Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Does budget meet farmers' expectations? -Dr. T Haque

Does budget meet farmers' expectations? -Dr. T Haque

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Feb 2, 2017   modified Modified on Feb 2, 2017
-The Indian Express

Considering all these aspects, farmers had higher expectation that Budget 2017-18 would give them the best deal. However, this expectation was not met.

It is now widely recognised and reported that farmers in India are facing a distressing situation. During 1995-96 to 2015-16, about 3 lakh farmers in the country committed suicide due to economic distress and depression. The Election Manifesto of Bharatiya Janata Party in both 1998 and 2014 Lok Sabha election highlighted the issue of agrarian distress and promised actions to improve the economic conditions of farmers, if elected to power. Therefore, when BJP under the leadership of Narendra Modi was elected to power in May 2014, farmers expected a real improvement in their working and living conditions. However, one can see for sure that even in the beginning of 2017, the economic condition of farmers has not improved even though the government should not be blamed for this. Farmers suffered mostly due to severe drought in the country in 2014-15 and 2015-16 and also because of substantial dip in the market prices of most agricultural commodities in 2016-17. The Union Government showed concern about it and is currently engaged with an exercise of developing a strategy to double farmers income by 2022.

Considering all these aspects, farmers had higher expectation that Budget 2017-18 would give them the best deal. However, this expectation was not met.

It is true that during the past two years, the Centre launched a number of schemes for revival of agricultural growth and farmers’ welfare. These include (i) soil testing and issuing of soil health card to farmers to enable them to use fertilisers in a balanced manner, (ii) organic farming mission for restoring soil health and sustainability of agriculture (iii) Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana to reduce risk in crop production, (iv) e-national market for enabling farmers to access agricultural market and better price realisation for their produce. These schemes will continue with greater efficiency and outreach this year. Besides increased public investment in irrigation, especially for completing the incomplete irrigation projects, and provision for enhanced agricultural credit supply were made in the budget for 2014-15 through 2016-17. Unfortunately, due to unfavorable climatic situations in 2014-15 and 2015-16 the benefits of all such initiatives by the government remained unrealised. The Budget for 2017-18 is also in the same expected direction, even though farmers expected a little more this time.

The key positive features of the budget for this year is that it has allocated Rs. 1,87,223 crore for agriculture and rural development, which is 24 percent higher than last year. Also, in order to promote private investment by farmers, the Budget has made an all-time high provision of Rs 10 lakh crore for agricultural credit in 2017-18. There is focus on increased institutional credit supply to farmers in unserviced areas, especially Eastern India. An effort will also be made to integrate primary agricultural co-operative credit societies with district co-operative banks, for which Rs 1900 crore has been allocated.

This is likely to improve the credit supply to farmers. Besides, the scope of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana will be increased and an enhanced allocation has been made for crop insurance.

Please click here to read more.
 

The Indian Express, 2 February, 2017, http://indianexpress.com/article/business/budget/does-union-budget-2017-meet-farmers-expectations-bjp-election-4503374/


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close