Union Budget 2024-24: Bonanza for Corporate Cronies; Red Carpet for Foreign Corporates
The Union Budget clearly paves the way for further centralization and infringement of the federal rights of the States and is also a clear drive towards corporatization of agriculture to maximise profits of predatory agribusinesses. The allocation for agriculture and allied sectors as a percentage of the total Budget has been continuously declining from 2019 onwards from 5.44 per cent to the present 3.15 per cent. When compared to the 2022-23 actuals there is a decrease of 21.2 per cent in allocations for agriculture and allied activities. There is no step to ensure assured procurement of crops at C2+50%, zero increase in allocation for MGNREGA, PM-KISAN, PMFBY over the Interim Budget. The Finance Minister while claiming to have given first priority to agriculture has in reality given first priority to corporates while giving zero priority to the welfare of farmers, workers and the poor.
Zero Increase in Allocation for MGNREGA will Increase Distress
The Budget keeps allocation for MGNREGA at Rs. 86,000 crores of which in 2024-25 Rs. 42,000 crores have already been spent (including pending dues). This leaves only Rs. 44,000 crores for the remaining eight months. This speaks volumes about the insensitivity of the BJP-led Government and will increase rural distress as well as migration from rural areas.
Huge Cut in Allocation for Crop Husbandry and Fertilisers
There is a massive decline of about 24.7 per cent in allocation to crop husbandry. There is also a huge decline by about 34.7 per cent in allocation for fertilisers when compared to the 2022-23 actuals, which amounts to a decline of Rs. 87,238 crores. This will have a deleterious impact on agricultural productivity.
National Cooperation Policy Infringes on Rights of States
Claiming fast track growth of the rural economy and generation of employment opportunities on a large scale to be its policy goal, the Finance Minister announced a National Cooperation Policy. This is a clear infringement on the federal rights of the States and is aimed at bringing all Cooperatives under the control of the Union Government. The Government’s hypocrisy can be understood when we note that there is a big decline in allocation for cooperation by about 30.5 per cent when compared to the 2022-23 actuals. On the one hand while talking of strengthening storage and warehousing through cooperatives, the allocation has seen a 24.2 per cent decrease.
Opening Gates for Agribusinesses in Agriculture
In pursuance of its moves to allow inroads to big predatory agribusinesses like Bayer, Amazon etc. in the Public Sector Agricultural Research Institutions, the Finance Minister in her Budget speech said funding will be provided in challenge mode, including to the private sector. The direction of agricultural research will gradually be decided by these private companies.
Digital Public Infrastructure in Agriculture
The proposal for implementation of the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in agriculture for coverage of farmers and their lands in three years should be after public scrutiny and wide discussion. The plan to bring details of 6 crore farmers and their lands into the farmer and land registries can have very serious implications. Such centralised digital registries are prone to breach of confidentiality, as has been exposed time and again with initiatives such as Aadhar, and can open the doors for land grabbing by corporates and other unscrupulous agents.
The proposal to undertake a digital crop survey for Kharif using the DPI in 400 districts is also a cause of serious concern. The replacement of crop-cutting experiments with digital and remote-sensing technology have been disadvantageous to farmers, as these are routinely manipulated to serve the interests of insurance companies. Government must bring out a white paper on the technology it proposes to use for the digital crop survey, and make public the evidence of it accurately capturing information on crop areas and yields, before the same is implemented on a large scale in the country.
On another front, while there is talk of Atmanirbharta in pulses and oilseeds, there has been no provision for assured remunerative prices for these crops to instil confidence in the farmers. In the absence of such policy direction, these tall claims will only remain hollow words. The plan for promotion of large scale clusters for vegetable production and supply chain also can be an effort to bring in corporate contract farming through the backdoor. It is required to remain vigilant and peruse the finer policy details. The often-repeated claim of bringing 1 crore farmers under Zero Budget Natural Farming has been made yet again, although no figures of earlier efforts or efficacy of these methods have been given.
It is notable that the pre-budget Economic Survey already took an anticipatory bail for low growth rate of merely 1.4 per cent of the agricultural sector in 2023-24 when compared to 4.7 per cent in 2022-23 by citing the drop in production of foodgrains due to delayed and poor monsoons caused by El Nino. The BJP-led NDA Government’s abject failure to reduce costs of production, give low interest crop loans, ensure effective crop insurance, uninterrupted electricity, expand irrigation facilities, availability of fertilisers and most important of all assured Minimum Support Prices as per the C2+50 per cent formula is sought to be covered by laying the blame of El Nino. Clearly, the Budget has failed in addressing all these issues.
The general thrust is towards export-oriented agriculture and in handing over agriculture to corporates. AIKS calls upon all its units to rise up in protest against the betrayal of, and zero priority for the welfare of farmers and workers.
