Farmers Movement Archive

‘Budget has very less to offer to farmers’

Agra: Farmers in Agra region didn’t find any beneficial announcement in the Union budget presented in the parliament on Monday. Farmer leaders said by increasing the agriculture credit target at Rs 16.5 lakh crore for the financial year 2021-22, the government wants to keep them in debt. More loan will only worsen the already poor financial situation of the producers. Farmer leaders who watched the entire speech of the finance minister said no concrete plan was presented to double the income of the farmers. Besides, there was no mention of any plan to put a tab on stray animals causing major losses to the farmers. Small farmers were expecting an increase in benefit under the income support scheme PM- Kisan. Farmers of Agra region, which is the largest potato producer in the country, were also expecting an announcement for setting up a potato processing unit. Agra district president of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Rajveer Lawaniya said, “We are totally dissatisfied with this budget. The government didn’t come up with any concrete plan to provide minimum support price (MSP). The BJP government has been talking about doubling the farmers’ income but there was nothing to fulfil that in the budget. Farmers were expecting that the government would make at least 50 percent increase in the Rs 6,000 annual handout under the PM-Kisan scheme. The long-standing demand of a potato processing unit in Agra region was also not addressed. Overall, the budget had very less to offer to the farmers. It was disappointing.” Agra-based farmer leader Somveer Yadav said, “We had expected the government to declare MSP for potato and wheat. However, there was no word on it. In the entire budget, the finance minister only tried to mislead the farmers. The budget has no concrete plan to increase the income of the farmers. Instead of increasing the agri-lending target, the government should have made efforts to put a tab on the dependences of farmers on loans. Farmers are distressed as they are not getting the right price for their crops.” General secretary of potato producers’ association of Agra region Mohammad Aamir said, “Potato is cultivated on around 72,000 hectares in Agra district. At present, there are 270 cold storage facilities in the district with a capacity of over 25 lakh metric tonnes. Since past several years we have been raising the demand for a potato processing unit which was promised by PM Modi before 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Farmers were expecting that the government would address that demand in the budget. But there was no mention of it.”

The Times of India

2021-02-02

Agra