Package for farmers soon

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today said a comprehensive long-term package of measures targeting farmers would be implemented in about 34 districts covering Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala, which reported higher incidence of farmers' suicides during the last five years.

Addressing a media conference after holding a meeting with the chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra and state agriculture ministers of Karnataka and Kerala here, the Union minister said the package would essentially cover the areas of farm credit, crop insurance, irrigation, agriculture productivity, agriculture extension, marketing infrastructure, cattle insurance and health insurance.

He said the financial commitment on account of this package would be substantial. Under the package, around 97 lakh farmers, constituting 8 per cent of the total number of cultivators in the country, are expected to benefit.

"Our ministry has prepared certain proposals and inputs from states reveal that by and large they are in line with the Centre's thinking. Their suggestions in today's meeting would also be considered before finalising the package," Pawar told the media. According to him, the agriculture ministry would prepare final proposals and give a presentation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Ministers of finance, rural development, water resources and health, chief ministers of all the four states and the deputy chairman of Planning Commission would be invited to the meeting. This would be done within the next one-and-a-half months before going in for Cabinet approval to execute the package, Pawar said.

Though other states, including Punjab, too witnessed cases of extreme distress among farmers, Pawar said only Andhra, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala were chosen for the proposed implementation of a supplementary package by the Centre as the number of suicides in these four states was on the higher side.

According to the figures received by his ministry, between 2001-02 and 2005-06, there were 1,835 cases of suicides reported in Andhra Pradesh, 5,910 suicides in Karnataka (the Karnataka government has disputed the figure), 201 in Kerala and 981 in Maharashtra.

During today's meeting, Pawar agreed to a suggestion offered by Andhra chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy to convert dairy animals distribution programme into genetic stock upgradation of existing animals through door-to-door artificial insemination programme.

Similarly, Kerala wanted a separate package under the crop insurance scheme as its crop pattern was different from the rest of the states, to which the minister asked the state officials to come up with a detailed proposal.

Among the four states, Andhra will be the biggest beneficiary as 15 of the total districts selected for the implementation of the Central package are from the state alone.

Pawar indicated that some more districts would be added to the present list taking the total number to 34-35 from the proposed 30 districts as Karnataka wanted to submit a fresh list. The minister said initially the package would cover only the selected districts in four states. Under some proposed initiatives, the state governments are expected to provide matching grants.