DOUBLING OF FARMERS’INCOME – VIEWS OF THE
GOVERNMENT OF TELANGANA
The Government of Telangana is taking
several steps to address the agrarian distress and to revive the farm sector in
the State and also to revamp the rural economy by reviving the traditional
activities such as, sheep rearing, fisheries dairy, etc. Outstanding agricultural loan of Rs.17,000
crores was already waived in four instalments, thereby benefitting more than 35
lakh farmers in the State. In addition
to this, we have recently announced an innovative scheme to provide investment
assistance of Rs.4000/- per acre, in both the crop seasons, towards purchase of
inputs such as, seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, labour costs, which will benefit 55 lakh farmers cultivating over 1.50
crore acres in the State during the Kharif and Rabi seasons. This will go a
long way to revive the agriculture sector and help farmers to come out of the
vicious cycle of debt trap. Government
of India should support such initiatives by the State Governments to address
the present agrarian distress.
In order to achieve the objective of
doubling farmers’ income in five years, the following concrete steps need to be
taken urgently.
(1) Entire country needs to be divided into crop
colonies for specific crops, based on agro-climatic regions, so that the
Minimum Support Price facility can be effectively ensured to benefit the
farmers by preventing avoidable glut of certain commodities in the market.
(2) While agriculture production has increased in
the country, productivity has not increased for most of the crops. For this purpose, continuous Research &
Development is required and Government of India should support research through
institutions located in different States.
(3) Vulnerability of the farm sector has to be
minimised by taking the following steps:
(a) Expeditious completion of all ongoing
irrigation projects by providing required support to the State Governments.
(b) Supply of adequate and quality power to the
farm sector at affordable rates.
(c) Reforming the existing insurance schemes by
removing the present operational difficulties.
(4) A thorough review is needed on imports of
food-grains, oil seeds, oil products, textile, etc. so as to ensure that the
produce of the country does not have to face undue extraneous competition or
market manipulation.
(5) Agro-based industries must be encouraged
pro-actively to facilitate value addition and enhancement of farmers’ income.
(6) Activities supporting agriculture which are in
the allied sector, such as dairy, sheep rearing, fisheries, poultry, farm
forestry, etc. should be exempted from the purview of income-tax, as these play
a significant role in providing supplemental income to the farming community.
(7) Government of India has enacted the
Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 and notified the same as Central Act
No. 38 of 2016 on 3rd August, 2016. It is understood that the Ministry of
Environment, Forests & Climate Change is in the process of framing of rules
and accounting procedures for effective utilization of CAMPA Funds. The process
of consultation and drafting of rules is taking unduly long time, leading to
inordinate delay in release and utilization of funds.
(8) There is a hue and cry among the farmers due
to the scarcity of labour force in agricultural operations. In order to make
MGNREGA more useful and productive to the agricultural operations, there is an
urgent need to dovetail MGNREGA to agricultural operations, by including it
under the permitted activities under MGNREGA.
It is suggested that 50% of the unskilled wages may be paid under
MGNREGA and 50% by the farmers concerned.
It will not only help farmers in timely agricultural operations, but
also help ensure employment to the weaker sections of the society. This may be extended to those States who opt
to avail this.
-Press note
.jpg)
.jpg)
.JPG)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.JPG)
No comments :
Write comments