Sir,
The editorial titled, “Union budget presented” March 2 speaks rightly. It is noteworthy that containment of the deficient for financial year 2013 at 5.2 percent (against the projected 5.1 percent) and resolves further to reduce it to the extent of 4.8 per cent for the financial year 2014. However three critical area i.e. food, fertilizers and petroleum subsidies were not mentioned in the budget presented by the Finance Minister Government of India. He has not given any attention to the agriculture, especially to the “Dryland Agriculture.” Our dependence on the monsoon is far greater than that of other Asian countries.
India’s economy and culture revolves around this phenomenon as nearly 9 months out of 12 remain dry in many parts of India. About 60 percent of the Indian agriculture relies up on monsoon. Presently only 28 or 30 percent of the total farm land measuring roughly 143 million hectares is covered by irrigation and the remaining 70 or 72 percent is under rainfed conditions. Almost entire coarse grains 75 percent of oilseeds two thirds of rice and one third of wheat are procured from dryland agriculture. However, the yields of these crops are very low. Thus, the budget is not in favour of the dryland farmers. There would have been subsidies so that farmers of the dryland agriculture could use green manures, vermicomposts and biofertilizers etc to increase yield of their crops by purchasing these inputs.
Yours etc….
R.D. Gupta
258-C Sainik Colony
Jammu, J&K
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