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Democratizing Debate on Development
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Section-2 Agriculture and Rural Employment
As mentioned earlier, the total allocations for the head titled agriculture and allied activities registered a decline of around 23.3 percent in current year compared to the figures for the previous year. In nominal terms it has declined from around Rs. 139671 crores in 2008-09 RE to Rs. 107635 crores in 2009-10 BE. As percent of total government expenditure, it registered an increase from a modest 7.3 percent in 2004-05 to more than 15 percent in 2008-09 RE. However, this year the figure declined to 10.5 percent of total government expenditure indicating the fact that government is really not serious about what it says about maintaining a 4 percent growth in agriculture. It should however be remembered that the amount shown as allocations under agriculture and allied activities also include allocations towards food (Rs. 52490 crore in 2009-10) and fertilizer subsidy (Rs. 49980 crore in 2009-10). If one discounts these amount which is primarily for the purpose of providing welfare to the poor farmers[1] and consumers of PDS, then the real allocation for agriculture and allied activities comes down drastically. Table-5 Allocations under the Head Agriculture and Allied Activities
Table-6 provides item wise allocation trends under agriculture and allied activities. It can be clearly seen from the table below that apart from allocations under crop husbandry and food storage, on other counts the amount allocated is meager. In crop husbandry and food storage also, the amount allocated registered a quantum jump in 2008-09 primarily because of the fertilizer subsidy and the food subsidy amounts. The present year saw a decline in the crop husbandry section. As mentioned earlier, not all the amount shown under these heads is for actual agricultural promotion purposes. As can be seen from Table-7, only less than 9 percent of the total allocations shown under revenue allocations for Agricultural and Allied Activities are directly for the purpose of agriculture development in the country (Table-7 and Figure-4). In the year 2009-10 BE, around 97 percent of the total non plan allocations for the head was for different purposes, many of which are not directly related to agriculture. Table-6 Item wise allocation Trends under Agriculture and Allied Activities[2]
Table-7 How much is really for Agriculture?
Figure-4 91 percent allocation for Agriculture and Allied Activities goes towards other purposes
Very cleverly, the finance minister mentions about 144 percent increase in allocations for NREGS over the budget estimates of 2008-09. When the budget estimates were prepared in 2008-09, government did not allocate any money for the expanded NREGS for 600 districts. The allocations for the expanded NREGS was made with effect from 1st April 2008 to the tune of around Rs. 30000 crores in addition to the provision of around 6740 crores towards the foodgrain component under Sampurna Gramin Rojgar Yojana in the revised estimates for 2008-09 making the allocations for the total rural employment generation programmes reach to the tune of Rs. 36750 crore for 2008-09 RE. This year, despite a promise of the government to increase the total number of employment days to be created under the programme by around 60 percent, the allocations for the programme have increased only by around 6.4 percent. Table-8 Allocations under Rural Employment Generation Programmes
[1] Notwithstanding the fact that the fertilizer subsidy amount actually goes towards compensation towards producers and traders of fertilizers, such a subsidy makes the price of fertilizer affordable to a larger section of farmers in India. [2] Taken from AFS
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