Arming farming via mission mode

Jaipur: “If agriculture goes wrong, nothing else will have a chance to go right in the country,” renowned agriculture scientist Dr M S Swaminathan had said.
Chief minister Ashok Gehlot mentioned this quote while presenting the first agriculture budget last year.
The Congress government had not only delivered on its promise of an agriculture loan waiver of Rs 2 lakh in its manifesto, but had taken a step ahead and waived all agriculture loans in the state co-cooperative sector and land development banks benefitting about 21 lakh farmers.
The government had to bear Rs 14,000 crore on this account including the Rs 6000 crore of loan waiver up to Rs 50,000 announced by the previous BJP government before the elections.
Now only agri loans from nationalised banks are pending and the chief minister has been demanding a loan settlement scheme from the Centre but in vain.
The government came out to help farmers during Covid by providing equipment for harvesting and sowing through a custom hiring programme for five years through a private partnership programme for Rs 970 crore.
In its first-of-its-kind initiative of a separate state agriculture budget last year, Gehlot announced 11 missions to boost agriculture in the state apart from hiking the allocation under the scheme to Rs 5,000 crore from Rs 2,000 crore.
These announcements cannot be confined to a year but could be termed as a long-term vision for sustainable agriculture and income to farmers. While some of the announcements have taken off, some are yet to be implemented while the government is preparing for its last budget. tnn