Budget feeds farmers with platitudes: Experts

New Delhi, Mar 2 (UNI) Deepening agrarian crisis has found little in concrete from the Budget for 2007-08 which attempts to feed farmers on ''platitudes and futuristic policies'' instead of making an instant beginning to deliver it from the traditional yoke, say agricultural scientists and experts from cooperatives.

The Budget has not made the required effort for capacity-building of the farmers as pumping additional institutional credit into the farm sector will rather add to their debt-burden, said former union minister Suresh Prabhu at a discussion organised by the IFFCO Foundation here last evening.

Mr Prabhu said Finance Minister P Chidambaram did not do anything for strengthening the debt servicing capacity of the farmers which could only be built by extending financial and administrative support to Self-Help Groups (SHGs) of the farmers and their cooperatives.

After uniting at a platform, the farmers could better mobilise resources, manpower and techological know-how for enhancing farm productivity and achieving product quality. In this way, through SHGs, the farmers could earn better access to market and cheaper credit which should be moblise from the local resources, he added.

Agreeing to Mr Prabhu's suggestion, the IFFCO Foundation announced to prepare ''an alternative budget'' on agriculture-based studies and observation of the experts which will be submitted to the government for perusal.

Known agriculture scientists Dr R B Singh and Dr Nawab Ali were highly critical of the Budget, saying that in fact, Mr Chidambaram had done only ''lip service'' for research and development of pulses and edible oilseeds crops as the proclamation in this regard did not entail required fund backing.

Also, enhancing of the funds for Horticulture Mission will not be followed by research and development of plantation crops since 50 to 75 per cent of the funds were being given away as subsidy, he said.

NABARD chairman Y C Nanda, however, hailed the Budget for atleast giving a due attention to agriculture hitherto ignored at the altar of industry and business.

''One should not expect much from the Budget which only determines the government's policy directions... and agriculture needs a long term consistent attention for atleast five to ten years,'' Mr Nanda added.

However, he agreed with other participants that the Budget missed two main areas- soil and marketing- which required immediate government's attention.

Mr Nanda was of the opinion that funds of Rs 500 crore allocated for technology transfer to farmers through their training was an attempt to outreach them for inclusive development.

He also praised the budget for allowing NABARD to raise money by issuing Rs 5,000 crore bonds for Regional Rural Banks which evoked adverse reaction from cooperative sector experts like Bhagwati Prasad, who said unlike RRBs why recapitalisation of cooperative was strapped with so many conditions.

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