PMK leader Anbumani has said that the agricultural budget presented by the TVK government has failed to fulfill its purpose, and that there has been no announcement on procurement prices or crop loans, while the allocation for the agriculture department has been reduced by Rs. 470.92 crore.
The agricultural budget has been presented for the sixth time on behalf of the Tamil Nadu government and for the first time on behalf of the TVK government. Looking at the announcements included in the agricultural budget, not even one percent of the purpose for which PMK fought for 13 years and succeeded in getting a separate agricultural budget presented has been achieved. This budget has only disappointed farmers.
The total value of the agricultural budget presented in the Legislative Assembly, as well as the allocation for the agriculture department, has been significantly reduced. While the interim budget presented by the DMK government had allocated Rs. 15,167.62 crore for agriculture alone, the revised budget has allocated only Rs. 14,696.70 crore, which is Rs. 470.92 crore less. The agricultural budget presented in the Assembly today states that the total allocation for 20 departments is Rs. 58,374 crore, which is Rs. 11,126 crore more than the interim budget estimate of Rs. 47,248 crore.
In fact, the total value of the agriculture budget has been reduced. Among the 20 sectors included in this budget, only the allocation for rural development has been increased from the interim budget amount of Rs. 6,329.29 crore to Rs. 11,774 crore, bringing the total allocation to Rs. 18,103.02 crore. It is said that a 125-day employment scheme has been introduced in place of the 100-day employment scheme that was in effect until last year, and that this additional allocation has been made because the central government’s share for this scheme has been reduced while the state government’s share has been increased. This will not bring about any change at the ground level. If this additional allocation is excluded, the total value of the agriculture budget is only Rs. 46,600 crore. This is Rs. 648 crore less than the interim budget’s total value of Rs. 47,248 crore.
The Pattali Makkal Katchi has been insisting that 25% of the total budget should be allocated to agriculture and allied sectors. Accordingly, out of the total budget amount of Rs.4.62 lakh crore, Rs.1.16 lakh crore should have been allocated for the agriculture budget. However, only about half of that has been allocated to agriculture. Of that, it is unacceptable that only a mere Rs.14,696.70 crore has been allocated to the agriculture sector alone.
It had been promised that if the TVK came to power, the procurement price for paddy would be Rs. 3,500 per quintal and the procurement price for sugarcane would be Rs. 4,500 per tonne. However, there was no announcement about this in the budget. While the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation, which handles paddy procurement, had been allocated Rs. 14,000 crore in the interim budget of the DMK government, only an additional Rs. 18 crore has been allocated in the revised budget. From this, it appears that the incentive provided by the Tamil Nadu government for paddy this year will not be increased. This is a huge disappointment.
PMK has been insisting that warehouse facilities should be set up to prevent farmers from waiting at procurement centers with paddy bags and to stop paddy bags from getting soaked and damaged in the rain. However, the government, which has not announced any such plans, has said that tarpaulins worth Rs. 10 crore will be provided to 43,500 farmers. It is not clear how paddy weighing several tons can be protected from getting wet with tarpaulins worth Rs. 2,298.
A special scheme will be implemented to increase the cultivation of pulses from 15.19 lakh acres to 24.70 lakh acres and the cultivation area of oilseeds from 9.26 lakh acres to 14.89 lakh acres, it has been announced. However, no incentive has been announced for farmers for this. Compared with other crops, pulses and oilseeds yield lower profits; without providing farmers with incentives sufficient to offset this, this effort will not succeed. Many of the announcements included in this budget statement are merely continuations of the schemes and announcements made during the DMK regime. There is nothing new.
The naming of the awards to be given to a total of 30 farmers, three each for the highest-yielding farmers in 10 types of crops including paddy, after Cuddalore Anjalai Ammal is welcome. He has urged the government to issue useful announcements at least while responding to the debate on the budget statement.
