The Hindu : Kerala News : Agriculture Department wastes Central funds

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Saturday, Sep 29, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala

Agriculture Department wastes Central funds

N.J. Nair

Rs.39 crore sanctioned; department spent only Rs.80.67 lakh

Funds allotted to increase productivity via new irrigation mode
Unused amount returned to Centre or deposited in accounts

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Bureaucratic apathy may have cost the Agriculture Department Rs.39 crore sanctioned by the Centre for adoption of micro-irrigation methods. The department is learnt to have wasted a lion’s share of these funds – it is learnt to have spent only Rs. 80.67 lakh – sanctioned in two instalments for raising agriculture productivity.

Plea of another package

The lapse has been detected at a time when the State Government is persistently demanding a special package of Rs.1,000 crore to deal with the situation created by farmer suicides as well as to salvage the agriculture sector as a whole.

Department sources told The Hindu that the funds were sanctioned on the basis of the projects submitted by officials for increasing productivity through novel irrigation modes.

Initially, a sum of Rs.32 crore was sanctioned in 2005-06 to take up new irrigation modes all over the State and Rs.6.36 crore under the Prime Minister’s special package scheme in 2006-07 exclusively for three backward districts, Kasaragod, Wayanad and Palakkad.

Out of the Rs.32 crore, the department could utilise only Rs.40.34 lakh. Of the Rs. 6.36 crore package, only Rs.40.33 lakh was spent.

The balance amount of the first instalment was returned to the Centre and Rs.5.95 crore from the second instalment deposited in the accounts of the principal agriculture officers in the three districts. The accrued interest is now being utilised for routine departmental expenses.

No efforts made

Though the Centre has accorded administrative sanction to spend the unutilised funds, no serious effort has been made so far to educate the farmers about the potential of micro-irrigation methods against the conventional flood irrigation system which is in vogue all over the State.

Department sources said that projects were submitted to the Centre without considering their feasibility or significance in the context of an evolving scenario.

For instance, department officials are generally averse to advocating different modes of micro-irrigation like sprinkler irrigation to the farmers. This is despite the fact that it is most suitable for undulated terrain.

Drip irrigation

Quite often, undue importance is given to drip irrigation without considering its limitations.

The department has either opted to look the other way or has given advice in total disregard to the topographical features of each locale. This has given way to a lot of complaints.

In spite of the claims that attempts are being made to harness the skills of experts and farmers to produce the best results in the fields, the inertia of the department has dampened the possibility for new experiments, sources said.

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