Trishanu Bipul Borah
While the Nation, along with Arnab, has been busy wanting to know about the state of affairs in the national capital of Delhi and its universities, the finance minister presented the Annual Budget. Given the polarized nature of the country of late, where every issue is being fought over along partisan lines on streets, newsroom debates and even on social media, the budget warrants a little more attention from the common man who might have otherwise found himself at his wit’s end trying to decipher the reason behind the loss of of his nation’s intellectual and argumentative tradition and thus could not pay enough heed to the message that is sought to be passed through the budget.
The BJP led NDA government swept to power riding on a strong “Modi wave”, riding on promises of delivery of good times. They were helped in this by the anti-incumbency factor of a falling UPA which failed to set its house in order, derailed by scams and abuses of power. After being in power for 21 months, the government of the day has often been taken to task by critics who accuse the government of over communication and little delivery in return, as the promises of Acche Din seem to be far away with each passing day.
Indian Economy, still counted among the few bright spots in a slowing World Economy, has not been doing much better than the government and of late has been subject to quite a few bumps. A fall in global commodity prices has seen exports fall for fourteen consecutive months, bank NPAs are at a peak, corporate balance sheets beyond repair resulting in many a stalled project. The recent turmoil in China’s market has only added to the sorrow of the economy, with wide scale currency devaluations at times percolating into currency wars which don’t help the case of Indian exports at all. This has also lead to the flight of capital from Asian markets with global investor sentiments at a low.
All this also comes at the end of two back to back droughts in the country, where starving and dying millions are being held ransom to the vagaries of nature in Central and Northern India, mainly due to the past failure of government intervention and innovation and the inefficiencies in resource mobilization. Given how Bharat is still a country with a majority of its population dependant on agriculture and its allied activities, no matter how much India Inc wants to portray another image of a growing India with a surge in finance capital, service and manufacturing capacity, the government had the ball in its park on providing relief to its farmers and thus expunge its image of being a “suit boot ka Sarkar”.
The pre budget speeches of the Prime Minister delivered in the drought belt of UP and MP promised to double farmer incomes by 2022. This promise was reiterated by his Finance Minister in his Budget Speech, where the words “agriculture” and “farmer” found 20 and 32 mentions respectively, a highest in the past decade. This meant much, coming from a minister whose favourite words in the past budget had been “growth” and “investment”, the very nature of such “growth” being antithetical to the prospects of farmers in trouble. Agriculture also found its way as the first of the nine-point agenda of the FM, the nine pillars along which he seeks to “Transform India”.
The government claims to have nearly doubled the allocation for agricultural sector, from Rs.22,958 crore in 2015-16 (revised estimate) to Rs.44,485 crore in 2016-17 (budget estimate). In reality, the increase in allocation is a mere 27%, much below that needed for a systematic change in cropping patterns via MSPs, renewed interest in irrigation, crop investments, creating a national e-market for agri-produce, promoting production of pulses; the catch being that the government has tabled the interest subvention provided as agriculture allowance, which was previously tabled under the finance ministry’s budget.
A provision of Rs. 12,517 crore was made to strengthen Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana in order to bring 2.89 million hectares under irrigation and to create a dedicated long-term irrigation fund under Nabard. Emphasizing on the need for optimal utilization of water resources, new irrigation infrastructure and balanced use of fertilizers for sustaining soil health, the government also seeks to fix subsidy leakages by extending Direct Benefits Transfer using technology enabled JAM(Jan Dhan Adhaar Mobile) trinity.
While the budget has commendable emphasis on the creation of agricultural infrastructure, including irrigation, value-chain, marketing and connectivity, it is more subtle on resource efficiency and management. On this front, the government has prepared a major programme for sustainable groundwater management, with an estimated expenditure of Rs.6,000 crore, proposed to be financed by multilateral funding. With a provision of Rs.412 crore, the government seeks to promote organic farming in rain-fed areas. The Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana aims to bring half a million acres under organic farming over three years. To promote organic produce in domestic and export markets, the government has launched the Organic Value Chain Development scheme in North-eastern India, a major win for people of the region. The government has also pledged to develop half a million farm ponds and dug wells in rain-fed areas for water conservation and one million compost pits by “making productive use of the allocations under MGNREGA”, while taunting the UPA by terming the MGNERA as a grand failure from time to time.
Critics have already seen links between the budgetary intentions and the upcoming elections in the poll bound states of Assam, WB, UP, Punjab. While budgetary promises are not isolated from political intent and while there is no doubt all these states have major agrarian communities who stand to gain from this budget, much needs to be done to facilitate agriculture and farm sector. More budgetary allocations can only be start, the onus needs to be on sustainable use of resources, intensive use of water via drip and sprinkler irrigation, creating the framework for a low premium and inclusive crop insurance, shoring up of rural roads and infrastructure thus enabling farmers to get their produce linked to the nation e-market that is being created, incentivizing change in crop patterns towards pulses from cereals in order to meet growing demand and cut down food inflation and making development green and sustainable, so as not to repeat the mistakes of the “Green Revolution”.
(The writer is at BITS Pilani)