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Rs 25,000-cr scheme to boost farming
New Delhi, May 29 The central assistance scheme puts the onus on the states to formulate the plan and workout the strategies for achieving the targeted goals. However, the new deal does not talk of large-scale corporate participation in the farm sector or providing impetus to contract farming model. “The Centre will commit funds if states maintain their baseline levels of expenditure. This will ensure greater public investment in agriculture,” he said in his concluding remarks at the 53rd meeting of the National Development Council (NDC). He said the Centre would commit over Rs 25,000 crore in the coming four years and the Planning Commission and the Agriculture Ministry would finalise details of this programme in the next two months. “The goal of four per cent annual growth in agriculture and allied activities in the 11th Five Year Plan is certainly feasible and achievable if only we are willing to take tough decisions and back it up with concerted action,” he said. Agriculture has been witnessing less than two per cent annual growth and its slow growth has been dampening the country’s targeted 10 per cent growth by 2011-12.The plan seeks to incentive states to draw up plans for their agricultural sector more comprehensively, taking agro-climatic conditions, natural resources issues and technology into account and integrating livestock, poultry and fisheries. The new assistance scheme administered by the Centre and that it would be over and above its existing centrally-sponsored schemes to supplement the state-specific strategies. The Prime Minister said a food security mission would be announced to raise the production of wheat, rice and pulses and reduce the country’s dependence on imports of basic commodities. The NDC adopted a resolution to raise wheat production by 8 MT, rice by 10 MT and pulses by 2 MT over the next four years. The agricultural production has stagnated during the period 1998-99 to 2006-07. The area under food grains has stagnated between 120 million and 125 million hectares. Of this, the area under wheat has stagnated between 25 million and 27.5 million hectares and the area under paddy has stagnated between 41 million and 45 million hectares. Excluding the outlier years, the production of wheat has stagnated between 68 million and 73 million tonnes and the production of rice has stagnated between 85 million and 91 million tonnes. Productivity has also stagnated. In case of wheat, it is approximately 2,700 kg per hectare and in the case of rice it is approximately 1,950 kg per hectare. In wheat, average yield in Punjab and Haryana (at 4.2 and 4.0 tonnes per ha) is significantly higher than that in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh (1.8 tonnes per ha) and in Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh (at 1.3/1.4 tonnes per ha). The states at the NDC meeting in a resolution urged the Centre to restructure the fertilizer subsidy programme and its delivery to the farmer and move to a system that provides balanced plant nutrition without adverse effect on soils. He said the four per cent target growth of agriculture and allied activities was achievable “if we are willing to take tough decisions and follow it up with actions”. The Prime Minister also asked the finance minister to ensure all eligible farmers are covered under institutional credit mechanism in the next four years. Commenting on food security, the Prime Minister said a mission would be launched in the coming months which would reduce country’s dependence on imports of basic commodities such as rice and wheat. Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister said until farming was made viable it would be virtually impossible to reduce rural poverty and distress.
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