Haryana sets sights on doubling farmers’ income

Sushil Manav

PRESENTING his maiden Budget in the Haryana Assembly, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who also holds the Finance portfolio, pledged his government’s commitment to the national goal of making agriculture futuristic and doubling farmers’ income, while proposing an outlay of Rs 6,481.48 crore for agriculture and farmer welfare activities — an increase of 23.92 per cent over the 2019-20 budgetary provisions of Rs 5,230.54 crore.

This includes an outlay of Rs 3,364.90 crore for agriculture, Rs 1,157.41 crore for animal husbandry, Rs 492.82 crore for horticulture and Rs 122.42 crore for fisheries.

Among the major initiatives Khattar mentioned in his Budget address are expanding organic and natural farming to over 1 lakh acres, crop dryers in all major grain markets of the state, separate 10 per cent seats to be reserved for women farmers in vegetable mandis, setting up a cell in the Kisan Kalyan Pradhikaran to promote women’s empowerment, installation of CCTV cameras in all warehouses of the Haryana State Warehousing Corporation, HAFED, Food and Supplies Department etc., to prevent theft, identification of progressive farmers who have adopted crop diversification and their appointment as master trainers, and interest-free loan facility, which is now available from cooperative institutions up to a limit of Rs 1.5 lakh, to be extended to commercial banks by raising the limit to Rs 3 lakh.

The Budget speech also mentioned that the government had set a target of increasing the area under fisheries to 55,000 acres in 2020-21 and fish production to 2.60 lakh metric tonnes.

In 2020-21, additional hectares will be brought under saltwater fish farming; two large pellet feed mill plants and 10 small feed mill plants will be set up under the saltwater fish farm. For the first time in the state, cat fish culture will be started on 250-250 acres. Digging will also be carried out on community land for fisheries under the Intensive Fisheries Development Programme.

“We have decided to give a fillip to saltwater shrimp farming and fisheries in submerged areas. In 2020-21, a prawn chilling and processing centre will be established and the cold chain facility will be provided to the farmers. By establishing this processing centre, farmers will be able to get good prices in the international and domestic markets,” Khattar said in his Budget address.

He added that the conservation and promotion of natural fishes will be emphasised by the conservation of dwindling species in natural reservoirs like Tikkar Tal in Panchkula and Western Yamuna Canal in Yamunanagar, Karnal and Panipat. Till now, two national fish seed farms and 13 state fish seed farms are preparing quality fish seed through latest technology and making them available to fishermen at minimum rates.

Jai Prakash Dalal, Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Haryana, says that increasing allocation by 65 per cent for irrigation, which is associated with agriculture, is one of the biggest takeaways from this Budget.

“Farmers in Haryana have got much more as relief than what they paid as premium under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). Under the scheme, an amount of Rs 2,097.93 crore has been disbursed to the farmers in the past three years as claims, while premium of Rs 1,672.03 crore was paid to the insurance companies. Of this, the farmers’ share in the premium was Rs 600 crore, as the rest was paid by the Central and the state government as their respective share. Now, the Centre has made this scheme voluntary for the farmers,” says Dalal.

The minister says from 2020-21, the government would ensure the availability of representatives of insurance companies under the PMFBY in every block office of the Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department so that work of farmers related to the scheme can be completed at the block level.

Atal Bhujal Yojana has been launched by the Centre with the objective of improving groundwater management and conservation activities. According to Dalal, 36 water-scarce blocks have been identified by the state for the purpose.

“With the objective of ensuring remunerative prices for the crops to the farmers, we had launched Bhavantar Bharpai Yojana. It includes tomato, onion, potato, cauliflower, carrot, peas, brinjal, guava, capsicum, kinnow, mustard and millet. Under this scheme, 3,873 farmers have so far benefited with an amount of Rs 9.53 crore,” the minister adds.

On the measures taken by the BJP-JJP government to protect the environment during harvesting of paddy, the minister says a comprehensive campaign has been launched for the management of crop residue through new farming methods and machinery.

About 1,637 custom-hiring centres have been established, through which this year, 5,225 farmers were provided agricultural machinery at subsidised rates. With the support of farmers, the incidence of burning of crop residue has come down in the state, Dalal claims.

“The incidence of crop residue burning has decreased by 35.32 per cent as compared to 2018-19. Now, the state government has started giving additional incentive of Rs 100 per quintal to the farmers for managing crop residue in the fields,” he says.

OP Dhankar, who was Agriculture Minister during Khattar’s first term (2009-14), claims that the extension of the limit for the scheme to provide interest-free loans to farmers to Rs 3 lakh and including commercial banks will help farmers a lot.

“20 lakh solar tubewells will be installed in the country this year. Of these, 50,000 are to be set up in Haryana. This is a win-win situation for Haryana. The farmers will get power for free and will be able to sell it to the grid when they don’t need it, while the state government will save on the huge subsidy it provides to farmers on electricity tubewells,” says Dhankar.

The former minister, who has for long held the post of national president of the Kisan Morcha of the BJP, says solar tubewells will also bring in micro-irrigation which will help in conserving the depleting water resources.

Farmers, by and large, seem satisfied with the Budget. Gurjeet Singh Mann, a progressive farmer from Kirpal Patti village of Sirsa, says the Haryana Budget touches many aspects related to farming, including the setting up of purchase centres at the block level for stubble, which has become a headache both for the farmers as well the state ever since the National Green Tribunal (NGT) passed strict orders against stubble burning.

He, however, observes that earlier efforts to set up custom-hiring centres and subsidised farm machinery did not achieve the desired results.

Mann welcomes the move to provide subsidised electricity (down from Rs 7.5 to Rs 4.75 per unit) for setting up cold stores in a village cluster as a neighbourhood cold store for temporary holding of perishable vegetables and fruits to counter market glut or bad weather can go a long way in getting farmers remunerative price for their crops.

Mann believes that the setting up of more FPOs (Farmer Producer Organisations) will slowly but surely help farmers get the freedom of selling their produce at their prices, rather than depending on what the buyers quote.

The plan to expand organic and natural farming to 1 lakh acres can be good for a few, but Mann warns that it should not happen at the cost of conventional farming; cutting budgetary allocation out of conventional farming will only make more farmers suffer.

“Installing crop drying machines at the mandi level is a welcome move. It should have been done long ago and had been a demand of farmers. After all, a large chunk of the state Budget comes via market fee. Why can’t a part of it be allocated for the ease of doing business by farmers at their mandis? Farmers often complain of being cheated at the hands of purchasers in the name of higher than the permissible moisture content,” he says.

The expansion of Bhawantar Yojana to a few more crops and including mustard, sunflower and millet is also being hailed by the farmers. However, they are not too happy about connecting soil health cards to Meri Fasal Mera Byora. “Where is the staff and infrastructure to collect samples and analyse and upload the same?” asks Mann.

An initiative about imparting training to science students in soil sampling and testing has also been announced in the Budget, but it cannot produce skilled hands overnight or for that matter needs many months before they may be inducted to do this job properly. Already, the previously taken samples have differing and disputed results. A wrong analysis will lead to the wrong use of farm inputs, he says.

The Opposition parties, however, see nothing significant for the benefit of farmers in the Budget. “It offers nothing for the farmers who are already passing through a financial crisis. The cost of production has increased manifold, but the government has failed to provide the MSP to farmers. Prices of sugarcane have not been increased, while the cost of fertilisers, pesticides, tractors etc. has gone up,” says Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly.

Hooda claims that when he was at the helm in the state from 2005 to 2014, there was no tax on fertilisers, pesticides and tractor parts, but now all these commodities have been covered under the GST.

Abhay Singh Chautala, INLD MLA from Ellenabad, also terms the budgetary allocation for agriculture insufficient. “The Budget neither provides any solution to farmers’ distress nor offers answers to how the government is going to increase their income,” says Chautala.