BHUBANESWAR: Farmer leaders of Odisha on Saturday dubbed the 16-point action plan on agriculture in the Union Budget as an eyewash and slammed the Centre for not taking any measures to provide direct benefit of marketing to the community. An anti-farmer and pro-corporate approach of the Government is also reflected in this action plan, said president of Naba Nirman Krushak Sanghathan Akshay Kumar.
They said the actual demand of farmers for price, prestige and pension remains unaddressed in this budget. Though the Government is talking about increasing milk and fish production, it has not taken any measure that will provide direct benefit to farmers from marketing linkage.
The proposed Kisan Rail and Krishi Udaan projects, which Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced under this action plan, will be implemented in PPP mode and it will benefit the corporate sector more than the farmers.
The ‘one product one district’ scheme and Rs 15 lakh crore agriculture credit target in 2020-21 fiscal will give benefits to the major farmers only, Kumar said alleging that small and marginal farmers in the State are still deprived of crop loan.
He said the allocation of Rs 2.83 lakh crore for agriculture and allied activities, irrigation and rural development is not enough as around Rs 1.23 lakh crore of this fund will go to Rural Development and Panchayati Raj sectors.
Of the remaining Rs 1.6 lakh crore, more than 50 per cent will go towards fertiliser subsidy, he added. Kumar alleged that last year’s allocated Rs 79,000 crore towards fertiliser subsidy benefited fertiliser companies.
General secretary of Gaon Sathi Sangha Laxmidhar Biswal also criticised the Centre for not announcing any measures to encourage agriculture-based industries in the Budget.