Input cost for the farmer is 40–50 percent of the total cost of agriculture, while companies and retailers in pesticides make profits ranging from 100 to 1000 percent.
The countdown of the General Budget 2021-22 has started and along with that the accounting has started that what sector or which industry can get in the budget. In the economic background in which Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is going to present this budget, it is only natural that every sector is expecting something special for itself. On the one hand, there is the manufacturing and service sectors, who will listen to the speech of the Finance Minister to overcome the fatal blow of the lockdown caused by the Corona epidemic, while on the other hand there are common people, who were laid off last year, pay cuts, reduction in business. And after battling other similar difficulties, we are looking at Sitharaman with hopeful eyes. But the situation in the agricultural sector is different. Despite the fact that in the current scenario, farmers are showing the most upscale group of the country,
This spectacular performance of the agricultural sector is no coincidence. From the first phase of his tenure, the Narendra Modi government took a special policy stance on agriculture. The government focused its attention on improving agricultural infrastructure and making qualitative changes in marketing methods. Electronic National Agricultural Market (E-NAM), Electronic Negotiable Warehousing Receipt (ENWR), Model Land Leasing Act, Model Agriculture Produce and Livestock Marketing Act, Model Agriculture Produce and Livestock Contract Farming since the introduction of the Soil Health Card Scheme in 2015 The Act has a long list of such schemes, up to three laws related to rail farmers and most recently agrarian reform, which have tried to fundamentally strengthen every aspect of agriculture in the last few years.
But an indication of the 7-year history of the Modi government is also that the general budget has generally been used as a policy indicator. Barring a few exceptions like Kisan Samman Nidhi, no major announcement related to agriculture has been seen in the budget so far. The most ambitious scheme of Modi government was started in 2016 on the day of Ambedkar Jayanti and agricultural laws were implemented during lockdown. But the signs of these laws and schemes kept on matching in the budget documents.
In such a situation, the question is, can there be any big expectation from the government in the budget of 2021-22? The answer is yes for two reasons. It is clear that the Modi government is under pressure from farmers on agricultural laws. In the budget, Nirmala Sitharaman will be trying to indicate to the farmers across the country that Narendra Modi is fully ready in his interest. In this context, the Kisan Samman Nidhi can be increased from Rs 6000 to Rs 8000. But due to excessive pressure on revenue deficit, more practical decision can be taken as ending fertilizer subsidy. Agricultural experts have long been advocating the abolition of fertilizer subsidy and transfer the subsidy amount directly to the farmers’ account through DBT. With this one decision, the feel-good can be prepared for the farmers without increasing the extra burden on the treasury.
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The second reason is linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of doubling the income of farmers in 5 years. This is the final budget of the 5-year time limit set by the Prime Minister himself. In the 5 years of the Modi government, the average growth rate of agriculture was 3%, even in the first two years of 2.0, this rate could not go above 4%. From this it is certain that by 2022, the goal of increasing the income of farmers is not going to be achieved.
In this background, if the wishlist of the 2021-22 budget is scrutinized, then the challenges of the government become obvious. Therefore, on 1 February, Nirmala Sitharaman will have to provide long-term policy announcements in his budget for farmers with such arrangements, which will benefit the farmers immediately and open the way for a quick increase in their income.
The input cost to the farmer is 40–50 percent of the total cost of agriculture, while companies and retailers in pesticides profite from 100 to 1000 percent. If the MRP of human medicines can be linked to the cost price, then why can’t it be done for plant medicines. If the government can do this, then it will be able to convert billions of rupees out of the farmers’ pocket into their savings. Apart from this, the 43% increase in agricultural exports during the April-September quarter of Kovid-19 has once again made clear that the government needs to focus on the export of agricultural products to increase the income of farmers. The Agricultural Export Policy of 2018 has set a target to increase the export of agricultural produce by $ 60 billion by 2022. To achieve this goal, the government may also announce some special export-focused reforms in the budget of 2021-22.
Overall, this budget can be different in the sense that instead of improving the agricultural infrastructure, it can bring such quick results which can give immediate relief to the farmers and also arouse new confidence in the farmers of the Modi government. .
(Bhuvan Bhaskar- writer is expert in agriculture and economic affairs)
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the column are those of the author. The facts and views given in the article do not in any way reflect the views of Money9.com.
