THANJAVUR/NAGAPATTINAM: The farmers of the Cauvery delta districts of Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam were disappointed after the State Budget was presented on Thursday with no schemes in place for loan waivers.
“The Budget did not take into account the gravity of the agrarian crisis in Tamil Nadu,” said P S Masilamani, a leading farmer from Mavoor and the state deputy secretary of Tamil Nadu Farmers Association. Besides the absence of a loan-waiver scheme, the Budget did not pave way for an ambitions water harvesting plan. He also said that till such time that the Centre fixes minimum support price (MSP) for the agriculture commodities at 50 per cent over and above the production cost as prescribed by the M S Swaminathan commission, the State government could come forward to provide incentives above the MSP by Centre.
Welcoming the announcement in the Budget on the pulse crops like toor dal, black gram and green gram, he said that this would stabilise prices.
Sundara Vimalanathan, district secretary of the Cauvery Farmers Protection Association said that even as many state governments have started waiving loans for farmers, the Tamil Nadu Budget did not give any information about this. He said that instead of procuring the pulses singularly through regulated markets, which are located in far off places, the government should come forward to procure them in the direct procurement centres (DPCs) which are now procuring paddy. He pointed out that the Budget did not allocate funds for constructing a barrage across Kollidam near Papanasam as promised by former chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
Vimalanathan said that the farmers are also disappointed over the absence of a price announcement for sugarcane and a tripartite meeting for the same.
Mannargudi S Ranganathan, general secretary of Cauvery Delta Farmers Welfare Association, said that the State government did not have powers to fix the price for the agricultural commodities and only the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) sets the price as of now before adding that this system should be be changed. Ranganathan said that if the MSP is fixed at 50 per cent over and above the cultivation cost and the crops are covered under the crop insurance insurance scheme, the farmers would not ask for anything else. He said the allocation of `250 crore for check dams would be beneficial. He also wanted the ban on sand mining to be put in place for five years to ensure water in the rivers to flow through their channels.
In the tail-end district of Nagapattinam, farmers alleged that budgetary allocations are not sufficient for improving their livelihood. While the State announced a total allocation of `8,916.25 crore, the farmers point out that the figure will not be enough. “If the government wants to achieve production of 11 lakh metric tonnes of food grains, it should allocate at least `30,000 crore. After deducting incentives, free electricity bill payments and procurement payments, only around `500 crore would be remaining. How could this be enough for 40 lakh hectares of crops,” asked Cauvery Dhanapalan, general secretary, Cauvery Delta Farmers Protection Association. Still, Dhanapalan welcomed the government’s move to directly procure pulses.