Centre + States = Team India, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his heady early days in office in 2014.
In line with that thought, the NITI Aayog focussed on federal India and on many issues, the state governments, through the chief ministers or concerned ministers, were brought on board to discuss and thrash out many issues, and possibly work on the basis of consensus. The implementation of the GST is an example.
That should have been the pattern when a panel of chief ministers—set up by the prime minister to come up with solutions for problems of rural distress and agriculture reforms, and more importantly, ways to double the farmer's income by 2022—met on Thursday. It almost was. Except that, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who heads the panel said that if the state governments don't fall in line with the decisions, the Centre could always “link it to the transfer of Central government funds, including Finance Commission grants, to agriculture reforms”.
The stick, before the carrot.
That amounts to inserting a condition on the transfer of a total of Rs 130485.21 crores that total up for centrally sponsored schemes in the expenditure budget of the agriculture department. From the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchair Yojana—Per Drop More Crop—an irrigation scheme to the National Food Security Mission to other things like the National Mission on Horticulture, there are 20 different heads under which the Centre transfers funds to the states. The PM's pet schemes like Soil Health Card, climate change, agro forestry all are part of this central funding!
These are a part of the 42 per cent of the central tax revenue that is transferred to the states.
But what did the panel want the states to do?
It was about expanding the coverage of these programmes, plus get the states to chip in and make it easy for farmers to access credit, agriculture markets, attract investments into farming, enable farmers to access modern farming technology.
A reform the panel wants is to minimise the shock to farmers on account of a glut at times and a scarcity at other times caused primarily by the mismatch in the estimates of demand and supply, ahead of the sowing season of various crops. The committee wants global forecasting standards for agricultural commodities, tariff barriers, besides projection of crops that are likely to fetch the farmers better returns.
The panel is said to have discussed the possibility of group farming to scale up operations, and contract farming. The subject is very sensitive as the vast majority of Indian farmers with small holdings are not comfortable with the idea of letting their land get consolidated, whatever be the terms of consolidation and contract, however, short the period be. Such farming will provide for better mechanisation and best agriculture practices, but farmers fear their jobs will go away.
Another aspect of the discussion pertained to farmers shifting to high-value farm products including fruits, vegetables, poultry and fishery. While NITI Aayog believes this will reflect the shift in consumption pattern, and provide for export possibilities, “achieving this transition requires the creation of an ecosystem in which farmers find the shift into the high-value commodities cost effective.”
How the states will handle all these, remains to be seen. Agriculture is a state subject, and the promise to double the farmer's income by 2022 has been made by the Centre.