By Prabeer Kumar Basu
Agriculture sector is vital for the food security of the country. It is the principal source of livelihood for more than 58% of the work-force. While the global economy had been reeling under recession and our farmers had been facing vagaries of weather, the average growth rate of agriculture sector was more than 4% during the four years preceding the last one. A record level of food-grain production of 234.47 million tonnes was achieved in the year 2008-09. The adverse impact of an unprecedented drought in Kharif, 2010 on food grain production was minimized due to timely action taken by the Central and State Governments. The severity of the drought last year can be gauged from the fact that in the last major drought during the year 2002-03, there was a deficit of 19% rainfall whereas during last year, rainfall was deficient by 23%. The corresponding production figures for wheat and rice were 71.82 (Rice) and 65.76 (Wheat) MT in 2002-03 and 89.31(Rice) and 80.98 (Wheat) in 2009-10 respectively.

In order to sustain these efforts and to keep the momentum, the Government has taken several steps to ameliorate the conditions of farmers particularly small and marginal farmers. The Government has also conceptualised several schemes for the benefit of agrarian community. Some of these initiatives and programmes/ schemes are:

Minimum Support Price
In order to make agriculture a remunerative vocation on a sustainable basis, substantial increase in the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of major cereals ranging from 39% to 78% was provided during the last five years (2004-05 to 2009-10). MSPs of pulses and oilseeds were enhanced by up to 104% during the same period.

Investment In Agriculture
As a result of progressive steps taken by the Government during the last 5 years in agriculture & allied sectors, public investment in Gross Capital Formation in agriculture and allied sectors has been going up. The public sector investment increased from Rs.16,183 crore to Rs.24,452 crore (at 2004-05 prices) during the period from 2004-05 to 2008-09. The total investment also saw an upward trend. The outlay under NREGS is also proposed to be used for agriculture related activities such as land development, creation of water resources and construction of rural roads.

Credit Flow And Debt Waiver
Improving access to institutional credit for farmers has been a priority for Central Government since it is a critical input necessary for improving productivity and income of the farmers.

A comprehensive credit Package for agriculture sector was announced by the Government on 18th June, 2004 containing measures for increasing agriculture credit flow and provision of debt relief to the farmers affected by natural calamities. Since Kharif 2006-07, farmers are getting crop loans up to a principal amount of Rs. 3 lakh at 7% rate of interest and the Government and State Governments are providing necessary interest subvention to NABARD and Banks for this purpose. Further, from 2010-11, the Government is providing an additional interest subvention of two per cent for timely repayment. Thus, in case of timely repayment, the effective rate of interest for such farmers is now five per cent per annum.

In order to give succour to farmers stuck in debt trap, a scheme of debt waiver and debt relief for farmers was announced by the Government in the Union Budget 2008-09. The scheme has benefited about 3.68 crore of farmers with total amount of waiver and relief amounting to about Rs.65318.33 crore.

National Food Security Mission
Food security at national and at the household level is of paramount importance for the Government. With a view to enhance production of foodgrains to meet increasing demand on account of burgeoning population, National Food Security Mission (NFSM) is being implemented in 467 districts of 17 States from Rabi 2007-08 with three components viz. NFSM-Rice, NFSM-Wheat and NFSM-Pulses. An additional production of 20 million tonnes of foodgrains, comprising 10 million tonnes of rice, 8 million tonnes of wheat and 2 million tonnes of pulses by the end of Eleventh Plan (2011-12) has been targetted. More than two crore farmers have benefitted from the Scheme. The regions earlier labelled as food deficit areas, are today contributing significantly to the food basket of the country. The production of wheat, rice and pulses has increased by 4.87, 5.83 and 0.37 MT respectively from 2006-07 to 2008-09.

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