Spotlight

New Delhi, 3 June 2015

‘Man-Made Bad Days For Agri Over’

New Delhi, 3 June 2015, (INFA): It’s been a year of making amends for the past decade of mismanagement of the agriculture sector (read UPA-I and II) for the Modi-led government. Rather, had the leadership since Independence (barring Lal Bahadur Shastri and Atal Behari Vajpayee) laid the necessary emphasis on agriculture the situation wouldn’t be what it is today, lamented Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh.

With his turn to address the media on “Mission Agriculture, One Year of Modi Sarkar”, the hands-on Minister Singh with great ease and without erring spelt out the various initiatives taken by his Ministry to turn the situation around and offer better days to the farmers. While he had no hold on nature’s vagaries, man-made ‘bure din’ (bad days) were over and he exuberated confidence saying achche din (good days) were indeed ahead. This according to him was solely due to Modi’s wisdom i.e. the earth is not just a piece of land but is our mother and we must take care of her. He also subtly drove home the point that ‘India is not Italy’-- its vast expanse in comparison needs water and the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana is determined to creating sources of assured irrigation. The Centre has earmarked Rs 5300 crore for this year to roll out the scheme.

Singh was also by and large confident that the Centre was well-prepared to handle the drought threat looming large. There is a contingency plan in place. More so, as when they came to power everyone was worried about deficient rainfall but with hard work the damage was minimised. Emphasis has been laid on climate resilient agricultural technologies in 100 climatically vulnerable districts and production of seeds with ICAR which do not require too much water and less rainfall. This apart, there is increase of 50 per cent seed subsidy and the much-awaited new crop insurance scheme for farmers would be announced this year. At the same time, the Centre would finally announce the Minimum Support Price in a fortnight.

The Ministry was also paying special attention to soil health management (during 2-010-11 and 2012-13 assistance provided was Rs 72.07 cr whereas in 2014-15 the govt released Rs 88 cr) and had sanctioned 69 mobile testing laboratories as against 17 in previous years. Further, Rs 200 cr was allocated for soil health cards. Additionally, it was going all out to promote organic farming, but needed various State governments cooperation.

Insofar as high prices of vegetables were concerned, the Ministry has for the time being ensured that these are checked at least for onions and potatoes. The Rs 500 cr-Price Stabilisation Fund Scheme is expected to regulate price volatility through procurement by State governments and Central agencies of selected produce, maintenance of buffer stocks and regulated release into market.  It is also expected to check hoarding.

Then plans are afoot to set up a National Kisan Mandi, cutting across borders, where the farmer is spared harassment to sell his produce at different fees and get licences at one mandi to another.  Importantly, the issue of making urea available to the farmers is also on the Ministry’s agenda, with its plans afoot to revive closed fertilizer units in some States.

Making a note of the increasing number of suicides by farmers, Singh stated that efforts were on to set things right for them. The Land Acquisition Bill would change the farmers’ lives and provide their children jobs. He regretted that while farmers were being cheated by the suited-booted and family in Haryana (read Robert Vadra) and roads were well laid out in Gurgaon, Noida etc, no one was thinking of taking these inside to the villages. It was his Government which was trying to bring prosperity to villages.

The Minister also spelt out initiatives to bring about ‘Blue revolution’ to take forward the fishery sector as well as improve lives of the fishermen and their families. In addition, he stressed on the National Gokul Mission to conserve and develop indigenous bovine breeds in a focussed and scientific manner. On the occasion, the Ministry too released its report card through booklets giving details of all initiatives. Trust, the ‘sustained efforts’ should raise ‘new hopes’. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)