Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar informed the Rajya Sabha that the Finance Ministry has constituted an expert group to look into agricultural indebtedness in totality and suggest relief measures for farmers across the country. A special package for AP, Karnataka and Kerala would be announced in the next 15 days, Pawar promised while responding to a discussion on farmers’ suicides and the Minimum Support Price. “The expert group will be headed by R Radhakrishnan from the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research and include PV Shenoy (former agriculture secretary), YSP Thorat (managing director of NABARD) and Kanta Kumar, former Syndicate Bank chairman. The group is expected to submit its report by November 30,” Pawar said. Several MPs had demanded that the government come up with a one-time settlement scheme for indebted farmers. Admitting that states with plantation farms such as Kerala had suffered due to India’s trade agreement with the SAARC nations, Pawar said: “The districts where most suicides are happening in Kerala once used to be the richest district, cultivating crops like pepper and cocoa. We will talk to our neigbouring countries on this issue.” On the ailing co-operatives sector, Pawar pointed out that “The Vaidyanathan Committee had recommended a Rs 14,000 crore revival package of which Rs 12,000 crore would be borne by the Centre. The PM met all the state chief ministers with me and the Finance Minister and appealed to them to accept the recommendations. Work has begun in states that have signed MoUs with the Centre.” Regarding the frequent complaints from farmers about bad seeds, Pawar said, “A Seeds Bill has been ready to deal with this for over three years now, but the Parliament has still not cleared it.” The minister, however, agreed that reducing the prices of BT cotton seeds must be looked into. On complaints of BT cotton becoming a killer seed in Andhra and Vidarbha, Pawar reminded MPs, “Without water or irrigation, the risk is higher in BT cotton seeds. If farms are not irrigated or if there is less rain, then the seeds won’t help. Gujarat has benefited the most from these seeds in India.”The farm sector needs almost Rs 5 lakh crore investments to achieve 4 per cent growth. “For India to grow at 8-10 per cent, the agriculture sector has to grow at 4 per cent. Being a state subject, every state must pay attention to the sector, else we will have to pay a heavy price in the next few years,” warned Pawar. Slamming state governments for their lax implementation of agricultural projects, Pawar said, “States have many agriculture and irrigation projects that have been under construction for the last 20-30 years. If a project cost Rs 20 crore, the costs have now risen to Rs 200 crore and yet it’s not complete. As many as 1,248 such projects are incomplete.” CMs have been told to give priority to the sector and finish pending projects. With land productivity reducing drastically, the government plans to work with states to launch a campaign among farmers for improving soil structure using techniques like vermiculture. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research has also created 240 new varieties of seeds in the last two years. For farmers to take up these seeds, “a new guidance programme in 250 districts will be launched,” Pawar added.
