At ₹28,230cr, agri gets 10% of budget

MUMBAI: The state is likely to spend 10% of its budget on the distressed agriculture sector, with a provision of ₹22,000 crore for loan waiver announced by the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and ₹15,000 crore expected to be spent on incentives to help farmers repay their loans regularly and one-time settlement of their loan accounts, along with other allocations. Including the allocation of ₹11,898 crore more for irrigation, the total allocation for the agriculture sector for 2020-21 is ₹28,230 crore.

Deputy chief minister and finance minister Ajit Pawar, who is the former water resources minister, has made a financial allocation of ₹10,235 crore for incomplete irrigation projects, which is ₹1,452 crore more than the allocation made last year by the Fadnavis government.

The allocation made for the agriculture sector also includes ₹450 crore for water conservation, ₹670 crore for providing solar agricultural pumps and ₹15 crore for promotion of cashew development, among others. Pawar has announced plans to give impetus to aquaculture and sericulture, although he hasn’t allocated any amount for it.

Besides the budgetary allocation, the government will have to make a provision of ₹15,000 crore for the two schemes announced in the budget – a scheme for farmers regularly repaying their loans and the settlement scheme for farmers with outstanding loans of more than ₹2 lakh. The farmers who took the loan between April 1, 2015 and March 31, 2019 can avail the facility. The farmers who have been paying their loans regularly in the past three financial years will get an incentive of upto ₹50,000.

The previous Fadnavis government had given a discount of ₹1.50 lakh for one-time settlement, while incentives for regular payment of loan were up to ₹25,000 crore.

The government expects the loan accounts to be cleared before the kharif season sets in this June and the farmers are made eligible for the fresh loan. The MVA government has been boasting of having implemented the scheme in record time, especially comparing the waiver by Fadnavis government.

“After having rolled out the scheme two weeks ago, we want to complete disbursement by the end of April. The incentive and one-time settlement (OTS) schemes were chalked out in accordance with the demands by farmers,” Pawar said.

The loan waiver announced by the Fadnavis government in June 2017 saw disbursement of ₹18,800 crore to more than 48 lakh farmers. This means, farmers are expected to be given more than ₹50,000 crore in three years. Despite this, there is no reduction in suicides by farmers.

Farm activists feel besides the loan waiver, the government should maintain consistency in import-export policies of the farm produce.

“Farmers were in debt owing to the constant fall in procurement prices of the farm produce, which resulted in consumers and food processing units getting them at cheaper rates. The Central government’s decision related to import duty has resulted in the rise in the market price of soybean and maize. The MVA government’s decision about milk production has ensured fair price to milk producers,” said Ajit Nawale, state general secretary, Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha.

He said the budget has many attractive provisions for the agriculture sector, but the government has made more provision for premiums of crop loans.

The budget is comprehensive and keeps the interest of every segment of society in mind. The budget will lead Maharashtra on the path of progress. UDDHAV THACKERAY, chief minister