, the benchmark farm household income for 2015-16 was Rs 8,059 and promised to double it in real terms taking into account inflation. This puts the target income in 2022 at Rs 21,146. But, the 77th round of NSSO shows that in 2018-19, the average agricultural household income was only Rs 10,218.
Estimating the growth rate of GVA in agriculture for the next 3 years, the income in 2022 is still less than Rs 12,000 per month, which is a far cry from the target of doubling the income.
SKM said that the budget speech mentions procurement of paddy and wheat from only 1.63 crore farmers, which is about 10 percent of all farmers in the country. In the case of paddy and wheat also, the budget speech shows that there has been a decline in procurement in 2021-22 as compared to 2020-21.
The Finance Minister proudly announced that procurement of wheat and paddy in 2021-22 will cover 1208 lakh metric tonnes of wheat and paddy from 163 lakh farmers and 2.37 lakh crore MSP price will be directly paid into their accounts, data from 2020-21 show a serious shortfall.
In fact, in the budget, the government has announced to promote the use of drones in the agriculture sector. At the same time, the Finance Minister has decided to increase the target of procurement of paddy and wheat.
Apart from this, the Finance Minister said that this is the foundation budget for the next 25 years, there is a plan to invest in modern infrastructure. In this budget, the general investment will be encouraged, while 400 new generation Vande Bharat trains with better efficiency will be brought during the next 3 years. While the focus of the government is on development related to technology, we are in a strong position to take up the challenge.
