Furnishings for CWG or food security?

EVEN AS AgriMatters had expressed its satisfaction with the increased allocations for the agriculture sector in the Union Budget, especially the flagship programme, the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), the joy was short lived. Hard as one may try, comparisons do creep in and the contrast glares one in the face. One component of the enhanced RKVY budget was a special component for enhancement of food production in the water surplus states of the eastern region. The finance minister stated in the Lok Sabha to ensure that the gains of the Green Revolution are extended to the eastern states which have an abundance of water, a special provision of Rs 400 crores had been set aside. As against this, the furnishings for the Commonwealth Games, villages are expected to be in excess of Rs 650 crores.

Thus, six major states of India will compete for four hundred crores to provide better seeds, water harvesting structures and soil testing facilities and other inputs that go directly to improve the food production needs of the country. This at a time, when the Cabinet has also cleared the Food Security Bill which gives every below poverty line (BPL) person the right to ask for 25 kilograms of wheat or rice at rupees three per kilogram from the PDS. This means that investments into agriculture will have to increase manifold to meet this commitment. Already the global markets are abuzz with projections of the additional requirement of wheat and rice that will be required to meet the commitments under the Food Security Bill, coupled with employment assurance under National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). If the country can’t produce these quantities, the commodities will have to be procured from the global market place which will push up the costs, besides problems of logistics.

If this was not galling enough, the Union Cabinet has also announced an eight per cent increase in Dearness Allowance for Central government employees (which will be followed by similar demands by state government and municipal employees) makes special allocations for agriculture look miserly. However, not one newspaper in the country has pointed this anomaly, or made an editorial comment on how the primary sectors are being systematically discriminated against. This column has often argued that unless the sector gets at least 20 per cent of the annual budget of the Central and state governments (which is equal to its share in the GDP of the country), the sector can’t be expected to keep pace with manufacturing and industry. Why can't a comparison be made between the investments that have gone into manufacturing, services and agriculture- and the relative impact it has had on the increase in the GDP of these sectors? If money will be pumped into aviation, telecom, tourism and education, the sectors are bound to grow.

The New Delhi newspapers also carry a report that Mother Dairy has increased the prices of milk by one rupee per litre. This 4.5 per cent increase in the retail price of milk means that the farmers' price for milk may go up by just about three per cent. Thus compared to his counterpart in the organised sector, the farmer has gained by three per cent, while the government employee has gained by eight per cent. If we were to look at what the farmer was getting for his produce four years ago, one doesn’t see a secular increase of 35 per cent, which is what the government employee is getting, in addition to an annual increment of three per cent every year. Thus the employee is getting 45 per cent higher than what he got four years ago, in addition to housing, health, home travel, leave travel, gratuity, pension and special pay.

Let us get back to Commonwealth Games. Why should the government be spending its time, money and effort into the games when it has far more pressing priorities elsewhere? For the last few months, almost everything in New Delhi has been sacrificed at the altar of the games. The school examination and vacation schedules have been altered to suit the requirement of the games and almost everything is being geared to meet the requirements of the games. So many agencies of the Union and NCT government are now working 24x7 to ensure that the projects are completed. The only tangible long term impact of the games will be on real estate and infrastructure sectors. And at the end of the year, the economists will say that the share of agriculture has shrunk by another percentage point. Compared to the CWG, the Indian Premier League is perhaps better. The government has little to do with it and it is a purely commercial activity, with its component of fun and games, Bollywood stars and cheer leaders. Even though this columnist is not an IPL enthusiast, he would compliment the organisers for giving the viewers full value for their money. There are no compulsions involved and the government is not directly involved in the management of the games.

How does one conclude? By stating that rather than create and improve urban infrastructure, public investment should be made to improve the capacities of the farmer to draw more from water and soil by improving the infrastructure in the countryside for production and testing of seeds, fertilisers and other essential ingredients. Why could these six hundred crores not be used for establishing soil testing laboratories and automated weather stations across the country to ensure that farmers have a better understanding of the fertilisers required for their crops and for reducing the risk due to aberrant weather conditions. All this becomes even more meaningful in the context of climate change and the imperatives of food security. If the villages do not prosper, the prosperity in urban islands will not be sustainable. In fact, it may well be counterproductive. The earlier this homily becomes part of the mainstream thinking, the better it would be.