Farm sector to blossom on renewed thrust

NEW DELHI: Agri experts who met finance minister P Chidambaram on Friday have urged the government to initiate measures that would step up investment in the farm sector and boost productivity. The demand to prioritise the agri sector came even as they attacked the government’s special economic zones (SEZ) policy, that they alleged would lead to landlessness due to conversion of farmland into such zones.

Concerned over the spate of suicides by small farmers, agriculture experts asked the government to augment resources for the sector, increase budgetary allocation and strengthen financial institutions such as National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (Nabard) to improve flow of rural credit and fiscal measures to improve irrigation facilities.

In a pre-Budget consultation with finance minister P Chidambaram, the experts said Budget 2007 should include measures to mitigate the hardships faced by small farmers. Rajya Sabha member and eminent farmer leader Sharad Joshi wanted the government to implement the recommendations of the National Farmers Commission of providing crop loans at interest rate of 4%. Mr Joshi said the government should work out financially-feasible exit route for farmers, including those who were selling land to SEZs.

Asserting that the Essential Commodities Act was archaic and needed to be scrapped, Mr Joshi said the government must do away with restrictions like those on transport, storage, marketing, processing and exports. In order to enhance the funds for farmers, Nabard managing director KG Karmakar said, “The government should increase funding for farmers through micro-finance institutions and regional rural banks. We have also asked the finance ministry for augmentation of Nabard resources.”

Water conservationist Rajinder Singh pointed out that water had become a major restraining factor in enhancing productivity and suggested a novel concept of community-driven water management.

He suggested fiscal measures for equipment used in creating irrigation facilities besides cheap loans for digging wells or tubewells. Mr Singh also wanted a reshuffle of the items provided under the public distribution system.

Asia of International Food Policy & Research Institute director Ashok Gulati favoured introduction of support price as well as a minimum procurement price for incentivising farmers. He said the support price would take care of the actual expenditure incurred by the farmer in producing grain. He favoured expansion of the PDS basket by including pulses and suggested following market-driven prices for PDS procurement and other welfare schemes.

The meeting was attended by 12 agri experts including Nabard MD KG Karmakar, ITC agri division CEO Siva Kumar, farmer leader Mahadev Shivankar and Gujarat Institute of Development Research, Ahmedabad, professor Amita Shah, besides senior finance ministry officials.