‘Govt has failed to deliver on promises’ 

Pune: A number of farmers want the government to focus on strict measures of execution of the promises made during the earlier budgets. With farmers facing different problems in getting benefits of various schemes, Yogesh Pande, spokesperson of Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS), said that nothing much is expected from this budget. “Although it is certain that the government will focus on farmers in the budget, in the past four years, we have observed that the government has failed to deliver on the promises made in the previous budgets. All we want is that the government should stick to the initiatives, which they have announced,” added Pande. 

Speaking on the expectations of farmers, Pandurang Rayte of Pune District Farmers Organisation said that from many years, farmers have only stuck to one demand of ‘fair and remunerative pricing’ (FRP) and the struggle continues, as due to a number of reasons, farmers are unable to get FRP despite assurances from the government. “The budget should also focus on ways to help farmers to transport their agriculture produce. If farmers are transporting their agriculture produce, they do not get the transportation price, which should be part of FRP,” added Rayte.

Speaking on the FRP issue, Geetram Kadam, who runs an NGO and helps farmers, said that FRP is the most important challenge farmers are facing. “Government should try to solve this issue, as 60 per cent of the employment is generated in agriculture sector. Farmers should also have access to food storage and processing units, which they are lacking currently. Government should come up with measures, which assures best price of the produce to farmers, including processing, using technology and farmers markets,” added Kadam.