The farming community in the State is a disappointed lot as the Union Budget has failed to address their issues. Most of them expected a one-time farm loan waiver following the Covid and related lockdowns. Sami Natarajan, state secretary of the Tamil Nadu Farmers’ Association said, “There were no effective steps announced for fixing remunerative prices for agriculture produce, and no major irrigation schemes to convert rain-fed farm lands into irrigated ones.” Natarajan said that over 55 per cent of the total farm land is rain-fed.
Even as the estimated credit flow to agriculture has been increased to Rs 16.5 lakh crore, Natarajan claimed that most small and marginal farmers do not get institutional finance usually, and that only agriculture industries and corporate farming sector got the major share. Meanwhile, PS Masilamani, State deputy general secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) said that the long-pending demand of constituting a fund for Natural Disaster Compensation for farmers was also not announced. “Moreover, the Minimum Support Price (MSP) has not been fixed as per MS Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations,” he added.
The Non-political Farmers’ Association also expressed their disappointment over the Budget, citing the lack of announcements on increasing the MSP and for not addressing issues in crop insurance scheme. P Kandhasamy, general secretary of the association, said that the farmers’ production costs had gone up manifold in the last decade. “While Sitharaman spoke about increasing procurement of certain crops, announcements related to MSP were not made,” he added.
N V Kannan, district secretary of the farmers’ association pointed out that Finance Minister Nirmala Sithraman had announced more privatisation in the power distribution sector at a time when farmers across the country were protesting against the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020. He added that there were also no announcements made on subsidy for fertilizers and other agricultural inputs.
Adding to it, PR Pandian of the Tamizhaga Cauvery Vivasayigal Sangam said, “For instance, Diammonium phosphate (DAP), which was sold at Rs 375 per bag in 2014, now costs Rs 1,500 per bag.” He added that there were no major allocations made for basic farm infrastructure, hinting at no schemes for recharging of groundwater, safety of dams, etc. “Though the Finance Minister said that food grain procurement by the government was continuing, the farmers are unsure about it in the coming years,” Pandian said. (With inputs from Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, and Coimbatore)
‘AIDC will be of no use’
Despite the introduction of an Agri Infra and Development Cess (AIDC), some farmers said that it would be of no use to them with no respite from the spiking petrol and diesel prices in the country
