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New beginning: M.S. Swaminathan

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: The Union budget marks a new beginning in addressing the issues confronting farmers in the country, M.S. Swaminathan, agriculture scientist and Rajya Sabha member, said on Friday.

Noting that the budget had a three-pronged strategy to address the issues, Dr. Swaminathan said the budget was likely to stimulate agricultural renewal and mark the beginning of the end of the era of farmers’ suicides.

Debt waiver and debt relief would help to re-launch the small and marginal farmers and the other farmers, who had earlier been covered by the One Time Settlement (OTS) scheme on the road to economically-viable agriculture.

“The Budget provision made by Shri Chidambaram will give relief to all farmers who had borrowed from institutional sources. I hope that some method of giving relief to those who have borrowed from private sources, such as giving them Smart Cards, which will help them to get essential inputs like seeds and fertilizers at low or no cost, can be devised.”

Pointing out that the second aspect of the agricultural renewal strategy dealt with a series of programmes that could address issues relating to soil health, irrigation and infrastructure including rural roads, he called for a “careful monitoring” of the outcome from the substantial outlays proposed.

“The outlay-outcome relationship has been deteriorating in the farm sector because of a lack of convergence and synergy among numerous ongoing programmes of both Central and State governments.”

The third component was the provision of the necessary support to small and marginal farmers for improving farm productivity and income security through multiple livelihood opportunities in on-farm and non-farm sectors, he said.

Pointing to the provision of Rs.16,000 crore for covering all the 596 rural districts under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, he said while it should help improve the ecological foundations for sustainable agriculture, the effective administration of the National Rural Health Mission would alleviate the rural health crisis. “New schemes of insurance have been proposed and if some investment is made on insurance and credit literacy through village level Gyaan Chaupals, there will be full benefit from public investment in these areas,” he said.

He expressed hope that the proposed Irrigation and Water Resources Corporation would not only help to enlarge the area under assured irrigation but would also help to spread water use efficiency leading to more crop and income per drop of both water and diesel. “In the long term, our agriculture will grow to its full potential only if the commitment made in the National Policy for Farmers (2007) that agricultural progress will be measured by the progress in the growth of the real income of farmers is converted from words into action,” he added.

Text of Finance Minister's speech

Union Budget - Photo Gallery

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