Budget package evades most of needy farmers
The Union agriculture ministry is faced with the problem of identifying indebted small and marginal farmers under the recently announced loan waiver scheme.
The ministry officials feel that criteria fixed by the Union finance minister, P Chidambaram for identification will not do justice to many needy farmers particularly in dryland and semi-arid areas.
Besides the Budget package (Rs 600,000 million) is designed to help only 40 million farmers out of 750 million farmers in the country.
Chidambaram while presenting the Budget in the Lok Sabha, last Friday, had defined marginal farmers as having holding up to one hectare and small farmer as having holding up to two hectare.
"The official criteria for small and marginal farmers differs in different agro-geo-climatic zones in the country. In the hilly regions, dryland and semi arid zones, were there is no assured irrigation, the holding sizes of both small and marginal farmers are substaintially higher than that stated by the finance minister. If we are to go by the criteria laid down by the finance minister many needy farmers would be deprived of the desired benefit," said a senior official in the Union agriculture ministry.
According to official records, farmers in the dryland and semiarid regions are more hard pressed and debt-burden due to repeated crop failures on account of erratic monsoon rains. The incidences of suicides are on the rise in the dryland and semi-arid zone where there is no assured irrigation, like the Bundelkhand region in Uttar Pradesh.
The Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Mayawati has written to the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, finance minister, P Chidambaram and agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar alleging that the benefits designed in the Budget for the debt-trapped farmers would not reach the most backward regions of her state. She has also alleged that her government had asked for a package of Rs 7016 crore for the drought-prone regions of UP, which did not find any mention in the Union Budget. Apart from this she had also asked for several assistance for development of the backward regions of UP which were also ignored.
With polls round the corner, the Government on Friday announced a Rs 60,000 crore package for waiving off of loans of three crore debt-trapped small and marginal farmers and one time settlement of dues for one crore farmers. There are about 750 million (75 crore) farmers in the country.
Presenting the Union Budget for the year 2008-09, the finance minister P Chidambaram said that all agriculture loans of three crore small and marginal farmers that were disbursed by banks till March 31, 2007 and were overdue on December 31, 2007 and remained unpaid till February 29, 2008 would be waived off. According to government''''s estimate these unpaid loans would aggregate to Rs 50,000 crore. For another one crore farmers, the government has decided to offer a one time settlement package for clearance of their outstanding loans relating to these dates. The package would offer a 25% rebate to farmers for payment of the balance 75%.
