The Immediate challenge to the
Ministry of Agriculture when the new Government had taken over, was to sustain
the increasing agricultural output of the country in the face of impending
deficit rainfall in this year 2014-15. All the requisite preparatory measures
were made in coordination with the State governments to have the District-wise
contingency action plans in place and to bring in flexibility in the various
schemes in order that the States are enabled to cope with any desired changes
in the Approved Action Plans for tackling the situation arising out of deficit
rainfall. With the perspective the Central Research Institute for Dry Land
Agriculture (CRIDA) in collaboration with State Agricultural Universities and
the State Governments has prepared crop contingency plans in respect of 576
districts across the country. Further, all necessary and appropriate steps have
been taken to meet the seed and fertilizer requirement and to disseminate
information and on suitable farming practices to be followed in such a
situation.
INDIAN AGRICULTURE AT A GLANCE
v Agriculture continues to be the backbone of
Indian economy.
v Agriculture sector employs 54.6% of the total
workforce.
v The total Share of Agriculture & Allied
Sectors (Including Agriculture, Livestock, forestry and fishery sub sectors) in
terms of percentage of Gross Domestic Product is 13.9 percent during 2013-14 at
2004-05 prices. [As per the estimates released by Central Statistics Office]
v For the 12th Plan (2012-17), a growth
target of 4 percent has been set for the Agriculture Sector
v As per the 4th Advance Estimates of
Production of food grains for 2013-14, total food grain production is estimated
to be 264.77 Million Tonnes.
GROWTH STRATEGY
In order to keep up the momentum gained during the 11th
Plan and achieve the targeted growth rate of 4% during the 12th Five
Year Plan as also the ensure focused approach and to avoid overlap, all the
ongoing 51 schemes of the Department have been restructured into five missions
viz. National Food Security Mission (NFSM), Mission for Integrated Development
of Horticulture Mission (MIDH), National Mission on Oil Seed and Oil Palm
(NMOOP), National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), and National
Mission on Agricultural Extension & Technology (NMAET); five Central Sector
Schemes viz. National Crop Insurance Programme (NCIP), Intergrated Scheme on
Agri-Census & Statistics (ISAC&S), Integrated Scheme of Agriculture
Marketing (ISAM), Integrated Scheme of Agriculture Cooperation (ISAC) and
Secretariat Economic Service; and one State Plan Scheme viz. Rashtriya Krishi
Vikas Yojana.
Recognizing the importance of
Agriculture Sector, the Government during the budget 2014-15 took a number of
steps for sustainable development of Agriculture. These steps include enhanced
institutional credit to farmers; promotion of scientific warehousing
infrastructure including cold storages and cold chains in the country for
increasing shelf life of agricultural produce; Improved access to irrigation
through Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sichayee Yojana; provision of Price Stabilisation
Fund to mitigate price volatality in agricultural produce; Mission mode scheme
for Soil Health Card; Setting up of Agri-tech Infrastructure fund for making
farming competitive and profitable; provide institutional finance to joint
farming groups of “Bhoomi Heen Kisan” through NABARD; development of indigenous
cattle breeds and promoting inland fisheries and other non-farm activities to supplement
the income of farmers.
Details of the Initiatives are as follows:
v Rashtriya Gokul Mission
India ranks first
among the world’s milk producing Nations are such 1998 and milk production
peaked at 137.97 million tonnes in 2013-14. India has the largest bovine
population in the world. The bovine genetic resource of India is represented
by 37 well recognized indigenous Breeds of cattle and 13 breeds of buffaloes.
Indigenous bovines are robust and resilient and are particularly suited to the
climate and environment of their respective breeding tracts. Rashtriya Gokul
Mission a project under the National Program for Bovine Breeding and Dairy
Development is being launched with the objective of conserving and developing
indigenous Breeds in a focused and scientific manner. The potential to enhance
the productivity of the indigenous breeds through professional farm management
and superior nutrition, as well as gradation of indigenous bovine germplasm
will be done with an outlay of Rs. 550 crores.
v Rail Milk Network
In order to promote Agri Rail
Network for transportation of milk, overs have been placed by AMUL and NDDB on
behalf of Dairy Cooperative Federations for procurement of 36 new Rail Milk
Tankers and will be made available by Railways. This will help in movement of
milk from milk surplus areas to areas of demand providing dairy farmers with
greater market areas.
v
An allocation of Rs. 50 crore for development of
indigenous cattle breed has been provided.
v
‘Blue Revolution’ for development of inland
fisheries being initiated with a sum of Rs. 50 crore
v
Target for providing institutional agricultural
credit to farmers during 2014-15 has been enhanced to Rs. 8 lakh crore which
is expected to surpass.
v
Agriculture credit at a concessional rate of 7%
with an interest subvention of 3% for timely repayment will continue during
2014-15.
v
An allocation of Rs. 5,000 crore for 2014-15 has
been made for scientific warehousing infrastructure for increasing shelf life
of agricultural produce and thereby increasing the earning capacity of farmers.
v
A higher allocation of Rs. 25,000 crore has been
made to the corpus of Rural Infrastructure Development Fund during 2014-15
which helps in creation of infrastructure in agriculture and rural sectors.
v
An initial corpus of Rs. 4,000 crore is being
created to set up long term rural credit fund in NABARD to give a boost to long
term investment credit in agriculture.
v
For ensuring increased and uninterrupted credit
flow to farmers and to avoid high cost market borrowings by NABARD an amount of
Rs. 50,000 crore during 2014-15 has been made for Short Term Cooperative Rural
Credit (STCRC-refinance fund).
v
To improve access to irrigation, Pradhan Mantri
Krishi Sichayee Yojana has been initiated with a sum of Rs. 1,000 crore in the
year 2014-15.
v
To mitigate price volatility in the agricultural
produce a sum of Rs. 500 crore has been provided for Price Stabilization Fund.
v
Government has initiated a scheme for Soil
Health Card for every farmer in a mission mode with an initial allocation of
Rs. 100 crore in 2014-15.
v
An additional amount of Rs. 56 crore has been
made to set up 100 mobile soil testing laboratories countrywide.
v
National Adaptation Fund for climate change has
been established with an initial allocation of Rs. 100 crore.
v
To protect landless farmers from money lenders 5
lakh joint farming groups of Bhoomiheen Kisan will be financed through NABARD
in the current financial year.
v
A Kisan TV - Channel dedicated to agriculture
will be launched with the initial allocation of Rs. 100 crores in the current
financial year.
v
An initial allocation of Rs. 200 crore has been
allocated for establishing Agriculture Universities in Andhra Pradesh and
Rajasthan and Horticulture Universities in Telangana and Haryana.
v
An allocation of Rs. 100 crore has been made in
the current financial year for setting up of two institutions of excellence in
Assam and Jharkhand which will be at par with Indian Agricultural Research
Institute, Pusa.
v
An allocation of Rs.100 crore is made for
2014-15 for setting up Agri-tech Infrastructure Fund with a view to increasing
public and private investments in agriculture and making farming competitive
and profitable.
v
Various initiatives taken by Government to
support agriculture and allied sectors is to sustain the growth rate at 4%.
v
In order to increase profitability for small and
marginal farmers, Rs. 200 crore has been earmarked for setting up of 2000
Farmer Producer Organisations.
v
Wage employment under MGNREGA will be mainly
used for more productive asset creation substantially linked to agriculture
& allied activities.
v
Sum of Rs. 14,389 crore for Pradhan Mantri Gram
Sadak Yojana for 2014-15 which will improve access for rural population
including farmers.
v
With a view to promoting farmers and consumers
interest setting up of a national market will be accelerated by encouraging
States to modify their APMC Act and other market reforms.
v
With a view to develop commercial organic
farming in the North Eastern Region a sum of Rs. 100 crore has been allocated.
Central Government recognizes and
discharges its responsibility to assist State Governments in overall
development of Agriculture sector. Effective policy measures are in position to
improve agricultural production and productivity and address problems of
farmers. State Governments are also impressed upon to allocate adequate funds
for development of agriculture sector in State plan, as well as initiate other
measures required for achieving targeted agricultural growth rate and address
problem of farmers.
GG:SB:CP: YEAR END REVIEW 2014 (1)
(agri) 22.12.2014