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Call for more efforts to strengthen farm sector

KOCHI: The need for public-private partnership in the agricultural field was stressed by Venugopal C. Govind, a chartered accountant, while talking about the Union budget here.

The importance of giving prominence to the agriculture sector in line with other segments of economy like industry, services and infrastructure was highlighted at a discussion on the budget organised by the BL Club at the School of Communication and Management Studies (SCMS) here.

He stressed the need for a strong political decision for the revival of agricultural sector as well as to enhance its productivity, which remained low compared to global standards. Agriculture had always become a matter of concern even though it had tremendous potential for growth. “As we talk about the double digit growth for the manufacturing sector, it can be possible to achieve the same in the agriculture sector also, provided the government gives the necessary thrust,” he said.

However, more efforts would be needed to make agriculture an economic activity in the country. Introduction of newer technologies and strengthening of research activities for specialised farming techniques should also be extended to make the sector more vibrant. He was also of the view that substantial research activities taking place in the manufacturing sector should also be transformed into the farming sector in order to derive the benefit out of it.

Babu A. Kallivayalil, member of the South India Regional Council of ICAI, defended the waiver of agriculture loans in the budget, saying that it would ensure relief to small and marginal farmers and also boost production. The waiver of agriculture loans might apparently be a political decision and there was a general impression that political decision may not be economically correct. That did not mean that all political decisions were economically wrong, he said. According to him, the immediate beneficiaries of the loan waiver schemes were the banking companies on account of the reason that most of these loans were non-performing assets (NPA’s) as on December 31, 2007 and had been provided for the loss as per the RBI norms.

These loans, even otherwise, would have been unrecoverable and the banks would have been forced to write off major part of these loans. Since loss on account of these small agriculture loans were already absorbed in the banks account, the amount which would be granted by the government was going to be taken to the profits of the banking companies.

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Call for more efforts to strengthen farm sector

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