Chandigarh, December 5
The Union Secretary for Food and Supplies, Mr Arun Bhatnagar, has called a meeting in New Delhi on December 16 to discuss the implementation of the Punjab report on diversification of agriculture.
This report has been prepared by Dr S.S. Johl, who headed the Chief Minister’s Advisory Committee on Agriculture Policy. He had submitted an interim report on July 8 when The Tribune first broke the news story on diversification and the suggested formula that would eventually benefit the Centre, state and farmers. The final report was submitted to Capt. Amarinder Singh on October 29.
Though there was skepticism in some quarters over the feasibility of the recommendations, the fact is that the issues involved to make diversification possible were first discussed in the Planning Commission, where it received a positive response. These were classified as “Crop Adjustment Programme’’ and ‘’Income Adjustment Programme”.
The Centre has now begun to process the report and the proposed meeting will be attended by Dr Johl, besides Mr Y.S. Ratra (Chief Secretary), Mr B.R. Bajaj (Principal Secretary, Food and Supplies), Mr P.K. Verma (Financial Commissioner, Development) and, perhaps, Mr Bhagat Singh (Financial Commissioner, Revenue). Officers of the central departments concerned are also likely to participate.
Mr Bajaj told TNS today that the basic purpose of the meeting called by Mr Bhatnagar was to apprise the Centre of the “mechanics” of implementing the scheme, and to recommend to the Union Ministry of Finance to make the necessary provision in next year’s Budget to make diversification feasible in Punjab.
Dr Johl report’s chapter on “Managing supply side of foodgrains in India: focus Punjab’’ gives a practical solution as to how to reduce the area under wheat and rice in the state that will cut down on the cost and efforts that New Delhi/Punjab make on procurement, handling, transport and storage of about eight million tonnes of foodgrains (wheat and rice) that are produced and marketed from one million hectares of cultivated area.
This flow of eight million tonnes of foodgrains into the market, suggests the report, can be stopped at a cost of only Rs 1,280 crore, thereby saving for New Delhi about Rs 9000 crore, as cost of grains stored for one year and more than approximately Rs 5,000 crore, even if these are disposed of at the below poverty line price or export price.
Dr Johl has given the complete formula how his scheme would work in the financial interest of the Centre, in the ecological and economic interest of the state and to the advantage of farmers, who would have hassle-free income to invest in other farm activities as well as shift to value-added crops — vegetables, fruits, oil seeds and pulses and considerably help slash the annual purchase bill of Rs 10,000 crore spent on importing oilseeds/pulses.
The proposals to be discussed in New Delhi on December 16 will revolve around the “economics” of the scheme as also “mechanics of its implementation”.
The hypothesis is as follows: As a nodal agency, the FCI and state agencies as its agents, procure some 4.69 million tonnes of wheat and 3.35 million tonnes of rice (5 million tonnes of paddy) that are produced on one million hectares of cultivated area that is planned to be shifted from under each of these two crops. The calculation is that the purchase cost is Rs 6,976 crore, and handling, storage, transport, losses and spoilage costs for one year Rs 2,000 crore. The total cost for one year is Rs 8,976 crore, say Rs 9,000 crore.
Thus, if these eight million tonne foodgrains produced from one million hectares are
disposed of at the BPL price
(Rs 415 per quintal for wheat and Rs 565 per quintal for rice) in the domestic market or exported, it causes a loss of Rs
5,038 crore to the Centre.
But if the Centre helps Punjab to stop inflow of these eight million tonnes of foodgrains into the market by giving it only Rs 1,280 crore, it will also help the Centre save an enormous sum of money and effort.
As to the breakdown of Rs 1,280 crore, the report says farmers who agree “not” to sow wheat and rice would be paid Rs 12,500 per hectare
(Rs 5,00 per acre), as compensation. This would be around Rs 1,250 crore. The support to village
panchayat(s) for working out and implementing of the programme on the ground at Rs 250 per hectare would be Rs 25 crore.
Administrative and management/supervision at the state level will cost Rs 5 crore, making a total Rs 1,280 crore. The plan will be jointly supervised by the village
panchayat(s), lambardar and patwari concerned.
The scheme will also lessen the burden on storage. India had a bufferstock and food security of about 70 million tonnes against the requirement of 22 million
tonnes, as on July 1, 2002. These stocks, however, are illusory when viewed from the perspective of nutritional needs, as one-third of the people cannot meet their nutritional needs for healthy living, yet, this supply-demand mismatch is of serious concern because it puts a heavy financial burden on the state exchequer.
Punjab has to persistently pursue this scheme with the Centre till it finds place in the next Union Budget. The Chief Minister is asking Punjab MPs to follow up on this.
