Farmer rights groups say Budget 2017 not pro-farmer

Farmer rights groups have decried what they call “the lack of anything pro-farmer in Budget 2017. They have claimed that the Budget has nothing to assure better income, nothing to lift them out of debt trap, nothing to even compensate for their losses due to demonetization.

Kirankumar Vissa of the Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture (ASHA) said: “Despite the usual rhetoric from the government that the Budget is focused on farmers and rural poor, farmers are highly disappointed to find nothing substantive in Budget 2017 to address the crisis facing the farming community, which has been largely brought about in the first place by anti-farmer government policies.”

ASHA-Kisan Swaraj came together with Jai Kisan Andolan and other farmer organisations at the Kisan Sansad (Farmers’ Parliament) on Wednesday in New Delhi. After adopting a model Krishi Budget, the Kisan Sansad heard the Union Budget speech and analysed it for farmers.

Activist Kavitha Kuruganti underlined why this was a crucial budget for farmers. “They faced two consecutive years of drought and the first two budgets of this government had nothing for farmers. With a better monsoon, farmers were hopeful of revival but then the demonetization resulted in huge losses— a disaster created by the government,” she said, adding, “Farmers expected that after all this pain, there will be some gain in terms of measures to address the longstanding issues of farmers— assured incomes, rescue from debt-trap, comprehensive system for farmers affected by natural calamities. Some big path-breaking measures were required and hoped for. But hopes have been dashed.”

Key points raised in ASHA's analysis of Budget 2017

Income Increase: No clear roadmap or strategies to double farmers’ income as was promised while presenting Union Budget 2016-17— same promise repeated in 2017-18. Farmers once again get only words and promises.

Credit: Farm credit target revised from Rs 9.5 lakh crore in 2016-17 to Rs 10 lakh crore in 2017-18. This is not a government allocation or expenditure but loans have to be given by banks. In any case, this is routine— same increases have taken place for several years now. More importantly, there is no mentioned of how this would reach small, marginal and tenant farmers who constitute 86% of farming community.

Interest Subvention: In 2016-17, Rs 18,822 crore spent on interest subvention but only Rs 15,300 crore budgeted in 2017-18.

PMFBY: Big talk and impossible claims about Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY). In 2016-17, Rs 13,240 crore spent on premium by government but in 2017-18 only Rs 9,000 crores was allotted. The government, however, claimed it will increase coverage from 26.5% to 40%.

Bonanza for Insurance Companies: Expenditure on premium was increased to Rs 13,240 crore but covered only 26.5% of farmers. All this money went to insurance companies. There was no mention of how much claims the farmers got in return.

Irrigation-Only Corpus Funds?: In 2016-17, Rs 20,000 crore was allocated for long-term irrigation corpus fund with NABARD but there was no mention of how much was actually spent. In 2017-18, this has been increased to Rs 40,000 crore and there continues to be no mention of how much will be spent or what irrigation facilities will be created.

Dairy: There was a big announcement of Rs 2,000 crore for dairy processing fund but the total allocation under animal husbandry was only Rs 2,371 crore compared to Rs 1,994 crore revised expenditure of 2016-17. So no major allocation was really made— just clever window dressing.

Mission Antyodaya – No Allocation: An announcement of one crore households being lifted out of poverty and 50,000 gram panchayats being made poverty free through Mission Antyodaya was made. But all this is through existing schemes. There is no new allocation.

MGNREGS

♦  The government claimed that the allocation for MNREGS had been increased to a record Rs 48,000 crore. But this was no different from the Revised Expenditure of 2016-17 which was Rs 47,500 crore.

♦  Even this large expenditure of 2016 was no credit to the government. It was forced by the Supreme Court order in the Swaraj Abhiyan case on drought. In fact, as per demand projection of states, it should have increased to Rs 80,000 crore.

Demonetization – All Pain No Gain?: Farmers and agricultural workers faced enormous losses due to demonetization, affecting both their kharif crop sales and rabi crop cultivation. They hoped for a major announcement compensating for the losses but got nothing.

What’s missing, according to ASHA

Income Security: Farmers wanted an Income Guarantee system to assure sustainable income level for all farming households. They demanded RUPYA (Remunerative Universal Price and Yield Assurance). The Finance Minister talked about income security for farmers in 2016, but there was no action on it once again. There was also nothing on Minimum Support Price.

Relief from Debt Trap: Farmers wanted a big path-breaking measure, which would lift them out of the debt trap but there was no step in this direction. There were also no measures to help small, marginal and tenant farmers who are trapped in private loans with little access to institutional finance.

Support for disaster-affected farmers: Farmers affected by two consecutive droughts and other calamities like floods were hoping for a big revival package. The budget only had PMFBY which has already failed to help them this year.