The Interim Budget recounts the various initiatives and achievements of the UPA government in the field of agriculture during the last five years. As on previous occasions, farmers have been referred to as the real heroes of India’s success story, because of the multiple contributions they are making in the areas of food, livelihood and ecological security as well as national sovereignty. The Finance Minister also mentioned that the plan allocation for agriculture has been increased by 300% during the last five years and that a flagship programme titled Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana has been launched with an outlay of Rs 25,000 crores. Reference has naturally been made to the agricultural debt waiver and debt relief scheme covering 36 million families at a cost of Rs 65,300 crores. All these, however, cannot hide the fact that our agriculture is facing serious economic and ecological crises. Obviously only the regular budget for 2009-2010 that will be presented by the next government can seriously address issues relating to agrarian distress and widespread under-and-malnutrition.

I would like to flag a couple of issues that need attention in the regular budget for 2009-2010. The first relates to the economic conditions of small farmers, who constitute over 80% of the farming population. The recommendations of the 6th Central Pay Commission, which provide benefit to 4.5 million central government employees and 3.8 million pensioners, were not only accepted but were improved upon by government. I suggest that major political parties should commit themselves to establishing a Farm Income Commission which can go into the totality of the income of farmers from crop and animal husbandry, fisheries, agro-forestry and agro-processing, and suggest ways of ensuring a minimum take home income to farmers.

In the Interim Budget, an allocation of Rs 30,100 crores has been made for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) during 2009-2010. This scheme now covers all the districts of the country and last year 3.51 crore households participated. NREGS is designed to use labour for important activities like water harvesting, water shed management, control of soil erosion and development of irrigation structures. All these activities are exceedingly important for sustainable agriculture and hence it would be appropriate to refer to the participants in NREGS as “defenders of India’s ecological security”. This will describe what the programme can achieve and thereby give social prestige and importance to the women and men who toil in sun and rain to strengthen the ecological foundations of sustainable agriculture. Suitable awards could be given to the teams which have developed the best watershed and water harvesting programmes.

The allocation for Bharat Nirman has been raised to Rs 40,900 crores and a part will go to bringing new areas under irrigation. Over 60% of our cultivated area is rainfed and its productivity enhancement holds the key to the future of rural livelihood security and national food security.

I hope that during the regular budget the recommendations of the National Commission of Farmers on the steps needed for increasing the income of small producers, as well as the need for ensuring minimum support price not only for wheat and rice but for a wide range of millets, pulses, oil seeds and tuber crops will be implemented. Further, provision needs to be made for establishing a national grid of warehouses for grains and cold storage structures for perishable commodities. The prevailing mismatch between production and post-harvest technologies should be ended. The National Policy for Farmers presented in Parliament in November 2007 makes a commitment that government will try to ensure income and work security to farm families. The next budget should try to address the issue of converting this commitment into well defined programmes and resource allocation. Much has been done during the last five years to revitalise our agriculture and to reduce agrarian distress. Much, however, remains to be done to do justice to the genuine needs of the majority of our population who constitute the farming community. Fe 170209