The historic ‘first Agriculture budget’ for Tamil Nadu presented by the Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, M.R.K. Panneerselvam, in the Assembly on August 14, has turned the spotlight on fighting endemic hunger, protecting rural livelihoods by expanding potential areas of growth for sustainable farming and to create more jobs for rural youth.
The entire world revolves around farming, even as the challenges to agriculture keep mounting. This budget identifies those challenges as they need reiteration. It also sent out a political signal, as the Minister dedicated it to the thousands of farmers protesting against the Union Government’s three Farm laws.
The challenges include “decrease in cropped area due to conversion of agricultural lands into real estate, depletion in soil nutrition, declining water resources due to overexploitation, reluctance among youngsters to take up farming, deprivation of remunerative price for agriculture produce, enhanced cost of cultivation and post-harvest losses,” among others, said Panneerselvam.
Articulating a long-term vision or plan under the guidance of the Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin, to achieve food and nutritional security in the next ten years, the Agriculture Minister has dwelt on every aspect of farming, from field to fork, as they put it; area expansion, enhanced production, efficient irrigation, storage including need for more cold-chains, drying and processing facility, value-addition to marketing of Agri-products for domestic and export markets.
Panneerselvam said the Chief Minister has targeted to bring an additional 11.75 lakh hectares of fallow land across Tamil Nadu under ‘net sown area’ under a new, massive project called “ Kalaignarin Anaithu Grama Orunginaintha Velaan Valarchi Thittam,” to be implemented at the village panchayat levels in phases.
This scheme will not only help boost the production of cereals, but also focus on cultivation of millets, pulses, oilseeds, vegetables and fruits. It will encompass all aspects of the farm sector including agriculture, horticulture, agri-engineering, marketing,agribusiness, revenue and disaster management, he said.
PALMYRA DEVELOPMENT MISSION
Another widely welcomed scheme is the fresh impetus to be given to what he termed, ‘Palmyra Development Mission’, to make use of every aspect of this noble species and which is also the ‘State Tree’ of Tamil Nadu. It gives considerable scope for rural employment as every little part of the ‘Palm’ tree can be put to productive use and can yield valueaddition from palm sugar, palm juice, nuts, to handicrafts.
In furtherance of this mission, 76 lakh palmyra seed-nuts and one lakh palmyra seedlings will be distributed to farmers with full subsidy in 30 districts this year, said the Minister.
A special ‘Organic Farming’ development scheme, an expanded mission to conserve and promote cultivation of traditional paddy varieties in the name of the veteran farmer ‘Nel Jayaraman’, encouraging youth in villages to take up agri-businesses like dairy, poultry, organic foods, a ‘Rural Youth Agricultural Skill Development Mission’, enhancing annual paddy production to 75 lakh tonnes, schemes to increase Coconut productivity, encouraging collective farming schemes, setting up of a State-level Agriculture Museum, a special incentive of Rs.150 per tonne for every sugarcane farmer, a new research centre for Turmeric at Bhavanisagar in Erode district and developing Tiruchirappalli-Nagapattinam area as an ‘Agro Industrial Corridor’, are among other highlights in the State Agriculture budget. It also fulfills one of DMK’s key poll promises.
THE AGRICULTURE BUDGET PRESENTED BY THE NEW DMK GOVERNMENT IS THE FIRST ATTEMPT OF AN EXTREME FOCUS ON EVERY SEGMENT OF FARMING AND ALLIED ACTIVITIES, NOT JUST TO BOOST PRODUCTIVITY, BUT ALSO LOOK AT WIDENING RURAL LIVELIHOODS.
