Promises galore, but little done to revive farm sector

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 19

The Congress returned to power in Punjab by promising the moon to the state’s lakhs of farmers. Besides a complete loan waiver, the party had promised subsidised farm machinery to unemployed youth so that they become “agripreneurs”, loans to cooperative sugar mills, prohibit “kurki” and sale of land mortgaged to lending agencies, and raising the compensation for crop loss from Rs 8,000 to Rs 12,000 per acre.

Reality bites

Some of these initiatives were announced by Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal in his Budget proposals for 2017-18. One year into the government, but nothing worth mentionable was done. Of Rs 1,500 crore earmarked for crop loan waiver, relief worth only Rs 330 crore has been given till date. The scheme for providing 25,000 tractors at subsidised rates has not taken off and the cooperative sugar mills are still struggling to clear their dues of two years. 

There is also no sign of the Punjab State Agriculture Insurance Corporation that was promised to be set up.

The only achievement of the Congress government in the agriculture sector has been the start of the crop loan waiver scheme, even if only 22 per cent of the allotted sum has been spent. It was only two days back that the state government released Rs 42.86 crore to be paid as compensation to farmers for crop loss, although the enhanced compensation is yet to see the light of day.

Schemes hit

Almost all agriculture schemes, most important among them being the Rashtriya Kisan Vikas Yojana (RKVY) were hit this year because the cash-strapped government could not provide the matching grants. With the Irrigation Department being caught in a huge scam, nothing was done to reline old channels. Other than in the Budget proposals, there was no talk on canalisation of state’s rivers and creating high-speed economic corridors along these.

Outlay up, but spending down 

Figures available with The Tribune show that the government had increased the total budget outlay for the farm sector by 65 per cent over 2016-17, to Rs 10,580 crore. Of this, Rs 1,500 crore was for crop loan waiver and Rs 7,665 crore for power subsidy. In effect, only Rs 1,420 crore was to be used for agriculture research and education, soil and water conservation and irrigation. Just as the actual outlay was just 15 per cent of the projected outlay, the spending, too, was much less.

‘Poised for farm boost’

Manpreet told The Tribune that his government had performed much better on the agriculture sector than the previous government. “We had both bumper crops — wheat and paddy — which helped infuse Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 12,000 crore in the state’s agrarian economy. The fact that the government ensured a smooth procurement helped in this additional infusion. Since most schemes are centrally sponsored, we faced certain problems. But next year will be much better,” he said.