When Nirmala Sitharaman proposed to the farmers in Parliament, the opposition started making noise as they presented the budget. Amid the peasant movement, the whole country’s eyes were on what the finance minister would bring to the farmers in their coffers. There have been mixed reactions about the budget. Corona has been presented amid a transition, and some call this budget to accelerate the economy, while some are rejecting it altogether.
Agriculture expert Devendra Sharma speaks with Hinostan on the subject of MSP:
The central government talks about building world-class infrastructure in the country and providing infrastructure, such as rail, road, fuel, ports, in the general budget, but there is no proposal in the budget for agriculture. This means that the government is planning to invest in agriculture in the private sector through just three agricultural laws. The budget for agriculture was 1.48 trillion last year. Same budget this time too. There has been no increase in the budget.
In his Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharan said the increase in the purchase of agricultural products in the MSP. But there is no mention of a road map to increase MSP collection in the future. Moreover, there are no new provisions in the budget to increase the income of farmers. 16.5 trillion of agricultural credit is proposed in the budget.
If the government wants to make farmers tedious, farmers want to get out of the debt cycle. Under the PM Summan fund scheme, it was expected from the Budget that farmers would be increased from Rs 6,000 per month to Rs 18,000 per year. For this, the government had to arrange a sum of Rs 45 lakh crore. This has led to an increase in money in farmers’ pockets and in rural areas. In response to the RTI, the government said that the number of farmers in the country is 14 crore but the extent of the scheme is only eight crore farmers.
The government’s Economic Survey said that the agrarian fund will be charged Rs 2.5 per cent on cess petrol and diesel. The government is also stopping many crops. This made the farmers’ dreams slippery. The government needs to implement bold reforms in agriculture to embrace Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas and Self-reliant India Plan. There is a need to increase the budget of the Summon Fund Scheme, like the infrastructure sector, to fund agriculture. All 42 government boards across the country need to be made online.
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