Union Budget 2021 | Is Nirmala sending a message to agitating farmers?
[ad_1]
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s emphasis on the federal government’s monitor report in paying Minimum Support Prices (MSP) to farmers and the choice to permit state-run Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs) to entry the ₹1 lakh crore Agriculture Infrastructure Fund appeared to be sending a sign to the tens of hundreds of farmers who’ve been protesting on Delhi’s borders for the final two months.
They are demanding a repeal of the three farm reform legal guidelines that they declare will lead to the collapse of APMCs and weaken the system of presidency procurement at MSP charges, leaving small farmers on the mercy of company gamers.
Farmer advocates will not be impressed by the on-ground impression of the funds bulletins.
Agriculture Infrastructure Fund
The ₹1 lakh crore Agriculture Infrastructure Fund was created final 12 months, as a part of a COVID-19 stimulus package deal, to present subsidised financing to tasks by major agriculture cooperative societies, farmer producer organisations, agriculture entrepreneurs and start-ups to develop chilly chain storage and different post-harvest administration infrastructure. Now Ms. Sitharaman has introduced that APMCs can even find a way to entry these funds.
“It can be seen as a sign of support to the APMC system. If they are making APMCs eligible to borrow from this fund, and thus strengthen their infrastructure, the government seems to be sending a message that they are not going to be killed,” mentioned Siraj Hussain, former Agriculture Secretary and at present a fellow on the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations. “On the whole, this seems like an interim budget for agriculture. There are no major announcements. The government will wait for a settlement with [protesting] farmers before announcing anything concrete,” he added.
Unlike in recent times, when headline agriculture bulletins had been first talked about in funds speeches, Ms. Sitharaman solely touched on the sector after the primary hour of her speech on Monday.
She additionally introduced an Agriculture Infrastructure Development Cess to be levied on petrol, diesel, gold and different imports, which is supposed to enhance services for manufacturing, conservation and processing of farm produce and thus “ensure enhanced remuneration for our farmers”. Operation Green Scheme to increase worth addition of tomatoes, onions and potatoes is being expanded to cowl 22 perishable crops. A Rural Infrastructure Fund allocation is being hiked from ₹30,000 crore to ₹40,000 crore. The Micro Irrigation Fund’s corpus is being doubled to ₹10,000 crore.
Farm advocates mentioned bulletins relating to such infrastructure funds weren’t mirrored in adjustments on the bottom.
Kiran Vissa, a chief of the Rythu Swarajya Vedika, mentioned, “If you introduce laws to weaken the APMC system, then what is the point of giving APMC mandis access to an Agriculture Infrastructure Fund.”
Jai Kisan Andolan convenor Avik Saha mentioned, “According to the Economic Survey data, nothing has yet been spent out of the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund of ₹1 lakh crore or the Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Fund of ₹15,000 crore, although they were supposed to have been part of the COVID-19 stimulus package.” Out of the ₹1 lakh crore, solely loans value ₹2,991 crore acquired “in principle sanction” as of mid-January 2021. “While big figures are announced in the name of the infrastructure funds, these are actually not budget allocations, but simply notional funds which are meant to finance projects through loans,” he added.
Former Food and Agriculture Secretary T. Nanda Kumar agreed that the problem was implementation. “Infrastructure fund increases are welcome, but the real catch here is delivery. It’s a credit plus subsidy game. The question is whether there will be enough takers on the credit side, and that depends on whether sufficient revenue models exist to ensure that borrowers can earn money from their godowns and warehouses,” he mentioned. He welcomed the cess for agri infrastructure, noting that simply the act of reserving cash for this objective in a separate account may enthuse traders.
