Govt mulls Rs 25,000 crore agri fund

The government is considering a package of Rs 25,000 crore to provide a fillip to the growth of the agriculture sector, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has said.

Pawar said a meeting of chief ministers of various states was held in New Delhi last month where the states were asked to prepare the details of their priorities to draw funds from the corpus of Rs 25,000 crore.

According to a senior official in the Department of Agriculture, the government fund would be allocated through the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna.

He said that the funds would be extended to the states on the basis of a prescribed criteria. The states would get funds in proportion to the outlay for agriculture in the state budget. A committee, headed by the state's chief secretary, would make district and state level plans for the development of agriculture.

The percentage of unirrigated area in a state would also determine the allocation of the money and so will the contribution of agriculture to the GDP by the state to determine its eligibility for drawing funds.

If all goes well, this would be an impetus for the sector, particularly in Punjab and Haryana where the cost of cultivation has increased manifold in the last five years due to increase in the cost of inputs and dwindling natural resources.

Farmers need capital to use technology which enables optimum utlisation of resources such as water.

Pawar said the debt relief package, announced by the finance minister in budget, would be disbursed in three installments.