Pawar calls for increasing budgetary provisions for agriculture

Dehra Dun, Sep 17 (UNI) Nationalist Congress Party president and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today called for increasing the budgetary provisions for agriculture in the 11th Plan, saying unless this was done the problems of farmers, who were being driven to commit suicide, could not be solved.

''It will be the policy of the NCP to ensure the maximum possible allocation for agriculture while being in the UPA Government,'' he said in his remarks on conclusion of the two-day National Convention of the NCP here.

Mr Pawar said he had studied the problems of farmers continuing for last many years and realised that over the last ten years the budgetary provisions for agriculture had been steadily going down.

He recalled that the late Pandit Nehru had paid much attention to the promotion of agriculture.

Blaming the NDA for not having paid attention to the problems of farmers and allocated only 2 per cent of its funds for agriculture, he said the UPA Government had taken steps to change the situation somewhat by having discussions several times in Parliament on the plight of farmers.

''It has allocated 35 per cent of the budgetary provisions on irrigation. But even this allocation called for a change to cover up the post harvesting loss to farmers costing Rs 50,000 crore every year and to provide them seeds and necessary inputs...Unless this is done the condition of farmers cannot be changed,'' he asserted..

Stating that irrigation played a crucial role in agriculture, he said only 40 per cent of the land so far was irrigated while 60 per cent of the land had to face the vagaries of monsoon every year.

Unless this 60 per cent of the unirrigated land was brought under irrigation, nothing much could be done to better the lot of farmers, he added.

Referring to the statistics of the last ten years, the Union Minister pointed out that every year on an average one lakh people committed suicide. Farmers constituted 15 per cent of this figure.

They had been committing suicide for last many years, he averred.

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